Returning to analog and putting digital in its place - <AUTHOR> http://rtalbert.org/return-to-analog/ <comment><USER2> Quick, what goes in the blank?

        The free access which many young people have to *BLANK* has poisoned the mind and
        corrupted the morals of many a promising youth; and prevented others from improving
        their minds in useful knowledge. Parents take care to feed their children with
        wholesome diet; and yet how unconcerned about the provision for the mind, whether
        they are furnished with salutary food, or with trash, chaff, or poison?

Trick question, it's not "screens". It's "romances, novels, and plays" \- quote taken from "Memoirs of the Bloomsgrove Family", Reverend Enos Hitchcock, 1790.

I'm all for carefully considering which tools you use every day, but spare me the moralizing - it was gauche in 1790 and it hasn't improved with age.

<comment><USER3> Socrates went into a similar rant on the written word in general.

> [Writing] will create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they > will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written > characters and not remember of themselves. The specific which you have > discovered is an aid not to memory, but to reminiscence, and you give your > disciples not truth, but only the semblance of truth; they will be hearers > of many things and will have learned nothing; they will appear to be > omniscient and will generally know nothing; they will be tiresome company, > having the show of wisdom without the reality.

<comment><USER4> John Philip Souza said that recorded music would destroy music, as amateur musicians would be so disheartened by hearing the performances of virtuosos that they would feel any practice would be futile. He also described a person listening to music by themselves as a sort of craven masturbation, using great imagery to have people imagine an emaciated antisocial hollow person curled up next to a phonograph.

Next up: VR is craven masturbation, and the increased immersion will turn children into psychopathic killers incapable of human kindness!

<comment><USER5> And yet amateur musicians are still practicing and performing. In fact, digital technology is enabling us amateur musicians to practice and get together in new ways. To give just one example (in which I recently participated) that's enabled by the Internet and the ease of repeatedly listening to a recording for reference: [https://www.festivaloffriendsevents.com/](https://www.festivaloffriendsevents.com/) Edit: A little more explanation is in order. The event organizer announces a date, a theme, and a set list. We amateur musicians register, each stating our primary part and reserving our songs. Then we practice at home, using the studio recordings for reference. Finally, we get together and just play the songs. WIth no group rehearsal, sometimes it's not perfect, but it's fun.

<comment><USER6> _And yet amateur musicians are still practicing and performing._

Of course they, because parent's point was that Sousa was horrendously wrong (obviously). Sousa's problem was a one-dimensional view of musical performance. He was foremost speaking from the POV of a professional performer. Therefore, the goal of all amateur musicians is to become professional performers, but once they hear a pro on a record they'll get discouraged and give up. This, of course, is poppycock. I play a _lot_ of music and have little desire to make money from it. What's that about taking a fun hobby and turning it into work?

Second, I'm sure Sousa viewed recorded music as a threat to his job as a professional live performer, while ignoring that records scale and live performances don't. (Ignore for the moment the part where record companies keep most of the profits.)

 _WIth no group rehearsal, sometimes it 's not perfect, but it's fun._

Heh, try a bluegrass jam. Someone calls a tune that I might, or might not, know. They'll give a key, maybe a chord progression. Hell, if I'm lucky, I might not only know the tune, I might have even played it in the last month so I stand a chance of coming up with a solo (or "break" in bluegrass terms) on the fly when it comes my turn. If I've never even _heard_ the tune, but it's in (say) G with some variation of a I-IV-V progression, I can probably improvise with something that follows the melody. Or not.

Needless to say, I've had some solos/breaks that only were "not perfect", I corkscrewed into the ground with my tail on fire. That's the topsy-turvy world of jamming. But similar to your setup, even when I've completely embarrassed myself, it's always fun.

(As an aside, though it sounds like something I'd not participate in, your setup sounds like a fun way to get to play with people.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I have to agree with what others here have said: the moralizing rubs me the wrong way and, in this case, I don't think it serves any purpose but to move blame away from the author and onto the technology that he perceives as his primary problem.

I have a child and they have access to a Kindle, our television (with Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc.) as well as our Nintendo 3DS. These all (in my opinion) serve much the same purpose: entertain, distract and in some circumstances help people relax. Since the beginning my partner and I have been clear that it's not okay to sit in front of one (or cycle through them all) for hours at a time. At this point our child is seven and they rarely exceed more than 30 minutes at a time of screen interaction. For the most part, they move onto something else on their own.

Clearly part of it is personality, but I do think some part was the establishment of clear boundaries from the start. Perhaps when my child hits the teen years, I'll have to revisit this battle but for now keeping screen time at a minimum is a fairly low friction activity.

As this author demonstrates, there's a very real challenge as parents to make the time to schedule activities or to encourage children to get out and play. This strikes me as eternal problems: no seven year old is great at planning ahead or has the ability to schedule their own play dates. But, unlike when I was a child, there are more options than staring at a blank wall or digging deep holes in the backyard.

<comment><USER8> > Clearly part of it is personality, but I do think some part was the > establishment of clear boundaries from the start. Perhaps when my child hits > the teen years, I'll have to revisit this battle but for now keeping screen > time at a minimum is a fairly low friction activity.

I think this is absolutely key. I see screens like I see sugary foods. Not inherently bad for kids, but best consumed in moderation AND something that kids will over-consume if left to their own devices.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Based on title I first assumed that this is about signal processing, but then came the disappointment.

<comment><USER10> I thought it was about analog computing like [1] but sadly not...

[1] [https://blog.degruyter.com/algorithms-suck-analog- computers-...](https://blog.degruyter.com/algorithms-suck-analog-computers- future/)

<comment><USER11> Yeah, that's what I was expecting as well.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> > Vinyl records, board games, paper notebooks, brick-and-mortar bookstores

All of which are less accessible to people with disabilities than their digital counterparts (at least when the digital counterparts are done right). For the latter three, I'm thinking in particular of blind people (and people with severely limited vision like me). True, a lot of computer and mobile games are not accessible to us, but some are.

All of these tools are also inaccessible to people with mobility impairments. For example, in his book _Hit Refresh_, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella writes about how some high school students helped his oldest son, who has severe cerebral palsy, more easily enjoy a wide range of music, by developing a Windows app that uses a sensor in the wheelchair. That would have been impractical with vinyl records.

> Using analog tools in teaching

This is where the author's preference for analog may inadvertently exclude some students that are there in the room. True, putting something up on a screen doesn't automatically make it accessible. But at least there are possibilities, without requiring someone to transcribe. For example, when a teacher has prepared a slide deck in advance, they can make it available to a blind student by email before the class period, and the student can then review it with a screen reader. Accessibility for content being shown on a screen in real time is still a largely unsolved problem, but a solution is feasible.

Having said all that, I certainly agree that we need to moderate our content consumption for our mental and social well-being, and moderate screen time for a good night's sleep if nothing else. I spend a lot of time in front of a screen, though I can only read it up close and use a screen reader most of the time for web browsing. I think I'll start spending some time away from the screen before I go to bed. Yes, I'll be listening to music in digital format, but as far as I know, the ear can't really tell the difference.

</comment><comment><USER12> My issue here is that screen content today often of very low quality.

It's even worse than TV was 25 years ago (actual TV became worse too during that period).

Even what I'm having on my screen, non-work-related, is information equivalent of trash food.

I now have doubts whether I am comfortable in letting my kid on this crapfest. Case in point: games that have no gameplay, no difficulty, no plot, no information, and exist solely to make spend money via in-app purchases. This of course lets them kill off everything else on market by putting half of that money into advertising.

<comment><USER13> There's still plenty of really excellent tv and games out there, there's just also a lot more crap too.

<comment><USER12> It seems that I am unable to navigate the offerings.

There used to be forums, there used to be communities, there used to be journals if it comes to that. Now it's nothing of that. It's awful tops from Google Play and even awfuler advertising. I don't understand how one searches for something of value.

