Does your site rank lower in Google than you think? - <AUTHOR> http://www.bradleyspencer.com/2009/does-your-site-rank-lower-than-you-think/ Google's personalization of search can make you think that you rank much higher than you actually do. <comment><USER2> Just add &pws=0 to the end of your query if you want to view unpersonalized results.

<comment><USER3> Why do they have to make 5-minute video of that? What a waste of time. I hate watching video tutorials, reading is much faster for me. Never got the idea with rails screencasts for example.

<comment><USER4> Agreed, checkout <http://asciicasts.com/> for text versions of some of the railscasts

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Google also has Webmaster Tools that will show you your keyword rankings.

<http://google.com/webmaster>

Sometimes it doesn't do a very good job at reporting though. I think it only suffers on one-worders. Anyone else notice this?

<comment><USER6> It's definitely not accurate. It tells me I rank top 10 for a lot of single word keywords, but it's not true.</comment></comment>


WikiWand: Beautiful, fast and modern way to read Wikipedia - <AUTHOR> http://www.wikiwand.com/

<comment><USER2> I like the design, but I dislike the lack of information density as compared to the original wikipedia design that the product is showcased against.

The NASA article, for example. Check out how much data disappears from the right margin like location coordinates and employment numbers. I get that it's not usually relevant to most users, but I don't feel like it detracts from the experience for those uninterested. It's easy to skim right past and maintains a relatively clean layout.

Is there a more data-intensive setting for wikiwand? I'm all for minimal, but the standard wikipedia interface seems to be more data oriented, which is what wikipedia is really used for.

<comment><AUTHOR> There isn't much in the way of settings that I've been able to find, but I do think that perhaps a sans-serif font would have been a better choice for screens (keep serif fonts for print versions of articles) and with a smaller font size might make the text feel a bit denser. Also, they've been a bit thorough with the spacing between paragraphs and sections. I suppose that with a custom stylesheet you could change that.

I guess there's still the same data and information, but the emphasis on images and lack of information on things like lists and categories swings the balance from data to visuals.</comment></comment>


Massive Martian dust storm endangers NASA rover - <AUTHOR> https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05425-1 <comment><USER2> I'll just link this short story: [https://www.wired.com/2016/12/jon-rogers-a- martian-goes-hunt...](https://www.wired.com/2016/12/jon-rogers-a-martian-goes- hunting-for-the-past/)

</comment><comment><USER3> I am a bit confused by the "Massive" statement. I understand that Mars has barely any atmospheric pressure, therefore, any "Massive" storm would be a gentle wind.

If fact, Andy Weir, the author of the "Martian", called the beginning of the book where the hero gets stabbed by a metal rod during the massive storm a complete fabrication for the purposes of the story and impossible in real life.

<comment><USER4> As you say, direct damage from wind isn't a major risk on Mars, contrary to the book. However, dust storms do happen, and according to the article they can affect huge areas and block out most of the sunlight.

<comment><USER5> Is the idea that this one lasts long enough that it deposits sand on my friend's panels, and they doesn't have enough backup juice by then to move/clean it off?

<comment><USER6> From what I heard buildup on the panels isn't that big a deal because the wind also blows it away. But if sunlight is cut off too long the battery becomes empty and the heaters won't work anymore. So it would literally freeze to death.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'm intrigued by what research and plans have been made for how Martian colonists will deal with this sort of problem. I'm guessing solar won't be enough to keep a colony going. Wind power, even in a dust storm, wouldn't be possible because the air is so thin. Nuclear of some kind seems the only other option.

<comment><USER4> The article doesn't say what the exact power drop is, but it appears to have been at least 75%:

> Within days, Opportunity saw sunlight dimming as atmospheric opacity — a > measure of how much dust is in the air — soared. The rover's energy > production dropped by half over the course of 2 days, and then half again in > a single day, Callas said during a media briefing on 13 June.

Aside from nuclear, some reasonable mitigations for this kind of thing might include substantial over-provisioning of panels, some kind of battery, or some kind of temporary measures to consume very little energy in an emergency.

I think over-provisioning might actually be the most practical solution, particularly if any Martian settlement needs a massive solar farm anyways in order to produce electricity to convert water and carbon dioxide into methane and liquid oxygen. Making rocket fuel is important, but not so important that it can't be curtailed for a few weeks if that energy is needed elsewhere.

> An optimized system of this design massing 50 kg "is projected to produce 1 > kg/day of O2:CH4 propellant ... with a methane purity of 98+% while > consuming 700 Watts of electrical power." Overall unit conversion rate > expected from the optimized system is one tonne of propellant per 17 MWh > energy input.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabatier_reaction#Manufacturin...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabatier_reaction#Manufacturing_propellant_on_Mars)

Burning rocket fuel to generate electricity might also be an option if there's a temporary shortage.

<comment><USER8> Overprovisioning probably won't help.

The power drop isn't 75% it's nearly 100%. The last image transmitted is pitch black only the camera's sensor introducing some noise during the long exposure to be visible.

The mitigation is either "lots of batteries" or "have a (nuclear) generator and power down" because solar will not produce anything under the currently present conditions.

(Well not "nothing", it's generating a couple milliwatts, enough to drive the rover's internal timer so it can periodically check if it's charging batteries)

<comment><USER4> Yeah, that's a good point; I saw that later in another comment that illumination on the ground was almost nothing.

I guess burning rocket fuel for electricity/heat is probably the most practical mitigation. I expect it would be tremendously inefficient, but better than freezing due to a once-a-decade dust storm.

Lots of batteries or nuclear could also work if it's available.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> TL;DR -- The issue is lack of sunlight rather than damage from dust or blanketing of the solar panels.

I was curious if Opportunity has a way to clean its solar panels. Answer: no, but sometimes a wind gust helps out.

[https://www.quora.com/How-does-a-Mars-rover-manage-to- clean-...](https://www.quora.com/How-does-a-Mars-rover-manage-to-clean-itself)

Curiosity doesn't have solar panels but rather a "radioisotope thermal generator".

</comment><comment><USER10> JPL has a recording of the 13th press conference here:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIKxdRFx2Wo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIKxdRFx2Wo)

</comment><comment><USER11> Do dust storms only occur on planets with an atmosphere? And does their severity depend on how dense the atmosphere is?

<comment><USER12> IANAAstronomer but I would imagine the atmosphere is necessary for both the suspension of dust particles and the propulsion of dust particles.

<comment><USER13> Impacts by asteroids, meteoriod, etc. could raise dust clouds.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> The story reads like a movie and everybody seems to just believe it. It's interesting to watch something unfold that has absolutely no evidence and still people believe it's true based on trust alone.

<comment><USER15> All the Flat earth like societies could invest in some equipment and prove once and for all the truth about what the claim is.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> "It's like you have a loved one in a coma in the hospital, and you have the doctors telling you you just have to give it time and she'll wake up," says Callas. "But if it's your 97-year-old grandmother, you're going to be very concerned, and we are. By no means are we out of the woods."

This is just a sad analogy. Yes, let's compare the life of a robot to the one of a human being.

<comment><USER17> The life of a human being can be evaluated in terms of how many people they've interacted with, the influence they've had on those peoples' lives, and the lasting memories that people carry with them once that human has gone.

It is quite possible to apply the same metrics to "a robot" (which is actually an entire science program at JPL), and see that this program has affected the lives of many more people than most humans ever will. There are people whose entire careers have been based on this program, and the community of technicians, scientists, engineers, administrators etc around the robot is just as real as the community around any person.

If this robot ceases functioning, the entire project stops, careers are ended, and a community is fractured. To this community the robot is just as important as any human.

Your lame attempt at concern trolling shows very little respect for the community involved in this project.

<comment><USER18> Not to mention that far more than a lifetime has been collectively invested in it. Given its budget of $400M, and assuming an engineer costs roughly $1,000/day, we have about 1000 people-years invested in this project.

<comment><USER19> A modern day pyramid: monumental sacrifice and sights to behold.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Robert Reich: WhatsApp is everything wrong with the U.S. economy - <AUTHOR> http://www.salon.com/2014/02/22/the_billion_dollar_whatsapp_acquisition_is_whats_wrong_with_americas_growth_partner/

<comment><USER2> Not to disagree, but this is just the industrial revolution taken one step further, again.

While I genuinely believe efficiency is a good thing, these improvements tend to concentrate das Kapital even more. If this is something we don't want to see, there will have to be a complete change in how the system works.

No, I'm not offering a solution.</comment>


The Strange Properties and Histories of the Magic Hat - <AUTHOR> https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/strange-properties-and-histories-magic-hat <comment><USER2> > Concealment and deception is also associated with cap, evident in its use in > nineteenth-century English slang, where it conveyed deceit. To "set one's > cap" meant to "deceive, beguile, or cheat." This connotation, if not > denotation, of cap also occurs in the slang usages of bonnet. In the form of > nineteenth-century British street slang known as cant, a bonnet meant a > "gambling cheat or decoy," as well as being simply a stand-in for "cheating" > itself. It was also associated with treasure or money through being used to > mean "bankrupt," because a bankrupt person was made to wear a green bonnet.

