Ask HN: Any reason dead links can still be flagged? - <AUTHOR>

It seems kind of pointless to be able to flag dead links to me, is there a reason why they can still be flagged?  For example: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1043082 <comment><USER2> Not too many people look at the site with 'showdead' on and I would hope that the flag link even when clicked would not lead to someone having to look at the item again.

It is an imperfection though, but by far not the largest.

My favorite gripe is that when your vote won't be counted you can still vote.</comment>


Microsoft rips off Plurk - <AUTHOR> http://blog.plurk.com/2009/12/14/microsoft-rips-plurk/

<comment><USER2> Being the co-founder and lead dev of Plurk I can tell you this sucks :-( But we are looking at our legal options, thought legal war with Microsoft and especially legal war at Microsoft in China would require a lot of resources.

I think this will become a major concern for all startups that are doing lots of client-side stuff. If people have determination they can copy your code (even if all your code is obfuscated, which Plurk's is). And I don't know what the solution is - other than stronger IP laws in emerging countries.

<comment><USER3> Look I doubt anyone very high up at MS knows of this and when they do you might be able to get some scratch out of this.

They're really going to have 3 ways to deal with this.

1\. pull down the existing site while they retool. 2\. Pay you a licensing fee while the rewrite from scratch. 3\. Do nothing and get a ton of bad press

See if you can get 1 or 2 and maybe make some money off the deal.

<comment><USER4> I just started working for Microsoft so that I can be a voice inside the company for startups. I'm forwarding this thread to my legal contact.

<comment><USER5> Was that really the prime motivator in joining MS? How do you mean "be a voice for startups"? Cool.

People usually cite this reasoning for joining the government -- an organization whose mandate is toward the greater good of its people, but I've never heard it applied toward a corporate entity, whose mandate is solely profit.

Would you mind posting a bit more about your motivations and thinking? I would really like to hear.

<comment><USER6> Here's some more info: [http://jf.posterous.com/after-5-years-of-using-linux- and-mac...](http://jf.posterous.com/after-5-years-of-using-linux-and-mac-os-x- ive)

<comment><USER7> Joel sounds like he's replacing Don Dodge.

<comment><USER4> I was not hired to replace Don Dodge. I was hired because the person who previously held my role moved internally.

I actually don't know much about Don Dodge - I haven't met him yet. All that I know is that he is well liked and respected.

I can only hope to earn a similar level of respect from the startup community.

<comment><USER8> were you hired, or were you moved internally?

Its cool that they have someone devoted to worrying about these issues.

<comment><USER4> I was hired: <http://www.linkedin.com/in/joelfranusic>

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Microsoft should be held accountable for this, but assuming the blog is correct, I'm assuming that the deliberate ripoff (described on plurk's blog) wasn't a high-level Redmond decision.It was probably a decision taken at the junior management levelin Microsoft, China.

It will be interesting to see Microsoft's response, but suspending the MSN club service is probably the best immediate response, if plurk's blog is correct.

<comment><USER10> Precisely. This was a junior dev somewhere far away from Redmond making a terrible mistake. It's about to get thrown up to the highest level, and I can pretty much guarantee you that MSFT takes the site down.

<comment><USER11> It wasn't even that. It was a third party contractor hired by the Chinese company Microsoft partnered with to create "MSN China". So this was beyond just a hierarchical separation within the company, it was several degrees separated from the company itself. Only through contract is this even owned by Microsoft.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> At this point, Microsoft issued a press release and took the site down while investigating. PR: [http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2009/dec09/12-14Sta...](http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2009/dec09/12-14Statement.mspx)

<comment><USER13> Basically they just subcontracted the whole MSN Juku thing and nobody at MS ever had a real look into it or didn't know about Plurk?

<comment><USER14> Plurk is blocked in China, so it's not so surprising that staff at MSN China don't recognise its UI.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> The JS code was obviously unpacked/prettified. All internal vars have shortnames like B, C, D, etc. Everything that interacts with the outside has long names, as in the minified plurk code.

Astonishing.

</comment><comment><USER16> I'm speculating, but I'd guess this was the fault of poor management of an external contractor or partner. We don't know for sure who actually developed the code, just who's hosting it. It's not like similar things haven't happened before:

[http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/11/microsoft- pull...](http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/11/microsoft-pulls- windows-7-tool-after-gpl-violation-claims.ars)

I'd personally never heard of Plurk until now, and wouldn't have known myself that a contractor had ripped it off had I commissioned the work.

It's still an egregious violation, but I doubt this will even need to go to trial. Microsoft stands to gain little from alienating startups in this manner. If it comes to it, I'm sure aggressively shaming them publicly will be far cheaper than suing and eventually as effective.

</comment><comment><USER17> No surprises here - knew as soon as I saw the story that it was going to be something created by a contracted third-party and that Microsoft/MSN would not have recognised it as a rip-off.

"According to a source familiar with the situation, the Juku application was created for MSN China, which is a joint venture between Microsoft and a Chinese company. However, the source says the application was not designed by Microsoft or the joint venture, but rather by a third-party Chinese vendor hired for the task."

<http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10415298-56.html>

</comment><comment><USER18> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_vs._MikeRoweSoft>

Plurk should sue and win. If M$ could have had issues over phonetically rhyming domain name and take the kid to court, why not plurk taking microsoft into court for something serious. You just can't excuse yourself by saying someone in my company's xyz office is responsible.

<comment><USER19> The problem is that the case might have to be heard in China, whose judiciary system is not something that I can trust.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Interesting how javascript is turning source code theft into copyright infringement (a civil matter), when traditionally it would be trade secret theft (a criminal matter).

<comment><USER21> View > Page Source does not a trade secret make

<comment><USER21> In general, there are three factors that characterize a trade secret:

        * is not generally known to the public;
        * confers some sort of economic benefit on its holder
        (where this benefit must derive specifically from its not
        being generally known, not just from the value of the
        information itself);
        * is the subject of reasonable efforts to maintain its secrecy.

Javascript code fails all three tests

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Incredible, I guess in their culture this is ok (or has become so commonplace as to be ok), but shouldn't Microsoft have some sort of measures against it in their own workplaces?

<comment><USER23> By "their culture' do you mean China, or Microsoft?

I really don't think for example Google China would do this.

<comment><USER24> As a Chinese guy, I have to say that the above comment is generally correct - there is fundamentally a different awareness of the concept of IP in Asia.

More frankly, this concept doesn't really exist.

It's not that the culture is more tolerant of ripping others off, but rather that when it comes to creative works, it's not _seen_ as ripping off. Being able to take, adapt, and re-release the work of others, even for-profit, is a matter of course for the majority of the population. Many are not even aware of the moral issues surrounding it, and as far as they are concerned, none exists.

In all likelihood this wasn't so much a team under pressure and stealing out of desperation - in all likelihood someone just _did_ it without very much thought... and it flew under the radar of those who know better.

<comment><USER25> _More frankly, this concept doesn't really exist._

That's generally true of the Internet tho'. So many photographers I know have had someone rip off their galleries, the usual excuse is just "I found it".

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> [http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10415298-56.html?tag=newsE...](http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10415298-56.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0)

</comment><comment><USER27> This reminds me of the Kayak/Bing Travel issue from July and similar incidents before that. It's easy enough to blame some contractors at a distant outpost but the frequency with which these things happen around Microsoft certainly leads to the conclusion that they are bad actors and poor citizens.

<comment><USER28> Kayak/Bing Travel wasn't Microsoft, IIRC. They acquired another company who copied the look and feel of Kayak.

<comment><USER27> Farecast had a very different UI when MS bought them. The transition to the copy of the Kayak UI happened well after Kayak rolled theirs out and also well after MS bought Farecast.

The scenario/timeline you outline above is reasonable enough to assume - as is the idea that, as Farecast came out before Kayak, that Kayak was actually copying Farecast. What actually happened though is different. Farecast had a completely different model - they were banking on their ability to forecast whether or not you were likely to get a cheaper fare for the same route if you waited. Their original UI was based around that idea and it didn't go over incredibly well. After the Microsoft purchase and before the launch of Bing Travel they did a major redesign and got rid of most of the old Farecast. The old Farecast price predictor idea is reduced to one line at the top of the flights list on the page center.

I wrote about this and posted to HN shortly after Bing Travel went live and because of that I've been introduced to more information about the whole situation than I had when I originally brought it up. In a nutshell, the Microsoft team blatantly copied Kayak's UI and has pretty much gotten away with it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Offtopic: Is really Plurk #1 microblogging service in Asia?

<comment><USER29> Didn't remember it was greatfirewalled in China: <http://blog.plurk.com/2009/04/27/china-bans-plurk/>

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> They have taken down the site and are investigating the incident. The blame apparently lies with a third party vendor contracted for the job. <http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10415483-56.html>

</comment><comment><USER31> Whilst this really does suck, I think it's valid to mention here that Microsoft have now said that the coding was 'done' by a 3rd party developer so all the comments that MS have done this are no longer valid.

Having said that though, someones head should roll at MS for not checking this out properly before go-live and I'm pretty certain MS themselves are ultra embarrassed and will try to solve this as soon as possible.

I hope that the Plurk guys get something worthwhile out of this ... maybe even more than the copious amounts of free advertising they're currently seeing.

</comment><comment><USER32> 1\. Plurk is blocked in China

3\. MSN.cn outsourced the microblogging to an independent vendor.

</comment><comment><USER33> MS seem to be doing this quite a bit. Remember Bing copying Kayak back in June: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=674123>

</comment><comment><USER34> Plurk's blog page doesn't like being viewed at 1024x768 in Chromium... the left sidebar cut-off by the left side of my screen and the top-right Plurk logo is cut-off by the blog post.

</comment><comment><USER35> Chinese software piracy: if you can't beat it, join it.

</comment><comment><USER36> This is incredible. Have there been any other documented cases where a MSFT,GOOG,etc. has been caught stealing code red handed?

