Productivity tricks in Visual Studio - <AUTHOR> https://debugandrelease.blogspot.com/2019/02/two-productivity-tricks-in-visual.html <comment><USER2> It's a little opposite of the topic, but am I the only one who's noticed a considerable downturn in the productivity of VS?

Yesterday I wanted to import "Microsoft System Center Orchestrator Web Service" in a C# project, something which used to be a simple "add service reference", only to be greeted by "we don't import ODATA services this way anymore..." message and sent to some obscure framework for it. The first framework didn't work with authentication and the second was so complicated that we ended up building it in Python instead of C#, using Visual Studio Code instead of Visual Studio.

That last bit seem to be a common thing. More and more we use VSC instead of VS, and last year it made us downgrade our enterprise subscription to VS because it didn't seem worth it anymore.

Don't get me wrong, it's a decent article, I just didn't value being reminded of TODOs as much as the actual time saving features which are slowly disappearing one by one. I mean, you can't even build a non-empty project without drowning in bloat anymore. While it's certainly rarely advisable to so in the first place, it can be useful with standard project bits on internal projects. We used to use MVC for that, now we use Django.

<comment><USER3> Visual Studio anti-productivity feature: if you want to turn "convert warnings to errors" on, or change .NET framework level, in a large C# solution, you have to do it in each individual project. By hand or by writing a program to rewrite the XML.

The whole "project" paradigm seems to have always been a little bit broken, rather than just having a clearer "sources" and "targets" definition.

<comment><USER4> Sounds like possible situations where Directory.Build.targets would help? [https://docs.microsoft.com/en- us/visualstudio/msbuild/custom...](https://docs.microsoft.com/en- us/visualstudio/msbuild/customize-your-build?view=vs-2017)

<comment><USER4> Apologies, Directory.Build.props.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> A few extra tips:

\- Typing the text "nguid" (new guid) will generate and let you pick from a GUID in a popup list inline, while coding. \- If you're debugging multi- threaded apps and in a breakpoint, you can open the Threads list and Freeze other threads to stop them running while you debug a particular thread and step+continue etc (wish there was an easier way?) \- ReSharper is amazing ([https://www.jetbrains.com/resharper/](https://www.jetbrains.com/resharper/))

<comment><USER6> Cool tip about threads, thanks!

What do you like about Resharper these days? The performance impact got too much for me so I got rid of it after being an avid user for many years.

VS-inbuilt Go To Everything, refactorings, and some Rosyln Analyzers like Roslynator do most of what I was using Resharper for.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> As F1 is pretty obvious I'll list some other obvious ones:

Right-click on something, choose 'go to definition' \- see the code for that method or whatever. When you're done, the 'back' button in the toolbar can take you back. Also F12 and Alt-F12 do same/similar

Highlight a method or class name, right-click, choose Rename - will allow you to rename it and then will also rename all references to it

Right-click a block of code, choose 'quick actions and refactorings', then 'extract method'. It will pull out the code, figure out the parameters and create a new method for you.

<comment><USER8> > Rename - will allow you to rename it and then will also rename all > references to it

Ctrl + r + r (twice in a row) is the shortcut for this, super useful

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> JetBrains Rider is a significant productivity upgrade to Visual Studio, especially when working with a large solution.

<comment><USER10> The problem is that Rider doesn't have some features that are a must-have for me, like Edit and Continue, Immediate Window, Docker-Compose debugger and some others.

Besides that, I love the performance.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> How to prevent the Visual Studio window arrangement from changing every time you breathe?

<comment><USER12> You can save the window arrangement, and restore it with a key chord.

<comment><USER11> Is there any way to _prevent_ VS from changing the layout every time I build/finish a test run/etc.?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I'd been using Visual Studio for quite a while before I discovered it supported something like Vim's visual block mode - you can use alt-shift to select (and then edit) blocks of text.

<comment><USER14> I highly recommend VsVim[0] if you're a vim user. It's very lightweight and complete, it persists your register contents, shows you visual block ranges on the left side, supports macros, and it plays well with intellisense.

0\. [https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=JaredPar...](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=JaredParMSFT.VsVim)

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> CTRL+F search for a word then hit ALT+Enter to select all with a multi-cursor.

</comment><comment><USER16> Type "prop" then tab to create a property.

The back arrow is useful too but on VS 2017 I believe they added the Peek Definition so you don't need to go out of the original file you're checking.

</comment><comment><USER17> Select a variable and it will highlight. Press Ctrl + Shift + Up or Down Arrow to find and navigate the next occurrence

alt + ; then p to publish the current file

ctrl + k then d to format the document</comment>


Skype web is now blocked in Firefox - <AUTHOR> https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/aw1umv/skype_web_is_now_blocked_in_firefox/ <comment><USER2> The headline is misleading because this only applies to the Skype Preview.

I've confirmed the block and the fact that it actually works in Firefox: [https://imgur.com/a/4pdKsAn](https://imgur.com/a/4pdKsAn)

</comment><comment><USER3> Now it fully blocked.</comment>


Show HN: Ding Dong Ditch – Punk Rock IoT - <AUTHOR> https://lab.mrh.io/products/ding-dong-ditch <comment><USER2> Great work. I've seen similar location apps (Tile) make great gifts to prospects and clients. By eschewing an app/login client integration it also gives it a very analogue appeal as well.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Great simple idea, even as just a "find my phone button"</comment>


Coding it right the first time  - <AUTHOR> http://www.prasannatech.net/2008/05/getting-it-right-first-time.html

<comment><USER2> I put zero effort into making code compile right the first time. The compiler (gcc) is much faster at finding errors than I am. Where I do put effort is into making sure the algorithm is correct, something the compiler is not so good at.</comment>


The high-flying Quadrofoil hydrofoil is ready for production - <AUTHOR> http://www.gizmag.com/quadrofoil-hydrofoil-electric-personal-watercraft/34528/ <comment><USER2> I notice all the images show it on glass-smooth water. Makes me feel like the following is marketing spin: "...in theory access more environmentally sensitive areas where noise and wave disturbances are prohibited."

Still, kindof neat. Be fun to play with.</comment>


French company liable after employee dies during sex on business trip - <AUTHOR> https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-49662134 <comment><AUTHOR> I am trying to work this one out - I _think_ it is a company trying to wriggle out of paying death-in-service benefits - this would not be a international news story if it was not for the prurient aspect.

Sex is described here as "normal" in relation to "dangerous activities". If he had been powerboat racing, I doubt the company would have been held liable. I mean you don't actually have to die at your desk to die "in service".</comment>


Fake keyboard: PCs hacked with custom Android USB drivers - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2011/01/fake-keyboard-pcs-hacked-with-custom-android-usb-drivers.ars <comment><USER2> You could build a device that's a lot smaller / less obvious than a cell phone for less than $20.

With an SMD AVR microcontroller, you could power it direct from the USB port, and the device would be not much bigger than a USB stick. In fact, you could embed it _in_ a USB flash drive case (I suppose that bonus points would be awarded for _also_ operating as a USB flash drive).

Example: <http://www.obdev.at/products/vusb/hidkeys.html>

[Edit]

Some quick googling shows that this is not a new idea:

<http://www.taranfx.com/pc-mac-usb-hid-hack>

<http://www.pjrc.com/teensy/>

$18 for a 1.2" by 0.7" USB-enabled ATMEGA32U4 -- and the only reason it's so 'large' is that they break out the atmega's pins to support prototyping, incude a SPST (switch), etc.

<comment><USER3> This would be a good start: <http://generichid.sourceforge.net/index.html>

A toolkit for making your own USB human interface devices. Supports a variety of chipsets, including the AVR variants in the parent comment. Comes with its own crazy visual drag and drop programming language.

Get involved!

EDIT: Aha! found the link I was looking for: "Program Your Own Mayhem-Causing USB Dongle" [http://hackaday.com/2010/04/05/program-your-own-mayhem- causi...](http://hackaday.com/2010/04/05/program-your-own-mayhem-causing-usb- dongle/)

It's a video presentation BTW. And it is seriously devious: "There's also a light sensor that can be used to activate a command once an unknowing victim has shut off the lights in the office and left for the day."

EDIT2: For bonus evil-points, solder it into a USB hub, run a real HID into the same hub, and hide the whole thing inside the HID, with the hub's host port wired up to the cable of the HID. Read the link below to see what I mean.

[http://www.thice.nl/hide-your-data-in-plain-sight-usb- hardwa...](http://www.thice.nl/hide-your-data-in-plain-sight-usb-hardware- hiding/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Or you could just bring a keyboard and mouse with you and take control of the computer the old fashioned way. I'm sure it would be much easier to type on than the android on screen keyboard.

Also, there are USB keyboard replay devices out already that are much smaller than an android phone, if the goal was to automate the process.

I really fail to see why this is noteworthy other than the fact that someone developed a USB keyboard driver for android which is cool. It doesn't open any new attack vectors. I mean really how many computers are out there that don't have a keyboard and mouse but have accessible USB ports AND that it would look suspicious to have brought your own keyboard and mouse, but it wouldn't look suspicious to plug your phone into it.

I suppose the one thing it would enable is a social engineering trick where you convince the persons secretary to go plug your phone into the computer you don't have access to. Maybe something along the lines of "<insert boss' name here>, needs you to plug his phone it's running low on battery, can you plug it in?" and then come back a few minutes later to get the phone.