Weird that they don't make a reference to today's "no cap" (truthfully, no deception)

</comment><comment><USER3> Ever wonder what Eddie Munster was up to after his family's show got canceled?

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFMuNkseruo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFMuNkseruo)

How's that for a topper?

</comment><comment><USER4> Funny the author doesn't mention "caput" (Latin for head) as a possible root for "cap".</comment>


Texas Instruments' Speak and Spell - <AUTHOR> https://spectrum.ieee.org/consumer-electronics/gadgets/the-consumer-electronics-hall-of-fame-texas-instruments-speak-spell <comment><USER2> As it turns out, my uncle, Ralph Dosher, was the executive in charge of green- lighting the Speak-n-Spell. Before he died, I had the pleasure of talking with him about the Speak 'n Spell and TI LOGO as he was preparing a memoir of his 50+ years at GSI/TI.

According to my uncle's notes, this story is mostly true, but misses some of the nuances.

First, you have to remember that corporate culture in TI in the mid-70s was not at all like what is common in Sili Valley today. TI in the mid-70s was considerably more "locked down" than modern, small, nimble companies.

To say that management saw little value in it is not exactly correct. It's probably more fair to say they weren't ready to even think about new ideas. I would not be surprised to learn that TI at the time made year-long plans on January 2nd and didn't stop to think about new ideas until December 30th.

But there was definitely interest in educational devices among TI execs. I know my mother (an Educational Psychologist) frequently talked with my uncle (Exec in charge of Educational Initiatives) about such a project for several years before the release of the Speak-n-Spell after extended contact with Seymour Papert, Cynthia Solomon and Logo.

What _is_ true is TI wasn't sure what product they should make and Breedlove, et al. did rather gobsmack TI management when it was presented to them. (The story I heard was the concept was nearly fully developed when presented.)

The problem was that their immediate management, who were busy building calculators, did not know how the SnS fit into the calculator line. The story my uncle recounted was there was a process in place to make sure good ideas made it to management; but it did take a while. Either Breedlove or Wiggens supposedly pulled a corporate social faux pas by trying to leap-frog over the established process.

To our modern silicon valley sensitivities, this would be an obvious thing to do: if you find you're blocked, you just go around the blockage. But TI in the mid-70s was still culturally staid.

Complicating matters further, the engineering team was in Lubbock and the execs they needed to talk to were in Dallas.

A better way of putting this is Breedlove, et al. were way ahead of their immediate management in Lubbock and it took a while for them to figure out who in Dallas they needed to talk to. Saying exec management didn't think it should be produced is a bit simplistic.

<comment><USER3> I was the editor of that story at Spectrum. Your notes might be very valuable to future writers on that seminal project. If you ever wish to talk about them I can be reached at g dot zorpette at ieee dot org. Thanks for taking the time to share your recollections here.

<comment><USER2> My cousin is the one with the _real_ trove of notes. Let me get her your email address.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> > Wiggins and Brantingham specified and designed the chip entirely by > themselves and without any approvals from anyone, according to Frantz. TI > management had neglected to fit the project into any particular reporting > structure, and that suited the four team members just fine. In Frantz's > estimation, the lack of "help" from management gave Wiggins and Brantingham > the freedom they needed to figure out a successful design.

I am dying to know what was learned internally at TI after this regarding project oversight. I think we all KNOW that the way get things done is hand out the tools and get the hell out of the way. This seems to be the message at Skunk Works, Bell labs, Xerox PARC etc.

But when the pressure is on, your Big Corp is GOING to lay on the product, tech, marketing, etc etc governance, replete with timelines, KPIs, budgeting, accounts, timesheets, yada yada. This kills the project.

<comment><USER5> I really wish my experience were that cut and dry. This strategy seems to me to depend super strongly on the quality of the developers/engineers, and their commitment to getting work done (c.f. your examples: Skunk Works, Bell Labs, PARC, etc -- I really wish I worked in such an environment!).

There are people who are good at seeming busy, but who wildly overestimate, take every opportunity to get bogged down on some trivial obstacle, chronically misunderstand objectives/values, can't consistently put three words in a row correctly, and just seem in general to be the weak link; those people need to be managed.

<comment><USER6> It's also really interesting the effect of management to drive timelines and innovation. If you look at the Apollo program, there was a ton of innovation driven by a incredibly fast design/launch cycle. Well managed timelines and goals can have a focusing effect (point the innovators in the most effective direction and give them the tools). The issue is when meeting the timelines and goals BECOMES the measure, rather than measuring effect. At that point it's just teaching the test and micromanaging.

<comment><USER4> That's an extreme and useful counterexample. Did anyone distill Apollo project management lessons learned into something we can apply now?

<comment><USER6> Of course. Here are couple interesting papers by NASA leadership from the Apollo era (PDF warning):

[https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/197200...](https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19720005243.pdf)

[https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/293253main_62682main_jerry_madden_f...](https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/293253main_62682main_jerry_madden_forum7.pdf)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Unless you were alive during that time, it's hard to relate to how technologically impressive this gadget was when it came out. It was not only beyond expectations of what a toy could do, it was beyond expectations of what any product could do.

As I recall, people had no experience with speech synthesis in their everyday lives. There were no automated phone systems with a computer voice you called into. This technology was something you _might_ think could be done in a lab somewhere, but not everyone would have necessarily even thought that.

And suddenly there was this device -- a child's toy no less -- that was compact and portable and battery powered, and it was _talking to you_. Interactively, which also added to the novelty because most people didn't have home computers and many didn't use a computer at work at all either.

<comment><USER8> I'm 41, I frequently have to remind myself of just how far tech has come in just the time I've been alive, especially when dealing with bewildered older people.

My first computer, the ZX Spectrum, was simple enough that we assembled and programmed a roughly equivalent machine from scratch on breadboard in my first year at uni.

I recently resurrected my old Big Track robot/tank toy from my dads loft for my son to play with. Its over 30 years old, and has less computing power than an electric window controller, but back then it was the most futuristic thing I could imagine. My boy absolutely loves it. Its just the right level of sophistication for a 5yo, although I need to stick a volume control on it :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I had one of these as a kid. I opened it up and used wires to connect different chips, eventually finding one that "made it talk funny". Unfortunately the plastic casing was not user serviceable and had a long discussion with the parents who thought I was troubled. Thankfully they understood and took it as a sign to do the best they could to make electronics and computers available to me. Many trips to radio shack were the result.

<comment><USER10> My friend used to be into "bending" talking toys this way. My favorite was the bent Furbys they took the "fur" off of: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srf1oreJ_Vo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srf1oreJ_Vo)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Speak and Spell is the first educational toy I remember using as a child. There was also a Speak & Math that I was lucky enough to own too.

In hindsight, it was probably my first introduction to basic computing and programming. I now run a software development company.

The guys who decided to pursue the creation of these devices positively impacted the lives of so many children. What a lovely story.

<comment><USER12> I had 3 of these (Speak & Spell, Speak & Math, and Speak & Read). I can still hear the voice of the Speak & Math game "Greater than, less than"

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> "That is incorrect, the correct spelling is..."

I attribute my early vocabulary and spelling to this little machine. Awesome, just awesome history.

<comment><USER14> P-O-T-S-CHHCKUMPH-A-T-O Potato.. top notch.

I cant look at a potato without that machines voice in my head

<comment><USER15> I can't think about the word for a small land mass in the ocean without saying "spell ISLE meaning island"

Which now that I typed it up looks like it should be pronounced "is-Lee"

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> For those who want to know more about the Speak N Spell, check out this book, "The Speak N Spell" by Gene Frantz [1]

[1] [https://email@example.com:6sbZNcLi@4/Speak-N- Sp...](https://email@example.com:6sbZNcLi@4/Speak-N-Spell- Introduction)

</comment><comment><USER16> Very fond memories of using this as a child... On top of that I'm sure it still works today just as well as it did back then. Something to be said about purpose built ICs.

</comment><comment> Digit-Al A friend of mine had one of those. Oh what fun we had making it carefully enunciate rude words and phrases lol

</comment><comment><USER17> Ah, the machine penguins use to talk to humans. [https://madagascar.fandom.com/wiki/Speak_and_Spell](https://madagascar.fandom.com/wiki/Speak_and_Spell)

</comment><comment><USER18> a french electronician did some repair video

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lyqbo45Ygs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lyqbo45Ygs)

I hope you can enjoy beside the language "barriere"

</comment><comment><USER19> "You are correct, now spell YACHT"

How I miss the 80's.

</comment><comment><USER20> I'm a little bit disappointed that they didn't mention the critical role played by Speak & Spell in the movie "E.T.":

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.T._the_Extra- Terrestrial#/me...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.T._the_Extra- Terrestrial#/media/File:ET_Communicator_Cropped.jpg)

</comment><comment><USER21> Has anybody used one recently with their children?

