Farewell from Paradise Bay - <AUTHOR> https://paradisebaygame.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=524389 <comment><AUTHOR> My wife has been playing this game on her phone for years, and is super sad that they are closing it down. She's probably bought a fair number of "gems" from them too, to beautify her island and trade fruit, I guess.

Some of the comments are funny, in a heartbreaking way. People really invested a lot in this game, emotionally and financially. They are wondering who is going to feed the pets they bought to live on their digital island.

The funniest/saddest thing about it is that, as a last hurrah, the maintainers of the game gave everyone 10 million gems to spend as they see fit in the remaining 2 months that the game is online. On the one hand, the players are kind of pissed off at the belated awareness that the gems they were hoarding were always fundamentally worthless, but on the other hand they want to buy the final superpet or whatever for their island before the volcano blows up.

<comment><USER3> Reading the comments is indeed fascinating. So many people claiming what a waste of time they now feel it was. Which is interesting, because obviously they didn't think it was a waste of time when they played it the past few years. Did they expect the game to last forever? As a game designer/community manager, what would one do to make the shutdown of a beloved game be perceived in a somewhat positive (if bittersweet) light to the players?

<comment><USER4> This is specifically why I can't stand the idea of these "games as a service" offerings. They're entirely dependent on some corporate hosted cloud service, and corporations of course are known for long term support and sticking out temporary setbacks- oh wait no, they bail at the first sign of a game not being anything less than a meteoric success, fire the people who made it, shutter the studio then find something else to ruin.

Mind you King is the chief scumbag of the late-stage-capitalism AAA game industry scumbags, so I expect nothing less. Either a game makes all the money conceivable and some inconceivable, in which case it "meets expectations" or it gets chucked in the bin along with usually at least a few hundred people's livelihoods for good measure, while the decision makers sail away on golden parachutes to fuck up another good company with their nonsense.

But I digress, in answer to your questions:

> Did they expect the game to last forever?

Most casual gamers don't think about this stuff in this way. Hell, many of the regular kind don't either. It's the new shiny thing and everyone loves it because it's new and shiny, let's all play it for awhile until the next new shiny comes out, then we'll all go play that and forget however much money we sunk into the old one.

> As a game designer/community manager, what would one do to make the shutdown > of a beloved game be perceived in a somewhat positive (if bittersweet) light > to the players?

I wouldn't. I'd make a game with longevity in mind instead of just making as much money as I possibly could as quickly as possible, and avoid setting unrealistic goals so I didn't need to shut down a game hauling in what was apparently a sizeable portion of 200 million bucks a year, which should be more than enough to sustain a reasonably sized business, because I hadn't managed to corner the entire mobile game market to make some investor cudhole happy.

Sorry if the bitterness is strong here. I'm passionate about work like this and I don't care how casual a game might be, it clearly had a lot of fans, was making a lot of money, but now is shut down and 78 people are out of work because some arsehole high in a company somewhere wasn't making enough gold to put under his wings.

The whole thing is sad and stupid and unnecessary.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Apparently related to Activision's layoffs last months:

[https://venturebeat.com/2019/02/12/king-shuts-down- former-z2...](https://venturebeat.com/2019/02/12/king-shuts-down- former-z2live-mobile-game-studio-in-seattle-cuts-78-jobs/)

> _Activision Blizzard said it is laying off hundreds of employees today, and > part of the fallout is that King's mobile game studio in Seattle will be > shut, resulting in the loss of 78 jobs, according to an unnamed source..._

> _...One of the studio's games, Paradise Bay, was successful. The studio > generated an estimated $200 million over the last few years, but it was > still shut._

<comment><USER6> Oh what a coincidence. So I purchased a used MacBook Pro that is connected to z2live's device enrollment. I had to call King and make sure it wasn't stolen and stuff and it wasn't in their newer system. They gave me the all clear but I keep getting that damn pop up saying I need to enroll it with z2live.

I'm hoping this means I don't keep getting that pop up as they should be closing out their z2live Apple account... anyone have any idea if that's how it'll work?

<comment><USER7> I stumbled on this yesterday by accident: [https://duo.com/labs/research/mdm- me-maybe](https://duo.com/labs/research/mdm-me-maybe)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> It's always sad to see a community you like disappear, but I think it's a good lesson when freemium games with in-game purchasing go away. It's an evil, terrible model that uses psychological trickery to slowly milk enormous amounts of money from people. Losing that should make everyone think twice before falling for that trick again.

At least with a monthly pay-as-you-go model, you don't feel like you're investing in an asset. When a free game gets you to spend hundreds of dollars on cosmetic trinkets, you feel like you're buying something permanent.

<comment><USER9> I totally agree with you! :) I must admit I've been playing this game from the start and I loved it, BUT (at least almost) the whole time I was very much aware of my addiction and the senslessness of the whole thing..... :/

So in a way, thank God it's going to be over soon - just watch out not to fall for the next "shiny new thing", like you said already!!! ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> It always fascinates me when people see the end of a game they enjoyed for hundreds of hours suddenly decide it was all a "waste of time" because the servers are shutting down.

Why can't people fondly remember and cherish the memories with something or someone they enjoyed spending time with? When a loved one passes away do you decide all the time you spent with them was a waste?

It's understandable to be upset or sad or angry, but to think of your past enjoyment and engagement as a waste?

This probably speaks as much to the addictive chemical nature of these kind of perpetual slot machine games as much as the thoughtlessness in the expression of the community members who are upset by it shutting down.

<comment><USER9> Sure, it's somehow better to think of it this way, but the FACT remains that - however much you might enjoy spending time with a game like this, say: in-game ;) --- there's no denying that it REALLY IS a waste of time, since everything about it is totally virtual. I mean, if you look at it closely, doesn't it sound somehow strange that people are actually upset about having to "euthanize" their beloved virtual pets?? ;P

I think it offers a glimpse at the critical direction in which our society is heading... and that's what is truly miserable and sad.

Nowadays people tend more and more to give up thinking/using their brain, instead they choose to follow brainless "influencers" (what an expression!?) and anything their phone spits out. :(

NB. Your comparison with the passing away of a loved one does not fit really, since with loved ones our memories are real. ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Too bad there isn't a market for large game companies to "sell off" smaller games, assets, or communication protocols (for self-hosted servers) to indie developers who could find a way to make these games sustainable. It seems like this game has a passionate base. Probably some monetary value in that.

<comment><USER12> Zynga sold YoWorld to Big Viking Games this way.

<comment><USER9> Yup, same story a couple of years ago with the game Bubble Safari... in the midst of great gameplay, they shut it down just like that. Only difference to Paradise Bay: There were no characters involved that you could get attached to!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I sm so upset the game is being shut down. This is a classic game that would have been enjoyed by generations to come. Just like the Monopoly board game can be enjoyed by generations to come.

I am so sad the game is being shut down. It is such a waste to see the enormous creativity the designers put into it just disappearing! I've played for years. Have elaborately and beautifully decorated my island with flowers, walkways, fences, arches, fountains, etc. It's truly a beautiful game. And I feel proud to have designed such a magical place.

There were multiple challenges and fabulous pets which exhibited such nice behaviors. It truly was a magical place.

I think I'm most sad because there really isn't a game to switch to. Playing Paradise Bay wasn't just about completing challenges and winning prizes. It was about beautifully decorating a magical land you created. And enjoying the visually prettiness of the island. Butterflies abound, the characters were all sweet, and the island was uber friendly.

Other games totally lack the estetics. I wish the owners of this gem would reconsider shutting it doen. There is no game for us to move to. Very sad.

</comment><comment><USER14> I have played paradise bay since just after its launch. I have never been captivated by a tablet game as I was this one, there were so many levels you could play, but hard to explain in full detail if you weren't a long time player and understood the resource management it needed.

You could stack your mills for one. Each mill would hold 999 items in the order you put them in. I had several mills stacked to max capacity, this helped with the all too frequent tradefests or retofests. I had 3 island 2 of which 'fed' my main island. I had a huge notebook to keep a record of every item in order in each mill. (Sad I know)

They had frequent builder events and then there were pet stickers, doubloons and map pieces etc... I could go on and on.

You also collected pets, follwed by their stickers to lvl the pets up.

The ability to decorate your island was only limited by your imagination. You could actually turn it into 'your paradise'

I'm not angry, I'm very sad. I didn't invest much money into the game as I played strategically learnt from long term play. I was always conscious it could also be gone any day! I don't think ppl playing these games think about that much. Hence the shock and anger at losing their game and money.