With TV it's easier because there's at least IMDB.

<comment><USER6> _It seems that I am unable to navigate the offerings._

I don't navigate them at all. I hear about shows from coworkers, or occasionally trip across something right here on HN. As a recent example, I present _The Orville_. ([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15333242](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15333242)) I mean, I'd _heard_ of it, but it didn't sound like it was for me. As the thread shows, I was wrong. Now my wife and I are hooked. Or sometimes a show will just get mentioned in passing here, I'll look it up, watch an episode to find out if we'll like it. Once in a great while Netflix or iTunes will come up with something "you might like, mikestew!" that's worth watching. Not very often, though.

That's it, we just watch what I've tripped across serendipitously. And we can't keep up (just now getting to the third season of _12 Monkeys_ ). Granted, our viewing habits might not match most (if there's nothing on, then we do something else). But if we want to sit down and watch something, we rarely lack for something of quality.

Contrast that with the "25 years ago" you use as a comparison. My memory of TV in the 90s was using the TV set to watch movies and ST:NG. I don't think we watched much, if any, actual TV shows because I recall that there was nothing worth watching except ST:NG.

Games are the same for me, whatever my circle mentions, and whatever Bethesda has put out recently. That might or might not work for others, especially if you don't like RPGs like Bethesda puts out. I've tried paying attention to IGN and the like, but, yeah...

That's not to argue that it isn't a crapfest out there. It's partially why I quit paying attention. Let's take _Modern Family_ as an example. Seems to get rave reviews, it's been on for a while. Hmm, might be decent. I didn't even know that shows still _did_ laugh tracks. And the jokes were recycled versions of what was on TV 40 years ago in the 70s. Drop an episode in a time machine to 1978, and the only difference viewers would notice are those strange glass hand-held devices the characters keep staring at, and wow, their microwave sure is small.

<comment><USER12> With shows it's easier. With apps it's harder because it's now what usually gets discussed and tastes vary a great deal.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Analog beats digital for some things because it's only 2017. In 2047, our tech will seem as clunky and limited as 1987 looks to us today.

Paper notebooks still beat computers in some ways. Acknowledging this is the key to keep moving forward. Computer screens are rigid, paper is flexible. Computers take Wi-Fi and batteries, paper doesn't. Screens often cut up their space with sticky navbars at the top, disclaimers at the bottom, ads on the right and even in the middle. Computer input is by a rigid and limited keyboard or by a blunt stylus across a slippery screen. Pen on paper provides friction for feedback and control.

Relevant quote from article: " [...] I got out an unused Moleskine notebook. [...] I instantly remembered how much I love writing, just the physical sensation of it and the flexibility of analog tools. [...] It's been a revelation to use a paper notebook for this. Before [...] I would try to take handwritten notes using my iPad, or use Evernote. It was always fussy and frustrating: The wifi wouldn't connect, for example. Or, the pen would lag on my iPad and the resulting notes were illegible. Or, I was using Evernote and couldn't easily hand-annotate what I was typing; or using OneNote and experiencing horrific data corruption and sync issues."

</comment><comment><USER15> Am I the only one having a problem with the term "analog" for everything non- digital? First of all digits can very well be analog to something, e.g. a CD contains digits analogous to sound pressure in a similar way a vinyl records has grooves analogous to sound. Furthermore analog means quite the opposite of the "real thing" \- as the name says, it is an analogy of something, not the thing itself. I could just let go and accept the new meaning of analog, but I think the implication of using it this way leads to the false impression that everything digital is just fake and a mere approximation of the-real-thing. As someone who breathes digitally, this makes me a bit sad.

</comment><comment><USER13> I would argue that while there's nothing wrong with digital and I still do plenty of things digitally, there's something to be said for the analog as well. Digital still doesn't offer a few things that can be valuable: in-person social interaction (pretty much by definition), flexibility (I can write literally anything on a piece of paper, it doesn't have to conform to any particular structure or require I load a drawing app to make a diagram, etc), and having a physical artifact of your efforts.

I used to make a bunch of attempts at keeping journals digital only in the past, and in the past year I started keeping a physical design diary where I recorded all my game design ideas. It's hard work keeping up with it, but seeing the result of those efforts is very much worth it to me. Then in addition to that I spend a little extra time digitizing it (basically when my brain is mush and I don't want to think about things), so I have both the artifact and a digital copy of it for reference on the go.

I have a gazillion files on my hard drive, and all those things can easily get buried into archives or deep nests of folders and become 'out of sight, out of mind' for me. But I can pick up the diary, browse through it, go "Oh yeah, that thing! I should think about that some more", and if I happen to die, I bet most of my digital files will be completely overlooked, whereas people will see the design diaries and potentially do something with them.

It is a lot more work to write everything physically though. I seem to be perpetually a month behind on recording in it nowadays.

Secondly, I used to work in video games, and I really got tired of everything I worked on eventually being unable to be enjoyed by friends because it was trapped on an old platform, or the company no longer supported it, it disappeared from an app store (sometimes after only two years), the format stops being supported (in the case of my old Flash games), etc.

Meanwhile, most of my board game designs are all cards, tokens, etc that are completely self-contained, don't require system or platform upgrades, and can easily survive 50 years or more (I know, because I own board games still in excellent condition that are that old).

<comment><USER16> > Then in addition to that I spend a little extra time digitizing it > (basically when my brain is mush and I don't want to think about things), so > I have both the artifact and a digital copy of it for reference on the go.

That's why I use LiveScribe, it handles that step automatically.

It's not an either or...

<comment><USER13> So it detects your handwriting pretty well? I don't have any experience with smartpens.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> > _For the kids, they get their screens back before they leave for school_

Is this the norm now for kids to have smart devices? Are there more benefits than dangers in letting a pre-teen/early teen have a smart device?

</comment><comment><USER18> Analog is more intimate than digital. When I look at the night sky through my binoculars, the photons of distant stars land upon my retina. They touch me, and I touch them, despite the stars being light years away.

When I look through a digital camera, I see the stars but I know the photons are fraudulent. The information is there, but it's lost something.

With analog, if I could focus better, I'd see more and more detail, until it's inseparable from noise, but it's still in there somewhere

With digital, if I zoom, I know I'll find just a pixel or a cold dead square wave.

</comment><comment><USER4> Does the author have children... or pets? Because it doesn't sound like he acknowledges his children as people at all. Perhaps the reason the children resort to screens is because it's the only way he's made possible for them to have any degree of autonomy or independence? He makes it clear that he walks around the neighborhood WITH them, he goes to visit their friends from school WITH them, etc. The reason many kids don't like to go outside isn't because outside isn't interesting - it's because the parents expect to go WITH them.

Back. Off. The kids are 8, 11, and 13. The 8 year old might still need some hand-holding, but the 11 and 13 year old should be developing independence and autonomy and figuring out who they are going to be. They're PEOPLE.

<comment><USER19> I'm a child of the 90's, I'll preface this with that.

The problem isn't the freedom from the screen - its the societal expectation that parents need to go outside with their children, and that children cannot be left alone for a fear of the unknown.

At 8, I spent hours away from adults, I listened to the radio, to music, read books, spent time with my cohorts - at age 10-11-12 - I was riding my bike miles from home alone - and this was in the age before kids had cellphones too, I always carried change for a payphone, and had phone numbers for my mom at work, and my grandparents (who lived about 6 miles away) memorized.

