My outdated Computer Science degree: Was it a waste of time? - <AUTHOR> http://blog.calbucci.com/2011/04/my-outdated-computer-science-degree-was.html

<comment><USER2> My university's CS curriculum didn't teach us to use any technologies at all, besides extremely basic Unix and C++. If you wanted to build anything outside of GCC then it was up to you. And you still had to figure out how to set up makefiles on your own.

CS isn't about learning technologies. It's about learning the math and science behind computation theory. You don't learn things like Visual Studio 2010 or how to set up an EC2 instance or how to build iPhone apps. You learn how to build a compiler, the data structures behind file- and operating-systems, and networking fundamentals (among many other things of course) so that you can then learn specific technologies on your own.

If you know why TCP was invented and the core networking stack, and you know what a compiler is and how it does its magic, and when to use a linked list instead of a dictionary, then you have the tools to figure out how to build an iPhone app--or how to use any other computer technology--on your own time.

Edit: I also want to add that CS does change, and learning networking or something like RDBMS theory might not have been common 10 or 20 years ago. But there's few fields worth learning that don't change in that sort of timespan. Core CS principles do change, but probably not much slower or faster than things like physics or medicine. You probably wouldn't argue that a physics degree is worthless because 10 years ago they didn't teach the Higgs Boson (or whatever, I'm not a physicist :) )

</comment><comment><USER3> "Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes."

\--Dijkstra

I think half of my CS curriculum in college was done as pencil & paper assignments. Logic, algorithmic analysis, and the like. You learn enough "computer stuff" to be able to use it as a vehicle for learning how to _think_.

We learned enough of Java in CS101 to explain abstract data types, encapsulation, invariants, etc. We learned enough C++ to explore OO design by patterns. We learned enough assembly to explore low level stuff like how a call stack actually works. We learned enough Lisp to explore language concepts. And so forth.

Anything else, well, that was yours to learn in an internship, or on the side with whatever project you want to do to explore it. And employability after graduation was pretty much correlated to how willing you were to work harder than what was required in coursework.

<comment><USER4> Sounds like mine too. Also sounds like any decent program. I'm not sure why people expect college to produce you with every skill you'd ever need in a job. College is supposed to give you the ability to learn those skills and point you in the right direction.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Algorithm analysis, graph theory, information theory, higher order logic, number theory, and problem solving (et al) haven't changed much in a while. I realize in the article he points out specific technological stuff but a good CS program _uses_ technology to drive home larger principles and ideas. I don't think CS degrees will be outdated any time soon.

<comment><USER6> Agreed, it's specifically because his early 90's education didn't focus on VB6, perl, and Gopher but rather logic and math that it is still relevant.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> The problem is that most people in academic computer science programs really want to learn software engineering. The related problem is that most employers want to hire software engineers rather than computer scientists.

<comment><USER8> If you could create good software engineers without teaching CS, someone would be getting rich doing that. There are many people who know CS and are not good software engineers, but I have never met a good software engineer who didn't know CS.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> _Contrary to other degrees like English, History, Law, Civil Engineering, Biology, Dentistry, Medicine and many others, in Computer Science what you learning is not necessarily augmenting previous learning, but replacing it._

What a complete load of shit. People in technology _love_ to reinvent the wheel, mostly because they don't know someone already did that wheel about 8 times. It's very rare to find an idea that is completely new and unique.

</comment><comment><USER10> Remember, "computer science" is not the same as learning specific technologies. You may not learn the ins and outs a specific codec, but you should understand signal processing and maybe even some coding theory. (This isn't a rebuttal to the author, who clearly understands this.)

Also, at the risk of repeating myself, CS != IT.

</comment><comment><USER11> Computer Science involves neither Computers nor Science - and that's not a bad thing, at all.

On the contrary, the mathematical, logical, and algorithmic underpinnings generalize to all sorts of issues, which apply at all scales of computation. Algorithms for governance? Traffic planning? Applications in other sciences (e.g. biology, medicine, etc)? Yep - all of these. The concepts are completely agnostic to the computational substrate, and I don't think this is going to become obsolete any time soon.

For what it's worth, I'll unpack my first sentence a little more, which is admittedly inaccurate due to its absoluteness. I did take several CS classes that actually involved computers, but a surprising amount of the learning took place during lecture, and every test I ever took was written on paper.

As for "science," I am really riffing on empiricism. the closest CS gets is writing inductive proofs, but this is very different from the empirical underpinnings of other sciences, which tend to rely on statistical inference instead of induction as the primary tool for discovering "truth." ...which is yet another reason why CS is valuable.

<comment><USER12> Several years ago I came to the conclusion that Computer Science is basically a narrow discipline of advanced "applied" mathematics, and I have always found that the best way to describe it.

<comment><USER13> Perhaps in an academic sense, but in terms of actual usage it's one of the biggest, no?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Good job the doctor running my treatment stays up to date with modern techniques instead of bemoaning the age of her qualification.

The degree should teach you the techniques to manage your own learning. It is a piece of paper that certifies you can work by yourself or in groups on non trivial tasks, with insight and advice from a more experiences peer.

The majority of my lecturers at university were behind the latest technology, so how could they teach them.

</comment><comment><USER15> I graduated from a pretty good CS program in 2007 without having ever written a single line of HTML, CSS, or javascript. I also didn't use a database at any point in my college classes. I know that computer science is supposed to be about theory, but that theory should be taught with relevant technologies.

I learned exactly one thing in college that has helped me as a professional programmer. That is that I enjoy programming. Everything else I learned through internships, freelancing, and side-projects.

<comment><USER16> I definitely didn't write any HTML, CSS, or javascript in college, but I feel like I use algorithmic analysis stuff from there at least once an hour. Data structure stuff I use a bit less often, because I'm usually just using what I've been given by some framework - but if I have some huge bizarre piece of state that I'm passing around, knowing how to structure it or find what I want in it efficiently comes in handy.

Those things were a bit of a terror to learn in class, whereas the basics of HTML took a day or two, the basics of CSS took a good week or two to completely get my head around, and the worst part about javascript was getting my head around a C looking language that didn't behave at all like C. All of this was stuff I couldn't help picking up because I had to complete projects for money. Understanding how a O(n log n) algorithm looked or how fast something was going to fill up all of my ram would not have been something I learned on my own without years of experience of benchmarking and debugging, without school.

edit: I do share the experience of the author of not using any language that I used in college, since college. That's certainly not the fault of the languages, C++ and Java, which are still probably the most widely used outside of the web (well, servlets, but I hated Java.) But if it had been a .NET college teaching me how to automate Excel, I may have killed myself, though I have collected paychecks for doing just that, since.

<comment><USER15> In a sense I have the same experience as you. I regularly use little bits of the theory we studied in college, except that I only understand that theory because it was re-taught to me by more experienced programmers at my internships/jobs. Nothing I learned in college really stuck because it wasn't taught with any context or application. Computer science was part of the engineering department at my school, so I think it's reasonable for me to expect at least some understanding of how the theory relates to real-world situations.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> If you view a computer science degree, as teaching you particular sub- technologies (eg: CORBA, HTTP, etc), then sure, it is inevitable that one thinks of a CS degree as a time-limited paper slip.

This is the very definition of vocational training.

But there is so much more to computer science, and technology than vocational training. I hate to say it, but your math classes and algorithm analysis classes? They were some of the most important classes you took. Even classes like compilers are not invalid, even though we dont quite build compilers in the same way as the dragon book says we should. But some things are the same, and the nature of them does not change as fast as people think. For example, parsing has a number of approaches, but they are all inter-related, and learning about one in depth lets you understand why that approach is not ideal or what kinds of tradeoffs one is making.

Another example... as much as operating systems have evolved, many aspects of them just .. have... not ... changed. EG: IPC in modern Unix systems. Pretty much all the same as 1995 (the first year I coded sockets).

This is pretty much the general education vs vocational argument all over again.

</comment><comment><USER13> I recall a friend 20 years ago talking about his dad getting a Phd in vacuum technology. Sometimes I feel lime that today. I still don't think my degree was wasted.

\- A CS degree in any era signals persistence and an ability to solve non-BS problems that have a distinct right answer.

\- Modern technology is so much fun, I am happy to learn it.

\- Google and StackOverflow have made learning specific technologies so much easier. No more staying up until 2 with no resources.

\- The earlier you get into the field, the more likely you will know things at the bottom - memory management, database tuning, etc.

This isn't meant to imply that CS is easy now. There is a larger body of knowledge to master with many moving parts. Just that an old degree isn't so worthless. (Neither is a 20 year old Physics degree)

</comment><comment><USER18> The theory hasn't gotten outdated. Most of the software world is still built off of concepts from the 1960s and 1970s. If your computer science degree did not teach the concepts behind the tools, then yes, it was a waste of time.

</comment><comment><USER19> Investing yourself in the topsoil of shiny new technologies instead of sending roots down deep will set you up for rapid obsolesence. My CS program taught the latter, and it's served me well for almost a decade.

</comment><comment><USER20> Education is for acquiring abilities, not just knowledge. Seeing that you have kept up with the current technology stacks with ease, I'd say that CS degree has served you well.

</comment><comment><USER21> Hate to break the news to you, but school is not about teaching you every concept past, present or future. School is teaching you how to learn, dissect and digest concepts on your own. The principles are there and you have learned them, it is up to you to take those skills and apply them to your domain.

I went to undergrad in the same time frame and credit my schooling for the fundamentals. Now go build your house on that foundation and never stop building!

