Psystar Steals Open Source Bootloader and Sells it for $50 - <AUTHOR> http://www.geektechnica.com/2009/10/psystar-steals-open-source-bootloader-and-sells-it-for-50/ <comment><USER2> With all these accusations flying around that Psystar stole the code they're using, does anyone have any proof beyond "They're doing the same thing I'm doing, they couldn't possibly do it on their own!"?

Typically when I see these types of stories the developer that feels wronged posts a bunch of code comparisons, binary comparisons or strings found in the binaries to show that it's a possibility. All the articles so far on this subject point to the author's blog post about changing the license for his software but it's quite lacking on any proof.

I'm all for open software and I don't know which side of the fence I'm on for the hackintosh debate (though I'd love to legally run OS X on my custom built PC, I'm stuck with a mac mini for now) but can someone post some proof?

<comment><USER3> He says that the NEW license prohibits commercial use, but what about the original license? If it allowed comemrcial use, then they've done nothing wrong and he'll have to live with regreting the choice he made when he published it.

<comment><USER4> The linked license is from a version that's over a year old (April 2008). Who knows what the terms were before that. Though, if there weren't any explicit terms, that means that distribution was prohibited.

Now, the most recent version (10.5) that was posted a few days ago is licensed under the Apple Public Source License... which expressly allows commercial use. But from my initial reading it is like the GPL, in that it's a viral license. Since this boot loader is based on Apple's boot loader, it must also be under APSL.

There is also a note in a README that says for commercial purposes contact the authors, but since this is APSL anyway, I doubt that they have the ability to grant a license for Apple's code, so that's all moot.

Basically, it looks to me like the EFI bootloader's authors are of of luck in that their code must be distributed under APSL. So, if Pystar is fulfilling their requirements under the APSL (distribute source code) there is nothing anyone can do about it.

Except Apple that is. From what I've read, with this license, it looks like Apple has the sole right to terminate the license.

<http://opensource.org/licenses/apsl-2.0.php>

<comment><USER5> It looks like that, but the author could have change the wording of the license to fit him.

If he didn't, then he's a complete moron who should never deal with legal issues because it does apply to Apple Inc. only.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Funny how folks find a sudden respect for what licenses say when it is their own being violated...

<comment><USER7> It is a mistake to look at any group of people as having an opinion. They have many opinions, and those opinions are often inconsistent and in conflict. Different incidents will pull out different vocal minorities, and so you get opposing points of view being said. The group sounds inconsistent, but not necessarily any member of that group.

For an example where the group is truly inconsistent, suppose 1/3 like Los Angeles more than New York more than Chicago, 1/3 like New York more than Chicago more than Los Angeles and 1/3 like Chicago more than Los Angeles more than New York. Then by a 2/3 margin they think that that New York is better than Chicago, and Chicago is better than Los Angeles, and Los Angeles is better than New York! Those aggregate beliefs are clearly inconsistent, yet no individual in the group is at all confused about their preferences.

<comment><USER8> It is correct, however, to read the linked article and see someone who thought violating a license was fine so long as it was a closed-source Apple license, but had problems with it as soon as it appeared to be violation of an open- source license.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> wmf called it: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=897924>

</comment><comment><USER10> To be fair: the license text at <http://netkas.org/?p=62> doesn't look like "open source" to me. It's a non-commercial-use-only thing that quite clearly doesn't meet the standards of the open source definition.

Doesn't mean that Psystar has the right to use it, of course. Just that it doesn't look particularly valuable to the community either. The author is cheesed because he/she isn't being paid, not because Psystar isn't being a good member of the open source community.

We don't normally get fired up over copyright infringement issues between close source distributors, so I'm not quite understanding the outrage. Let them sort it out in the courts.

<comment><USER11> That license text is new.

I'm curious as to what the previous version had as its license.

<comment><USER12> Did Matt at Geek Technica even look into the issue beyond the initial accusation by netkas accusation? If I say that netkas stole the code from me, will he similarly parrot this entirely false statement on my behalf?

According to this iHackintosh post <[http://www.ihackintosh.com/2009/01/download-pc- efi-v9-chamel...](http://www.ihackintosh.com/2009/01/download-pc- efi-v9-chameleon-bootloader-one-click-installer/>), netkas's bootloader is based on Chameleon. Indeed, the readme in that package reads, "These two projects were merged together by netkas and released as Chameleon v1.0.12. ", and netkas corroborates this himself <[http://netkas.org/?p=245>](http://netkas.org/?p=245>). (This is all cumbersome sort through, because all of netkas's code seems to be distributed through those shady, advert-laden filehosting websites, rather than maintaining some centralized project repository that are so prevalent for open source projects.)

The only problem here, is that Chameleon <[http://chameleon.osx86.hu/>](http://chameleon.osx86.hu/>); is licensed under the Apple Public Source License. This clashes with netkas's tantrum and seemingly after-the-fact pronouncement that PC EFI is under a proprietary license. In fact the exact version under dispute here seems to be V8, which netkas is already keenly aware is under the Apple Public Source License <[http://netkas.org/?page_id=21>](http://netkas.org/?page_id=21>).

 _Furthermore_ , netkas just throws out the accusation Rebel EFI doesn't conform to the license terms. Well, it certainly doesn't conform to his entirely irrelevant and void terms he posted to his blog, because he doesn't have the authority to distribute his derivative under those terms. I don't have OS X, so I can't tell whether or not Rebel EFI fails to point to the sources.</comment></comment></comment>


Arrington's TechCrunch Biased Anti Islam Zionist, Did It Favor Jewish Startups? - <AUTHOR> http://arabcrunch.com/2011/09/under-arrington-techcrunch-was-biased-anti-islam-spreading-zionist-propaganda-did-it-favor-jewish-startups.html

<comment><USER2> I love it when the religious point out the atrocities of other religions, but seemingly lack the introspection to do it to their own religions as well.

That said, this article is OT. I think we can do better than to post articles that end with _"I am not questioning here the holocaust, nor saying all jews are evil"_ but starts with a giant image of a racist caricature.

<comment><AUTHOR> i think the writer is saying that this post is not about the holocaust or a debt about it and that he is not anti all jews, rather pointing out to the bias of TechCrunch and its hate to Islam as such Muslims which affected its coverage. as for the image i see that it shows you that Arrington looks from one eye, the eye of the Zionist jew not a racist pic at all.

<comment><USER2> _"not a racist pic at all."_

I honestly believe that you sincerely believe that. That is why I am not going to continue this conversation.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Yes TC was biased, and why the media wants to make Muslims as terrorist In fact Muslims are the victims not the terrorist. why techcrunch calls islam a satanic religion?

<comment><USER3> The post shows clear bias and misunderstanding, especially in the post comparing it to Satanism.

If you had actually read the article you'd see it said it's NOT TRUE. That it's just pattern matching and no such thing is happening.

Second, it was comparing pro-Islam audio showing up in unexpected places just like people used to claim the same about Satanism. (eg play some music backwards and you hear pro-Satan lyrics) It was not comparing the two subjects or saying that Islam = Satanism.

Third, Satanism isn't what most people think. The Church of Satan, arguably the largest group of so-called Satanists, is actually atheistic. Its members don't believe in the supernatural, Christian or Islamic.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Satan>

<comment><AUTHOR> how biased it is? it is mentioning the truth, even if TC writer did not mean it he should not compare Islam to Sanatism. " "Is Islam the new Satanism?" how wrong and bad this statement.

second, TC was backing google to post the "fitan" movie a movie full of lies that falsely accuse Islam of terrorism, and said google needs to "decide between free speech and global jihad." but when it comes to jews, or criticizing Israel Arrington says ""The first amendment doesn't apply to private companies." and demand stuff that criticize the jews to be removed. this is a prof that TC is anti islam and biased to jews Zionism and israel

<comment><AUTHOR> right you said it, you think islam is evil.. this is ignorant from you, why do not be classy and say i disagree with islam and not calling it bad names. however the point here is the writers are accusing Islam of things under free speech and preventing other cretinism israel and jews.

for your misconception I suggest you read h<http://islam-truth.com/>

<comment><USER2> I think all religion is evil. Don't feel so special.

This isn't ignorant, it is _enlightened_.

To say simply that I disagree with it is not being honest. I disagree with it _and_ I oppose it. In crude terms, I think that it is evil. The same with other religions.

<comment><AUTHOR> You are evil

<comment><USER2> Nah, I'm just your standard run of the mill atheist.

Common misconception though! There are more of me than you might think however, so you might want to learn about me.

<comment><AUTHOR> so why do you think all religions are evil and Islam in particular?

<comment><USER2> I never said I found Islam _in particular_ evil. I find all religions evil, and haven't stated that I find any to be more or less so than the others.

Are you attempting to imply however that I am evil _because_ I find religion to be so? If that is the case, that sentiment is a perfect example of why I think what I do.

I do not expect you to understand, nor do I intend on expending the astronomical amount of effort that would be required to allow you to understand.

<comment><AUTHOR> well according to you all religions are evil including Islam, what do you know about Islam that makes you think Islam is evil? i am challenging you in open free discussion to prov you wrong :)

<comment><USER2> It is a believe system that involves, among other things, a belief in the supernatural, and the indoctrination of children by their parents.

So, unless you can tell me that Islam has no "god", and parents never discuss it with their children before they are old enough to decide for themselves, I don't think you have much to tell me.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Does the new touchbar have any cool features yet? - <AUTHOR> I don't have a new Macbook pro. But I use duet display, and it enables the touchbar on an ipad running as a second screen.
I looked through the apps I use, and none seem to do anything interesting with the touchbar – if they use it at all.
Is there anything neat you can do with it so far? For example, someone made this useless (but fun) project: https://github.com/avatsaev/touchbar_nyancat
Has anyone made useful ones? Are there shortcuts you've coded in you've found useful? Do any apps have features that really shine with the touchbar?
Note: Duet's touchbar can't use touchid. Other than that, I believe it has all the features of the regular touchbar. <comment><USER2> I love the idea of the touchbar (that is, I'd get an external keyboard with one if it had the Fn keys too...).

