FCC considering a proposal to lock down devices with a "modular wireless radio" - <AUTHOR> https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Save_WiFi/Individual_Comments <comment><USER2> Sounds like another battle in the "coming war on general purpose computing" [http://boingboing.net/2012/01/10/lockdown.html](http://boingboing.net/2012/01/10/lockdown.html)

<comment><USER3> Only if the manufacturer insists on connecting the radio directly to the "general purpose" part of the computer, instead of using a more fixed/limited radio. If the radio is isolated, there's no need to lock down the rest of the device. But developing a fixed function radio will probably add a penny to the cost of each unit. So whether you can run openwrt will come down to whether linksys cares more about their pennies or your freedom.

<comment><USER4> I think one problem with this idea is that different countries can have different spectrum ranges or rules.

<comment><USER3> For example, Japan. Afaik, the fcc permits the sale of such devices, as long as they are not in "jp" mode. Would the proposed regs prevent setting a laptops locale to jp?

<comment><USER5> The new rules would effectively stop users in the future from flashing third party firmware altogether. Right now with $100 of equipment you can get around the signature checks as its just being done in firmware. In the future you won't be able to because companies will (likely) have to adopt tougher and tougher measures including tech from Intel and others. Intel designed its tech to be licensed out to others not in the X86 world. That effectively locked down Intel hardware already and no recent generation hardware can be completely free'd. LibreBoot is a 100% free BIOS that only works on older laptops because the lead developer can't port it to newer hardware due to locks that can't be overridden. The signature checks are done in hardware and you can't even just wipe out the firmware. No firmware means check fails means system doesn't turn on.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> From the down link:

Take Action Now!

The FCC is asking for comments on this proposal. The most important thing you can do is comment on the FCC's proposal and tell them you want to be able to control your computing devices. Will you do this?

Comment deadline extended to October 9.

Instructions:

1\. Go to the Federal Register and press "Submit a formal comment" ([https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2015/08/06/2015-184...](https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2015/08/06/2015-18402/equipment- authorization-and-electronic-labeling-for-wireless-devices))

2\. Start your comment by respectfully asking the FCC to not implement rules that take away the ability of users to install the software of their choosing on their computing devices. Additional points of emphasis you should consider adding:

\- Wireless networking research depends on the ability of researchers to investigate and modify their devices.

\- Americans need the ability to fix security holes in their devices when the manufacturer chooses to not do so.

\- Users have in the past fixed serious bugs in their wifi drivers, which would be banned under the NPRM.

\- Billions of dollars of commerce, such as secure wifi vendors, retail hotspot vendors, depends on the ability of users and companies to install the software of their choosing.

3\. Enter your name and address. This is a public comment and your personal information provided will be publicly available.

Once you've submitted your comment, make sure to encourage others to submit comments opposing these restrictions on computing devices. Use the #SaveWifi hashtag on Twitter or your favorite microblogging services.

Google cache: [http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https:/...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Save_WiFi/Individual_Comments&client=ubuntu&hs=Clj&channel=fs&strip=1&vwsrc=0)

<comment><USER6> The rules do nothing of the sort. The guidelines state that the hardware manufacturer must make certain that reasonable efforts have been made to keep the device from trampling over radar systems, etc. The guidelines state that one route to do so is to have the firmware locked down in its entirety, but there are other ways to do so. Atheros chips, for example, do not expose the functionality that would require the chips to be locked down. Wireless researchers will almost certainly have the licensing in place to do investigation and modification. Device makers choosing not to update their devices should honestly be handled through tort; a few lawsuits against companies making defective routers will get makers to shape up. Buggy devices can and should be handled similarly. Finally, with your point regarding secure wifi vendors and the like, those would be the manufacturers and would by definition have access to all of those settings.

This campaign reminds a lot of the bad old days of Microsoft and spreading Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. This is not an evil policy that has nefarious purposes, it's about making sure people don't intentionally use their devices that will cause damage to the neighbors on the bandwidth spectrum. Also, keep in mind that the unlicensed regions were not created for communications, but rather so that medical and industrial heating devices have some range of frequencies to operate magnetrons, etc, without disrupting sensitive communications. Wifi uses them mostly because they do go unused the majority of the time.

<comment><USER7> >>Wireless researchers will almost certainly have the licensing in place to do investigation and modification.

Most/Alot of research, especially security research is one with out the manufacturers permission,I highly doubt they will have licensing in place to do investigation.

>>Device makers choosing not to update their devices should honestly be handled through tort; a few lawsuits against companies making defective routers will get makers to shape up.

You may want to consult a lawyer on that, since most of the manufacturers EULA explicitly indemnify them from this type of liability. If this was possible Microsoft should be bankrupt by now. My 2.5 year old Samsung phone has need seen an update for over a year, many security problems have been found both Samsung and my carrier say "Buy a new phone" yet somehow I think me attempting to sue them for not updating the device will be less than successful. Instead the best option I have is a Custom non-OEM ROM that is still being updated.

>>reasonable efforts have

Most of the people posting in support of this measure, including yourself seem to have a vastly different defination of "reasonable" that people like myself for who are open source / open hardware advocate. I bet you believe secure boot, UEFI and other measures are "reasonable" as well.

>> This is not an evil policy that has nefarious purposes, it's about making sure people don't intentionally use their devices that will cause damage to the neighbors on the bandwidth spectrum

The Road to hell is paved with good intentions, it may not be the FCC's goal to lock in hardware and to prevent users from replacing OEM operating systems, we can call it an "unintended consequence" if you wish. At the end of the day however it is a distinction with out a difference. If this rule is adopted, innovation, consumer freedom, and consumer security will suffer.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> FCC should be working to massively expand the unlicensed ranges instead of clamping it down more. The amount of innovation and economic activty in the unlicensed bands is massive. They should be working on taking back the TV HD and SD frequencies and leave the tinkerers alone.

<comment><USER9> They are doing that, but the tinkerers are interfering with more important frequencies like RADAR used by weather providers and ATC... Locking down the frequencies so they can't possibly interfere isn't at all at odds with opening up new ranges for better service. I know a few people over at Mimosa (GBPS wireless backhaul providers) so I've seen a lot of progress in advocacy for new spectrum.

[http://mimosa.co/news/36/75/Mimosa-Advocates-Expansion- of-23...](http://mimosa.co/news/36/75/Mimosa-Advocates-Expansion-of-23-GHz- Spectrum-to-the-FCC-Enabling-10-Gbps-Backhaul/d,flat-blog-detail.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> The link doesn't load (connection timed out), so I'm only going by the headline - do they also want to "lock down" software defined radios, like the HackRF?

<comment><AUTHOR> Reddit hug of death right now. Direct link is [https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2015/08/06/2015-184...](https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2015/08/06/2015-18402/equipment- authorization-and-electronic-labeling-for-wireless-devices)

<comment><USER10> >For a device to be certified as an SDR, in addition to demonstrating that the device complies with the applicable technical requirements, the applicant must also demonstrate that the device contains security features to prevent the loading of software that would allow the radio to operate in violation of the Commission's rules.

So... yeah. Well, that sucks.

<comment><USER11> What sucks more is interference ;)

Much of the radio spectrum is shared. As an overly-simplified explanation, that means only one transmitter may be in operation at a time, or the frequency in question in that area will be useless.

Spectrum is also segmented and some segments require a license to use. The FCC (and all the other foreign national bodies that regulate radio) do so for the good of everyone. If they did not, we could not turn our lights on and use a cell phone or watch TV at the same time ;)

Also, the rules have been around for a long time. This is an old problem.

[https://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/rules-regulations- title-47](https://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/rules-regulations-title-47)

<comment> guard-of-terra You can't do that, you can't shift monumental costs on the other party in order to also shift blame for an imaginary problem.

Here we have imaginary problem (wi-fi "interference"), we have FCC who wants to shift blame for it to somebody else, so they try to force measures on users which, if properly enforced, will cost them tens of billions USD in collateral damage.

Because mind you, 99,9% users reinstall their OS a) not to mess with wi-fi, and b) to derive some personal gain from it. Where they got the right to sabotage millions of people?

<comment><USER12> How is wi-fi interference an "imaginary" problem?

Note, for example, the many stories people tell about microwave ovens interfering with wifi:

[https://www.google.com/search?q=wifi+interference+microwave](https://www.google.com/search?q=wifi+interference+microwave)

And when open up a spectrum analyzer and look at how much power is on the wifi bands around me, it sure looks like interference is an actual thing. So it seems to me that interference is a real problem, which is why we have the FCC regulating this stuff in the first place.