</comment><comment><USER22> It's not actually generally meant to be vocational training... Or, at least, if it is, it shouldn't be called 'computer science'.

</comment><comment><USER23> It seems that it was a waste of time on this particular case, as he clearly did not understand what CS is about.

</comment><comment><USER24> "MVC ... only started getting more attention after Ruby on Rails launched around 2004"

~year 2000, MVC was all the rage in J2EE development, Struts etc.

Probably was invented and even popular long before that also in other environments.

</comment><comment><USER25> >At the time, the Web didn't exist. It was invented in 1993

Uh, no.

<comment><USER26> It's resonable to say that the web _caught on outside CERN_ in 1993, with the release of Mosaic.

(Hands up, anyone else who used to subscribe to the NCSA "What's new on the web" newsletter in 1993 and visit _all_ the new web servers ... before 10am, every morning?)

<comment><USER27> Yup, and also scrub every new USENET post by 10:10.

That stupid Yanoff List wrecked everything. =)

<comment><USER25> In 1993, the newsgroups were way too much to read even if that is all a person did, so you must mean using a program to scan the groups for URLs; right?

<comment><USER28> Google has a fascinating timeline of Usenet news:

(<http://www.google.com/googlegroups/archive_announce_20.html>)

Even ignoring binary groups a Usenet feed would have been considerable in 1993.

(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet#Usenet_traffic_changes>)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Is there a comparable struggle between academic teachings and practical application in engineering? Do EEs, ChemEs or MechEs have these discussions? I would thing this hits them too.

</comment><comment><USER8> Is a music degree 'outdated' if one doesn't learn to play the piano parts to Adele hits, or create synth patches like Skrillex?

</comment><comment><USER29> Would you say any of your cs degree was up to date?</comment>


Ballmer just opened the Second Envelope - <AUTHOR> http://www.mondaynote.com/2010/05/30/ballmer-just-opened-the-second-envelope/ <comment><USER2> I just read this article and checked to see if someone had submitted it.

I think shaking the death-rattle for Microsoft is a bit premature, but I find it interesting that at some point in a company's growth, making a truck-load of revenue every quarter isn't sufficient.

Microsoft has a wonderfully lucrative cash cow that allows them to not be successful at their other endeavors (with success for this argument being defined as a similar market share as their primary business).

It reminds me of the starving artist dilemma, as in, if you live a comfortable life without the danger of starving, are you as motivated to make it.

I flip flop about whether I believe in that argument, although at the risk of using a statistically insufficient sample size (my own personal experience), it would seem to be true.

<comment><USER3> It's never ceases to shock me how bad the Microsoft commentary is on HN, not because I don't agree with the conclusions, but rather because it mostly operates on so little information.

For example:

> Microsoft has a wonderfully lucrative cash cow that allows them to not be > successful at their other endeavors (with success for this argument being > defined as a similar market share as their primary business).

Even though you say "cash cow" I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you mean both Windows and Office. It's fine that you haven't heard of all of MS's other billion dollar businesses, but perhaps that should leave you feeling unqualified to make sweeping commentary?

Here are some products off the top of my head that you've clearly never heard of:

      * Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS)
      * Exchange
      * SharePoint
      * Office Communications Server (OCS)
      * Dynamics CRM
      * SQL Server

Exchange's market share is comparable to that of Google's market share of search (~70%), so I'm assuming that meets your definition of success based on market share.

BPOS has 40 million _paying_ customers compared to Google Apps' 25 million _total_ customers (which presumably only a tiny fraction of which are paying).

SharePoint is part of the Office division but is an entirely new product driving billions of dollars of revenue.

Etc...

There's no reason for you to have heard of any of this. I only know all about MS because I work for MS. But there's also no reason for you to talk about how MS reminds you of the "starving artist dilemma."

<comment><USER4> Every online community has its biases. For HN, it's being anti-MS and pro- webapps, anti-desktop. Less than reddit, but still noticeable. Upmods are pretty worthless when it comes to these subjects.

Getting all your tech news from places like HN or reddit can be harmful, they distort reality significantly.

<comment><USER5> What other news sites would you recommend to a HN reader to help balance this out?

<comment><USER6> Metafilter might be a good place. Good news commenting sites with a great user base aren't exactly a dime a dozen.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> _The "device" people saw in the video isn't going to ship, but that doesn't mean we didn't learn a bunch and innovate a bunch in the process._

So if a Microsoft team innovates in the Redmond forest and no one ever sees a product...

<comment><USER8> " _In fact, the intention to mislead competitors is really the only effective reason for a commercial entity to publicly release concept products._ "

<http://counternotions.com/2008/08/12/concept-products/>

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> "Well, tablet is an area that will evolve going forward. Certainly it's a focus for what we're doing in the Windows space, and how they're thinking that space. We're going to have a bunch of netbooks and tablet stuff that's in the works there. We'll just see how that evolves."

Isn't that a lovely and inspiring statement from a tech visionary? Don't you get all tingly just reading that? (Oops, sorry, thats the circulation in my legs going out again...)

Whats wrong with most tech execs is they are waiting for something to evolve, and then hoping to jump on the band wagon. In the mean time, they are reacting by running around in circles and trying to turn the crank on the old machine faster and faster. Oh, and let's reorganize a bit. Yeah, that'll do it...

Embarrassing.

Jobs meanwhile, love him or hate him, is _making_ the next generation tech, one piece at a time. And he's making it well. And he's making it closed and proprietary.

I really wish our choices weren't between openness/freedom and quality/innovation, but that's how it sits right now.

<comment><USER10> I read your comment before I read the article. The quote comes from a recently released exec, not Ballmer.

<comment><USER9> I didn't say the quote was from Ballmer.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I think that Microsoft could become awesome if they'd just quit trying to be cool. They're very good at selling to enterprise customers, but they're terrible at marketing to consumers. It strikes me as odd that this reorganization is happening in the area where Microsoft has had the most success marketing to consumers. We are talking about the division that makes XBoxes correct?

<comment><USER12> They think (correctly) that what's popular among consumers will eventually infiltrate the enterprise ("the consumerization of IT") and vice versa.

<comment><USER13> I don't necessarily disagree with you but can you give some examples? I can think of counter examples, all things that went from commercial business tool to consumer not the other way around:

\- computers \- internet \- email \- blackberry \- unix (consumers now find mac os x more dependable and durable than windows and prefer it aside from cost)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> And if you're a startup CEO, you keep a really big stack of envelopes for continual reorganization and starting-again :D

</comment><comment><USER15> Microsoft has some amazing enterprise products. Excel is absolutely amazing. Access is a great development tool for paperwork personnel. SQL Server is so so simple to get up and running, and scale up to tremendous volume.

<comment><USER16> Agree re: Excel. Great product. Competitors don't even come close.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> >Over the last decade, Wall Street has declined to reward Microsoft for its superior profit. The explanation is simple: Professional investors don't believe Ballmer, and they don't see bigger profits in Microsoft's future.

This seems to suggest Wall Street has been wrong about Microsoft for the past decade.

Likewise, I started seriously worrying about - and predicting - a housing bubble-based recession in 2004. [1] I was wrong about it every year between 2004 and 2009.

[1] <http://www3.sympatico.ca/taylormcgreal/thecomingcrash.html>

</comment><comment><USER18> My guess: in 5-10 years Microsoft will be a service company.

We've seen this movie before and it's not just Microsoft that's shape shifting. Google is becoming the new Microsoft, Microsoft is becoming the new IBM, Facebook is becoming the new Google. Twitter is becoming the new Facebook.

EDIT: why downvoted? Would it be so strange if Microsoft followed its former arch enemy IBMs footsteps?

<comment><USER19> Can't wait for 2040, when the cycle is complete and Twitter is the new IBM. My bank statement will be much more convenient to read when it's limited to 140 characters.

<comment><USER20> Given that it's a cycle, does that mean IBM will be the new Twitter at some point?

<comment><USER11> Either that or IBM becomes the new Sun.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> With regard to microsoft I think these days that Project Natal is going to be huge.

If they play their patent cards right then that might very well push them back to the top of the list.

<comment><USER2> I'm not sure how much of Natal is patentable by Microsoft, as the tech isn't theirs (at least according to Wikipedia here: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Natal#cite_note- MsPress...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Natal#cite_note-MsPress-20)).

I'd also be willing to bet that the sales won't be that breathtaking (a $150 device that'll need some time for titles to take advantage of it).

If it were launching as a part of their next console, maybe it would be enough of a differentiator to move units (which isn't something the 360 has had trouble doing).

<comment><USER21> I'm less interested in the gaming part but more in the ways this will invade our daily lives.

 _If_ it works as advertised then it might soon be built into TV sets, PC monitors and all sorts of public infrastructure that we can't even imagine, yet.

 _If_ microsoft can hold a big piece of that cake then that should be huge.

I mean, obsoleting TV remote controls alone is big, but only the tip of the iceberg. How about interactive advertising (stand in front of a shop-window, interacting with a bigscreen), touch-free car dashboard, the whole "home automation" area, and so on.

This is ofcourse all under the assumption that it really works as well as shown in those videos.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> With ramifications lined up with this decision, I would still put my money on their Xbox division. I hope they put more capex on that.

<comment><USER23> I was going to ask about it: to me the Xbox division seems pretty successful, especially if you consider that ten years ago microsoft was not in the console market at all.

Acccording to wikipedia, they have sold 40M units of the latest incarnation (iphones total at 50), they have probably the best online services (according to my hardcore gamers friends), the most open marketplace, and at least they seem to be trying to innovate.