I was considering purchasing a 'new' model as a gift.

<comment><USER22> I used to circuit-bend Speak & Spell / Speak & Math and my kids still play with one or two I have kicking around. On the one hand it sounds cool, and for most things it isn't unintelligible. On the other, the speech synthesis does have its limitations and foibles. I've been playing with then since I was a kid and I still can't make it out some of the time. If my kids can't understand it they don't seem bothered by it. I'd say that even with those limitations it's still moderately educational insofar as alphabet and basic vocabulary practice are concerned, but the word list is fairly limited.

On the physical side I still enjoy the simplicity of the device. It's tactile in ways that touchscreens aren't, even if you have the one with the membrane keyboard. My kids can pick it up, turn it on, and start typing letters and get letter & words read aloud, no tutorial or parent permission required. I love that it's an appliance, I don't have to worry about in-app purchases, ads, and all the other modern consumerist trappings.

It's not perfect and not deep, but then not everything needs to be. Sometimes good enough can be great.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> I'd be curious to know if the TI implementation of LPC in chip form led to, or influenced, the creation of a Federal Standard for Voice Coding, FS-1015, which was used in some military radios at the time.

</comment><comment><USER24> My father brought me one of these when he worked at TI, along with my first computer, a TI 99/4A. I might even still have them in storage.</comment>


Running your JS code in Python - <AUTHOR> http://blog.sheetjs.com/post/71326534924/running-your-js-code-in-python

<comment><USER2> > I suspect it would be possible to build up a wrapper that emulates the > entire NodeJS javascript API in PyV8

[http://pyv8.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/demos/node.py](http://pyv8.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/demos/node.py)

But I think node itself can be used with pyv8 since they are both v8. There may be some issues with the event loops but that's not an extremely hard problem. IIRC, node-webkit (or appjs?) hacked up the node event loop with the event loop from chromium.

Another neat pyv8 trick is this (incomplete..) commonjs implementation:

[https://github.com/flier/pyv8/blob/master/demos/commonjs/com...](https://github.com/flier/pyv8/blob/master/demos/commonjs/commonjs.py)

.. so you can import node (or other commonjs) modules into python.

Although this isn't pyv8, it's possible to get python/javascript bindings for the webkit js environment (shared variables/functions/objects):

[https://gist.github.com/kanzure/6581415](https://gist.github.com/kanzure/6581415)

I am eager to figure out how to do a similar trick with blink or servo.

</comment><comment><USER3> As an aside, if you want to handle XLS files from Python, you should use the xlrd, xlwt, and xlutils modules (available at [http://python- excel.org](http://python-excel.org) ).

<comment><AUTHOR> The reason I brought [https://github.com/SheetJS/js- xls](https://github.com/SheetJS/js-xls) to python is precisely because xlrd couldn't handle many of my XLS files

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> You don't need to escape slashes if you use a regexp string like this: r'no need to escape slash\n'.

<comment><USER5> It's called a "raw string" rather than "regexp string", though that is the common use for it.

<comment><USER6> The other common use is Windows paths since traditionally backslashes are used as the delimiter. (Obviously hardcoded paths in code aren't generally a great idea, but that's another story.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I've been working with PyV8 for nearly 3 years, and while it's an impressive achievement, I've had to start using a custom version to maintain stability. One of the major issues with PyV8 currently is that is builds against V8's master branch, as opposed to a known stable version. This means it breaks from time to time due to the speed of V8 development. There are also not releases of PyV8 per se. It's been v1.0 for quite awhile now, despite a year or more worth of fixes since the bump from v0.9 to v1.0.

I would LOVE to see tighter integration of Python and JavaScript, but if you are planning on using PyV8 in any production code (as I am), I would think very carefully about it.

<comment><USER8> I've been trying to integrate PyV8 into our production environment and have been experiencing a lot of trouble with it as well. There are two main issues that are killing it for us - the first is the challenge of building it, as you mention. There's also a difficult-to-reproduce segfault issue that crops up sometimes when V8's GC runs.

Is your custom version published online anywhere? It would be great to build off the stability work you already seem to have done.

<comment><USER7> I've noticed the GC problem that you mention as well. To me it seems very much that when objects travel between V8 and Python is when problems begin to crop up. Sadly, I have yet to be able to fix this. I believe this issue captures it most concisely: [https://code.google.com/p/pyv8/issues/detail?id=193](https://code.google.com/p/pyv8/issues/detail?id=193)

I'll have to see about publishing my work publicly, as I don't explicitly own it. My biggest piece of advice is to always build from the latest branched version of v8, rather than the trunk. Right now, that would be 3.23. The branched version tends to be a bit more stable than the trunk. Sadly, since the PyV8 maintainer works from the trunk, I've often had to build a few revs back to get things to compile if there was a major structural v8 change.

If you'd be willing to share the details of your build environment, I can see if my work is even applicable and go about getting the permission to publish what I've done.

BTW, I want to be clear that in no way am I disparaging the PyV8 maintainer. He's been very responsive and helped fix some problems that would have taken me weeks to fix on my own. The project simply isn't focused on stability at the moment.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> There is also a PHP extension to use the V8 engine:

[http://www.php.net/manual/en/book.v8js.php](http://www.php.net/manual/en/book.v8js.php)

</comment><comment><USER10> Awesome. I think the last part of your blog post is worth doing some research on, could be successful.

</comment><comment><USER11> fun yak shaving exercise. is there a practical reason why you might want to do this?

<comment><USER12> I wrote a chess playing service to teach myself app engine a while back, and I wanted to verify valid moves on the client before sending them to the server, as well as verify them on server.

I didn't want to write that logic in both javascript (for client) and python / go (for server) and create a suite of tests to attempt to verify that the server and client logic was equivalent.

I looked around for ways to either run (minimal _) python functions in javascript or else run (minimal_ ) javascript functions in python, but at the time didn't come up with anything workable (within the constraints of using GAE).

* no classes, objects, function attributes, prototypes, etc etc necessary, just chess move validity checking

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> This could be the beginning of something great for Python. Imagine if all the node.js modules became available on the Python. I'd love to use Python over Javascript.</comment>


Tim Cook is a great CEO - <AUTHOR> http://stratechery.com/2013/tim-cook-is-a-great-ceo/

<comment><USER2> This was an interesting take, too bad it got drowned out.</comment>


The Revolutionary Thoreau - <AUTHOR> https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2020/09/04/the-revolutionary-thoreau/ <comment><USER2> I'm certainly out of practice reading more (for lack of a better work) "philosophical" essays like this, but I'm having a hard time understanding the author's point in the last 4 paragraphs. Presumably that is the conclusion, but it seems to just waffle around. It almost makes a good point about the need for collective action alongside abstract beliefs and individual convictions when confronting an unjust society. But then it just seems to end with "neither side has the answer, so maybe better things aren't possible?"

But I'd be happy to hear someone disagree with me on this

<comment><USER3> The conclusion, to me, is that a comparison can be made between Thoreau's isolation and the isolation of the pandemic; his support for radical, violent individual action and the appearance of radical, sometimes violent movements during this time.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Haha! Using Thoreau's essays to defend rioters and looters plus criminals being killed by "racist policing..." Welcome to the internet, where the real problem is. A place where one criminal's death (2.9e-10 of the population) can be glorified and shared as fuel to spark outrage amongst entire cities to destroy innocent people's lives and homes.

<comment><USER3> _"it indicates the grave limitations of a political and philosophical investment in individual heroism—the danger inherent in the voluntarism of identifying political efficacy with moral purity and deeply held convictions."_

I think the author is explicitly disavowing defenses of rioters and looters.</comment></comment>


Review my site: AwesomenessReminders - <AUTHOR> http://www.awesomenessreminders.com/ <comment><USER2> Zack,

I am a fan, but your recent rash of "sites" is worrisome. You launched: HipHopGoblin (<1 year, down), CustomerFind (1< year ago), NYC-Chicago-Bus (49 days ago), EndAnts (23 days ag), CompassionPit (5 days ago!) and now this, AwesomenessReminders.

When do you even have time to improve, even promote, projects if you're tossing them on a weekly basis? It takes time to make anything monetizable, at least you need to create it first.

I think you're just an small sample of a generation of people who are coming to see businesses as just "idea + landing page". Sell, then build. A/B test today and build when the money piles up. etc. etc.

Slow down, for your own sake. Maybe even work on something you actually care about.

HipHopGoblin had a lot of potential, I used to listen to it; so you're at least capable of discovering and executing good ideas. You just need patience, and maybe someone to ask you "how's it coming?". Perhaps .. ProgressReminder?

<comment><USER3> > Slow down, for your own sake

I wonder why this has gotten 28 points. WHY should he slow down? I have done many many things myself and some have become very profitable.

From my experience, the fastest route to success is to do what you like. If this guy likes to start a new startup every week then he should go for it. If someone likes to do one thing for 50 years he should go for that. Neither of them would be wrong.

