Show HN: TitleRun – The game that only exists in your title bar - <AUTHOR> https://titlerun.xyz/ <comment><USER2> Someone needs to make a list of all of these one-line text games. Here goes:

ABaroids: [http://www.thegillowfamily.co.uk/](http://www.thegillowfamily.co.uk/)

Blob jump¹²: [https://gist.github.com/bsawyer/bc0cb3ec3a86b29e76a23104fc44...](https://gist.github.com/bsawyer/bc0cb3ec3a86b29e76a23104fc44f6d1)

Glutton C¹: [https://gluttonc.chesterdoran.com/](https://gluttonc.chesterdoran.com/)

Bonus: Defender of the Favicon³: [http://www.p01.org/defender_of_the_favicon/](http://www.p01.org/defender_of_the_favicon/)

[1]: Available as a bookmarklet! (see respective sites for details)

[2]: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23420528](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23420528)

[3]: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19262529](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19262529)

Title run has ushered in a new age with a second dimension!

<comment><USER3> Inspired by this and Defender of the Favicon, I created a hangman game that uses the favicon and title bar: [https://desmondw.github.io/tab- hangman/index.html](https://desmondw.github.io/tab-hangman/index.html)

<comment><USER2> Nice!

Might just be my weird browser (Palemoon, originally a fork of Firefox) but the favicon doesn't change from the initial gallows, though everything else in the game, and all of the other games except blob jump work for me (including Defender of the Favicon).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Reminds me a bit of Defender of the Favicon: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19262529](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19262529)

Really clever concept, and I like the ease of building levels for it.

<comment><USER5> Feels similar to NeXTSTEP-style "dockapps"; my desktop (running openbox) is full of 'em, and they're delightful. Something about squeezing as much functionality as possible into a 64x64 space just makes my desktop feel so alive and cozy.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I just released TitleRun on ProductHunt. Let me know what you think! (and go easy on me, it's the first game that I developed)

Feel free to share or upvote if you like it! [https://www.producthunt.com/posts/titlerun](https://www.producthunt.com/posts/titlerun)

<comment><USER6> Curious: Isn't it considered bad to link directly to the product like that?

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I loaded it up and it was in a tiny tab. I played and won on my first try.

Then I expanded the title bar so I could see the whole level at once. Now I can't win.

For some reason being able to only see the next box in the tiny tab makes it way easier for me!

Cool game, I kind of want to steal this for my webpage, but at least on my system, it spikes the CPU, so maybe not.

<comment><USER8> I wonder if there's a metaphorical lesson here. If you focus on the immediate obstacles in front of you and don't worry too much about what's coming next, you'll probably do better.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> This is so pointless and I love every bit of it. Perfect Easter egg for the Chrome dinosaur game or something similar.

<comment><USER2> Someone with more skills than me should make a PR to include this in Firefox, it would provide ∞ times more entertainment than the little unicorn and about:robots easter eggs they have now.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Reminds me of the great Line Wobbler game: [https://wobblylabs.com/projects/wobbler](https://wobblylabs.com/projects/wobbler)

Still need to make one of these using the Twang code [https://github.com/Critters/TWANG](https://github.com/Critters/TWANG)

<comment><USER11> Is there any way to buy or otherwise play line wobbler?

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> This is super cool! With fast games like this it's often nice to be able to start playing again quickly - maybe consider making space restart the game instantly rather than having to press R and wait for the page to reload.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the feedback - you are completely right! This will go into the next version.

I was just too lazy to reinitialize the game state/map. That's why R simply does a page refresh ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I want this but in an Xterm.

[https://tldp.org/HOWTO/Xterm-Title-3.html](https://tldp.org/HOWTO/Xterm- Title-3.html)

<comment><USER14> I remember about 20 years ago my brother made ASCII Street Fighter with all of the characters and special moves. It was kind of insane.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Lol - didn't think it would work in firefox on android, but it does - kudos!

This takes me back, as the gameplay is almost exactly the same as the game for the Psion Organiser II (which had a 2 line screen) which you had to laboriously key in from the back of the manual. Except in that one, IIRC (err, 30 years ago) you could choose when to move back from the top line, and the missiles gradually came faster and faster.

</comment><comment><USER16> Which browsers still have title bar enabled by default? I'm on Firefox and this game actually is played in tab, not actual window title bar.

<comment><USER17> Firefox allows you to show the title bar (View -> Customize, the checkbox is at the bottom left corner). I always have it enabled since it makes it easier to resize and move the browser window around without accidentally moving/tearing off a tab. Also it shows more of the title. In general i prefer having the title bar there.

FWIW i also have the menu bar always visible :-P.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> On the landing page you might want to add a couple screenshots of how it looks on different browsers to help the clueless (me included)

</comment><comment><USER19> The animation seems jerky in the sense that the character seems to skip past obstacles. There's never a frame where it's vertically aligned.

For an obstacle positioned at 0, it appears to jump like this.

[... -2, -1, 1, 2, ....]

</comment><comment> o-__-o Has this been shared already?

[http://www.thegillowfamily.co.uk/](http://www.thegillowfamily.co.uk/)

</comment><comment><USER20> This is the sort of thing that I see and I feel disappointed that I didn't come up with the idea myself. Great work.

</comment><comment><USER21> Would anyone like to see Doom (1) running in a favicon? For a high enough resolution screen, it could be possible.