Is there a reason for never taking this division into account when talking about how MS is going to die horribly because of only milking the cash cows?</comment></comment>


My YC idea:  User-created-language - <AUTHOR>

What if we could communicate beyond words? The idea is fairly simple. Creating a database of images for each word. For each word in the dictionary their will be images (that best describe it) uploaded by users. Now someone can write a a letter and most of the words, if not all, will be converted into images and sent to the recipient who can also decipher the message after attempting to read it. I want to create a real interaction in messages. One that goes beyond words.
To make it smart, I will use the a YCnews voting style for each image. <p>BTW, I can use one more hacker<p> <comment><USER2> Some criticism:

What would be the point? Sure it might be technically interesting to code etc. but this just introduces inefficiency to communication.

There's a reason we evolved from cave paintings and hieroglyphics to written form.

<comment><AUTHOR> It is truth that we have evolved, but if you want to take it in that sense. Imagine 5000 years from now, would you think it will be easier for human beings to read those images or English, Chinese? Imagine a lady in Romania, a kid in Senegal (West Africa) and a adult in Antartica. If they all received the same message in images or plain English ? Which one would they be more apt to understand assuming they never spoke or heard english? The point is not even that. I think we can make messages say more and be more interactive. That's just my thought and I like your constructive criticism

<comment><USER2> I agree there are slight advantages to images, but there is still something lost in translation.

How would explain a concept such as searching? Or a hyperlink?

Granted those are some contrived examples, but whatever problems we have with text and losses in translation, we'll also have (perhaps to a lesser extent, perhaps to a greater extent) in picture messaging.

These are just my 2 cents.

5000 years from now, I hope we would have advanced enough to instantly translate (correctly) from one language to another. Or just speak one language.

<comment><USER3> I agree. There are must be some losses in translation, cos pictures are just approximations to the elements of thinking process. Pictures have some "cross- platform" features, but their expression power much lower than language's. Ex. consider that language 1 has expresson power x, pictures have expression power y (x > y). And language 2 has expression power z (x = z). Then we're trying to reduce x to y and then take it to z again.

Instead of this we must take x to w (w > x) and then reduce w to z. A human translator going exactly this way.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I remember reading about a startup in Israel doing exactly what you are describing. Their product is positioned as an alternative language for faster/easier texting on cell phones.

(if I remember correctly)

<comment><USER4> Here: <http://www.zlango.com>

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> <http://www.uncov.com/2007/9/27/zlango-s-picture-language>

</comment><comment><USER6> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_character>

</comment><comment><USER7> There's a professor at Stanford, Robert Horn, who wrote a book called "Visual Language" which seems interesting.

You can view sample pages here:

<http://www.macrovu.com/VLBkExmplPgsMenu.html>

</comment><comment><USER8> I think the CIA or KGB might have a job for you :)

</comment><comment><USER9> You mean Flickr tags?

<comment><USER10> You might want to collaborate with some people who are building existing lexicographical infrastructures. Have a look at this TED talk: <http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/161> . You might also want to check out E. O. Wilson's Encyclopedia of Life at <http://www.eol.org/> . (He's also got a TED talk where he won the TED prize for the year.) Both of these people are doing grand, sweeping thinking about ways to use the web to redefine the way we think and use language, pictures and taxonomy, all of which you'll need to think about as you're developing this idea. You might see if you can eventually get some phone time with them and see how they solved similar problems you may encounter, like a structure for crowdsourcing. I'd love to see how this idea develops! I'll be very interested to see how you illustrate abstractions. Good luck!

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Cool!</comment>


Ask HN: Been getting calls from "Windows technical department" - <AUTHOR> I have been getting calls from "Windows  technical department" in the last few days. First one I can laugh on. Second time, after asking windows key repeatedly, the person started calling foul names. The latter calls, I just ignored them. Once they called me twice a day, without to bother to change the calling number. I know it's a scam by less respectful people.  How can we prevent these people do harm? <comment><USER2> I try to waste as much of their time as possible. Usually they call when I'm just watching TV and messing with them is more fun.

<comment><AUTHOR> First call I messed with them. On the second call, he asked me to press the Win keyboard key (not the Windows key as I initially wrote - sorry), where I played dumb and told him I could not find it. That was when he blasted names on me and my mother. It was a good experiment to know what kind of people the person is, but I sure won't let the person talk to my parents or grandparents that foul.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I am guessing that these are petty crooks trying to cash in on the market for Windows keys. They need something that looks valid, so their victim will pay. The owner of the Windows key will not be harmed apart from the harassment by phone, and the buyer who got stiffed has little chance for redress, except to get the scammer's current alias banned.

<comment><AUTHOR> I think I have mislead you, sorry. He was asking for the Win keyboard key, to make me open the Start menu. I think he was going to go similar to this article [http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/anatomy-scam-windows-tech- suppo...](http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/anatomy-scam-windows-tech-support-con- examined/)

<comment><USER3> Ah, I understand. I must have a criminal mind. to have come up with a scam that no-one is using yet.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> My telephone has a nice "hold" button that close the mic and place music to the caller. In similar cases, I just ask "Can you wait me for a minute?" and when they answer "yes" I just put them in hold :) .

</comment><comment><USER5> Report their telephone number to the police / financial authorities (it sounds like they're pushing for payment / financial details with 'Windows Key' as a ruse) as phishers, that's all.

</comment><comment><USER6> I don't think you can prevent them from taking advantage of people, not without a system to network trust tied to hard to change IDs.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Correction, should be: "after asking to press the Win keyboard key" not "after asking windows key"</comment>


Pirate Party Shuts Down Pirate Bay Proxy After Legal Threats - <AUTHOR> http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-party-shuts-down-pirate-bay-proxy-after-legal-threats-121219/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Torrentfreak+%28Torrentfreak%29 <comment><USER2> Just got an email from them:

Dear Donor,

Thank you for your support in the last few weeks, the donations we received, as well as the overwhelming number of messages of support made it clear that our efforts over the last year or so have not been in vain.

It is however with a heavy heart that I write to inform you that the proxy server the Pirate Party UK initially provided in solidarity with other parties in Europe, but later as an anti-censorship resource for UK users, has now been been removed.

Obviously this is not the outcome you wanted, nor that we had hoped for, so if you would like us to return your donation please reply to this email, or email firstname.lastname@example.com with the email address you provided (either your paypal email address or the email address you contacted the party with when making your donation). We will return your donation as soon as we can.

As you know, elected members of the parties National Executive Committee, along with the head of IT, received letters from lawyers acting for British Phonographic Industry (BPI), threatening them personally with High Court legal action.

After seeking exhaustive advice and initiating the fundraising campaign that you contributed to we managed to raise just over £9,000. A significant sum and an indication that this issue is important. Unfortunately the advice from a variety of legal sources was bleak and even to get to this point we spent just under £1600, the cost involved in taking this forward is out of our reach with no guarantee of a positive result.

We also made attempts to open dialogue with the BPI, but it has become clear that the law as it stands makes any decision to continue hosting the proxy untenable and counterproductive.

We will continue to fight for digital rights despite being threatened with legal action by the UK's music industry body over links to the Pirate Bay website.

Again if you would like us to return your donation please reply to this email, or email firstname.lastname@example.com with the email address you provided (either your paypal email address or the email address you contacted the party with when making your donation). We will return your donation as soon as we can.

Gavin Meredith Treasurer Pirate Party UK

<comment><USER3> Why don't they just replace the proxy with a list of other proxies for TPB? Any problem can be solved with just one more level of indirection...

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Odd move. While the Swedish Pirate Party actually supply the site itself with bandwidth, one would think the UK side would dare to maintain a proxy.

Will be interesting to see more details on the more precise details of the threats.

</comment><comment><USER5> I wonder how significant the dropoff of users will be!

<comment><USER6> I don't think it will be significant. People who use the torrents know to quickly google something like "the pirate bay proxy" and get access back.

"Can't stop the signal, Mal."

<comment><USER7> At least until Google starts censoring keywords like that (probably not too far out), and then they'll have to use DDG or Blekko.

<comment><USER8> Given that DDG mainly relies on bings index I'd be surprised if they'd resist much longer than google if the keyword filtering starts.

<comment><USER9> blekko has its own crawl and index, but your guess is as good as mine as to what we might do if we are sued.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> A little disappointing but not entirely unexpected considering. What's sad is an industry that fails to realise they have a supply problem and will never win that war

</comment><comment><USER11> <http://184.108.40.206/> still works at least here in Belgium.

<comment><USER12> not in the UK

<comment><USER13> Bin your shitty ISP. I just switched to Andrews and Arnold and the main site still works. They have an active no censorship policy.

<comment><USER12> An ISP complying with a court order does not make them inherently shitty.

Looking at A&A, the max bandwidth/mo they offer is 500GB? We pull that in per week and at a much lower cost.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Can they not host it on a webserver outside of the UK?</comment>


Conway's Game Of Life written in one line of APL - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9xAKttWgP4

<comment><USER2> Link to written "one line" & description, please?

ETA: I mean non-video form.

<comment><AUTHOR> Here ya go.

<http://youtu.be/a9xAKttWgP4?t=6m58s>

There are actually two lines setting up his initial array, and then one line that runs the game against the array.

The entire video is a walk-through of the code.</comment></comment>


In which Ars is allowed to see—but not touch—an Ubuntu phone - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/01/in-which-ars-is-allowed-to-see-but-not-touch-an-ubuntu-phone/

<comment><USER2> I would prefer such a phone above all others currently in the market and I doubt I'm alone.