<comment><USER4> Starting and testing new ideas on a regular basis is all well and good until the quality starts to suffer. CompassionPit looked much better and the concept sounded less like it was conceived by the Onion

<comment><AUTHOR> CompassionPit has done $0 in revenue this has done $100. Karma value of CompassionPit likely higher.

<comment><USER5> I wonder how much in total did you make off of your experiments? The micro- idea/implementation model is very interesting by the way.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I might be missing the point here but paying someone to tell me I'm awesome would make me feel rather sad.

Of course, that may not extend to everyone. I imagine a reasonable portion of the self help community would embrace this sort of thing.

<comment><USER7> You could pay someone to remind someone you care about. Like, if you were going on a long journey or travelling, or lived in a different time zone from someone special to you.

<comment><USER8> Or you could send an email. Wouldn't it be worth more if you reminded them rather than a hired stranger reminding them, even if you can't remind them every day or every month?

<comment><USER2> With the twilio API,and a small shell-script tucked into your /etc/cron.d, you can tell mom you love her several times a minute.

<comment><USER9> Nothing says 'I love you' like a Denial of Service attack.

<comment><USER10> I think you mean "nothing says 'you love me' like a Denial of Service attack." ;)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I love this idea, I want to do it. However, the biggest thing missing that I see here is the ability to a) tell you what timezone I'm in and what (approximate) time(s) I'd prefer the call to be made at; and b) leave a short note with additional information that will help you make the call.

For example I would consider getting this for my business partner because I think it would make him laugh, but I would want to tell you to call around 9:30 am EST and explain that he's my business partner and that if he asks why the heck you're calling him, to just say that his employees think he's super.

<comment><AUTHOR> There's now room in the sign up form to indicate these sorts of specifics. Thanks for the awesome feedback.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> So, I'd be happy to buy this (for a family member), but I can't tell when you'll call, and I can't tell how I get it to stop once I do buy it. Every day for a month is gonna be a bit much; by the end of it, they might be willing to pay to stop it.

Also, some kind of sample recording would be great. Is it gonna be cheezy? Cheeky? I'd like to know.

</comment><comment><USER13> If this takes off, how long before the "you suck" phone call service is launched?

<comment><USER14> I'd pay for that just to see how creative they can get.

No, seriously, I _would_ pay for that!

<comment><AUTHOR> This may be a bigger market but it's not something that I want to get involved with right now. You should check out <http://prankdial.com/>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I built something similar to this awhile back: <http://www.awesomeupdater.com/>

I think telling people they are awesome is a great idea. I agree that the website needs work. I like the charging for real people to do it.

<comment><USER16> That is the most awesome twitter account!

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> I'm not sure that I get it. Isn't this a bit shallow? Surely it takes some of the joy out of being told that you're awesome if you have to _pay_ people to tell you that you're awesome? A bit like paying people to be your friend?

<comment><USER12> I want to do it for a family member.

<comment><USER18> Why not just call them up yourself?

<comment><USER12> Because none of your business.

<comment><USER18> No need to be rude.

<comment><USER12> Eh, no offense intended -- I was being short and direct, not getting personal.

But, this is one of those quirks of "geekish" conversation that can really, really irritate non-geeks (or, geeks like me that aren't in geek-mode): someone mentions a personal issue, and the geek -- who has probably at some point tried every non-obvious solution to some problem only to discover that it was the obvious solution that worked -- asks the person if they've considered the obvious.

The problem is that this often doesn't translate well to non-technical matters. By asking why I don't just call them and say the same thing myself, you're implying that it's the obvious solution that I haven't considered, or that you have some unique insight into a personal situation, even though you have zero information about it.

That didn't offend me, but it is something that can bother people sometimes. This time I just chose the most direct method of letting you know that you didn't know enough to even ask such a question. I didn't have the time nor inclination yesterday to write anything longer, but I didn't want to leave your question unanswered since so many people seemed to think it was legitimate.

<comment><USER17> Someone in "non-geek mode" would just explain the situation, rather than go to all the trouble of typing in an elaborate explanation of geek vs. non-geek culture (and still not explain anything).

<comment><USER12> Thanks for making me sorry I bothered.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Hmmm. The best citation you can come up with for your claim on your about page that "Getting positive social feedback, via a daily reminder call, is instrumental to progress." is a book on personal development by Steve Pavlina?

My understanding is unwarranted ego-boosting can actually be harmful. But that does not mean people won't use the service.

<comment><AUTHOR> Positive social feedback is super useful in achieving goals.

Also, I totally agree that it's key to have a balanced and accurate sense of self. But the vast majority of people are affected by social feedback. c.f. this study at Wake forest University <http://psp.sagepub.com/content/29/5/623.abstract>.

<comment><USER20> Positive social feedback is useful, but I think that I would take issue with the definition of social here. Social means genuinely social, not a paid reproduction of social. I would think that people who would genuinely enjoy this service may have some self-image and narcissism issues which would be better served by spending the money addressing those.

This is the same kind of awesome as claiming to be an amazing Casanova due to having slept with many prostitutes. It's not always about the action, but the intention.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I think this is more interesting as a one time thing. Sort of like a slightly more modern singing telegram. I just can't imagine enjoying getting that call _every_ day.

"You're good enough, you're smart enough, and, gosh darn it, people like you."

</comment><comment><USER22> I actually like the overall idea but the general site layout needs a lot of work. Here's a few quick things that came to mind for me -

1) I would not trust your site with my phone number in its current state. Consider emphasizing the fact that phone numbers will only be used for the sake of these calls and not resold (way too many of those ringtone sites resell phone numbers and consumers are now wary of any similar looking services).

2) consider adding some sample calls for people to listen to, I think this may boost your conversion rate.

3) Can I request to be called at a certain time or timeframe? I wouldn't want to be woken up

4) I could see a lot of people opting for a one time payment to get a single phone call to test the service out, you may want to consider adding that as an option.

</comment><comment><USER23> This seems great - the only thing stopping me from buying is knowing how annoyed my room mate would get after the first week or two.

Is there any plan to make "Monday / Friday" plans or something less frequent?

<comment><USER24> Why not buy your room mate their own reminders as a gift?

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> Definitely a novel idea. From the feedback, your idea seems to have passed the test. There are some people interested in it, but they seem to be put off by the "creepy" design and lack of information.

The uniqueness of your site will be your strongest selling point... at least it's very possible it will grab you a ton of traffic. However, as it stands right now, that's more of a risk. Forgive me for being blunt: the site looks crappy.

I highly suggest taking it offline and cleaning it up a bit. List your features, the benefits, the options you have -- do any of these things -- before releasing it into the wild. You want to make the first wave of virality as advantageous as possible.

As far as the idea -- it's quick, easy, and instantly profitable. It's recurring. It (tries to) make people feel good. The idea "feels" right for this moment of time in the internet -- it's something I feel would be blogged about and gazed at because it's both absurd and potentially useful. All-in- all, really a stellar project to make some quick money.

Please, clean the site up before going any further. Since it's just 1 page, why not pay a designer? You can definitely find one that would be excited to work on this. Just do something to improve the appearance. I want to see this succeed.

Edit: And, personally, I think that stock photo kicks ass. It's the right tone - absurd, yet promising to be fun and exciting.

</comment><comment><USER26> Love the idea. The website needs work though - it has a creepy 'designed in 1996' vibe.

I signed up, why not?

</comment><comment><USER27> That lady on the front page scares me :)

<comment><USER28> Is she wearing... a Snuggie?

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> This is a really really weird idea and I can't take it seriously at all. But, I just thought you might want to add a "Call Me Now" button so that people can test it out immediately and see what this is all about.

</comment><comment><USER30> Create a community - I'm sure if you created a separate section for people who would love to call your customers (and maybe even make a couple bucks), it would be therapeutic for them as well:)

Pricing?

<comment><AUTHOR> anyone interested in working as a caller should call me at 650 906 6389 and tell me i'm awesome. or send an email.

(hello @ awesomeness reminders . com)

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> How many people do you have on the phones? How long do they work?

I'd like to see a smaller plan size, something I could do on a one-off basis to someone on twitter.

<comment><USER32> I wonder how this would scale...using Mechanical Turk?

<comment><USER33> Outsourcing to a country like India could work.

<comment><USER34> I would pay _not_ to get on that list.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> Would also be a good idea - maybe just for the fun of it - to have a stepped pricing plan.

So for $2 a month, someone will call you once a week and tell you that "You're adequate". :)

Seriously though, a cheap pricing plan (something less than a beer) for someone to do something similar via Social Media (Twitter, Facebook) might work too.

<comment><USER36> For twitter there's already awesomeupdater that will do it for free: <http://www.awesomeupdater.com/content/index>

<comment><USER15> That was a fun hack. When i originally launched it - it proxied all the updates through the users accounts. ;) needless the users were like "wtf." heh. I removed that feature

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> Did you do any testing on this - as in, having a person use the service for 2-3 months? My feeling is that it might take off as a novelty, only to wear off quickly.