I can think of a lot of uses for it, though maybe not making full use of the display capabilities. When I first saw it, I immediately thought "programmable ribbon controller".

Think of a virtual slider/fader that can output absolute position or relative movements, with (here's the kicker) the Fn keys selecting what the control is connected to.

For example, iTunes could use it for seeking position of the current audio. Tapping along the ribbon would drop you at that point of the audio (like moving and dropping the needle on a record). The Fn keys could switch it to Low, Mid and High EQs, let you scroll through your folders and playlists, etc...

<comment><AUTHOR> That would be pretty neat.

I found out Duet's main use case is for their iPad pro drawing program. Artists can have the touchbar at the bottom of an ipad when drawing.</comment></comment>


A profile of Geoffrey Hinton (2018) - <AUTHOR> https://torontolife.com/tech/ai-superstars-google-facebook-apple-studied-guy/ <comment><USER2> > Hinton has said that when he was growing up, his mother gave him two > choices: "Be an academic or be a failure." His family tree is branch- > breakingly weighted with scientists. His great-great-grandfather was George > Boole, founder of Boolean logic, familiar to anyone who has done a "Boolean > search." One of George Boole's sons-in-law was Charles Howard Hinton, > Geoffrey's great-grandfather, a mathematician and sci-fi writer who coined > the concept of a "tesseract" (a four-dimensional object we can see in the > 3-D world as a cube—well known to all readers of the classic children's > novel A Wrinkle in Time), and who ended up in the U.S.

Interesting fact from reading this that normally gets neglected in media.

<comment><USER3> It's actually quite common.

One of the most tried and true routes to getting into the best academia- oriented colleges (Harvard, MIT, Caltech, etc.) is to win one of the big science fairs. I am not sure what they are called or who their sponsors are these days, but they used be sponsored by Westinghouse, Intel, and Siemens. Anyway, if you look at bios of winners or semifinalists, they almost always have a close relative in academia. Which in these competitions is actually a massive competitive advantage since your relative can get you into labs, access to equipment, and push you towards fruitful projects they quietly are guiding from the background.

Same with a lot of the international olympiads, very often the kids come from intense tiger parent families that are already in academia or do everything they can to get their kids the best physics/math/whatever tutors (the main exceptions to this are usually kids in large metro areas going to top magnet schools).

And then of course once you're in these top academic institutes, your relatives can further help you network and get into the best labs, show you how to get the best fellowships and academic internships to set you up for top grad schools, etc. Plus now that you have a top olympiad/science fair your credentials will give you a big plus in competing against others without them

<comment><USER4> I agree that academics at research universities can provide more opportunities for their children, but they are also bequeathing genes for higher IQ to their children, and I'd guess that the genetic influence is at least as strong as the environmental one. Adoption studies have generally found that the academic achievement of adoptees is more correlated to the educational level of their biological than their adoptive parents.

<comment><USER3> That's true, however here I am speaking about the highest level of competition for the best path into academia (one of the most competitive careers in the world). Large IQ studies aren't as relevant since the population of people seriously considering academia who have the ability to act on that is skewed to the relatively far right side of the distribution

I ran into so many roadblocks when I started seriously looking into going into academia when I was 16-17; if you don't have top science fairs or olympiads your chances of getting into top academic undergrads are already at risk, which has negative compounding effects down the line compared to the positive compounding effects of those that do get these, especially if you are a white or asian male. Close relatives of academics and people going to top magnet schools in major metro areas have huge headstarts compared to everyone else. Having a good IQ is just one of many requisites into going into academia, accomplishment-oriented credentials are much more valuable in your early career than things like regular standardized test scores

<comment><USER5> The bit about the competitions specifically doesn't ring true for me.

Many friends from grad school have tenure-track jobs. None of them, as far as I know, participated in these contests. I would bet that things effectively reset once you start grad school and again once you're in a faculty job.

It is true that academic recognition tends to snowball. Winning your nth grant or fellowship is exponentially easier than the first one "because you have a track record."

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I don't like how they oppose deep learning with « logic based AI ». When Hinton got great results, he wasn't competing against logic based AI but rather other machine learning approaches like SVMs.

<comment><USER7> I dont think he was competing. ANNs and boltzmann machines in the 80s seemed was an exploratory field not really part of statistical ML. At the time people were indeed competing with logic-based AI. SVMs came later and even then i believe, NNs had a different history and were not motivated from competition to SOTA techniques like SVMs. When the success of trainig came after the mid-2000s that's when ANNs started being called "ML". At least that's my memory

<comment><USER8> Indeed, he wasn't competing. In fact, he wasn't moving; he kept doing what he had always been doing until, luckily, something, that he had nothing to do with, changed and allowed NN methods to work better. So I view him as essentially standing still, frozen in time, like a clock stuck at 6 o'clock. And, just like that clock, he would inevitably be correct (at least twice a day). He had nothing to do with the tools (higher memory & CPU speeds) that made his methods work, he just kept doing the same thing over and over until, one day, by accident, something important changed: his lab bought newer, faster computers.

He's not exactly Louis Pasteur is what I'm saying!

<comment><USER9> We call this "skating to where the puck is going to be".

<comment><USER8> I call it "doing the same thing over and over again, hoping someday you get lucky." I think there's a commonly-used expression for that behavior.

Hinton got lucky: something he had nothing to do with changed, making him look like a stoic hero.

A winning strategy or just a lazy path?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I always find it so difficult to read popsci biographies of my own expert subjects. Hinton did not invent neural networks. Hinton is an amazing researcher and scholar to be sure, but this is clearly hyperbole.

Edit: I turns out I misread the article, it merely suggests his chosen approach was neural networks, rather than that neural networks are his idea. I think honestly it's written ambiguously by intent.

<comment> 52-6F-62 > _In the late '50s, a Cornell scientist named Frank Rosenblatt had proposed > the world's first neural network machine. It was called the Perceptron, and > it had a simple objective—to recognize images._

This is right in the article. They don't attribute neural networks to Hinton—they just note that he worked with them.

<comment><USER11> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perceptron](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perceptron)</comment></comment></comment>


Hipsters Go Glamping, and RV Makers Soar - <AUTHOR> https://www.wsj.com/articles/hipsters-go-glamping-and-rv-makers-soar-1512226801 <comment><USER2> If you are into this sort of thing, go to Europe and look at the VW California or the Mercedes Marco Polo, they are like the old VW Vanagon camper on steroids.

Unfortunately, not imported to the USA. :(</comment>


Ask HN: What should I build my webapp in? - <AUTHOR>

I want to build a web application. My idea is pretty simple but I haven't really developed anything other than simple websites (html/css) for a few years. I'm a designer, but in the past I taught myself php/mysql and I've picked up things here and there. I have been focusing more on design in the last many years so I'm not sure where to start. Python? Ruby? Should I use a framework like Django or Rails? Any suggestions? <comment><USER2> I was in this situation a few years ago. It doesn't really matter which tools you use. They're all relatively similar from a beginner's perspective and you'll be learning a lot not matter which ones your choose. The most important thing is that you stick with your project, so try to choose the easiest, most well-supported framework. I'd say Ruby on Rails is a pretty good bet.

Also, I wouldn't start right off trying to build your application. Go through at least one full tutorial on how to build a sample application. You'll learn your way around the code and pick up a lot of things that seem useless at first but end up being really useful down the line.

<http://www.codeschool.com/> has an awesome free online course called "Rails for Zombies". I'd probably start there if I were you.

It'll be a lot of hard work, but stick with it and good luck!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the suggestions. I'll check out the link. I know it will be hard but I'm excited to dig into something new.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I program in Rails mostly, but I came from a front-end dev perspective, and I'd recommend giving Sinatra a try. It gives you much of the same "reload and see your changes" experience you get when you're first playing with HTML/CSS. The Rails for Zombies link ollerac gave is good, too.

<comment><AUTHOR> I hadn't heard of Sinatra before. I'll check it out. Thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> In which language should I build my webapp?

Feel free to mod me down, but lately ending sentences with prepositions has become nails on a chalkboard in my mind. Yes, I know that avoiding this makes everyone sound like Victorian gentlemen, I'm sorry.</comment>


Show HN: Airmash – Multiplayer Missile Warfare HTML5 Game - <AUTHOR> https://airma.sh/ <comment><USER2> I opened this game in an incognito tab. And started dev tools. The entire game is only 2.8 MB. It loads fast. Such graphics, much small. A lesson for modern web developers about website obesity and performance.

<comment><USER3> I mean this is nice but it's really not a lesson for web developers. The fact that this is 2.8mb doesn't really teach a web developer any lessons, unless you think that large website payloads exist because developers are literally too lazy or don't know how asset optimization works.

Instead, having worked in web development, I know that website payload size is often driven by having to include vendored javascript for business reasons (analytics and social are big culprits) or because your boss doesn't give you the time to focus on performance because for the business, it is good enough and they want to use their limited web development resources to do something other than shrinking javascript payloads.

Another thing, you're impressed by the graphics and how the developer was able to include them while keeping the payload small. It seems to be made using vectors and particle effects. Both of these techniques are not heavy in terms of payload. Shaders and particle effects are generally very small amounts of code. Think about how this is different for a website that heavily relies on all sorts of user-generated content: jpgs, mp4, gif, png, etc. Much larger assets than a few shaders and svg.

<comment><USER4> >unless you think that large website payloads exist because developers are literally too lazy or don't know how asset optimization works.

For what it's worth, I do think this. It's easy to just drag another JS library into your code without thinking of how long it's going to take to load.

<comment><USER3> I don't know what to tell you if you're convinced that's the problem. I know and work with many web developers who do care about performance. I follow the blogs of many web developers who write about performance.

I don't doubt that there are junior web developers who don't know much better. But I don't really meet anyone who says that they just don't care about performance.

<comment><USER5> Let me just point out that you can care deeply about performance and still lack the skills to achieve it.

<comment><USER3> Yes, I agreed with you in my post.

> I don't doubt that there are junior web developers who don't know much > better.

I just think it's very... puritanical the way that people bemoan the state of websites as a personal failing of web developers as a profession rather than the a result of what kind of deliverables their employers care about and are willing to pay for.