<comment><USER5> It opens one new attack vector I think---any exploit targeting an Android phone could be used to deliver a different exploit to the computer the phone is connected to. Given that this requires a kernel driver (on the phone side), it would have to be pretty great exploit. You would have to be pretty motivated to do this instead of, e.g. sending 1 billion emails with an attached virus.jpg.exe, but it is a new vector.

<comment><USER6> For penetrating a particular target, this is very interesting. Bribe a repairman into leaving such a device plugged into a developer workstation at a company where everyone goes home at 5 or 6. The device presents itself as a USB hub, then waits until late at night, when it connects its keyboard and _types out and compiles_ an entire rootkit. This would even work at companies which lock down USB ports against removable drives.

Better yet, the device could act as an attacker's remote shell by downloading commands using curl and uploading redirected stdout and stderr.

<comment><USER7> You'd presumably have to be in a shell (or compiler window) and on a system that didn't lock itself - but yeah, yikes. How are you with centrifuges?

<comment><USER6> You can bring up a command line with just the keyboard, even in Windows. The lock would be a problem.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> 10 Immutable Laws of Security <http://technet.microsoft.com/en- us/library/cc722487.aspx>

Law #1: If a bad guy can persuade you to run his program on your computer, it's not your computer anymore.

Law #3: If a bad guy has unrestricted physical access to your computer, it's not your computer anymore.

\---

Law #1 should be expanded nowadays: "If a bad guy can persuade you to plug his widget into your computer, it's not your computer anymore. In the USB case, the widget (phone) contains the bad guy's program.

</comment><comment><USER9> It is not a bug, it is a feature! :)

It is possible to build a configurable (dynamic?) keyboard on the Android, like the keyboard in [http://www.alltechnologynews.com/razer-switchblade- laptop-fo...](http://www.alltechnologynews.com/razer-switchblade-laptop-for- gaming-with-dynamic-keyboard.html) . (I saw an article about it here a few months ago, but I can't find it.)

And perhaps it can be useful for non game activities too.

</comment><comment><USER10> Adrian Crenshaw a.k.a Irongeek has already done something like this using the Teensy ( <http://www.pjrc.com/teensy/> ) programmable usb device. The upside is it is programmable either using C or the Arduino dev environment. It costs under $20 and can be made to look much more unobtrusive than a phone. Combine this with some good social engineering and you have yourself a dangerous penetration testing tool. For more info check out Adrian's writeup [http://www.irongeek.com/i.php?page=security/programmable- hid...](http://www.irongeek.com/i.php?page=security/programmable-hid-usb- keystroke-dongle)

</comment><comment><USER11> Wouldn't one simple defense be to have the OS pop up a window requiring the user to hit a specific unpredictable key (or short key sequence) when a new keyboard is plugged in?

<comment><USER12> It's a difficult problem to solve, and probably not worth the effort. Anything you do is fraught with running into the "Keyboard not detected, press F1 to continue" situation, especially in an uncontrolled environment like Windows.</comment></comment>


Smart people are drunks - <AUTHOR> http://www.drinksafterdark.com/smart-people-are-drunks/ <comment><USER2> At first I interpreted this as wishful thinking, but there may be a bit of truth to it. To some extent intelligence can breed disillusionment and along with that depression. I don't think that I need to convince anyone in this crowd that smart creative types tend to be stifled and frustrated in most of today's institutions; school, office jobs. The associated depression can easily manifest itself as a drinking problem.

The concept of emotional intelligence, while buzzwordy and overused, goes a long way to explain this as well. IQ doesn't correlate with or slightly negatively correlates with EQ. Self control is supposed to be an element of EQ. Higher IQ students can often coast though school without developing self- control and healthy coping mechanisms needed in later life.

<comment><USER3> "Higher IQ students can often coast though school without developing self- control and healthy coping mechanisms needed in later life."

I second this sentiment, having experienced it myself. I coasted through high school while many of my peers had to work extra hard to get good grades, and it subsequently took me seven years to finish a three year degree (an illustration degree, no less, which requires patience far greater than what I had).

I don't consider it a failure - I consider it a lesson well-learnt, and don't regret the time it took - but if I had developed that discipline earlier, it wouldn't have taken nearly so long nor been so difficult.

<comment><USER4> But at the same time you may not have appreciated it as much. Of course that doesn't change how you feel but it just comes to show that almost everything has both a cost and a benefit.

<comment><USER3> Agreed, and I now appreciate the determination it took to complete the degree considering the spectacular number of failed courses on my academic transcript. It was a humbling experience, and for someone of my hubris at the time, really the only way I could have learnt persistence and followthrough.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Lisa Simpson: "As intelligence goes up, happiness goes down. See, I made a graph. I make lots of graphs."

<comment><USER6> Makes me think of that Einstein quote: "It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity"

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Probably because you're more likely to be unhappy with the state of things if you understand them well.

<comment><USER8> My professor tells me of a fellow PhD student that fits the study well. He was absolutely brilliant, way above any of the other students, but he would spend all his time in the bar and ended up dying from drinking too much. I think he didn't even get the degree.

<comment><USER9> Smarter people will stop before it has a chance to ruin their lives.

I remember Feynman mentioning that once, when walking past a bar, he realized that he had considered going in and drinking (he was alone, it was in the middle of the afternoon), so he decided it would probably be better to quit entirely.

<comment><USER10> What was easy for one exceptional person doesn't invalidate the research.

<comment><USER9> I never said it did. If drinking excessively is gradually killing somebody, though, it might not be a bad idea for them to stop drinking, you know? Seems like the smart thing to do.

As far as I can tell from the summary (has anybody actually read it? I don't have a subscription...), the point the research makes is that people who have tested as having above-average IQs at the age of 10 also have a higher-than- average incidence of problems with alcohol as adults (meaning what, I'm not sure: arrests and/or medical problems, I assume). That could be read as, "smart people don't necessarily have smart coping behaviors".

I'm flabbergasted by the people in thread going, "Smart people have a statistically higher incidence of winding up dead in ditches due to alcohol poisoning! Go us!". But then again, the top level post was summarized as "smart people are drunks", so maybe I'm being naive in expecting people to respond to more than just a summary-of-a-summary in a post about alcohol.

<comment><AUTHOR> _"Smart people have a statistically higher incidence of winding up dead in ditches due to alcohol poisoning! Go us!"_

Who actually said that? I'm sorry if the anecdote I mentioned was misinterpreted. It was just one data point. Just like the one about Feynman :).

BTW the original article had 8170 datapoints. And in the free abstract they tell that higher childhood mental ability scores were related not just to incidence of the problems but also with "to higher average intake of alcohol and to drinking more frequently".

<http://www.ajph.org/cgi/content/abstract/98/12/2237>

<comment><USER9> It wasn't yours, and the ones I had in mind (in tone, not verbatim) seem to have been deleted or rephrased enough that I'm no longer reading them that way.

As for your anecdote, sad indeed. I was also thinking of the post about Phil Katz's death on here a few weeks back. It's a horrible way to die.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> The key is to not let your kids know they are smart. Challenge them, and encourage failure. Get them outside their comfort zone. Everyone's a "moron" at something.

It's those people that have high IQs and think that's enough that I know that have the problems with substances. A gift is useless sitting in the closet.

How many "gifted" people you know that are kicking ass every day are substance abusers? None that I know!

<comment><USER12> I don't abuse _substances_ , but I'm definitely addicted to the internet.

<comment><USER13> Do you do any packet sniffing?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> In german there is a proverb which says (roughtly): smartness drinks, stupidity eats (too much in both cases).

This is becoming more and more true. Being overweight is a social problem nowadays.

<comment><USER15> For a country with Beer better then it's food, that makes sense ;)

<comment><USER14> touché :o)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> In Tipping Point the author said that in a study they found that cool people smoked. They weren't cool because they smoked, but the ones who did smoked tended to be "cooler" than those that did not.

<comment><USER17> Do not let the tobacco companies get ahold of that one.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> I don't have access to the full report (roll on open access!), but I'm confused by this:

"Of the 3,895 men and 4,148 women _who reported drinking alcohol as adults_ , those with higher average scores on childhood mental ability tests were also more likely to have indications of alcohol problems in adulthood"

How does the picture change if you include the teetotalers? Did they plan from the start to exclude the non-drinker, or is that just being repeated because it's a more interesting figures?

<comment><USER9> Good observation. I wonder if anybody here has actually read the report. (The author of the linked post writes a cocktail blog, so she's at least upfront about her biases.)

"People of above average intelligence don't always have equally intelligent coping mechanisms" isn't as punchy a headline, of course...and this is about people whose drinking has caused them _serious problems_ (hospital visits? incarceration?), as per the report, not people who just drink socially or whatever.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Couple of notes:

1) Some anthropologists see intoxication as the natural state of man since fermentation was invented until just recently.(No, I don't have a link, although there was a Scientific American article about this within the last few years)

2) I have family (an uncle) who are active in AA. They tell me that this is well known in the AA community. Instead of a lot of bums and ex-cons (which there are), the most interesting observation is the number of doctors, lawyers, professors, etc -- professions that usually require a high degree of intelligence.

3) Freud was of the opinion that depressed/addicted people simply were better at understanding how crappy life was than other people. Of course, Freud was a coke-head, so take that with a grain of salt.

4) I've been toying with the idea that the junkie mentality produces more creative and intelligent works than the sober one. Take, for instance, all of the famous authors who are addicted. Or comedians. It seems like there is some hunger, some desperate reaching out that comes with addiction that translates well into creative efforts. It might sound bad, but I don't think Stevie King is as good now as when he used to be a junkie. Sames goes for Robin Williams. It's just a working hypothesis. I wouldn't use any of these observations to justify addictive behavior.