This game took over my love for playing mmorpgs. I have played SWG, EQ2, Wow from vanilla. I would of happily payed a monthly sub to keep Playing PB. No timed raids or ppl evaluating your performance on your dps. You could pick up PB for 5 mins or 5 hours. It truly will be a sad day on may 17th! I don't think AB actually realised what a gem of a game they had.

There was also an awesome wikia that was maintained by awesome players because they wanted to :)

bay.fandom.com/wiki/Paradise_Bay_Wikia

There certainly isn't a game out there to fill the void in my spare time. So I just hope someone has the foresight to fill that very big hole in a lot of ppls spare time.

<comment><USER15> How much would you attribute to logic puzzling fun and how much for addiction to a incremental, time-spent based reward system.

<comment><USER16> It wasn't a puzzle type of game at all. I just meant you could play it casually or take it more seriously. Most of the serious players had maxed all event builder items, pets, storage. They were proud of their efforts and displayed it for all to see. (You could visit your friends islands and help them out on dives etc)

The graphics are stunning. All the thought that had gone into the little details was brilliant.

Even your pets look up at you through your screen and each one has at least 3 animations. They would interact with different items just for them.

The characters in the game all had storylines and you built up reputation with them unlocking new recipes for the mills. I also think the story lines made it more time consuming to add new levels as there was so much thought behind it.

Island space was a big issue with players. There was so much you could do to decorate and never enough room with the pets constantly been added to the game. In all it's time there was only 1 land expansion. Maybe this was due to high level of graphics?

I for one bought a new iPad in 2017 just to play PB so it ran smoother. I know as the game progressed some couldn't run it on their tablets. But as with all games, as they improve we have to upgrade. PCs, consoles, tablets.

I maybe naive but I hope someone can take this game and keep it running. That would be a bonus! If they don't then I'm slowly coming to terms with another gaming love been over.

<comment><USER9> I feel with you, still you should accept that it is addictive nevertheless. Let's start by spending some time with each other instead? ;)

I am certainly NOT going to look for another distraction, as I have cursed the game at times for being all so sweet - and it is/was....! ;)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Never heard of Paradise Bay but it's sad to see years of creative effort disappearing from the face of the earth like that. A game of this quality could've definitely have been sold off and kept running on a skeleton crew which would've saved some jobs, so I'm assuming the decision to shutdown is to keep it out of competitors hands or some other corporate or political reason.

From the forum comments you can see the conflict between the Users the game has cultivated who are really emotionally invested in the game and its corporate owners who are detached from it.

</comment><comment><USER18> Seems like activision acquired and is now axing it. I can't imagine it isn't profitable, so it's really going to be activision deciding that it's not profitable enough to meet some metrics. Frustrating.

</comment><comment><USER19> Surprised they didn't have a longer sunsetting period. Unless the server costs are massive it seems like a year or so would be more appropriate. Maybe their 28 day retention is just low enough that they didn't think there were enough long term players for it to matter.

<comment><USER8> The server costs are likely trivial compared to the employee cost. They'd need to retain support staff, both for the technical side (server maintenance) and in-game moderation and customer management.

I've worked on a number of medium-to-large systems. They're literally always held together with duct tape and prayers. The entire thing would probably collapse in a few days if someone weren't there babysitting the storage infrastructure alone.

<comment><USER19> I suppose it depends on how robust your infrastructure is. I know one place I worked, we sunset a game and essentially there was only one person supporting it part-time; with events being automated through a calendar. I'm sure if Apple or Google were to make some sort of major breaking change that would require engineering time to keep the game running they'd shut it down, but otherwise AFAIK it's still running on autopilot about 8 months after they made that decision.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Can anyone suggest a replacement for Paradise Bay? I haven't found anything that is as besutiful or rnjoyable.

</comment><comment><USER20> Okay, I'm curious; does anyone have any idea why? Is there a way I'm not seeing, that it can fail to be profitable to keep this game running? Or a reason I'm not seeing, why a corporation – in the second Gilded Age, when money is supposed to be the measure of all things – is throwing away profit?

<comment><USER21> Opportunity cost.

They believe whatever they're expending on this game can generate higher profits if used for something else.

<comment><USER20> Okay. That leads to some other questions.

1\. This was basically a scenario of 'leave that computer turned on, and people will keep sending us money.' (I know it's never quite as simple as that, but it was as close to it as it ever gets.) What's the return on capital of that, expressed as an APR? I would expect it to be far higher than anything else ever gets in the real world.

2\. What, exactly, might the something else be? If this was four decades ago when there were so many opportunities that interest rates were in double digits, maybe I could buy it, but now? What else could they possibly be spending the capital on, that would generate a higher return?

3\. Speaking of interest rates, they are currently practically zero, and the world is awash in capital looking for good investment opportunities. If they really had a better opportunity than leaving an already developed and proven successful game running, they should have no difficulty laying hands on capital with which to exploit that opportunity.

So I still don't see any way it makes sense. What am I still missing?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> They should release at least the server code as open source, and let users download their data as well, so that people can keep playing.

<comment><USER23> That server code is probably mostly third-party middleware and shared across products

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> I wonder how many people are going to be upset that their "in-game purchases" are going poof.

<comment><USER25> The other posters on the game seem pretty mad.

> _So basically all the money we 've spent on this game is gone lmao wow_

Not sure what they expected, tbh. That money was _always_ gone.

It would be nice if they open sourced it, so that someone could take on the mantle and run private servers. I wonder how difficult reverse-engineering and patching it would be.

<comment><USER26> > It would be nice if they open sourced it.

King was notorious for running popup ads and app-store redirects for years. I don't think this is in their DNA.

<comment><USER25> Could it be reverse engineered?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Apparently gone from the app store. Any way I can still download and play until they shut down?

</comment><comment><USER28> You've really messed up your Farmville clone if it's losing money.

<comment><USER29> I didn't play (to be honest, I think the genre is exploitative), but knew some people who did. The game was high quality in its category, particularly the art. I imagine this was a big reason they are being shut down - <USER2> Blizzard, Inc is panicking for a variety of reasons and this game was way too costly, even if they were turning a profit, when you can have the same developers shovel out crap at higher margin.

<comment><USER28> "High quality in its category" doesn't really change my opinion that any app offering a $99.99 "speed up the game" option is exploitative and gross.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> It's probably possible to re-implement a game server since most likely that game is using a REST backend.</comment>


A Curated List of Software Engineering Blogs - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/kilimchoi/engineering-blogs <comment><USER2> This is so overwhelming! I wonder how feasible it would be to get Alexa traffic rankings or something similar to prioritize the list? I'm guessing the subdomains might be an issue but there's so much content here I don't know where to start (other than the blogs I already read of course).

<comment><USER3> Yes, it is a bit much (I _hate_ that people nowadays use the "curated" label for lists that seem like they just collected everything they could find for a category. Which is fine, but not _curated_ )

I don't think Alexa traffic rankings would correlate all that well to quality.

Grouping them by specialization instead of company name might be interesting, and possibly could be done using some company data set or with text analysis.

<comment><USER4> Score of past submissions on hn/reddit is a good signal.

For example to get sorted submissions by domain on reddit: [https://www.reddit.com/domain/blog.codinghorror.com/top/?sor...](https://www.reddit.com/domain/blog.codinghorror.com/top/?sort=top&t=all)

Similarly for HN (but not sorted): [https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=codinghorror.com](https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=codinghorror.com)

Maybe someone can automate this?

<comment><USER2> Yes! I was mainly trying to find some proxy for quality that could be easily automated, so these would be a much better start.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I always try to subscribe to individual blogs whenever I see individual posts make it on HackerNews. It gives me a good pool of stuff to look at that often gets overlooked.

I think it'd be interesting to import the OPML file into a separate RSS reader (so not to pollute my already quite large list of subscriptions) and comb through the daily individual posts.

<comment><USER6> I just added the OPML to my Feedly without even thinking about how long it's going to take to unsubscribe from all of the ones I don't care about. The second I hit upload it hit me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> There are too many blogs for this list to be useful.

<comment><USER5> I don't think so. For the individual blogs, most people only write one or two a month. If you import the OPML into RSS OWL, you can go through and look for stuff that interests you. If you find a blog that frequently has interesting stuff, add the feed to your primary on-line reader.

These types of lists are good for people who do nothing but submit to HN/Reddit/Voat all day when they should be working. O:-)

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I can't believe the word "curated" is used here.</comment>


Differentiating in Python - <AUTHOR> http://www.acooke.org/cute/Differenti0.html

<comment><USER2> Not to disparage such a huge effort, but there are Python libraries for this sort of thing.