<comment><USER6> Whenever I see the term "web developers" in this context, I'm assuming it means all of the decisions they make given the requirements and inputs from others in the business.

I think the web is currently _terrible_ and I think modern web-development _is_ to blame, but that includes the people behind the web-devs making the decisions that are being pushed onto the web-devs.

There are a lot of things to blame for the current state of the web, but ultimately the current practice of web-development (and whatever behind-the- scenes processes that involves) is clearly the biggest reason why.

<comment><USER3> See in my mind that's like blaming construction workers for condos built quickly with shoddy materials. I don't choose the materials I work with most of the time. I have worked on maybe one greenfield application in my entire life. It was really small and performed well. Everything else has been making the best out of bad decisions made by other people.

<comment><USER6> I agree that it isn't fair, but that's also just how it goes. I get blamed all the time for poor decisions made by my group, even if I agree that they are poor decisions.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Request: a campaign mode where you download my cities' map and let me flyover and protect it from inbound hordes. Maybe let me network with other players in my city to coordinate defence or watch our neighbourhoods burn!

</comment><comment><USER8> This is incredible! Were you a Subspace Continuum player? The similarities are many and my (albeit not great) skills translate right over. Although discrete life/weapon energy removes some of the 1v1 strategy, it doesn't feel lacking at all. Dogfighting is a lot of fun, lots of generally pleasant players in from HN. Love it! Wasted hours grinding level 4 but the rainbow flag was worth it so I can dominate with flair :D

This. Is. Ace! Thank you!

Callsign: tseug

<comment><USER9> If (s)he isn't a Continuum player, I would be astounded. The default ship is pretty much the Warbird without a bullet. It handles like... identically.

To the developer, if you want another, I develop another popular online game (TagPro) and I desperately want to help you make this a bigger game. This has incredible potential, and it mirrors a game I've been developing for like a year. I haven't had this much fun with a webgame in a long time.

Feel free to email me, my email is in my profile

<comment><USER10> TagPro is amazing, thanks for developing it! I love games with such simple controls and goals that lead to emergent strategies.

[0] [http://tagpro.koalabeast.com/](http://tagpro.koalabeast.com/)

<comment><USER9> I'm glad you like it! I've taken a leave of absence because my IRL situation has become intense, but I'll definitely be going back. If you like the particle effects, that's my doing. If you don't, well, blame LuckySpammer.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I'm amazed by how well this works on mobile. I literally played this game for about half an hour on my phone in the HN app web view because it's just so much fun. I'm used to normal web pages that don't even really work on mobile and this game just worked seamlessly without any problems whatsoever. Great Job!

<comment><USER12> Meanwhile, I tried 3 different browsers and can't get past the "enter your name" screen on mobile. Apparently native inputs are too dated to use.

<comment><AUTHOR> Admittedly mobile was a bit of an afterthought and I only tested it on 4 devices. What device are you using?

<comment><USER12> iOS 8.1.2 model A1532. I don't upgrade because it will slow down my phone.

Probably not worth supporting. :) Adding new features and figuring out ways to keep people playing might be much more worth your time.

<comment><USER13> > Probably not worth supporting.

I was going to disagree because the same countries that really like web games are often the ones using older handsets, but Apple themselves say only 8% of handsets are on iOS < v10: [https://developer.apple.com/support/app- store/](https://developer.apple.com/support/app-store/)

<comment><USER14> 1 in 10 handsets isn't a market you want?

<comment><USER15> Even at it's peak apple only had 23% market share. 1 in 10 out of 23% is 2.3% and not everyone plays this game on a phone so the percentage is even lower in reality.

<comment><USER14> Not this game but in general.

Good point about market share though, hadn't considered that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Kind of reminds me of SubSpace. I think, it has been a very long time since I've played it.

<comment><USER17> Thought the same exact thing. Whatever happened to SubSpace?

<comment><USER18> [http://store.steampowered.com/app/352700/Subspace_Continuum/](http://store.steampowered.com/app/352700/Subspace_Continuum/)

Subspace Continuum is an anti-hacking fork released in 2001 (Subspace was released in '95) and is now the only official version of the game.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> This really is an addictive game and the attention to detail is amazing. As a web developer myself, I'm quite familiar with building a typical web application but nothing close to this. If you ever decide to write a piece explaining how you built this at the high level, peeps like myself will find it extremely valuable.

</comment><comment><USER20> Reminds me of `Raptor: Call of the Shadows`: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j19rc8YB3sY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j19rc8YB3sY)

Plenty of nostalgia there as that was the first computer game I ever played and a classic from the 90s.

<comment><USER21> Swear I used to play that on my dads amiga - good times.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> That was a lot of fun! One quick request - can the level-up popup not appear square in the middle of the screen? That can be a real problem if you happen to level while you're in the middle of a fight.

One other quick request, now I think of it - can the key event handler pass F11 through? Being able to un-fullscreen would be handy.

Awesome game! I look forward to the writeup on the tech stack and how it's done.

<comment><USER23> I had this problem and the solution was to use the game's `f` keybinding for fullscreen instead. Or open the game in a separate window, because ALT-F4 is the only way to close it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Is it just me or is this becoming a more popular Internet game format. The reason I ask is because Slither.io uses this same idea.

<comment><USER25> The new era of Flash-type games?

<comment><USER26> "io games": Massively multi-player, real time, no login, no rounds (continuous game), just type your name and play.

There probably were a few flash games like this, but didn't caught on like it has now.

<comment><USER27> How do they pay for server cost? Someone told me slither.io had made it's owner millions. I'm assuming there are ads?

<comment><USER28> Yea they show ads in between game sessions.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Really fun game. Very smooth and addictive. Curious to know about tech stack

<comment><USER30> I think pixi.js and websocket + node backend.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> How long has this been released? Seems very polished. How long did it take you to build?

<comment><USER11> In the changelog ([https://airma.sh/changelog](https://airma.sh/changelog)) it says today (10th Dec 17) was the first release.

<comment><USER32> I'd implied the same from the general player skill level. It's nice to play against people who are just as bad as me for a change!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> A lot of friendly fire among the HN crowd. "Make go boom" appears to be our goal.

<comment><USER34> There are teams?

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> This game reminds me of XPilot released back in 1992: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XPilot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XPilot)

Some gameplay footage: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiO6XYt8M14&list=PL192CF249E...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiO6XYt8M14&list=PL192CF249EA2E99AA&index=1)

</comment><comment><USER36> Apparently these are called "io games". I was visiting family last month and watched my nephew play these for hours.

Large list here: [http://iogames.space](http://iogames.space)

</comment><comment><USER37> Staying #1 is incredibly exhilarating. My strategy was upgrading defense and staying out of big clusters while still shooting towards them.

<comment><USER38> Yes, that strategy works well. I've also found that "hitting the brakes and they'll fly right by" works really well in a knife fight.

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> What does it use for networking?

<comment><AUTHOR> Just plain ol' Websockets. But with a twist.

I use 2 WS connections mirroring some packets on both, to deal with head-of- line blocking.

<comment><USER40> Interesting. Could you talk more about this?

<comment><AUTHOR> Will do when this is over. Right now I'm trying to prevent servers from melting. HN traffic...

<comment><USER41> Also want to show appreciation for your work.

I tried to create a game similar to this (I spent 6 months on it). Very basic Geometry. Circles. I got the concept working well locally, but I ran into problems on how to deal with the networking. I got things running in Node with SocketIO and so on but there could be 400 players, each made of upto 8 moving pieces, and each can fire several times a second.

I spent a lot of time on a book, "Real time collision detection" and generally I have fond memories of the whole project and trying different partition and slicing up space.

However, how to package and deal with this snapshot of world "over the network" or for example "how to smooth any lag relative to the client"... this middle region was largely undocumented or ill accessible to me.

I will look forward to when/if you write any thoughts.

<comment><AUTHOR> I will definitely do a write-up but you're right. It's really hard to find info on any of that online.

A lot of trial and error.

<comment><USER42> Do you have a blog? Been visiting this daily to see if there's a new update about the write up on networking trial errors. :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER43> I played it for two minutes and immmedialy had great memories of Subspace multiplayer.

And it even still exists! store.steampowered.com/app/352700/Subspace_Continuum/

</comment><comment><USER44> Very nice game, but I couldn't enjoy much because of my high ping. I'd like to see an South America and Africa servers. AFAIK AWS provides South America servers for Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Are there any plans on letting anyone host their own servers?

</comment><comment><USER45> Does this remind anyone else of the old Subspace/Continuum game?

<comment><USER46> YES!!!! It's the first thing I thought of... are we getting old?

</comment></comment><comment><USER47> +1 for flat earther physics with teleportation from north-pole to south-pole :) Just kidding, well done.

</comment><comment><USER48> Played on the pc for about 20 minutes; great fun but controls mess up sometimes (shooting). Tried on my iPhone6s but screen isn't correctly; bottom 20px or so are missing in safari.

Great fun though!

</comment><comment><USER49> Kudos! I appreciate anything that works out of the box with uMatrix blocking enabled.

Gameplay wise: looks like you may want to slow down the reverse speed... or not it's pretty fun as is

</comment><comment><USER50> What did u use too make the game?

<comment><AUTHOR> PIXI.js for the graphics. Serverside is mostly Node.js.

<comment><USER50> No websockets for persistent connections? How are you handling RTC?

<comment><USER51> Open up the Network tab and you'll see that it's using WebSockets.

<comment><USER50> Ah. Sounds cool. Would WebRTC serve better here?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER52> This reminds me of two very popular age old games (from around 1990's) called Inner Space and Critical Mass.

[1] [http://www.sdispace.com/index.html](http://www.sdispace.com/index.html)

[2] [http://www.windowsgames.co.uk/critical.html](http://www.windowsgames.co.uk/critical.html)

Love this game :)

</comment><comment><USER53> Would love a write up on how you achieved such smooth responsive game play!

</comment><comment><USER54> Needs error handling for unsupported browsers, which seems to be anything other than bleeding edge latest browser version. Can't get past "enter name", it just sits there doing nothing. I prefer to hold off on bleeding edge browser versions because backwards compatibility is a good thing to test for.