<comment><USER20> Depression leads to amazing creativity. Just look as Eliot, who wrote his masterpiece "The Wasteland" while in a middle of an extremely turbulent time with his family and friends.

<comment><USER21> It's actually "The Waste Land". I realize I am being over-anal, but assuming I am one of the few English graduates here I will grasp an opportunity to shine. That said, I fully agree.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> SCENE 1: A Party.

SCIENTIST IS TALKING TO A HOT LOOKING GIRL AND HOLDING TWO DRINKS.

SCIENTIST: Hey! CORRELATION! C'mere honey! You gotta see this?

CORRELATION WALKS UP IN A HOT RED COCKTAIL DRESS SIPPING AN APPLETINI

CORRELATION: What is it, darling?

SCIENTIST: Honey, this is CAUSATION. Isn't it amazing how much she looks like you?

CAUSATION: Pleased to meet you! That's a lovely dress.

CORRELATION: Why thank you. You're right, dear, we do look an awful lot alike.

SCIENTIST GETS A WICKED GRIN

SCIENTIST: Hey, girls. Let's say we go somewhere more comfortable together. I think we might be able to work with this.

CORRELATION AND CAUSATION, FURIOUS AT THIS SUDDEN TREATMENT, SPLASH THEIR DRINKS ON SCIENTIST AND STORM OFF. HE LOOKS AT THE CAMERA THINKING "YES, I DESERVED THAT."

</comment><comment><USER23> You're besieged by idiots on all side. What else is there to do but drink?

</comment><comment><USER24> > _Smart people are drunks_

And you don't understand correlation and causation.

<comment><USER25> Where do you see causality implied in that title?

Have you been drinking? :-)

<comment><USER8> It looks like the title says being smart causes people to become drunks. To see this, reverse the title:

"Drunks are smart people"

The reversal should be meaningless if the title only implies correlation, since correlation is bidirectional. However, since the reversal is not meaningless, then the title must imply causation.

<comment><USER26> I think you've got it backwards. Since correlation is bidirectional then the reversal should NOT be meaningless.

<comment><USER8> Sorry, bad wording on my part. I don't mean the reversed phrase should be meaningless, but that it should not mean something different than the unreversed phrase. However, it clearly does mean something different, therefore the implied relationship between smart and drunk is not bidirectional.

That being said, I missed the possibility of a 3rd underlying factor. The title is agnostic about this possibility.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Interesting video:

[http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=fXIeFJCqsPs&NR=1](http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=fXIeFJCqsPs&NR=1)

</comment><comment><USER28> Turn this on its head: if people with higher IQs drink more, people who drink more have higher IQs. While correlation doesn't imply causation, the hypothesis that drinking alcohol makes you clever cannot automatically be ruled out.

<comment><USER18> "IQ scores obtained when 8,170 boys and girls were _10 years old_ and their alcohol intake and any problems when they were _30 years old_."

[I'm assuming not many of them were heavy drinkers in kindergarten. Go on, call me naive]

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> I think it may be related to the drive for mental stimulation. The same way smart people devour information and ideas they also devour other mental stimulants like alcohol.

<comment><USER29> I wouldn't class alcohol as a stimulant. Stimulants are things like speed, meth, etc. Alcohol is a depressant.

<comment><USER30> And caffeine. :]</comment></comment></comment>


The Big Lie: How a Professor's Scheme to Get Money and Respect Backfired - <AUTHOR> https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/big-lie <comment><USER2> I've been refreshing this periodically hoping to see some discussion.

I have lots of mixed feelings over this. For one, it's interesting how all of these are recent events.

It's also interesting to me that out of all the times the police were called to their residence no action was taken. Which brings up more questions about his wife's actions... (I say this, in that it seems like /good/ police work hopefully )

Finally, while I think he went far far far astray by forging the letter, I can't quite seem to think that Strunks involvement as an outsider, and his actions, compounded to create a situation where the punishment might not have fit the crime.

As in; are his actions worth his career being ended in academia, not to mention the fallout to his graduate students. I don't have a good answer to this, and I say all of this more to organize and try to temper a balance between emotional and thought.

<comment><USER3> I have a hard time seeing this as worth prosecuting as a felony.

No, he shouldn't have done it. Yes, he should have been fired. But a felony?</comment></comment>


The Top 25 Fastest Growing YC Summer 2016 Demo Day Startups  - <AUTHOR> https://mattermark.com/the-top-fastest-growing-25-y-combinator-summer-2016-demo-day-startups%E2%80%8A/ <comment><USER2> Interesting to see the growth scores. There are a lot of startups till the ~350 growth score mark. Then the scores start to spread out a bit. Then there is a huge jump from ~450 to 850+

Clearly the startups with 850+ score are doing something different than the crowded field in the 350- category.</comment>


A Webpack plugin for wiring up prefetch – supports async chunks - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/GoogleChrome/preload-webpack-plugin <comment><AUTHOR> Trending on www.gitlogs.com today, new repo from Google</comment>


The Near-Mythical Beast That Spread an All-Too-Real Disease - <AUTHOR> http://nautil.us/blog/the-near_mythical-beast-that-spread-an-all_too_real-disease

<comment><USER2> Oh look, another nautil.us link gets posted and quickly picks up 6 upvotes.

I've read and enjoyed a fair number of articles on nautil.us so I'm not saying this in a nasty way.... But the vote ring involved here seems way too obvious.

<comment><USER3> Clickbaity headline too.</comment></comment>


Ember Octane – everything one can expect in the next Ember edition - <AUTHOR> http://hangaroundtheweb.com/2018/08/ember-octane-everything-one-can-expect-in-the-next-ember-edition/ <comment><USER2> There's been talk of porting Glimmer to webassembly for a while now. No mention of that in the roadmap?

<comment><USER3> There is still some experimental work being done with it on the side. The emberconf repo has a version with wasm rendering</comment></comment>


Paul Rand on design: "Don't try to be original, just try to be good." - <AUTHOR> http://s92.photobucket.com/albums/l9/jneeley78/?action=view&current=movies-PR_10_16FINAL_HALF.flv <comment><USER2> Did anyone else read that as Rand Paul?</comment>


I've been priced out of downtown Detroit - <AUTHOR> http://money.cnn.com/2014/05/27/real_estate/downtown-detroit/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

<comment><AUTHOR> There have been lots of discussions on HN about San Francisco. Although the prices are less the same thing is beginning to happen in revitalized downtown Detroit which currently has 100% occupancy. So with demand outreaching supply landlords are raising rents driving current tenants out.

</comment><comment><USER2> It's not "unfair". This guy could have bought a place and had a fixed price for 30 years, but instead he didn't want exposure to real estate prices. He played the rental game and lost.

</comment><comment><USER3> This individual's worldview seems to be predicated on the assumption that they have a _right_ to live downtown in the city of their choosing.

</comment><comment><USER4> Supply of cheap money drives up prices. I'm not surprised by this, and anyone currently receiving college loans shouldn't be either.

</comment><comment><USER5> Isn't any attempt to revive a metropolitan area going to raise property values in the area?</comment>


Every year we continue to exist, it's a surprise - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/oct/21/every-year-continue-surprise-job-endangered-list <comment><USER2> if a business is truly surprised by its existence year after year maybe it's time for it to consider a pivot ...?</comment>


Ask HN: What contract agreement do websites like TopTal have with contractors? - <AUTHOR> I've been curious what agreements are signed between contractors and sites like TopTal? I've seen a few comments online about some contractors not being happy about it and I'm curious about it. <comment><USER2> I'm not familiar with the TopTal agreements specifically, but in general with contracts (master services agreements) provided by marketplaces you see things that benefit the project owner as opposed to the contractor.

One example, might be if you create a tool that helps generate something for that client, that the client also owns the tool you created. This kind of thing can become a big deal if you want to use your generator across multiple clients.

To anyone who is serious about contracting, I highly recommend (1) avoid the contracting marketplaces, and (2) work with an attorney to craft an MSA you're happy with.

<comment><USER3> On the contrary I find contracting marketplaces to be much better environments. Toptal treats contractors more like staff, in that they provide training and things like copywriting.

It's really about the pros and cons of the job. I used to say that 90% of the work in consulting is negotiating features/price and actually getting clients to pay up. Contracting marketplaces remove a lot of that risk. You might get paid less or have more limits, but it's up to you how much you want to "pay" for that kind of security.</comment></comment>


Founder Quotient: How To Measure Founder Strength - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/17/measure-founder-strength-with-your-founder-quotient/ <comment> daniel-cussen I wonder what percentage of founders make the "single founder" percentile, if there even is one.

Also, I really like the name "Saar Gur," maybe because of its brevity. Is that just me?...</comment>


The co-founders meetup is landing in Austin, TX on Dec 6th - <AUTHOR> http://www.meetup.com/Co-Founders-Austin/

<comment><USER2> Thanks to Ricardo for stepping in to offer to help organize it.

</comment><comment><USER3> Any more info about the venue for this?