</comment><comment><USER38> Please tell me this is not real and website feels like spammy ebook sale websites, especially the colour scheme, use a theme from or CSS template to fix it quickly.

<comment><AUTHOR> You know I would love a recommendation of a good theme. Once I get the site ready to start throwing traffic at with AdWords, I'll A/B test and post results on HN.

<comment><USER39> Amazed at e no of replies received. Guess simplicity rules! Can't wait for the results. It would be great to see some number on signs/subscription/cancellation, etc.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> "If for some reason someone else picks up your phone and is abusive to us, we reserve the right to terminate your service and issue you a refund." :-)

<comment><USER41> If the people close enough to you to answer your phone are not awesome, then we will be forced to conclude that neither are you.

</comment></comment><comment><USER42> I think this should be a "Review My Idea" given how the site looks quick and dirty.

I like the idea, but I'm not sure I'd actually want someone calling me with regular reminders. Personally, I'd probably get pissed off and stop picking up the number. like the idea mentioned by pwim; make it a one time thing. I'd pay for that. You could always have the option of a subscription based or single use.

</comment><comment><USER43> This would be a lot better if it was some sort of gift app. You pay someone to call your friend and the caller tells your friend that <name of the person who paid for this> thinks you're a really great friend and an awesome person.

This has its downsides as well but, in my opinion, it's a lot better than some kind of self help service which might make people feel even worse.

</comment><comment><USER44> Put a form in your page for people to contact you. No email. Don't make me open my e-mail client just to get in touch with you, make it easy.

<comment><AUTHOR> excellent suggestion, easily implemented with our very own mark bao's supportbreeze

</comment></comment><comment><USER45> I'm dying to know if anyone has actually signed up for this service. Are you seeing any revenue? How many people?!

<comment><AUTHOR> yes, about 18 paying subscribers so far, => $169/month revenue after paypal fees. zero paid traffic sent so far. when i did a dry-run with adwords, a diff domain & unbounce, the economics looked favorable too so _hopefully_ paid traffic is like gasoline on the flames.

<comment><USER45> I'd be curious what, if any, subscribers you see from the Time coverage.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER46> The next step is to personalize this (e.g., using Facebook, a blog, etc.).

</comment><comment><USER47> I would rather have someone tell me why I am awesome... search the internet, find famous relatives that I didn't know I had, ... but this might be borderline creepy, since someone is stalking you.

</comment><comment><USER48> Reminds me a lot of <http://twitter.com/awesomeupdater>.

Have you compared the cost/effect of using Twilio vs a real person?

<comment><AUTHOR> there's something special about having a real person talking to you instead of a voice. also, the uncanny valley scares me

</comment></comment><comment><USER49> How did this get upvoted?

</comment><comment><USER50> I think it's a tad disconcerting that there is an empty blog... This seems like an easy blog topic to have some posts already made and, if a feature doesn't "work", why link to it?

<comment><USER50> Ah, and all action links go to your Twitter profile. Well, I guess that makes it clear to be an HTML mock-up. God help you if your "idea" goes viral right away ;)

<comment><AUTHOR> bug fixed, thanks

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER51> Why have two large images on your landing page if you scale them down anyway?

Save the visitor a little loading time and bandwidth and scale the images down yourself =)

</comment><comment><USER52> I like the functionality of it, this can also be used like an on-demand personal assistant with a few tweaks... I do not like the UI, but as long as it works is all good.

</comment><comment><USER53> Personally, I think it's brilliant. Even love the hokiness (assuming that's on purpose). It'll get passed around for fun, and a certain amount of people will try it.

</comment><comment><USER54> This reminds me of <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGYYRr6DOSo> , but with real people!

</comment><comment><USER55> Don't do it as a service. Instead have it as a onetime thing. If I get the same call everyday the effect will ware off.

<comment><AUTHOR> you know, that's actually an interesting quirk in human psychology, and one that i'm going to have to figure out how to confront in my marketing messages. the truth of the matter is that you wouldn't get tired of it. it's just that in your mind, you imagine the succession of day1,day2,day3 consecutively, but in reality, a lot of your exposure burnout "resets" in a 24 hour period.

harvard psychologist daniel gilbert goes into detail about some studies that describe this in his book stumbling upon happiness, which i reviewed here. [http://www.zacharyburt.com/2010/06/stumbling-on-happiness- pr...](http://www.zacharyburt.com/2010/06/stumbling-on-happiness-predicting- what-will-make-us-happy/)

if you end up getting the book, you may be particularly interested in the salty chip study.

</comment></comment><comment><USER56> It sucks.

</comment><comment><USER57> This is absurd.

</comment><comment><USER58> I don't understand this _at all_. This seems kind of messed up in the same way that paying someone to be your friend violates the tenets of friendship.

However, the fact that this idea is being so well received makes me feel really awesome about my ideas. So thanks -- I guess your site is working.

</comment><comment><USER59> Guess how many misspellings average Joe would made on this domain name, even if he managed somehow to remember it for more than a 30 seconds? ^_^

</comment><comment><USER60> I'm totally in if the person on the other end is a female and I have the option to date her depending on where our conversation goes...

<comment><USER61> Those sorts of phone services are already available...</comment></comment>


7 tips for a productive development setup on Linux - <AUTHOR> http://www.trysudo.com/7-tips-for-a-productive-development-setup-on-linux/ <comment><AUTHOR> Hi, please leave your feedback & suggestions in comments!</comment>


Google+ had a chance to compete with Facebook - <AUTHOR> http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2011/11/google_had_a_chance_to_compete_with_facebook_not_anymore_.html?tid=sm_tw_button_chunky <comment><USER2> The central premise, that Google+ suffered for lack of brand pages seems flawed to me. I suspect that like me, people use Google+ to read posts by other people, not to be advertised to. Google+ has users making interesting posts in abundance. As an example, see how many Google+ posts have been shared on HN versus Facebook posts.

What Google+ has given me is what I wanted all along - asymetrical following without the limitations of Twitter and without the need for someone to create a brand page before following them becomes acceptible.

</comment><comment><USER3> A bit of a premature judgment wouldn't you say..? Sensationalist media at its best.

</comment><comment><USER4> I think I'm going to start collecting these "Google+ is dead!" articles. It'll be fun to look back at them someday.

</comment><comment><USER5> how do these useless articles make it to the front page of hn..... sigh...

<comment><USER6> Because you commented and now it is an active entry.

But you are right. It is a useless article. I think a lot of companies will like the professional look of Google+ over Facebook. Companies will also like that there page is connected to search, maps, products and so on.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> This turns into a redirect loop on the iPad as it tries to send you to the touch version, then the article, then the touch version, then the article...

<comment><USER8> The iPad is dead!

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Google+ needs to add their nearby feature to the web version. They need a stand out feature and that is it.</comment>


Two Climate Analysts Fault Gas Leaks, but Not as a Big Warming Threat - <AUTHOR> http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/01/two-climate-analysts-fault-gas-leaks-but-not-as-a-big-warming-threat/?_r=0

<comment><USER2> The article mentions natural gas is mostly methane (CH4).

Here is the combustion reaction for burning methane:

CH4 + 2 O2 → CO2 + 2 H2O

Note right side of equation.

The "climate scientists" cited in the referenced article have confusion on this issue, as they contrast the effects of methane releases to those of CO2.

It's interesting to contemplate what has to occur for someone to adopt the title "scientist" and leading authority in a subject while remaining confused about freshman highschool chemistry.

Burning natural gas may release some incidental uncombusted methane, but the major gaseous combustion product is clearly CO2. An unlearned person reading these articles would not know that from the way methane emissions are presented as the relevant issue.

It's also interesting to see that methane has now been rehabilitated in some minds into a friendly and relatively clean emission after years of hysteria regarding the impending doom that is coming from cow flatulence; statements such as "A significant portion of [global greenhouse gas] emissions come from methane, which, in terms of its contribution to global warming, is 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide." ([http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2013/03/...](http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2013/03/cow- flatulence.html), [http://science.howstuffworks.com/zoology/mammals/methane- cow...](http://science.howstuffworks.com/zoology/mammals/methane-cow.htm))

<comment><USER3> You have clearly misunderstood. I try to simplify: Methane is 4 H per 1 C, oil is approx. 2 H per 1 C. Burning the H-part produces just water, which is harmless. The bottom line is that burning methane gives only half the CO2 emissions, compared to burning oil, _per energy produced_.

So in theory, burning methane to produce energy, would give only half the greenhouse gas emissions, compared to burning oil.

But, methane is 25 to 72 times more potent a greenhouse gas than CO2 [1], so even relatively small leakages during the production + transport + use of methane might be enough to spoil the advantage.

If methane has 25x larger global warming potential than CO2, then – even though methane is 2x more energy efficient – a mere 4% leakage would be enough the bring methane back to the level of CO2.

(I have no idea what are the typical leakage amounts in methane production, transport and use.)