</comment><comment><USER22> Oh man...this would make a great easter egg.

</comment><comment><USER23> If you change the characters to not have any reference to vertical placement, this could be a one-dimensional game.

</comment><comment><USER24> That actually made me laugh. Thank you!

</comment><comment><USER25> Nice! Is it a bit laggy to control?

<comment><AUTHOR> It should work fine on most browsers. But it depends on the browsers allocation of cycles for the tab, because it's only JavaScript. Closing other tabs may help.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> cool! just made one for the URL bar: [https://gist.github.com/bsawyer/bc0cb3ec3a86b29e76a23104fc44...](https://gist.github.com/bsawyer/bc0cb3ec3a86b29e76a23104fc44f6d1)

<comment><USER2> Might just be my weird browser (Palemoon) (or a mistake in making it into a bookmarklet), but this does nothing other than log "SyntaxError: identifier starts immediately after numeric literal" in the developer tools console. The other url-bar games mentioned in this thread all work (at least normally on their websites).

<comment><USER26> Thanks for trying it! I commented on the gist with the bookmarklet version I'm using in chrome.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Very cool! But not at original idea anymore.

</comment><comment><USER28> I liked. More 1000 levels, please.

</comment><comment><USER29> In a word. FUN!

</comment><comment><USER30> Something like this was posted here before [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23206922](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23206922)

It even have a bookmarklet that allow you to play on any webpage

[https://gluttonc.chesterdoran.com](https://gluttonc.chesterdoran.com)

<comment><USER30> Oh my bad this one runs on the title bar while the other one on the address bar

<comment><AUTHOR> Awesome! Love the simple page design - almost went for something similar. I found a few games that work in the address bar, but I didn't know this one yet, thanks.

P.S. you can add TitleRun as a bookmarklet as well ;)

<comment><USER30> Didn't know that's great to hear! it's fun to play ^^</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: What I need to know before developing a VR application - <AUTHOR> Hi all, sorry if this is already asked, I'm really interested in using VR/AR to design things. What is the needed knowledge pool of VR coding skills I need before I or perhaps my future team can start developing applications for: manipulating objects in 3D, doing calculations based upon built models, extracting all kind of output documents, reports, BOMs, tech data sheets etc. from VR project? The business I'm aiming at is electrical systems design for power plants. I design other plants too, but thermal powerplants are most complex in my scope of work. I see how VR would be helpful and made my and other's designers lives easier and more efficient. For coding knowledge consider me tabula rasa although I have beginners understanding of several industrial automation systems. Thank you. <comment><AUTHOR> Somebody beat me to it [1]. Hope you continue to improve. Salut.

[1] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvyKlOdhrX4&sns=em](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvyKlOdhrX4&sns=em)</comment>


A Promising Pill, Not So Hard to Swallow - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/12/us/a-promising-pill-not-so-hard-to-swallow.html?ref=science <comment><USER2> I've dealt with IBS symptoms for 17 years. I would love to try one of these pills. Digestive maladies can really hamper a person's life. The digestive system is poorly understood, and there aren't a lot of effective treatment options for IBS & IBDs like Crohn's & Ulcerative Colitis. The treatments which are effective for IBD are often invasive or can have serious side effects.

<comment><USER3> _there aren 't a lot of effective treatment options for IBS & IBDs like Crohn's & Ulcerative Colitis_

I had IBS from the age of 10 to the age of 30. First off I have to say that IBS is not even remotely comparable to IBD. For most people, IBS is a very inconvenient life-altering syndrome. IBD is often 100x worse, increases the risks of colon cancer and can be life threatening. I wouldn't wish ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease (IBD) on my worst enemy.

Beyond that, I'm not sure why you think this pill would help your IBS. It is specifically meant to treat one particular problem - a clostridium difficile infection. Typically the colon is populated by helpful or otherwise non- harmful bacteria. Clostridium difficile is an opportunistic infection that often takes hold after someone takes a course of antibiotics that kills all the helpful bacteria. The fecal transplant puts back the normal bacteria into your colon, attempting to crowd out the clostridium difficile bacteria. There is anecdotal evidence of fecal transplants helping IBS or IBD but it has not been studied well. Source: [http://www.mayoclinic.org/medical- professionals/clinical-upd...](http://www.mayoclinic.org/medical- professionals/clinical-updates/digestive-diseases/quick- inexpensive-90-percent-cure-rate) I would suspect much of the benefit to IBS from a fecal transplant (or fecal transplant pill) derives from the placebo effect.

After 20 years of having IBS, the best cure I found for myself was to eat a lot of dietary fiber and drink a lot of water. I haven't had symptoms of IBS for over 12 years now since doing that. Unfortunately I find I have to eat about 40 grams of dietary fiber and drink about a gallon and a half of water per day. That takes actual work, but it's worth it. Source on dietary fiber treating IBS: [http://www.aboutibs.org/site/treatment/diet/dietary- fiber](http://www.aboutibs.org/site/treatment/diet/dietary-fiber)

<comment><USER2> Perhaps you are too distant from your experience of IBS, or your symptoms were not as severe as some, but IBS can destroy someone's life just as well as an IBD can. Someone in remission with an IBD may have better quality of life than someone with uncontrollable IBS. Severity varies by patient, and while IBDs are usually more severe, that isn't always the case. Mentioning the two together does not mean that I am indicting they are equally severe. C.diff, IBS and IBD are all ailments with the potential to be treated via fecal transplantation.