<comment><AUTHOR> Austin Microsoft office: 10900 Stonelake Blvd., Suite 225 Austin, TX 78759</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Feeling miserable at work - <AUTHOR> Rails programmer with ~10 years of experience here, recently I've been hired as a PHP programmer and I'm dealing with a very complex and undocumented codebase that I wish I never seen before.
You might ask "why did you took the job in the first place?", well that's either because I can't find work in my area and most of it is PHP/Python work and I can't move either, the Rails related work that is remote requires that I move and remote work tends to be "US remote".
The PHP code I'm working with is extremely complex/messy and most of the code is undocumented, I have to do lots of debugging just for changing the simplest things and I'm also not very familiar with this language.
Most of the code is a mess of spaghetti code, think of HTML, JS and PHP all glued up with no proper structure.
The git repository is also one of the biggest repositories I have worked with (247 MB), 45,000 files and 1 million lines of code for the whole project.
I was already able to complete some tasks but I can't help but feel miserable with this project.
Recently my manager started asking me questions like "How's it going? Will you finish this task today?" and I explained to him I'm having difficulties with the code and that I'm not very comfortable working with it but he's insisting that I stay firm at it and get familiar with the code. Please advice. <comment><USER2> Sorry man. Sometimes you just have to deal with shit code. We've all been there.

Are the people at the job nice? Do you have freedom to work as you please? Do you have the time to take the code in a better direction? I'm just trying to help you find a bright side.

I'd say there are two possible paths here. Either the job is overwhelming to you, or it's not overwhelming but just extremely unpleasant. If it's overwhelming, I'd say to explain that to your manager and request an immediate short-term re-assignment. If it's just unpleasant, then follow your manager's advice. You might be holding your nose for a while, but you will adapt to it and it will get easier.

<comment><AUTHOR> > Are the people at the job nice?

Yes, they seem patient/polite and I can tell they want me to stay, but I don't know them personally and this work is remote.

> Do you have freedom to work as you please?

Yes and no.

> Do you have the time to take the code in a better direction?

This is something that I'm currently annoyed with, when I was implementing a feature and working with a coworker, we had to re-use code from another function and instead of just making some changes to the function, he asked me to duplicate the function (~650 LoC).

I suggested to just make some changes to the existing function and re-use that one, but my coworker didn't want to go that route and suggested I just duplicate the function and so I did, I'm pissed that I can't make my own choices and instead I have to follow his orders.

My boss acknowledged that the project is in a bad state and sometimes I feel they are testing my patience, he mentioned they plan to rewrite the project in another language so I can tell they have common sense, but I get the feeling this other programmer I'm currently working with is happy with the state of the project and is holding things back.

<comment><USER2> 650 LoC seems like a big chunk of code to copy and paste, but I don't know the project or the team. You can't expect to join a team and start turning everything upside-down. Even if you are honestly just trying to help, if that's how it's perceived, you will face resistance on any team.

It sounds like at least your boss agrees with the general direction you want to go in. That's really the only thing that matters in the long term. You need to be humble and willing to work with people, but at the end of the day, you are only answerable to your direct supervisor.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's good advice, I appreciate it, thanks.

I finally started understanding some of the code today, and things are starting to get better on that front.

I agree with you, I'll stay humble and play my cards well, being employed is more important right now than taking possible risks and losing my job.

<comment><USER3> When you're a couple of months in, you will probably no longer have to take orders from an idiot that wants you to copy and paste code.

I've been in this situation. The existing developer was stuck in his ways, used a very old-fashioned way of dealing with the language in question and told me to do things that go against every good practice. It was frustrating.

I just agreed, then slowly started asking token advice (for example naming, coding style, things that don't matter to me). Then simultaneously and without asking, I started setting up a git repo, a basic architecture, build server, linter et cetera.

Hang in there, and build their confidence in you. Then slowly you can start doing things your way.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


How much do you pay per line of code? - <AUTHOR> http://www.yegor256.com/2014/04/11/cost-of-loc.html

<comment><USER2> Well, that is an interesting anecdote.

It seems the major difference might be green field development vs. maintenance of a larger codebase.

A bug might be caused by a single wrong character, but tracking that down could take considerable effort.

On the other side, I can blast a ton of code in a language I'm familiar with, especially if I don't need to use a bunch of external libraries.</comment>


Artificial blood developed for patients of any blood type, researchers say - <AUTHOR> http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201909290001.html <comment><USER2> From what I understand (also heard about this in a podcast recently), they take existing blood of any type and are able to modify the RH and type. So blood still needs to be donated but it can be any Typs and RH as that is what can be modified to any type and RH now.

<comment><USER3> I wonder if you heard about [https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/06/type- blood-converted...](https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/06/type-blood- converted-universal-donor-blood-help-bacterial-enzymes) which is a different line of research?

<comment><USER2> Yeah that was it. Reviewing the initial article posted here, it's a different line of research then I was thinking. However it looks like the success rate is still only 60% (when testing on rabbits). The Wiley article on the grant ([https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/trf.15427](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/trf.15427)) leaves clues that it's still derived from blood at some point and not entirely artificial.

Still very interesting to see that we are making progress towards creating fully artificial, non-type specific blood that anyone can use in a time of need.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> On page#2 under "Preparation of HbVs and H12-(ADP)-liposomes" am I reading it correctly that this "artificial" blood is still derived from blood?

<comment><USER5> Yeah, it sounds to me like it's 'artificial' in the same way that orange juice made from concentrate is artificial.

<comment> m-p-3 There is a substantial benefit though:

 _The artificial blood can be stored at normal temperatures for more than a year._

<comment><USER6> That seems like a huge improvement, especially in countries or areas without as much infrastructure or disaster scenarios.

<comment><USER7> Also combat medics, CASEVAC aircraft, and field hospitals. Not requiring refrigeration is a HUGE benefit during the "Golden Hour" of casualty care.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Extremely freaking cool.

Any idea how this stuff is manufactured? Can it be produced cheaply enough to potentially replace the entire blood donation system?

<comment><USER9> It seems like they are able to take existing blood and modify the type so that even people that aren't universal blood donors can still have it used on anybody that needs it.

<comment><USER10> And, arguably more importantly, it has a shelf life of over a year at room temp, as opposed to weeks/days even when refrigerated.

<comment> m-p-3 That is quite an achievement!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Please read the paper carefully. They compared plasma without platelets (PPP, platelet poor plasma) combined with their crafted liposomes to platelet rich plasma (PRP). Therefore some donored plasma was needed, to have only a difference in the platelet concentraton. Their artificialy synthesized liposomes could then replace the platelets in the study.

<comment><USER11> Fig 3. A shows the major difference in bleeding time after administration of the different therapies.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> >Platelets can be stored for four days if shaken to prevent solidification, while red blood cells can be kept for 20 days at low temperatures.

I didn't know that the shelf life of blood is that short. Does this mean it is possible that some portion of blood collected from "blood donation programs" goes waste? Because, in our country (Nepal), dozens of such programs are conducted by the Red Cross all around the country.

<comment><USER13> A doctor in charge of a blood extraction campaign explained to me that this is exactly the reason why there is a constant high demand of blood donors. Between hospitals there are exchanges daily of blood (you might have a certain blood type that another hospital needs right now), but a lot of blood does get wasted, because of the short times it has.

They also separate blood in different kinds (platelets I think it was the term) since it can be storaged for longer, but is not as useful as a full blood transfer.

<comment><USER14> Do you know if there is any kind of inventory management system that helps blood banks balance their supplies?

<comment><USER15> I don't know the answer to this, but if they do, they should share this information with the public so the public can be aware and more readily volunteer when needed.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Paper: [https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1111/trf.15427](https://sci- hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1111/trf.15427)

</comment><comment><USER17> Does anyone know if this has the same "rejuvenating effects" that young blood has on older patients?

<comment><USER18> Could you link to something to provide context to your language? I've never heard of young blood -> older patient rejuvination, or how such clinical trials could be done safely. A pint of blood from a child is so much...

<comment><USER19> There was also a bit in Silicon Valley about how rich old entrepreneurs are hiring young 20 yr old 'blood boys' to transfuse them blood at will. I wonder how true it is.

<comment><USER20> It was supposedly based on real events.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Historically, there have been many efforts in the past to make artificial blood and IIRC they didn't turn out well for the patients.

It's a bit like the the body with vitamins. At first they thought vitamins were all you needed - then they started discovering micro-nutrients.

Blood is pretty complex - does this include just the highest-order bits of blood, or does it include _everything_ that blood has?

<comment><USER22> If I'm bleeding out and the blood bank is dry I'm not going to be so picky. A few weeks later I'll have made my own to replace it.

<comment><USER23> Obviously, any blood is better then no blood. But will you survive that long on artificial blood if it doesn't contain all the right properties for your body?

<comment><USER24> I would have thought that getting blood into trauma patients in the field would be the main application for this?

Once back in a hospital setting they could switch to using real blood.

<comment><USER25> Paramedic here - two main areas of concern regarding blood in the prehospital/emergency setting -

1 - Volume - You need enough fluid in a closed system to maintain pressure to push that fluid.

2\. Oxygen carrying capacity - Oxygen binds with red blood cells which then deliver it to every cell in your body.

Right now the prehospital setting can more or less manage #1, we have been for a century with Normal Saline.

There is some stuff circulating (pun intended) regarding fluids that can transport oxygen but it will be years before we can use it

<comment><USER26> Does #1 mean that a person with high blood pressure is more able to survive blood loss than a person with standard blood pressure?

<comment><USER27> Not a medic/doctor, but I would assume higher pressure would result in pushing blood out of your system faster. This probably offsets gains

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Can a domain expert comment if this does away with the whole blood donation/testing/storage/logistics system we currently have?