Code:

        from sympy import *

        var('x,y')

        for p in range(8):
          print('    %s' % str(diff(x**9+8,x,p)))

        print('')

        print('    %s' % str(integrate(y**x,x)))

Output:

        x**9 + 8
        9*x**8
        72*x**7
        504*x**6
        3024*x**5
        15120*x**4
        60480*x**3
        181440*x**2

        y**x/log(y)

<comment><AUTHOR> nice, but was that around in 2004? anyway, it was written as an example for a coworker, who was going to implement it in a language whose name i have forgotten, but which was fortran 66 plus wrappers to c memory management, and which certainly didn't have suitable libraries...

<comment><USER2> > nice, but was that around in 2004?

The linked article is dated 2006, the first version of Sympy was written in 2007. Close, but no cigar. BTW Sympy is open source, so one could in principle port its routines to another language.

> ... written as an example for a coworker, who was going to implement it in a > language whose name i have forgotten, but which was fortran 66 plus wrappers > to c memory management ...

I have only one question -- why? Fortran is one of the most outdated languages one can choose for a modern project. And the sample Python code from the article would be painful to try to render in Fortran, in particular the string manipulations.</comment></comment></comment>


Live Web Audio Input Enabled - <AUTHOR> http://updates.html5rocks.com/2012/09/Live-Web-Audio-Input-Enabled <comment><USER2> Thanks a lot. Had just started to experiment with the code on <http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/getusermedia/intro/> and was coming across the answers on various forums about microphone input not being supported as then by HTML5. Feel motivated about completing a Hack now.</comment>


The 18 Mistakes that Kill Startups - <AUTHOR> http://paulgraham.com/startupmistakes.html <comment><USER2> Can't we just take Paul Graham's writings as a given here? Is there anyone who is not aware of them? Perhaps this site itself should link here:

http://ycombinator.com/lib.html

Edit: never mind, it's already linked at the bottom of the page.</comment>


A Street View Viewer Built from the Ground Up with RxJS - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/mapillary/mapillary-js <comment><USER2> So you can even take photos with your phone? Very cool! +1 for DIY mapping</comment>


Go Proverbs: Simple, Poetic, Pithy - <AUTHOR> http://go-proverbs.github.io/ <comment><USER2> Just in case you haven't read the footer text:

The proverbs are based on this awesome talk by Rob Spike: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAAkCSZUG1c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAAkCSZUG1c)

And for new proverb ideas, you can open an issue here: [https://github.com/go- proverbs/go-proverbs.github.io/issues](https://github.com/go-proverbs/go- proverbs.github.io/issues)

<comment><USER3> The video seems much more reasonable for sharing, since it also explains something to non-Golangers. Thanks.

<comment><USER4> Agreed. Small correction: non-Gophers rather than non-Golangers. Now you know some more about the Go culture.

<comment><USER3> Gophers, all right.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> For the original go proverbs, see [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_proverb](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_proverb).

<comment><USER6> Or [http://senseis.xmp.net/?GoProverbs](http://senseis.xmp.net/?GoProverbs)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> "A little copying is better than a little dependency."

I like this but how do you protect yourself against growing into a lot of copying?

<comment><USER8> Personally, I use the rule of three. If it's copied three times, refactor it into some form of dependency. At that point, you should understand the use case, and should be able to create a reasonably designed API.

<comment><USER9> When doing this, be wary of what a friend of mine calls "misfactoring", an example of which being where you take three very similar, very readable bits of code and convert them into a single, parameterized mess that isn't understandable at all.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Add some instrumentals and this becomes Radiohead's "Fitter Happier" anno 2016

</comment><comment><USER11> Coming from Python, Go seems to be a pretty nice language. Is it worth giving it a shot?

<comment><USER8> Yes. It won't replace Python, but it's a good addition to the toolbox.

\- It's high level enough you won't find yourself writing excessive (i.e. Java) amounts of boilerplate. But the corollary is that there much more boilerplate in Go than Python.

\- It's fast enough to blow away Python for most network based usages.

\- There's enough metaprogramming capabilities to make some really clever code. The downside is that there's enough metaprogramming capabilities to make some really clever code.

\- You'll dig the distribution method of Go programs when compared to Python.

<comment><USER12> Your comment is pretty much the argument I offer when discussing Go with friends and colleagues who are skeptical of it.

I tell them to think of it as a tool in your arsenal, rather than the toolbox that carries everything you need. You will write far less boilerplate than Java, silly fast for certain network usages,and Goroutines have saved me quite a few headaches.

With that said, it is still pretty new. But it is a great tool to have.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I like the Zen of Python more.

<comment><USER14> I like them both. Simple lists like these, weak as they may seem, are often a great help when balancing tradeoffs in actual code, I find.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15>
      defer resp.Body.Close()

That's almost a proverb by itself.

<comment><USER16> Since you mention it: when is it _necessary_ to close the response body?

<comment><USER15> Any time you managed to get a response you must close the body via a defer resp.Body.Close()

And if you're using json.Decoder on the response body then it's worth noting that if you know you're only receiving a single JSON object then draining the remainder of the body will allow connection re-use as otherwise the connection will be closed and not re-used: [https://github.com/google/go- github/commit/e0ff7111b024fda99...](https://github.com/google/go- github/commit/e0ff7111b024fda991e457d975e0b73e1380f05f)

<comment><USER16> Even if I don't read the body?

<comment><USER15> Even if you don't read the body.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I like so much about go, but I think the gopher is so god damn ugly.

<comment><USER18> While I don't agree, I do have to say that Plan 9 did get a much better mascot in the form of Glenda.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> love the proverb: Don't panic.

</comment><comment><USER20> I like Go but I get an uncomfortable culty-vibe from this posting. Also, if we could just title our blogs with "Interesting, Relevant, Engaging" so everyone would read them would be so much easier.

</comment><comment><USER3> I wish people would be more clear about what they mean: [http://senseis.xmp.net/?GoProverbs](http://senseis.xmp.net/?GoProverbs)

I.e. write "Golang" instead of "Go"</comment>


GoGoGrandparent (YC S16) Gives Older Adults Independence and Autonomy - <AUTHOR> http://themacro.com/articles/2016/08/gogograndparent/ <comment><USER2> Hi folks! GoGoGrandparent is an automated hotline that lets older adults use services that will help them stay independent. Using the service is super simple: they call (855) 464-6872, and hear: "Please press 1 for a car to pick you up from your home, please press 2 for a car to pick you up where we dropped you off last, press 6 for a pickup from a new pickup location or zero for the operator."

We're starting with rides but are already testing food delivery and home care services. You can learn more about our story here - we built it for our grandmas.

The service is automated, available everywhere and we have 24/hour phone support. Though the average age of our callers is early 80's, there are no age restrictions - in addition to older adults our second largest demographic is the visually impaired.

Our fares include an additional 13% + $1.80 phone service fee, which from what we've seen comes out to an average $2.50 per ride.

We do a lot on our end to customize the experience for older adults. When someone registers we'll send them a brochure about how it works and a business card with our number on it. Family members can get automatic text updates whenever a loved one uses the service.

Check out our website and try the demo, if you have any questions post them here!</comment>


Smartphone shipments: Apple down 30%, Samsung down 8%, Huawei up 50% - <AUTHOR> https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2019/05/01/smartphone-shipments-apple-down-30-samsung-down-8-but-huawei-up-50/#6cff807476b0 <comment><USER3> That's probably because smartphones are way too expensive.

Huawei and Xiaomi sold a lot of phones because their phone are good enough not to make people miss iphones and stuff yet cost only a fraction.

Personally, I got a brand new Xiaomi phone for 200 euros off Amazon with a 4-core cpu, 5.5 inches display, 64 gb storage and 4 gb ram. So far it served me good and has done everything I've needed.

I got an iPhone 6 from work for on-call availability, and it is actually superior in many ways, but despite this in no way I'm going to drop 800-1100 euros on a phone.

<comment><USER4> > Personally, I got a brand new Xiaomi phone

Make sure to go over apps preinstalled (system apps) and disable them or take away their network permission, if nothing else.

NetGuard, NoRoot Firewall, Glasswire are some of the apps that let you do that.

<comment><USER5> Why? Because it's Chinese?

The amount of Sinophobia on here is ridiculous.

<comment><USER4> > Why?

Its good hygiene to rid of apps you have no use for. Note: Pre-installed apps on OHA devices include Google's, too: [https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/07/googles-iron-grip- on...](https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/07/googles-iron-grip-on-android- controlling-open-source-by-any-means-necessary/)

> Because it's Chinese?