[1] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_gas#Global_warming_p...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_gas#Global_warming_potential)

<comment><USER4> Water vapor isn't harmless. [http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/vapor_warming.html](http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/vapor_warming.html)

<comment><USER3> Well, true, but the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere is determined by the balance of (i) water vapor condensing back to liquid water (e.g. rain), and (ii) water evaporating to atmosphere from oceans, lakes, soils and ecosystems. This balance is mostly determined by the temperature.

So you can't really add much water to the atmosphere by only emitting water vapor by e.g. burning gas, or even boiling huge amounts of water, because the excess water vapor will just condense back to liquid water.

Also if we imagine some huge industrial process that dries the air, removes water vapor from the air, this wouldn't really decrease the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere, because the drier air would just suck up the water back when it next comes into contact with a water body, damp soil or vegetation.

<comment><USER4> > Also if we imagine some huge industrial process that dries the air, removes > water vapor from the air, this wouldn't really decrease the amount of water > vapor in the atmosphere, because the drier air would just suck up the water > back when it next comes into contact with a water body, damp soil or > vegetation.

That's true on the macroest of macro scales, but in local climates, water vapor doesn't maintain a steady state. Otherwise every climate would be relatively green. In any case, if it's really so much better to capture methane and burn it for fuel than let it escape, then we should be forcing natural gas companies to figure out how to capture melting methane clathrates instead of taking them out of ground wells where they're relatively stable.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Which is not to say that it is good:

"The real argument against over-reliance on fracking as a solution to the climate problem is that its value as a bridge fuel has been oversold."

It's like recommending to a smoker that they switch to chewing tobacco because it lowers their risk of dying from cancer.

<comment><USER6> The question is, bridge to what?

<comment><USER7> We have enough uranium to satisfy our power needs for a few hundred thousand years. It's just that nuclear plants are expensive to build (and run) and electric cars aren't common yet.

<comment><USER8> Citation needed re enough Uranium. AFAIK: 1) whoever says anything about energy with thousands of years assumes that our energy needs aren't going to grow. The modern states, economies and populations however expect the growth as it was exactly what happened during the last 200 years. 2) There's a lot of U only if the one once used is reprocessed, howerver there are significant problems with reprocessing now.

<comment><USER9>
      > The modern states, economies and populations however
      > expect the growth as it was exactly what happened during
      > the last 200 years.

I heard the same about real estate prices some five years ago.

<comment><USER10> Human population isn't a speculative market. (Yet)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Come to the Barnett Shale, and see how it isn't good, either. You can't drink it, and we're losing our aquifers to contamination from drilling, fracking, and the waste water injection wells.

<comment><USER12> not the first time I read about this. should be reason enough to avoid it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I call BS. for rich developed nations, gas is an unnecessary and dangerous distraction from the genuine renewable and sustainable energy alternatives which are already taking shape around us. there is an argument about using gas in the developing world (where they need cheap energy fast), but wealthy nations should be leapfrogging into the same renewable energy solutions that will inevitably dominate our futures, rather than 'investing' in new gas plants with their long 30-40 year lifespan.

<comment><USER14> It's BS.

To limit global warming to 2°C we would need to leave 80% of already discovered hydrocarbon resources unused. This is same as producing CO2 at current level next 18 years and then stopping completely forever. We are already warmed +0.8°C and effects have been worse than expected.

To be realistic, there is no signs that we are even trying to reduce global CO2 emissions, we are just trying to slow down the increase. There is no sign in stock markets that all those hydrocarbons will be left into the ground. From developed nations only Germany is trying to leapfrog, but it might fail due to economic/political reasons when the cost becomes clear to voters (well see).

According to FAO, meat production causes 17% of global greenhouse gas emissions. That's more than traffic. If we would be serious, we would have to solve that ASAP. Nobody is even thinking doing that.

All actions in democratic countries are result of two forces: what people feel comfortable giving up and how much people fear global warming. People are not comfortable giving up anything even lightly significant even if they live in rich countries. There is not enough investments and technology is not advancing at the pace we would need to have to live comfortable life and saving the environment.

If you have kids, take them diving to see coral reefs. It's last time to see.

[http://oceana.org/en/our-work/climate-energy/ocean- acidifica...](http://oceana.org/en/our-work/climate-energy/ocean- acidification/learn-act/effect-of-ocean-acidification-on-corals)

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> And it still smells pretty awful for my immediate environment in the short term.</comment>


Quirky has filed for bankruptcy - <AUTHOR> https://www.quirky.com/ <comment><USER2> Call me crazy, but I always thought Quirky was solving the wrong thing. The limit on a hardware company usually isn't the idea, it's the execution. And crowd sourcing significant portions of the design process to an amorphous community doesn't seem like a huge advantage: hardware design and manufacturing is really the province of specialists, oftentimes with very deep domain knowledge. If I'm going to build a camera, I'm going to get someone who's built cameras before, not cars.

I just think the wisdom of the crowd can't replace that deep domain knowledge, but I might have been biased against Quirky from the beginning: I met the team at TED years ago, before they were Quirky -- I think they were called 'Kluster' at the time. They were trying to transition from being a hardware startup that made ipod/iphone accessories to a 'crowd-sourced idea marketplace' or something. But their most impressive employee was leaving, because they couldn't find a role for him through the transition, and clearly weren't doing anything to retain him (ironically, he was a hardware guy... would've been helpful in the transition to Quirky).

So I guess I see this as a morality tale about recognizing and retaining talent more than anything.

</comment><comment><USER3> I'm sad. I used to love this site back when I was an engineering mechanics student (pre-CS). It gave me the ability to converse with people that were similarly interested in inventing and opened my eyes up to a whole host of interesting solutions to large and small problems alike.

I think what I'll miss most about it was scrolling through the list of inventions and marveling at the incredible amount of variance between seemingly good ideas, and the heaping mass of ridiculous ideas. Even though I loved picking apart ideas that I thought were completely implausible, the very fact that people were putting the time into designing and fighting for their inventions was something I loved. I honestly didn't follow the company during the last few years, and I can't say I'm completely surprised that they reached this point, but it will always have a special place in my heart for enabling the creative side of many people.

</comment><comment><USER4> Its interesting. Back before I graduated a friend said I don't think ideas are worth much compared to executions, which turns out is a common quote thrown around with respect to ideas/startups/etc.

Quirky's whole concept (or my interpretation/critique) was that there was that idea generation needed to be scaled. But in practice, ideas were easy, particular by those industrial designers and wannabe designers, especially for cord management solutions...

The truth is, they were crowdsourcing the easiest part - the idea - and taking on all the risk themselves by bringing a bunch of 'inventions' to market, few of which were particularly revolutionary.

</comment><comment><USER5> Who? What did they do? I can't tell from the first page.

<comment><USER6> Because what they do is buried in the "Invent" drop down menu, in an entry titled "How it works". Then, instead of giving a short concise response to "How it works", everything above the fold has been reduced to a minute long video which seems to say they connect people with ideas with people able to accomplish those ideas with large companies willing to fund the ideas, although the details are vague. Below the fold is 5 vague testimonials split into 5 overlapping categories with stock photography next to them.

On the positive side, the site is fully responsive and loads fast.

<comment><USER7> >On the positive side, the site is fully responsive and loads fast.

Currently doesn't load at all, actually. Oh well.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> If anyone wants to know what actually chapter 11 bankruptcy is then this podcast from NPR Planet money team has lots of information. [http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/09/05/437628996/episo...](http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/09/05/437628996/episode-647-the- benefits-of-bankruptcy)

<comment><USER9> Thanks. Just listened to it. Very interesting! :-)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> After reading Peter Diamandis' write-up of Quirky in his book _Bold_ I figured it was God's gift to inventors. Guess their strategy wasn't quite on.

</comment><comment><USER11> Here's the voluntary petition ( [https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5k5SQee7k5pamZfRHBXZ2EtNFk...](https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5k5SQee7k5pamZfRHBXZ2EtNFk/view?usp=sharing) ) and a link to the docket for those interested ( [https://www.inforuptcy.com/filings/nysbke_261303-1-15-bk-125...](https://www.inforuptcy.com/filings/nysbke_261303-1-15-bk-12596-quirky- inc-bankruptcy) )

</comment><comment><USER12> I'm sorry, but can someone explain exactly Quirky does (did)?

<comment><USER13> This New York Magazine article might help: [http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/09/they-were- quirk...](http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/09/they-were-quirky.html)

<comment><USER14> "Quirky brought more than 400 products to market in just six years." \- from the New York Magazine article.

That number is absolutely staggering. I would love to see what their internal product development was like.

<comment><USER15> Go back and watch their weekly review sessions. They were all publically streamed and had inventors pitching ideas to a panel of Quirky folks like their CEO.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> My mom loves the concept of Quirky, so I always find one or two products from Quirky in my stocking. I have never found any of them remotely useful.