</comment><comment><USER37> Stunning.

</comment><comment><USER38> why doesn't this surprise me

</comment><comment><USER39> If you're going to worry about that you should have obfuscated your junk.

<comment><USER23> Read the article. They did.

<comment><USER39> I just re-read the article. If you really squint you might be able to assume that their code was scrambled in some way (if that's what "not compiled" means). Otherwise if you're trying to gain (well deserved) sympathy for something like this then the deobfuscation process is probably the most important part of the story. Did MS then rescramble the code? I'd want to know that as well.

<comment><USER40> You are more concerned about obfuscation of code than the fact that a major software developer ripped of someone's code, is a little troubling.

Whether he obfuscation code or not has absolutely zero importance in this context.

<comment><USER39> Of course it has context if this is being presented as a legal issue. The original article doesn't really mention it (although it's easier to assume now with the hindsight of a complete comment thread). I believe you are "even more guilty" if you de-obfuscate someone's code, then copy and republish/reuse.

<comment><USER41> There is no such thing as "more guilty". You are or you aren't.

<comment><USER42> It indicates intent and state of mind. "More guilty" is just an expression that means "more evidence for guilt."

<comment><USER41> OK - I can see what you mean. However, I still disagree. De-obfuscation does not provide more evidence that infringement occurred, it simply implies that whoever did it likely knew they should not be doing it, which has (I believe) absolutely no legal implication.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER43> Not condoning MS, but does anyone else find it ironic that a chinese company is accusing MS of piracy?

<comment><USER24> Not condoning the crime, but does anyone else find it ironic that a black guy is accusing someone of robbery?

Yes, because ignorant stereotyping is fun! Remember kids, it's not racism if it's not targeted at a member of the List Of Races We Should Be Sensitive About!

<comment><USER43> uhh.. its not stereotyping - comment was directed at a government policy that has fostered piracy at all levels in China. The comment is a characterization of policy, not a characterization of people.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER44> I can't say I'm surprised that Microsoft has stolen yet another idea, but I am astonished that they didn't go to more effort to obfuscate that fact. I'm publicizing this through my networks. More people need to know that the 's' in 'Microsoft' is really a '$'.

<comment><USER45> I've always found the use of $ when referring to Microsoft to be really really childish, and weird when I see people here, who are presumably mature adults, doing the same.</comment></comment>


Seeking technology partner / co-founder for what will start off as a feature - <AUTHOR> Good day. I've not been able to shake an idea over the past year, so I figure it may be an itch worth scratching.  The idea is not profound or groundbreaking.  It certainly is not a platform.  At best, a feature, to start.  Might turn into an app.
But it has the potential to solve a problem relevant to me.  I have a hunch that my thoughts, notes, journalling, todos, things I read can be synthesized to make connections and surface insights.
A note taking app, you say? Maybe the user interface to collect data could come off as that.  And that is by no means interesting.  I am more interested in making connections, drawing insights and developing predictions.
I'm putting this out there to see if others see value in this and would consider collaborating.  I'm open to how this partnership gets structured (forming a company, starting informally, etc.)
I am not looking to spend 100% of my time on this project.  And I certainly do not expect you to do so.  How much time we allocate to this ultimately will be driven by how excited we are about doing this.  I want for you to lead on the technology front (user experience, software development, machine learning).  I am interested in contributing to product design, marketing/branding and architecture.  That said, I don't care if our boundaries blur.  I just want to set the expectation that you'll be coding 99% of it.
I am based out of Toronto, Canada, so ET is my timezone.  Happy to zoom, face time, etc.  Reach out if interested! <comment><USER2> So what would you do?</comment>


Coding the Movies – Don't Fake It - <AUTHOR> http://blog.goconspire.com/post/84670090993/coding-the-movies-dont-fake-it <comment><USER2> As a coder who get shocked every time those running lines and "ACCESS GRANTED" pop-ups appear as that guy just break into the bank account and other phony stuff, I have to say that it did not started in here at all.

Hollywood has been faking it all the way, from ridicules gun-shots scenes, bombs explosions, cars that keep driving after getting smashed and street-kids who can shot and kill in one hand.

It is simply that code, software and hacking is closer to us than the other examples, so we care about it that it will look real.

Also, how would you show an owned server? a prompt that reads:

      # root

This means nothing to the masses.

[1] - regarding bombing scenes, I think is one of those rare directors who don't fake it, rather make it looks as realistic as possible, see Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty as examples.

[a] [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0887912/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_3](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0887912/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_3)

[b] [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1790885/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_1](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1790885/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_1)

<comment><USER3> The guns thing really is pretty epidemic. There's a huge thread over on Something Awful about this, hundreds of pages of people pointing out how the movie's "M-16" is actually an SKS dressed up funny and how it doesn't have any sights, that kind of thing. Similar thing is most cases: how hard would it have been to buy a real AR-pattern rifle? And when they hire a consultant, they ignore them half the time, just like with computer stuff in movies.

<comment><USER4> This is so true. I remember how irate I was when I realized that Rambo III insisted that a thinly mocked-up Browning was actually a DShK. That annoyed me but not nearly as much as Neo's Scorpions ejecting what looked like 5.56 casings on the floor during the lobby gun fight. Maybe necked-down brass looks sexier pinging off the floor.

But worse than all of this is what happens in movies when people are shot. People inevitably fly backwards, sometimes tens of feet. There's a nice Quora answer about this [1]. I get the need for a great action shot, but it's a thumb in the eye to everyone who actually has even a ballpark concept of kinetic energy delivery.

[1] [http://www.quora.com/Guns-and-Firearms/Does-shooting- someone...](http://www.quora.com/Guns-and-Firearms/Does-shooting-someone- really-cause-them-to-fly-backwards).

<comment><USER5> Or if you don't want to register, [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BlownAcrossTheRoo...](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BlownAcrossTheRoom)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> There's a blithe decadence in insisting that the details of movie-making fantasy conform exactly to your expectations. It's also suspicious that the complaint is aimed at mainstream movies, rather than, for example, pornography for a male audience. Would the author want more realism in porn? Should there be more dates in porn? Awkward moments where the conquering male can't decide whether or not to pull his date's chair out for her? An inner monologue wherein he wonders if she's hot enough, chides himself for being so shallow, and then unconvincingly reassures himself that he's not that shallow and he still finds her attractive even though he's in the mood for larger breasts?

Of course not, because porn is fantasy that has as a crucial element the affirmation of male power, validity, and competence. _Those elements of "realism" would detract from the purpose of the medium._ It's the same with movies. In the climactic scene where the protagonist is on the cusp of capturing the Macguffin, what the plot needs--and what needs therefore to be quickly, visually, and unambiguously communicated to the audience--is that the protagonist or the protagonist's allies have been granted access to the god- like computer system that unlocks the whosywhatsit. "ACCESS GRANTED" does this. Is it realistic? No. Does it matter? Nope! Like an exploding car or a space fighter that banks like an F-16, it communicates to the audience in a way that is _immediately recognizable_ and _plausible on a time-scale consistent with the pacing of the action_.

Complaining about the lack of realism of coding sequences in movies certainly does not identify you as a "nerd" or "smart person above pop culture." It emphatically identifies you as an unimaginative dork and a boring pedant.

<comment><USER7> As the article explains, though, including some realism in the way a movie depicts computing achieves the very same goal as the noisy explosion in space or banking starfighter. If there's too much physics realism in a space movie, people will notice that it looks "fake" and their suspension of disbelief will be disrupted. Space movies have dogfights because war movies have dogfights, so people know what to expect, and the plot is advanced. Back in the 1960s when computers were unknown quantities, you could put whatever bullshit you wanted up on the screen and that was fine. But now that the majority of the movie-watching public has a pretty good idea of how computers work, having a "hacker" enter some kind of 3d virtual reality world to hack the NSA is perceived as ridiculous, even for Joe Sixpack, as if the movie depicted a scene in a McDonald's wherein the characters talked to a Maitre'd and ordered Steak Tartare and Chicken Tikka Masala. We all know enough about restaurants to know that's bullshit, even someone who's never eaten in a four star restaurant.

<comment><USER8> > Back in the 1960s when computers were unknown quantities, you could put > whatever bullshit you wanted up on the screen and that was fine.

Oh could you ever. Except back in the 60s, blinkenlights, tape reels and noisy dot matrix printers were more likely to be featured than screens.

I distinctly remember a 60s (probably, can't remember the name) movie where the con man lead character gets himself hired as head of a bank's computer division despite having no technical expertise whatsoever, and one technician explains that the computer is totally secure and this is indicated by a specific red light - as long as that light is on, it's secure!

<comment><USER9> Fast-forward to today when the red light has been replaced with a picture of a padlock.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> In the director's commentary for _Swordfish_ , director Dominic Sena outright admits that he made his computer consultant/animator create exciting outlandish sequences over the consultant's objections under pain of being fired, because a realistic sequence would be "just a bunch of scrolling data", it'd be boring, and the nerds would object to it but they don't really matter anyway. Pretty much a picture-perfect snapshot of the contempt Hollywood had for our profession.

It's good to see some studios and directors addressing these issues, particularly David Fincher but also Disney with recent _Tron_ works (few surprises there, Disney owns Pixar where many computer graphics pioneers work; nerds _are_ some of their most bankable filmmakers).

But see /r/ItsAUnixSystem for even more funny sequences even from modern times.

<comment><USER9>
       Bunch of scrolling data

Like in the Matrix?

<comment><USER10> Yes. :) Remember, this was a movie aimed at dudebros, and was not nearly so highbrow as _The Matrix_. In fact Sena wanted the scene where Stanley codes the worm to have graphics that resembled an actual worm. He cited the water tentacle from _The Abyss_ as the sort of thing he was going for.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> "I want to see a movie where the protagonist blankly stares at a stack trace for 30 seconds"

a memorable quote from some forum as best as i can remember it

<comment><USER9> And intones "there's our way in."