\- Because its Android: [https://techscience.org/a/2015103001/](https://techscience.org/a/2015103001/)

\- Because its Xiaomi: [https://thehackernews.com/2014/08/xiaomi-phones- secretly-sen...](https://thehackernews.com/2014/08/xiaomi-phones-secretly- sending-users.html)

Huawei, OnePlus, Nokia have been caught _spying_ on users, too. Lenovo, famously, MiTMd TLS on their laptops. So, really, its the OEMs. And also the SoC vendors and Carriers: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17081684](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17081684) I digress.

> The amount of Sinophobia on here is ridiculous.

Not sure about that, but you might be onto something.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> It's bizarre and misleading that the author didn't take the shifts in the Chinese market in the last year or two into account. The article starts out with a statement about smartphone sales being down in America across the board, but then slips into analyzing worldwide sales numbers per vendor, leading to the conclusion from the headline.

My understanding is that the majority of those shifts are from changing patterns of sales within China itself. Looking at changes in worldwide shipments without singling out how the market is changing amongst Chinese consumers is really weird given that people who follow this stuff closely have been talking about exactly that for a long time now.

If you treat the numbers within China separately from the numbers outside of China (which makes sense because completely different forces are driving those numbers inside and outside of China), then in the non-Chinese market, we would see similar patterns (Apple and Samsung down, Huawei up) but on a much smaller scale, and for different reasons. The author should've picked up on the influence of the Chinese market and focused on why it's been changing so dramatically of late. That would've been a far more insightful and interesting article. This is just a bunch of numbers graphed for maximum drama without context.

</comment><comment><USER7> I start to believe what US has done to Huawei actually made the brand more famous. Smart phones are becoming commodities so marketing plays a big rule for sales. The tension between US government and Huawei certainly saved them tons of marketing money. Three years ago even many Chinese don't know Huawei, but look at what Huawei accomplished today. I travelled abroad frequently and people are talking Huawei everywhere even a street vendor I randomly met in nowhere Philippines, and they want to know more about my Huawei Porsche Design and discuss why Americans feels threatened by a company making electronic gadgets. No marketing money buys you that kind of popularity. In most places I traveled to, people don't believe the American version of the story, and when a superpower utilizes all its resources to try to destroy a company but couldn't do? There must be something the company did right.

<comment><USER8> Huawei is using the standard mobile phone playbook: They have a lot of carriers pushing their phones. They spend a lot on TV marketing. They opened flagship stores in big malls. They got celebrities such as Scarlett Johansson to promote their phones.

<comment><USER7> Not saying they don't spend big money in advertising. They certainly do, like any other premium brand. However their marketing campaigns alone are nothing extraordinary either. US governments accusation certainly helped - <USER2> advertising makes people intrigued, just look at the nationalist comments under Huawei related HN posts and try to read from a non-US POV. Not hard to come to a state that you wonder what the hack is truely going on and what really makes American feel so insecure. There must be something superior in the accused that triggered the action. This is happening as a trend, not just in Huaweis case, but in many topics related to China.

<comment><USER9> >However their marketing campaigns alone are nothing extraordinary either.

During last holidays almost every single commercial break in Polish TV had Huawei ad.

<comment><USER7> Thank for the info. Though not the case where I live (China) and where I often travelled (east Asia and ASEAN countries). However Huawei indeed put their best effort in marketing in Europe.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I'm am American and recently moved to Europe. I had to get a new phone because my old contract wasn't up. I had a LG G6 before, and ended up with a Huawei P20 and can't imagine why someone would pay 3-4x for a Samsung or an iPhone. The camera is phenomenal!

<comment><USER11> Huawei phones send info to China.

[https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3685669](https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3685669)

<comment><USER5> Seems like rampant vote manipulation is going on here to promote anti-Sinoism.

<comment><USER12> In fairness, there's rampant vote manipulation to promote everything on HN. So the Sino-philic camp is doing it too. kind of unfair to single out the Sino- phobic camp in that regard.

I mean, if you're in a room full of pregnant high school girls, it makes no sense to single one out as the "most" virgin. There are no virgins in the room.

<comment><USER5> Dude what are you talking about

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Soon one of these brands will need to diversify the range in order to keep people buying these things.

The market for people wanting a big battery is not mainstream huge but is a tasty long tail.

The re-invented flip phone is going to be a win with the 50% of the population that have smaller pockets in their trousers than what the other 50% have.

Then there is the outdoor sports market, the phones that are waterproof and super tough.

If there is a diverse range of the same product in all of these form factors then people will buy them as their life changes.

One flagship can't be the perfect hand rectangle for everyone. There is going to have to be a more meaningful range, as happens with cars, laptops or even bicycles.

Although times are not as growth crazy as they once were there is no need for the market to become identical hand rectangles, there is still plenty of room for product innovation even if there are no killer features on the way.

</comment><comment><USER14> I suspect Apple will be happy to keep taking 80%-90% of the profit in the marketplace while only shipping 20% of units.

</comment><comment><USER15> I bought a Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 for about $600 earlier this year to replace my old iPhone and I'm quite happy with it. iPhone is sticking with that notch design that I really hate, and it made me started to explore other options. Mi Mix 3 and Honor Magic 2 has a sleek slider design that removed the need to put front facing camera directly on the screen. It's nice to have more options

<comment><USER16> To achieve the same as you, I replaced my iPhone X to 8 Plus and could not be happier.

I grew to hate the notch and the rounded display corners. Give me a rectangular screen and I'm content.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Apple shipments were down, but the IDC numbers reported here by Forbes are way off as noted by Xiaomi and other analysts:

[https://iphone.appleinsider.com/articles/19/05/03/ihs- markit...](https://iphone.appleinsider.com/articles/19/05/03/ihs-markit-apple- shipped-438m-iphones-in-q1-down-16-from-2018)

</comment><comment><USER18> Ex Samsung Galaxy S8 owner here. Dropped it 4-5 times and the screen went off. I bought a Xiaomi Mi5, dropped it like 100 times and it still working without a problem except for the battery. It started to drain quickly after the 2th year of use which is normal and after all it costs 10 dollars for a brand new.

</comment><comment><USER19> Forbes' tech coverage is shameless clickbait, especially when it comes to Apple.

The amount of articles they pump out along the lines of "Apple's new phone/os release/computer/service/whatever has a nasty secret." is ridiculous.

</comment><comment><USER20> Everyone keeps mentioning that iPhones get more expensive, but when you look at it (inflation adjusted), that's not really true.[0] Apple is still charging about $700 (inflation adjusted) for a phone just as they did when it was first released. The only outliers are the SE, X, and Xs.

The only reason phones seemed cheaper is because AT&T would subsidize your brand new iPhone 3G so you only paid a few hundred, not the full price.

[0]: [http://static.digg.com/images/a24b0086e42c464fabd1652cf01f8a...](http://static.digg.com/images/a24b0086e42c464fabd1652cf01f8a41_a868a93a0a1b42d59ca22ac8c70db67f_1_post.png)

<comment><USER21> > Everyone keeps mentioning that iPhones get more expensive, but when you look > at it (inflation adjusted), that's not really true.[

But your own source shows it's really true, and that the current cheaper, sub- flagship iPhone model (XR) is more expensive than the flagship models of previous generations up through the 5 and 5S, even adjusted for inflation, and that the only non-increases for the top-of-line flagship from one year to the next have been a few of the S models where the price dropped very slightly from the prior-year non-S equivalent.

<comment><USER20> True. But my point was that their phones don't go up in price like people think. Yes, if you compare $499 for a bottom tier 4GB iPhone 2G to $1449 for a top of the line 512GB iPhone XS Max, they're more expensive. But the cost for the base model has hovered around the $700 mark when adjusted (save for the few outliers such as the 2G, SE, X, and XS)

<comment><USER21> > But the cost for the base model

If you mean the model with the number but no other modifier except sometimes "S", that's true up through the iPhone 8, but that "base model" isn't the same place in the lineup in different generations.

That model is the _only_ (and thus flagship) model prior through the 5, but the bottom of the line for the 6 through 8 (well, middle of the road for the 7 generation, since that's when the SE came out as a bargain basement offering.) And for the X (same year as 8) and XS, it's just not even approximately true anymore.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Last summer I replaced an iPhone 6 or 6s with a 7 that cost about $500, or half the cost of the new, high-end phones. I don't perceive the new ones to offer 2x the value of a new or refurbished 7.

<comment><USER23> I've got a Xiaomi phone for $220. Large bright IPS screen, gestures, 4-5 days on battery with all comms on (Nexus 6 did 1 day).

Only 2 drawbacks: not AMOLED (would add $100-$150, did not consider it worth), mediocre camera, which I rarely use anyway.