I see nothing wrong with reducing to eliminating screen time - digital devices are pervasive and have a stunting effect on socialization and people skills (in my opinion) - the issue is, is the presumption that children shouldn't otherwise be left alone unsupervised.</comment></comment>


Apple's WWDC 2017: a Siri speaker, iOS 11, and what else to expect - <AUTHOR> https://www.theverge.com/2017/6/2/15720572/apple-wwdc-2017-keynote-date-rumors-ios-11-siri-speaker-ipad <comment><USER2> Adding external APIs triggered by key phrases is just plain old programming. The fact that a multi-billion dollar company could not solve this basic programming problem to make Siri useful was a disappointment. By now, Siri should have been improved 10x over. Add in a Bi-LSTM module for chit-chat and you got a much better experience. It's such a waste of a perfectly decent voice recognition system.</comment>


BMW-Powered Hover Bike..Yes, Please - <AUTHOR> http://gearpatrol.com/blog/2011/06/09/bmw-powered-twin-rotorhoverbike/

<comment><USER2> Looks like a cool concept. But so far haven't found any videos of a hoverbike in flight; Looks more like proof-of-concept at this point.</comment>


Lyft and Uber to keep operating in LA despite city orders - <AUTHOR> http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-lyft-uberx-continue-operating-la-cease-and-desist-letters-20130625,0,7930489.story

<comment><USER2> I will be very interested to see how this story develops in the coming days/weeks. Clever of these services, pitting State v. City.</comment>


Who can tell me the differences between IBM Watson discovery vs. Google search - <AUTHOR> I tried to ask several questions on Watson and google, such as "how parents help make academic success?","how parents do if students fail?". Google search can give more accurate answer.Why and when should I use IBM Watson discovery? <comment><USER2> [https://www.ibm.com/blogs/bluemix/2016/12/introducing- watson...](https://www.ibm.com/blogs/bluemix/2016/12/introducing-watson- discovery-service/) says: Introducing the Watson Discovery Service: Content full of lemons? Turn it into lemonade.

</comment><comment><USER3> Watson lets you search your own corpus. Google search searches the web.

Google's system does a great job on the web as a whole, but their "search appliance" and "site search" products are not as good as their web search and certainly not best of breed.</comment>


Why Greenwald should reveal which companies have been compromised by the NSA - <AUTHOR> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-6MsK9f75ZbZ6QjgtfE5kfXEQ_sQKciTqtJsx-bLchw/view

<comment><AUTHOR> Greenwald's response: [https://twitter.com/bdowney/status/376818109719404545](https://twitter.com/bdowney/status/376818109719404545)

</comment><comment><USER2> According to CALEA

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

Its every company. Nobody needs Greenwald to figure this out.</comment>


Ask HN: Do you think that your smartphone is main source of distraction - <AUTHOR> Hi! I'm developing 'yet another app' for productivity and screen time.
So my question. Do you think that smartphones became the main source of distractions today, especially at the self-isolation period?
And do we need to handle it somehow? <comment><USER2> Yes. We do need to handle it. I am gradually removing distractive apps from my phone. (Happiness) Return on time invested on smartphone is crazily low for me, maybe even negative.

Use of smartphone also grows with self-isolation and depression, creating a feeling loop.

We need tech that motivates its users to get away from screens. My objective is to reduce as much as possible my passive use of smartphone. Just do not know how to reach it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Interesting. Thanks for your answer. Does app removal help you? There is a lot of hype near 'Digital detox'. Did you try it?

<comment><USER2> App removal does help but it is radical; a smoother way would be good.

Facebook is an app that I never installed, but I can not keep from going on it through my browser, even though I gain nothing from it. I would love to find a way not to browse it anymore. I have not tried any digital detox on smartphone. I can not really judge it.

I have decided that I will buy a bass guitar this week-end so that I spend less time on screen. Low-tech solution.

<comment><AUTHOR> A good way to change your context from tech!</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Why isn't YouTube blacked out? - <AUTHOR>

If Google really wanted to make a point, why didn't they black out YouTube, where it really hurts? <comment><USER2> Google is currently being investigated on anti-trust issues . A huge show of political force might annoy politicians. Google's just being careful.

<comment><USER3> " _might annoy politicians_ "

That is the whole reason of protesting. Any law would pass if they can't be bothered.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I think the blank out of Google is making more of a point then say if they blacked out Gmail or Youtube.

<comment><USER5> Blanking Google mail would harm the user base. I support doing so for non- essential services but many of us require access to our mail accounts for a plethora of reasons.</comment></comment>


Signs You're a Bad Boss - <AUTHOR> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703786804576138141599946476.html?mod=WSJ_hps_sections_careerjournal <comment><USER2> That first one is HUGE, and I'm glad it's being called out. Call it the Blackberry effect, but the fact is that emails have a tone just like any spoken sentence. Taking the extra 15 seconds to treat the recipient like a human instead of a machine makes a world of difference.

<comment><USER3> You can go too far in the other direction, however.

I once had a boss who would write emails to us as if we were clients, not colleagues, with a completely formal style.

Internal emails should match internal conversations - not completely blunt, but not sounding like a job application letter, either.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Another sign is placing too much value on things that aren't necessarily related to performance; the quintessential example is the ass-in-seat mentality.

Displaying favoritism is another sign of a bad boss; it kills morale (perhaps more than a boss who yells at everyone equally).

<comment><USER5> There are plenty of positions where "ass-in-seat" IS a measure of productivity. I doubt too many HN readers are in one of those positions, but I can imagine plenty of managers reading the WSJ who could be managing those sorts of positions. I'd say that including that concept in the article would weaken its generality.

<comment><USER6> I'm sure you can come up with a similar number of contrived examples where one of the named signs is similarly a "valid" practice.

For example, there are positions where yelling loudly is imperative. For example, do you want the manager of a construction site to quietly state that a beam looks unstable?

There are also jobs where sickness is common even if you're the best boss in the world. Kindergarten teachers get sick because children are icky, germ- ridden little things, not because their boss is a jerk.

I think measuring inappropriate things is one of the biggest problems with bad management. It's the best way to ensure that your employees are either mediocre or pathological.

However, it's not a _sign_ of bad management. That list is literally meant to be a list of things you can notice about the place you're managing and say, "Holy cow, these are warning signs! I should examine the situation closely." If the manager knows his benchmarks are broken beyond use but persists in using them, he likely doesn't care about anything in this article.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Its funny. My grad school adviser was like this. Think about it. Getting paid the wages of a peon and being treated as one.

</comment><comment><USER8> Ultimate sign of a bad boss, they drastically lower the productivity of the people under them by introducing politics, TPS reports, Meetings, status reports, adding work for work's sake and turning work from an exciting exploration into its opposite.

Adding a person who makes sure other people work to a team can be one of the most retarded things ever to a profession where creativity and excitement keeps people in the career to begin with.</comment>


Nikolay Ironov - <AUTHOR> https://www.artlebedev.com/ironov/ <comment><AUTHOR> A Russian design studio has developed an AI designer and, for over a year, have been passing it off as a human. To date, the network has been used successfully in over 20 of the studio's commercial projects.</comment>


The Strange Brands in Your Instagram Feed - <AUTHOR> https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/01/the-strange-brands-in-your-instagram-feed/550136/?single_page=true <comment><USER2> _As for my coat, in the end, there was no real mystery to it. It was too cheap to be true, and no matter how much technology changes, you get what you pay for._

It can be an endeavor in and of itself to figure out where the "too cheap to be true" prices start for a given product. If you were accustomed to the HDMI cable prices at Best Buy you might suspect -- wrongly -- that Monoprice was full of too-cheap-to-be-good scam products. What's the labor and materials cost of making a decent camel coat? How low can prices go if the seller spends little on marketing and can live with modest profits? I have no idea. I don't know where "you could get a bargain coat by avoiding name-brand markup" prices end and where "you are guaranteed to get junk" prices begin.

</comment><comment><USER3> That was really interesting... makes you think there are definitely opportunities for clever middlemen / platforms...</comment>


Ask HN: Is it okay to ask friends to upvote a submission? - <AUTHOR>

Something like, "if you like this, please upvote it on Hacker News." Is that, you know, kosher to tweet n stuff? <comment><USER2> I don't know if I would be comfortable with this kind of stuff. Hacker News is read by many people and if your post inherently has something to be liked, it will most likely be. You can then expect it to go viral from there.