<comment><USER12> I know it doesn't add to the discussion so much to say this, but I laughed so hard at your comment.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Tron was pretty amazing in not faking it. A post that bubbles up to the front page usually several times in a year is Joshua Nimoy's write up for the effects he did for tron ([http://jtnimoy.net/?q=178](http://jtnimoy.net/?q=178))

Incredible stuff and an enjoyable read.

</comment><comment><USER14> Back in the olden days, computer interfaces were an ASR-33 teletype. Movies showed that. But when computer terminals graduated to DECwriters in the movies, the sound effects were still ASR-33. The ASR-33 sounds persisted even when using glass terminals.

Since then, the ASR-33 mechanical chugging sound has been replaced with a high pitched beep, but the text appearing on the screen still made 'printing' sounds.

It's only recently that that has started to fade from movies.

</comment><comment><USER15> I like some amount of realism in the fiction I watch and read? Why? Because I believe it makes for a world that is much better constructed and is indicative of quality.

Of course, sometime we don't want realism, because it would make things uninteresting. For example, it is an acceptable break from reality to have space ships slugging it out in space opera. Otherwise, space battles would be mostly about who is the first to shoot their kinetic weaponry against an opposing side's planet.

</comment><comment><USER16> As a vet it guns that don't eject casings, recoiled fully automatic weapons and unrealistic explosions irk me just as much. But alas it's Hollywood and realism doesn't sell... well.

<comment><USER15> You can do realistic combat like _Acts of Valor_ that's still exciting, though the movie's plot is terrible and unrealistic.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> This is silly. The realism of code in "Social Network" is secondary and irrelevant.

What really matters is that the movie's characters, plot and dialog are inconsistent and formulaic cliches.

I wrote a post about it before: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2134065](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2134065)

<comment><USER18> You should read the book "The Accidental Billionaires", the screenplay is based on that book.

As with every movie, they had to shortening some scenes like "hacking" houses websites and coding Facemesh in one night (in the book and in reality it was not that case - it took several days/nights).

And the book is missing a side-"story" too. There was already a "Face Book" kind of website called houseSYSTEM. And Zuckerberg tricked this guy: [http://www.aarongreenspan.com/writing/essay.html?id=80](http://www.aarongreenspan.com/writing/essay.html?id=80)

So the reality is even _wilder_ than the movie.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> The alternative is to go halfway and just use nmap regardless of the context, apparently it's the way to go: [http://nmap.org/movies/](http://nmap.org/movies/)

<comment><USER20> It's still much better than pasting HTML and/or JavaScript taken from a random website all over the computer screens. It's the most common "code" I see in the movies and TV series made in this decade in last 10 years.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> I recall part of the Dr Who documentary-ish flick "An Adventure in Space and Time", where the Hartnell character is being given direction to press buttons for a shoot.

"You'll flip a few switches and then do the button for opening the door. OK?

"No... no no, I can't do that. The switch for the door is over there, that panel over there. I have to move around for it after I stand here. The kids will notice, so we have to do it that way. Hm? Yes?"

"... uh... ok sure. Whatever. Go ahead"

I still notice, and it's a more rewarding experience.

</comment><comment><USER18> In the Social Network DVD commentary extras you can see the monitors with a green screen. All computer scenes have been edited in post production.

You can check the Full HD version, frame by frame and read real perl code and shell commands like wget. The screenplay even is based 1:1 on the real blog posts of Zuckerberg (except the girls name).

I wonder if they were able to reuse Facebook website design by using archive.org. Shortly after the movie was released Facebook changed the robots.txt to disallow and prevent archive.org.

But there are some minor errors. Like later in the movie somehow Zuckerbergs PC runs Windows XP instead of Linux. And in one short scene the Windows XP screen is not completely visible, the right side is cut of (like the clock of the taskbar).

</comment><comment><USER18> _Antitrust_ (2001) is also great.

Scott McNealy (of former Sun Microsystems) and Miguel de Icaza (creator of GNOME, and Mono) supervised the movie. Several computer scenes involve Gnome Linux desktop, realistic IP address input sequences (though non-public IPs [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reserved_IP_addresses](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reserved_IP_addresses) ) and an infamous HTML code intro.

Btw. the art style of buildings and interior was awesome.

[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0218817/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0218817/)

</comment><comment><USER22> The level of realism in The Social Network is uneven. See this analysis of the scene in the operating systems class (about 20 minutes into the movie):

[http://chomaloma.blogspot.com/2011/02/social-network- inaccur...](http://chomaloma.blogspot.com/2011/02/social-network-inaccuracies- regarding.html)

</comment><comment><USER23> I dunno, I think It's actually more much of a waste of time and money to write functioning code than to put real old-timey horse saddles from the Wild West on Dances with Wolves. It's far better to bank on suspension of disbelief.

</comment><comment><USER24> This is a good start. Next, could we have some decent, at least semi- realistic, dialog? I made the mistake to watch CSI this week, which was some kind of pilot for the new "Cyber crime" spinoff. Yuck.

</comment><comment><USER25> At least the movies that want to simulate Linus making linux can still use [http://hackertyper.net/](http://hackertyper.net/)

<comment><USER26> or decrypt.py ;) [https://github.com/jtwaleson/decrypt](https://github.com/jtwaleson/decrypt)

<comment><USER27> Someone showed me this a while ago. Apparently it's an actual attack. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G50typU3mLg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G50typU3mLg)</comment></comment></comment>


Twitter rolls out photo tagging, up to four photos in a tweet - <AUTHOR> https://blog.twitter.com/2014/photos-just-got-more-social

<comment><USER2> I haven't yet found any mention of how this affects the API. Anyone know when public coverage of becomes exposed, if not already?</comment>


Hiking the 2,650-Mile Pacific Crest Trail - <AUTHOR> http://priceonomics.com/hiking-the-2650-mile-pacific-crest-trail/ <comment><USER2> Wow, this was a pleasure to read.

Things sure have changed! In high school I did a ton of hiking in the California mountains in the early 90s, including several week-long Sierra trips ending with Mt. Whitney. I would love to hike the PCT someday. I had no idea it required 20-25 miles a day. With elevation change that's a tough day hike, let alone a sustained average with a full overnight pack. OTOH, when I was hiking more, a week-long pack was more like 50 pounds, and now 25 is heavy?

<comment><USER3> You would be pretty surprised what you can carry for under 18 lbs or so. (not counting food/water)

Doing so comfortably is a different story. ($)

There's a huge cottage industry of lightweight gear manufacturers [1] (I curate a list) that you won't find in the big retail stores. Lots of focus on smart feature engineering, lightweight hardware and materials, consistent feedback from customers driving their revisions. It's been pretty neat to watch.

1\. [https://lwhiker.com/brands](https://lwhiker.com/brands)

<comment><USER4> The number of brands on that list is incredible. How big do you think the businesses behind them are?

<comment><USER5> I can't speak in dollars or volume, but I visited Katabatic Gear a few years ago. To my memory, the owner had a small office & warehouse in the industrial part of town - comparable to a small auto shop - and one assistant.

Plenty of these operations literally run out of a garage though, and Katabatic Gear used to be one of those. I believe Cold Cold World packs are all still made by the owner.

I have been immensely pleased with my "cottage gear".

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Hiking the PCT is certainly an amazing accomplishment.

As someone who spends a lot of time outdoors hiking and biking, the PCT has some interesting politics. The PCT expands or gets rerouted and the land that is taken over goes from being open to mountain bikes to closed. The forest service took a short term moratorium on biking and has basically made it permanent; yet in parts of the Sierras (especially around tahoe) mountain bike groups take it upon themselves to maintain parts of the PCT.

</comment><comment><USER7> Ray Jardine was an amazing guy--an engineer who was incredibly innovative in solving problems in outdoor adventure. For example, he invented the spring- loading camming device, which is a revolutionary and essential piece of rock climbing protection. Creating this device (he called the first product the "Friend"), allowed Jardine to protect a very smooth and steep crack climb, which was the first in the world rated 5.13.

Many innovations in ultralight backpacking can be traced back to Jardine: the tiny backpack without a hip belt, wearing running shoes instead of hiking boots, carrying an umbrella, using a one-layer quilt instead of sleeping bag, using an alchohol stove, etc. It's all laid out in the _Pacific Crest Trail Hiker 's Handbook,_ which blew minds when it was published. Jardine had to hand-make most of his own gear to make it small and light enough; now you can go into REI and buy versions of most of it.

</comment><comment><USER8>
      "The birth of the Internet in the late 1990s
      revolutionized information flow, and exposed more people
      to the trail. You could sit on your PC at home, research
      about a subject to your heart's content, then discuss it
      and ask questions in online forums. These discussion
      sites have a way of stoking passion, and I think that
      passion started translating into more people taking
      action, and tackling the trail."

I relate to this happening in Southern California. There's definitely a healthy cultural atmosphere that's sprouted from the internet's ability to let people know about niche hole in the wall shops or obscure happenings hidden amongst the vast seemingly desolate sprawl that someone who would never have otherwise left their house can now discover from their bedroom.

<comment><USER3> I agree completely.

The internet has really empowered me to get out and maximise my time on the trail.

It's also allowed me to maximise my dollar...

I built a tool [1] to help people find cheap used (lightweight) gear purely out of my passion for the trail and the people.

1\. [https://lwhiker.com](https://lwhiker.com)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Probably the happiest time in my life was the month I spent hiking the Long Trail in Vermont. The rhythm of waking up every day and exhausting myself physically (but having plenty of mental energy for thinking) helped me to gain a much better perspective on life. It was also a great opportunity to connect on a deeper level with my father before I went off to college.

I plan to attempt the PCT or AT some day, but their considerable length makes it a much bigger commitment than hiking the short 270-mile Long Trail. Unfortunately it's hard to justify taking 6 months off from education or employment—many people see it as a "hippy" thing to do.

At present, my plan is to hike the AT when/if I sell a startup. People seem to be more understanding of you taking out in nature when you're wealthy.