<comment><USER24> 5 times cheaper than top end Samsung or apple offerings means they had to cut some corners. On the other hand if you buy xiaomi top end you get almost the same quality as the other brands and it's still half price.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Friday I had to waste precious pub time listening to my excited co-worker wax poetic about the camera on his new Huawei phone and it's night vision capabilities. So this article was timely for me.

</comment><comment><USER26> Apple has been raising prices even with diminishing demand.

In Europe iPhones are more than €1000, and besides a few people most don't see any value in newer models anymore and just stick to their current model for as long as possible.

When they buy a new one, most people choose a budget model because nowadays they work just as well (I guess Huawei's growth makes sense, then).

Personally, I also find all new iPhones extremely ugly. I have a Moto G5 and not only does it work great, it doesn't have a notch and I paid 1/5 what an iPhone costs.

<comment><USER27> It seems a strategy so obvious and obviously doomed to fail, but I have to assume Apple know what they're doing.

I think they're taking the same route on other product lines, the MBP particularly stands out for me - most don't seem want recent "innovations" used to justify runaway price increases.

I'm certainly watching this space with interest.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> Is it that hard to admit that Apple products can no longer command a premium among its competitors? The company is now in a great trouble into irrelevancy because of years' inaction.

<comment><USER20> People have been spouting "Apple is going to fail" since their inception. People said the original iPhone was a fail for many reasons such as "no one wants a touchscreen" and more.[0] Until Apple fails, they're not failing. They definitely changed directions under Tim Cook, but that's because he's not Steve Jobs. The Apple Watch has been a huge success with over 40% market share.[1]

[0]: [https://mashable.com/2017/06/29/iphone-2g-original- naysayers...](https://mashable.com/2017/06/29/iphone-2g-original-naysayers/)

[1]: [https://www.macrumors.com/2019/05/02/apple- watch-1q19-market...](https://www.macrumors.com/2019/05/02/apple- watch-1q19-market-share-counterpoint/)

<comment><USER28> History doesn't always have predictive power over future, as no one would predict Apple would have an epic comeback under Jobs. And Apple Watch is no replacement for iPhone, which has been Apple's lifeline over the past 5 years.

Apple is in trouble because it doesn't have next iPhone, or iPhone4 to excite consumers. Adding incremental upgrade to iPhone while hiking up the price, is now a failed strategy and the market is punishing Apple for it. Only this time, they have nothing to offer.

Pivoting to service, where they aren't particularly competitive anyway, is like a pre-claimed surrender that they don't have the confidence to make their hardware business as profitable as it was.

I didn't see why people would be optimistic about Apple right now, except for the huge cash reserve they had because of iPhones. If they don't think out of box, they will be forgotten pretty soon, just like Nokia.

<comment><USER29> _Pivoting to service, where they aren 't particularly competitive anyway, is like a pre-claimed surrender that they don't have the confidence to make their hardware business as profitable as it was_

Would you have said the same about Netflix moving from shipping DVDs to streaming or Amazon moving into the cloud vendor from retai?

There is no next big thing on the horizon that is going to have a market where almost 70% penetration like the mobile phone except maybe social media.

But if you look at Apple's latest earnings, services is already growing like crazy.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> Smartphone innovation stopped a few years ago and the general public is finally catching on. At the same time, there is little difference between cheap models and expensive ones. Taking both of these into account, Apple still increased their prices significantly counting on their brand as a fashion statement more than anything. It should be no surprise that sales are significantly down overall and especially for Apple. I expect this trend to continue and likely accelerate in the future.

<comment><USER29> I bought my son a cheap Moto G because they were always touted as being a good value. He was more than happy when I upgraded and he got my 6s that was two years older. There is a stark performance difference between a mid range current Android phone and iPhones that are two or three years older.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> I wondered about the asterisks on the 'vivo' and 'OPPO' brands, and looked up the second name - turns out both (and OnePlus) are owned by the same company: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBK_Electronics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBK_Electronics)

So, going by the shown IDC numbers, that company has shipped over 46 million phones in 1Q19, getting about 15% market share and third place behind Samsung and Huawei.

</comment><comment><USER32> Give me a smartphone I can install with what I want.

<comment><USER33> Installing what you want is generally pretty easy, it's uninstalling what you want the main issue. Phones are coming loaded with bloatware you can't uninstall.

<comment><USER32> I want my phone like a PC: I can choose the OS with no weird outdated binary blob requirements.

<comment><USER33> It's pretty impossible to achieve even with a custom ROM unfortunately, even on LineageOS, you have a proprietary-files.txt for each model listing all the blobs you need to make your phone work.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> Check out Dave2d's YouTube video about the same topic. Essentially it is argued that phones are going to become a commodity like printers. But he concludes that Apple is likely to escape that fate due to their ecosystem. Regardless time for change in the phone industry.

<comment><USER35> Link for reference: [https://youtu.be/otHviixLykI](https://youtu.be/otHviixLykI)

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> I genuinely wonder how it is that Forbes is so consistently an anti-Apple propaganda rag.

It's not subtle, is shockinly consistent, and I wonder how they can think their implausible bias serves their purpose as a "news" outlet.

</comment><comment><USER37> I've never been a fan of Apple because of price. I liked the Google Nexus a lot, until the prices rose also.

Now on a S9 from work.

Fyi: I still prefer the bare Android experience and not the Samsung shell though

<comment><USER29> So you've never been a fan of the iPhone for the price but the Samsung Galaxy S9 costs the same as an iPhone 8 ($600)....

<comment><USER37> From work, all information was supplied.

I didn't pick the phone

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> Huanwei is pretty expensive too.

</comment><comment><USER39> Isn't it likely every Huawei is backdoored by the Chinese government?

<comment><USER40> Isn't it likely every phone sold in the US is backdoored by the US government?

I'm honestly not sure what to do about phones these days. It's getting to the point where I don't want one, but I essentially need one for work.

<comment><USER41> Isn't that demonstrably untrue given terrorist attacks and shootings that go undetected even though evidence was later found on their phones?

<comment><USER42> Just because you're capturing a bunch of data doesn't mean you're parsing it/piping it correctly.

Just ask William Binney, et al, re: 911.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


NPM Security Best Practices - <AUTHOR> https://snyk.io/blog/ten-npm-security-best-practices/ <comment><USER2> Good stuff here! Adding another layer to security is a good thing. Thanks!

</comment><comment><USER3> Thanks! It's always good to know more about security.</comment>


Show HN: RESTful Status Labels - <AUTHOR> https://stabel.io/ <comment><AUTHOR> Just published my side project that I created to get more experience with Angular2 and DotNet core.

Feedback is welcome</comment>


You're Dead, Unless You Tweet Otherwise - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/07/youre-dead-unless-you-tweet-otherwise/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=My+Yahoo

<comment><USER2> I bet most people on here don't like legal action, but this sort of trend seems like the kind of thing a libel lawyer or two could help to curb. The author seems to think people will do this ad naseum, but perhaps not if there are known consequences.</comment>


Show HN: Free 3D Printed Things Every Month - <AUTHOR> http://prelaunch.3dbox.club/ <comment><USER2> This is going to be super fun!! I have a bunch of friends who will geek out over it too.

</comment><comment><USER3> Thanks for posting this, Im excited to see what I get. Going to share with my friends.</comment>


Ask HN: A problem you have that hasn't been solved by tech - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> I had a quarrel with my girlfriend. It is a problem, I do not know what to do. And tech couldn't help me with it.

Could you be a little more specific? What kind of a problem you need?

</comment><comment><USER3> My problem is the pervasiveness of oversight and surveillance. Facial recognition software, tracking software, general surveillance and the like. Tech is the problem here - the solution isn't going to come out without looking like a Luddite's response.

</comment><comment><USER4> I need an uncensorable internet</comment>


Ask HN: How does the software and hardware interaction work? - lexi-mono

As a software developer, I realize that I have almost no idea about how the hardware actually works and how the interaction with software is achieved. I know, of course, some theory about computer architecture, but I still can't figure out how bits are represented in a hardware board or how a processor can do the things it does only using basic arithmetic operations.<p>Where could I learn about this stuff? Can you recommend any good course, videos or articles? <comment><AUTHOR> Knuth's MIX & MMIX are the languages of _TAcO_.

MMIX section is a free download[http://www-cs- faculty.stanford.edu/~uno/fasc1.ps.gz](http://www-cs- faculty.stanford.edu/~uno/fasc1.ps.gz)

More here: [http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~uno/mmix.html](http://www-cs- faculty.stanford.edu/~uno/mmix.html)

</comment><comment><USER2> Possibly [http://www.nand2tetris.org/](http://www.nand2tetris.org/).</comment>


Space Invaders: Why you should never, ever use two spaces after a period. (2011) - <AUTHOR> https://slate.com/technology/2011/01/two-spaces-after-a-period-why-you-should-never-ever-do-it.html <comment><USER2> This is why Android, and many other "helpful" tools incorrectly capitalize words after abbreviations.