The IBS issues I've dealt with have lead to some catastrophic effects. Twice after dealing with stomach flu/food poisoning I developed gastroparesis or severe gastric motility issues. I lost 60 lbs during the first bout in 2006 and 45 lbs during a second bout in 2012. My quality of life was horrible during these periods of time. I basically lost a year of my life each time.

Luckily you found a solution for your IBS, many people have not. If simply upping my fiber solved the problem then I would be set, but fiber lead to more gas and pain for me. Probiotics on the market often leave me constipated and nauseated. Even if I stick to a regimen irregularities continue, and my body still seems to ebb and flow. So far regular strenuous exercise seems to help me, but IBS often leads to fatigue.

This all happened to me after I went swimming in a river with friends and got ill later in the evening. I may have swallowed river water contaminated with agriculture run off. Nothing has been the same since then. This is similar to many people's stories about IBS. The hope is that the pill would restore whatever was killed off due to the initial illness, which might result in regulation and relief. Yeah it's a shot in the dark and not officially meant to treat ~anything~, but at least it's something with some promise. The doctors over the years haven't had an answer for me. Treatments are also used off label all the time and trials are often very narrow in scope to meet regulatory guidelines. Somehow I think you know this already and are being a bit of a smartass.

<comment><USER3> From the little you've written here, it doesn't sound to me like you have typical IBS or perhaps even IBS at all. The diagnostic criteria for IBS are here:

[http://www.aboutibs.org/site/what-is-ibs/intro-to- ibs/diagno...](http://www.aboutibs.org/site/what-is-ibs/intro-to- ibs/diagnosis)

Dramatic weight loss as you've outlined is a sign you're suffering from something more serious than IBS. That makes sense since you list several other non-IBS related disorders ("stomach flu (sic) / food poisoning" as well as gastroparesis). The thing that doesn't make sense to me is why you attribute these things to IBS?

 _If simply upping my fiber solved the problem then I would be set, but fiber lead to more gas and pain for me._

There is nothing "simple" about increasing your fiber in a manner to solve IBS. As I mentioned in my original comment, it takes actual work. First, you have to eschew eating anything at all throughout the day that doesn't have dietary fiber. Second, you must gradually increase your fiber intake over a period of a year to avoid gas buildup and pain. Third, you must actively seek out fiber rich foods to eat throughout the day. As I said, there is absolutely nothing simple about it.

 _This all happened to me after I went swimming in a river with friends and got ill later in the evening._

Again, I'm questioning why you think this has anything to do with IBS. You don't catch IBS by swimming in a river.

<comment><USER2> I had IBS symptoms well before my severe issues with gastroparesis and digestive motility in 2006 and 2012. I feel my underlying issues with IBS made me more predisposed to additional further complications brought on by severe gastroenteritis from viral or bacterial origin. Often most people do not know what caused their "24 hour stomach flu", if it was something they ate or a virus.

I am not doubting the work it's taken you to achieve your remission of IBS, but I am saying your cure may not be the cure for others dealing with IBS.

 _> >You don't catch IBS by swimming in a river._

In a contaminated river you certainly can.

Have you really researched IBS fully? Post-infectious IBS is quite common. There have been major studies on it.

[http://www.aboutibs.org/site/what-is-ibs/intro-to- ibs/post-i...](http://www.aboutibs.org/site/what-is-ibs/intro-to-ibs/post- infectious-ibs)

[http://fhs.mcmaster.ca/main/news/news_2010/walkerton_study.h...](http://fhs.mcmaster.ca/main/news/news_2010/walkerton_study.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> We use something similar when we go traveling, basically tablets made from feces (active ingredient is [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterococcus_faecium](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterococcus_faecium)), as a probiotic to prevent stomach infections and diarrhea. They are extremely effective and a very good alternative to having to go on antibiotics while on vacation. Available in pharmacies over the counter.

On another note I have a pet theory that the increasing prevalence of IBS is caused by the widening use of antibiotics everywhere, both as medicine but also in food production.

<comment><USER5> Where on earth do you travel if you have to go on antibiotics, just for traveling? Some people get a little sick from the different kind of bacteria cultures in different part of the world, but not something a doctor would put you on antibiotics for. A lot of people die every year for taking antibiotics they didn't necessarily need to take, so if your doctor prescribes antibiotics for a simple "vacation stomach", I'd change him or her out pretty quickly. [1]

[1] [http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/17/health/research/popular- an...](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/17/health/research/popular-antibiotic- may-raise-risk-of-sudden-death.html)

<comment><USER6> > Where on earth do you travel if you have to go on antibiotics, just for > traveling?

Anywhere in the 3rd world, especially around the equator. Not everywhere is too concerned with cleanliness and food safety, and even if it's OK for the locals, coming from a foreign country/continent you won't have immunity...

<comment><USER7> Even for these places I have never heard of doctors prescribing antibiotics simply as a precaution when traveling. Is this commonly done in the US?

At least to me this idea seems very strange. Not only are there side effects and antibiotic resistance to consider, but they also won't help you at all against viral diseases or protozoans (unless you take special antibiotics).