A very large fraction of this community would probably want a linux phone that allows you to basically carry your desktop around.

I hope they find a manufacturer soon.

<comment> ezequiel-garzon As a former N900 user, I loved carrying much of the GNU goodness on me, but the maps/contacts/mail integration offered by Google on its Android platform is just too enticing! I doubt I will even consider Ubuntu Phone without this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> _"We're just doing all of the driving for the demos for now simply because we understand how the experience works"_

This is a pretty limp excuse. I wish they'd just drop the PR-speak and say that it's not quite ready yet.

<comment><USER4> Smells like a "Hollywood launch." :\

Re: lack-o-source code: _"We don't want users to install it on hardware that we're not sure it can support"_

Not really getting off on the right foot with the tech community either, IMHO.

I can't begin to emphasize enough how much I want this to succeed. (One open- source OS to rule them all, and what not...) It's a bit sad that its birth feels like another canned industry event rather than a true hacker love-child. But hey, at least it's progress, right?

<comment><USER5> If they believe that early fiddling from the press will result in a permanent black mark on the platform, then it is a savvy move regardless of how disappointed people are now.

Anyway, it is really doubtful that they will get much traction against iOS, let alone iOS + Android, even with a perfect launch.

<comment><USER4> I assume you saw the post on the Windows phone. ( <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5051291> ). Windows is an interesting case: Microsoft is still the incumbent; Windows is royalty, and the press loves photos of royalty with their pants down. (iOS is in a similar position.)

Ubuntu is in slightly different situation, and people would more willingly forgive glitches as long as they are trying. Swartz's point (among others) about the Hollywood launch was that the more you set yourself up as glassy and untouchable, the more people want you to fail, and the bigger you usually do. So, if Ubuntu/Canonical suffers the same sort of articles as the Windows phone article from earlier it will have probably been because they took themselves so seriously that people became all too eager to point out their flaws. It's the Streisand effect on marketing hype. As soon as you say "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" everyone starts tugging at the curtain. "No touching" already works poorly for geeks (and at this stage, I think only geeks care about Ubuntu on a phone), and even less well for a company that built all their offerings on free software.

As for traction, I think Android could work to Canonical's advantage. I don't know how much Google "needs" Android, but they even might benefit from outsourcing the platform. (Those Android phones could pretty easily become Ubuntu phones.) Dalvik's open-source, so there's no reason to think Ubuntu wouldn't be able to run Android software out of the box. Ultimately platforms are less fertile than the standards they embody, so if Ubuntu becomes only "another Linux phone" it's still fine by me.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Well, it looks solid. Canonical's vision of the new Ubuntu UI certainly seems to work well with touch displays, which was probably the idea all along. My first impression is definitely that Canonical is working toward a better cross-device experience than the one currently on offer from Microsoft. Whether I actually _care_ about cross-device experiences is another issue entirely.

</comment><comment><USER7> I think FirefoxOS is a much more viable contender. It has a head start; it is not going straight up against iOS and Android in the massive undertaking of building an app ecosystem, but is exclusively using web technologies; Mozilla controls a deeper part of their stack than Canonical; they have deals in place; and they are aiming low-end phones, where there is an opportunity as iOS doesn't exist and Android 4.0 performs like crap.

<comment><USER8> I keep hearing this. Could you explain why pure web technologies with no other options is better than giving developers the best of both worlds (deeply integrated web apps as well as native apps, if the performance is needed)? HTML5 browser technology isn't even able to render current iOS games in full blown desktop browsers, how is it going to be adequate for embedded devices in the coming few years?

In the long run you may be right, but it's going to take quite a bit longer and until then the mobile market is going to be even more entrenched than now.

<comment><USER7> This is about making a virtue out of necessity. There is no way a small player launching a native SDK now can attract enough developers to not look like a total joke beside Android and iOS (or even Windows Phone).

Mozilla controls and understands the vital parts of their platform, their rendering engine and JS VM, they can concentrate their work on making them performant enough to compete and making sure that the long run will come sooner rather than later.

So yeah, I'm impressed by them having a narrow focus and playing to their strengths rather than making something that is just like Android, only with no apps.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> The killer feature to me would be the following:

 _You may recall that certain Ubuntu phones will become full Ubuntu PCs when docked with a monitor, mouse, and keyboard._

The idea of being able to carry around just one small, main device instead of two separate (though well-integrated) ones, a la iOS/OS X, would probably be just enough to tip the scales and get me to use it, provided the experience was good enough.

<comment><USER10> When I first heard about this I was really excited, but then I realized that if I dropped or lost my phone, my entire environment would be gone. What do you think about that issue?

I think I'd still do it, but I'd really like to have some sort of automatic sync to another hard disk. Maybe when I plug it into my desktop docking station, it would automatically sync everything to the hard disk I have there. That would really be the best of both worlds. (I seem to recall some Ubuntu feature like that, but I don't remember the details.)

<comment><USER11> What if I lost my laptop? My laptop might be more expensive, but cos isn't the factor in why I'm more careful with it (as it's insured); I just really don't want to lose my setup. If you're phone becomes more important through elevated use aren't you naturally going to become more protective?

<comment><USER10> I think a phone has a higher risk of being lost than a laptop because it's smaller. People (at least the ones I know) carry their phones more places than their laptops. And it's much more likely that a phone will drop out of a pocket than that a laptop will drop out of your backpack or briefcase.

But that doesn't change the fact that I would do it; it just makes good backups even more important.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> "Like the Ubuntu phone OS, the source code for Ubuntu for Android is not yet available. "We don't want users to install it on hardware that we're not sure it can support," Collins said"

Don't worry though, this is definitely going to be different than how android development has proceeded.

</comment><comment><USER13> It looks good, but it's disappointing that Canonical felt they couldn't say to Ars "Hey guys, you know it's going to be rough round the edges, we know it, just keep it in mind as you use it". Now we all end up thinking it's worse than it probably is. It's a piss-poor move PR wise.

</comment><comment><USER14> The article mentioned some native applications being browser-based.

I wonder what app development will be like if their browser actually gives some system access.

<comment><USER15> I imagine this is quite close to how PhoneGap apps already work, and how your browser already asks you whether you want to share your location with a website

<comment><USER16> Ahh, that irritating message. Right up there with: want to install our app?

<comment><USER15> The permissions have to be checked somehow. The other typical way to do this is to ask all the permissions when you enable the app, though I sometimes like the more granular manner that browsers have.

Another interesting option would be to allow users to have a more general policy, like _"I'm OK with any app reading my Twitter stream, but not with allowing them to post"_

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Looks good. Hope they get rid of the terrible unity experience found on their desktop OS. Atleast, an improvised version wih better user-experience should help. It is so important that they get this right because of the fact that, for stuff like these (new platforms, phones) the first impression will remain the best impression amongst the consumers' minds.

<comment><USER18> What is the 'terrible unity experience'?

<comment><USER19> Slow, glitchy and shopping integrated.

I gave Unity 3 ubuntu releases until I tried Gnome 3.6 and have wondered how I survived until now. Look at how quick Gnome's sidebar is compared to Unity. Look how they got the movement right in term of screen window movement. Look at how quick the finder is. Look at how the bar hides when you don't need it by default. Look how the menu bar is with each window reducing the distance your mouse has to travel to get to what you want.

Having the Unity side bar on a phone is a waste of screen real estate. 70% of the screen is with the previous application which you are switching away from and you are going to have to scroll more with the single width unity bar (based on the images seen).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> This looks like a mashup of Android, iOS and Maemo in my opinion, with regards to the UI. {Notification, Icons, and Menus resp.}</comment>


Intermediate Statistics: Topics and Sources - <AUTHOR> http://www.stats.uwaterloo.ca/~dlmcleis/comps/compssyllabus05.htm <comment><AUTHOR> Like a lot of people, I studied basic stats in college. Recently, I've been looking to upgrade those skills, but it's hard to know what to study.

This list of courses and topics is the best I've found. Since it includes references, one could use this list to gain an advanced undergraduate level of knowledge in probability and statistics.</comment>


Ask HN: What Rails-style web frameworks are there? - <AUTHOR> I've looked for a reasonably complete list of full-featured MVC web frameworks that are similar to or influenced by Rails (I want to compare their design) but I couldn't find one [1]. Here is the list I have compiled myself so far. Please suggest additions (or, in fact, deletions) if any come to mind.

    ┌──────────────────────┬───────────────────────────┐
    │   Primary Language   │     Framework Name(s)     │
    ├──────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
    │ C#                   │ ASP.NET MVC               │
    │ Elixir               │ Phoenix                   │
    │ Erlang               │ Chicago Boss              │
    │ Groovy               │ Grails                    │
    │ Haskell              │ Yesod                     │
    │ Java                 │ Ninja, Play, Spring MVC   │
    │ JavaScript (Node.js) │ Sails.js                  │
    │ Python               │ Django                    │
    │ Scala                │ Play                      │
    │ Perl                 │ Catalyst                  │
    │ PHP                  │ CakePHP, Laravel, Symfony │
    │ Ruby                 │ Hanami                    │
    │ Tcl                  │ Woof!                     │
    └──────────────────────┴───────────────────────────┘
 [1] If you know of such a list, please link to it in a comment. <comment><USER2> The TechEmpower benchmarks[1] are probably what you want. Lots of languages, lots of frameworks, and all in git with reference implementations so you can see example code.