The right they have, by the way, is that we the people created the FCC to solve the problem of radio interference:

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

Now it could be that there are better ways to solve the problem. But given the people totally losing their shit in classic "ehrmegerd guvmint steelin my freedums" style, I am wondering if this issue belongs in my bucket labeled "antivax, fiat money, 911 truth, etc".

<comment><USER13> _The myth of interference – Internet architect David Reed explains how bad science created the broadcast industry._

[http://www.salon.com/2003/03/12/spectrum/](http://www.salon.com/2003/03/12/spectrum/)

<comment><USER14> And when someone proposes a viable technology that could actually work the way Reed contemplates, we can and should review these kinds of regulations.

Right now, today, in the real world, it doesn't matter whether the phenomenon we commonly call interference is a property of radio waves or a property of the receivers we use or the will of benevolent aliens watching us in their lab. The fact is that it causes communications systems not to work properly.

<comment><USER15> Ultrawideband exists today. It's not in common use because the FCC restricted it to such low power it has about a 30 foot range.

<comment><USER14> What would be the effect of the Ultrawideband that exists today on other devices using the relevant radio frequencies, absent that regulation? Put another way, what was the justification for imposing such a restrictive rule?

<comment><USER16> > what was the justification for imposing such a restrictive rule?

This is a totally worthless question to ask about a law or rule.

The general form would be "why was the law created?"

And of course, there's never a law with the (disclosed) purpose of killing all kittens, giving money to friends or destroying an enemy. On the contrary, every law is always spun on some kind of "will you think of the children".

The only good question you can ask about a law:

"What are its consequences?"

Interestingly, your first question was more in this sense.

<comment><USER17> > The only good question you can ask about a law:

> "What are its consequences?"

Also, what are the consequences of not having the law?

Which I suspect was the intended meaning of:

> what was the justification for imposing such a restrictive rule?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Mirror: [https://archive.is/tGCkU](https://archive.is/tGCkU)

<comment><USER19> hmm...

> 451 Unavailable > This content is not available in your country.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Will this affect Google Ara project?

<comment><USER21> No. Google will pay for the requisite licenses.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> People aren't paying attention to what this is for. It's to prevent people from modifying RF devices, transmitters, from operating at power levels and frequencies, or other technical things, from interfering with other devices and outside the bounds of their intention. It's to protect devices from interference that was prevalent in the days when radio was first invented, and for decades afterwards.

This is a good thing.

<comment><USER7> Back here in the real world we understand that the most cost effective manner for device manufactuers to comply with this moronic regluation is to lock down the entire device.

Phone, Routers, Tablets and even some Laptops will be shipped with out the ability to change the operating system, or firmware. As that will be the cheapest way to comply with the regulation and since less than 1% of the customers ever bother changing there will be no backlash

This will be a nightmare for Computer security, and innovation.

I hope you love botnets becuase the FCC is creating the next wave of them with this moronic regulation.

<comment><USER22> There is nothing in that FCC paper that says you won't be able to change the operating system and that is specifically mentioned in section 24.

<comment><USER23> The FCC doesn't require it directly, but since it's the cheapest way to achieve what the FCC does require it's what the manufacturers will all do. That's the point.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> guard-of-terra Why would it affect your PC? Should not they just lock down wi-fi module if they want?

I fail to see much difference between installing alternative OS on your PC and installing third-party software.

<comment><USER24> Most radio modules would have an embedded firmware that in addition to the radio handling, should enforce regulatory constraints (i.e preventing the use of 5GHz DFS channels if radar use is detected).

Building these firmware images is something you are (usually) only equipped to do under NDAs from the silicon manufacturer (or only done by request from the manufacturer).

My understanding (and what I have gathered from previous threads on the subject) is the FCC is going after the embedded radio firmwares, and mistakenly (or due to extreme lack of knowledge) named OpenWRT,DD-WRT as offenders.

Otherwise, the effect of this would be to outlaw PCIe and USB WiFi, Bluetooth etc. cards/adaptors unless sold inside a computer with a locked bootloader.

<comment><USER7> >Otherwise, the effect of this would be to outlaw PCIe and USB WiFi, Bluetooth etc. cards/adaptors unless sold inside a computer with a locked bootloader.

Lenovo already does this for laptops, you have to use a Whitelist Wifi card, they claim it is to comply with existing regulations from the FCC, which this will expand.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Yeah, whatever industry lobbyists are hitting them with tons of money need to just find their conscience - or prison, whatever works.

I guess I am going to be a criminal the day they tell me I cannot run openwrt.

<comment><USER26> My guess is they are getting lots of complaints from folks running into dopes doing stupid things with SDR that interfere with others.

Looking at the noxious behavior of drone owners sets a few examples of the type of thing I'm referring to.

<comment><USER25> The quadcopter problem is easy to solve, jail time for repeat offenders.

But they are now making laws to ensure the bulk of the population commits a few felonies each day, changing your phone software from stock, changing your router software from stock = prison? How exactly does that harm/help society?

<comment><USER22> If you want to jail offenders then there has to be a law or regulation for that. This is that regulation.

How does this harm society? Imagine your wifi router becoming useless cause your neighbor decides to modify his and boost his output which overpowers yours. Plus adding additional frequencies that render your wireless phone useless.

<comment><USER27> Imagine (and be terrified of) your neighbor sneaking over at night and smothering you with a pillow. Let's ban pillows! Bonus: the ban will stop those vicious pillow fights.

<comment><USER22> You are pretending such things I mention don't happen but they happened all the time before the FCC came into being and happened often during the CB craze. In fact, I still occasionally hear of such things.

Imagine there were no regulations. Such things would be rampant as they were in the past.

<comment><USER28> Your example of the CB craze ignores the fact that there were plenty of regulations at that time -- there were actually more then than there are now. They were totally ignored.

For instance, back then you were required to have an FCC license to operate a CB radio, but not one user out of a thousand bothered to get one.

Regulations and laws aren't magic.

<comment><USER22> I'm not ignoring it at all. It's my point that, if those CBers couldn't modify their equipment, many of those issues would not have come up. Being an illegal operator is a different story unrelated to this topic.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> I'm not too worried, like all prohibited substances and devices (except maybe weapons of mass destruction) there will always be ways to get what you want if you want.

Especially since from the headlines it appears that they're considering a software based approach.

<comment><USER30> Umm, no. Such laws legitimize prohibition (by definition) and represent and form public opinion and can thus be harmful even if they are loosely enforced.

<comment><USER29> > Umm, no

Exactly what are you disagreeing with? Going by your comment you seem to think that I said that a ban would have no effect at all. I did no such thing, and I would suggest that you read more carefully next time.

So, umm, no I can't actually get access to a XTC in my country where it is prohibited?

Of course I can. Even if/while such laws effect more than only a ban on the substance in question.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Is anyone using json schema? - <AUTHOR> I am building a JSON editor/viewer that conforms to a schema. It is sort of like a non developer friendly way to edit or view documented JSON. The best resource i've found for any kind of existing JSON schema standard is at http://json-schema.org
Either I have not been paying attention or I have not seen many API's or other JSON related software using any kind of schema for reference or validation.
I'm curious as to the pulse of who's adopted or found using a JSON schema useful or if it has been largely ignored and we're doing just fine without it. <comment><USER2> Your phrase:

> largely ignored and we're doing just fine without it

is a pretty good description of how it's going here. Let be be a bit more specific. We used to build lots of SOAP services, and maintaining the schemas that clearly specified the interface was a real effort. When we moved to APIs that used JSON, at first we did little in the way of documentation - and as usual, doing no documentation worked fine at first.

After the JSON API use grew to on the order of 300 developers in teams across the country "no documentation" didn't scale so well. Instead, we've been using swagger specifications to document our APIs. First of all, the swagger specification is far less detailed and precise than the XML schema were. Secondly, my observation (not carefully measured) is that only about 80-90% of the swagger specifications are even accurate. And no one cares. Apparently the level that works for us is just slightly above "no documentation" but well below "clear and accurate specifications".

And I'm (mostly) OK with that.

<comment><USER3> My experience is similar, but using RAML instead of Swagger. RAML has built-in support for JSON Schema.

I suppose the use case is somewhat similar to XSD, but this is more intuitive and way less verbose. There's also immediate value in using it to parameterize resource types to stay DRY when you use the same resource across multiple endpoints.

I think of it more for templating than validation.

[http://raml.org/developers/raml-200-tutorial#extract- schemas](http://raml.org/developers/raml-200-tutorial#extract-schemas)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Someone here tried it but we quickly gave up on it.

\- It's ugly and borderline impossible to write by hand because it's JSON. To document something complex your JSON objects get 20 layers deep and you don't get any decent commenting.

\- Because it's so hard to read, it's useless by itself as a guide to how the JSON should be structured.