But requesting that your friends upvote your posts shows that you're expecting to garner attention by the number of upvotes you've gathered. It doesn't matter if you say "upvote this if you like this", most friends will upvote just for your sake, some might not even take a look.

IMHO, just let the content of your posts/links speak for themselves.

</comment><comment><USER3> From what I've read, no. But I think you can link them to what you've posted, and that's probably something that would naturally happen anyway.

</comment><comment><USER4> The link convention is "Hacker News discussion here" or "discuss this on Hacker News." Either way, there is no call for upvotes.

</comment><comment><USER5> There is a voting ring detector built in to the sw. But pg does not discuss how it works. Its not FTG there are rule here;)

<comment><USER6> New accounts would probably set off an alarm but considering HN is so basic in every other respect I can't see detection of normal active accounts group voting being in effect.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Have you lost your passion for Mozilla Firefox? - <AUTHOR>

I have been using Firefox  since the early days but over time, there are some  parts of it that I have grown to hate. I really hate  their printing support on Linux and Mac. Firebug is a great tool but I feel it is beginning to suck compared to Chrome's developer tools. Have any of you noticed  any other longstanding bugs with Firefox? Also, do you think Mozilla is still in line with its core values with the increased competition it is facing? <comment><USER2> I was wooed away by Chrome's speed around a year ago, but after using it a few months I naturally was looking at extending it. It's night and day compared to Mozilla. All the interesting UI bits (tab switcher, menu, location bar) are hard-coded in C++; none of it's extensible via JS.

Once I realized this the magic was gone and Chrome held zero appeal to me. Luckily that was right around when the improved JIT in FF4 started getting usable with Conkeror, (<http://conkeror.org>) so I was able to switch back to the Moz without a noticeable speed hit. And what an amazing difference in flexibility... I don't know what I was thinking.

This is not so much about Firefox itself; as an application it's pretty meh, but as a platform it's excellent. It's the only thing I've ever seen that comes close to Emacs in terms of hackability.

</comment><comment><USER3> When I click on the Firefox icon in my dock, it may take up to 2 minutes for Firefox to load and be usable. Chrome feels almost instant. I want badly to use Firefox more, but I can't justify it when it's so slow (and I'm using 4.0).

</comment><comment><USER4> Firefox was my core browser for years when I split my time working on a Windows laptop and a Mac desktop. When I switched over to a Mac for 99% of my work I started using Safari more and eventually stopped using Firefox (this was in the v2-v3 timeframe). I now mostly use Safari & Chrome but have been using Firefox more now since 4.0.1 came out.

I use almost no plugins/extensions on any of the browsers, found they just slowed down the browser too much.

So: less passion, yes. Lost interest previously but we've made up.

</comment><comment><USER5> I ditched Firefox for Camino three years ago and then upgraded to Chrome when I got a new MBP two months ago. I'll never switch back from Chrome.

Firefox on the Mac is brutally slow at times for me and the interface doesn't look nearly as nice as Chrome. I like software that gets outta my way and lets me work effectively. The developer tools in Chrome are way better than Firebug IMO anyway so no hangup for me there.

<comment><AUTHOR> can you please elaborate on what made you switch?

<comment><USER5> The switch from FF to Camino was because I wanted something based on FF but that behaved like a native OS X application. The switch from Camino to Chrome was mainly due to curiosity/hype/etc and it turned out to be true what people said about Chrome being pretty great. Another main consideration was the fact that I want to get into WebGL and Chrome supports it well.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I still believe Firefox is well on track on the desktop, however, I'm becoming frustrated with it's performance on mobile devices (in my case Android 2.2 Galaxy Tab). And I'm wondering if this is a strategic failure. Firefox is not available on all Android devices, and in my case, it does install, but is unusable. My none-tech opinion: I don't care what processor my phone or tablet has, when I go into the Android Marketplace, I expect to find Firefox, no matter what device and what Android version. There is a browser preinstalled (I guess some chrome/webkit thing), so it's not rocket science. I'm more and more tempted to play around with other browsers to share bookmarks and stuff between desktop and mobile, and Firefox is falling short.

<comment><USER7> I definitely agree with you on the speed issues. I really tried to use Firefox Mobile because I liked Sync, but it's just too slow. It takes forever to start. I'm back to the default Android browser now.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I switched to Chrome initially when I upgraded to Fx4 and had some stability issues - it was a good excuse to try it fulltime. I've been using it since then. The only feature I find myself missing is the AwesomeBar, but that's on the Chrome roadmap, so I can't complain just yet.

Chrome feels a little lighter/faster, and I also like that themes don't take over the entire browser. A lot of nice FireFox themes absolutely destroy readability in certain places like the page title, and FireFox's chrome by default doesn't look as nice as Chrome's.

For what it's worth, I'd love to give Opera a fair chance again, but it doesn't play nicely with inertial scrolling on Mac.

</comment><comment><USER9> I was about to report a bug that I noticed in Chrome today.

Then I switched to Canary, and realized that it was fixed.

Then looked back at the form:

Builds: 13.0.772.0 dev 13.0.775.0 canary

It's a great day for browsers.

</comment><comment><USER10> Using the URL bar as search was F'ing brilliant! It single-handedly changed the way I browse the web in much the same way FF did when it released tabbed browsing.

</comment><comment><USER11> I switched from Firefox 3.6 to Chrome and I never looked back. I loved the fact that Chrome was fast, sleek looking, simple and once got extension support easily customizable. The only thing I currently don't like about Chrome is it's spell-checker.

Firefox 4 has been out for a while and it seems to be just as good as Chrome in most aspects, so I would recommend you use whichever one you prefer.

</comment><comment><USER12> I started splitting my time between Chrome and Firefox maybe a year ago. After I read about how difficult Chrome is to hack I started using it more faithfully. My only complaint is that it tends to crash a lot more than Firefox. Not sure why that is.

</comment><comment><USER13> Totally lost my passion for firefox. It's so clunky and slow now, and Chrome is just so fast & sexy. I used to use it solely because of FireBug, but now Chrome's Developer Tools are just as good, and in my opinion, better than FBug.

</comment><comment><USER14> I've installed and used Chrome but am staying with FF because I know it, it works, and it does everything The occasional crash is no problem as FF restores with no problem, and using Windows I am used to crashes :d

</comment><comment><USER15> I still use Mozilla. It's cool. If you're not a Mozilla fan how about Safari?

<comment><AUTHOR> what makes you keep using it? What do you like and what do you hate?

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> the only thing keeping me from moving completely from Firefox to Chrome is Pentadactyl (<http://dactyl.sourceforge.net/pentadactyl/>), and better greasemonkeyscript-ability. Firefox on Mac has always had memory hogging issues, but I really can't live without my vim overlay (I've tried the Chrome alternatives, like vimium, but they pale in comparison)

As people have said about Firefox's hackability, I don't think there will be a Chrome extension as good as Pentadactyl.

</comment><comment><USER17> I've used Firefox since it was Phoenix/Firebird. It saved me from IE. You can pry it from my cold, dead hands.

</comment><comment><USER18> Firefox was definitely my favorite browser until Chrome came out.

<comment><AUTHOR> What made you switch?

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> mine started crashing on me at least 3 or 4 times a day. I eventually completely switched to chrome.

The only thing really keeping me is firbug.

<comment><USER20> Firebug Lite is now available for Chrome. <http://getfirebug.com/releases/lite/chrome/>

<comment><USER21> The built in dev tools are comparable (and personally, better) than the full firebug plugin. firebug lite doesn't quite cut it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Au contraire. The more ham-handed Chrome becomes with its UI decisions, the more I appreciate Firefox. I just hope Firefox doesn't follow the same route (give my my address bar, dammit).</comment>


Show HN: Fenêtre – Picture-in-picture for your mac - <AUTHOR> https://xn--fent-ipa.re <comment><USER2> I'm being a bit stupid, sorry. I don't get it. What is it? A remote desktop thing? Or does it pretend to be a second monitor in a window (which is pretty clever so nice work).