<comment><USER10> If you don't have the time available to do the entire PCT, you can do one of the most scenic portions of it called The John Muir Trail ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Muir_Trail](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Muir_Trail)) which is actually a bit shorter than the trail you mentioned, but makes up for it in climbs. It's still an endeavor, but one that can be done with PTO rather than needing a leave of absence or quitting your job.

<comment><USER9> The JMT is actually on my list. Every summer I try to do a hike of a 1-4 weeks. Hoping to get to it soon, though it's tough to take a month off at a startup.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> For those that are interested in doing the PCT and want to learn more I highly recommend the trail journal of Carrot Quinn on her 2013[1] hike. She gives an entertaining and real view of the trail.

I hiked the trail in 2014 and found it to be one of the hardest and most rewarding things I've ever done.

1\. [http://carrotquinn.com/pct-2013/](http://carrotquinn.com/pct-2013/)

<comment><USER12> A bit older, but this was the blog that an ex-coworker made while hiking the PCT for a second time: [http://teamcolour.blogspot.ca/](http://teamcolour.blogspot.ca/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> This is so awesome to read about, but I just can't imagine dropping everything for 150 days...

<comment><USER14> Then that is why you need to go!

I haven't done a 150 day hike, but I have done 100 - 150 day travel before.

Things like that are a great way of creating chapters in your life. Everything in the old chapter closes before you go. You stop working, get rid of 'stuff', move out of your living space and simplify down to essentials.

When you're done, a new chapter starts. In the new chapter, you'll do things differently because you get a new chance to start, and because a long break generally gives your brain a chance to bubble up what it think the long term priorities are.

Call it a life reboot with a disk reformat and OS update. Sometimes you need to take the server offline for a while to bring it up to spec.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I only hiked the JMT which is 220 miles of the pacific crest trail. That was plenty but it was also easier than expected in some ways. There are lots of hills but the footing is easy because they made it accessible to pack animals. I found it much easier than the parts of the AT that I have seen.

One of the biggest things I learned was that through hikers are all a little strange. Have you ever had a grown man introduce himself as Hello Kitty while keeping a straight face?

<comment><USER16> FYI, that's just a trail name. It's a common thing for hikers to choose (or be given) a silly trail name. It isn't a specific personality quirk.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> I would really love to do this sometime, but I don't have 6 months of my life to contribute to such an endeavor. House/kids/job/wife/etc.

I can't describe the jealousy toward others who can simply take off and do this. If you're young and reading this, and are thinking about it -- just do it.

<comment><USER18> Echoing this! Young-uns (or not so young-uns) - go fucking do it!

Kids are awesome, but once you have them, achieving an extended adventure like this becomes seemingly impossible. At least until they're grown up.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> >and those who do must maintain a 20-25 mile per day pace to beat the early snowfall in Northern Washington.

Why not hike north to south, starting in Washington in early spring?

<comment><USER20> You won't get very far in spring. The PCT in Washington goes through the north cascades, which has one of the deepest snowpacks in north america.

<comment><USER19> Alright, leave in Summertime then. I don't think the winters in southern cali are too tough..

<comment><USER21> You might find the Forester Pass in the Sierra Nevada (13,153ft) difficult to deal with in the snow.

In fact, the many 10k+ft sections of the PCT in California are likely the reason not to start EARLIER than April.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forester_Pass](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forester_Pass)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Anybody who's hiked the Appalachian Trail and the PCT able to compare?

<comment><USER23> I've completed both the AT and PCT on thru-hikes.

The PCT is logistically more difficult than the AT. The AT is physically more difficult than the PCT. Both are long distance hikes where, once initial physical issue have been conquered, become more of a mental challenge than physical challenge.

The PCT seems to be more hostile to feet than the AT. Lots of hikers have a difficult time figuring out the right combination of miles, shoes, socks, and so on during the Southern California part of the PCT. Blisters are very common. The AT's ups and downs can be more hazardous to ankles and knees. Hiking poles are common and useful on both.

Resupply options on the PCT are less frequent than the AT leading to longer sections between resupply than on the AT. There are only three or four shelters on the PCT so camping locations must be thought out in advance (i.e. consulting maps to identify level ground) or discovered en-route. You have to be prepared to dry-camp as stopping for the day at the last water source will cut into your daily miles too much.

Weather can be challenging on either trail but the 'season' for hiking is much longer on the AT than the PCT. PCT hikers can't spent lots of time in town if they want to finish before the snow arrives in Washington.

I'm happy to answer any more specific questions.

<comment><USER24> Can you recommend any resources for someone that wants to hike the PCT? I'd like to do it in the next couple years, but the logistics have intimidated me. I've hiked the JMT twice, and doing it again this year. I'm not really even sure where to start with doing something like the PCT.

<comment><USER23> Best resource I can recommend is Yogi's PCT Handbook. She also has a guide to the CDT (Continental Divide Trail) and the Colorado Trail.

Yogi's books are really two-in-one, a planning guide and an on-trail guide.

[http://www.yogisbooks.com](http://www.yogisbooks.com)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> 195 oz for all his things...

Pretty impressive for a 2500 mi trek! I think my bag weighs something like that biking to work most days.

<comment><USER26> Does anyone know whether someone packing today could carry the same functionality in a lot less weight? I imagine a lot of the electronics items and compass and maps could be replaced by a top-of-the-line phone.

<comment><USER14> If you read the article it lists the things he took. Maps etc didn't appear to be a part of it. I would say his phone did the majority of the navigation.

<comment><USER27> Maps and compass are in fact on the list under miscellaneous.

Halfmile Maps [http://www.pctmap.net/](http://www.pctmap.net/).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> > less than 50% who set out to reach Canada make it there

That seems like a pretty damn good rate to me, for such a tough trek.</comment>


Minecraft sales top 100M - <AUTHOR> http://www.theverge.com/2016/6/2/11838036/minecraft-sales-100-million <comment><USER2> If you have young kids, then there's a good chance you know how deeply Minecrafted has penetrated their worlds, replacing or augmenting Legos (or other, lesser, building toys) and video games in general. It's more than that they've sold 100M units, it's that there's an entire generation of kids now whose basis for creativity/entertainment is Minecraft, and who knows what future behavior that will inform.

It's not just a staggering number of units, it's a shift in shared cultural experience for a generation.

<comment><USER3> It blew my mind when Lego Minecraft appeared a Christmas or two ago.

I saw Minecraft as a digital interpretation of Lego; how meta that you can now get a physical interpretation of Minecraft.

Simply having green and brown pixels[0] is enough to elicit cries of joy, regardless of whether there is any minecraft logo visible.

0: [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pixel-Duvet-Cover-Pillow- Single/dp/...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pixel-Duvet-Cover-Pillow- Single/dp/B0153HSWU4)

<comment><USER4> My 7yo is pretty big into minecraft and lego both. We have close to 30k bricks in our inventory, and he did get a minecraft specific lego set for christmas. We have a LOT of fun building things from minecraft into lego sets and vice- versa. I thought that he would prefer to build things in the virtual world (prototyping etc) before building in lego, but he really enjoys the physical process in lego and then trying to make the virtual (and at times more restrictive) blocks in minecraft.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> According to Wikipedia this makes it the second best selling video-game of all time [1], only behind Tetris. Pretty impressive.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best- selling_video_gam...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best- selling_video_games)

</comment><comment><USER6> I haven't played in years, but it's incredible how popular this game has become. One day, I'll be able to prove to my kids that I played Minecraft before it even went Beta.

<comment><USER7> I have a screenshot receipt just to be able to show them how few people were playing when I was. I can't wait to get the "you're so out of touch" _eyerolls_ from them when they're teenagers.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> My sons, 8 and 10 years old, have just got bored of Minecraft. Their friends are all on Clash of Clans or their subproducts. Even worse, they are spending a lot of time just watching Netflix. I'd prefer they were doing something that stimulates more their intellect.

I think MC is a really cool and creative game. A lot better than other videogames. How would I get them interested again?

<comment><USER9> Have they tried using mods?

<comment><USER8> Sure. They use the Technich Laucher and install mods themselves. They also played a lot of minigames in online servers.

<comment><USER10> Try to get them into making their own mods. There's childrens books on just doing that. They would learn programming, and we know that's a rabbit hole that once you're hooked, you may never get out.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> How much of this is due to mods and minigames?

No one I know plays stock vanilla Minecraft anymore.

This is even stranger, considering mods and minigames have never been supported by Mojang directly.

<comment><USER12> I had the same opinion, but that may be just our perspective, given the people we know (and follow on youtube).

Maybe it's more accurate to say "most old players have moved on from vanilla Minecraft".

Frankly, Minecraft does not _need_ mods. However, Mojang took too long to add content to the game. Heck, even Dwarf Fortress seems to add new features faster.

Today, vanilla feels... "bland". "Oh right, I have no fluid containers nor pipes, have to move stuff one bucket at a time". "Right, let me build this redstone flip-flop for the umpteenth time". "Oh yeah, there's no way I can automate crop replanting, just harvest". Every game start is grindy in the same way, the only thing that keeps it interesting is the random terrain generator.

But that's after playing for a while. New players still get the "discovery" experience, redstone learning curve and so on. That can take months to wear off.

Also, many people are using mods without even knowing, depending on which server they play on.

<comment><USER13> I play vanilla, and have since a short time pre-beta. I like the simplicity; it's kind of like playing a creative version of Solitaire with a giant Lego set.

Then again, I also don't play on a server, watch people on Youtube, or really have a connection to any kind of community, so I don't really have the chance to get envious of what other players have available.

<comment><USER11> I try to play Minecraft these days, but it makes me so lonely.

This comes from the fact that I run a server which used to have ~20 on at any given time and now has 0, along with the fact that I learned to play it alongside my ex-girlfriend.

I wish there was some way for me to get past the loneliness.