\- Someone would change the code and always forget to update the schema to match. It only makes sense if you're somehow generating the code from the schema.

<comment><USER5> > \- Someone would change the code and always forget to update the schema to > match. It only makes sense if you're somehow generating the code from the > schema.

We used [http://www.jsonschema2pojo.org/](http://www.jsonschema2pojo.org/) (via the gradle plugin) on a previous project. I think it worked fairly well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Composer uses JSON schema to validate composer.json files. See [https://github.com/composer/composer/blob/master/res/compose...](https://github.com/composer/composer/blob/master/res/composer- schema.json)

It's just the equivalent of an XSD. A lot of people use XML without an XSD. I think it's perfectly fine to not use JSON schema if you don't want to, but having it gives you an easy path toward validating user-generated JSON. It's a nice-to-have.

</comment><comment><USER7> The Vega Visualization Grammar [1] is encoded using JSON Schema. However, I think there are some bugs in the grammar that can be attributed to the (IMHO) clumsiness of JSON schema.

If you are looking for a good JSON editor that respects JSON schema to compare with your implementation, try Visual Studio Code [2].

[1] [http://vega.github.io/](http://vega.github.io/)

[2] [https://code.visualstudio.com/download](https://code.visualstudio.com/download)

</comment><comment><USER8> I've used it for a few small tools and love it. I started out just writing schemas for testing the format of JSON generated by tools or pulled from an API, but you can do so much more... like using it to generate documentation or even [create forms]([https://github.com/joshfire/jsonform](https://github.com/joshfire/jsonform)).

</comment><comment><USER9> We're using it at GoCardless to generate reference docs for our recurring payments API. [https://developer.gocardless.com/2015-07-06/#overview](https://developer.gocardless.com/2015-07-06/#overview)

</comment><comment><USER10> A while back I wrote jsonmerge, a Python library for merging series of JSON documents. The syntax it uses for specifying merging rules is based on JSON schema:

[https://pypi.python.org/pypi/jsonmerge](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/jsonmerge)

Blog post with some background:

[https://www.tablix.org/~avian/blog/archives/2014/08/jsonmerg...](https://www.tablix.org/~avian/blog/archives/2014/08/jsonmerge/)

</comment><comment><USER11> We are using it at my current place of work with [https://github.com/jdorn/json-editor](https://github.com/jdorn/json-editor) to generate simple administrative UIs for backing configurations for non- technical users.

It's not a fantastic UX but it works and it's fast to develop.

The docs are sparse but for my money the format is relatively intuitive. I'd prefer to be using XML/XSL/XSLT as they are FAR more powerful, but that's just what you get with JSON.

</comment><comment><USER12> At a previous job (huge enterprise dev org of 1000+ devs, many many siloed teams) we used it for client-side validation of rest service calls.. it was a really easy way of detecting missing/bad data from upstream systems and handling it appropriately.

It was also great for contract testing in CI of other teams' services (warning us if they slipped some breaking change into the build).

</comment><comment><USER13> We are using it in production for more than a year. Primarily to define schema for jobs that process terabytes of data on cloud, on-demand.

</comment><comment><USER14> We adopted it in the SpeedTracer chrome plugin a while back. We were very happy with the results then. Though, for the stuff I've been working with lately most JSON APIs are defined by protos, and we just bridge with JsonFormat/ProtoTypeAdapter

</comment><comment><USER15> Json-LD is getting training traction here and there.

<comment><USER8> JSON-LD is not for validation - it's for linked data

<comment><USER15> You can use it more than one way. That's what linked data is all about.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Here you can find JSON schema [http://testingalert.com/api-testing/api- automation/](http://testingalert.com/api-testing/api-automation/)</comment>


Pixel Recursive Super Resolution - <AUTHOR> https://arxiv.org/abs/1702.00783 <comment><USER2> I hate to be a debbie downer but the results don't look particularly great to me. For comparison, see "AffGAN" [1] and "LAPGAN" [2] for better (IMO) super- resolution results using GAN-like techniques. Granted, all three papers are applied in somewhat different settings (different input/output resolutions, different datasets), so direct comparison is difficult.

[1] [https://openreview.net/pdf?id=S1RP6GLle](https://openreview.net/pdf?id=S1RP6GLle)

[2] [https://arxiv.org/abs/1506.05751](https://arxiv.org/abs/1506.05751)

<comment><USER3> Does research always have to yield a result that's better than any other approach? In my understanding it's worthwhile to pursue different ways of approaching a problem even if some of them don't work as well as others (but you don't know that beforehand).

<comment><USER4> Basically, this is a survial law in the academic jungle even if depressing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> It's really cool to see a writeup for this on real-life images. Similar work at Pinterest [http://engineering.flipboard.com/2015/05/scaling- convnets/](http://engineering.flipboard.com/2015/05/scaling-convnets/), for Anime scaling [https://github.com/nagadomi/waifu2x](https://github.com/nagadomi/waifu2x) and for sprite scaling (can't find the reference I'm thinking of).

This tech has been around for several years, and some variation was presented in concert with the Boston Marathon investigation. [https://arstechnica.com/information- technology/2013/05/hallu...](https://arstechnica.com/information- technology/2013/05/hallucinating-a-face-new-software-could-have-idd-boston- bomber/)

(Not clear if this was _used_ as part of the investigation, or if it _could be used_ for future investigations)

<comment><USER6> Kind of alarming to see this being proposed as an investigative tool. Isn't the entire point of this area of image processing that the network is creating _plausible_ information where there _is none?_ That's great for creating higher-resolution versions of entertainment assets, but it would seem categorically inappropriate for forensic science.

<comment><USER7> However, it is possible to extract high-resolution images from multiple frames of low-resolution video.

<comment><USER8> Yep. Happens because the phase of the sampling grid changes on different frames, which effectively increases resolution.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Interesting tid-bit: First author is Ryan Dahl, creator of NodeJS, now a Google Brain Resident.

<comment><USER9> I caught that. I was wondering what ry was up to these days!

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Another recent "super resolution" method (RAISR) from Google Research:

[https://arxiv.org/abs/1606.01299](https://arxiv.org/abs/1606.01299)

[https://research.googleblog.com/2016/11/enhance-raisr- sharp-...](https://research.googleblog.com/2016/11/enhance-raisr-sharp-images- with-machine.html)

>Given an image, we wish to produce an image of larger size with significantly more pixels and higher image quality. This is generally known as the Single Image Super-Resolution (SISR) problem. The idea is that with sufficient training data (corresponding pairs of low and high resolution images) we can learn set of filters (i.e. a mapping) that when applied to given image that is not in the training set, will produce a higher resolution version of it, where the learning is preferably low complexity. In our proposed approach, the run- time is more than one to two orders of magnitude faster than the best competing methods currently available, while producing results comparable or better than state-of-the-art.

>A closely related topic is image sharpening and contrast enhancement, i.e., improving the visual quality of a blurry image by amplifying the underlying details (a wide range of frequencies). Our approach additionally includes an extremely efficient way to produce an image that is significantly sharper than the input blurry one, without introducing artifacts such as halos and noise amplification. We illustrate how this effective sharpening algorithm, in addition to being of independent interest, can be used as a pre-processing step to induce the learning of more effective upscaling filters with built-in sharpening and contrast enhancement effect.

<comment><USER10> BTW, if you're interested in using advanced scaling methods in GPU-accelerated video playback, check out the madVR and MPDN projects:

[http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=146228](http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=146228)

[http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=171120](http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=171120)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Forgive me if I've missed something here, but these where only trained against synthetic images (images that where scaled down using various formula). Due to this, I'd expect this to not work as well as it could on actual images taken by sensors.

Do any datasets even exist where the images are at sensor pixel level?

That way the model would 'know' about imaging effects (I can't think of any specifically mechanical effects that could be in play here right this second) etc?

Or am I way off base here....

<comment><USER12> No, I think you are correct. I think the result for the CelebA dataset is a toy. But many results in this area are toys, e.g. deep dream.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Zoom! Enhance!

[https://youtu.be/LhF_56SxrGk](https://youtu.be/LhF_56SxrGk)

(sorry couldn't help myself)

<comment><USER14> Super enhance!

[http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2qlmuy](http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2qlmuy)

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I wonder, could you craft a shader for tree-foliage from this?

Given the Background, and the leave texture + alpha, instead of rasterizing, anti-aliazing and then using z-baked lightsources and probe reflections to light it semi-correctly, what would a neural net implementation look like?

Would you even notice the mistakes in a constant flickering scenery like this?

</comment><comment><USER16> There seems to be an error on figure 7 in the third row: The face image for "ground truth" is a duplicate of the "Ours" result.