Perhaps that speaks to my mom's taste in gifts. But I suspect that the real problem is that Quirky offered expensive products for solving trivial problems. None of the items I received solved any pressing needs in my life.

For something like Quirky to succeed, it probably needs to use crowd-sourcing to identify a few A+ ideas for products and then manufacture them at a scale sufficient to make prices competitive. Instead, it seemed to offer a ton of different cute, kinda useful items.

That doesn't seem like a business model destined to take over the world.

<comment><USER17> Can you give an example or two of what you got? I'm just curious to see some examples of what Quirky made, especially the more trivial items, like you described.

<comment><USER16> I'm actually struggling to remember the specific examples, precisely because I used the items so infrequently.

One product was a spray cap mounted on a spike, which you were supposed to insert into citrus fruits so that you could spritz things with them.

Another was a silicone cap for placing over citrus after you slice it in half so that the remaining fruit would stay fresher.

There was a square block that you could insert the top of a wine bottle into, so the bottle would not roll when stored on its side.

The only product I actually use is an octopus-like hybrid between an extension chord and a power strip, which works well for providing quick access to electrical outlets all along the couch in my den.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I bought their original iPad case, which was highly hyped, but it turned out to be way too heavy and over-engineered. It pointed toward the flaws of community design. I ended up with Apple's much simpler solution.

</comment><comment><USER19> Can't actually read their site without 3rd party javascript. Just sits there with their little & symbol animation.

<comment><USER20> Sounds like my results with the Quirky Wink Hub and Blink hub....

</comment></comment><comment> node-bayarea They were great but I think they failed because they mostly made as-seen-on-tv type products and try to sell it for $50-$60. They were also giving very little like < 5% to the actual winning inventor.

<comment><USER21> You think they failed because they didn't give _enough_ of the money they received away to the inventor?

<comment><USER22> If it caused the number of inventors to grow too slowly or of a poor quality, then yeah.

<comment><USER23> Quirky could have solved this with key partnerships with a larger inventor cut, though. This is pretty common, most marketplaces do some form of this.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> [http://fuckedcompany.com/](http://fuckedcompany.com/) ah, how I miss the musings...

</comment><comment><USER25> Quirky filing for bankruptcy and Kickstarter switching gears to a Benefit Corporation on the same day. Interesting times.

</comment><comment><USER26> I loved the concept of it, but when you read how much they gave the inventor... it was crazy...if you have a great idea keep pushing for the right things to come together, not a rip off deal of your ideas! And that is why it is where it is.

<comment><USER23> Quirky did ALL the hard, expensive, risky parts (go-to-market, marketing, etc). How is the inventor cut not sufficient?

Ultimately Quirky failed BECAUSE they took on all the risk and shipped too many duds and not enough hits.

<comment><USER26> Yea exactly they did everything and left out the inventor, what that does is create a one tracked mind team behind them all and not only that it didn't attract real inventors to get great product ideas. If they gave the inventor more you would have better products. Products take a variety of people and different options, a product can't be streamlined by the same people each time.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Correction, this is chapter 11 bankruptcy. This isn't the same as standard bankruptcy. This is the same kind of bankruptcy that 50 Cent is going through. It doesn't mean you have no money, it allows you to reasses your finances and protects you.

<comment><USER28> Correction from what? They say they filed chapter 11. Standard bankruptcy for companies is chapter 11 in most people's minds...most companies that go through bankruptcy file chapter 11.</comment></comment>


No posthumous privacy: the middle years of T. S. Eliot - <AUTHOR> https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/public/review-ts-eliot-letters-volume-8/ <comment><USER2> """ And here we have over 1,000 pages of meticulously edited correspondence covering just three years of his life, buttressed by the announcement that further letters omitted from this or any of the seven earlier volumes may be found on a dedicated website. This accumulation of attention might be described in various ways, but "posthumous privacy" it is not."""

Well, in compensation, it is fair to bet that only the most madly devoted of Ph.D. students will read through it.

""" The annotated edition of The Poems runs to 2,000 pages in two fat volumes. """

For what it's worth, the edition of his poetry published during his lifetime runs to 240 pages, according to the Barnes and Noble website. I assume that the remaining seven eighths of the new edition runs mostly to arcane commentary. I suppose that it may include poems Eliot did not bother to collect in his lifetime.</comment>


The genius of Luther Burbank, father of the most famous potato in the world - <AUTHOR> https://californiascienceweekly.com/2019/11/15/the-genius-of-luther-burbank-father-of-the-french-fry/ <comment><USER2> I am disappointed that the most famous potato in the world is not Mr. Potato Head.</comment>


Pilot SSH is now available on Android - <AUTHOR> http://pilotssh.com/

<comment><USER2> So here's a confusion I'm having; your site doesn't clearly define what the product does in my preliminary scanning of the website... Is it an SSH client that I can run commands from? Or is an interface for script calling on a remote host with the touch of a button?

What's the $5/$3 incentive for me to use this instead of using the free apps I already have for SSH'ing on Android/iPhone, and just having bash scripts saved into my home dir?

<comment><AUTHOR> It calls scripts on the server side, and generates a UI from the results. Runnng the scripts with this app will be faster and easier because you don't need to type (and inmost of the free apps done naively,some requests are done for every character typed, so it's very slow). The scripts are all open source, and can be written in any language: [https://github.com/Geal/PilotSSH- scripts](https://github.com/Geal/PilotSSH-scripts)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Why should customers trust your closed source app, when no one but you can inspect the implementation?

<comment><AUTHOR> I plan to open source the app, once it is a bit well known. In the meantime, you can easily observe what the application does by replacing the shell on the server side. The database uses SQLCipher, which is open source, and for SSH, I used JSCH, which is open source too.</comment></comment>


Microsoft Office for Android, in parity with iOS - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/11/preview-office-for-android-tablets-is-like-office-for-ipad-but-on-android/

<comment><AUTHOR> I posted a detailed comment at this[1] Ars Technica thread, explaining my belief that developers underestimate the capabilities of Excel as a development tool for end users.

I'd want to ask if Hacker News' strict forum rules allow cross-posting, to bootstrap conversation on interesting topics?

[1] [http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/11/preview-office-for- an...](http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/11/preview-office-for-android- tablets-is-like-office-for-ipad-but-on-android/?comments=1&post=28036889)</comment>


WhatsApp CEO's Early Facebook Exit Could Cost Him $1B - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-30/facebook-s-jan-koum-may-spurn-1-billion-on-early-whatsapp-exit <comment><USER2> That makes it sound like he's out something. Wonder how many things there are that he couldn't buy that he doesn't already have the money to buy. And, that he would find useful. Like a billion more McDonald cheeseburgers don't count.</comment>


Americans Don't Miss Manufacturing – They Miss Unions (2016) - <AUTHOR> http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/americans-dont-miss-manufacturing-they-miss-unions/ <comment><USER2> Likely to fall on mostly dead ears here. Since unions stifle the concept of a 10x-er and other valley employment stories.

Manufacturing unions are on their way down and have been for a while. The ease of having off site campuses and companies supply chains being less reliant on their own output ensures this. The hay day of the great lake region shipping causing a centralization of manufacturing, while all being under a federal jurisdiction that empowered unions, which with a concentration of unions in a region making them a political force... Might as well be dead.

Construction unions (building, electrical, plumbing, and similar). Still have quite a bit of life since those unions tend to have some amount of control over licensing, regulations, and similar. Though these also have a greater range of people/interests in them, so you hear of them less often.</comment>


Caddy (web server) - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caddy_(web_server) <comment><USER2> I've used Caddy for my Nextcloud instance. After some initial problems (how to translate nginx config to Caddy) it's been probably the single best webserver I've had the pleasure to use.

Automatic TLS from LetsEncrypt is basically the major seller of it, although some of the other modules are very interesting as well.

I can only recommend this project.</comment>


Apple in "advanced Talks" to Acquire Imagination Technologies for PowerVR GPU - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.co.uk/gadgets/2016/03/apple-acquire-imagination-powervr-gpu/ <comment><USER2> [http://www.londonstockexchange.com/exchange/news/market- news...](http://www.londonstockexchange.com/exchange/news/market-news/market- news-detail/other/12748077.html)</comment>


Show HN: Pointway, a dashboard for tracking spendings *and* points - <AUTHOR> https://pointway.app/ <comment><AUTHOR> Hi HN! I wanted to share a VERY early beta with you. I'm looking to get feedback from interested users so that I can make the right improvements and feature additions.

Please note: there WILL be bugs, potentially even a webpage crash. My goal here is to get early feedback from users who are truly right for the platform. As for the stack, I worked with Node.js, Next.js/React (TypeScript front end), and MongoDB for the database.

If it looks interesting to you, definitely give it a shot and let me know what you think! I want to hear it all.

The idea is one that has been in my mind for such a long time. I like to look over my finances about one a month, and I want to be able to see everything from spendings to points earned, all in one nicely laid out interface.

Oh, and it's not mobile-ready at all (yet). I suggest using a desktop computer or a tablet for the best experience.