</comment><comment><USER55> Well great... i'm addicted. There goes my project deadline.

</comment><comment><USER21> I'm not proud that most of my kills were AFK, but meh, I mostly sustain myself on low hanging fruit.

<comment><USER56> All's fair in love and war.

</comment></comment><comment><USER57> Great game!! can i ask you which hosting are you using ? how many servers what are there configuration ?

</comment><comment><USER58> What a very well executed fun game. And it performs extremely well on my lap top. Great job!

</comment><comment><USER59> I don't know if this is HN effect or what but I just dont't get to the game. All I see after log in is some terrain and, a few moments later "Destroyed by " someone. No units movement, nothing.

<comment><AUTHOR> Everything is running smoothly so it's not the HN effect.

Might I ask what OS/Browser/ISP are you using?

<comment><USER60> I also have this problem. Windows 10, Chrome (hardware accel disabled), Comcast.

<comment><USER10> I had to enable hardware acceleration to get more than 1 frame/second. It was smooth with hardware acceleration turned on.

I'm running chrome on ubuntu on a dell xps 13

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER61> The game space is a little crowded i felt. Otherwise pretty cool game ! Do you plan to open source or do you know of a HTML5 game of similar complexity that is ? Would love to read the code.

<comment><USER62> On the map I played, everyone spawns in over Europe. However, there's a whole entire world and NA and Eastern China was typically pretty barren

</comment></comment><comment><USER63> The gameplay reminds me a bit of an old favorite of mine - Starport: Galactic Empires. I wonder of games of that nature could undergo a revival as browser games.

</comment><comment><USER64> Arrrgh, clicked too! So much fun and beware - addictive!

</comment><comment><USER65> Works great in Firefox 57. But Chrome 63 on Linux 17.10. With GPU accel. The bitmap sprites are just rendering as weird grey bounding rects :(

<comment><AUTHOR> I have tested all browsers on Linux. Got a screenshot?

</comment></comment><comment><USER66> I have now accidentally closed the game twice ctrl + w and bookmarked once ctrl + d but the game itself is so much fun :) +1 from me

<comment><USER67> Use mouse mode :)

<comment><USER66> Actually arrow keys are good enough to avoid that trap

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER68> You know, I really had stuff I needed to do today...Thanks a lot... /s :) Awesome game, can't seem to stop playing

</comment><comment><USER69> This was definitely thought out. Can't even put Zalgo text as a username and have it fill the screen to cheat :^).

</comment><comment><USER70> Please add regular sign-up form as well! I do not want to use one of my social network profiles to save my progress.

</comment><comment><USER71> WOW -- where did my last hour go!

</comment><comment><USER72> Really enjoyed this even after playing a few minutes. Good graphics and nice controls.

</comment><comment><USER73> Congratulations, great game.

1\. Was cross-hair/radar lock, omitted on purpose to improve screen on time or would any upgrade give that ability ?

2\. Analytics - In the free for all, do see players avoiding other players if they see their country flag on them?

</comment><comment><USER74> I can't seem to get my aircraft to move forward using a keyboard. Flying backwards is fine, but using the ^ key is a nogo. Controller works fin theough!

OS: Windows 10 (Build 16251) Browser: Firefox Developer Edition (58.0b10 64-bit)

<comment><USER75> Off topic, but did they really have 16,251 builds of windows.

Is that low, high or normal(expected)?

<comment><USER76> normal, modern dev with automated builds and git creates a build every time you commit (or every push), and you can commit for a missing comma so ... with 10 or more people working on it on a daily basis it can go up very fast

<comment><USER75> ah, yeah that makes sense - I was thinking of "releases" not so much "builds" and thats why it looked weird to me...

<comment><USER77> Also I believe that this is the kernel build counter, and it's the same counter that's used since Win95. Someone has published a list: [https://www.gaijin.at/en/lstwinver.php](https://www.gaijin.at/en/lstwinver.php)

edit: it's not the kernel build counter and MS has cheated with it in the past, but it has stayed sequential across the whole NT tree (as this is where any post-2K Windows originates). [https://www.howtogeek.com/140411/learn-the- secrets-of-the-wi...](https://www.howtogeek.com/140411/learn-the-secrets-of- the-windows-build-number/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER78> Damn, this game is so addictive, and so well done. Congratulations!

I wish there were more stuff to upgrade/unlock, I've reached level 6 and even't unlocked anything in the past 3 levels.

Hi from "Moz://a" in the game!

<comment><USER78> This game should be monetized, a couple of ideas:

1\. You could sell "upgrades packets" in the login screen, so that one can start playing with an upgraded aircraft from the very beginning. 2\. There could be other aircrafts that could be either unlocked with enough points or bought.

<comment><USER79> > This game should be monetized, a couple of ideas:

Sure, but please no P2W (Pay 2 Win).

> 1\. You could sell "upgrades packets" in the login screen, so that one can > start playing with an upgraded aircraft from the very beginning. 2. There > could be other aircrafts that could be either unlocked with enough points or > bought.

That's P2W. That has nothing to do with gaming, but with insecure people who wanna pay money to feel good cause else they can't win. And those who don't pay end up as being NS (narcissistic supply). Fuck that.

I don't know how to monetise the game other than serving some adds in the screen during the warming up. But please not via P2W mechanics. It ruins the equal playing field, and it lowers the quality of the game cause the good players who know about the mechanism won't fall for this.

</comment></comment></comment><comment> brian-armstrong This game is great. I opened it and lost an hour then and there. Well done, OP!

</comment><comment> threeeyed-raven This thing is addicting as crap. Hahah just spent the last few hours. 3.15 KD!

</comment><comment><USER80> Completely playable on a 2009 MacBook. Thanks for keeping it tiny and clean!

</comment><comment><USER81> super addictive game! IMO, when you're at the top, it's a bit much to lose so many upgrades since they take a lot of time to farm! Also, perhaps shared killing-scores and team mode!! Good job!

</comment><comment><USER82> Really fun! I was super excited to see that it also supports controllers but for some reason there is at least a one second delay between button presses on my xbox controller and the game :(

<comment><AUTHOR> Are you using Chrome? Gamepad API is a bit buggy on 62.x

<comment><USER82> Yeah I was. I'll try it on Firefox, thanks!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER83> Holy crap that game is fun

</comment><comment><USER84> Man, that game is addicting.

I have so much work to do but can't keep off it!

</comment><comment><USER85> This is super addictive, well done. Runs incredibly fast too. As a strategy tip, you can fly in reverse, it's great for dodging missles and maneuvering in general.

</comment><comment><USER86> So much productivity for today. :) Very nice game. Congrats.

</comment><comment> shaded-enmity Great game, would be nice to be able to switch off controllers though - when I bumped into my G29 it immediately registered and I had to start steering :)

</comment><comment><USER87> Works buttery smooth on Chrome 53 on Android over a cell connection (90ms latency). Can't wait to review on desktop to view the WebSocket traffic!

</comment><comment><USER88> Awesome game, played for almost ah hour already!

</comment><comment><USER89> Now somebody say web apps are not the future.

</comment><comment><USER90> BTW, it does not recognize 4 simultanous key inputs on Firefox 57. Other than that, it is really cool game! Great job!

<comment><AUTHOR> That is up to your keyboard hardware. Unfortunately, most consumer level keyboards can't handle that.

<comment><USER91> Please forgive the random reply, but it's the closest to a direct message I can get. :)

Suggestion: place powerups in areas of the map that have not seen combat recently.

It seems like almost all the combat is over Europe, and the other areas of the map are almost always completely unpopulated. The most fun fight I had was when one other aircraft and I got into a dogfight near SA/Antarctica. It lasted several minutes, just the two of us. Even so, it only happened because I followed him there, and apparently he was just exploring the map.

So if you were to track combat activity on something like a heat map, you could spawn upgrades and powerups in cold areas of the map. This would encourage players to go hunting for them. As a result, different areas of the map would see combat regularly, and the hotspots would move around.

Also, if you spawned players in away from other players, it would encourage encounters around the map instead of concentrated in one area.

Finally, I use WASD in home-row position, and I'd like to rebind the the shoot and action keys. If you could make this possible, it'd be great.

Thanks for sharing your work. It's a fun game.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER92> It's well coded, very fast, small size, runs even in mobile, and the most important it's funny to play!

</comment><comment><USER93> Very good on mobile, got in first place a couple of times. Should stop disclaiming about the mobile experience

</comment><comment><USER94> And I quit... This is too addicting...

</comment><comment><USER95> Really slow in the seattle area. Not sure if this is because of servers being overloaded right now.

</comment><comment><USER96> Such a simple and good looking game. Fantastic! Gives you a sense of just how big our oceans are.

</comment><comment><USER97> what is the backend tech being used?

</comment><comment><USER98> I just played the game for 30 mins on my iPad Pro and its really fun and addictive, great work!

</comment><comment><USER99> Very fun! I think the Mohawk helicopter has the most potential due to its strafe ability.

</comment><comment><USER100> Really demonstrates how far clean responsive physics and simple mechanics will get you!

</comment><comment><USER101> Amazing game! fun fact - works a lot smoother on mobile nexus 6P than MB Pro 2015 :)

</comment><comment><USER102> Really fun and I played for a long time with no connection issues or bugs.

</comment><comment><USER103> This game is so awesome! Can you make a tutorial on how you designed it?

</comment><comment><USER104> Well there went an hour and a half of my time. Very nicely done.

</comment><comment><USER105> The gameplay is smooth and everything is nicely done. Good job!

</comment><comment><USER106> dammit this is addictive, even to me! please add a "auto lock" feature, that you can find in military aircrafts since the 80s, like a "god mode".

<comment><USER106> damn you too for making me waste more than half an hour! ;) I actually don't play video games.

</comment></comment><comment><USER107> What a bloody delight!

</comment><comment><USER108> this is fun! how did you make it? give us some details.

</comment><comment><USER109> CTF is actually fun too, it just needs more players :D

</comment><comment><USER110> How does one turn into a helicopter or a large drone?