<comment><USER13> Minecraft's always been a place to go when I want to be alone for a little while, so playing on a server has always been a little uncomfortable to me.

I've had other places that I'd go for companionship that cleared out over time, so while it wasn't Minecraft, I can imagine some of how you feel about it :-/

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> And yet somehow installing mods is a way to kill the parent in your family. :(

I know there are some tools around this but it is a painful exercise in version numbers to get anything working in minecraft with mods.

</comment><comment><USER15> >Microsoft's video games revenue has been climbing steadily since the Minecraft acquisition, and it increased by $367 million in the 2015 financial year "mainly due to sales of Minecraft."

Is that really a lot? How much more do they need to sell to get their money back from what they spent to buy Minecraft in the first place?

<comment><USER16> They paid 2bn for Minecraft, not sure if 367m is just software sales or merchandising as well but the merchandise is _everywhere_ here in the UK and it seems to sell well.

<comment><USER17> The merchandising is awesome too. I see kids with creeper backpacks and I wish I had things like that when I was that age.

<comment><USER18> Not sure when or where you grew up, but at least in US in the 80s and 90s there were _tons_ of television and video-game branded merchandise...

<comment><USER19> In the 80s and 90s, it tended to be the opposite, though: tons of merchandise for which "advertising" television shows were created (things that come to mind are GI Joe, M.A.S.K. ...).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> The Minecraft EDU version has still not officially launched. It has the potential to simply take the ed tech market by storm. Those sales numbers should be interesting.

<comment><USER21> MinecraftEdu has existed for years. That new one is just crippled and much more expensive...

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> >Microsoft says four copies have even been sold to people in Antarctica

Does anybody know who these people might be?

<comment><USER23> Also, how do they know the sales are in Antartica?

<comment><USER24> Billing address?

96598 is the zip code of the south pole.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> I am surprised Minecraft doesn't have licensed content you can buy, like how I can buy Spiderman or Harry Potter Legos. Seems likes a logical next move, considering their target audience is very similar.

<comment><USER26> Minecraft licensed to Lego a few years ago. Lego even just revealed another big set from Minecraft just this month.[0]

[0] [http://shop.lego.com/en-US/The- Village-21128?icmp=SHM_21128](http://shop.lego.com/en-US/The- Village-21128?icmp=SHM_21128)

<comment><USER27> I think they meant the flip side of that -- having Spider-Man and Harry Potter themed downloadable content for the Minecraft game.

<comment><USER25> Correct. I know Minecraft has a large modding community. But last I checked, I had to download third party software to do this.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> This is impressive but I imagine at this point the profit in minecraft is in the brand, merch is everywhere, there is minecraft lego, etc.

It's pretty impressive how much of a cultural icon steve and the creeper have become, in the long run I think this will be a good purchase for MS.

</comment><comment><USER29> 100 million sales. So? MS bought Minecraft for $2,500,000,000. At this point, for all it's popularity, Minecraft is still being subsidized by the other MS products. It has yet to reach profitability and might never do so ... at least for Microsoft. Notch certainly made his numbers.

<comment><USER5> It's not about what it is today, it's about what it can become. Minecraft is firmly in the trajectory of becoming absolutely massive, and if nothing stops its pace in the next few years, it's not crazy for Microsoft to bet that it will become profitable at the price they paid in the next 5 years or so.

<comment><USER30> The cold hard numbers suggest that Minecraft is well past its peak. MS sold 50M copies for 2 years, which is ~ 70K/day. 2016 they have sold 50K/day. Also:

[https://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=minecraft](https://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=minecraft)

And really, 100M is already "absolutely massive" in my book. How much bigger can it grow? Will everyone on Earth be playng Minecraft?</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: What should I do now? - <AUTHOR>

I have been attempting to create an online App Store for indie game developers who wish to penetrate the Chinese market. The AppStore will have a chinese front end to appeal to chinese consumers and a developer portal for developers to submit their apps/games with the option of using a translation service e.g. Duolingo to translate any text files etc.. However, I foolishly chose to implement the website in asp.net web forms thinking that it would be similar to a Winform app. Boy was I wrong, The drag and drop gui builder did work the same way and I could not get the Bootstrap theme to work at all. I have hit a brick wall and I have no idea what to do now. I am now considering redoing it in Ruby/Python but I have no other web development experience beyond implementing a helloworld in the bottle micro framework. I have done a mockup of the website in winforms but it is nowhere close to what I envisioned it to be. I was hoping for a look similar to the chrome AppStore. Should I just give up on this idea and move on to other things or should I continue? <comment><USER2> Oh dear. Do they still have that Drag/Drop stuff in Visual Studio? Sorry to hear you got bitten by it.

Those tools have never worked. And for some reason, somebody at Microsoft really wants people to use them anyway. The first thing that everybody learned was to stay well clear of the drag/drop interface builder and anything that seemed like it existed only to support it. In 2001, that lopped off roughly 90% of ASP.NET and left one with a really nice platform for development.

It's actually surprising to hear that it has persisted all the way through to ASP.NET MVC and the new view engines. I hadn't heard of anybody getting bitten by it, had to advise anybody to steer clear of it, or even _seen_ it in any version of VS.NET since 2007.

Apologies that the message never made it through. Don't use any of that stuff, and you'll find that the Microsoft stack is quite a good platform to build off of.

</comment><comment><USER3> Depends on whether you are interested in this a business opportunity or a technical challenge.

If business and the projected revenue looks sufficient then maybe you should get a technical co-founder. You could learn a lot from somebody with more developed skills.

If a technical challenge then maybe you need to improve your skill-set. Building an AppStore requires more than programming skills, you will also need design and UX skills, etc. The key is to choose a suitable framework and then learn the underlying language.

<comment><AUTHOR> I am more interested in this as a business opportunity. I have attempt creating it with Drupal and some ecommerce modules but they are not suitable for it.

<comment><USER4> Then find someone to partner with that is interested in the idea (I myself find it interesting as a developer) and bring them on as a partner. Be generous with equity. Don't assume the idea and mockups entitle you to 90% of the equity despite them doing 90% of the actual work to make it a reality.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I recommend doing a proof of concept to see if you can accomplish what you want using python, ruby, and ASP.NET MVC. Don't implement the entire application. Just implement one functional slice of it from front to back.

Also, if the technology is really holding you back then I would guess that you are not interested enough in the project. That you are considering giving up on the idea altogether is another tell. You can make anything work if you really want to.

</comment><comment><USER6> I don't know if you should give up, but if you don't like the product redo it. Save the old version just in case, though. That's the benefit of startup culture, being lean. Ruby/Python sounds like a good base, I would at least give it a try.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Learn Ruby on Rails or Python. That will take time, but it is worth it!

Don't do drag and drop if you can avoid it. There will be problems with drag/drop, no way around it.

Good Luck!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks</comment></comment>


How to think like a child - <AUTHOR> http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/how-to-think-like-a-child-2116291.html <comment><USER2> An unexpectedly profitable and enjoyable read. And I learned how to fold my arms the wrong way.</comment>


President Obama's International Visits from 2009 to 2016 - <AUTHOR> http://www.arcgis.com/apps/TimeAware/index.html?appid=7219d04b9e0a491e9421999b2103a7f2 <comment><USER2> I hope Donald will stay at home. Every presidential visit brings multi-million city to a halt. It has similar effect as an earthquake, major fire or other natural disaster.

It is recommended not open windows, there is risk of snipers. International airport is closed for several hours for a single airplane. And main roads are closed everyday while president is traveling.

I still remember New Orleans. People could not leave flooded city, because Bush decided to do a personal rescue mission :-(

<comment><USER3> A couple of years back I saw president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran on TV talking to a group of people in Tehran. He just stood on the top of a car with a megaphone and a big crowd of people surrounded him. Sure there were a few bodyguards, but you if you wanted you could pretty much tap him on the shoulder. Now I don't want to overestimate the merits of Iranian democracy, but I was kind of impressed by this.

Compare this with the leaders of the Western world. If there's a summit, the city gets under siege as if it's a Hollywood production. People are not allowed to stand on their balcony. If you get within half a mile of Obama, a sniper will put a bullet through your head. There is just something wrong about this ritual of self-importance. Seriously, aside from personal tragedy, what does it matter if some terrorist kills Obama? We just replace him with the next guy in a suit and tie, and the following day it would be the exact same politics. The system runs itself and no longer depends on the individuality of the persons in the top position. In that sense it reminds me of Europe in 1914 where the diplomatic system overruled the kings and presidents. It may be one of the deeper reasons for Trump's election -- people wanting somebody who can shake the tree.

<comment><USER4> "We just replace him with the next guy in a suit and tie" I think this misses a key point of democracy. The president is not important as a person but because he is legitimized by the american public. Replacing him requires an enormous effort which is really what it is all about. On top of that one could argue that the president has to be kept safe so that there is somebody willing to get elected and take the risk. Sure, someone will always become president but that person might not have the required skills.

<comment><USER5> > Sure, someone will always become president but that person might not have > the required skills.

What a tragedy that would be! Fortunately, we have a system to prevent it from happening.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Not the best of maps to tell that story. The loxodromes between Washington and the countries he visited aren't all that useful, yet draw most of the attention.

I'd probably make a list of countries, ordered by visit. Beside that, a simple political map with the markers. I'd resist the urge to label the markers with the city he visited, but I might have a mouse-over for more info and a link if available.

</comment><comment><USER7> Hope this isn't too off-topic, but if you like this and want to create a similar map of your own international/domestic flights you can do that here: [https://skyhops.com/](https://skyhops.com/)

Disclaimer: personal side project

<comment><USER8> That's pretty cool!

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Apparently in 2009 Obama visited Moscow and managed to meet _both_ president Putin and president Medvedev. Granted, it is sometimes hard to remember who of these two is a president at any given moment, but a two-president state is a bit pushing it.

<comment><USER10> Perhaps, as with the US you retain the honorific title 'President' even after leaving office.