<comment><USER6> I know for the country I travel to, the doctors in that country will give you antibiotics if you go into the jungle. If you stay on the coast you might be OK, but they still recommend having antibiotics on you. The first time I went I didn't take antibiotics, and even though I was careful, I had an infection within a week...

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8>
        "If you can just open a freezer and take out a poop pill, that's wonderful."
        While the pills are not being marketed yet

Jee, I wonder why. Selling a poop pill is a proper way to see if a marketer is worth their value.

<comment><USER9> I would start with the slogan "Eat Shit and Live!" and then fine tune the campaign from there.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I find the framing of this nytimes article to be rather condescending, as if a reasonable person should have a problem with taking such a pill, if it is actually effective.

(though the science behind it, in itself, also still seems shaky at this point)

</comment><comment><USER11> It seems like we could refine the fecal matter further until we get down to the active ingredient(s). Penicillin is made from mold, but we don't get repulsed by that, since it's so processed and pure.

<comment><USER2> The active ingredient is "unknown" at this point. Work is being done to figure out which microbes are useful, and in some cases you may need an orchestration of many different types.

[http://www.hmpdacc.org/](http://www.hmpdacc.org/)

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

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Ari Meisel's Less Doing podcast devoted one episode to an interview with an expert in this procedure:

Podcast #59 Glenn Taylor - Fecal Microbiota Transplants

>For more info visit [http://lessdoing.com/](http://lessdoing.com/) Ari's book [http://www.lessdoingbook.com](http://www.lessdoingbook.com) In this episode Ari talks with Glenn Taylor of the Taymount Clinic. Glenn specializes in applying Fecal Microbiota Transplant (FMT) techniques to a broad range of gut conditions. FMT restores normal gut microbiota by implanting Standardized Gut Flora from tested and optimized sources. Listen to how Glenn has seen patients literally cured from debilitating illness such as Crohn's, Ulcerative Colitis, IBS, Multiple Sclerosis, Rheumatoid Arthritis and other disease simply by restoring their gut bacteria to a normal balance.

[http://podbay.fm/show/605938952/e/1397717818](http://podbay.fm/show/605938952/e/1397717818)

</comment><comment><USER13> I have no problem with probiotics. But this is _not_ an easy pill for me to swallow.

Can they please figure out which bacteria are actually important and then I will take that? Instead of eating actual shit. Thanks.

<comment><USER14> The problem is that the answer may be "literally thousands of different types of bacteria".

Your digestive tract is a jungle, with more species than man will ever fully know about. When too many of certain types go extinct, the ecosystem breaks down, and bad shit starts to happen (come to think of it, literally).

It may take decades to figure out all of the specific species that matter most, and in what proportions. We aren't even certain which bacteria are common to all people, and which are specific to certain cultures / races / geographies / genders / who-knows-what-else. I bet people who eat a lot of KFC have a very different personal biome than I do.

In the meantime, here's 'one weird trick' that seems to just work.

<comment><USER15> >" than man will ever fully know about"

The more this works, the more we'll be inclined to study it. We'll know eventually.

<comment><USER16> Bacteria evolve faster than we can isolate and sequence them.

Even brewer's yeast is discarded after a few generations, usually, since it mutates enough to change the flavor of the resulting beer, and that's in an extremely well controlled environment.

Imagine that happening every six weeks in your gastrointestinal tract. Multiply by 6 billion people. I'd guess it's extremely unlikely we're going to thoroughly investigate all of those different variations on the theme.

<comment><USER17> Take a large sample of people and find out patterns in their gastrointestinal bacteria, and run the numbers.

Is it out of the question for people to be consistently pooping & supplying this data so we have ongoing tracking of the ratios of the various bacteria present in the population? Some clear patterns may arise.

<comment><USER18> Clear patterns did arise when the Human Microbiome project did this :)

[http://academy.asm.org/images/stories/documents/FAQ_Human_Mi...](http://academy.asm.org/images/stories/documents/FAQ_Human_Microbiome.pdf)

That represents the consensus view (ie no exotic theories). The really good stuff starts on page 10.

<comment><USER19> This is actually really interesting, thanks for sharing.

They talk about mother's milk/breast milk being a source of microbes for babies at birth. I have heard this before and I wonder if it could be an alternative to this pill/fecal transplants?

<comment><USER18> It depends what you're using the feces to accomplish. Usually FMT is done for people suffering from CDiff infections. The healthy gut flora outcompete the CDiff, causing the infection to go away.

Mother's milk is mostly viruses, so it's unlikely this would work against CDiff. For other users is sounds interesting though!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> We're clearly at the very beginning of this. Using someone else's gut flora in the hope that it will sort out yours is on a par with pre-scientific herbal medicine: trial and error, and it often worked, but you don't know why.

In the future the medical system will analyse your gut flora and identify the specific mix of strains you need to take to remedy the situation.

</comment><comment><USER21> Are probiotics bunk? Or do they only include a few species and not the complete biodiversity really needed in the human digestive system?

<comment><USER22> Probiotics contain individual bacterial species, to help people who might be missing that one species, where we know that species serves an important function—they make sense for the same reason people missing one nutrient would take a supplement for that one nutrient (e.g. vitamin C.)