<comment><USER111> i suspect you register and begin to level up?

<comment><USER112> You don't have to register, they're all in the upper left corner.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER113> Very cool! Can you tell us about the back end arch?

</comment><comment><USER114> This worked surprisingly well on iPad. Great game!

</comment><comment><USER115> Very cool! What server company are you using?

</comment><comment><USER116> Nifty and addictive little game! Good job.

</comment><comment><USER117> ADDICTIVE! Very nice game, well done!

</comment><comment><USER50> Super smooth.

</comment><comment><USER118> This is incredibly fun. Nice job.

</comment><comment><USER119> Good game, I really enjoy it.

</comment><comment> rlv-dan Does not load in Palemoon :-(

</comment><comment><USER120> Damn you. This is amazing.

</comment><comment><USER121> This is fucking amazing!!!

</comment><comment><USER122> Fun fun fun. Good stuff.

</comment><comment><USER123> This is great, it's going to be the next big hit, calling it now. Awesome work :).

</comment><comment><USER124> great execution, love this game. Whats next for this project?

</comment><comment> DC-3 This is fantastic fun.

</comment><comment><USER125> Addictive! Great job!

</comment><comment><USER126> You're traffic is about to go up, I just put it on ProductHunt also :)

</comment><comment><USER127> Great job! Would love to read a write up on how you made it.

</comment><comment><USER128> Hey pretty fun.

</comment><comment><USER129> A+ nice work!

</comment><comment><USER130> the best game i had in a long time

</comment><comment><USER131> A W E S O M E! So simple, so much fun!

</comment><comment><USER132> So amazing

</comment><comment><USER133> Real fun

</comment><comment><USER134> This is SO MUCH FUN! (and so smooth!)

</comment><comment><USER135> OMG this game is so fun. Great job!

</comment><comment><USER136> works great, impressive!

</comment><comment><USER137> What a fun little game! Well done

</comment><comment><USER138> this is very well done!

</comment><comment><USER139> no strafing?

</comment><comment><USER140> This is awesome!

</comment><comment><USER141> totally fun!

</comment><comment><USER142> Gameplay feedback:

      Mohawk (helicopter) and Prowler (stealthy) don't seem worth it.

The helicopter dies from a single stray rocket, random spam and attacks from behind. Alt+arrow for strafe worked in DooM because field of view always pointed away from the player. Here, strafing is hard to get used to. Since there are already 2 keys for ability, why not make one of them "strafe left" and the other "strafe right" ? Also, because helicopter lacks a clear point, it's harder to aim.

Stealthy Prowler is very slow and not especially fun to play. To the point that only effective way to play is to cloak after every rocket fired. You crawl towards a victim, then shoot at close range, then recloak. Visual notification is quite subtle, there's no sound and you end up mashing the ability key never quite sure if it already worked. So it kinda works against newbies... but sneak attacks are also effective with Goliath (the fat one) and Tornado (multifire). So I don't see the point. And here's the kicker: advanced players see it because they play (and aim!) by radar. This is an issue when fighting away from the crowd.

Thoughts on upgrades: \- I would appreciate a kind of "laser sight" upgrade. Each level would render a laser line in front of your plane, and the line would get longer with levels.

<comment><USER143> I agree on Mohawk. Mohawk would be more worth it if score degraded a little more slowly. As it exists, Mohawk is a one-way ticket to the bottom of the scoreboard because it's so difficult to stay alive. (By the way, if you're reading and didn't realize, you can select any other ship any time. The buttons look disabled but they aren't.)

Prowler is awesome against the Goliath. So, so good. In fact, I'd say the Prowler is the Goliath's main counter, and when I lasted ~15min at #1 in a Goliath, it was a skilled Prowler that finally started annoying me, made me start missing my deflects, and knocked me off my balance. I was thinking the Goliath is unnecessarily OP, but the Prowler handles it. (Smart Prowler pilots: go stalk Goliaths.) Might OP the Prowler, but making it shoot a spread like the Tornado might turn the Prowler into basically an instant-backstab Rogue. Now that I've typed that, yeah, that'd be OP, don't do that.

This game is heavily influenced by Subspace/Continuum, and it's fairly obvious. I could even tell which ship mapped to which fighter in this, and I appreciated how well my skill transferred. My main annoyance was that score drop. I maintained about a 5:1 KD across 500 kills and regularly flopped from #1 to #25 to #2 to #30, because the score you lose on death is a little imbalanced. A few deaths in a row and you can lose 10-15 places, which seems a little rapid. Maybe knock a little off that multiplier on death, but leave the killer's score gain alone? The only way to stay near the top is not die, which makes sense since it's called a bounty, I suppose. Still rough.

Other random feedback to the author: Inferno needs a buff. That speed penalty hurts and is a pretty rapid way to die -- I noticed I was avoiding it as I played. Most of the power-ups and abilities could stand to last quite a bit longer, too. And spawners could really use a lockout on shooting for the same duration as their protective shield; you can spawn in, immediately press spacebar, and probably get a kill on a surprised person who happened to float through where you pop up with no chance to avoid.

Great game, though, I didn't expect to get sucked into a browser game for three hours. I'll be playing it again.

Tip I didn't realize until a long way in: 1, 2, 3, 4 map to upgrades. I was the idiot using the mouse.

<comment><USER144> Were you BeatDaddy on the Euro server? I was zkdbnz.

Reason I bring this up is to back up this point with a caveat: a skilled Prowler pilot is able to solo take down a Goliath only if the Prowler is faster (with upgrades).

On the EU server, the meta was missile spam fest over Europe. So I took the stealth ship to the North Atlantic and Arctic Ocean. There, the playstyle of the Prowler is one of patience.

Your first goal is to never die. Period. This is how I was able to be consistently top 4, and off-and-on #1 on the server depending on the other players's fluctuations.

The second objective is one of cowardice. You are paper thin. One hit will decloak you and worse, you are so low health that a single helicopter missile will finish you off. This means the playstyle is to find a handful of jet pilots that are dogfighting. Be close enough to them you can zip in, but far enough away you are still on the outskirts. This means you have to learn to be incredibly agile dodging missiles and learn how to read dogfights, which takes practice. It also means no one else gets to see your skills doing this, and therefore will assume you are a shitty pilot.

The third rule is one of ruthlessness. As soon as one of the dogfighters is damaged, swoop in on top of them and fire right before you pass over them. This takes timing so you don't run into other missiles (rule #1). The reason for this is because you do have 1 shot before you have to flee and re-stealth. But the other reason is for the surprise factor and hiding amongst the explosion (if you hit your target). It buys you precious milliseconds to re- stealth.

With this playstyle I rarely died, and went after the top dogfighters over Africa: k, jj, test, qjp (?). After a couple of pickoffs and being told to fly a real plane, I sat near the top of the score board regardless of fluctuations.

That is, until BeatDaddy came along. A Goliath pilot of great skill, he took out most challengers. However, as a Prowler I was able to almost solo him until jj out of the blue took my kill. So I killed JJ. :)

The strategy is simple. Only shoot the Goliath from the sides or back (avoiding the big missile) and only when in range of the AoE effect. Why? You want to force the Goliath pilot to waste their energy spamming the AoE. You have time on your side, you can hit them once every 10 seconds or so and still whittle them down because of the slow Regen.

But beware, big missile is 1 hit kill!

I never was able to fully solo BeatDaddy, as once I lost my upgrades from an unrelated death the Prowler cannot tackle a more upgraded Goliath.

<comment><USER145> JJ here, that was a nice skirmish, well done on the stealth kills.

<comment><USER144> Thanks, had a lot of fun! Hope you did too.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER146> you just wasted my entire day :D

btw it performs better on Firefox 57 than chrome, I had some lags on chrome then switched to Firefox and it worked without a single lag

<comment><USER67> It's the new Firefox that makes it better. Previous versions got outperformed by Chrome!

</comment></comment><comment><USER147> Awesome game. My only request would be make the planes less maneuverable and move more like real planes. This would make it less chaotic and allow more dog-fight and strategic play.

</comment><comment><USER148> Wow.

It's fun, and implemented beautifully.

Great job!

</comment><comment><USER149> Bravo! Cute game. So many things done well.

</comment><comment><USER75> blue tooth physical keyboard on ipad: caps lock kills controls.

please update to ignore case in controls.

also bug, BT KB kills any touch control on an ipad... plus it hangs on a certain direction and contrl dies very fast...

way too buggy to even play on an ipad with a BT KB

<comment><AUTHOR> Safari on iOS is generally buggy. WebGL and WebAudio are very glitchy.

I don't have a BT KB so I didn't test that case. Will do!

<comment><USER75> I am using chrome on the ipad</comment></comment></comment>


AMD snags Guinness World Record for clockiest chip - <AUTHOR> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/09/13/amd_awarded_worlds_highest_frequency_part/

<comment><USER2> "Highest clock frequency." Not "fastest processor." I am correcting the article. I like the headline's "clockiest" description.

Edit: surely I did not mean "cloak"

<comment><USER3> Nit-pick: That's "clock", not "cloak".

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'm sort of surprised nobody has tried to clock a Power6 chip that high, given that you can buy ones set to 5GHz at the factory. Maybe they have less clock regulation features that help with stuff like this?

<comment><USER5> I don't think IBM targets the enthusiast crowd with the Power6, so there are not as many knobs. I don't even know if windows supports Power6, which is standard platform for hardware enthusiasts.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Would this (high frequency CPUs) be useful for hardware emulation accuracy? Related: [http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/08/accuracy-takes- po...](http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/08/accuracy-takes-power-one- mans-3ghz-quest-to-build-a-perfect-snes-emulator.ars)

</comment><comment><USER7> It seems like clock speed is no longer the race in the cpu world, though correct me if im wrong.

</comment><comment><USER5> A video of the overclocking for those who are interested: [http://hardocp.com/article/2011/09/13/amd_bulldozer_fx_model...](http://hardocp.com/article/2011/09/13/amd_bulldozer_fx_model_8150_cpu_overclocking_preview)

</comment><comment><USER8> 2 cores only, which I feel is cheating.