As for Perl specifically, there's Mojolicious and Dancer, both I believe originally clones of Sinatra, another Ruby framework. I'll speak more to Mojolicious, as I'm more familiar with it, but I can't contrast it to Rails very well, as I'm not familiar with Rails. Mojolicious doesn't include it's own DB record system, but I use DBIx::Class with it, and I don't particularly think I'm missing out on anything. There's a healthy ecosystem of Mojo modules[2] to extend the core.

1: [https://www.techempower.com/benchmarks/](https://www.techempower.com/benchmarks/)

2: [https://metacpan.org/search?q=mojo%3A%3A&search_type=modules](https://metacpan.org/search?q=mojo%3A%3A&search_type=modules)

</comment><comment><USER3> Off-topic: I like your plaintext table. How did you do it?

<comment><AUTHOR> I saved the post in a plain text file and fed it as input to Sqawk [1], which I develop, then modified the output somewhat. Namely, I removed the horizontal lines separating the rows (to fit the post in the 2000 characters HN allows) and manually centered the text in the header.

[1] See [https://github.com/dbohdan/sqawk#pretty-print-data-as-a- tabl...](https://github.com/dbohdan/sqawk#pretty-print-data-as-a-table).</comment></comment>


Cassette tape-based navigation system from 1971 - <AUTHOR> https://jalopnik.com/this-cassette-tape-based-navigation-system-from-1971-is-1826459978 <comment><USER2> The technical details from the YouTube video [1]:

\- one cassette tape per route

\- distance to next milestone encoded in the bleep length on the tape

\- controller unit interprets the bleep length

\- controller unit reads RPMs from the spinning cable that normally drives the odometer

\- controller unit has a pluggable circuit board that contains the wheel specific odometer RPM to distance conversion

\- controller unit starts/stops the cassette player at each milestone

[1] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KliWHCzE16c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KliWHCzE16c)

<comment><USER3> So if I want to go from A to B, how do I get the tape for that? And if I make the wrong turn, am I screwed?

Granted, it is impressive for it's time.

<comment><USER4> You'd have to put in a new tape for every A to B scenario or even a return trip of B to A.

<comment><USER5> And again for every human language, and again for every temporary road closure.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> If jalopnik maintainers see this, please disable the sticky video overlay that presents the latest video from the site, at least for the mobile version of the site. It uses almost 50% of the screen real estate on my smartphone, seriously degrading the experience on moble devices. Sometimes I can barely read an entire frase without having to scroll.

<comment><USER7> It's part of the eventual fallout of Gawker Media getting whacked by Peter Thiel/Hulk Hogan. The group of blogs that Jalopnik is part of is now owned by a private equity group that only cares about wringing out every possible penny. The site has gotten increasingly unreadable, especially on mobile. (also, RIP Deadspin).

<comment><USER8> I am 100% on Thiel's side for destroying Gawker. It was and is trash, and Thiel performed a public service.

<comment><USER9> I'm not. Thiel is a terrible person who uses his capital in ways that simply buy the kind of justice he wants for himself, he just just used Hogan and the justice system as private tools to serve his goals.

<comment><USER10> Why do you think he's a terrible person? Gawker didn't exactly come out of that whole thing smelling like roses.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Turn by Turntable [https://arstechnica.com/cars/2020/01/turn-by-turntables- how-...](https://arstechnica.com/cars/2020/01/turn-by-turntables-how-drivers- got-from-point-a-to-point-b-in-the-early-1900s/)

</comment><comment><USER12> Another cassette tape navigation system, this one from 1985, the Etak Navigator:

[https://www.fastcompany.com/3047828/who-needs-gps-the- forgot...](https://www.fastcompany.com/3047828/who-needs-gps-the-forgotten- story-of-etaks-amazing-1985-car-navigation-system)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13744825](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13744825)

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

(The Fast Company article is quite good, with interesting photos.)

</comment><comment><USER13> This reminds me of the bike routes in Flanders and the Netherlands. There is a dense network of cycle routes, with every intersection being numbered (these are called "knoppunten"). At each numbered intersection, there is a signpost, with directions to the neighboring knoppunt. As a result, you could plan a route based on a list of knoppunten and just write down the numbers. I've heard tell of small scroll wheels that you'd attach to your bike that these lists of points could clip into, with a small window to tell you where you are, but I've never actually seen one.

<comment><USER14> This is pretty much how one navigates complex mountain bike trail systems. Each intersection is numbered, has arrows pointing the way to the connected intersections, and usually shows a map showing the whole system. One can stop, look at where they want to go, memorize the next few numbers, then ride just making the correct turns, glancing at the signs.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Analog GPS: Scrolling Wrist & Car-Mounted Maps - [https://99percentinvisible.org/article/analog-gps- scrolling-...](https://99percentinvisible.org/article/analog-gps-scrolling- wrist-car-mounted-maps-roaring-20s-30s/)

<comment><USER16> Loving the simplicity of these

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> not really navigation, but fairly prescient 1947 prediction of In-Car Entertainment: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKfOcR7Qbu4&t=67](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKfOcR7Qbu4&t=67)

</comment><comment><USER18> Definitely watch the video till the end.</comment>


Minecraft now generating $300,000 per day - <AUTHOR>

Wow! So he offered for free during the last few days while solving some server problems and now that he started charging again, the sales exploded! http://minecraft.net/stats.jsp <comment><USER2> Is the PayPal account still frozen?

<comment><AUTHOR> No</comment></comment>


The case against IBM, continued - <AUTHOR> http://www.fakesteve.net/2009/10/case-against-ibm-continued.html

<comment><USER2> > ... _the guy can't spell "apologize, ..."_

What?

I've worked out that this is supposed to be humorous in style, but it's impossible to tell how much is satire, how much is serious comment, and how much is self-aggrandizing ranting. There might be some serious points, but having got to the end I've deciding that the facts are available elsewhere, and this guy has added zero value.

Too long, did read, wish I hadn't.

<comment><USER2> To anyone else who wants to down-mod me, I have no objections. If you feel my comment adds no value, or is of negative value, then that's appropriate and I accept your assessment.

But here's my quandry.

My personal opinion is that the item is within the guidleines for HN, but that it's not worth spending time on. I also feel it's not my place to stop you. How can I add value?

I thought the best thing to do was to tell you my thoughts about it. In this way if you do know me then you can make a decision based on whether you expect to disagree with me or not. If you don't know me, you can read it for yourself, and then decide whether you agree with me or not.

In this way I try to give you information, and hence add value.

If I'd felt the item was inappropriate then I'd've flagged it and moved on without comment, but being within the guidelines I couldn't do that.

So I've tried to provide value by giving an honest reaction with reasons. By all means downmod me if you think that's wrong, and I'll learn not to provide such information, and let you waste your time instead.

<comment><USER3> i think you got downmodded for being insufficiently familiar with fake steve. he often makes deliberate mistakes: attributing a quotation to the wrong person, assuming that people in a particular country speak a language that they don't, and so on. in this case, he's pretending not to know about british spellings.

<comment><USER2> I suppose that's fair enough. I am in fact familiar(ish) with fake steve, I just think he's a waste of oxygen. No doubt others think he's hilarious.

Next time I'll assume everyone knows about him and will either read or pass according to their tastes, or that they'll visit the page and decide for themselves.

Actually, next time I'll just flag it and move on. Thanks for the feedback - I'm still learning, and appreciate it.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Red packets with smart contracts - <AUTHOR> https://www.smarthongbao.com <comment><AUTHOR> We built and just released (very likely the world's first) red packets with smart contracts. The receiver of the monetary gift can only use the funds after a redemption date set by the giver.

Hopefully this can give a modern spin to this ancient Chinese practice - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_envelope](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_envelope)

Let us know what you think! :)

</comment><comment><USER2> this is awesome! congratulations!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you brother!</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Review my startup, boutiqueforge.com - <AUTHOR>

We think we can make coding websites that sell stuff online a better experience for developers, so we created boutiqueforge.com. BoutiqueForge is an ecommerce platform built around Git and Jinja2.
We host git repositories for all projects, deploy happens on every push, you code your website using Jinja2 templates and payment is done based on the resources you consume - network, storage, products, orders.
We also created a command line tool in python that you can use to run the website on your local computer while you are developing. It knows how to sync all the data of your project so you can actually see the website locally as it will look like once deployed. ( pip install boutique )
We'd love to hear your thoughts on the project :) Any feedback is greatly appreciated!
https://boutiqueforge.com <comment><USER2> I think the concept is "MC" (of MVC) as a service, you should make this more clear. This is difficult, because the people who need this the most are also the people how know the least about structural design patterns.

It is unclear to me, how the products are inserted and how payment processing works. From a technical innovators perspective this is not the main feature, to the end-user it is. You should show the developer how his customers can insert products.

I am not sure if your target audience (someone who knows Python and Jinja2) is a good fit. Seems like someone who nows HTML+CSS and a bit of PHP would need the service more. I would therefore use terms these people would understand and offer technologies they understand (drop the command-line fu, offer FTP- Upload or even Web-based Upload etc).

The pricing is unclear. I imagine Boutique + Pricing + Storage add up to the Basic Price. You should drop the prices in the second table and use a syntax like "first x GB included (additional cost x GB cost x $)".

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, we can definitely do a better job at explaining the concept and how templates work in conjunction with product data. The mechanism is pretty standard for this type of service - all the data that you introduce through the admin is available as template variables. Adding products, categories, vendors, checkout options is simply done through a UI interface. We will add some screenshots of the admin pages to showcase what is available.