In this sentence, the problem of one space after a period vs. two is shown at the start of the following one. Two spaces identifies when a new sentence starts as opposed to where the period character may be used mid sentence.

Go ahead, type that and watch as you have to undo capitalization on the word "two' because there isn't any ability to understand when one is mid sentence without there being two spaces to differentiate that from an otherwise mid sentence use of the period character.

Always two spaces.</comment>


My final note to the love of my life - <AUTHOR>

You know what, I really loved my wife more than anything. Even my own family, unfortunately. I cared about her beyond belief. I put her above all, I treated her like a queen. I moved to KY so that I could provide a better welfare for her and a better life. I have sacrificed everything I have had for nothing. I helped her through the good and bad times, just like the vows state. She has done to me what is equivilent of putting a gun to my head and pulling the trigger; putting the noose around my neck and throwing me off the ledge and ending this shitty existence; stabbing me in the heart and twisting the knife. I have cried too many tears for her, I have wasted too much time hoping that it wasn't true; that I could make things work and that I could fix this. Unfortunately, I have failed. I am yet another statistic in divorce among first-married couples. No one can explain how i felt, how i feel, what I am going through. Why I can't concentrate at work, why I can't eat, why I can't sleep, why the thought of this makes me so sick to my stomach. No one can explain to me why she met another man, why he was better than me, why she cheated on me with him, why she walked in one day and said I no longer love you and i don't care about you. I almost snooped down to her level, but I am done with her. I'm done with a lot of things. People get what they deserve, it just takes some time. She was my best friend, my only true friend. I will miss her and all of the good times we have had together and the love that we shared together. <comment><USER2> No offence, but I think you will get more responses and advice from Reddit about this. Try the ones below:

<http://www.reddit.com/r/Divorce/>

<http://www.reddit.com/r/relationships>

<http://www.reddit.com/r/depression/>

</comment><comment><USER3> I'm going to make some assumptions about your situation so pardon me if I get some things wrong.

Do not make any decisions while you are in despair. Reach out to a family member or friend NOW. I felt something similar to this pain once (a lot of people have).

The pain will go away. It will go away slowly, but it WILL go away. Little by little every day. Get away from the life you had with her. Have family or friends that care about you? Go there NOW.

Eventually think about moving away, far away and find another job unless your support system is in KY, but it doesn't sound like it is. Get a new routine. Reinvent yourself. Look at this as an opportunity.

Talk to a family member, close friend or professional right away.

Edit: Oh and she's not the love of your life. Get that bullshit out of your head. There are others. Lots of others.

<comment><AUTHOR> I am trying, I am making progress. Looking back is like looking down and I can't do that. But this pain comes and goes and as it does my mood changes. I am coping, hoping for the better. I am now 400 miles away from family. My whole life changed when I moved down here. I don't know if I can go see family without losing my job as I found all this out during my week of vacation off from work and now cannot take any more without scheduling it. I need to get out of here, I hope my boss understands it. Maybe I can work remotely. I hate KY now, it has been nothing but a curse. Once we moved down here she met men. That is where it went downhill because all of a sudden I was stomped on by this hatred. Hatred that made no sense until I found out that she cheated on me when she left her facebook open. Yes I was curious. Was I wrong? No... Did I know her password? No... Once i found out it hit, all she could care about was my car keys. What kind of person is this? Is Monogamy real? I doubt it. Wish it was. If I talked to a professional, I would be labeled and I don't want to do that. I may need it though the more and more I think about it. Of course I could make half of the money developing software up in Ohio, but that is a choice I am currently considering. I have no friends down here, no close friends since she came into my life. It's just a black hole, no where to go.

<comment><USER3> It is not a black hole. Your vision is just clouded from pain. Let someone hold your hand while you get through it.

Ask your boss for a short-term leave due to family issues. Take it without pay if need be. You need to be around family and friends ASAP. At the very least you need to call someone like a close family member or friend.

Did you ditch your friends for this girl? Good friends that were good guys? Call them anyway. Call the person that you think will give you the most support. Even if it is a friend you ditched. Beg their forgiveness and tell them you really need someone to talk to.

Your first priority is to stop your perceived spiral. Get your feet firmly on the ground with another human being. Do you have such a person? Family? If not then talk to me.

You have lots of options. Your first post scared the crap out of me. You will get through this.

Then you can start thinking of your next step. Being in a location with a good support system is your short-term priority, not the fear of a salary decrease. You can always improve salary once everything else gets back in order.

<comment><AUTHOR> I want to talk to family but I feel as if I can't. I don't know why. I just feel as if no one can truly understand the pain. We all feel love in a different way. My problem is now trust unfortunately and even if I found someone I would only be able to think about her. She actually gave my life reason. I didn't ditch my friends, people that I was around could not mature enough to actually become adults. I just want to rewind time and change the day that we fell in love because it just hurts so bad. Sure my family can express sympathy, but they can never empathize with what I am feeling. My wife took care of me, I can't even wash my own clothes without screwing something up. The biggest thing I worry about is not being able to take care of myself. What a disappointment you know?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> whatever happened, happened for the best, better it happened now than 20 years later in life, you will suffer now though, but you will come out stronger.

</comment><comment><USER5> Life will get better my friend. There are some good people out there.

</comment><comment><USER6> Look at it this way: now you can go on living a life based on truth, embrace your pain, and use it as a way get to know the true you, and love that person as you are, then, you will find the perfect person for you and laugh about all of this... Its funny, fundamentally, it's not really her rejecting you... It's you rejecting you... Because no one can make you feel inferior but you, you create your experience, make the best of it and turn your pain into something beautiful

<comment><USER6> And I've been through this myself, billions other experience this eventually, everyone learns in their own way... As Chuck Palahniuk says in Fight Club, "it's only after we lose everything, that we are free to do anything"

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> There's a saying in Greece my friend: "The are always more orange trees that make oranges"

</comment><comment><USER8> Dat shit cray.

</comment><comment><USER9> wow</comment>


Chromium/Blink – Intent to Implement: Experimental Framework - <AUTHOR> https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/forum/#!topic/experimentation-dev/GsPtuFt8XqA <comment><USER3> Yikes.

As far as I can tell, the only meaningful thing this adds is the ability to require developer registration in order to use experimental APIs.

> The ultimate goal is to enable experimentation and iteration on pre- > standardization APIs, in a way that gathers meaningful feedback, but without > burn-in of the APIs.

I'm not sure what's broken about the "experimental" label except that it can't trace usage back to specific developers. If it's experimental, it will probably break or disappear. "Burn-in" doesn't have to be a problem if you _actually_ iterate and yank or change stuff. API keys don't solve anything that code removal doesn't solve (aside from developer tracking).

Want to curb "developer abuse" of vendor prefixes? Remove the API. Train developers to understand that experimental features are experimental by actually following through. If you don't want users to think the browser is at fault, maybe alert the user to that fact. "Oops, looks like this website's developers were a bit careless with their code. Sorry about that; some people like to take big risks and it stinks that you the user had to suffer for it."

If you really want to ensure that only specific devs are allowed to use some features, presumably to limit impact on users and loss of browser market share, then just ship those devs a custom release. Protect usage of the whole browser with a key, if you want.

Personally, I'd rather we leave things open to experimentation (with an established and valid understanding they may break) over locking it down to devs willing to give you their phone number so you actively approach them for feedback and turn off the tap on a per-developer basis if you so desire.

<comment><USER4> Something like

        -webkit-will-be-removed-on-2015-10-17-border-radius:

<comment><USER5> This is a great solution, in my opinion. Perhaps it could include the browser version instead:

        -chrome-46-faster-font-engine:

This will allow any developer to opt in, with an explicit understanding that when the next browser version comes out the feature will disappear.

console.warn can be used to give a URL where developers can go to give feedback.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I'm guessing the problem this is trying to solve

Originally we had prefixed APIs. webkitAudioContext for example. The idea was the prefix would be removed. Unfortunately the problem was thousands of websites would use the prefixed API. Now you can't remove the prefixed version without breaking many many sites. Worse, there's even arguably an incentive for other browser to add someone else's prefix because they want their browser to run all those same sites.

So, a couple of years ago the browser vendors all agreed, no more prefixes. They'll put all the new stuff behind flags that developers can opt into. The problem with that is no one uses them. The users aren't going to set the flag so no devs have any reason to try out the APIs. There's no re-world usage to see that the APIs work, to see what issues come up.