EDIT: or I can plug another Mac in?

I'm confused by that bit about not alt-tabbing between video of a tutorial and your editor. I can do that now, using, you know, the window manager that's built into the OS. That's why I'm a bit lost, sorry.

<comment><USER3> It lets you load a webpage/picture/video/file in a floating window that will always stay on top.

So if you're working in your editor full screen, you can keep this floating window on top. And keep most of your screen's real estate.

I hope this answer your questions.

[HIJACKING COMMENT]

HN has blocked me from commenting too much, but I wanted to share some promo codes !

\--- My initial message that I can't post anymore ---

I'm Yoann Moinet, I've developed Fenêtre.

Thank you so much for all your valuable feedbacks, I love it.

I've worked on it with my friend Max William Neilson, who took care of the designs.

We also are on Product Hunt [https://www.producthunt.com/posts/fenetre](https://www.producthunt.com/posts/fenetre)

To repeat what I answered to other questions.

\- Windows is coming.

\- I'll have a look for *nix.

\- Will fix mobile as soon as I have some time.

\- I choose the domain name, and I love it. But it gave us a hard time in multiple places, because special chars are not handle well everywhere!

\- Similar to Helium indeed (I love it too) but with a different feature set.

Here are some promo codes for you.

H774F7MYTMTY

97PL69RMMX47

FF9WTPXK7KKJ

7H6Y69F4FJNN

HRHFM9LJF4X6

HLTYRXX3MLFE

P64ERPPTRYWY

PPMKWHR99KAF

47ET7J94WLWP

L9TY7K339LHK

<comment> 2-m3m3n70 What are the codes for?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I currently use [http://heliumfloats.com](http://heliumfloats.com) which appears to be exactly this, albeit Helium is free. What are the benefits to this over Helium?

<comment><USER3> I was actually using Helium for a long time. It is a awesome app as well, offering a different set of features IMHO.

A sneak peak of features offered by Fenêtre.

\- Browser extension

\- Code highlight

\- Markdown Viewer

\- Click-through and See-through as well as opacity control (Helium has opacity too)

\- Lots of settings to control defaults behaviors.

\- Mute window

\- Clipboard access

\- Customizable hotkeys

\- Polished experience for some website (Youtube, Vimeo, Twitch, Github to name a few...)

\- Access to recent opened items

\- Local files support (video, image, text files...)

\- Collapsed view

Hope you'll give it a shot !

<comment><USER5> It's worth at least the "on sale" $5 (compared to Helium's 125 open issues) if that encourages you to slog along with customer support and to fix the inevitable OS-level breaking changes.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Just bought it and am trying it out. Where are the instructions, though? I have no idea how to move the window around or activate the pass-through feature, and it is unclear where the settings are. I had to kill the window by bringing up activity monitor!

If you do have an instructional page, please put it somewhere highly visible on your website! I couldn't find it after a bit of scrolling. It might be there, but it should be obvious!

</comment><comment><USER7> Please just load the whole damn page. I hate scrolling down, watching stuff appear much too late for me to realise I've reached where content is.

This page really didn't work at all on mobile.

<comment><USER3> Thanks for the heads up on mobile, I will update it ASAP!

<comment><USER8> FWIW, the page (slowly) loads a few pictures and no content with JavaScript disabled. I just immediately close pages that do this.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Although I see the appeal I feel that any more distraction is exactly the opposite of what I want. Maybe I see this way to serious but I would be tempted to use this all the time and I'd assume I'd work much worse.

</comment><comment><USER10> While somewhat on the subject of window utilities: Is there a program that lets you make say a virtual desktop, then draw a box around a section that you can then take to your real desktop?

It would be handy to have for programs that are overly buttony and ribbony that you know well enough to navigate keyboard only (or that you use only for a specific subset of commands) which take up far too much screen real estate.

<comment><USER11> Have you looked into the zoom feature in System Preferences > Accessibility > Zoom? You can't draw a box, but you can zoom in and cut down on the clutter you see to an area the same shape as your monitor. I use it all the time because of my vision, but it has the side effect of enabling a distraction free mode of sorts in lots of programs.

<comment><USER10> I just checked it out, not really what I'm looking for. but thanks

</comment></comment></comment><comment> apk-d Windows user here - looks pretty neat. I googled around and it appears MS is working on something similar for Windows 10, but I'm not sure if it's going to land as a feature available to power users or rather app developers. For now I'm sticking to my ghetto AutoHotkey make-always-on-top script.

Also, that Unicode domain name looks sweet.

<comment><USER3> Thanks mate !

I'm actually working on the windows version. It's not that far, but it needs way more infrastructure, especially for the licence system. As the Mac AppStore has all this built in.

<comment> apk-d Great to hear - I'll be checking it out.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> On Ubuntu there's an "always on top" option for all windows (right click the window's top bar), granted you don't get the click/see through features and other niceties but it served me well when I had the TV on my desktop.

<comment><USER13> I don't know if it's a default setting or if I have set it up in Compiz Config, but I can adjust the opacity of any window by holding Alt and scrolling.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I'm really enjoying this so far. Using it to keep our app's dashboard floating in the corner to keep an eye on it. My biggest want right now is support for right clicking / keyboard shortcuts in the opened browser pages. Had to manually type out my randomly-generated, 26-character password since I couldn't just copy and paste from 1password. That said, this is great. Well worth the purchase.

</comment><comment><USER15> I sent the link to my whole team. Bien joué ! J'aimerais bien l'utiliser mais je suis sur Ubuntu.

<comment><USER13> Can't you already do this in Ubuntu, or have I missed something it does?

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Nice product! It might be a bit of a hard brand-word to pronounce and communicate... But who knows, maybe you'll do as well as LaCroix did for pamplemousse ;)

</comment><comment><USER17> Quite a cool product, and i'd like to commend you on your landing page. Looks cool and conveys all the information i'm looking for.

<comment><USER18> To balance feedback out, I've got no idea what it supports after reading the website. It can load websites, sure. But it also mentions e.g. games, does it mean it can play web-games or can I add any kind of app as a floating window? It's not clear at all IMO.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> this is already available for free through safari. nevertheless, good luck with your product. :)

<comment><USER9> Yeah, that's what I thought. What's the difference between these?

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Bought. Nice.

Issue: Not allowing to resize window on YT link.

Edit: Actually it works now. Apologies.

</comment><comment><USER21> play.hbonow.com does not load in it because I think it's using a mobile user agent, which hbonow seems to not want to support

<comment><USER3> It is indeed using a mobile user agent.

I have plans to rework this, and let the user switch between the two modes.

Right now, it's possible to deactivate it in the settings of the Pro app.

<comment><USER22> Can't seem to find anywhere to report bugs other than Twitter or here. Have you got a support email address/form/issue tracker users can access?

<comment><USER3> You can use support[at]fenêt.re if needed.

I'll change the 'Contact' link at the bottom of the webpage to reflect that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Is it possible to increase playback speed?

</comment><comment><USER24> I wish I knew how to "watch Netflix while working".

</comment><comment><USER25> Love the slogan

</comment><comment><USER26> Am I missing something, or is all of this marketing and fanciness entirely about an "always on top" feature?</comment>


Immutable Infrastructure Realized: Fugue Computing - <AUTHOR> http://luminal.com/blog/2014-11-06-fugue-computing.html <comment><USER2> The blog seems to have a target audience of people who have never heard of the cloud, but for those of us who are already familiar with cloud, DevOps, drift, and immutable infrastructure it would be nice to see an explanation of what specifically is new here.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi wmf, you can find specifics of how Fugue works at www.fugue.it

<comment><USER2> I looked at the site before asking my question. It looks like cloud orchestration 101. How is it different from, say, Terraform?