<comment><USER11> Actually, you don't. Former Presidents are just addressed as "Mr Obama".

[http://emilypost.com/advice/addressing-a-former-president- of...](http://emilypost.com/advice/addressing-a-former-president-of-the- united-states/)

<comment><USER12> However, e.g. whitehouse.gov refers to "President Clinton" in its description (for the act of being born, not for his active role as president).

[https://www.whitehouse.gov/1600/presidents/williamjclinton](https://www.whitehouse.gov/1600/presidents/williamjclinton)

Where I live, Finland, a "President" is the official title for former presidents (there are now three alive) so I should actually address them as such. The current one is formally referred to as "President of the Republic". I can't really check how this is with Russia.

<comment><USER13> A friend of mine moved in next door to then President of Singapore. Even got visited on couple of Christmas dinners.

Neither of them new protocol for the ex-presidency thing and after President left office, upon mutual agreement neighbour now calls him "Uncle".

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> This map really crawls on Firefox.

<comment><USER15> This map uses arcgis jsapi 3.19, compare to leaflet js, it is quite heavy and demanding for low-end pc or mobile. jsapi 4.x is more lightweight though.

<comment><USER14> I have a high end PC, but Firefox is... what it is ;P

<comment><USER16> firefox is awesome but it allows you to screw up. you are probably running a bad extension that makes it that slow. if you have ad blocker, make sure it is ublock origin.

also, it is the only browser that allows extensions on mobile.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Very noob question here, but how would one save this as a gif?

Sorry for being off topic, just curious.

</comment><comment><USER18> Here's another nifty visualisation - this time with drone strikes:

[http://drones.pitchinteractive.com/](http://drones.pitchinteractive.com/)

<comment><USER19> The statement that only 2% are high profile targets is kind of misleading. The vetting that goes into assessing whether military age males are actually doing bad things is surprisingly high.

I am not saying mistakes were not made. Civilians and kids have died for sure, but the majority of those killed were combatants. Implying otherwise makes me doubt the veracity of the other claims here.

Nifty visualization though.

<comment><USER20> Is the vetting truly that high?

[http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/i-am-on-the-us-kill- list...](http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/i-am-on-the-us-kill-list-this-is- what-it-feels-like-to-be-hunted-by-drones-a6980141.html)

From what you write, I understand that you mean mistakes in targeting/dropping bombs, but not mistakes in assessing/choosing the target themselves. Or do you mean otherwise?

<comment><USER19> [http://www.npr.org/2012/06/06/154443665/how-the-president- de...](http://www.npr.org/2012/06/06/154443665/how-the-president-decides-to- make-drone-strikes)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> President Obama visited Moscow as he met with President Medvedev and President Putin.

This is at least innacurate.

<comment><USER22> Accurate how? At the time Medvedev was President of Russia, and Putin was Prime Minister. Since he was President before that, it's ok for him to be referred as President, like any former President of country.

<comment><USER23> The convention of referring to an ex president as President is peculiar to United States presidents, AFAIK.

<comment><USER24> It can also mean that he met with (then) President Medvedev and (now, as of writing) President Putin

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> I'm curious why this doesn't show any flights to Hawaii - is the map only of official visits? Obama takes an annual vacation there[1].

[1] [https://whitehouse.gov1.info/blog/blog_post/agenda- hawaii.ht...](https://whitehouse.gov1.info/blog/blog_post/agenda-hawaii.html)

<comment><USER26> Hawaii isn't considered international, from the perspective of the US - it's domestic. Notice that there also is not a trip to Alaska shown, though he did visit Alaska. (And, trips in the mainland US are not shown either.)

<comment><USER25> Right, thanks! My US geography is a little rusty.</comment></comment></comment>


ClimaCell Weather API: fully customizable hyper-local API - <AUTHOR> https://www.climacell.co/weather-api/ <comment><USER2> This sounds as though it could be a nice replacement for the Dark Sky API that Apple is going to lock us out of.

The ClimaCell API docs say the weather API offers forecasts for 1) realtime, 2) hourly, 3) nowcast, 4) daily

The free-tier pricing plan [1] apparently offers limited access to 1-3 but no access to 4. That's too bad, but then no paid-tier plan offers 4, either. So, I have to wonder, Am I missing something or are they?

[1] [https://www.climacell.co/weather- api/pricing/](https://www.climacell.co/weather-api/pricing/)

<comment><USER3> MyRadar has a drop-in replacement for the Dark Sky API

<comment><USER4> link? All I get for "MyRadar" is a mobile app.

<comment><USER5> So I couldn't find it either, but this may be helpful to others after similar: [https://www.programmableweb.com/category/weather/apis?catego...](https://www.programmableweb.com/category/weather/apis?category=20122)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I used the ClimaCell api about a year ago as part of a POC and it was pretty nice. The biggest feature for my use case was their granularity. The ability to query the service using a point (lat/long) and have returned the specific weather for that location was nice. All other services required two requests, one to find the nearest weather station, another to query said station for data. ClimaCells model predicts weather for locations where no forecast data exists. I would recommend ground-truthing the forecasted vs actuals for the modeled areas. Beyond their api, they have a pretty killer dashboard where you can plot your assets and set geofences for weather alerts.

</comment><comment><USER7> I use this for my little weather app: [https://ersimont.github.io/weather](https://ersimont.github.io/weather)

I can compare it with 3 other APIs. I haven't been rigorous about it, but so far I feel like it has been the most accurate for near-term forecasts.

</comment><comment><USER8> Very nice. Just a few thoughts came to mind.

Where do you get the data? How is it different from [https://openweathermap.org/api](https://openweathermap.org/api) ?

Are there APIs demo call that we developers can try?

Is there a cap limit, if so how much?

What are the pricing plans?

<comment><USER9> The original premise of ClimaCell as I understood when hearing about a few years ago was to utilize cellular cells (hence ClimaCell) to acquire information about the levels of humidity in the air, thus providing a cellular cell level immediate forecast. I believe they have expanded that to satellite communications and more.

<comment><USER10> There is an enormous amount of latent weather data to be extracted from existing sources and they, I think, are doing a great job finding and using them.

I am also working on similar efforts, focused on using labelled photos of the sky with ML to extract weather data from outdoor photos, and using barometers in phones: [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.allclearwe...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.allclearweather.android)

I'm shocked there aren't more efforts in this space. I know IBM is using barometers in phones now, and I suppose Apple may try that post-Dark Sky acquisition, but I'm still surprised there aren't more!

<comment><USER11> PressureNET (now defunct) was the earliest crowdsourcing phone barometer platform that I remember hearing about [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PressureNET](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PressureNET)

<comment><USER10> Yeah, that one was me :) All Clear is my latest attempt. It's a hard nut to crack.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> If you're going to sell an API, then please have a demo playground before requiring dev signups. The proof lies in the pudding.

<comment><USER13> There's a free tier with a thousand calls per day, which strikes me as plenty for a personal/try-out tier.

<comment><USER14> It's a hassle to sign up though; at least they could show me an example weather forecast for some region so I could compare it to others before bothering to play with their API... of course I won't bother if their forecasts are no good.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I've used Dark Sky API to plot temperature against COVID-19 cases[1], I found its coverage to be better than other historical weather API.

But, there's need gap in all these weather API's; they lack actual recorded historical weather data and provide only forecast data. Actual recorded weather data is important for any research conducted with historical weather data.

[1][https://abishekmuthian.com/covid-19-temperature- correlation/](https://abishekmuthian.com/covid-19-temperature-correlation/)

<comment><USER4> I thought when you requested a historical date from DarkSky it was actual data? To be clear - you are saying they are forecasting even in the past?

Is there no way to just download an archive of previous history of weather data for a location?

<comment><USER15> AFAIK actual recorded weather data is available only with individual country's met dept and few international agencies like NOAA; but I wasn't able to get recent global data from NOAA. Few private weather API provider like Weather Underground which uses crowdfunded data using actual sensors but obviously their global coverage is small.

I tried to use WU for my COVID data research and it didn't have data for the Chinese cities.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Interesting concept, worth exploring. Except the documentation isn't very good. In so far as there are examples provided, with my API key, that don't work. If you're going to provide examples... test to see if they work. I don't care if it provides me weather in Timbuktu, but it should work.

Error 400 - "location is not defined correctly".

</comment><comment><USER17> Your website is broken for anyone who browses in a width less than 1024 pixels; the higher tier pricing plans cease to be visible.

</comment><comment><USER18> I still want confidence intervals.

Not that I'm their target customer anyway...

</comment><comment><USER19> "Proprietary Data & Models" \- not sure if this is _pro_ or _con_.

</comment><comment><USER20> Awesome. Definitely room here now that DarkSky has vacated the premises.

<comment><USER10> This should be far better than Dark Sky. AFAIK Dark Sky was far more of a simpler statistics play than real meteorology and data processing. I was surprised Apple bought them, because I don't honestly believe they had any real groundbreaking tech, more slimy marketing than anything.

But ClimaCell is serious about new data being used, real forecast analysis, and verification, etc.

The future of weather APIs and services is much brighter IMO, now that Dark Sky is out of the picture.

<comment><USER21> Correct, at least here in Europe Dark Sky was super low-res in terms of its weather maps and predictions. As a result it was way off the mark. Especially the rain map here in Spain. I think it was really focused on the US.

At the moment I use openweathermap but interested in better ones.

<comment><USER22> Check out [https://www.meteomatics.com](https://www.meteomatics.com)

Available models can be found here: [https://www.meteomatics.com/en/api/request/#model_selection](https://www.meteomatics.com/en/api/request/#model_selection)

<comment><USER23> No pricing is an immediate turn-off. Best they seem to have is another "Contact Us (and tell us how thick your wallet is)" button: [https://www.meteomatics.com/en/eshop/](https://www.meteomatics.com/en/eshop/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Is there a demo somewhere? I'd like to see what the forecast is for my location before signing up for an API which I may or may not use..