So, there's this one. Select a few special devs, let them use the features, enable those features for their domain only. Real users get to use the features with no work on their part. It solves the problem to some extent. The devs know the feature might not last. They're also signed up to get notification if the feature is going to change or be removed. And, I guess their motivation is to one up their competitors.

And that last part is the whole problem with this proposal. Unless any dev can sign up then only special "chosen" devs get the competitive advantage. That feels wrong for some reason. I don't have a better solution to suggest though.

edit:

\-- ugh --

I suppose I should have clicked the link which said all of this

[https://infrequently.org/2015/08/doing-science-on-the- web/](https://infrequently.org/2015/08/doing-science-on-the-web/)

</comment><comment><USER7> The requirement to register for an API key (presumably with your Google account) seems a bit weird. Do they expect other browsers to share a Google- controlled API key service, or do they expect developers to sign up for multiple developer accounts, or to deal with four radically different systems for Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Safari?

Last time I heard something like this discussed, one of the suggestions was "browsers automatically disable support for experimental features on Tuesdays", which should allow people time to experiment but should prevent them from depending on it in production. Also, it's a simple rule that can be shared through the web development community by word-of-mouth[1], and many browser vendors can share it without having to coordinate infrastructure, etc.

[1]: Obviously this wouldn't be the _only_ way to share it, but when one developer can turn to another and say 'why doesn't this work' and get a one- sentence answer that contains an accurate model for predicting future occurrences, it's a lot more likely for that model to be reliably propagated via Stack Overflow, Twitter, the random mailing-lists-reformatted-as-web- forums content farms that crop up in search results, etc.

<comment><USER8> What is the benefit of something like disabling on Tuesdays?

Isn't it simpler and just as effective to put the feature behind a configuration flag that is off by default and the user must manually turn on in the browser preferences? Both Chrome and Firefox already use this mechanism.

<comment><AUTHOR> The benefit would be that - assuming the developer is well aware of this limitation - it would act as a disincentive to push code relying on the experimental feature to production.

It would however introduce a lot of hassle in testing the feature - <USER2> unable to work on a particular branch for all of every Tuesday. A better approach might be disabling it for an hour or two daily at 4am local time, or for 5 minutes per-hour, etc.

<comment><USER8> Doesn't having to ask your users to go to chrome://flags and click the "Enable" button next to some very scary looking technical text have the same effect?

I can't imagine asking users (either public or internal) to do that.

<comment><USER9> We could just ask IT to set up flags on internal applications/users if there was a business need...

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I like the general idea of this, but I'm bothered by the "slippery slope" effect this might cause.

Right now, the proposal is to strictly timebox the experiments and to implement procedures that discourage participants from relying on the experimental features.

However, timebox or not, what this framework does is to put in place a system for granting API access based on privilege. Once this system is standardized and accepted, what keeps it from being abused?

At the simplest, certain experiments could be extended for "infinite" time at the request of big-name participiants if the features are particularly valuable. One of the browser vendors could decide to open up registration for everyone but keep the new feature permanently registration-only. In the most extreme case, this could cause an "app-storisation" of the web.

Another point that might cause trouble is the current distinction by origin (and not, say, top-level browsing context). Participiants could "smuggle features out of the lab" by building a JS library with a hidden iframe and selling/offering it to third-parties of their choosing.

</comment><comment><USER11> No experimental feature is cool enough to require you:

      1. To register
      2. To Use an API key
      3. To detect support for (and presumably fallback)
      4. To provide feedback for

You have a problem with burn-in of your experimental APIs? How about you semver your APIs and console.warn when it's deprecated.

This problem has been solved many times before.

<comment><USER12> _This problem has been solved many times before._

Not on the Web, it hasn't. Deprecating experimental features and even just fixing bugs has been difficult to impossible for a long time; "pay the contractor once to set it up, then leave it unchanged for a decade" is a depressingly common approach to setting up a site, and leads to angry site owners and even larger numbers of angry users when suddenly a behavior the site shouldn't have relied on is changed or removed.

<comment><USER13> >> This problem has been solved many times before.

> Not on the Web, it hasn't.

The Web doesn't require some radically new way of developing software.

The webdev community appears to be -slowly- realizing that those nerds back in the 1990's (and 80's and 70's and...) might have _actually_ known a thing or two about developing software, and are _finally_ learning from some of the lessons learned way back when. :)

"All" that needs to be done is for the browser makers that matter [0] to agree to aggressively alter experimental features as needed, remove them whenever they deem necessary, and _widely_ and _repeatedly_ advertise this policy and make it abundantly clear. Hell, even _Microsoft_ has the backbone to break users of undocumented or experimental APIs.

[0] That is, everyone but Apple.

<comment><USER12> _" All" that needs to be done_

"Those nerds" aren't the ones calling the shots. The decisions are being made by the same people who want the company's original 1970s COBOL application to keep running until the heat death of the universe. "Those nerds" would rewrite the thing if they were allowed to, but they're not.

The Web has the same problem with ancient deployments that management thinks should just keep working unchanged for decades. The problem hasn't been solved for the Web, and also hasn't been solved in other fields, hence you still see listings for COBOL programmers.

<comment><USER13> > The decisions are being made by the same people who want the company's > original 1970s COBOL application to keep running until the heat death of the > universe.

Neither Google nor Mozilla have COBOL applications from the 1970's.

Given what I've heard from people who work on Chrome say about the people who work on MSFT's browser, MSFT has recently _also_ become very interested in making software development for a web browser easier, better, and safer.

> The Web has the same problem with ancient deployments that management thinks > should just keep working unchanged for decades.

We're talking about _new_ features marked as _experimental_ and _unstable_ by the folks who _write_ and _maintain_ the browser that _implements_ that feature. As I said in a previous comment, even Microsoft has the backbone to break in-the-field software that makes use of undocumented or experimental APIs.

We're not talking about changing or removing XMLHttpRequest. We're talking about changing or removing blink-experimental-webgl-blink-tag-over-web-rtc- ea59f01.

<comment><USER12> _We 're talking about new features marked as experimental and unstable by the folks who write and maintain the browser that implements that feature._

And when the manager says "deadline is next week", and the _new_ and EXPERIMENTAL and _UNSTABLE_ (gasp) feature is the only way to get it done, you use it.

Now, good luck getting permission to go back and clean up technical debt.

<comment><USER13> > And when the manager says "deadline is next week", and the new and > EXPERIMENTAL and UNSTABLE (gasp) feature is the only way to get it done, you > use it.

I fail to see how a manager's failure to understand that you _cannot_ rely on features that are subject to _breaking_ change or removal at _any_ time, without warning is Google's, Microsoft's or Mozilla's problem.

> Now, good luck getting permission to go back and clean up technical debt.

If your site breaks because the experimental feature that your manager forced you to use was radically changed or removed -as per the widely advertised, well-known policy regarding experimental features-, and your manager doesn't give you permission to fix the mess he forced you into, you -as the programmer- have nothing to worry about. This is clearly a failure of management. :)

Will that stop this manager from yelling at you? Probably not. Will this stop you from getting fired? Maybe not. But, seriously: If you get fired because your manager ignored your expert recommendation that his plan would lead to disaster, and -a little while later- his plan leads to disaster, you were working for a _very_ unreasonable boss. It would only be a matter of time until you were fired for some other equally stupid reason.

If -on the other hand- you commit to doing something that you later find out is not possible, and you _don 't_ own up to your mistake, whatever fallout comes from the stupid things you do to cover up your mistake is your own damn fault.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Why Linux Is Spelled Incorrectly - <AUTHOR> https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/why-linux-spelled-incorrectly <comment><USER2> No, it isn't "incorrect". Linus named it "Linux" and, by definition, that is the correct spelling, end of story. Just because you can construct some linkage to previous, related, terms and find a place where "there wasn't supposed to be an X" doesn't mean Linus was ever bound to follow their convention(s).

</comment><comment><USER3> This is just sad. I don't think the Unics moniker was ever used in any formal sense and not at all for over 45 years.

Meanwhile, there have been UNIX, XENIX, POSIX, Unixware, ULTRIX, A/UX, Cromix, HP-UX, IRIX, ...</comment>


So what does your product do exactly? ...and why should I care? - <AUTHOR> http://madewithhappiness.com/2013/01/16/what-does-it-do.html

<comment><USER2> They could have made it much simpler and better I think,

"[DraftApp] provides [designers][a way to get clear and organised feedback.]"

This still isn't great, it needs a how.

I think the 'so they can get back to doing what they love' was nothing but fluff. It wasn't direct enough. 'So they can focus on their designs while keeping feedback organized', or something like that (I have no idea what thus product does).