<comment><USER9> Where did you read that? The article would seem to imply it was an eight-core chip they were working with.

<comment><USER10> Watch the video ([http://hardocp.com/article/2011/09/13/amd_bulldozer_fx_model...](http://hardocp.com/article/2011/09/13/amd_bulldozer_fx_model_8150_cpu_overclocking_preview)) at about 9:15, 10:25, and 10:55 (approximately). They show close-ups of CPUZ.</comment></comment></comment>


Saber-Toothed Cats May Have Roared Like Lions - <AUTHOR> https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/saber-toothed-cats-may-have-roared-like-lions/ <comment><USER2> This is news? What did they think they sounded like, chickens?

<comment><USER3> Not all big cats roar (as opposed to just growling) -- and it important to realize that saber tooth cats weren't closely related to any living cats but were on an evolutionary branch of their own. So it is an interesting question.</comment></comment>


Sway: i3-like wm for Wayland - <AUTHOR> http://swaywm.org/ <comment><USER2> No riceful window manager is complete without some good old anime. Looks great though. Sircmpwn seems to pump out some quality code all the time.</comment>


Wheel theory - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel_theory <comment><USER2> [http://www.cs.swan.ac.uk/~csetzer/articles/wheel.pdf](http://www.cs.swan.ac.uk/~csetzer/articles/wheel.pdf) is a good pdf that is used as a reference in the article</comment>


Apple, It's Time to Delete Safari From the iPhone - <AUTHOR> http://gizmodo.com/5446287/apple-its-time-to-delete-safari-from-the-iphone?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+gizmodo%2Ffull+%28Gizmodo%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

<comment><USER2> First comment at the article makes a rather solid point: when it ran an initial story this morning about the app being approved, Gizmodo characterized Forchan as a "porn app":

[http://gizmodo.com/5445065/apple-approves-porn-app-in- under-...](http://gizmodo.com/5445065/apple-approves-porn-app-in- under-12-hours)

But now that it's been pulled from the store, Gizmodo changes to representing it as "exactly the same as Safari" and downplays the porn aspect.

(and note that the two Gizmodo stories were posted 90 minutes apart -- amazing how quickly Gizmodo moved to completely reframe the story...)

<comment><USER3> It is nothing more than a image-only web browser, right? How does Gizmodo's framing of the story change the facts?

<comment><USER4> I'm not sure the app is (was) a pure image browser. The dev said: "There is currently over 100,000 pics spread between 15 categories with much much more coming soon." The "categories" thing makes no sense unless the app was able to associate specific sites/boards with certain categories ("blondes, brunettes...") somehow, either by linking to the boards directly or by detecting a "known" categorized board/subboard when the user browsed to it.

Bottom line is that if there were any nudity/porn sites included in the URLs that enabled the "category" feature, the takedown was probably justified.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> What's so complicated about this? Apple likes to control every aspect of its products. Apple's customers like this.

If you don't like how Apple sanitizes the "Apple Experience" then buy an Android phone.

<comment><USER6> I'd be OK with this if the network effect didn't exist. If the iPhone becomes the de facto standard, it's a loss for mobile developers everywhere.

<comment><USER7> Mac users generally got along OK when Windows was the _de facto_ standard on desktops (i.e. now). If the iPhone becomes the _de facto_ standard, I suspect users of the next runner up platform or two will still get along OK.

I mean, I've never been big into any apple products in the past, but I've know a lot of people over the years who were very satisfied with their Macs.

<comment><USER6> Windows being the de facto standard was bad. It held the web back for years, because Internet Explorer remained stagnant.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> This article fails to mention what rating the app was submitted with. Seems like a crucial point. We know Apple doesn't allow pornography-specific apps but they have allowed in general purpose applications that _could_ be used for this purpose in the past but they have to carry a mature rating since Apple cannot vouch for the content. It would be really trashy if they submitted this as a kid safe application that defeats parental controls. Not sure that's the case, since Gizmodo didn't bother to cover it, but it would be interesting to know what rating this app was submitted with.

</comment><comment><USER9> Obviously the situations are different -- vastly so. First of all, safari doesn't sound like the name of a scary anti social networking site, it sounds like an adventure instead! Second, since apple can do no wrong (in its own mind), porn in safari must be a hack, and probably violates TOS and warranty.

Edit: forgot the :P, but it is a joke

<comment><USER10> I suppose the parent comment was being sarcastic.

Safari can also mean an adventure (using essentially slave labor) to illegally kill lions and elephants. The name forChan doesn't mean the same thing to non- IT-geeks.

This seems to be just another case of the App Store behaving badly (unless there is more to the story, like malware). It is very unfortunate that Apple is profiting so well from the App Store model. I can imagine many companies wanting to replicate the closed-platform, you must use our one store model. Its a shame to see free markets devolve.

<comment><USER9> Indeed -- it was a mocking reply to a snarky article. Unfortunately it seems inventing absurd positions to justify someone else's behaviour is a form of humor lost on people here.

<comment><USER11> Or people didn't think the attempt at humor was funny and was just noise. As I've said here before, you're probably not as funny as you think you are.

<comment><USER9> I can accept that, but why not stop at -1? Why keep downvoting -- unfunny joke does not need to be beaten down the same way racist troll does.

<comment><USER11> Maybe they do - while one is morally inferior to the other, they're both noise. (If there was not a limit at -4, I suspect a racist troll would eventually go more negative than a simply unfunny attempt at humor.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Doesn't Safari for iPhone come with parental controls? That could be one difference right there.</comment>


An Effort To Bury A Throwaway Culture One Repair At A Time - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/09/world/europe/amsterdam-tries-to-change-culture-with-repair-cafes.html

<comment><USER3> I just bought a used sewing machine. It cost less than a new one. It's 98 years old, and with a minimum of care will last another 98. It was built to last.

This notion of "bury the throwaway culture one repair at a time" treats symptoms, not roots: there is nothing persuading manufacturers to make stuff which will last. Should the movement take hold, manufacturers may very well respond by making stuff even _cheaper_ , as the effort to make things so inexpensive it utterly undermines the movement is easier than making things robust and durable. I appreciate the movement's intentions, but think they should seek means of persuading production of durable goods, not eeking another 20% of life out of something having a very short lifespan to start with.

Occurs to me that the only durable products made today are firearms. Ironic.

<comment><USER4> That reminds me of the Linksys WRT54G. Some people predicted that it would disrupt ISPs because it was so hackable.

[http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2004/pulpit_20040527_0004...](http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2004/pulpit_20040527_000456.html)

The manufacturer responded by replacing the Linux firmware with a proprietary real-time operating system. That allowed them to use hardware that was less powerful than the original both in terms of electricity consumption and computational performance. Furthermore, most people have better things to do than reprogramming their wi-fi routers.

Reading Cringley's predictions in that article is cringeworthy.

<comment><USER5> I just bought the WRT54GL a couple months ago, after suffering through several newer model routers the previous year.

Needless to say, it's brilliant. Fast, stable, consistent (for a change). And not only in my anecdotal experience - it still gets higher average reviews on Newegg and Amazon than any other modern router, despite being an almost decade old tech product.

It may not have met Cringley's predictions, but it is a really interesting case study in what years of software optimization on stable, robust hardware can achieve, vs the competing model of throwaway software on frequently updated hardware.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6>
      When Mr. van den Akker put the iron back together,
      two parts were left over — no matter, he said,
      they were probably not that important. He plugged
      the frayed cord into a socket. A green light went
      on. Rusty water poured out. Finally, it began to
      steam.

The risk is significant and far outweighs any benefit gained.

A classic example of poor risk assessment.

<comment><USER7> "Nothing is allowed unless its completely perfect" is a dangerous attitude. Its made a lot of people homeless, closed a ton of the soup kitchens and shelters those homeless might have sought refuge in and IMHO prevented a great deal of innovation from seeing the light of day.

Its possible that this pervasive bit of anal retentiveness has made some(1) individuals marginally safer, but its super dangerous to societies.

(1) Except for the aforementioned homeless. They're not safer.

<comment><USER6> Would you:

* sleep on a heavily soiled mattress made of highly flammable material

* dress your baby in highly flammable second-hand sleepwear

* consume unsanitary meat that has been sitting out in the heat for too long

* feed your family a diet of donated junk food including chocolate, biscuits, chips and frozen pizzas

* give your teenage daughter a second hand hair dryer with a frayed electrical lead exposing live wires

* wear bright fluorescent green clown-like clothing that has been collecting dust in someone's attic for 20 years

* allow your children to play with lead-painted toys that pose a choke/suffocation hazard

What makes it acceptable to purchase a brand new electrical appliance and dispose of the old, worn and unsafe one to the less fortunate? What message does it send?

Charities are forced at great expense to dispose of huge amounts of junk similar to the items listed above. It's not just a case of charities looking out for everyone's safety and well-being. To a large extent it's also a desire not to insult those in need by offering junk that the rest of the world wouldn't want to purchase and use.

The rule of thumb that charities use is: _donate items that you would purchase yourself or gift to your friends and family_.

<comment> excuse-me Would you dress your child in last years baby clothes now that the regulations have changed?

We had this panic here - everybody had to throw out their Nalgene water bottles because they contain PBA and it MIGHT leach out AND it might be a health hazard - although we had been using them for 20years

<comment><USER8> The BPA problem (and hence the Nalgene problem) was discovered because it was interrupting people's research on other things due to BPA leeching out of polycarbonate lab ware, causing differences between cell cultures grown in the plastic and those grown in traditional glass petri dishes when they were supposed to be behaving in an identical manner. [http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/132/the-real-story-on- bp...](http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/132/the-real-story-on- bpa.html?page=1%252C1%2C0) <http://suss.stanford.edu/blog/?p=4119> That's Real Science.

If you'd like to dig it out for yourself, the search terms are: Stanford cancer bpa

(Yes, I'm well-aware that studies sponsored by chemical companies find no problem whatsoever. Quelle surprise.)

<comment><USER9> It's a long way from the cell culture to the human being when it comes to pharmaceutical effects. That is one of the main reasons it costs so much to develop new drugs--most compounds that produce promising effects in vitro are indistinguishable from placebo during human trials (if they even get that far).