<comment><USER28> Once in full production, potentially. But currently it's only been tested on rabbits. This could change the face of medicine if successful.

<comment><USER29> > This could change the face of medicine if successful.

Why? Is blood shortage a serious problem in medicine?

<comment><USER30> An "unlimited blood budget" might obviate hemodialysis in favour of just doing a "blood change", which—depending on how you do it—may protect the liver and kidneys from things we can't manage to pull out in a single hemodialysis pass.

It might also change the face of surgery. You know the phrase "he's bleeding out!" Well, who cares? We have blood pressure to spare, now. We could go through a couple gallons during the surgery and it'd be fine. Just hook them up to the tank. Take your time clamping/microsuturing/cauterizing instead of rushing and making mistakes.

<comment><USER31> Uuuh no. Real blood unfortunately does more than transport oxygen. So "hook them up to the tank" isn't a solution, and isn't a problem only in a surgeon's mind.

<comment><USER32> What other functions of real blood do you have in mind, that this doesn't at least have the potential to do well for a short period of time in emergencies?

<comment><USER31> Well, what about immune function? It's pretty interesting to have one when and after you're bleeding out...

And before you tell me the potential is there, please realize that we currently have only a very partial understanding of how that works, and it would certainly require at least two decades of science to get right.

<comment><USER32> I was asking, not arguing.

<comment><USER31> Ok, sorry

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> How long until we don't need lungs/heart/digestion/etc. any more? With artificial blood it becomes much easier. I think we'll see the 'brain in a vat' in 20 years. This is a huge step towards immortality.

<comment><USER34> In the Year 2525.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> If I'm not mistaken, it sounds like this is to be used only in emergency situations almost as if it's some type of "filler" that can help keep your blood pressure up of you've lost an extreme amount of blood. It sounds like it may provide more benefits than that, but I say "filler" because it doesn't sound like you can replace all the blood in your body with this artificial blood.

<comment><USER36> So although there might be "waste", emergency preparedness shouldn't be forgotten about. It's safer and better to have blood available when it's needed than to be begging for it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> Read the team's actual findings here: [https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/trf.15427](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/trf.15427)

</comment><comment><USER38> See also: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21110960](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21110960)

</comment><comment><USER39> You think this was made for human patients with any blood type?

Fools.

This is True Blood™.

<comment><USER40> I miss that show. So much fun.

<comment><USER39> Me too! I was so disappointed that the spin off never happened.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER41> awesome, thats a first step towards putting brain in a jar & super long lifespans. if we can make it with all the nutrients to sustain it then we can shed most of our meat-space parts and interface with neural AI fabric directly.

</comment><comment><USER42> As an O-, this is good news.

</comment><comment><USER43> True Blood?

</comment><comment><USER44> one more step towards a greater future.

<comment><USER45> One where vampires come out of hiding? :P

</comment></comment><comment><USER46> Aka "beyond meat for vampires"

</comment><comment><USER47> AMAZING news for vampires

<comment><USER48> Literally the premise of TrueBlood

</comment></comment><comment><USER49> This is really interesting.

I wonder whether it truly is compatible with every single person, e.g. even RH-null etc?

I also wonder whether religious groups who don't accept blood would potentially accept this.

<comment><USER50> > I also wonder whether religious groups who don't accept blood would > potentially accept this.

I understand they don't accept blood from other people because they believe the blood is tightly related to the soul. So if the blood is 100% artificial I don't think they would have a reason to not accept it, unless they find another reason, and I'm sure some obscure group will find a reason to not accept artificial blood either.

<comment><USER51> I had experience with one such group (Jehovah's Witnesses), so I can speak only about them, but yes, I believe they would happily accept artificial blood. The transfusion ban for JWs is related to their interpretation of Bible's verses about blood as a symbol, and verses banning consumption of blood. They already accept some blood-derived medication; generally, the smaller subcomponent of blood something is, the more acceptable they find it.

<comment><USER52> I understand this is a personal matter but I will not accept anything that I know of having been derived from blood.

<comment><USER25> I'm curious about the range of derivation from blood. For example, if I took a sample of your blood and made a product that was essentially cloning your blood, would that be the same?

Some people's spiritual rejections lie more in the "we're playing God we shouldn't do x" whereas what you are describing is something in regard to the sanctity of the blood.

Actually to further my understand, would you be permitted to receive blood that you yourself had donated and had been stored for your personal use in the advent of a medical emergency? Again, I'm not trying to pry or question the validity of your beliefs, just seeking to understand.

<comment><USER52> Sure, no worries. I am happy to answer questions.

This is a complex question. Some things are clear, some are less so. Basically in the Christian Greek scriptures I believe this is only mentioned once: [https://www.jw.org/en/publications/bible/study- bible/books/a...](https://www.jw.org/en/publications/bible/study- bible/books/acts/15/#v44015020)

Here is more info: [https://www.jw.org/en/bible-teachings/questions/bible- about-...](https://www.jw.org/en/bible-teachings/questions/bible-about-blood- transfusion)

Our feelings are that blood is sacred, and once it leaves the body it should return to the ground. Basically, blood is life, and life belongs to Jehovah.

Cloning blood would be wrong because its misusing something that has specific guidelines around its use. If you could clone the blood without like actually drawing blood from someone for the procedure, I guess that would be OK. This is weird and I am not totally sure.

We would not be OK with storing our own blood for future use, as this would be a kind of usage, and is contrary to the instructions to pour it out. And this would also be considered consumption/not abstaining.

As I think about this, though, it makes me think about using blood in the contexts of blood testing. Hmm.

Anyway I mean the scriptures give some instructions and we are doing our best to extrapolate to other situations. Things aren't always cut and dry. We just do our best to understand.

<comment><USER25> Thank you for taking the time to explain that - it seems the "abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality,from what is strangled, and from blood" is obviously a literal interpretation. "From what is strangled and from blood" I always took as profiting from war or suffering but I understand that the challenges of scripture is determine what is literal and what is metaphorical - there's also the concept of what is an "idol" and how is it polluting.

I appreciate you clarifying this. I think I understand a bit more, that there are some aspects of medical science construed as idolatrous, as perhaps glorifying an institution of man and not God.

Have you ever heard of any talk of a ceremony that would somehow reconcile these elements? Again I'm ignorant of JW doctrine and priests don't seem as prevalent, but I'm wondering if there could ever be room for some type of transfusion ceremony that allowed for this, in the precense of correct scripture and religious authority, that was "in the service to Jehovah." Sort of a "Deo volente" thing.

<comment><USER52> For us, I don't think idolatry factors into the decision re: blood. It is more like those are three things to abstain from.

To your other question, no, we do not have any sort of ceremony like that. But tbh avoiding blood transfusions is nbd nowadays. There are alternatives.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Amazon Redshift Service Level Agreement - <AUTHOR> https://aws.amazon.com/redshift/sla/ <comment><AUTHOR> AWS has quietly started offering SLAs for services that previously had none including Redshift, EKS, Direct Connect, API Gateway and Lambda.</comment>


Sen. to introduce bill cancelling up to $50K in student debt for most borrowers - <AUTHOR> https://www.marketwatch.com/story/elizabeth-warren-to-introduce-bill-cancelling-up-to-50000-in-student-debt-for-most-borrowers-2019-06-13?mod=mw_theo_homepage <comment><USER2> This is ridiculous. Universities duped students into over-paying for essentially worthless degrees. Now, the taxpayers get to foot the bill and the Universities pocketed the money.

What we really need is a complete reform of the student loan system.

<comment><USER3> Repeal the law that made student loan debt immune from being liquidated in bankruptcy. Lenders might actually take a moment to decide if someone is worth the lending risk.

<comment><USER4> I think all non-dischargeable debt should be illegal.

<comment><USER5> Including debt from crimes?

<comment><USER4> Good point. Non-dischargeable civil debt should be illegal.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> What about those who worked while in college to minimize their education debt? Will they get anything back?

<comment><AUTHOR> What would you have them receive?

<comment><USER7> How about nothing unless every person that has had student loans is given the same amount?</comment></comment></comment>


Seattle Poised to Repeal Tax on Amazon and Large Employers - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-11/seattle-poised-to-repeal-tax-on-amazon-and-large-employers <comment><USER2> The real problem is the incentives the tax creates. It's per head, which means every time you hire someone, your taxes go up, and every time you fire someone, your tax bill goes down. It's a tax incentive for destroying jobs, specifically low wage jobs held by the most vulnerable people, since the tax is a drop in the bucket for executives, but much more significant percentage wise when hiring low skilled workers.

It should have been a tax based on revenue, so that it targeted the financial footprint of the company, rather than punishing companies for employing lots of people.

<comment><USER3> Wouldn't a company's taxes/costs go up with each new hire whether there's a head tax or not though? Social security for example is half paid for by employers.

<comment><USER4> Payroll taxes scale down as the employee's pay rate scales down. This was a flat amount per employee-hour.

<comment><USER5> Exactly, the Seattle tax punishes low-margin employers of blue collar workers much harder than it hits employers of high-salary white collar workers. It's as if it were a carbon tax on labor designed to speed to adoption of automation.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> In other news, the mayor of New York "increased spending on homeless services by about 60% since he took office nearly three years ago, reaching a historic $1.6 billion this year." [1]

Despite (or because?) of the increase in spending in homeless services in NYC, the number of homeless has increased significantly close to a high of around 76k on a single night in 2017 [2]

Is the Seattle plan [3] somehow different (aside from the dollar amount) from that of New York?