Nobody cares about "we help..." It isn't about you. Make it all about your customer.

And then I noticed lower down on the page it says

Draft is a Design Feedback tool for Freelance Designers & Small Teams that helps you clear and organise your feedback.

That's better! Why would they write an article that doesn't use that???

<comment><USER3> Hi Pete, I'm the author and defining the market straight away is a way for both customers and/or investors to empathise as early as possible.Of course you can leave that part out if you feel it's superfluous.

I'm glad you feel the footer does a better job of describing the product, that was written after this blog post :-)</comment></comment>


Apple bans hackers from App Store - <AUTHOR> http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10454364-93.html?tag=TOCmoreStories.0

<comment><AUTHOR> pasted from BigBoss on Cydia:

This warning applies to owners of 3GS iPod touch 3 iPod touch 2 with serial _MC_ Any 3g unlockers

iPhone OS 3.1.3 is now out from Apple. Supposedly it fixes some very rare battery reporting issues on 3gs devices with a specific problem (It does not make your battery last longer). There are no new features. The release only stops jailbreaks. That's right. No new features.

DO NOT UPDATE YOU WILL BE SORRY.

Currently there is no jailbreak for this firmware. Unofficial sources have confirmed that they have patched up the method we used to jailbreak 3.1.2 so you will not be able to jailbreak. If you update you will lose all your jailbreak apps and will not be able to get them back. In other words, updating means you lose a lot of stuff in return for almost nothing back. In addition, there is no ETA on a jailbreak for 3.1.3. It may never be jailbroken. It is likely that they (dev team, geohot) will not waste another hole on 3.1.3. They will most likely hold it for the bigger update that will come with the release of the iPad and iPhone 4.0. Unlockers - you cannot unlock the new baseband. This would apply to those 3g users that can jailbreak 3g. If you update, you will not be able to unlock.

To summarize: \- Update adds NO NEW FEATURES, do not update.

</comment><comment><USER2> Does anyone know why Apple has not invoked DMCA against jailbreaking? Is it because DMCA does not cover how the jailbreak hacks work or is it something else.

I don't know much about the inner workings of jailbreak, nor have an iPhone, but given the way Apple protects its IP, I'm really curious.

<comment><USER3> Apple can serve DMCA notices till they're blue in the face. Outside the US people will just laugh them off.

Not to mention that if they start prosecuting their customers that's terrible PR, and the ones most likely to jailbreak are the ones recommending iPhones to their friends and family (i.e. the technically inclined), and also the ones who would make a huge fuss about it. It really would do them no good at all.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Why do people bother with iPhones? Seems like that in the time it takes to find exploits, you could just fix all the parts of Android you don't like instead.

<comment><USER5> Completely agree. Apple is becoming more and more user unfriendly. Why pay for that kind of abuse?

<comment><USER6> Because the abuse is precisely what makes the ecosystem as user-friendly as it is. They want any iPhone user to be able to pick up your iPhone and have it behave the way they expect. They don't want users to be scared of them the way they are of their PCs. They don't want the massive fragmentation present on Android. They don't want all the coolest software that would otherwise be AppStore-friendly coming out via user-hostile ad-hoc channels.

The beatings will continue until usability improves.

<comment><USER7> This doesn't really make sense. It's fine for Apple to release their phones a certain way because of those concerns. It's not fine for them to log into my phone and reset everything I've done because it doesn't match their overall vision for the device. It's my phone and I can do what I want to it.

If that doesn't match with Apple's philosophy, they should at least be upfront with the idea that you're leasing the device and that Apple reserves the right to override anything you do to it because it doesn't match their "vision".

If only there was a way Apple could ensure there were no stickers, skins, or markings on individual iPhones. Then they could really make sure no one got confused and thought the iPhone was ugly!

<comment><USER8> Apple/carriers don't do OTA firmware updates on the iPhone. It's your choice to install the update or not.

<comment><USER7> While it's better that the device isn't updated automatically, it's the same effect; I assume Apple bills these updates as essential for security and functionality features, so one may assume it's necessary and install over their stuff, perhaps unknowingly (if a friend administered the jailbreak, or if they didn't pay much attention and just assume it works with updates).

It's really just not worth the hassle, honestly. I will never own an iPhone primarily for these reasons.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> _Other hackers have also reported that their Apple IDs have been banned. It seems that this action of Apple's is merely a warning, as these hackers can always just create another Apple ID and access the App Store that way. It would be a lot harsher if Apple decided to ban their devices._

Your App Store purchases are locked to your Apple ID via FairPlay DRM, right? While indeed less serious than a device ban, that puts all your existing apps (or other non-music purchases) in a pretty uncertain state.

<comment><USER10> Jailbreaking allows the installation of cracked apps, which basically makes the App Store DRM a non-issue.

<comment><USER11> Only if you're okay with breaking the law* and standing on ethically questionable ground* just to use an app that you bought.

If your ISP gets a DMCA notice because you were downloading a cracked version of an app that you already own, do you think they're going to accept the explanation that 'it's okay, I already own it'? What about in the context of some of the proposed 'three strikes' laws? Nasty potential minefield.

* Depending on interpretation, of course.

<comment><USER7> Hmm, well, this is different I think. Most jailbreakers aren't doing it so that they can violate copyright and use apps without the consent of the rights holder, most jailbreak so that they can install apps from non-approved sources, use the phone on non-approved networks, and gain extra leverage over the device (SSH, etc.).

To me, that just sounds like doing what you want with a device you own, and telling Apple that you appreciate the sentiment but don't need their babysitting.

When you download a movie or a game from an unauthorized source, that's copyright infringement. When you download an exploit that lets you use your phone in the ways you want, that's just downloading an exploit; it doesn't transmit any substantial intellectual property owned by any other party, so I don't understand your complaint or comparison, really.

The one provision which jailbreaking may violate is the DMCA's restriction on circumvention of "copy protection". Technically, sharing any mechanism to circumvent "copy protection" is illegal in the United States. I don't think that jailbreaking qualifies as a circumvention of copy protection on balance, though, because most people aren't doing it to make copies, but of course that depends on the judge.

<comment><USER12> Do we actually have any statistics on what 'most people' are jailbreaking their iPhones for, or is this just guesswork? I am quite prepares to believe that most of the hackers who actually create the jailbreaks are doing so for ideological reasons, or for technical satisfaction, but what about all the people who just install the jailbreaks?

<comment><USER13> I jailbroke my iPod Touch in order to disable the auto-rotation "feature". I've never installed a cracked app.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Has it actually been confirmed that these people are really 'banned'?

This is the same message that you get if you enter (or, more importantly, someone else enters) your password wrongly multiple times: <http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2446>

</comment><comment><USER15> I'm far from taking sides, but I am surprised it took Apple so long to start this type of banning. I am not sure how it benefits Apple in the long run, but I am sure that if the App Store were my business I probably would have done this. And sooner.

<comment><USER3> Things like the 3.1.3 update are precisely why my next phone will run Android, not iPhone OS.</comment></comment>


Show HN: ESign Forms via Ad-Hoc WiFi Network - <AUTHOR> https://www.wiforms.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> I built this to solve a specific use case where in-person signing is required but internet access is restricted or unavailable. This also addresses problems with signers who can't or don't want to confirm their email address -- the audit trail info includes the MAC address and name of the signer's cell phone (among other things). I'm just starting out here so any feedback on any aspect of this project is totally appreciated.</comment>


Google's Pixelbook could soon run Windows 10 - <AUTHOR> https://www.techradar.com/news/googles-pixelbook-could-soon-run-windows-10 <comment><USER2> There's a software called CrossOver that already allows one to install Windows Software into ChromeOS.

[https://www.codeweavers.com/products/crossover- chromeos](https://www.codeweavers.com/products/crossover-chromeos)

This seems like a better experience than running a full new OS. But I don't know how well it works. Anyone have tried this?

<comment><USER3> That's just Wine.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> There's an unavoidable redirect if you're using an adblocker. Can someone post the text of the article?

<comment><USER5> Search for "google pixelbook crossover" where someone from that team has a little blog post example talking about it. Oh wait, I can post links on hacker news :-) [https://www.codeweavers.com/about/blogs/duboisj/2018/6/12/cr...](https://www.codeweavers.com/about/blogs/duboisj/2018/6/12/crossover- in-a-linux-vm-on-a-google-pixelbook-a-walkthrough)</comment></comment>


Table for Medium - <AUTHOR> https://blog.sheetsu.com/show-table-on-medium-ba0be0c16c59 <comment><USER2> Looks really nice, I'll definitely try it out with my next article on Medium.</comment>