<comment><USER17> Specific observations like this are best forwarded to the authors, who are unlikely to see your (entirely valid) observation here.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Any actual implementations of this (or other superresolution algorithms) to play with?

<comment><USER19> There's the waifu2x project [1] which also uses neural networks for super resolution. There's also the MPDN extensions project [2] which has various kinds of image scaling methods. It depends what kind of algorithms you want to play with really.

[1]: [https://github.com/nagadomi/waifu2x](https://github.com/nagadomi/waifu2x)

[2]: [https://github.com/zachsaw/MPDN_Extensions](https://github.com/zachsaw/MPDN_Extensions)

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Amazing, but also a bit scary. This will surely be used for retroactive identification from existing photographs, and will be a free gift for authoritarian law enforcement. Of course such extrapolative technologies are subject to challenge, but criminal juries have a tendency to accept forensic claims at face value notwithstanding their actual scientific reliability. It's partly because of this that if I ever found myself on trial for a crime I didn't commit I'd probably waive my right to a jury trial - laypeople are far too easily fooled.

<comment><USER20> The results are synthesised/generated - there is no way to use this for face recognition from low res images because the result, while plausible, is not real

<comment><USER17> So what? That's never stopped people before. If it's good enough to be useful, it will be used. that's how things are in the real world.

[http://www.livescience.com/49929-faulty-forensic-science- fai...](http://www.livescience.com/49929-faulty-forensic-science-failing- united-states-court-system.html)

[https://ncforensics.wordpress.com/2013/03/04/thousands-of- ca...](https://ncforensics.wordpress.com/2013/03/04/thousands-of-cases- compromised-due-to-faulty-forensic-analysis/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I wonder if something like this could be used to boost the fidelity of radio signals that are picked up by SDR (software defined radio).

Here are some manual techniques people currently use to hunt signals on SDR.[1] A lot of what they do is visual, and enhanced visual fidelity of potential signals would definitely be a big help, if it worked.

[1] - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fXnwkK2kQI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fXnwkK2kQI)

</comment><comment><USER22> So far I think this has only been optimizied for anime girls [http://waifu2x.udp.jp/](http://waifu2x.udp.jp/)

<comment><USER23> It works surprisingly well for non-anime-styled stuff too. Just about any 2D art with decently-defined edges upscales beautifully.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> They don't have a comparison to GANs which is weird.

</comment><comment><USER25> Imagine how could it would be if this would be implemented in JS and used in website to increase the resolution of low-quality pictures.

</comment><comment><USER4> Techanically, the work should be compared with the well-known GAN SR work cited as [18] in it to show its power.

</comment><comment><USER26> The celeb sets look like nightmare fuel.

</comment><comment><USER20> nice. wish pixelCNN/wavenet wasn't so computationally heavy to train and run

<comment><USER27> We'll have an Intel vs NVidia arms race kicking off this year. And... There are probably some major algorithmic speedups on the table still.

<comment><USER28> Nvidia v AMD, Nvidia will win

Intel doesn't make GPUs.

<comment><USER27> No, but they intend to go head to head on deep learning performance. [https://newsroom.intel.com/news-releases/intel-ai-day- news-r...](https://newsroom.intel.com/news-releases/intel-ai-day-news- release/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Zoom. Enhance.</comment>


If you're black or female, Uber is more likely to overcharge or cancel your ride - <AUTHOR> http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article111636027.html <comment><AUTHOR> Flagged. This post is clearly on-topic, so to me this looks like a classic example of HN suppressing discussion of racism and sexism in the Silicon Valley startup community. I'm curious how it looks to the moderators.

<comment><USER2> Yeah, this is super frustrating and a big part of why the flag system is bad. There are real lessons for people building marketplaces here, but this system keeps them form being discussed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Why does the driver accept the ride if they then cancel it?

</comment><comment><USER4> ever experienced?</comment>


Freakonomics: Touring Gangland - <AUTHOR> http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/08/touring-gangland/

<comment><USER2> "..he'd like to see some early profits send a graffiti "tagger" to art school."

I'm into photographing abandoned buildings, and the graffiti inside them is often incredibly artistic. Too bad that there's no publicly-sanctioned space for these artists to show off their work. Perhaps the illicitness of the process is part of the allure, but I can't imagine working that hard on something that would be seen by few. What's also notable is that, at least to my as a middle-class white guy, most graffiti doesn't seem gang-related. Most of the low-quality stuff probably is, but the good stuff is often something incredible like an abstract city skyline.

<comment><USER3> You might be interested in the Venice Beach public art walls. They are repainted every weekend with high quality "graffiti".

<http://www.veniceartwalls.com/>

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I can't decide if the idea is demeaning or really demeaning. After reading in the linked article that the original plans called for the tourists to be "shot" by local kids with a water pistol and then sold a "I got shot in LA!" T-shirt, I'm not sure that the tour companies' hearts are in the right place... I'm leaning towards really demeaning.

</comment><comment><USER5> Same thing in Belfast. Once it was realised that the 350years of civil war had all been just a silly misunderstanding they started running tours of the murals.

Some of them have to have preservation orders slapped on them to stop developers removing a 30foot high IRA painting to improve house prices. They may even have to start paying people to repaint them as they weather away.

</comment><comment><USER6> In the sidebar, "Sik" means "cool", where cool has magically been promoted to a non-slang word. Or at least to the BBC writer's ears.</comment>


Researchers Track Tricky Payment Theft Scheme - <AUTHOR> http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/11/24/researchers-track-tricky-payment-theft-scheme/?ref=business <comment><USER2> 'The scheme targets point-of-sale systems but relies on malware that goes deep into the machine, to the "kernel level," where antivirus software often does not look'

Jesus H. 'tap dancing' Christ on rollerskates .. is this the state of 'computer' security in the latter half of the year 2015 Anno Domini (1437 Anno Hegirae).</comment>


On Having Balls, Part II: Staying Hungry (2007) - <AUTHOR> http://blog.jhong.org/2007/02/on-having-balls-part-ii-staying-hungry.html

<comment><AUTHOR> Part I: [http://blog.jhong.org/2007/01/do-you-have-balls-to-try- part-...](http://blog.jhong.org/2007/01/do-you-have-balls-to-try-part-i.html)</comment>


Inside an Official GameBoy Dev Cartridge - <AUTHOR> http://hentenaar.com/gb-dev-cart

<comment><USER2> Man, I wish I understood ICs. I should've taken a few EE courses in college.

<comment><USER3> A good reference are the Microchip ANs (Application Notes). They'll tell you all you need to know about a specific IC or technology. They even have an AN about electric motors.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> So how did Nintendo intend you to program this? I believe their official sdk ran on DOS, so was there a ISA card that let you program this?

<comment><USER5> From the site of the company that makes most of Nintendo's dev equipment, there was a gang writer that the cartridge plugged into.

[https://intsys.co.jp/english/tools/index.html](https://intsys.co.jp/english/tools/index.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Those are some of the most visually appealing circuit diagrams I've seen in a long time.</comment>


Dear Reginald - <AUTHOR> http://raganwald.posterous.com/dear-reginald <comment><USER2> I appreciate the perspective and fully agree. I'll admit to being somewhat uncomfortable with all the gushing and deluge of tributes to the memory of someone that yes, accomplished much, inspired many, had great vision and the drive to bring that to fruition. Yet I wonder whether he would be comfortable with this level of adulation. The _why quote was most appropriate and consistent with Jobs' message too, shut up and create.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you.</comment></comment>


Prototype of high-speed maglev train shown to public - <AUTHOR> http://ajw.asahi.com/article/economy/technology/AJ201306030104

<comment><USER2> are there any technical information available how this maglev train differs from the one operating in shanghai?

<comment><USER3> The shanghai one is based on German Transrapid technology, the JR-Maglev is based on their own technology:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JR%E2%80%93Maglev>

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Maglev_Train></comment></comment>


economics: pokerbots and online reputation - <AUTHOR> http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2007/07/singularity_wat_1.html

<comment><USER2> Poker bots are far from a problem yet. They excel at heads up limit hold'em, but as more players enter the table they get progressively worse. Even the best of them can't yet beat a low limit full table.

Eventually they will though. And there will be no real way to stop them. We've got some time, and how much depends on who you ask.

Also, the human vs computer match cited doesn't really mean much, for reasons I'll leave for a poker blog entry.

<comment><USER3> When I heard about poker bots, I thought "oh, I should get one." So I cruised the seedier side of the internet and downloaded one.

Then, I discovered that you had to program the AI yourself!

Matt, if a well-programmed pokerbot is excellent at heads up limit hold'em, what percentage of online limit heads up players do you think are bots or bot- assisted? Can a bot win an average 2/4 game? What about an average 30/60 game?