<comment><AUTHOR> Terraform creates everything and hands you the keys to manage your infrastructure. Fugue continually manages your infrastructure after the deployment with the Conductor. The continuous automatic regeneration of instances make bad boots, noisy neighbors, and transient errors temporary blips rather than problems that must be manually addressed. Fugue continuously enforces your desired state of infrastructure so you don't have to.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Late disclosure: I am a founder of Luminal, the makers of Fugue. Happy to answer any questions!

<comment><USER3> Very interesting, I worked on a system that does provide 'truth and trust' but the first part (voluntarily destroying instances) of what you say seems like the opposite? If you want to maintain truth with everyone being aware of each other 's state but then want to voluntarily disrupt said state, wouldn't that lead to unnecessary work? Also, would be nice if you shared the data that led to such an approach (I see this removes the need for say Upgrades, but does it actually provide a benefit)? May be I'm completely off-base here.

<comment><USER4> Thanks for the question, curiousDog.

Disclosure: I am a founder and the CEO of Luminal.

In a distributed, and therefore often largely stateless system at the instance level, the system boundary is now outside the individual instance. The performer (a series of instances over time in Fugue) is roughly analogous to a process on an individual computer. Truth and trust are maintained by knowing and controlling the state of the instances themselves with Fugue. Think of the Conductor as analogous to the kernel in a traditional OS, where providing processes CPU time and resources is a regular course of business.

As for unnecessary work, we've found that maintaining systems in place, with all the failure, complexity and configuration drift that's inevitable is much more expensive than using some of the excess capacity of a given performer. Most systems target 70% or so utilization - we use some of that excess to lifecycle.

I hope this answers the question and we're really excited to get feedback on what we're doing so it's relevant to your work.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I currently use scalr to manage a bunch of servers at the top-level (with Ansible scripts doing config and deployment), but would love for it to be configured via a bunch of config files that are revision controlled in git rather than through a UI like scalr provides. This looks exactly like it would provide this ...

<comment><USER4> Radiofan,

It will indeed! And with a compiled language so you can get meaningful errors, etc. before spinning up resources that cost $.

\- Josh

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I love the direction of this, in fact, I just wrote an article ([https://medium.com/@marknadal/rise-of-the-immutable- operatin...](https://medium.com/@marknadal/rise-of-the-immutable-operating- system-f7945b1da993)) about immutable systems (more from a consumer perspective) the other day on medium.

Although I'm not a fan of the vocabulary you guys are using - but that may be because I'm one of those silly JavaScript people. I guess specifically, I'd love to see some screen recordings of this in action. Do you guys have any you can show off? Keep up the good work, immutability is a critical key to making any type of progress in software.

<comment><USER4> Mark,

Thanks for the comments and well-wishes! We chose to use some new terms to not overload existing ones where we are introducing new concepts (Conductor, Performers, etc.). The analogues to music conceptually were so strong they seemed the right way to go. We will have lots more in the way of howto's, screen recordings, etc. in the coming weeks as we recover from launching our beta at re:Invent. Sign up for the beta and we'll send out bits with examples and runnable code in <15 mins.

\- Josh

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> We're currently evaluating Terraform for an H1 2015 rollout. This looks like another interesting option, though it might require more modification to our services than we can commit to.

<comment><USER4> Passive,

Where do you think our approach will add overhead to your development? We'd love to know so that we can either explain better or get a better product match for you. With Fugue, you get a Conductor that continually monitors and conforms the environment to your declarations - we think that has a lot of value for operating your environment as opposed to just creating it.

\- Josh</comment></comment>


Legal warning in under 6 hours after launch - <AUTHOR> http://blog.skierkowski.com/2012/08/28/legal-warning-in-under-6-hours-after-launch-of-scorepromoter/

<comment><USER2> The quick turnaround is probably due to a Google Alerts subscription.

<comment><USER3> Agreed, this doesn't surprise me at all these days. Even my dad has Google Alerts set up for his name, so I'd expect it to be pretty much a guaranteed given that most companies would have it set up for their trademarks.

<comment><USER4> Odd - Google alerts have always taken the better part of a day in my experience. I must be using the slow option. ;)

<comment><USER5> You can select the frequency with which you receive alerts. I have mine set up to send them as soon as they happen, and the turnaround is almost always less than an hour.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> There's a good Freakanomics blog article about trademark enforcement here: [http://www.freakonomics.com/2012/06/26/the-summer- trademark-...](http://www.freakonomics.com/2012/06/26/the-summer-trademark- olympics-please-dont-sue-us/)

The takeaway in this case is that aggressive enforcement helps protect a mark holder from losing their claim to the trademark. It seems like you just need to TM those NPS phrases and add some legal notice in your global footer to be in compliance.</comment>


Buy your own drone and produce precise orthomosaics and 3D models. - <AUTHOR> http://www.sensefly.com

<comment><USER2> No public info on pricing implies a strong statement of "if I must ask then I can't afford it". So I won't bother looking at features you're obviously not targeting at most of people here.

</comment><comment><USER3> awesome.</comment>


Nicholas Wade flails at the philosophy of science - <AUTHOR> http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/10/nicholas_wade_flails_at_the_ph.php

<comment><USER2> Gee, thanks. I rather liked "Before the Dawn", now I'm worrying that lots of it is his own weird misinterpretations of the actual science.

</comment><comment><USER3> Those quotes of Wade definitely sound like a lame attempt to apologize to the creationist readers for his positive review of the book.

 _The facts are the facts, the laws summarize the regularities in the facts, and the theories explain the laws. Evolution can fall into only of of these categories, and it's a theory._

So according to Wade, gravity is a not a fact, since we have a theory of gravitation. That's an utterly ridiculous point of view that no philosopher of science supports.

Oh, before you ask how this is ontopic for HN: if you're smart and excel at something, it's easy to overestimate your knowledge of other subjects. In this case, Wade mistakes his common sense about science of philosophy with actual knowledge of science of philosophy.</comment>


Why You Should Highlight Optional Form Fields Not Required Ones - <AUTHOR> http://uxmovement.com/forms/highlight-optional-form-fields-not-required-ones

<comment><USER2> I think a better strategy is to simply de-emphasise the optional fields. This can be done by showing the label in grey rather than black text. Putting "optional" in the input box itself won't work, because frequently all your input boxes will have "hint" text in there already. That said, red asterisks are fairly common and I think users understand them - so there are good reasons for maintaining the status quo.

</comment><comment><USER3> I dunno.. anyone who's ever used the internet should know what a red asterisk means.. Its been 10 years now. Changing this behavior is going contrary to a commonly established web browsing convention. Though I accept that there are better usability practices that could be put into place, I disagree with the primary assumption here</comment>


Soylent Shipping Delay Root Cause Analysis - <AUTHOR> http://blog.soylent.com/post/130348210172/shipping-delay-root-cause-analysis <comment><USER2> Soylent seems to be under more scrutiny than any other food product I have ever seen. And at the same time, they are being more transparent, and showing more responsibility than any other food company I've seen.

We've all gotten new food at some point that had gone bad; and yet I assume most of those companies just kinda shrug it off as long as it's below a certain threshold.

<comment><USER3> Most food products you do not eat as regularly so it is much less dangerous if there is a problem with them.

<comment><USER4> Except meat and vegetables. How many contaminations have happened with Salmonella or E. Colli that were more dangerous, and so wide spread that product recalls were required. I'm also not sure how many people are actually consuming Soylent multiple times a day, but I would love to know the ratio of one-off orders to subscriptions. Might be interesting.

<comment><USER5> You don't eat meat and veges from the same farm and same processing plant every day. There's a wide variety.