<comment><USER7> You could try it in my weather app: [https://ersimont.github.io/weather](https://ersimont.github.io/weather)

Select it from the "Source" section in the options.

<comment><USER25> Nice tool! Are you paying for a plan or how are you using the hourly forecast? [1]

[1] [https://github.com/ersimont/weather/blob/master/src/app/sour...](https://github.com/ersimont/weather/blob/master/src/app/sources/climacell/climacell.harness.ts#L28)

<comment><USER7> Thanks! I am not paying for a plan, so the app is subject to their free quota. That line of source you found is simply going through a little proxy I set up to add my API key to the request.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Oh nice, I have something else I can use for my terminal status bar now that dark sky is dead. The free tier looks plenty generous for such a use case; polling once every two minutes is just about right. Much appreciated!

</comment><comment><USER26> Are NAM forecasts available or just GFS?

For historical data, can you get historical forecasts as well as actuals?

<comment><USER27> They provide NAM, GFS, HERR, etc... they also have proprietary models (CBAM1 & CBMA2 that are higher resolution)

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Sounds great! I hope there will soon be a plugin for Home Assistant for this <3</comment>


Apple's HTML5 'standards' hype debunked - <AUTHOR> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/04/apple_html5_showcase_hype/

<comment><USER2> The video introducing Dreamweaver's new "HTML5 Pack" extension ironically only showcases its CSS3 capabilities:

[http://tv.adobe.com/watch/adc-presents/introducing-the- dream...](http://tv.adobe.com/watch/adc-presents/introducing-the-dreamweaver- cs5-html5-pack/)

According to Wikipedia, the colloquial use of "HTML5" actually means "HTML5 + CSS3".

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Do you know how accurate this article is, technically and otherwise?

I wonder how much of this article is actually just bashing or has merit as Apple trying to push something "open" with clear self-interest thinly veiled?

<comment><USER3> I don't see how Apple could get more "open" than what they're doing with Webkit and their HTML5 implementation. Let's take an example: CSS Animation. They have:

* Made an official spec for a CSS3 addition, labeled CSS Animation.

* Submitted the spec to be included in the overall HTML5/CSS3 document.

* Wrote a reference renderer in Webkit that properly uses a vendor tag for non-standard CSS elements (as per the CSS spec).

* Open-sourced it in Webkit.

I don't know how more "open" you can get with Apple's HTML5. Somebody has to _create_ the bleeding edge in order to get there. How do you think CSS3 supports the features that it does now like border-radius or RGBA? Somebody made it and submitted it.

Just because Apple forces you download Safari for (presently) Safari only demos doesn't mean it's any less open. I know that Firefox is slowing working towards adding all the cool features. For example, the 3.7 alpha supports CSS transitions (the precursor to animations).

<comment><USER4> > Somebody has to create the bleeding edge in order to get there.

That's not how the rules of Internet Land work, friend.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Things we know:

* The term html5 has been used loosely to describe the next generation of emerging browser standards for a long time. After this tempest in a teapot, it will continue to be so. Until someone comes up with something better, this is well and good.

* Safari uses vendor prefixes for its introduction of emerging standards, just like, e.g., Firefox. This is good software engineering practice since it allows developers to start testing and using new standards, but won't conflict with finalized standards.

* Apple created a page showing how they are on the forefront of implementing some of these emerging standards. Note that since it was a page about their own browser's implementation of emerging standards, they required the use of their browser for the demos. Random people on the Internet don't get to redefine the purpose of Apple's web page and then wax righteously indignant. If you want to see examples of Apple creating pages that work in all the major browsers, please visit ANY OTHER PAGE ON APPLE'S SITE.

</comment><comment><USER6> The demos created by Apple should look like the demos Microsoft is creating for IE9 Previews' capabilities. At least these much better. See (in any HTML5 capable browser): <http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/></comment>


Accenture breaks blockchain taboo with editing system - <AUTHOR> http://www.reuters.com/article/us-tech-blockchain-accenture-idUSKCN11Q1S2 <comment><USER2> This epitomises the corporate establishments reaction to disruptive and uncontrollable technologies.

</comment><comment><USER3> Whats next, a stationary car or non flying plane?</comment>


The Gun Lobby Is Down to Its Last, Unconvincing Excuse - <AUTHOR> http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/taibbi-gun-lobby-is-down-to-its-last-unconvincing-excuse-w506851 <comment><USER2> Depending on the state, getting a Destructive Device tax stamp and local law enforcement approval, Americans can currently privately own _fully-functional, diesel-powered traverse, towed, anti-aircraft 40 mm auto-cannons_ if they were made before some treaty (I can't remember which one). They're several hundred thousand dollars and the shells are hundreds of dollars each. That's right: moderately rich people can own their very own artillery in some states like Arizona.

[http://youtu.be/BcJEFosXfFQ](http://youtu.be/BcJEFosXfFQ)</comment>


Unwanted Google ads on wordpress.com blogs - <AUTHOR> http://scripting.com/stories/2010/07/14/unwantedGoogleAdsOnWordpre.html <comment><USER2> This really isn't anything new. I've had WP.com blogs on and off since 2007 and I knew in '07 that they had the right to insert ads. What was new to me a few weeks ago was someone showing me ads are also popping up in the mobile version of my blogs too. I put up a disclaimer post explaining the ads. Next!</comment>


Odroid-Go Review: An Affordable DIY Portable Game Console - <AUTHOR> https://www.electromaker.io/blog/article/odroid-go-review-a-neat-affordable-diy-portable-game-console <comment><USER2> You should also check out the PSPI 1000 v4 which is a similar project built into a PSP 1000 case. It's had a few revisions and the work that's been put into it is pretty amazing.

<comment><USER3> [https://othermod.com/pspi-1000-version-4/](https://othermod.com/pspi-1000-version-4/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Of similar ilk and made by the community super star sprite_tm: [https://pocketsprite.com](https://pocketsprite.com)

<comment><USER5> Great to see Jeroen is still at it. I used to live across the street from him and it was always fascinating to see what he was up to. Hanging out at his place was the closest thing to what I imagine Silicon Valley must have been like during the heydays of hardware hacking. Probably why he moved to Shenzhen. His writeups at [https://spritesmods.com](https://spritesmods.com) are also good reads. I see he has also done a miniature Mac Plus: [http://spritesmods.com/?art=minimacplus](http://spritesmods.com/?art=minimacplus)

<comment><USER4> He is actually working for Espressif now I believe, due to his work on the ESP8266 framework!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> So Odroid came out with their own GameBoy zero eh?

Not bad for <$50 considering I paid a bucketload to pre-order the circuit sword CM3 GBZ board just to get high score in Blade Buster on the road.

Then once I got it I had to re-design all the 3D printed parts since they didn't meet my standards: [https://github.com/eltoozero/lol- gbz_3dparts](https://github.com/eltoozero/lol-gbz_3dparts)

<comment><USER7> Is there a commercial version of this that doesn't require self-assembly? I found a few hacky Chinese ones on Amazon but I'm curious if there are any higher quality multi-platform ROM portable devices available.

<comment><USER6> Your best bet is a bespoke creation using the circuit sword, it's quite a fine product.

If you're interested, the pre-order for this year has already closed but I secured a large order to fulfill custom orders for the holidays.

firstname.lastname@example.com

<comment><USER7> > but I secured a large order to fulfill custom orders for the holidays.

You mean order of Circuit Swords? I wasn't familiar with this board until I googled it just now.

What about cases with buttons and screens?

I'd love to be able to pay someone for one of these 'Bespoke' pre-assembled. Like an Etsy for electronics hackers.

<comment><USER6> Yes, I pre-ordered a large batch of circuit swords for supplying as fully assembled units, or single-sourced kits with all electronics and 3D printed components ready to assemble.

It's a shame they are only available twice a year, but I'm putting some money down to fill in the gap; hopefully I don't regret my investment, it's a very cool project.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I ordered one of these, as a result of reading this post. It took me a while to get code uploaded, as the documentation was missing a couple of steps.

That said it is a cute device which arrived in Finland in less than a week, and I've been reliving my childhood by playing Tetris and Super Mario Bros #3 for the past few hours.

I made some notes here to fill in the missing steps for uploading code via the Arduino-studio:

[https://blog.steve.fi/odroid_go_initial_impressions.html](https://blog.steve.fi/odroid_go_initial_impressions.html)

</comment><comment><USER9> The buy link [https://www.hardkernel.com/main/products/prdt_info.php?g_cod...](https://www.hardkernel.com/main/products/prdt_info.php?g_code=G152875062626)

</comment><comment><USER10> And for none gaming check out the hd1 and hd2 line from the odroid maker. Designed just for hard drives. Best home cloud / rsync hardware you can get for $45 bucks

<comment><USER11> I think you meant hc1[1] and hc2[2]..

[1] [https://www.hardkernel.com/main/products/prdt_info.php?g_cod...](https://www.hardkernel.com/main/products/prdt_info.php?g_code=G150229074080)

[2] [https://www.hardkernel.com/main/products/prdt_info.php?g_cod...](https://www.hardkernel.com/main/products/prdt_info.php?g_code=G151505170472)

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I ordered three of these last week to build with my nephew and niece. Shipping was quick to Canada and done with DHL. Looking forward to putting these together and hoping they might spark a bit of interest in programming or hardware in the kids.

Does anyone have any links to programming tutorials of videos that kids might like about this platform?

</comment><comment><USER13> Very cool. I had no idea there was a handheld platform so easy to cobble together. I looked at some units from banggood and stuff, but couldn't find a way to upload ROMs to them.

I'd really only use this for when I'm flying for business trips, so the headphone jack is sorta a necessity for me. I hope that gets added soon.

</comment><comment><USER14> I'd rather buy this stuff: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLS5WzyEINA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLS5WzyEINA)

</comment><comment><USER15> Every link on that page just took me back to their same website. Is this some kind of SEO antipattern? It makes it really difficult tracking down the actual parts.