The pharmaceutical industry actually tested BPA as an estrogen replacement decades ago, and did not adopt it because BPA did not produce measurable results. Today most of the BPA warnings are based on extrapolations from cell cultures. But based on the history of drug development such extrapolations are rarely valid. This is why U.S. regulatory agencies have not banned BPA; there just hasn't any solid evidence yet that BPA harms humans at the incidental levels of exposure most people experience.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> > When Mr. van den Akker put the iron back together, two parts were left over > — no matter, he said, they were probably not that important.

A week later the owner of the iron was electrocuted. Just kidding.

The culture of discard and buy another really comes about from items being pretty cheap and the repair costs being pretty high. I personally have this biased opinion that a repaired item is likely to break again. This is almost certainly wrong but it was an idea I was brought up with and is difficult to shake.

I really like what these people doing. I would certainly get more items repaired if it could be done cheaply. A repair shop as a place to gather is cool.

I do think though there is a limit to what is worth repairing. Things like hoovers, irons etc are worth repairing. Technology really doesn't move that fast and paying £20 to have a hoover patched up is far better than buying a new one.

Computers though. If they fail within the warranty you are already covered. If they fail after that then it really depends what the computer cost. If brought a computer for £3-400 you may find the repair cost is 50% of what you paid for it. In this case there is a strong argument that this £200 could go towards a higher spec computer.

I have a laptop which overheats, it isn't worth much but it is - or should be - pretty handy. The cost to investigate the fault would cost me £75. This is before a repair is made. I was told if the problem is what he thought it might be then the cost to repair would be a £100 on top of that. In the end I just brought a new netbook for £300.

I have a little problem with my iMac. The harddrive is faulty. It has some bad sectors or something which causes programs to crash. Do you know tricky it is to replace the harddrive of an iMac? Its ridiculous. To be honest pretty much all Apple devices are terribly inconvenient to repair. Its a shame that one of the worlds biggest companies isn't doing more to prevent consumer waste.

<comment><USER11> > The culture of discard and buy another really comes about from items being > pretty cheap and the repair costs being pretty high.

Not necessarily. A big part of it is simply our broken economic system. Many, many, many items are made to break.[1]

I hope we start to rent more things as a service instead of paying for them. If we paid a flat fee every month to have our houses lighted, I bet our light bulbs would be durable as heck. Obviously this is not going to be feasible for a while.

But why can't we pay a flat fee to have a usable Mac? Apple stores can be found all around the world. The incentive for Apple would be to use durable hardware and write highly optimized, a little more portable software.

I think gov'ts should force companies to think more about the long term by enforcing a longer minimum warranty for hardware, and force vendors to release security updates for at least 10 years. (All 32-bit Macs will have _zero_ professional use cases once Apple stops patching 10.6. Meanwhile, my mom has owned her XP Word machine for almost a decade.)

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence>

<comment><USER12> Building something suitable for repair requires attention to fundamental structure -- design, materials, construction. All of that has costs. I have shoes a decade old that look brand new and will look so three decades hence. I'm wearing a boot of a type that will last forever and could climb Mount Washington or attend a Fortune 500 board meeting. Every time I replace running shoes I curse their irreparability and 6 month life span. But a solid shoe costs three or four times a comparable cheaper shoe and need annual maintenance costing about 10-15% of initial cost.

I have one fountain pen that's twenty-five years old. Pricey, cost about 100x a disposable ballpoint, but it's charged by ink bottles and has now outlasted 500 of those things.

Or t-shirts, you can now get woolen ones that last for years, can be worn several days without washing, and are warmer or cooler as needed. But each is 20x the cost of cotton alternative, and they last best if washed in an expensive detergent and air-dried.

Now I think these are good choices economically, and also socially and even spiritually. But I can see why others might not like those costs. Buying stuff worth of repair is a form of savings. It imposes some new maintenance knowledge and chores. And it forces some long-term decisions, if you want to change the style message of your shoes every year then this is not the route for you.

The culture of repair and retain is already around us and has always been. The question is the proportion of the population willing to pay the cost and acquire the knowledge to access it.

<comment><USER11> I know what you are saying about knowledge. I want to break out of the terrible world of throw-away razorblades, but it requires some googling (and living in the right country).

One obvious item where I have made the wrong decision twice are bloody Eastpak backpacks. They have a gazillion years of warranty on everything except the zippers. Now both backpacks' zippers are broken and I am shocked that absolutely noone is willing to repair them, even if you'd pay them most of the €90 that the bag originally cost.

The advantage of a service model for computers, cars etc., would be to avoid the huge one-time cost.

<comment><USER11> > Eastpak

Ohmygod, I accidentally repeated what seems to be an urban myth in Germany. Eastpak DOES repair broken zippers - unlike all the independent repair shops that I have asked.

Grandparent poster, thanks for making me actually google this!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Good for them.

I'm a firm believer that _everything_ can be repaired cost effectively. You just have to know what you are doing, know when to give up, know how to spot a lemon and start from the right end of the problem. That is the art.

The main trick is to start with the broken item, not an item that you paid full price for and broke...

i.e. I don't mean buying a $1000 item new and when it breaks spend $200 on fixing it.

I mean buying a $100 broken item to start with and spending $200 fixing it, resulting in not spending that extra $700 on the new item in the first place.

Despite the cost of repair in cash and time, the gain usually runs in favour of your own time, satisfaction and knowledge. It also makes you less of a slave to the credit facilities which when you consider interest, results in a lot of time spend earning to pay back.

I will repair anything and everything rather than buy new.

My latest win: Sony Bravia 26EX smart OLED TV. Paid 25GBP as it was completely dead and just out of warranty. 30 mins diagnostics with a Fluke multimeter (which cost me 10GBP that I repaired) pointed to duff PSU. 30 mins on the Tektronix scope (which cost me 30GBP that I repaired) pointed to a problem with a VRM. Replaced VRM in PSU from Farnell order (12GBP incl delivery) - <USER2> a bit fiddly as it was an SMD component. Works fine now and the kids have a nice TV.

Also don't buy any old consumer junk. If you can't remove the battery it's not likely to want to be repaired (yes you Apple).

<comment><USER14> So you're some sort of electrical engineer, then. You need to factor in all the time, energy, and resources it took you to get to this point of self- sufficiency.

For me to fix a dead TV safely, I'd need a few semesters of college or a solid month of shadowing an expert, if I was just interested in TV repair alone. Or just pay you the 700 dollars to do it.

<comment><USER13> Well yes I admit that but I did the same before I even started the degree and I knew virtually nothing back then...

And I wouldn't charge you $700 to fix it. I tend to do favours like that for cider, swap a few books or mowing the lawn for me.

Not every "transaction" needs a wadge of cash changing hands.

<comment><USER15> Finding people willing to do it for $50 of goods or casually is fairly difficult by itself.

<comment><USER13> Not in the UK it's not. Perhaps it's a cultural difference.

<comment><USER15> Also it's a matter of ability and free time, most people don't have a nack to repair electronics. And if they do, they tend to be busy people.

<comment><USER13> I tend to find that they work the least as they have highly paid skilled positions where they do a short week.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> The participatory/social aspect of this is pretty interesting beyond repairs. It seems like a plausible low-barrier route to learning something more about how things work, by getting some help from someone who knows how to disassemble and explain the innards of a particular item.

But, seems like it'd work better for older stuff, unfortunately. A lot of newer stuff is just not made to be dis/reassembled or to have parts replaced, so it's much more difficult to do. I tried to repair a toaster recently, and as far as I can tell you can't even _open_ it without some serious hard-to- reverse effort, because unlike older toasters, the housing isn't closed with removable screws, but is stamped/crimped together somehow.

<comment><USER17> I bought a clothes steamer a while back (Jiffy Steamer), and I was pleasantly surprised that it had a full circuit diagram and component list included in the instruction book. I can take that sucker apart, fix things, and put it back together.

(well, maybe not me, but somebody could).

I am willing to buy more products like that. Where do I find them?

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> cstross mentioned the extraordinary cost of stuff in a recent post. A pair of jeans was fantastically expensive. People had no option but to repair things.

> _Studies of retail pricing indicate that, after correcting for inflation, a > good pair of workmans' trousers -- jeans, in other words -- would have cost > the equivalent of roughly $400 in 2001 dollars in 1901. A reasonable quality > man's suit would have cost the equivalent of $2-3000._

I get annoyed by jumpers[2] that get holes after a year or two, and try to darn or patch them. I'd be really angry if that jumper cost me £400.

See also semi-disposable scandinavian furniture. It sort of looks okay, and it works alright so long as you don't move it. But a bit of solid wood is nicer (and probably better for the environment) than chipboard and veneer, and will last a lot longer, but is a lot more expensive.

I'm not sure society will be comfortable with children that cannot afford to move out (or who will be without almost any possessions) when that same society cannot cope with light bulbs that need a few seconds to warm up.

[1] (<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3934728>)

[2] sweater? A woollen garment with sleeves and not buttons up the front.

<comment><USER19> I get very annoyed by clothes and shoes that do not last. I'm lucky to get a couple of years out of shirts and shorts. The only thing that seems to last is levis jeans - I've been faithfully buying them for decades and the style goes before the fabric does.

As for disposable furniture - it's frustrating as it deterioates quickly if moved around. I learnt to make my own furniture. Very rewarding but painstakingly slow. But then, if you plan to keep something for 50 years, what's a couple of months to build it? Everything I have built myself (with help from my Dad, who hands down the knowledge and tools) is still in perfect condition. That's because it's made properly in the first place, from quality materials.

I've also taken up my own car maintenance. Cars are big complex devices, and debugging one can be fun if you know where to start. Modern mechanics can't possibly keep up with all the various models and if they can't diagnose something in 30 minutes they won't, and just start replacing parts at random. Armed with a home data port program, an analytical eye and plenty of internet research, it's possible to track down problems yourself for a fraction of the cost.