Actually the target audience does not need to know any python. Jinja2 is a template engine written in python, however you do not need to write any python code to make the templates work. HTML, CSS and some understanding of how to use the Jinja2 templates to output variables is enough. We should definitely communicate this better!

Web based editing is something that is on the roadmap. FTP and Web Based uploading is available in a lot of competitor's products and we really wanted to do something different here. Git allows you to have multiple branches, you can work on a new version of the website and showcase that to clients while still not modifying production and have it all integrated in the version control system.

On the pricing - noted! We'll think of a more compact way of presenting the info.

Thanks a lot for taking the time to review our product! The info is really valuable to us! If you are interested in trying out the full version, send us an email and we will give you the first 3 months free of charge.</comment></comment>


Glossy button for web (Tutorial PS cs.5) - <AUTHOR> http://www.designscollage.com/2012/07/glossy-button-for-web-tutorial-ps-cs-5/ We know how much buttons and tabs are important in web design. The right choice of button colors, design and effects makes web pages come alive. So today we are going to teach how to add a gloss effect to buttons in three simple steps using Photoshop CS5.5. <comment><USER2> But why would you want to? I thought this all went out of fashion after people finally figured out web 2.0 was a hoax.</comment>


Pope Joins Twitter: Benedict XVI's Screenname Will Be Pontifex - <AUTHOR> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/03/pope-joins-twitter_n_2230411.html <comment><USER2> I think this is a really good move by the Church. The Church is often viewed as out of touch with many people today, as evidenced by the debate over health care and contraceptives we saw a few months back. The reality is that while the Church may have its problems, the Pope is an extremely holy man that people of any faith can appreciate, similar to how many people hold the Dalai Lama in such high regard.

It's hard for such a singular head to communicate with all 1 billion+ of his followers, but I believe that this will be a great way to connect with people of all faiths. Bravo, Vatican.</comment>


Wrapper's Delight - <AUTHOR> https://blog.trailofbits.com/2019/08/26/wrappers-delight/ <comment><USER2> This is a really cool SQLite wrapper. One of these things this wrapper lets you do is bind C++ functions/lambdas to ones in SQLite. You can use that functionality in things like SQLite expression indexes, or for customizing a full-text indexer.

One cool example of expression indexes is this: you want to store structured data (e.g. a protobuf) 'natively' in an SQL database, but still give the database visibility into the data stored in that serialized protobuf. You can create an expression index with functions that can read into the protodbuf data and give SQLite that visibility. Another benefit of things like expression indexes is storing comrpessed data. E.g. you want to store a big blob of compressed data, and give SQLite some access to it, but not access to all of it.

In the near future, we'll be transitioning another open-source Trail of Bits project, McSema [1], to using this wrapper. McSema currently stores lots of data in protocol buffers, which isn't very convenient for some reasons. Transitioning over to an SQLite database, hidden behind an API, is going to make things a lot nicer.

[1] [https://github.com/trailofbits/mcsema](https://github.com/trailofbits/mcsema)</comment>


ITU Believes Secret Media Strategy Key To Avoiding SOPA/ACTA Fate - <AUTHOR> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121201/01525121195/doubling-down-secrecy-itu-believes-secret-media-strategy-key-to-avoiding-sopaacta-fate.shtml

<comment><USER2> SOPA/ACTA/PIPA etc are _wildly_ unpopular. The January 18th 2012 "web blackout" was supposedly one of the biggest anti-legislation turnouts in the USA, where we typically don't have street rallies against legislation. Europeans did rally in the streets against ACTA.

So why does the ITU think it can do a hidden backroom deal? Why does the US Trade Representative think he can slip the Trans-Pacific Partnership past people? These treaties and legislation have fairly good "against" arguments. Why do these bureaucrats think that it's a good thing to impose this kind of regime? Laws do not persuade just because they threaten, as the Roman Seneca once wrote.</comment>


Skype iPhone update: Multitasking, no additional charges for calling over 3G - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.skype.com/en/2010/07/iphone_multitasking_3g.html

<comment><USER2> "In light of that, we no longer have plans to charge a supplement to make calls over 3G."

I think this is huge. Mobile networks still charge 2$+ per minute for international calls. This basically makes it irrelevant.

<comment><USER3> depending on your subscription (and country), they will charge you way more than $2 per minute in data traffic though.

Voice is bandwidth intensive.

<comment><USER2> I'm in Europe and bandwidth costs are relatively insignificant (as long as you don't travel abroad). Data roaming is whole different story, I really hope European Union will do something about it.

<comment><USER3> yesterday I did a bit of research. I reset my iphone's data counter and hold a 2 minute skype call over 3g with my girlfriend. We held a normal conversation with both of us talking.

After two minutes, I sent out 652 KB of data and received 798 KB.

So this means that a minute of data is around 750KB.

My mobile subscription (Swisscom) comes with 250MB of inclusive data for CHF 35/month (around $35 or EUR 25).

With 750KB per minute, I can in theory talk for around 5.5 hours if I do nothing but Skype. My current data usage is around 50 MB/month, which leaves 200 MB unused which then is good for 4 hours of talk time.

Not bad.

I would have thought that a Skype conversation uses way more bandwidth than it apparently does.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Welcome to non-unlimited data plans, where AT&T is motivated to support and maintain towers and actively wants to encourage developers to do awesome things with bandwidth. I'm super excited about how awesome developing for handsets is going to be now that we got rid of that screwed up set of misincentives.

</comment><comment><USER5> I don't understand why they never supported push notifications, it would have worked almost as well, and probably conserved battery. Seems like the ideal use case for push notifications.

<comment><USER6> Push notifications aren't reliable enough to be available during the brief period when a person is calling. A push notification that is set to go out at 9am might go out at 9am, but it also might go out at 9:01, 9:02, etc. My guess is that this is why Skype doesn't use them.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I love skype on the iPhone - the audio quality is so much better than normal phone calls (at least on AT&T in New York) it blows me away... even over 3G.

</comment><comment><USER8> I could not get it to reliably ring (at least when using SkypeIn). Otherwise, hooray! Wonder what the effects will be on battery life?

<comment><USER8> Already have my answer - started at 100% at noon, but 6pm, down to 32%.

<comment><USER9> Just for clarity, how many hours did you lose?

<comment><USER8> Normally 100% at 8:30am, then 40% by 11pm.

<comment><USER9> wow

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Wheres the iPad app?....

<comment><USER10> Skype is available and works great on the iPad -- but Apple hasn't enabled multitasking there yet. "Fall", they say.

<comment><USER9> It works on the ipad, but it looks horrible. It's also hard to type on the iphone keyboard.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Too bad they don't have a generally available android version.

</comment><comment><USER12> Now they just need integration with the rest of the phone (make skype calls from the phone app, from contacts list, etc) and they'll be caught up to where the Nokia N900 has been for a year!

What a revolution Apple.</comment>


Tell Justin Trudeau to Fight for Web Developer Saeed Malekpour - <AUTHOR> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/09/tell-justin-trudeau-free-saeed-malekpour <comment><USER2> There is also Homa Hoodfar a Canadian professor in jail in the same prison she is gravely ill. [http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/homa-hoodfar- ill-1.3740392](http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/homa-hoodfar-ill-1.3740392)

Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi was beaten to death in 2003 in that same prison. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zahra_Kazemi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zahra_Kazemi)

<comment><AUTHOR> Utterly touched reading about Kazemi: remarkable that one of her (alleged) murderers was charged with and later acquitted of "semi-intentional murder." What does that even mean? Is it even possible to "half intentionally and half accidentally" murder someone in your care/custody? I gather that this is a concept operational within Quranic law and is generally intended to apply to deaths that resulted from an action that would not threaten a life, but that definition cannot be reconciled with the fact that Kazemi had been so violently assaulted and horrifically murdered (and the unapologetic cover-up and sham trial that ensued). As a Kenyan youth, I hardly know anyone that has not been arrested by the police at one point in their lives (and this is, sadly, the case for many other young men in other parts of the country as well). As such, I have personally heard horror stories from women that I know who have endured unspeakable treatment at the hands of the almighty Kenyan Police Service- it seems that justice touches all races and all countries, except, if you believe it, North Korea, the Land of Human Achievement, Love and Joy. A lot has already been said about such circumstances and a lot more has to said to fight this particular form of injustice. One wonders how many Kazemis and Malekpours and Njoroges it would take to succeed.

<comment><USER3> To expand on your explanation of semi-intentional murder: in Iranian law, instead of first degree and second degree etc, murders are categorized as:

1\. Non-intentional murder: when the defendant did not intend to harm the victim in any way. This is almost equivalent to manslaughter. The penalty includes financial compensation for the victim's next of kin and potential prison sentence. Example: vehicular manslaughter

2\. Intentional murder: when the defendant knowingly and intentionally kills a person, whether premeditated or not. This is the closest to fist and second degree murder in US law. The penalty can be up to and including death sentence.

3\. Semi-intentional murder: when the defendant did intend to harm the victim but did not intend to cause death. The penalty includes financial compensation and prison time and is more severe than non-intentional murder. Example: a person pushing a man during a fight, inadvertently causing him to fall from a balcony to his death.

<comment><USER4> Sounds reasonable.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Saeed Malekpour is not a Canadian citizen. Unless he was abducted from Canadian soil I can't see how the Canadian government can justify involvement.

<comment><USER6> Previous Canadian administrations, and the Canadian parliament, have included Saeed's case when criticizing and negotiating with Iran.: it was that stance that in part led to Saeed's previous (two!) death sentences being commuted to life. A return to Canada's previous position would undoubtedly help Saeed now.