</comment><comment><USER16> Pretty sweet. I wish this and the other 10 DIY/programmable mobile consoles would make it into mass market (toy?) stores. For years, this market has only been making circles in a tiny part of the geekosphere It'd be great to get it in the hands of everyone and then see what happens. Im sure you'll get a surge of indie developers making and sharing games and kids in school showing off their latest creations.

<comment><USER17> Part of it I imagine is these hacker game systems are designed and marketed towards other gamer hackers and require, or at least the apparent need for,a more technical skill set than a regular game system.

However I can imagine something like Lego and Ninteno making a package that is designed for children to learn from.

<comment><USER18> Nintendo wants their customers to purchase games, because that's what drives their revenue. While the act of "making" is integral to Lego customers, the company hopes to sell customers more and more kits/bricks.

A self-contained user-programmable video game device probably needs more support and offers less recurring revenue opportunity than mass market game consumption platforms.

It's a terrible thing for a owners of a business to turn a reliable consumer of its products into a happy frugal maker.

<comment><USER19> I could have sworn that Nintendo is the only company of the 3 major console brands that do not sell the console at a loss.

<comment><USER20> I think they are, but I imagine the profit from their first party game IP and the licensing fees from other game publishers probably dwarfs that profit.

So, they shouldn't be in dire financial straits if they don't sell games, but it sure isn't the winning strategy.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ditch Evernote – Export All Evernote Notes, Notebooks, and Stacks Proper - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/shawndaniel/evernote-exporter <comment><AUTHOR> I initially wrote this to switch to Zim Wiki, although I am open to better suggestions. There is a lot of options to choose from but I'm wondering what your opinion is for a better alternative to Zim wiki. Thx</comment>


Moravec's paradox - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moravec%27s_paradox <comment><USER2> People who think that high-level reasoning is easy compared to sensorimotor skills have successfully implemented neither and lack both.

\-- Benjamin Franklin

Neural networks can be used to balance robots. They can't be used to generate Agda proofs of non-trivial theorems, or C programs that do something useful, etc.

<comment><USER3> Thank you I was trying to remember who said that quote ;-) ...

But seriously I'm not sure that just because checkers and various logical puzzles lend themselves to simple algorithms equates to "high-level reasoning requires very little computation"

I mean unless I've managed to miss all the AI bots sitting n the web asking me to talk. I think this might be a paradox that only existed until people thought more carefully about high level reasoning.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is a decent motivation for "manual automation". Figuring out what is a face in a picture is hard for a computer but easy for a person. Comparing that face with thousands of existing faces to eliminate 99% that aren't anywhere close to a match is easier for a computer than it is a person. Deciding if it is a true match is easier for a person than a computer.

There are a lot of situations that would benefit from such a workflow.</comment>


Using vi key bindings in bash and zsh - <AUTHOR> http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/opensource/using-vi-key-bindings-in-bash-and-zsh/193?tag=rbxccnbtr1 <comment><AUTHOR> Many hackers are "returning to vim" nowadays.

I'm working on the transition myself, and this is one more step in going cold turkey.

</comment><comment><USER2> Properly using vi , especially the macros feature, will save you from carpal tunnel syndrome. Typing "set -o vi" first thing in bash will save your sanity.</comment>


Walt Mossberg ethics statement - good sense of humor - <AUTHOR> http://allthingsd.com/about/#walt-ethics

<comment><AUTHOR> One gem:

> "I do occasionally take a free t-shirt from these companies, but my wife > hates it when I wear them, as she considers them ugly."

I like it.</comment>


New Blog post on Portainer 2.0 and upcoming features - <AUTHOR> https://www.portainer.io/2020/06/portainer-2-0-and-the-development-balancing-act/ <comment><USER2> For those who don't have the time to read it: They're adding support for Kubernetes.</comment>


Ask HN: Mobile Data: On-Device Only or Remote API? - <AUTHOR>

A while back I was working on building a fairly simple app that lets me track some different aspects of my workouts. I know, there are 1000 apps out there that track workouts so this was more of just a fun thing to build :)
Now that I've got it on my phone and playing around with it I've had some requests from friends that they'd love to use it too, which leads me to my question.
When building for myself I didn't really care about where the data was stored. If I deleted the app off my phone I wasn't too worried if I couldn't get it back. Now there will be more users and more data, does it make sense from your experience to create an API to store the data remotely? I see some pro's and con's to a remote API:
Pros - Data Backups - Sync across devices - Easier analytics (via db lookups, though Google Analytics could be arguably easier...) - Easier(ish) feature enhancement with a versioned API (just add some new api endpoints vs modifying the local DB) - No local database, just a simple JSON API, ahh...
Cons - Building an API :) That being said, it's fairly simple setup with only a few models - Users would have to register (so we could authenticate them via the API and get their data) - Requires internet access - Obviously slower than having data stored locally, though how much slower isn't clear
So, what would you do? Would you rather the data be stored remotely or locally? Any experience that lead you to that conclusion that you wouldn't mind sharing? <comment><USER2> I would store it remotely using an api, but cache it locally on the device. Storing it remotely makes it easier on users when they switch devices or want to view their data on a computer. You also get the option to send out alerts (email and push notifications) if the data is on a server. There could be some revenue possibilities there (sending out targeted offers for massage or smoothies after workouts, etc). You can also play with analytics on the workout data (e.g. if there are enough people, see how they compare to each other, see activity level by location, etc).

You may be able to use a PaaS backend like Parse to power your API.

<comment><AUTHOR> I agree with just about every bit of that :) Thanks for the response! I think this makes the most sense, remote with some sort of local caching. Leads to a bit more implementation though and questions like:

1) What happens when they post something but don't have internet, would it store locally then sync up when it can? Or, just not allow posting without internet (curious how many people workout with an iPod Touch).

2) What happens when we get a new call from the remote server, kill the local table entirely or have some field on each record like "synced" that lets you check for records that need to be updated still?

Anyways, just a few things like that but thanks a ton, you gave me some more things to think about :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Another approach would be to use the Backup API's provided by Google/Apple. [http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/data/backup.html](http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/data/backup.html)

<comment><USER4> I second this. Don't know how it works for iOS, but for Android it is straight-forward. And should be even more now with the new automatic backup for Android M [0].

You would have people keep their data as they update devices, no need to build an API, but would lose the analytics part that you mentioned.

[0] [http://developer.android.com/preview/backup/index.html#overv...](http://developer.android.com/preview/backup/index.html#overview)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> You can easily create a backend free of cost on [https://orchestrate.io/](https://orchestrate.io/) [https://parse.com/](https://parse.com/) [http://apifox.com/](http://apifox.com/)</comment>


Ask HN: After BitCoin, can we expect BitGov? - <AUTHOR> BitCoin succeeded to challenge the established currency system with no centralized authority. Can we expect the same thing to happen to Democracy, a kind of BitGov, ruling and collecting tax (bitcoin?) with no head of State ? <comment><USER2> Well, in practice, probably not?

Will someone make some sort of software for it?

They probably already have, sorta.

But, for taxing specifically?

I don't think that would work very well.

In order to tax bitcoin, you would have to force transactions to include transfers of bitcoin to the decentralized government.

Afaict, this would require either changing how bitcoin works specifically to accommodate this, or using some sort of threat to get people to pay the taxes.

Bitcoiners probably wouldn't be fond of either idea.

And the second idea would, uh, require some sort of force outside of computers, which would probably be prevented by the existing state, and even if it did "work" it probably wouldn't be decentralized.

Buffoon isn't really fully anonymous, but it is anonymous enough that taxing it would be infeasible I think?

Some other cryptocurrency could be created which has taxation built in, and a voting system which determines the amount of taxes etc., but I don't think adding it on to bitcoin as an external thing is feasible, at least not without using an already existing state.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm sorry this was not clear : I was not talking about taxing bitcoin, but collecting tax payed with bitcoin. People would be asked or required to pay tax but I didn't intend it to be enforced with bitcoin.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Are you kidding? Devs can't find consensus on simple matters like block size, do you expect them to maintain the software that will be used for our decision-making process? That was a good laugh!

<comment><AUTHOR> They say "money is the root of all evil". If they rule on that, why not ? The same consensus on Bitcoin design (although indirect) can apply.</comment></comment>


Bluetooth SIG Security Update - <AUTHOR> https://www.bluetooth.com/news/unknown/2018/07/bluetooth-sig-security-update <comment><AUTHOR> See also "Breaking the Bluetooth Pairing: Fixed Coordinate Invalid Curve Attack"

[https://www.cs.technion.ac.il/~biham/BT/](https://www.cs.technion.ac.il/~biham/BT/)

<comment><USER2> Thanks, has a much better link with more information.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I still haven't ever found an answer to these claims that BLE 4.2's "Secure Connections" passkey (PIN) mode is totally insecure, and that the flaw was discovered in 2008 (yes, a long time before BLE 4.2 existed).

[https://pomcor.com/2015/06/03/has-bluetooth-become- secure/](https://pomcor.com/2015/06/03/has-bluetooth-become-secure/)

</comment><comment><USER2> [...]the Bluetooth SIG is not aware of any devices implementing the attack having been developed, including by the researchers who identified the vulnerability.

Well that is odd. Did the researchers really convince the Bluetooth SIG just by pointing the issue(s) out on paper?

</comment><comment><USER4> Is this specific to P-256? I thought Curve25519, for example, didn't have this problem because it didn't have any invalid points.

<comment><USER5> No,

"A curve designer cannot protect against this attack by choosing better curves"

[https://safecurves.cr.yp.to/twist.html](https://safecurves.cr.yp.to/twist.html)

<comment><USER4> Thanks for the reference.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> A yet another flimsy DH implementation I guess?

<comment><USER5> Yes, flimsy DH implementation+ invalid curve attack

"Bluetooth implementations may not sufficiently validate elliptic curve parameters during Diffie-Hellman key exchange"

[https://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/304725](https://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/304725)</comment></comment>