<comment><USER2> The barrier to entry as far as a bot goes is certainly the AI. Programming the rest is far more doable. The most notable team that has been publishing poker- related AI research is headed by Darse Billings at the University of Alberta. Their bots can be purchased online as a training tool called Poker Academy.

From what I've seen first hand and heard from poker players I respect, the only bot worthwhile is the heads up limit hold'em one. I don't know how far they've come since the Poki I played against, but I doubt that one could have beaten a full $1/$2 game. I'd guess it would break even at $0.50/$1 online.

The short handed bot didn't seem much better. The heads up one, however, could probably trounce anyone who would typically play below $15/$30, and it might even be higher up the scale than that.

To put it in perspective, many very notable winners at the biggest games online used to fear a player who went by Neverlose since they thought he was that bot. You can google for "Neverlose bot" and read all about it.

So at heads up limit I would intuitively suspect there are bots, though to be honest I've played a decent amount of it in the $3/$6 all the way up to $100/$200 range and the vast majority of players at low/mid limits are atrocious. So if there are bots in heads up, they are either poorly designed ones or they are in the higher limits exclusively (which really wouldn't make sense, since there is probably much more money to be made for someone who can play all day every day in the lower limits).

As far as other games go, I suspect bots reside largely in low level sit and goes. I once had a bot breaking even around the $22 level using Winholdem, which at the time only supported min-raise or shove as the bet amounts (no idea what it can do now, I haven't used it in years) and my AI used nothing more than if/then statements. Someone capable of any sort of AI programming more advanced than that could probably beat them handily. Due to some other terrible limitations of WinHold'ems software I never pursued it much further.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I love that blog. Arnold Kling is spot on when he writes about entrepreneurship. Bryan Caplan is as close to a sane anarcho-capitalist as you can come.

At CMU's Robotics Institute a few years ago, a friend made a poker bot that was pretty good. It was for a machine learning class -- but it used a lot of standard techniques like constraints and search. Another guy made a parser to take the screen from a popular online poker system, and input the state into any software you want. The final step -- to automatically make moves and plug- in a simple chat-bot to counter accusations of non-humanity, was not done by them.

I am 100% certain it has been done many, many times. Of course, why would you hear about it in the news?

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't think I really buy into their politics (and this isn't really the forum to use to get into that - write me if you're curious), but they're certainly smart guys and worth reading from time to time.</comment></comment>


Venice Anti-Flood Gates Could Wreck Lagoon Ecosystem - <AUTHOR> https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/venice-anti-flood-gates-could-wreck-lagoon-ecosystem/ <comment><USER2> Link to original article: [https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07372-3](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07372-3)

</comment><comment><USER3> How much to make the buildings float? One by one floats could be added to the buildings and cross connected to prevent individual building tipping.

It will take time and money, but they are already talking about spending big bucks anyway.

<comment><USER4> If sea level rise does ever seriously get out of hand, that is my prediction for parts of Tokyo and New York. I strongly suspect that some coastal cities would rather float than move.

<comment><USER5> New York 2140 is an interesting book examining what might happen to those coastal "drowned" cities, especially those buildings caught in the new intertidal zones.

[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29570143-new- york-2140](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29570143-new-york-2140)

<comment><USER4> That looks interesting, I might grab a copy when I have made a dent in my current pile.

Some architects are already proposing to build floating apartments off the piers in Manhattan - [https://www.dezeen.com/2018/02/09/pier-40-manhattan-new- york...](https://www.dezeen.com/2018/02/09/pier-40-manhattan-new-york-dfa- conceptual-floating-high-rise-apartments/)

<comment><USER5> One kind of nice/kind of weird part of it, is that it's mostly interconnected slices-of-life without a huge overarching plot (though that's not entirely true, either) -- that has made it quite good as a pick-up-put-down book: handy, considering it's length!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Why don't they just build the gates and add some pumps to circulate water between the lagoon and the open ocean?

<comment><USER7> 1) Boats need to enter/exit Venice Laguna

2) Venice Laguna is huge, I don't think that could be feasible

<comment><USER6> The objection in TFA was ecological damage due to de-oxygenation of the water. They don't mention boats as a problem so I'd guess that's taken care of?

As for the size of the laguna, they're talking about walling the whole thing off so some circulation pumps shouldn't be too much of a stretch. Alternately they could install some kind of bubbler system (like a giant version of a fish tank air pump) to keep the water aerated in situ. Again, it's not going to be pocket change but it's an option.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Couldn't the barrier incorporate locks?

<comment><USER9> The barrier is only temporary anyway. But if extreme high tides get worse in the future, then the times that the system would get activated would also increase. That could cause the lagoon to be deprived of oxygen.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Isn't injecting cement under the city massively more damaging to the environment (carbon emissions)?

</comment><comment><USER11> There are lots of lagoons. There's only one Venice. The city is such an important monument to learning and culture that I'd kill every living thing in that lagoon to save the city. I'm a human, and while I want to preserve the environment when possible, ultimately, I have to prefer human interests.

<comment><USER12> When will we learn that if we kill every living thing in the X, we're probably going to regret it later... Maybe the lagoon acidifies and dissolves piers, maybe algae blooms produce toxic gas, who knows.

<comment><USER11> > When will we learn that if we kill every living thing in the X, we're > probably going to regret it later

Never, because it's not true. You haven't convinced me that there's anything wrong with my proposal.

<comment><USER13> From my perspective your proposal is at least valid. But it's really quite subjective. Personally I've never really cared for the value we put on landmarks and historic sites. Let it become a sunken city and sell submarine tours.

Of course that's my subjective opinion as well.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: How to get the first 10 users? - <AUTHOR>

After doing a small launch last night for adsreloaded.com I received a few hits but no sign-ups. You often hear on HN that you need to focus on the first 10 users... then maybe you can reach for the first 100 etc. So my question is whats the best way to get those first 10 users? (Or even better the first 10 power users).
In my particular case I would like to target iPhone developers first to get a few on board before I start hitting the gas on attracting regular users so its an odd situation, but any general advice on getting users is appreciated.
Do people find discounts, direct email, a paid search campaign, or something else entirely the most beneficial for early stage signups? <comment><USER3> Drive some initial traffic with these sites, in descending order of effectiveness:

<http://feedmyapp.com>

<http://killerstartups.com>

<http://listio.com>

<http://saasdir.com>

<http://appuseful.com>

<http://netwebapp.com>

<http://getapp.com>

The top two are the most effective by a long shot, but the others will get you some visits. Best of all, these tend to drive useful traffic, not garbage. All are free, but you need to have a legit site (which you do).

<comment><AUTHOR> Excellent! Thanks for the links I will definitely submit my site... hopefully other people will find them useful too :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'm an iPhone developer, and I'm smack-dab in the center of your target market - just like drewcrawford.I actually had the same business idea that you're working on about 5 months ago, and decided not to pursue it. I love HN, so I'll share the design of my system/the thinking behind it.

The problem to me is that you're asking developers to partake in (at least on the face value) ROI negative advertising. There's actually nothing wrong with ROI negative ads, iff they deliver network effects that make the ads ROI positive over time or the lifetime value of a user is more than the price of the app. We (developers) d*mn well know that natural network effects are not strong enough to make ROI positive when Apple is taking 30% of the pie each time. And for most iPhone Apps, the lifetime value of a user is that $.99 cents that the user pays when they buy the app. So there are very few iPhone apps who your current system can benefit. Because there's very few apps you can help, you're unlikely to get any traffic at all unless you're already famous/ willing to spend a ton on ads.

The solution is to embrace social networks and understand that sometimes, people need to pay for the stuff they're getting.Less cryptically: 1)Integrate with facebook connect and twitter.

2)Require users to send a status message to both, effectively endorsing the app you're giving away to their friends. This solves your network issue as best you can (and it's how they'll be paying you).

3)Instead of holding regular sales of apps, go the groupon route, where the sale is almost a game, and the paid app that people can get for free changes regularly. This way you can get people to tweet/update about your app, and if you don't get the developer say 1000 downloads, you can say that the sale failed, and give out no refunds for the app purchases. This would entice users to seriously get their friends to download the app through your link (or however you track CPM). Be sure to keep track of your users (and their referrals) email addresses, so you can update them every 4 or so days with your new app that you're giving away.

4)Stop trying to sell your site as "earning money", and instead sell it as "get paid apps free". The difference in the psychology of the users that you'll attract will be HUGE.Plus nobody wants to earn 20cents per hour, but people would spend the same time to save $1.