(I'm the author of the original EFF post)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> It is scary to know that as a Canadian, I can get abducted simply for having contributed to open-source projects. It's even worst knowing that my government won't do anything to help if it happens.

<comment><USER4> This person isn't a Canadian citizen, he's a permanent resident and a citizen of Iran.

Makes a big difference.

<comment><USER8> No it doesn't if you are Brown they don't care much like for Mohamed Fahmy[0] or the most egregious one giving a _kid_ to the USA to jail and torture[1].

So, no, if you are not white Canada most likely won't care much unless some huge PR disaster.

[0]: [http://www.canadalandshow.com/podcast/canada-failing- mohamed...](http://www.canadalandshow.com/podcast/canada-failing-mohamed- fahmy/) [1]: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_Khadr](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_Khadr)

<comment><USER9> According to Wikipedia Fahmy has been given a presidential pardon and released (he now lives in Vancouver). While I don't know the specifics of this case, presidential pardons in developing nations are usually the result of international pressure.

Khadr's case is tragic, but it's a bit disingenuous to claim his treatment was entirely on account of him being "brown". I'm pretty sure the fact he was fighting for the Taliban against his own country was part of the reason he wasn't properly advocated for.

There's also the case of two white men being beheaded by terrorists because the Canadian government refused to pay ransom. [http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/13/asia/philippines-canada-abu- sa...](http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/13/asia/philippines-canada-abu-sayyaf/) Their race didn't seem to affect the position of the government, despite much publicity.

Edit:Clarity

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Canadian citizens should perhaps mention their nationality if they do indeed fill out this email petition.

I simply added "I am a Canadian Citizen and voter" to the subject line.

Can't hurt.

</comment><comment><USER10> sad story, i posted it to their facebook post on eid and also emailed people who can probably help..

<comment><AUTHOR> This is unbelievably deplorable, it makes me question human decency...a young man's life has changed irrevocably because he developed a photo-sharing tool, not to mention the immeasurable harm and grief that it caused his father (who died knowing full well his son was in the worst of shape, stuck in solitary prison for a 'crime' that he did not commit, and would never get to pay his final respects) and causes his ailing mother...it is deplorable, even unthinkable...a lot certainly can be said about the excesses of Islamic fundamentalism and geopolitics and their role in precipitating countless such scenarios, but the systemic disregard for human welfare is shocking...having lost a parent while I was thousands of miles away, stuck in a world of hurt of my own, I can almost identify with what Malekpour endured...while we can not change the outcome of such cases around the world (and there are many), hopefully, we can help this one individual by spreading the word and saying a prayer or making a thoughtful petition...this more than sucks! vishalzone2002, in the grand scheme of things, I am convinced that your facebook post helped...if only our (global) leaders were as concerned as you were...

<comment><USER10> I agree. I have also tried reaching out to few business folks I know in Canada. But either ways, irrespective of religion, anything like this should be alarming to everyone because it can pretty much make anyone's life upside down in a matter of days for no reason.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Tell? I'm sorry, but that's a disrespectful way to phrase your statement -- he isn't even a Canadian citizen. Where do you get your entitlement from?

</comment><comment><USER12> >Justin Trudeau Can Restore Saeed's Freedom

No he can't. If the reasons for Saeed's arrest are truly as said in the article, it would be immense loss of face to any Iranian politicians to release him. So they won't.

If Trudeau does anything to this stuff, there are three options:

1\. Give up and lose face yourself.

2\. Threaten Iran and lose public image of Canada as the do-good nice guy.

3\. Exchange Saeed to something valuable. This would paint Saeed as spy and would save face of everybody involved in that regard. What would be sweet enough for Iran? What Canada has to offer?

Lifting trade sanctions prematurely or offering nuclear goods and ballistic missile designs. This would in turn make every ally of Canada pretty mad.

<comment><USER6> At a broad level, you're correct: prisoners like Saeed are often pawns in a wider geopolitical game (in fact, there's an upcoming documentary on this aspect coming out soon, which includes a detailed look at Saeed's case: [https://www.facebook.com/filmcheckmate/](https://www.facebook.com/filmcheckmate/) ).

However, these negotiations don't work at such a dramatic level as you suggest. For instance, Saeed was originally sentenced to death, but the sentence was commuted to life following external pressure. Mostafa Azizi, the Canadian filmmaker, was released in April.

Canada frequently makes strong protestations to Iran, and is currently in the middle of debating whether to restore diplomatic relations with the country. The fate of Canadian prisoners in Iran is clearly tied up with this, including that of Homa Hoodfar, who was arrested earlier this year.

While I can't predict what the results of those negotiations would be, whether Saeed is included in the names of prisoners being discussed would have a relatively marginal effect on the cost to either Iran or Canada. What's disturbing is that the previous Canadian government appeared to include Saeed in that equation, whereas Stephane Dion has implied that the new government does not.

(The other point I'd make is that the Iranian government, like most governments, is not a monolithic organisation. In particular, the parts of the political administration attempting to improve trade and diplomatic relations with the West is not the part that targeted and sentenced Saeed. Much of the real negotiations and power dynamics are internal to Iran. But that can be positive as well as negative. My impression is that Saeed's detention has served its political purpose for the more strident groups. I don't think, at this stage, years after the original prosecution, that releasing him would be an immense loss of face.

<comment><USER12> Fair points.

But still releasing will cost something to Canada. Probably something agreed behind closed doors as a part of package deal. I'm afraid this is one of those cases where you have to trust politicians. Trudeau or some diplomat will have to calculate what solution is good for the big picture and that may require sacrificing individuals.</comment></comment></comment>


Godfather of iPod Severs Final Ties With Apple - <AUTHOR> http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/29/godfather-of-ipod-severs-final-ties-with-apple/ <comment><USER2> This quote struck me:

 _I'm determined to tell my kids and grandkids amazing stories beyond my iPod and iPhone ones._

That makes me feel simultaneously small and motivated.</comment>


Ask HN: What are some of the mind mapping and outlining apps you like the best? - <AUTHOR> I am trying to find a tool to create/maintain mind/concept maps and outlines I would love and use actively. No luck so far. I would appreciate everybody to share recommendations.
Free (at least for a limited number of users and a limited number of documents) collaborative mapping is appreciated yet not mandatory. An option to download a document as a file is a must. All documents must be private unless I actually choose to publish them.
Recommendations targeting any of the popular platforms (including mobile, web and PC) are welcome, so are both free and commercial apps. <comment><USER2> im using simplemind. Paid. quite happy with it</comment>


Privacy risks from iOS photo metadata - <AUTHOR> https://halmueller.wordpress.com/2017/07/19/privacy-risks-from-ios-photo-metadata/ <comment><USER2> Mildly clickbaity headline since this isn't at all iOS specific - it's any photos with location et al EXIF.

I do agree with his main idea - that iOS could benefit from an extra "...but not metadata" flag for some apps - except then you probably have to get into which metadata people want scrubbing; pretty soon you've got a technical and customer support nightmare.

Better to leave it at app level and educate people about which apps "leak" metadata. Instagram, for example, strips location data from uploaded photos; even ones with a tagged location.</comment>


Ask HN: Product Suite vs. Best-of-Breed - <AUTHOR>

Hi!
Wanted to ask you simple question - would you rather use different apps for different tasks in your startup (CRM, project management, invoicing etc.) or all-in-one product suite?
Do you know any good all-in-one solutions suitable for a startup/small business? <comment><USER2> At the moment, my invoices are an Excel template. My proposals are Word templates, and my CRM is my Google apps contacts list. I'm still not very happy with that as a CRM. I augment things with trac as it has a good enough wiki to be malleable into whatever kind of pages I want.

I tried SugarCRM and found it very hard to use. The interface is borderline evil. I've previously used Tactile CRM (paid for account at a day job) and it was OK, and has its own quirks.

<comment><AUTHOR> But the question is - would you use/buy all-in-one app that does all that offer/invoice/project management thing?

<comment><USER2> Yes probably. If it works really well, I'd probably pay for it good money.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for this opinion! I'll count that as an upvote for Product Suite.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: SSHub – store and share SSH keys - <AUTHOR> https://sshub.dev <comment><USER2> Not sure I like this idea. I do like Krypt.co, cause the private key is stored on your phone in the Secure Enclave, and in the case of sharing, it's something related to the users public key being added and removed after use. This, I'm not sure about...

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't really think Secure Enclave is really increasing your security here. Your private key is always kept encrypted: \- For OpenSSH - with their 16-rounds custom bcrypto \- For OpenSSL/PCKS - with AES-256/PBDKF2 That renders your key virtually unbreakable as long as you use a reasonable password

On top of that, you can only upload public - this is also secure as long you use proper crypto (RSA or Ed25519)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I realize that it's likely copy & pasted from somewhere but if you want people to upload potentially security relevant content I'd really like to see a rewrite of that "Your Content" section in the terms of service. It doesn't even mention the type of user generated content (keys) your system handles.