[1] [https://www.wsj.com/articles/nycs-homeless-spending- surges-t...](https://www.wsj.com/articles/nycs-homeless-spending-surges- to-1-6-billion-1479676408)

[2] [https://patch.com/new-york/new-york-city/nyc-homeless- popula...](https://patch.com/new-york/new-york-city/nyc-homeless-population- grew-4-year-data-show)

[3] [https://3y7tq440s8xk37pci616zkly-wpengine.netdna- ssl.com/wp-...](https://3y7tq440s8xk37pci616zkly-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp- content/uploads/sites/3/2017/08/Resolution-31810-Spending-Plan-V6.pdf)

<comment><USER5> Free services accompanied by the relaxing of penalties on habitual rule breakers (elimination of background checks, injection sites with free supplies, regular vacation of all misdemeanors and gross misdemeanors, limiting police patrols, obstruction of DEA and ICE) encourages more people to move in from elsewhere. Measures that may have accommodated the original homeless population fall apart with the massive influx, and the street environment for the local lower and middle class worsens with all the new opportunists.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> 1\. You should tax what you want less of.

2\. Tax should be evenly distributed

If you want jobs, don't tax jobs.

Amazon may be a large employer, but its not the only employer. Everyone should be taxed in proportion.

What they should tax is land use per sf of lot (not sf of the building).

Now people who use a lot of land, or who use the land inefficiently, pay the penalty.

It should also apply equally to everyone who uses the land from large private home owners to small bookstore and cafe owners.

I know there is property tax on the value of the property, but that is a different incentive (to build cheap). This is the incentive to use the space efficiently. So use some amount per sf of lot (say $0.5? I don't know how much that would raise).

<comment><USER8> > 1\. You should tax what you want less of.

Do you think all taxes should be punitive? Are you against personal income and sales taxes, and business profit taxes?

<comment><USER9> This was a descriptive statement. Taxes act like friction and DO reduce the activity that they are attached to.

So if one is planning a tax regime, you should think long and hard about the first and second order effects of your planned taxes. Unfortunately too many in government and politics don't think about this.

<comment><USER10> "Taxes act like friction and DO reduce the activity that they are attached to."

This is why it's interesting to consider taxes that aren't tied to activities, or activities that are extremely resistant to change, e.g.

\- taxing land doesn't impact the supply of land, as (aside from melting ice caps and land 'reclamation' projects) the amount of land on Earth is fixed.

\- taxing human existence (e.g. an annual per capita flat tax) doesn't impact the number of humans

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> While sold as a tax for the homeless, we've seen over and again how $50M entrusted to 6 people with little oversight really turns out.

This is the right move

<comment><USER12> Bezos said he literally cannot think of anything better to do with his money than waste it going to space. While his employees suffer due to lack of water, air-conditioning and such. So no, its better to put the 50 million in the hands of 6 elected councilors instead of a private corporation who is just going to hoard it and waste it.

<comment><USER13> No, it's not better to give the money to elected officials - they have no incentive at all to spend the money wisely. When you're spending other people's money, the incentive to do what's best for the money disappears.

Further, when discussing politics, giving money to politicians leads to corruption, kickbacks, and other waste.

Finally, politicians have shown time and again they are awful businessmen. Boston's Big Dig, Seattle's tunnel under the city, California's high speed rail, and I could go on and on and on.

<comment><USER14> Time to play other foot shoe!

\---

No, it's not better to give the money to corporate executives - they have no incentive at all to spend the money wisely. When you're spending other people's money, the incentive to do what's best for the money disappears.

Further, when discussing business, giving money to businessmen leads to corruption, kickbacks, and other waste.

Finally, executives have shown time and again they are awful businessmen. HP's Itanium, Tharanos' nanotainers, and I could go on and on and on.

<comment><USER15> That usually works, but Jeff Bezos owns his company. The wealth he's acquired is his.

<comment><USER14> So, tax breaks which boost amazon profits are 'his', but taxing him is 'stealing'?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Not to pick on Amazon, but isn't Bezos someone who would support Seattle's intent here? And how much would it have cost Amazon, considering their revenues and the fact their Seattle workforce is ~10% of their total workforce?

[https://www.seattletimes.com/business/amazon/amazons- employe...](https://www.seattletimes.com/business/amazon/amazons-employee- count-declines-for-first-time-since-2009/)

</comment><comment><USER17> According the article, Amazon chipped in $25,000 towards the campaign to repeal a tax that would cost it $12 million a year. That's an amazing ROI.

</comment><comment><USER18> As someone travelling though pioneer square every day I can see homelessness is a problem.But I am not sure how the tax can help,lot of the homeless that I encountered seems to be the under the influence of drugs and interestingly lot of them recently moved to Seattle area.

</comment><comment><USER5> A local partisan magazine, The Stranger, is a big apologist for this tax. Similarly, it also supports carbon taxes for speeding up adoption of renewable energy technology.

Perhaps the idea is to tax labor to speed up the adoption of automation technology?

</comment><comment><USER19> Kudos to Seattle for recognizing that they had made a mistake.

<comment><USER20> I'm not sure if this is really the case. There was already an effort underway to repeal this through a vote by the citizens. This seems more like the city council heading off the vote to save face.

<comment><USER21> > citizens

Amazon.

<comment><USER20> Amazon might be the loudest employer, but they are not the only employer impacted by the tax. The person leading up the signature drive isn't even an Amazon employee: [https://www.linkedin.com/in/james- maiocco-a9520](https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-maiocco-a9520)

This would be a vote by all Seattle residents to determine the need for the tax. Are you saying that Amazon is going to somehow rig the election?

I'm just pointing out that it's interesting that the day after articles started coming out that the signature effort was way over their goal of getting this tax on the ballot for November election the city council decides to vote on a repeal. [https://www.king5.com/article/news/politics/head-tax- repeal-...](https://www.king5.com/article/news/politics/head-tax-repeal- effort-well-over-signature-target-for-ballot-group-says/281-563174163)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Somebody needs to tell these guys that if you subsidize something, you're going to get more of it.</comment>


How interactive news and data journalism responded to the major events of 2015 - <AUTHOR> http://blog.webkid.io/2015-interactive-news-and-data-journalism/ <comment><USER2> Greece had a _dept_ crisis?</comment>


Forth Day 2015 - <AUTHOR> https://svfig.github.io/ <comment><USER2> Does this not fall under the requested:

      No Newsgroup posts or other media distribution please!

<comment><AUTHOR> No. It's a technical content + invitation for a technical meeting.</comment></comment>


Mimi Silbert and the Delancey Street Foundation (2010) - <AUTHOR> http://nathanmarz.com/blog/mimi-silbert-the-greatest-hacker-in-the-world.html

<comment><USER2> If you're in SF, you're missing out if you haven't checked out their restaurant near the Bay Bridge.

<comment><USER3> The food there is rather mediocre, TBH.</comment></comment>


How is your refactoring done? - <AUTHOR>

I've done plenty of refactoring in my code (usually C++), but I'm still hesitant to invest in tools to help.  I limit myself to global "find"; even doing global replacements cautiously, one by one.
I think it's because I can't imagine a tool being able to handle all the "quality" aspects of large scale code changes.  For example, a symbol browser might not see #ifdef'd-out blocks; a parser may find references to X in code but not in comments; and aesthetics like proper indentation may be lost.  In other words, if I let a robot "fix" things and move on, I may be burned down the road by confusing code or comments.
Are there good refactoring tools that I've just missed?  How do you handle major code changes? <comment><USER2> Find & Replace...

Eclipse has some nice tools that automate processes like pushing up methods into superclasses etc... so if you're looking for commercial 'tools', look no farther than Eclipse.

Still, do not underestimate the power of a sound mind and a good text editor. Personally, I hate how "refactoring" is being marketed these days; mostly caused by the managers/business side of software engineering. To me, refactoring is nothing more than reviewing code, cleaning it up, using better algorithms, altering for better readability/writability...

"The aim of our studies must be the direction of our mind so that it may form solid and true judgements on whatever matters arise. We must occupy ourselves only with those objects that our intellectual powers appear competent to know certainly and indubitably." Descartes

</comment><comment><USER3>
      :%s/find/replace/g
      ./setup.py test

I've also got a find/sed script for doing find/replace across a whole directory tree.

I really do miss having the semantic refactoring tools that are available in Java IDEs, though. That's one area where I think Java (and Smalltalk) really leads the pack, and the rest of us are blubbed into accepting half-assed solutions. Sometime I should check out BicycleRepairMan, but as I understand it, it's still not as robust as a provably-correct refactoring in a typed language.

</comment><comment><USER4> In Eclipse, mostly with Alt+Shift+R (global rename symbol under cursor). I don't worry, because xUnit's got my back. I hear your concerns about the quality. I wouldn't be so bold about refactoring without unit tests to fall back on.

Btw, for those put off by the term "Test-Driven Development", its really the "bottom-up programming" you'd do in the more dynamic-languages. That's my take on it anyway.

</comment><comment><USER5> I use in-IDE (VS2k5 in my case) refactorings for simple things, mostly in the small. For local symbol renames and for method extraction, it's invaluable. Really it's a wrist saver in those cases.

I _occasionally_ do larger level renames using the tool, but I'm always a bit wary. It's peripheral stuff that I'm worried about, as with you. Any more major surgery is usually done by hand.

Now, if my tool had better refactorings, I would probably use them.