5)I would start this business with the top 10 apps in the appstore, and without their permission. For this to work, you'll need about $3000, but it'll almost guarantee your success. People already know these apps, so you're lending their legitimacy to yourself by giving them away. I would also send a post to techcrunch (& etc) in advance about how you're "giving the appstore away for free" - they love apple and would love to write about you, especially if you send them something with a sensationalist headline like I just wrote. You could give away doodleJump, then angry birds, then .... And go down the list. If you want more of my research/ more tips for success in this business, email me: stephen at brownianm.com

<comment><USER4> Oh, and by the time you're talking to devs who want to sign up, you will have a significant list of people who download anything you put in front of them- and that contact/email list is going to be your power-play.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm an iPhone developer and I'm actively spending money advertising an underperforming app. So I'm dead set inside your target market.

I clicked around a bit on your site, but I don't really understand how it works for developers. Say I hand you $25. How many downloads will I get? How much of that $25 goes in your pocket? Will consumers really take $.20 to download a $.99 app? You compare your service to adwords and other advertising. Is there the potential here to make more than I spend, or is this more of a "brand awareness" thing with murky returns?

Looking at the 1.5 paragraphs for developers on your site I really don't get it. All I need is something that says "spend $25 and get X downloads on a $.99 app". I don't see why you couldn't find room for that sentence.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the feedback let me right out a paragraph here and see if it explains better:

adsReloaded is all about getting downloads. Let's say you have a 0.99 cent app and decide you want to spend about $25 dollars on advertising. For paid apps the price you pay users is at least the price of the app (so for a 0.99 cent app the minimum payout to a user is 0.99).

Since your budget is about $25 dollars you take the CPD (cost per download = 0.99 in this case) and multiply it by the number of new users you want (let's say 20). This puts your total advertising purchase at $19.80. I take 25% (added to this number) + the price of one download (to moderate the campaign/test to make sure the question is correct). So the total campaign price for 20 users follows this equation: 19.80 + 4.95 (the 25% I take) + 0.99 (price of app) = $25.75

This $25.75 will get you 20 new users. Granted you will make back .70 cents per user so really it will cost you $25.75 - 14 (your profit) = $11.75 for 20 new users.

This may be murky brand awareness to you but I think there is also a "word of mouth" marketing piece here as well... and if you push it hard possibly even extra downloads from moving up the app ranking lists.

Does this help explain more?

<comment><USER6> Do I have this straight? Someone who can't get users is selling a service where he tries to get other people users. There may be a problem here.

Also the sample numbers you provide has the developer losing $11.75 out of pocket for the honor of acquiring 20 new users. Given that the developer is trying to make money, this doesn't seem like a great deal. (Even worse, with the quoted figures you could buy 20 copies of the app for yourself, and walk away $4.95 richer. All of the mindshare etc benefits the developer is hoping for wouldn't apply in that case.)

<comment><AUTHOR> I didn't say that... I did relatively well (8k total for a small quotes app) I merely stated that I always had trouble getting blog writeups.

I understand that this doesn't seem like a great deal, my question to you is how much money are people using a service such as admob losing in order to acquire users (Are you able to acquire 20 new users for 11.75 for an app priced at 0.99?)? I have seem some pretty terrible conversion rates (although feel free to point me in another direction if you feel this assumption is misguided).

Yes there is a certain level of trust as well.. but hopefully the site will grow and this trust will be established. I'm not out here to make a quick buck by swindling developers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Perhaps I'm misunderstanding your site, but when I looked at it yesterday, you're looking for people to download and execute iPhone apps, and get paid a small sum for doing so, correct?

If that's the case, who is your target audience? It sure wasn't me, because my time is more valuable than that-- you'd have to raise your rates by several orders of magnitude before I'd be interested. Which is also why I don't spend my time on the Mechanical Turk.

But, it seems to me that the people who do so are the kind of people you might be interested in. So, if that's the case, why not spend some money there on testing/market research?

In other words, pay people (via MTurk) to test out your service (which will involve them also getting paid). In exchange for the "extra" MTurk money, you can ask them a few questions about how well the service worked, and where they think it should be advertised.

And, if it works well, I wouldn't be surprised if some of them become repeat users, even outside of MTurk.

<comment><AUTHOR> You're understanding of the site is correct, at least from the user perspective (non app developer).

How far would the rates need to be raised for you to be interested? The reasoning behind my current price structure is that I often find myself aimlessly wandering the app store and eventually download a few free apps and usually get suckered into a paid app. My site (assuming it grows) would provide a way to aimlessly get exposure to apps and either get paid a small sum for trying out a free app, or get a paid app for free.

All in all though I think your idea of MTurk has merits and will certainly be checking into this option.

<comment><USER8> So your audience is people who are willing to fill out forms and try random crappy apps for 20 cents / hour... and who have iPhones.

Good luck!

<comment><AUTHOR> hahaha certainly seems a little ridiculous put this way :)

In all seriousness though .20 cents an hour is quite low. While free apps certainly don't pay out much getting a paid app for essentially nothing is a sweet deal (at least in my mind perhaps I'm wrong).

Developers putting their apps onto users devices and users (who might not normally download apps) trying out new and exciting technologies while making a little spare change doesn't seem to hurt anyone, in fact I'm banking on the fact that people will find value in the service.

<comment><USER8> My advice: Don't even mention the $.10 minimum. Your sell is only possibly "try paid apps for free." Paying nothing is better than paying out $.10 - <USER2> cheapens your service.

And this would be so much better if you could avoid cash transactions in the first place, and somehow just allow free app downloads.

<comment><AUTHOR> Point taken. I am currently iterating on the landing page so I'll try out a few different variances that don't mention the .10 cents deal.

Maybe I'll even try and find some relatively cheap A/B testing software, that would be a fantastic resource. Anyone know of any?

I'm assuming you mean "free app downloads" as in paid apps just downloaded for free? This would be very nice... sadly I can't seem to think of a way without a deep partnership with apple and the app store.

<comment><USER9> Google WebSite Optimizer does A/B testing and is free. You have to have AdWords account though. I recommend you to create AdWords account anyway and try to advertise your service that way. You would have to spend some money, but not much, and the time you would save would probably worth it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> "Ask HN: Review my startup" :)

</comment><comment><USER11> You're getting a lot of feedback on the product... I'm going to give you some feedback on the site itself. I'm not a designer, but there's a few things that stood out to me when I clicked on your website.

First, there's too much text. The text is overpowering me. I forget where, but there was an article/blog post a week or so that I read, which effectively said:

1\. Assume your readers can't read

2\. Assume even if they can read, they won't.

This means that ideally your site should be almost self explanatory. Diagrams > Words if you need to choose. If you can illustrate to me how it works, you're doing way better than having me read it.

Next, your choice of color is bad. Nothing really stands out except "by trying apps on your iPhone". That is to say:

"Earn money" doesn't stand out. Login doesn't stand out, and neither does Register...

Next, in the "Get paid to try apps" paragraph, the color scheme isn't "crisp", it's a bit hard to read IMO.

"Are you a developer?" Why yes I am! But holy-moly, that font is fine and i'm not even at the fine print yet! Don't try to squeeze so much text onto your website :)

Next thing that stood out to me, is the >> Login/Register buttons. They have this odd white color to them on the left side and the top sides. It makes them feel like they were poorly photoshopped, and even though it's tiny (pixel wise), it's super noticable to me

Finally, you really have no "call to action". I arrive to your page, and I don't know where to click next. This is mostly because your Register button blends in with everything else. I'd probably make the registration red here to contrast with everything else (others may disagree, but I think the color needs to change). Forget about the login button. your battle is against people clicking the back button when they first arrive. If they register, you've essentially got them to buy in. They'll find where to login :) (you can put it in the corner, or anywhere else really).

I hope this is useful, good luck! :)

edit: cleaned up my thoughts a little bit...

</comment><comment><USER12> Just some aesthetic advice ... your site feels "heavy" and somewhat dated.

Try changing the content area to use a white background, and brighten up the header and footer. The colors you use on the forum section of the site are closer to what I'd aim for.

</comment><comment><USER13> You might need to buy advertising to get your ad network going.

Two nits if I may:

1\. Instead of saying "adsreloaded.com is changing the way online advertising works", you might try "adsreloaded.com is about to change". The former sounds like you are trying to sound much bigger than you are at the moment. At least it did to me.

2\. The blurb in the bottom bar is unusually designed. At first glance I thought it was a testimonial, but I'm not sure now.

Edit: why not try advertising in the new Hacker Monthly magazine? Print subscriptions are at 4K or so now, PDF are probably way higher and it's reaching a lot of developers and bloggers.

<comment><AUTHOR> An ironic twist of fate haha

1) Agreed... I probably should try and sound like I'm 8 feet tall while still an infant.