The alternative to taking one of these foecal pills would be to take lots of _different_ probiotics, in appropriate portions, over time. This is, after all, what animals do naturally to create gut microbiomes in the first place. (It's hypothesized that this is why we like the taste of things like blue cheese: maximizing gut-biome biodiversity is apparently good for reproductive fitness, so we've evolved to enjoy the taste of things with novel bacteria on them.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Yet another open-label study posted on HN. The placebo effect will play a large part in every patient treated with this, so how do we know if the pill had any effect over and above placebo? Really, this study is a waste of time and money.

<comment><USER24> It's a first step. Preliminary studies like this are important: before investing a huge amount of money into proper studies, it's fiscally prudent to take smaller steps.

Instead of going straight for the generic criticism, you might ask "what's cool about this study?"

<comment><USER23> It doesn't really tell us anything, like all open-label studies (except perhaps whether or not the treatment is dangerous and whether it _might_ provide a benefit). Also it doesn't really cost any more to do a small-scale placebo-controlled trial vs an open-label study.

Overall open-label studies just give false hope to people who don't understand science and the placebo effect (i.e. most people).

<comment><USER25> I've never seen (although it might be possible) the placebo effect cure a bacterial infection. C. difficle infections are notoriously difficult to treat, even with specific drugs like Dificid.

If an open-label, uncontrolled study of fecal transplants cures a ton of people, that's very strong evidence that it works.

Closed, double-blinded clinical trials offer different value for different diseases.

That's why the FDA will accept an open-label, uncontrolled clinical trial for a drug that treats cancer.

<comment><USER23> The study didn't show that the treatment cured the infection. It just found that bowel movements decreased, and patient self-rated health increased. The placebo effect has been shown to have a significant effect on diarrhea for IBS:

[http://www.webmd.com/ibs/news/20101221/secrecy-may-be- unnece...](http://www.webmd.com/ibs/news/20101221/secrecy-may-be-unnecessary- for-placebo-effect)

Also, there are currently no RCTs showing the effectiveness of fecal transplant for C difficile, and a Nature review cautions that there will be a strong placebo effect for invasive procedures:

[http://tcminfection.com/pdf/5%20(119).pdf](http://tcminfection.com/pdf/5%20\(119\).pdf)

(This particular study isn't invasive, but it is highly novel, and that has also been shown to correlate with a large placebo effect).

<comment><USER25> I didn't look into the details of this particular trial, so if in fact it did just look at patient self-rated health then yes, placebo effect could be a big factor.

I have seen other open-label uncontrolled studies for fecal transplant that had some pretty spectacular outcomes. Is such a trial as rigorous as a RCT? No, but it's a pretty positive signal.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Today's developers: Self-taught and over-caffeinated - <AUTHOR> http://news.dice.com/2015/04/17/todays-developers-self-taught-and-over-caffeinated/

<comment><USER2> I think the sample data in this particular study is skewed horribly by the fact that it comes from SO. Only 5.8% female? Maybe thats because SO is sometimes a hostile community, curated by a bunch of pedantic gnomes. The fact that 48% of the responders to the study were self taught may be more accurate, as there is frankly so little schooling available in traditional education for web development. That said, SO is an ask-and-learn community, so Im actually a bit surprised that 48% is not larger.

<comment><USER3> They aren't actually gnomes.

<comment><USER2> :) correct, for clarification, they are Svirfneblin.

<comment><USER4> Maybe Falmer fits as well?

[1] [http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Falmer](http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Falmer)

<comment><USER2> True, Falmer are blind after all.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> What kind of learning isn't self-taught anyway? I think the expression is hoakey, and perhaps appealing to young developers who might take selfies or do other things with themselves. Consider this comment a free gift.

<comment><USER5> Agreed, plus only noobs fill out surveys ;)</comment></comment>


Trump Cuts US Cash for International Space Station - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43038329 <comment><USER2> The ISS is way too high maintenance for a profitable business. Putting humans in space is too expensive.

Humans jut do not belong in space yet. Most science and astronomy missions can will continue to be performed through machinery and automation. The cancellation of all most of the other missions is a direct result from this focus. We are all very curious about what's out there, and the absolute better way to satiate this curiosity and to actually discover new things is with machine focused missions: rovers, landers, and specially telescopes.

Further study into the effects of space on humans for the purposes of leaving Earth due to some apocalypse is very exagerated as well. Even in a bad apocalyptic scenario, the resulting Earth would still be better to live in than any other planet or moon we currently can reach.

The pictures from back from Juno, New Horizons, the Mars rovers, and the Hubble continue to inspire the future generations, and earn support from the general populace already.

<comment><USER3> > The ISS is way too high maintenance for a profitable business.

The ISS was never meant to be a "profitable business."

> Putting humans in space is too expensive.

It's an investment. If humans do not go into space, we are destined to be a one planet species, which carries its own health risks (comets, and other high speed massive objects that would be ridiculously hard to deflect, for example).

> Further study into the effects of space on humans for the purposes of > leaving Earth due to some apocalypse is very exagerated as well. Even in a > bad apocalyptic scenario, the resulting Earth would still be better to live > in than any

Just because the surface of Mars is not habitable in its current state, I'd much rather be living in a box over there than on an Earth subjected to the 1918 Flu Pandemic v2.0 or the inevitable collapse of the US (all nations collapse, don't kid yourself thinking this one won't).

> The pictures from back from Juno, New Horizons, the Mars rovers, and the > Hubble continue to inspire the future generations, and earn support from the > general populace already.