<comment><USER20> Re the levis - I always find the front right hand pocket (and especially the "mini pocket" inside) starts fraying after a year or two. Maybe it's because that's where I put my keys

<comment><USER21> Get a key pouch!.. 10 dollar item that has saved me many many pants ever since I got it

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> A lot of people I know simply throw away things. It hurts sometimes. However, sometimes it is tough given that technology simply becomes old so fast.

I do think that there are certain electronics that can last along time. In particular, it annoys me when people buy LCD TVs and one year down the road throw it away because it stopped working. The manufactures give limited warranty and suggest to buy another one. I purposely bought a TV with a much longer warranty, three years. It did cost 3x as much as a cheaper one from costco. It does look wonderful and function nearly 4 years after I bought it.

<comment><USER23> Right, it's a matter of perception and quickly changing "fashion". Many people regard devices of a year old already as very old. So they choose in favor of replacing it, even if it is a minimal problem that is easy (and cheap) to fix.

I do suspect that financial pressure (due to increasing resource prices) will cause this to change around in the near future, and make people hold on to their devices for longer. In some circles, like described in the article, I'm already seeing this happen. Also, many skilled people are out of a job and have time enough to do basic repairs for each other.

Hopefully this will reduce the e-waste problem...

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> The root cause of the "throwaway culture" seems to be the assembly line: Stuff becomes cheap when it can be produced in a series of simple, non-varying steps.

Stuff just doesn't break in a consist way. If every repair were identical, we could fix stuff on an assembly line, and we would no longer constantly run into ridiculous situations where it costs less to buy a whole new widgit than to repair your old one.

<comment><USER25> Yes and on top of that a lot of products are "designed for assembly" which often means using parts that 'click' together, instead of using screws. This means they're fast to assemble, but almost impossible to take apart again, making repairs overly difficult and costly.

<comment><USER26> Indeed. There was even a "Design for Manufacturability" elective in my ME undergrad. I don't recall seeing a countervailing "Design for Serviceability".

I think another factor is the inordinate price sensitivity of the aggregate consumer.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> i always regret that i didn't take my parents valve radio when the house was cleared and sold over a decade ago. it was bulky, inefficient but worked perfectly. had a lot of fond memories of that radio as a kid. they got it as a wedding present in the early sixties. the valves would eventually need replacing but there are still places selling the parts if you know where to go.

but my favourite bike as a kid in the late 70s and early 80s was a bsa bike that had been built in the early forties. that thing was a tank. it's probably still out there in use every day. completely indestrucible with a little light maintenance.

now however things are not built to last. ignoring electronics or computers which date fast. casettes, vcrs. analog mobiles 8bit, 16bit and now even 32bit computers are edging towards obsolescence for desktop use. a crappy tin opener still needed for those tins still sold without a prestressed ring pull will die in less than a decade. the bullhead tin opener in my parents kitchen seems to have been one of the first types sold in the late 19th century. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:BullOpener.png>

i like to think that growing up with ancient hardware gave me an appreciation for well designed and easy to maintain items. i try to avoid flashy insubstantial items.

</comment><comment><USER28> There's a few comments here about old appliances and the cliche that "back then," things were built to last. Barring contrary statistical evidence, sentiments like those can largely be attributed to survivorship bias: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias>

</comment><comment><USER29> It's entirely possible that the extra material required to make items that can be repaired, wastes more material than making objects that are "disposable"

Modern manufactured goods have -huge- volumes (there are a lot of people on this planet) and low failure rates.

If serviceability takes more material, it will probably be more waste, than otherwise.

</comment><comment><USER30> Another facet to consumption culture is the cost of ownership. After a tipping point, your stuff owns you.

Having stuff and clutter makes me feel anxious.

I've been unloading everything that's not essential. eg, I only used my microwave to heat water for tea. And it was pain in the ass to clean within and around. So it went to the curb, snatched up within minutes.

</comment><comment><USER31> I think buying new things is great, not only in that you get something new and shiny to play with, but it also has great social benefits, stimulating economic growth, rewarding entrepreneurism and people who create things, and creating jobs.

So I applaud the throwaway culture that loads of people seem to complain about. We need more of it!

<comment><USER32> See: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window>.

If person A throws away his widget which could have been repaired for $2 and buys a new, identical widget for $10 his balance sheet shows $10 of assets (scenario A). If person B repairs his widget, he now has a widget worth $10 plus the $8 cash he saved - his balance sheet shows $18 of assets. Thus, person A destroyed $8 of assets by behaving irrationally/inefficiently.

One may say person A's frenzied purchasing of widgets drives R&D dollars into the development of better widgets. A good counter-argument is that it was more important to develop things other than widgets and that by focusing so much on accelerating widget development scenario A forsook technological progress in more productive areas.

We saw this happen with the construction industry across the developed world siphoning dollars and talent away from other areas that would have produced more long-term benefit.

<comment><USER31> I take what you say but I don't think that the term "throwaway culture" is to do with throwing away broken things. It is more to do with throwing away old or unfashionable things.

And actually this desire for better, shinier versions of existing things drives creativity, forcing companies to innovate and endlessly create newer and shinier things. I think this process of renewal and innovation is generally a good thing, rewarding creative people.

The downside, you could argue, is in this scenario all the cash goes into shiny new products, rather than some boring but vital product or services. There, I suppose, is where the government comes in.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> I'd love someone to make a tank of a laser printer. Like just clone an HP LaserJet 6 (the pinnacle). Make the internals open source, the paper trays modular, and boom.

Most printers are sold on price. But I think a small niche player selling durable printers with low consumable costs could do well.

</comment><comment><USER33> I'm _pissed_ when things brake. But: Repairing things is an opportunity to save your own money. And to save your own planet. And possibly explore and learn something new, or at least harvest some spare parts. And just enjoy the fun of disassembling stuff.

</comment><comment><USER7> Get these guys a Rep-Rap and a connection to thingverse...</comment>


The Side Project Marketing Checklist - <AUTHOR> https://www.sideprojectchecklist.com/marketing-checklist/ <comment><USER2> When it comes to marketing, this contact management software [https://voiptimecloud.com/online-contact-management- software...](https://voiptimecloud.com/online-contact-management-software/) is my number one marketing tool. It helps me to arrange my contacts and implement email marketing more effectively.

</comment><comment><USER3> This is great - I was thinking about this idea but for the entire stack. Eg.

* DNS provider

* CDN

* email

* servers (cloud/vps/hardware)

* authentication integrations

* messaging (notifications, sms)

* monitoring (performance, uptime, etc)

* etc..

There are many possible details in building a site/app and often someone starting a side project that has an talent in a certain part of the stack may be unfamiliar with other parts of the stack and what the options (and tradeoffs) are.

If anyone knows of such a list, please share.</comment>


Smart move: McDonalds to Offer Free Wi-Fi in 2010 - <AUTHOR> http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2357193,00.asp

<comment><USER2> I hope that more moves in this direction will eventually bring down the price (to zero) for wifi access in airports and hotels.

I'm sick of the "most of our customers have expense accounts and don't care, so we'll charge $10-$20 for access" philosophy.

</comment><comment><USER3> They already offered WiFi in India at numerous locations. But all of it was paid.

I hope they free it up there also.

</comment><comment><USER4> They offer it for free all over Australia already</comment>


Ergodox 76 "Hot Dox" DIY Fully Configurable Ergonomic Mechanical Keyboard - <AUTHOR> Hey HN, we are Alpaca Keyboards, a company out of the Bay Area. The Hot Dox is the first keyboard we have designed and we are been incredibly excited to partner with Kono to bring it to you all! This is our take on the open source ErgoDox, which is one of the most credible ergonomic keyboards available.
https://kono.store/products/ergodox-hotdox
So what is the Hot Dox?:
The Hot Dox is a fully configurable hot-swappable ErgoDox with 76 keys, a stacked acrylic case, and USB C connectivity. This kit can be assembled in minutes with zero soldering required and also comes with an option for blank keycaps in either XDA or DSA profile. The Hot Dox is compatible with any MX style switches and hot swappability means you can customize the ergonomics on a per switch basis.
More about the ErgoDox project available here: https://www.ergodox.io/
Who is this kit for?:
Simply put, we think this is the best starter kit for anyone who is interested in the ErgoDox, and wants more customization out of their keyboard compared to the ErgoDox EZ or some of the older and less capable PCBs. It's also for people that are already very comfortable with the ErgoDox layout and are looking for a kit that they can customize to their heart's content. Open source firmware and hardware means endless customization for all time!
We hope you're excited as we are to finally see an ErgoDox kit back. There is a bunch of material on the web about why this keyboard is awesome for any programmers and we'd appreciate your support. <comment><USER2> The text about not including switches(!) should probably be _above_ the price.</comment>


Google made the kernel source code of Android One public - <AUTHOR> http://www.technostall.com/android-one-source-code/

<comment><USER2> Android One FTW!</comment>


Ask HN: What Node.js web framework do you use? - <AUTHOR> I am looking to build a new web app using Node.js. The idea is to acquaint myself with some new technologies like ES6 and React.
I have dabbled with Express a long time ago, but I can see that there are now a few more alternatives like Sails, Loopback, Hapi etc.
I was wondering what is the preferred framework for building a small-ish project in Node. <comment><USER2> I've also been looking for something simple in NodeJS to do form validation

<comment><USER3> Check out below plugin:

[https://www.npmjs.com/package/express- validator](https://www.npmjs.com/package/express-validator)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I think express is fine for small projects. I also like Hapi.</comment>


New TEDx Talk Argues We'll See "The End of Animal Farming" - <AUTHOR> Researcher Jacy Reese argues that thanks to tissue engineered meat, plant based meat, and "the expanding moral circle," we will see humanity switch to an animal-free food system over the coming decades.<p>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBmbVphZKYc <comment><USER2> I can believe that, but it'll be a much longer time for humans to wean themselves off real meat.</comment>


DataTau: HN for Data Science - <AUTHOR> http://www.datatau.com/ <comment><USER2> I check in on DataTau occasionally, but it's not an active community. You're better off with [https://www.reddit.com/r/MachineLearning/](https://www.reddit.com/r/MachineLearning/)</comment>