2) The design slants it as a testimonial... but seeing as the service just launched I don't particularly have those yet. This will probably be changed soon

Edit: fantastic idea... sending e-mail to inquiry about ads now :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Ideally you should of had 10 customers lined up before you even started building anything. Draw upon friends and family -- you'll need close relationships with your few first customers to know where you went wrong and get continuous feedback.

Direct email/direct mail/paid search are all going to get you a high bounce rate and very few customers. Save yourself some money and network with people who might be interested in your service.

<comment><AUTHOR> This seems to be part of my problem. In order to get the ball rolling I need some iPhone app developers to buy into the service. My family network doesn't have any developers, although I know 1 or 2 friends who might be interested. I definitely plan to leverage my friends/family network to get users; however, this seems to be after the stage of getting the first 10 dev customers.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> 1\. Ask friends and family

2\. Using Google Alerts, find people speaking about stuff related to your website and leave comments

3\. Find the most popular forums for your target users

4\. Find the most popular blogs for you target users

5\. Join directories as mentioned by @damoncali

6\. Follow what is being said in Twitter

7\. Look for LinkedIn and Facebook groups

I wrote about it yesterday on my blog: [http://aymeric.gaurat.net/index.php/2010/tips-to-kick- start-...](http://aymeric.gaurat.net/index.php/2010/tips-to-kick-start-the- traffic-of-your-new-user-generated-content-website/)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Thanks everyone for all of the pushback on my idea so far it has been a very constructive day for me as I continue to iterate on my product. (Thanks HN :) )

I am a little confused on one point though and am hoping that some iPhone developers can give first hand accounts. What kind of returns are you guys receiving on adMob/Quattro/whatever ads? The iPhone developers I have spoken too have had dismal returns (<10 downloads for a 50 dollar campaign) and this was one of the problems I was hoping to help solve with adsReloaded.

Do any of you mind sharing your campaign numbers?

</comment><comment><USER16> apperang.com pays users the price of the app plus a small incentive ~25cents to download iPhone apps. I have used this to discover many new applications.

</comment><comment><USER17> I think you should reach out to iPhone and apps bloggers.

Improving your landingpage will also lead to more signups I think. Use some images to communicate in a visual way what adsreloaded does. The text is also not very clear. To me it is all much more a testing environment for app developers than a new way to advertise apps.

</comment><comment><USER18> Forums and meetups. Find places where your target market congregates and show up there. Participate in the conversation without being spammy (ideally, you started doing this already). Ask for feedback on your product and maybe toss in a special coupon code for members of that forum/group.

</comment><comment><USER19> Have you tried identifying the users elsewhere and reaching about by tweet / e-mail?

<comment><AUTHOR> I haven't although I plan to do some direct e-mail later tonight. Has this been effective for you?

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Friends and family?</comment>


Printing tiny, high-precision objects - <AUTHOR> https://actu.epfl.ch/news/printing-tiny-high-precision-objects-in-a-matter-o/ <comment><USER2> This actually feels like the future. So much stuff comes out that's like "ok, that's cool", but it's really not that fast or great, and yes I know this isn't close to out, but even the demo is like wow! And the medical applications! It's nice to be genuinely excited once in awhile!

</comment><comment><USER3> Neat. These optical techniques work wonders. I have really liked the various 2-photon based techniques. [https://3dprintingindustry.com/news/nanoscribe- introduces-qu...](https://3dprintingindustry.com/news/nanoscribe-introduces- quantum-x-a-two-photon-3d-printer-for-microoptics-157656/)

(for example)

2 photon techniques tend to have much higher resolution than noted here. This seems a technique for devices on the macroscale, as compared to the 100nm sorts of resolution for the 2PA based systems.

</comment><comment><USER4> > "The system is currently capable of making two-centimeter structures with a > precision of 80 micrometers, "

Ok, fine and dandy but then:

> "Interior design could be a potentially lucrative market for the new > printer."

... I guess these people are really into the "tiny houses" thing.

<comment><USER5> Yeah. I have a standard 200mm edge-length-cube printer, and I find it just a little small for functional designs. Something around 1ft to 18" would be nice. I don't mind waiting a few days for a print if it all comes out in one solid piece.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> This doesn't have the bed adhesion issues that SLA and DLP printers have, so much more delicate structures can be built. So it will be perfect for constructing microtubial networks that form the support structures for growing biological material. If used to make soft robots with embedded sensors, we could construct artificial coral. Measuring is affecting, is constructing.

3d printing is currently on the human scale of "can I hold it, and interact with it", while scaling up will eventually enable us to 3d print buildings and megastructures, scaling down will enable intelligent matter.

</comment><comment><USER7> My Anycubic photon has a resolution of 47 microns and can be had for less than $300.

[https://www.anycubic.com/products/anycubic- photon-3d-printer](https://www.anycubic.com/products/anycubic- photon-3d-printer)

I have 3 of them and regularly print objects just like the one in the article, smaller even.

</comment><comment><USER8> This is really neat, but the real breakthrough in 3D printing, to me, is: My co-worker recently got a pretty good 3D printer for under $200.

<comment><USER9> Which model? I'm in the market myself and interested to know what's good to buy under $500.

<comment><USER10> Get yourself an Ender 3. [https://www.amazon.com/Official-Creality-3D-Printer- Source/d...](https://www.amazon.com/Official-Creality-3D-Printer- Source/dp/B07D218NX3)

If you want resin, check out the Elegoo Mars. [https://www.amazon.com/ELEGOO- Photocuring-Printer-Off-line-P...](https://www.amazon.com/ELEGOO-Photocuring- Printer-Off-line-Printing/dp/B07K3SH9Y7)

<comment><USER11> $240?! The manufacturer sells it for $175.

[https://www.creality3d.shop/products/creality- ender-3-3d-pri...](https://www.creality3d.shop/products/creality- ender-3-3d-printer-economic-ender-diy-kits-with-resume-printing-function-v- slot-prusa-i3-220x220x250mm)

<comment><USER12> It seems that isn't the official website: [https://old.reddit.com/r/ender3/comments/a219ol/do_not_buy_f...](https://old.reddit.com/r/ender3/comments/a219ol/do_not_buy_from_wwwcreality3dshop_it_is_not_the/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Finally, something gamechanging around here and not blogspam about making a JS library 1% faster.</comment>


Basecamp Built a $100B Business by Doing Less on Purpose - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/the-mission/how-basecamp-built-a-100-billion-business-by-doing-less-on-purpose-5f978ce6478c <comment><USER2> Oh my god this has to be a troll, right? Basecamp was just kidding. They're probably not even a $1B business. They made some great tech but this is very misleading.

</comment><comment><USER3> I honestly wish HackerNews would just eliminate certain sources of links. Medium and YouTube would be a great start.

Or at least make it that if someone on HN doesn't have a karma score of 100 or something, then they can't submit links from those two sites and a handful of others. There has to be a cutoff that aligns with some measure of common sense. Or maybe the operators of HN are just thrilled to get as much UGC as possible, even if they are crappy links that detract from otherwise healthy use of the site.

I don't click on any article posted at Medium no matter how "important" it might seem.

FWIW, the reference to BaseCamp being worth $100 billion is from a 2015 post by Friedman mocking the whole "valuation" concept by allowing a few people to invest a $1 in Basecamp at some micro percentage of shares.

It is here: [https://m.signalvnoise.com/press-release-basecamp- valuation-...](https://m.signalvnoise.com/press-release-basecamp-valuation- tops-100-billion-after-bold-vc-investment/)

Hopefully no one would actually scan that headline and believe it without reading it. That would be rather ignorant of money. Basecamp is a tiny company and only a few companies in the world are "worth" $100 billion.

The fun of Medium and YouTube. Links to Twitter and Reddit ought to be excluded too. If we wanted to follow the fluff on those services, we can sign up there and do so. HN ought to be reserved for independent blogs, tech announcements, company dev blogs, funding and innovation news from reliable sources, and random oddball stuff.</comment>


Ask HN: If life is just a short period of time between birth and dead? - <AUTHOR> If life is just a short period of time between birth and dead, why do we bother so much instead of living the life to its fullest? Modern education system might be all wrong. Do we need a complete new approach to the way of living? <comment><USER2> I'm in. Please distribute all the life supporting resources and ready to hustle on beach between birth and dead. :-)

Do we need a complete new approach to the way of living? Yes!!!

</comment><comment><USER3> We "bother so much" when our needs (or values) are not met. We also get bothered a lot when the needs of people we care about are not met.

Notice that most people whose needs are met don't "bother so much".

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm happy for you that you found your purpose in life in caring for someone. Imagine the world where everyone is cared for so that there is no need for your care. What would you do?