</comment><comment><USER6> I personally go through my code by hand using nothing but vim. Consider this process a means to get to know your source code better.

<comment><USER7> vim's capabilities for search and replace on regular expressions make it awesome for refactoring. trying to lay your code out as regularly as possible makes regex refactoring easier, and gives you a nice, consistent codebase as a bonus.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I never use tools either. By choice. I want to "touch" every line of code as intimately as possible. I want to immerse myself in it, to feel it, smell it, touch it, and taste it. I want as much of my code as possible to become part of my brain's firmware, much like Woz did when he designed the Apple II.

I have a personal rule that no variable name can be completely contained within another variable name (e.g. $Cust and $CustName must become $CustNbr and $CustName). This is the perfect application for a tool. Yet I never wrote it. I WANT to painstakingly walk through every line of code looking for this. I WANT it to hurt. I want to train my inner hacker to do things right the first time. What better way than to suffer the consequences?

We train our mind, our bodies, even our spirits. Why not also train our inner hacker? A few extra minutes per day is well worth it.

<comment><USER3> I've found that I rarely know the right name for a variable until I've written a significant amount of code that depends on that variable. Refactoring's a must for me, because otherwise what the code says would have little relationship to what it does. I don't think this is due to a lack of foresight or planning (I _do_ pencil & paper design notes before I start coding); it's more that in the process of coding, I discover abstractions and common code that that aren't apparent until the code's actually written.</comment></comment>


Our innovation economy won't grow until we fix the broken IPO market - <AUTHOR> http://gigaom.com/2013/03/02/our-innovation-economy-wont-grow-until-we-fix-the-broken-ipo-market/ <comment><USER2> Typo: You've got an extra 'O' on the end. We have to fix the broken "IP" market.</comment>


Friends don't let friends use Eclipse - <AUTHOR> http://blog.databaseanimals.com/friends-don-t-let-friends-use-eclipse <comment><USER2> What a load of crock. I thought we were over this sort of nonsense. It's 2013 for crying out loud. Next up: vim vs emacs. Windows vs *nix. Your dick vs mine.

If you like eclipse, use it. If you don't like it, stay away from it. Should you try something new every once in a while? Of course, you're a developer, trying out new things should be a matter of course. Should you share your new find with others? Of course! Should you claim that your latest gem is da bomb and that friends don't let friends use yesterday's socks? No.

<comment><USER3> I switched a year ago and the usability improvement is substantial. This isn't vim vs. emacs, this is emacs vs. MS Wordpad. Is it perfect, no, but it is so much better than Eclipse. Eclipse is one tool for all jobs which makes the UI very clunky and not very intuitive. Even C++ developers on our team when switching back and forth between Eclipse and Visual Studio (we do cross- platform development) would loath at their time using Eclipse. I used to defend it, but not any more. Sure, maybe this will turn into an Android vs. iPhone debate, but let someone use IntelliJ for 6 months (after having experience with Eclipse) and tell me how many people want to switch back.

<comment><USER4> I wanted to switch back after about 9 months with IntelliJ. But anyway, why would you care how many people want to switch back! To each his own...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I couldn't agree more. I don't work with Java, but when I had to, I used Eclipse. People kept telling me about how great it is, how powerful and how it just works. I didn't see any of that. I found the UX non-intuitive, the UI is pretty laggy (even on this year's Ivy Bridge) and the DE for languages other than Java were lacking (CDT was awful and useless).

The best IDE I have used is Visual Studio. I no longer work with IDEs, I prefer a text editor like Sublime Text, but I wish it had debugging capabilities, some refactoring/file management and more powerful plugins.

</comment><comment><USER6> In one of our projects the largest JS file is 12k lines. In eclipse I can work with it no problems. In WebStorm/other JetBrains IDE it runs like a dog with that file open, I ran away screaming after 15 seconds.

Inability to be able to effective edit my files is a major problem, though I'm interested if anyone knows how to speed WebStorm up for JS files. If that were resolved I'd be very happy to switch to flee Eclipse's git functionality.

Before someone says it "reduce the size of the file" is not an answer. In answer to split the file and re-make it in a build step, why on Earth should I have to get around a shortcoming in a tool? Tools are there to make me more productive, not dance when the music starts.

<comment><USER7> It's slow because of the code quality inspections. You can override these per file by clicking the Sherlock Holmes icon in the statusbar.

<comment><USER8> His name is Hector the Inspector.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Just face it. Eclipse is no longer an IDE. Eclipse _has an_ IDE too, but Eclipse is no longer just an IDE.

It is the Eclipse Foundation and Eclipse Platform, comprised of various projects like Eclipse Modeling Framework, Mylyn, Scout, EGit, BIRT, etc. They are packaged in different editions (popularly called the release train) and incidentally produce an IDE.

To be serious, they are _so damn_ focused on selling a Platform, whereas all I need is _just an IDE_. Want to know why JetBrains is kicking their ass with a paid product? Its because they stick to building a coherent IDE. Not a platform full of projects which magically get integrated together to form a half-assed IDE.

Sorry did I say IDE?

Edit: I feel Eclipse is a classic example of what happens to a project when it loses its original direction and tries to be everything else at the same time, except what it was originally meant for.

Edit 2: Typo

<comment><USER10> Eclipse was never _just_ an IDE it has _always_ been a platform. At its inception it was a framework for building IDEs by IBM. If you think the different editions of Eclipse are baffling, make sure to check out the different Rational branded Eclipse-based IDEs. There you'll find not just myriad J2EE IDEs but also IDEs for building software on p- and iSeries.

Around Eclipse 3.0, it really just became an OSGI container. So it's been an excellent pluggable framework longer than it's been a very usable Java IDE. And has been used to build plenty of non-IDE toolings like IBM Jazz.

You may complain about this "platform", but it's also the reason for its popularity. I can build a plug-in that works in Eclipse 3 and 4, almost all of the IBM products (some of them disable plug-in loading for unknown reasons), MyEclipse, JBoss IDE, Adobe FlashBuilder, Wolfram Workbench... etc. That's a very compelling position for an ISV.

Also, please don't conflate the Eclipse Platform with the Eclipse Foundation. What the Foundation does has only a little overlap with the Eclipse Java IDE itself. Its breadth does not indicate crazy feature creep on the part of the IDE; that the Eclipse Foundation supports (say) Hudson doesn't mean that suddenly you'll have a CI server in your IDE.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> I have tried to love Eclipse several times over the years but every time I try it to see if it has improved, it is still the same awkward, buggy, unstable environment it was the previous time I tried it. Obviously many people use and apparently like it but the user experience leaves a lot to be desired, particularly for a product that has been around for so long.

I have no strong preferences in IDEs (I use a mixture of Xcode, Sublime, and Vim for code) but Eclipse quickly irritates me to the point where I stop using it.

</comment><comment><USER12> Say what you will about SWT, but Eclipse's font rendering (use of hints, etc.) on Linux is great. As much as I tried to look past it (and tweak settings ad infinitum), the inferior font rendering of Java-based IDEs is intolerable for me :(

<comment><USER13> I agree. To get good Linux font rendering on Java one has to apply a patch to OpenJDK and build it.

It's doable, I've done it, but it's not a quick process.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Several years ago I switched to Eclipse from IDEA, because I was developing Eclipse-based IDE. I still own IDEA license, periodically upgrade it and do some tasks there, but cannot switch back on fulltime. Currently I'm using latest STS package being very productive in it and I don't experience the slowness (well, not more often than in IDEA), bugs or usability issues that are mentioned in this article. It's definitely not the right tool for some of the tasks, but, in general, "don't use" is a too emotional and irrelevant advice.

</comment><comment><USER15> I have literally no problems with Eclipse, been using it for years. I use stock Eclipse with the PHP and Team Concert plugins added.

I guess it takes like 15 seconds to start up, but who actually cares about that?

<comment><USER16> _I have literally no problems with Eclipse, been using it for years._

Regardless of whether we're talking about Eclipse or some other tool here, one often doesn't recognize the pain points they experience if they don't have any perspective on other ways of doing it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> I like IDEA a lot but I ended up going back to Eclipse because it's so much better at hotswap than IDEA. It's baffling to me that the talented engineers at JetBrains still force me to restart my servers all the time for changes that are explicitly documented in the JLS as hotswappable.

I restart servers all the time throughout the days, all the nice things that IDEA offers still do not make up for the fact that in Eclipse, I hardly have to restart any process ever as long as the changes I made to my Java code are hotswappable.

There's that and the fact that Eclipse's incremental compilation is hard to give up (another thing I don't understand why IDEA hasn't caught up to).

At any rate, anyone who says that one of these two IDE's is awesome while the other one sucks probably needs to take a hard look at the way they work and question their skill at assessing tools.

<comment><USER13> Have you tried exploded deployment? I don't have a problem with it usually

<comment><USER17> I tried both exploded deployment (artifact) and through Maven (tomcat:run), no difference: IDEA pretends it has reloaded the new code but it hasn't, so I lost trust in it completely and now I just restart all the time. It's much more efficient with Eclipse.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Half a dozen yeas ago, my investment bank team was too cheap to pay for an IntelliJ license so I was stuck with Eclipse. I'm finally enjoying IntelliJ because these days I use Rubymine. I do have TextMate, but IntelliJ's product just makes sense, performs well, and also saves me some time.

</comment><comment><USER19> This article cuts off right when it should be getting to the meat: What are my options? How do they compare?

</comment><comment><USER20> I switched to vi (vim) a number of years ago after a number of years writing Java with Eclipse (& JBuilder).