It's __not __about "inspiring" or "earning support." I'm guessing you are from a previous generation where space travel was a great race to be the first to orbit, first to the Moon, etc. That 'motivation' should have died in the 1970s, but I see it is still alive and well amongst civilians. Politicians invest in space travel for national prestige, but there is real scientific value in studying how humans function in space.

<comment><USER4> > The ISS was never meant to be a "profitable business."

That comment was likely referring to the first sentence of the article:

> President Donald Trump wants to end US funding for the International Space > Station (ISS) by 2025 with the aim of putting it into private hands.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This is a pretty disingenuous framing. You might as well say: funding for the ISS has been set to expire for two decades and is right on schedule.

The ISS was scheduled as of at least 2010, to cease in or around 2020-2024 sometime.

Trump is interested in privatizing the ISS beyond that. That approach has been commonly discussed for at least a decade or more at this point.

2010:

[https://www.space.com/9643-tation-disposal-plan- revealed.htm...](https://www.space.com/9643-tation-disposal-plan- revealed.html)

<comment><USER6> Why was this downvoted?

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> And so it goes the way of Mir. Not even Musk could fund such a project privately as there is no short term profit.</comment>


AWS is having network connectivity issues - <AUTHOR> Their status page currently reads:
Network connectivity
We are investigating an issue with an external provider outside of our network, which may be impacting Internet connectivity between some customer networks and the US-GOV-WEST-1 and US-WEST-2 Regions. Connectivity to instances and services within the regions are not impacted by the event.
http://status.aws.amazon.com/ <comment><USER2> Someday when this happens your thermostat, stove, refrigerator, and can opener will stop working because they can't contact 'the cloud.'</comment>


Writing Good Code Is a Lot Like Writing Prose - <AUTHOR> https://www.alexkras.com/writing-code-is-a-lot-like-writing-prose/ <comment><USER2> This is an interesting read. The structured approach to writing (code or prose) with intent is surprisingly rare among developers of various skill levels in my experience.

One of the key pieces of advice I give to new recruits is "write a paragraph about your intent, what do you want this code to do?". This, it turns out, is non-intuitive for folks as it requires first understanding what is there (OP notes this well) before jumping into coding. I think the root of this is that you're paid to write code and you want to impress right from the start.

Thus I found it very interesting when a few Q4's ago I was tasked with creating a new recruiting site for engineers ( [https://engineering.twitch.tv](https://engineering.twitch.tv) ) to better understand our culture. The central focus of this site was to be a series of blog posts which highlighted core work that had recently taken place. My job quickly became editor in chief; working with engineers of various levels to understand what they've been doing, what was cool about it, and get them writing about it. Seven blog posts were identified and I made calendar events to check in seven days from then to read drafts... seven days later no drafts existed. As I dug into this it was apparent that they'd all assumed they could jump into the writing prose much like they do code, they all remarked that writing prose is actually really hard. I provided a template of my own pieces over the years and by the following quarter we had three pieces written!

I credit TPW for giving me words to describe this to engineers ( [http://tom.preston-werner.com/2010/08/23/readme-driven- devel...](http://tom.preston-werner.com/2010/08/23/readme-driven- development.html) ) and my high school English teachers for giving me the love of words!

<comment><USER3> >I credit TPW for giving me words to describe this to engineers ( [http://tom.preston-werner.com/2010/08/23/readme-driven- devel...](http://tom.preston-werner.com/2010/08/23/readme-driven-devel..). ) and my high school English teachers for giving me the love of words!

This so much. I find that my strong liberal arts education in high school has made me a much better developer. Things like meter and pacing are quite applicable to writing code, and like you I have only my high school English teachers to thank for that.

So many of the processes around writing (good) code are similar to those around writing (good) prose, it amazes me that non-technical writing and literary analysis aren't more strongly preferred.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I think the more useful side to this is that the path to understanding a codebase or library is in some ways like understanding a literary work.

It takes some time, rereading a bit. discussing it with other people who are reading it, making the right amount of notes in the margin, consulting the dictionary when you don't understand a term. If it's in a language you don't know, you can translate it slowly, but knowing the basics goes a long way.

I like this way of looking at it because it has more to do with gaining understanding than with promoting some semantic style in regards to documenting

</comment><comment><USER5> I studied both English and CS in a hybrid program in college. One of the things that appealed to me about writing great code is that it did parallel good writing. The process of writing, especially a paper or a longer thesis relies on logic. There have to be clear bridges, or segues between sometimes disparate thoughts, connecting them.

I find when I am writing code, I try to use the same principles. I don't want anyone to look at two isolated pieces of code and think "what the hell, these don't even belong in the same universe, let alone the in same repo." Whether through comments or just good self-documenting code, I want things to connect in some way.

Jeremy Ashkenas made the connection in a piece of his writing about coffeescript as well. Kind of an ah-ha moment for me.

</comment><comment><USER6> I agree that one should strive to make good code human-readable and I often also try to use names in a grammatically correct way (to make reading easier).

However, this article leaves me wishing he'd show examples of what he's talking about.

I'd like to see his code to determine whether it _reads_ more prose-like.

<comment><USER7> I'll give my personal pet peeve as an example: abbreviations.