Also, food poisoning is always a risk when eating but it's not a life- shortening or baby-deforming kind of risk like, say mercury or lead overdose can be. Farmed products can have these contaminants but not usually consistently in every meal just because they're from varied sources.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I hope that more companies come to understand that a problem analysis like this one inspires customer confidence instead of bringing failure to light, reducing confidence.

</comment><comment><USER7> On a side note, I was one of the early recipients of Soylent 2.0, and I was incredibly impressed with the product. As many have noted, the taste is similar to milk left in a bowl of cereal. It errs on the enjoyable side of neutral, unlike powdered Soylent 1.5, which fell on the unenjoyable side of neutral. The texture is also completely smooth -- the powdered versions were always grainy to me no matter how much I tried shaking.

I have a personal rule of never drinking Soylent more than once in a day and never two days in a row. But I consider it a worthwhile, affordable, and extremely convenient addition to my diet.

<comment><USER8> My question is why you chose Soylent over more tried and trued meal replacements like Ensure?

<comment><USER9> I thought was an interesting question, so I Googled, and there are actually some pretty convincing replies on Soylent's forums - [http://discourse.soylent.com/t/comparing-soylent-to- existing...](http://discourse.soylent.com/t/comparing-soylent-to-existing- nutritional-products/431)

<comment><USER8> Thanks, I'll check it out.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> > we conducted physical and visual inspections, along with microbial tests, of > 2,000 bottles in our distribution center and found only two bottles with the > same defect

Wouldn't this put them well _above_ the industry standard rate of 1 in 10,000 bottles quoted earlier in the article?

</comment><comment><USER11> Summary: Bottles on the production line sometimes got jostled making them splash Soylent onto the exterior, resulting in mold on the outside of the package. They halted shipping and expect to resume on the 8th.

</comment><comment><USER12> Why is the powder still v1.5 and not 2.0 yet?

<comment><USER13> They are entirely different products, with different ingredient lists. From what I understand, 2.0 is not able to be powdered, and 1.5 is not able to be stored as a liquid for long.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I still can't believe Soylent is a thing. What is wrong with food? People who want this make no sense to me. None at all.

<comment><USER15> Soylent isn't always used as a replacement for good food. It's used as a replacement for junk food that you would grab in a hurry.

<comment><USER7> This is spot on, for me at least. Soylent has completely eliminated junk food and late-night frozen pizzas from my life.

<comment><USER16> My problem is that, generally, I eat junk food less because I'm hungry and more because it tastes good.

I'm glad Soylent works for some people, at least.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


37signals wants to charge their customers for the chance to give them customer feedback - <AUTHOR> http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/384-37signals-customer-summit-exploration <comment><AUTHOR> There's always been something fishy about 37signals that I can't put my finger on. I respect what they've done but know that I _definitely_ don't want to run a company like they do. Firstly, they charge for everything they possible can. This is not necessarily bad in and of itself but at some point they stop feeling like a product company. First and foremost they're a _brand_ company. I can't help but think they'll sacrifice quality in any other area if it helps their brand out. That's probably not entirely fair, but it's the picture they've painted.

I just want to build cool stuff. I know brand is important but it seems silly to me to try and make a career out of blathering about how awesomely I build cool stuff and how much I _just get it_ where so many others don't.

<comment><USER3> We tried basecamp for awhile but then grew out of it. Then we tried Highrise when it came out - found it pretty much useless. Lots of people heeded their call for simplicity and the fight against feature creep and that's a good thing. But when their own products begin to get lapped by competitors and the new stuff they are releasing isn't very useful, then there are problems. That said, I don't blame them necessarily for charging people for all this stuff; at $100/person, they probably actually wouldn't make very much money - <USER2> need to rent space, get some food, pay for A/V, etc. Going to a developer conference is one thing, but I'm not sure it would be worth a day to hear how someone is using a glorified web form as a collaboration tool.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Isn't this a little harsh? What, you can't file bug reports or submit suggestions without going to the workshop? These user conferences / workshops are _very_ common in the software-for-businesses industry, AND $100 is extremely cheap for one of these things. I'm not saying that it provides any legitimate value or anything, but it's a normal practice, and I think people just go to them because they just have to drink beer and socialize with other geeks, it's a vacation from real work, and they expense it so it's free to them.

<comment><USER5> It's an excellent opportunity for their competitors to get informed about their products for only $100 (and a plane ticket. My startup being one of them - not that I have time to fly over there) It is also a social gathering, so people might be getting value out of it in that respect too.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> They want to charge people $100 to sit through a sales pitch?

<comment><USER7> Ballsy, definitely, but think about the people who show up for that: you (if you're 37signals) _know_ they'll sign up for anything you offer.

There's an important concept in sales called pre-qualification (i.e. only spend time pitching to prospects who are likely to buy) and this is one way of doing it, albeit an extreme one.

<comment><USER8> I think there is even more to it than that. Imagine the buzz that can be generated from 300 blogs going up after the conference about the latest, greatest 37Signals app coming up...</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN : When the client asks "one more little thing..." - <AUTHOR>

We do consulting on the side to make a living while we build our startup. What do you do when a client asks you "There's one more little thing I would like to have..."? You know that it would take you maybe 5 minutes and makes the client happy but he just keeps coming with more.<p>I don't want to know what _should I do_ but what _do you do_. <comment><USER2> For web design, I usually do this:

Let's say the site design has been approved, and the buildout is underway, and the client says: "Oh yeah I want to add a blog!" I'll tell the client: "Not a problem...once the site is built out to the specifications in the original contract, we can give you a custom quote for the blog."

I can add a Wordpress blog in 5 minutes, and adapt the existing design into a custom theme in about 10 minutes, but the client doesn't need to know that. Putting the additional tasks in a quote with a value attached to it not only cuts down on the number of additional requests, it helps the client realize the value of your time and effort.

<comment><USER3> You may be over generalizing. I think that it depends a lot on the client.

For clients who often try to get more work for their money, I agree. Good clients will offer a little more money for small change orders.

And, all that said, this is why I most enjoy working on a time and materials basis.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> If it's truly a really small thing, I just do it. Otherwise, "that's outside the scope of the original estimate, we can do it for ______ on top of the original agreed amount."

</comment><comment><USER5> When I worked in a web design agency, we offered a subscription model where clients paid a yearly or monthly rate to get, say, 2-5 hours per month of minor updates and maintenance work. It was a nice source of recurring revenue for us, and seemed to work well for our clients too.</comment>


Scott Gottlieb on how, and when, to end social distancing - <AUTHOR> https://www.vox.com/2020/4/14/21219021/scott-gottlieb-coronavirus-covid-19-social-distancing-economy-recession <comment><AUTHOR> The most interesting part of the interview for me:

Ezra Klein: _" In phase three you also talk about using serological surveys to determine population immunity. I've seen conflicting reports on whether people who've gotten coronavirus are immune. What is your best guess on that? If we had that serological testing, would it even matter?"_

Scott Gottlieb: _" Serological testing is important for understanding where the virus has been and who's been exposed. It could be important for decisions about returning to work in certain professions where there's gonna be high exposure like police officers or EMT workers or doctors and nurses. But by and large, what we're going to find is that a very small percentage of the population has actually been exposed to this virus. If you talk to the modelers and the experts, they say anywhere from 1 to 5 percent of the US population has probably been exposed to this virus already._

 _" If you look at the data coming out of Europe where they're already using serology, it's in the 5 percent range. So the idea that 30 or 40 percent of the population has had this virus is going to turn out not to be the case. It's going to turn out to be a small percentage of the population — certainly in the single digits — that have the level of antibodies needed for immunity. And it's not going to be enough to create herd immunity. It's also not going to be enough to have this pool of people that can just return to work."_

If that prediction turns out to be true, then buckle in... it's going to be a looong, bumpy ride.</comment>


What the "Truth in Caller ID Act" (just passed) impacts - <AUTHOR> http://blog.cloudvox.com/post/523641421/what-the-truth-in-caller-id-act-hr-1258-means

<comment><AUTHOR> After re-reading the PDF, I'm impressed at how well written it is, especially for being so short.