<comment><USER3> :) Nothing too interesting. Probably snooze by the sea with close access to good food, good books and certain people I care about.

<comment><AUTHOR> And this might be the moment where you discover who you really are. The first step to unleash your true potential.

<comment><USER3> So you are saying the Matrix script should have had Keanu just heading to the beach, and not being thrown into one adventure after another, to discover himself? hmm...that would have made an interesting movie.

<comment><AUTHOR> The brightest minds of this world did have time to concentrate on and to develop their creativity :) Though it's your life and therefore you have to decide what to do with it. Caring for someone might be a better choice then not doing anything at all.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Perhaps Buddhism might provide a solution? [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism#The_cycle_of_rebirth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism#The_cycle_of_rebirth)

</comment><comment><USER5> On a serious note, yes. The education spin gets to be a monster of its own topic but education and academia is certainly in need of reform.

</comment><comment><USER6> Try living life to its fullest without money.</comment>


Free software that is impractical to redistribute, isn't (Canonical IP policy) - <AUTHOR> http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/38467.html <comment><AUTHOR> From [1]:

"Any redistribution of modified versions of Ubuntu must be approved, certified or provided by Canonical if you are going to associate it with the Trademarks. Otherwise you must remove and replace the Trademarks and will need to recompile the source code to create your own binaries."

So now I don't understand why anyone bothers building Ubuntu-derived docker images... perhaps that's the intent?

[1] [http://www.ubuntu.com/legal/terms-and- policies/intellectual-...](http://www.ubuntu.com/legal/terms-and- policies/intellectual-property-policy)

<comment><USER2> Basically, you cannot distribute a modified ubuntu and call it ubuntu. Makes sense from a trademark perspective.

As an aside: Early on, we ran afoul of this for the official image on Docker Hub and the folks at Canonical were pretty professional in helping us get back on track. Great experience all around.

<comment><USER3> > Basically, you cannot distribute a modified ubuntu and call it ubuntu. Makes > sense from a trademark perspective.

This _might_ be the policy. The fact that the policy is -from a legal standpoint- at odds with what people informally claim that the policy says is the matter at issue. From the article:

'The issue here is the apparently simple phrase "you must remove and replace the Trademarks and will need to recompile the source code". "Trademarks" is defined later as being the words "Ubuntu", "Kubuntu", "Juju", "Landscape", "Edubuntu" and "Xubuntu" in either textual or logo form. ... The naive interpretation of this is that you have to remove trademarks where they'd be infringing ... [b]ut that's not what the policy actually says. It insists that all trademarks be removed, whether they would embody an infringement or not. If a README says "To build this software under Ubuntu, install the following packages", a literal reading of Canonical's policy would require you to remove or replace the word "Ubuntu" even though failing to do so wouldn't be a trademark infringement. If an @ubuntu.com email address is present in a changelog, you'd have to change it. You wouldn't be able to ship the juju-core package without renaming it and the application within. ...

This seems like a pretty ludicrous interpretation, but it's one that Canonical refuse to explicitly rule out.'

MJG -and others- have _repeatedly_ asked Ubuntu representatives for _official_ , binding clarification regarding Canonical's IP policy. Their requests either are ignored, they are pointed to a _non-binding_ , _informal_ blog post written by a community manager (rather than a Canonical lawyer), or they are met with a promise to follow up that goes inevitably unfulfilled.

Edit: Here is an interesting comment thread that -might be- related to my point: [http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/38467.html?thread=1474883#cmt147...](http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/38467.html?thread=1474883#cmt1474883) (assuming that the anon is _actually_ a Canonical employee, rather than a troll who's out to muddy the issue).</comment></comment></comment>


ScrollerJS - 60 FPS Scroller for the Web - <AUTHOR> http://scrollerjs.com/ Building an endless 60 FPS scroller for the web. Talk and look behind the curtain of scrollerjs(.com) implementation can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAOPi9C8674 <comment><AUTHOR> Building an endless 60 FPS scroller for the web. Talk and look behind the curtain of scrollerjs(.com) implementation can be found here: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAOPi9C8674](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAOPi9C8674)

</comment><comment><USER2> Can we make this a module for angular.js?</comment>


Ask HN: Chrome New Tab with 6 Tiles? - <AUTHOR>

Has anyone else noticed this behavior?  It is driving me insane.  When I open a blank new tab I am given the usual screen, but I am shown 6 tiles of my most visited sites instead of 8.<p>Here's a screenshot: http://imgur.com/gMgU6y6 <comment><USER2> I'm getting that same thing too! Not sure what's going on.</comment>


Stanford CS Education Library (2001) - <AUTHOR> http://cslibrary.stanford.edu/ <comment><USER2> Ah yes, when the only two languages that mattered were C and perl :-).

I find it helpful to maintain perspective with "CS" then and now. Many older engineering professions have a 'base class' (to abuse the phrase) and then many sub-classes. For example, there are the basics for Electrical Engineering, but then there are generally specialization areas where people can spend their entire careers (RF, Power, Digital Logic, Electromagnetics, etc).

And back at the turn of the century there was pretty much only one "CS" discipline, it was heavy on math, data structures, and language and systems design. The more informal sub-areas were probably OS programming (often called Systems programming), language design, and "Data processing" (which subsumes data base design and use). We have since added many more, networks, web applications, and embedded systems to name a few.

We also have "trade" programmers (some folks call them 'CRUD'[1] programmers but that seems a bit derogatory to me) that is more closely associated to Electricians than say Electrical Engineers. They play a vital role in businesses everywhere but realistically don't need all the Math and such that typical CS programs require to do a good job.

[1] CRUD - Create Read Update Delete type applications ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Create,_read,_update_and_delet...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Create,_read,_update_and_delete))

</comment><comment><USER3> Dead Link Checker:

whole site: [http://cslibrary.stanford.edu/](http://cslibrary.stanford.edu/) 100% scanned - 116/116 URLs checked, 98 OK, 18 failed

root page: [http://cslibrary.stanford.edu/](http://cslibrary.stanford.edu/) 100% scanned - 28/28 URLs checked, 24 OK, 4 failed

18 dead links on single-page site with 4 dead on the homepage. I'm curious what's the threshold of dead links for considering a site "abandoned."

<comment><USER4> FWIW the Binky Pointer videos are available on Youtube.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i49_SNt4yfk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i49_SNt4yfk)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Why is this being posted? I suppose it's interesting from a historical perspective, for what is available. This is so far removed from modern CS Ed that it's an interesting little time capsule, I guess.

<comment><USER6> Pointers, linked lists, and trees are fundamental concepts. Even though many CS programs have moved away from C and C++ for their intro-level courses, there is still a need to teach how dynamically-allocated data structures are implemented in memory. Even if beginning CS students are not exposed to pointers in their first or second CS class, they will be exposed to pointers eventually in many CS programs, either when they take a course on basic computer organization and assembly, or when they take a course on systems programming.

Also, Stanford's guides are very well written. I remember learning pointers from these guides when I was learning C nearly 15 years ago as a high school senior. I still have the copy of K&R that I bought back then; it is very worn out now.

<comment><USER5> I mean, obviously. No one's going to seriously advocate removing systems programming from the core introductory sequence of undergraduate CS degrees. The learning objectives are still relevant, I meant the materials themselves are old.

</comment></comment></comment><comment> dfeojm-zlib There oughta be a visual/conceptual explanation textbook for Rust borrowing, traits and types because some of it is confusing and/or ambiguous.</comment>


Ask HN: What does gmail do when showing the "Loading" screen? - <AUTHOR> I'm curious if anybody has investigated this.  It seems like (a) it should be unnecessary to have a loading screen at all for a mostly static page, (b) even for a lazy-loaded dynamic page there shouldn't be all that much involved in loading your last 100 emails, and (c) it's the antithesis of google to make things unnecessarily slow (okay debatable, but most of the time speed seems like a primary concern for google). <comment><USER2> Gmail is anything but static. Once it loads all the scripts and your email data, it doesn't reload the page, it's almost a one-page app. You can do all kinds of things - search, compose, send, label, chat, receive video calls, make phone calls, etc.

I will agree with one thing though - they could make the initial inbox loading faster, much faster, but you would be limited to just that.

<comment><USER3> Yeah. If you want to see what that feels like, turn on the Basic HTML version. It loads instantly, then has to reload as you click around the app.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I wish there was a chrome plugin that kept all of the scripts and data for your gmail/gcal accounts stored and, when you actually went to that url, would intercept that request.

<comment><USER5> I wish they would profile users based on the most commonly used features and data segments and load those first, and the rest asynchronously.</comment></comment>