The landing page could be a bit clearer on what it is you're actually getting pre-signup (throw a few screenshots or a link to your API docs in there). "Does what it says on the tin" kind of doesn't help if the tin doesn't say anything.</comment>


Inventing Our Way Out of Joblessness - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/06/opinion/06nothhaft.html

<comment><AUTHOR> posting this as an example of highly misguided thinking. though I am curious about "Three-fourths of executives at venture capital-backed startups say patents are vital to getting financing, according to the 2008 Berkeley Patent Survey". Who are these executives?</comment>


Lenovo, the Treasure Hunter of Tech - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-05-08/lenovo-targets-mobile-as-tech-empire-grows-on-castoff-businesses <comment><USER2> Thinkpads are truly awesome - but the problem is that lenovo is buying into the macbook hype machine without putting thought around it's design process.

for example, I recently bought a T430S as opposed to one of the newer T440 ranges. the touchpad is an abomination - and plus they soldered one of the RAMs to the motherboard. Seriously ? One of the _biggest_ differentiators that thinkpads have is their upgradability.

I can easily upgrade the CPU of a T430 series [1] and bump up the ram to 16 gb. the newer thinkpads lose both those abilities. The Thinkpad designers have not been able to make up their minds on what they want to build - which is why we see lines like T430/T430s/T430u/T430e and T440/T440s/T440p.

[1] [http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo/684625-t430-upgrade.h...](http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo/684625-t430-upgrade.html)

<comment><USER3> I have heard through coworker word of mouth, through discussions with lenovo engineers, that the touchpad changes have not been positively received even by the internal engineers. Pretty much everyone I've talked to (including my unfortunate fiancee who had the misfortune of buying one of these) thinks that touchpad is the worst thing since various laptop producers started going towards chicklets. I really wonder how these companies push forward despite (from my point of view) SIGNIFICANT customer pushback. Am I really stuck this far in an engineering bubble, or are things really so disconnected?

<comment><USER4> It is really that bad. I sent a new machine back - it was worthless for me [1].

For me it is not so much the touchpad changes (I do not use the touchpad) as the lack of physical trackpoint buttons. But even when I tried the new touchpad I absolutely hated the touchpad-is-a-button functionality. It does NOT feel good, sounds horible and is far from being ergonomic. For me personally it would be best to be able to buy Thinkpads just with trackpoint + buttons, but without touchpad.

[1] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7729110](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7729110)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> All well and nice but:

What is the current Thinkpad worth its once trustworthy brand? The way to drive and keep the profits seams to be to lure customers who trusted a brand for _years_ into buying quite frankly ridiculously manufactured surrogate products with the brand-label in the right place... well maybe turned 180 for the new coolness factor ;)

</comment><comment><USER6> I used to own a ThinkPad Edge-I bought it when I was much poorer than I am now, and needed a decent laptop. It was nice to have a relatively cheap computer with the TP branding, but over time I came to realize that it was nothing more than a generic cheap 14 inch laptop with the TP branding.

When you consider what TPs used to be, and what people think of when they think of TPs...well, either the Edge wasn't a true ThinkPad, or Lenovo is seriously diluting the brand. See also the ThinkPad tablet they came out with.

<comment><USER7> Your first suspicion was correct. The Edge line aren't true Thinkpads at all. Even the most recent mainline Thinkpads are a significant departure from the values of Thinkpads in the past.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Fascinating story. Lenovo's rise to prominence reminds me of Haier, especially the presence of a charismatic, ambitious leadership figure not content to settle for just the domestic market. But why are there raccoons all over the article?

<comment><USER9> Raccoons are often considered to be intelligent trash scavengers.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I use their P780. I bought it for the battery and I was right the battery is beyond excellent and I am saying this based on 2 day's use with 3G ON.

But the rest of the things on that phone are either bad or just mediocre. Not to mention the bloat and poor software leave a lot to be desired and a near certainly that there's nothing post 4.2. On top of that they use MediaTek that apparently stops custom ROMs from coming into picture.

</comment><comment><USER11> I've had 4 ThinkPads - T21, T42, R60, and now a T510 which I bought new in 2010. My plan is to buy a MacBook next time around, because when you look at price for performance, the MBP Retina blasts pretty much everything out of the water - even the T530 - Apples pricing over the last 4 years has come down, and Lenovo has stayed the same.

</comment><comment><USER12> Typing on an ideapad Y510p - its an excellent machine. I know that phones and tablets have the seat at the head table right now, but I can't imagine not having a laptop sitting on the kitchen table. Others seem to be dropping that ball ... or at least racing to the bottom. Lenovo laptops always seem a smart choice.

</comment><comment><USER13> Next up: How Lenovo Escapes Heat Death

</comment><comment><USER14> I can feel the end of American economic might. Facebook/Instagram/Whatsapp will not cut it. Pretty sad.

<comment><USER15> Lenovo...king of the low margin low growth PC market. The end is nigh for the Americans? When they start making real yuan, let's talk. Btw, why is business week blocked by the GFW?

<comment><USER16> It seems to me that Lenovo's modus operandi is to buy high quality brands with a great deal of goodwill from loyal customers, and then drive down costs by producing steadily more inferior products in order to soak up the difference as profit.

It's essentially a slash-and-burn strategy though. Eventually customers realize that the brand doesn't mean what it used to mean and move on. I used to be happy to pay a premium for Thinkpads because they were unparalleled in for quality and ergonomics. I've decided that my T410 will be the last Thinkpad I will own. I don't know what my next laptop will be, but I know for sure it will not be a Thinkpad.

<comment><USER17> What other examples are there besides the Thinkpad line? I would disagree that Motorola can be considered a high quality brand when it comes to smartphones. Yes, their recent X and G were really good phones for the price, but many Americans still see Android and Galaxy as synonymous, so I wouldn't say Moto is high quality.

I'm coming from a different POV from you when it comes to laptops. I'm 20 years old and started off with cheap laptops. But I've always lusted after Thinkpads and now a Yoga Pro 2 after having tried one so for me, the Lenovo brand looks really appealing. I haven't found any other hardware that appealed as much besides a Macbook.

<comment><USER15> Yoga pro 2 is great if you don't need a good trackpad. If you don't want to carry around a mouse, there is no other choice but the fruit.

<comment><USER18> Typing this from a Thinkpad with a trackpoint, I couldn't disagree more :) (though I'd as soon chop off my fingers as use the Dell version of the trackpoint).

<comment><USER15> My X1's trackpad is horrible, but thankfully it comes with the eraser mouse, which is accurate even if it hurts my finger tip. The Yoga has no such option like the X1 does, which is why I would avoid it.

Why can't just one PC vendor who can make a decent trackpad...

<comment><USER19> There is a ThinkPad Yoga that does have a trackpoint though. It's different from the other Yoga models, which are in the IdeaPad line.

Seems like Lenovo is determined to test the limits of just how many models their customers will tolerate. They're creating a new model for practically every feature instead of creating new options for existing models that are tried and true. I'd prefer they quit diluting the classic ThinkPad lines with experimental models, and up the quality on IdeaPad because they already have a value line called 3000 or something.

When I can find a trackpoint with a high res (2k+) screen I'll start shopping again.

<comment><USER15> Yes, there is one Yoga that has the trackpoint, but this is the one with the low res screen that isn't very interesting. I really want a Yoga 2 Pro, but the lack of a decent pointing system, even if it is the finger hurting trackpoint, bother me. I might just have to man up and buy an MacBook Pro.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Facebook's Invite Email from 2005 - <AUTHOR> http://blog.hollerback.co/2013/05/14/facebooks-invite-email-from-2005/

<comment><USER2> awesome little piece of history</comment>


Learn about Stellar Lumens - <AUTHOR> https://blog.coinbase.com/earn-50-of-xlm-for-learning-about-stellar-and-inviting-your-friends-2183effcde16 <comment><USER2> These kind of tactics should be extremely frowned upon. Stellar is created from thin air (without mining) and they hold the majority of Stellar which increases the price through artificial scarcity. Then they can bribe people and organizations with this artificial price. Same story as in Ripple who bribes banks to use their system.

<comment><USER3> It's almost as it is an inverse pyramid scheme: you have a lot of stuff, so now you have to convince a lot of people that what you have is worth something, by giving them the stuff.

Now they are interested in stuff being valuable too.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> > Eligible Coinbase customers in the US will receive an email invitation over > the next few days to earn up to $10 of XLM by viewing Stellar tutorials and > answering quiz questions. By sharing their unique referral link, customers > will also be able to earn up to $40 more of XLM by inviting four eligible > friends to complete the lesson.

If a brokerage did this with " _learning about index options_ " or a forex shop did this with " _learning about currency pairs_ " I'd seriously question their intentions. Especially the part about being paid to get your friends and family on board.

</comment><comment><USER5> What's the reason for Stripe and Coinbase to push Stellar like this? I thought it was just another cryptocurrency and nothing special.

<comment><USER6> It's _their_ cryptocurrency

<comment><USER7> Stripe has bought early in Stellar Lumens (they own 2% of the supply). But did Coinbase do something similar ?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> What Stellar needs - or any other cryptocurrency - is a way to directly buy with Stripe or preferred with PayPal. Then we can add business models where users of your service can easily buy XLM and be used by your service.

As long as I need to tell users they need a wallet and buy on some website they've never heard of, it's not working for anyone outside of cryptocurrencies.

<comment><USER9> If you could just cash out of Stripe with a cryptocurrency of your choosing it could work that way could it not?

<comment><USER8> Yes.

<comment><USER9> I think that might be the "best" we can get to, a system that takes cash and is willing to cash you out in some cryptocurrency. I coulda sworn to some extent you could do that with CoinBase to some degree, where you accept a bitcoin payment and the other party uses their card, but CoinBase doesn't have the 'seamless' brand recognition that someone like Stripe does atm. People use Stripe cause it's convenient as heck, at a food truck they can take my card and so long as they're not stealing my info I don't care.</comment></comment></comment></comment>