Thanks in advance!</comment>


Rate my startup: SafeboxApp.com - <AUTHOR>

While the level of security on Dropbox and other cloud storage services are fine for most things, I wanted a way to store some files there that _only_ I could access. I could switch to a provider that had stronger privacy features but I really love Dropbox's convenience and simplicity. So, I built a solution:
http://safeboxapp.com
The app takes files it finds in ~/Safebox and encrypts them using AES-256 and stores the files in a subfolder of ~/Dropbox. When it sees new encrypted files in that folder, it decrypts them back to ~/Safebox. From then on, changes in either folder are automatically synchronized. The filenames and folder names are encrypted as well.
From a user perspective, you simply use ~/Safebox instead of ~/Dropbox for files requiring extra security.
It's packaged as a Mac OS/X app (and soon as a Windows app). We haven't decided pricing yet.
I'd love to hear your thoughts!!
Thanks, Denis
http://safeboxapp.com <comment><USER2> I like it, might use it.

From a pricing perspective, I think your market might be limited in that companies needing security would probably purchase a separate solution and not use Dropbox.

But you might be able to get a revenue stream from prosumers / tech consumers. And your costs wouldn't be high since you ride on top of the dropbox service. And I could be wrong about the market of course. ;-)

</comment><comment><USER3> The concept seems quite interesting and useful. The real problem, as others stated, is that maybe Dropbox will implement something like that quite soon. As for pricing I think you should charge less than the same amount of space is charges at Dropbox.

Anyway, congrats for your great project. And sorry for my english.

</comment><comment><USER4> The problem is real, you are not the only person on the Earth that needs a solution, but ...

Aren't you worried that it takes few weeks(days?) of coding for dropbox team and one update for your solution to become obsolete?

<comment><AUTHOR> I agree that it's a risk, but they haven't done it so far. Even if they did, Safebox might still be useful for people using other cloud storage providers (or even corporate file shares).

<comment><USER5> Is it possible for Dropbox to update in any way that could let them read it? I'm not sure what you're worried about.

<comment><USER4> The answer to your question is: no, it's not possible. I was rather thinking about dropbox implementing the same feature directly to dropbox. If they do, there would be no point in using denishennessy's product.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Here are some other approaches to same basic issue [http://wiki.dropbox.com/TipsAndTricks/IncreasePrivacyAndSafe...](http://wiki.dropbox.com/TipsAndTricks/IncreasePrivacyAndSafety)

</comment><comment><USER7> Denis, I love the site. Its both useful and well designed. You might like to check out Bitcasa. Manas

</comment><comment><USER8> Great idea. Especially with the 'issues' of security with Dropbox released within the last few months.</comment>


React Simple Animate – UI Animation Made Simple - <AUTHOR> https://react-simple-animate.now.sh/ <comment><USER2> Looks like React animation libraries are popular right now.

Here's the one that I've been working on recently: [https://github.com/ismailman/react-spho](https://github.com/ismailman/react- spho)

My philosophy is different though that I want to make it absolutely dead simple to make UIs animate organically vs being a feature-filled animation library. I think React-SPHO is actually the easiest to use animation library for React available as most things you want to do "just work" and anybody reading the code using the library knows exactly what's going on without having to read any documentation so ramp-up for basic use cases is effectively instant.

<comment><USER3> Why would anyone pay for your non-free software when there are hundreds of great alternatives?

<comment><USER2> Gonna write more on this but short answer is that developers time isn't free. If using React SPHO saves literally one hour in all the time you're using it (could be years) vs these other alternatives then you're already ahead.

And I tried to design it so that it saves you and your team _a lot_ more than an hour.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> This looks promising, animations in React are a bit of a mess right now.

React-motion requires a PhD to figure out, and I'd rather stick pins in my eyes than use Transition Group.

I have had some moderate success with Popmotion, although I've also seen performance issues when staggering lists (likely down to my implementation rather than the library, but still).

<comment><USER5> >I'd rather stick pins in my eyes than use Transition Group

Why not? In combination with styled components it covers pretty much all my animation needs. The only thing missing is stagger for lists and maybe some way to integrate FLIP into it.

<comment><USER4> Pretty much because of staggering

<comment><USER5> I mean, stagger is trivial to implement with styled components, I only mentioned it because it's not out-of-box. Also what solution are you using that has stagger? I don't see it in pose docs, are you using popmotion-pure?

<comment><USER4> [https://popmotion.io/pose/learn/animating- children/#animatin...](https://popmotion.io/pose/learn/animating- children/#animating-children-scheduling-animations-staggerchildren)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> There's something about OSS that fails to do (or i'm not sure if it's OSS job): Teach how things work under the hood.

Normally, it's beneficial 100x times when a OSS project tells how things work in a concise manner.

In that way, it made sense for both users (they actually want to contribute back if they figure out how things work).

One failure example is Next.JS. You never understand how things work under the hood without digging source code.

<comment><USER7> I get not wanting to push source maps to every client but it would be awesome if your browser requested them when you opened the console and if it became common practice to include them with your shipped website.

<comment><USER5> This is exactly how it works, and by default production build of create-react- app produces source maps.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> How is that possible that Svelte already has cool animations out of the box, but the react ecosystem still struggles?

Eg. how could you animate a component which gets replaced to a whole different part of the DOM-tree in react?

</comment><comment> onion-soup It's kinda counterintuitive to have an element called <Animation />. What happens if I render it two times in a row before it's done animating?

<comment><USER9> It's not an element, it's a component.

That may sound pedantic but the distinction is important.

React components aren't a "virtual DOM", they are a "component tree" that gets synced to the DOM. A component may or may not correspond to one or more elements in the DOM and it may wrap other components.

Thinking of "rendering" a component as "syncing the DOM" seems to be a common misunderstanding, especially when it comes to performance concerns (because manipulating the DOM unnecessarily is bad).

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> been using [https://www.react-spring.io/](https://www.react-spring.io/) with [https://github.com/d3/d3-ease](https://github.com/d3/d3-ease) to good affect

</comment><comment><USER11> starting to look as simple as QML :p ([https://qmlbook.github.io/ch05-fluid/fluid.html#animations](https://qmlbook.github.io/ch05-fluid/fluid.html#animations))

</comment><comment><USER12> I tend to avoid software that has "quick", "simple" or "easy" in their name. More often than not they are neither of those things :D. All jokes aside, congrats on getting this out!

<comment><USER13> thanks, buddy, take a look it's actually not that bad, cause the library itself its only 2kb. it can't get too complicated :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Thanks so much sharing praveenscience.

</comment><comment><USER14> No <blink>? Weak!

</comment><comment><USER15> someone should check the grammar on the homepage.

<comment><USER4> Maybe English isn't their first language?

<comment><USER16> Doesnt matter, grammar still needs checkin!

<comment><USER4> I _think_ that's ironic</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Failure Has Limited Value - <AUTHOR> http://adii.me/failure-has-limited-value

<comment><USER2> I think this article is trying to get at a supposed culture of failure worship that exists in the Valley but I don't think that the point is clearly made that anyone is _that_ obsessed with failure. Everyone wants to be successful and nobody regards a 3x failed entrepreneur as being as reputable as a 3x successful entrepreneur. People don't make a point of reading into the details behind success and failure.

I think it is more accurate to say that Silicon Valley has a culture of failure tolerance that is far above the ordinary level of failure tolerance one would expect in other societies. And that is a good thing. In fact, it is probably not high enough, which encourages entrepreneurs to chase quick flips so they can write "(2x exit)" next to their name rather than give a huge, risky idea a chance.

That said, I see the point that failure doesn't feel great. If the author is really trying to say "don't chase failure" then I wholeheartedly agree. Failing sucks and it feels awful, but I think anyone who has been through a failure knows that there is no way you can put a gloss on it. After the first failure you don't need someone to tell you how bad it is, you need someone to encourage you to try again.

<comment><AUTHOR> I am saying "don't chase failure". I'm also saying that learning from success is just as important as learning from our mistakes.

Similarly, I'm not convinced that the startup community isn't valuing failure. If I look around at how we celebrate startups raising money (sometimes by entrepreneurs' whose only claim to fame is having done that before), I think we've got our wires re: failure crossed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3>
      Maybe I only had to make 1 or 2 angel investments (and not 5) to learn what I did?

That bullet point stood out because it reminded me of a passage from "Reminiscences of a Stock Operator":

      It cost me millions to learn that another dangerous enemy to
      a trader is his susceptibility to the urgings of a magnetic personality when
      plausibly expressed by a brilliant mind. It has always seemed to me, however,
      that I might have learned my lesson quite as well if the cost had been only one
      million. But Fate does not always let you fix the tuition fee. She delivers the
      educational wallop and presents her own bill, knowing you have to pay it,
      no matter what the amount may be.Having learned what folly I was capable of,
      I closed that particular incident.

Sometimes you just have to pay your tuition.

Edit: Formatting</comment>