When I want the constant for the user's language, everyone knows they're looking for LANGUAGE, in principle. And long identifiers aren't quite the problem any more with autocomplete. But some library- and language authors insist on saving 4 bytes by naming it LANG, or even just L. Or they somehow end up with this abomination:

        > locale
        LANG=en_US.UTF-8
        LANGUAGE=

There are better examples where more variations can be found in the wild. And there are some abbreviations that somehow just feel terribly ugly to me, but I've apparently succeeded in erasing them from memory. They sometimes remind me of people who use a plus sign instead of the word "and"–it betrays a certain lack of respect for the language,

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Really any creative task is the same: writing music, writing software, writing prose.

You have your primitive ideas for some chosen rules, chosen such that the desired product is a valid idea in those rules. Then you combine your ideas through concatenation and composition to get more complex ideas. Sometimes you realize your rules aren't quite right so you change them some. You keep doing this until you have a big idea that fits your definition of a "solution" (whatever that means) and then you're done.

</comment><comment><USER7> Editors really need to improve their support or comments. Currently, they're even deemphasised in some color schemes (looking at you VSCode).

I built a prototype for an Atom extension a while back that rendered Comment blocks with a markdown parser, inline, right in the editor.

I'm hoping that the VSCode team gets around to implementing the extension hooks necessary to implement this at some point, since I've switched away from Atom.

<comment><USER9> It's bizarre that we're still marking up code with comments like it's 1960. We need some sort of standard to include comments in code like footnotes, margin notes, and so on, that allow us to better explain what is going on without changing the actual readability of the code.

It would require us to move away from strict file-and-text-editing as the end all of programming, which makes many uncomfortable of course. And you get into lock-in issues.

<comment><USER10> > It's bizarre that we're still marking up code with comments like it's 1960. > We need some sort of standard to include comments in code like footnotes, > margin notes, and so on, that allow us to better explain what is going on > without changing the actual readability of the code.

Actual comments already do that if the editor hides them by default; you don't need different syntax or abandoning pure-text representation, just the right editor features to do what you want.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Or, in other words,

(ROOT (SINV (VP (VBG Writing) (NP (JJ Good) (NNP Code))) (VP (VBZ Is)) (NP (NP (DT a) (NN Lot)) (PP (IN Like) (S (VP (VBG Writing) (NP (NN Prose))))))))

<comment><USER12> I hate when I read other people's code that has scores of characters on the same line. My code is less prose and more poetry. I treat each line as its own idea.

<comment><USER13> I much prefer the poem analogy. My favourite code almost appears to dance around in my mind.

<comment><USER14> My attempt at parediting original example into poetry:

      (ROOT
       (SINV (VP (VBG Writing)
                 (NP (JJ Good) (NNP Code)))
             (VP (VBZ Is))
             (NP (NP (DT a) (NN Lot)) (PP (IN Like)
                                          (S (VP (VBG Writing) (NP (NN Prose))))))))

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> A code comment is not like an intro paragraph. Comments are second class compared to code; see any code base. Of course they don't actually do anything except confuse humans, partially because they have no defined syntax or grammar, and partially because most programmers fail to maintain them as they change code.

<comment><USER16> Even incorrect comments are enlightening rather than confusing if you read them with the right mindset.

From the code you can tell what the program actually does. From a comment you can get some idea about what the authors intended, at least at one time in the code's history.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Don't really understand this article. It just takes the writing process and inserts bits about writing good code into it. If anything, good code should read like Hemmingway and nothing else. And as such, not all good prose will be as dry and concise.

</comment><comment><USER18> Whether you use it or not the Illumos code base[1] is one of the most well written I've seen in this respect.

[1][https://github.com/illumos/illumos- gate](https://github.com/illumos/illumos-gate)

<comment><USER19> Can you explain further?

<comment><USER18> It's very well commented and often flows like prose. Many files start with large block comments outlining intent, design, and implementation. Further code is then annotated as appropriate. The libumem stuff is a good example.

[https://github.com/illumos/illumos- gate/blob/master/usr/src/...](https://github.com/illumos/illumos- gate/blob/master/usr/src/lib/libumem/common/umem.c)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I can see some merit in this, a story will often reveal the problem better than cold analytics, but I have to say I still think the common approach of defining the objects and then the actors is going to get a better outcome.

<comment><USER21> Those objects and actors come initially from a story, and how you tell that story may affect how well you define them.

Defining the objects, the actors, and their interactions is part of writing prose, but there is more: you have to present them in a logically consistent manner, and furthermore in such an order that the reader is not confronted with an idea she has not yet been prepared for. The way that the components of a program are assembled has analogous consistency and ordering requirements.

Writing a program is a bit like writing a specific form of prose: an argument for a proposition. In the case of programming, the proposition is that the program will do whatever it is that you require of it.

</comment></comment><comment> torrent-of-ions You mean Knuth was right?

</comment><comment><USER22> And good code will _contain_ a lot of prose.

<comment><USER23> By "prose" here I guess you mean comments? Strongly disagree. Most code should be self-documenting through variables, well organized functions, etc. Public APIs should contain lots of documentation, but the actual implementation code should be sparsely commented. Otherwise you now have two "code bases" to maintain.

<comment><USER22> Public API documentation is very definitely a part of what I was meaning; but most code can also benefit from liberal explanation of _how_ and _why_ certain things are as they are.

Many comments that are written could be better handled by restructuring the code they reside in the midst of, but many code comments _can't_ be done otherwise, and to attempt to do otherwise would be convoluted.