At first I thought it would be difficult to do without auto-completion. But it's not much of a loss after all. One learns and adapts.

I like that I can work on any host that has vi, which all actually do.

<comment><USER4> I love myself some vim whenever I get the chance, but to me, it is not auto- completion that is the killer feature of IDEs; rather, it is the immediate error checking that I get as I type code.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Eclipse isn't slow, it's really that their plugin framework is extremely complicated and writing fast plugins is difficult. It's important to note that everything within eclipse (even their Java editor) is done as a plugin.

I've been using Eclipse for a long time and I'm fine with it. It has a lot of quirks and can be difficult to learn them, but it gets the job done. For me, moving to IntelliJ isn't really an option as my codebase has languages that aren't supported by the IntelliJ, which would mean I'd get no code support for that or I'd have to use a second editor.

Eclipse is nice as it has plugins for about every language out there. They may not be great all the time, but having them all in a single IDE is nice.

<comment><USER22> "their plugin framework is extremely complicated"

This (along with the terrible plugin management UI)is the most annoying thing about a product that is just a host for plugins. I suspect it's the reason Google moved to IDEA for the Android IDE.

<comment><USER4> No, I remember reading that JetBrains offered to help Google develop the IDEA plugin. With Eclipse it would have been a solo effort.

I have written Eclipse plugins (one with a graph editor as well) and didn't find it all that complicated. I haven't written an IntelliJ plugin, so can't compare.

<comment><USER22> JetBrains support is interesting. But given that Google bought Instantiations, and had much sunk effort in the Android plugin (not just code, but documentation and training) there has to more too it. I think IBM reducing their support to the Eclipse foundation must have had something to do with it.

Fair dues on the plugins; my own frustration with the plugin architecture is probably just my own frustration :).

<comment><USER23> I looked into IDEA when that was announced, I can't figure out at all why a smart outfit like Google would do such a thing. Eclipse is very sophisticated and complete. Unreal.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> I don't like Eclipse either. Are there any good general-purpose open-source IDEs like Eclipse, but without the cruft? And for those who've used both, is JetBrain's PyCharm significantly better than the PyDev plugin for Eclipse?

<comment><USER25> I have been using PyCharm for the past few weeks now, and boy its sleek ! However, there is another Python IDE launched recently called Spyder which looks promising too.

<comment><USER26> Spyder and PyCharm don't really compete and only minimally overlap. PyCharm is an Integrate Development Environment designed for writing large python applications, with particular support for python web applications.

Spyder (which has been around since 2009) on the other hand is an Interactive Development Environment focusing mainly on scientific computing and interactive data analysis and exploration, with lots of handy tools for poking around in and plotting data.

Both are great, but they target different uses and complement each other rather than directly compete.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> That's funny, many of the embedded chipmakers are finally standardizing on Eclipse, which means I don't have to relearn a new proprietary IDE when we change chipsets. In that sense Eclipse is way better than environments written 10+ years ago. That's Eclipse's biggest strength at the moment.

I wish there was a Sublime-based IDE with visual debugging support. As a low level developer I still need immediate access to watch windows, memory and registers, and that prevents me from using Sublime for anything more than code refactoring.

<comment><USER28> Then, design in an Atmel part and enter the odd world of Visual Studio Shell

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> I've never really understood the eclipse hate. When configured with enough memory (yes, a lot) it "just works" for me and perfectly fast and responsive. It's easy to have multiple workspaces and multiple eclipse installs to separate out different projects and different plugins that you use (keep Android development separate from other development, etc).

I don't doubt that IntelliJ is wonderful (and my own experience with it was great), but I don't understand the level of enmity towards eclipse.

<comment><USER13> My main problem with Eclipse is the Maven plugin, which is close to worthless and the concept of perspectives. The Run Configurations are quite a mess too, but I usually can work around that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> I use Eclipse everyday, wrote plugins in the past, and the one thing I've never understood:

Why does a tool that is explicitly a platform for plugins have such a bad plugin UI?

(I don't think it's slow)

</comment><comment><USER30> Your coding may vary, but Eclipse has always done well by me.

</comment><comment><USER4> I don't get the Eclipse hate at all. I have used both Eclipse and IntelliJ and I much prefer Eclipse's overall interface. It was also much faster than IntelliJ on a very large Scala project that I was working on.

Despite that, I think IntelliJ is a pretty cool IDE too. Its interface has recently received an overhaul and I am sure they would have been improving the speed as well (I haven't checked).

</comment><comment><USER31> Friends don't let friends spend significant amounts of time debating about their IDE.

(Eclipse's tabbing scheme is _awful_ , though. Like the author said, its like they have an algorithm to detect which tabs I'm going to need the most and then they hide those tabs.)

</comment><comment><USER32> I keep on meaning to give IntelliJ a whirl. I got my boss to purchase a license when they were doing a special several months back. But I just haven't made the time to configure everything to work with my existing projects and learn their way of doing things.

</comment><comment><USER33> Does anybody have a recommendation for a win/linux IDE that supports: c/c++/c#, java, python? I've considered Code::Blocks or one of Jetbrain's IDE products but never had the time to try them out.

</comment><comment><USER34> Jetbrains is much nicer than eclipse. However, one thing that I hate is their key bindings.

They delivered a number of options but none of them make sense to me. Sublime Text's key binding is much nicer.

<comment><USER22> It's pretty easy (like 10 minutes effort) to set up your keybindings IDEA.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> Blog spam?

IntelliJ is irritating to use even when it doesn't crash during launch.

<comment><USER36> If you have repeated crashes, please report them to JetBrains.

I had a problem with intelliJ crashing on some Scala code, sent them the logs and they said they were aware of the problem and that a fix was almost ready for deployment. I've never had a bad customer experience from the company.

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> Eclipse isn't that bad. It's not the best but you can get job done with it and it is much better than what existed 10 years ago. I think the article is exaggerating.

<comment><USER16> If it's not the best, why would you bother getting the job done with it when you could be having a better experience?

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> I agree that it looks horrible in Linux, but it can be easily fixed. Eclipse >4 allows CSS styles, but in <4.0 you have to manually fiddle with .gtkrc-2.0.

</comment><comment><USER39> Absolutely agree. I switched to IntelliJ 3 years ago and have never looked back.

</comment><comment><USER40> what about android development?

<comment><USER41> I think the fact that they are moving to an IntelliJ-based IDE for Android Studio confirms how bad Eclipse really is.

<comment><USER42> I have tried several times to shift to android studio for development but everytime I have to come back to eclipse. Whatever I do, it just doesn't work, it always messes up something and code doesn't work (which works perfectly fine on Eclipse). What good an IDE is, if I can't compile a simple project on it.</comment></comment></comment>


Martin Amis – The Art of Fiction (1998) - <AUTHOR> http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/1156/martin-amis-the-art-of-fiction-no-151-martin-amis <comment><USER2> _" What happens is what Nabokov described as a throb. A throb or a glimmer, an act of recognition on the writer's part. At this stage the writer thinks, Here is something I can write a novel about. In the absence of that recognition I don't know what one would do. It may be that nothing about this idea—or glimmer, or throb—appeals to you other than the fact that it's your destiny, that it's your next book. You may even be secretly appalled or awed or turned off by the idea, but it goes beyond that. You're just reassured that there is another novel for you to write. The idea can be incredibly thin—a situation, a character in a certain place at a certain time."_

I found it interesting that Amis writes a disconnected and much altered first draft ("doodles") long-hand in a notebook. I'm imagining him writing out of and around the throb mentioned above almost radially.

A visual image: A Victorian fountain built into the railings of a church yard in the centre of a city - for the benefit of dogs of the parish. The fountain is on the North side of the church yard facing outwards and, as a result of the overlooking buildings, never receives direct sunlight. The statue above the fountain is of an angel with wings and arms folded in prayer. Mysteriously, every few weeks, a single red rose is left across the hands. Just as one becomes used to seeing a flower early in the morning every few weeks, you see no more. Stopped, vanished.

Same as for startup ideas? The throb is easy - it is the rest of it, the craft - that is hard.

<comment><USER3> I see it more like a journey. The "throb" is something that makes you think, yes, I want to go there. Next thing you know, you're on it. And then you write it up in a way that is as close as possible to what it felt like to be on it. So that, in the end, the hard part is that it's over. The idea has run its course, time has passed. And I think it's worse when the project has succeeded because when it hasn't, nothing is over.</comment></comment>


Windows 3.1 Is Still Alive, and It Just Killed a French Airport - <AUTHOR> https://news.vice.com/article/windows-31-is-still-alive-and-it-just-killed-a-french-airport <comment><USER2> "Fiacre compared the challenges of running the Windows 3.1-supported DECOR to the issues faced by NASA with its Voyager program, which was launched in 1977."

Except that Voyager 1 is 20 billion kilometers away while this system is sitting right at there the airport. ;-)

</comment><comment><USER3> If the supply of people willing to port win16 code to more maintainable technology is really so low that a critical system in a air port can not be fixed, then I think it is time market rates start to establish themselves.

I'll gladly hack win16 by moonlight for 190USD/hour. Contact if interested.

<comment><USER4> "Market rates" is why they'll either outsource it to India to save money or keep using the old system to save money. Nobody died? Saving money remains their best option.

<comment><USER4> Or they could always run it on OS/2 which was supposed to be a better Windows than Windows anyway :D

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> That is entirely consistent with what we know of other zombies ;)</comment>