I think it avoids snagging Google Voice and other services by requiring both action _and_ intent. While intent is subject to interpretation, it beats a 75 page bill that's obsolete before it's passed.

<comment><USER2> Why would the combination of "being short" and "well written" surprise you? "Long" virtually guarantees "crappy", due to the effectively 100% chance of bad interactions.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, long virtually guarantees crappy, but short can mean so coarse that intent isn't clear - LEO and courts pick up the pieces.

Big item not covered here is practical enforceability. Ingress filtering to prevent IP packet spoofing is much easier because there are many valid uses for CID spoofing. Can't configure a session border controller to filter "deceiving or defrauding spoofed caller ID values."

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> What's next, the "Truth in RFC822 From: Field Act" and the "Truth in HTTP Referer Header Act"?</comment>


Harvard-developed organic battery hailed as cheap renewable energy solution - <AUTHOR> http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/organic-battery-hailed-as-cheap-renewable-energy-solution-1.2489300

<comment><USER2> Highlights:

The Harvard team reports that the battery, which they say can be applied on a power-grid scale, uses naturally abundant and small organic compounds called quinones rather than electrocatalysts

[A] conventional metal-reliant flow battery costs an estimated $700 per kilowatt-hour of storage capacity, whereas the Harvard team's metal-free technology would bring those costs down to $27 per kilowatt-hour.</comment>


Are the days of the MVP over? - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@pichsenmeister/are-the-days-of-the-mvp-over-8debf28c0cc7 <comment><USER2> It sounds like the author is just arguing for more features and better UX for the min. Or in other words, MVP != crap.

</comment><comment><USER3> Has Betteridge's Law stopped working?</comment>


The Eric Lundgren Story: When Free Isn't Free - <AUTHOR> https://hackaday.com/2018/05/14/the-eric-lundgren-story-when-free-isnt-free/ <comment><USER2> Microsoft's blog post on this includes links to the government's evidence [1].

This include emails from Lundgren that sure make this look like a pretty straightforward case of making and importing counterfeit goods intended to make the buyers think they are getting the real thing, and doing this for profit.

There's also discussion of ways to ship to try to avoid Customs, and when a shipment does get delayed by Customs Lundgren gives his partner specific lies to tell the Customs agents if questioned.

[1] [https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2018/04/27/the- fac...](https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2018/04/27/the-facts-about- a-recent-counterfeiting-case-brought-by-the-u-s-government/)

</comment><comment> at-fates-hands This is probably where he went too far:

 _Given these basic facts, Eric had the idea to take the freely available restore disc ISOs and have them professionally pressed to CDs. While he was at it he figured he might as well make them look like the real thing, and provided the Chinese company he was working with images of what the legitimate restore discs should look like. Right down to the company logos and copyright notices._

This sounds a lot like copyright infringement. I know some intellectual property attorneys and if you asked them about this before you did it, they'd probably cringe and tell you to avoid doing something that _appears_ you're using Microsoft's logos to make money.

<comment><USER3> Trademark infringement.

If his discs are fine there's no problem from the customers standpoint. If the manufacturer is accidentally injecting a Trojan onto the discs they press, now MS has a PR problem caused by someone who is using their trademarks without permission.

I'm no fan of MS legal practices but he really fucked up and you _have to_ defend your trademarks or you can lose them.

<comment><USER4> Microsoft didn't initiate any of this. US Customs officials went "That's weird, why are boxes of Microsoft/ Dell restore CDs coming from China to this random outfit?" and the answer of course was "You have just detected a counterfeiting operation, try to figure out who the principles are and imprison them so they can't do it again".

Microsoft's first involvement was after Lundgren was arrested (maybe even after he was charged?) when the US government wanted to know what these things would be worth if they were real (Lundgren's lawyers told a court it should ask what fake ones are worth, which is zero of course, but that's not what the law says, nor does it make any sense) and to what extent they'd fool purchasers.

It suits Lundgren to portray this as "Computer recycler jailed by Microsoft" rather than "Counterfeiter caught" and in the tech press it appears he has been at least partly successful. I presume it's hoped that this will influence the actual jail time.

You don't actually have to defend trademarks. Corporations would _like_ you to help their Sales and Marketing divisions by treating their mark as special, and they will sometimes try to harass people into doing things the law doesn't require (US tech companies spent a few years trying to get UK magazines to write ® after the names of their products, the Editors of those magazines declined because there's no basis in law for such nonsense). Abandonment consists of not _using_ a mark, not of declining to chase each and every unauthorised use. For example if Apple decided today to stop selling the "iPod" and not use the mark in any other way (e.g. "iPhone with iPod features" or "Download iPod for your macOS today" or whatever) a court might eventually conclude that this mark was abandoned, and in say, 2060 if I sell the "iPod" bright orange sphere that plays Whale sounds, an Apple lawsuit insisting they still own the name "iPod" might fail due to abandonment. But if they don't sue a guy with a Geocities home page called "Gary's iPod" for eight years it does't magically mean now iPod isn't trademarked and anyone can use it.

<comment><USER3> Yeah, I think you're right in this case, and a lot of us are assuming the details look like some other cases where the details were very different.

But it does feel a bit like crocodile tears. Why did Customs seize the goods? Because they've been trained by industry (regulatory capture)? Or because it was the right thing to do? I think I'm on the fence still.

But to reiterate, making a disc look exactly like the official one was a big mistake on his part. He should not have done that. I'd like to think that being more transparent would have kept him out of trouble.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> previous discussions of the same case, I don't see anything new here:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16956198](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16956198)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16946478](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16946478)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16940722](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16940722)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16921634](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16921634)

</comment><comment><USER6> This guy copied restore disks with Microsoft and Dell logos, in bulk, that were seized by customs (thats why they weren't sold).

I mean what did he think would happen?

<comment><USER7> That's really the kicker here. He was trying as hard as possible to make these look official.

Had he just kept a folder of ISOs on his computer at work, and burned images on-demand for customers, and just wrote the OS version on the disk, he probably wouldn't have had a problem.

Instead, he had a foreign company burn the discs en-masse on consumer-grade CDs, and slapped trademarks on the packaging that he didn't have the rights to.

I think there's room for nuance in this case, and that the penalties are outrageous, but this guy isn't innocent. He was planning on turning a profit by selling another company's IP, and using their trademarks on the packaging.

<comment><USER4> Not only would he not have "had a problem" if he'd proceeded as you describe he also wouldn't have had a lucrative counterfeiting business, which was in fact the point.

I've seen this same thing done for cases where I was closer to the facts. The government's lawyers don't care about your sob story. So when you assert in court

"I needed to feed sixteen orphans so the Magnifiton bowl was exactly what I needed. I know now that it wasn't right to take it, but I felt at the time it was the only way."

... they don't bother telling the court there weren't actually any orphans and the bowl isn't really suitable for serving food. The charge was burglary - breaking into the museum and stealing this valuable bowl, which they've already proved you did, why should they care about your ludicrous sob story?

But out of court your lawyers can portray this case as an outrage - you were only trying to help starving orphans, how heartless is this government for punishing you in this way?

When Lundgren is confronted about the evidence that he's simply a counterfeiter we're once again on familiar turf. He's been framed, the emails are fake, everything is being distorted to make him look like the bad guy when he's actually innocent. Blah blah blah.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> The issue is not that he might have broken the law.

It's the absurd and totally disproportionate punishment he's getting.

</comment><comment><USER9> This whole case is just so upsetting. At least now people know not to do what he did.</comment>


Alex Trebek returning to chemotherapy [video] - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJd8p_1BYMg <comment><AUTHOR> The actual title of the YouTube video is "An Update from Alex | JEOPARDY!", which I thought to be a bit vague.</comment>