To take an example of some code I wrote today:

      // Object.values is from ES2017 and Overture uses it; anything that has it will
      // have the other things from ES6 that we need, so we don't need to add the
      // weight and load time of core-js for them. Browsers that thus need core-js
      // are approximately: IE, Safari≤10.0, iOS≤10.2, Chrome≤53, Firefox≤46,
      // Edge≤13?. No up-to-date browser needs it (for better or for worse).
      if ( !Object.values ) {
          dependencies.O = [ 'core-js' ];
      }

This comment is about explaining _why_ a thing is as it is. Self-documentation by naming tends to only take you as far as _what_ ; for a case like this, it would have led to something like this:

      var needCoreJs = !Object.values;
      if ( needCoreJs ) {
          dependencies.O = [ 'core-js' ];
      }

This wouldn't have explained _why_ core-js is needed—or why I considered Object.values a suitable test.

I tend to draw a distinction between single-line comments which are only sentence fragments, and _prose_. Prose is beautiful in code.

A part of the illumos codebase was linked to elsewhere in these comments, and I think it satisfies my point also: [https://github.com/illumos/illumos- gate/blob/master/usr/src/...](https://github.com/illumos/illumos- gate/blob/master/usr/src/lib/libumem/common/umem.c). 600 lines of documentation up front is more than I'd typically expect, but it's well done in this case. After that, there's liberal application of explanatory comments where they can help.

The rustc borrow checker is another example that I like: [https://github.com/rust- lang/rust/tree/master/src/librustc_b...](https://github.com/rust- lang/rust/tree/master/src/librustc_borrowck/borrowck). What is now README.md used to be somewhat shorter (though still long and involved!) and in mod.rs. Look at both files. The documentation here is _all about_ implementation detail; without this extensive prose, I'd say: good luck understanding borrowck. With it, it's involved, but quite attainable, and you can approach the code without needing excessively deep and intricate understanding of everything about rustc.

Comments can be done badly, but they can also be done really well.

<comment><USER23> Sure, of course it's needed sometimes. But I was disagreeing with this statement:

> And good code will contain a lot of prose.

I disagree. Good code can also contain no comments. It's not an either/or thing.

<comment><USER22> I will adjust my position to this: non-trivial good code will contain a lot of prose.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Nice post! I would add that some prose reads like poetry. Some poetry is abstract and unreadable :)

</comment><comment><USER25> Writing something is like writing something. what an insight.</comment>


The Myth of Crowdsourcing - <AUTHOR> http://www.forbes.com/2009/09/28/crowdsourcing-enterprise-innovation-technology-cio-network-jargonspy.html

<comment><USER3> Bit of a straw man. "Crowdsourcing" per se is the idea of capturing and combining the individual contributions of many different people to produce an aggregate result that is far greater than any individual contribution. More specifically, it entails the idea that the barrier to contribution is very low, i.e. if someone only wants to make a very modest contribution - say, changing a misspelled possessive "it's" to "its" in a Wikipedi article - <USER2> small contribution can still be captured.

In contrast, a more corporate collaboration model requires that every employee puts in a roughly equivalent level of contribution, which raises the barrier to entry too high for people who only want to make one small change.

Wikipedia would be much smaller without the dedication of page curators; but it would also be much smaller (and more error-ridden) without the myriad small contributions of low-scale, occasional editors.

<comment><USER4> I know its a little off topic, but every time I hear it mentioned I want to say something about it:

Rather than complain about the typos or inaccuracies on Wikipedia, fix them. I've had an account registered for a couple of years, and might put in a handful of small edits every few months. It adds up, and just complain about it like people tend to do doesn't help anything.

<comment><USER3> One of the nice things about the Wikipedia model is that you can materially improve an article on a given topic without actually knowing anything about that topic. I'm no wikipedian high roller, but I've taken a moment or two to clean up the spelling and grammar on several articles over the years.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Sloppy thinking. A given Wikipedia _article_ may be the work of an individual, but _Wikipedia_ is the work of many. Really, his only point is that he doesn't like the word "crowdsourcing" because he doesn't like crowds. If it were called "herosourcing" instead, he'd have written the same article about how great Wikipedia etc. are.

</comment><comment><USER6> This article gets several things wrong. First, it repeats the error that the netflix prize was a crowdsourced accomplishment. In the sense of "The Wisdom of Crowds" it was not. Crowdsourcing in that sense is the result of combining opinions or outputs from individuals _acting independently_. The combined teams in the finals of the netflix competition were not operating independently.

Additionally, Aaron Swartz in <http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/whowriteswikipedia> does actual research to show who writes wikipedia, and it counters what Jimmy Wales says about who writes wikipedia.

But the author has a much better haircut than I and is unmistakably more handsome.

</comment><comment><USER7> I think how Facebook translated the site is one of the biggest examples of proper crowdsourcing. It does take some expertise - namely knowledge of two languages. But the set of people with that kind of knowledge is definitely big enough to call it a crowd. I'll have to ask internally at Facebook how many people were involved. My guess would be more than 1000.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> From the article: "So what's my problem? Why does it bug me that people think crowdsourcing is something it is not? Why do I care that people think a crowd is capable of individual virtuosity? What bugs me is that misplaced faith in the crowd is a blow to the image of the heroic inventor. We need to nurture and fund inventors and give them time to explore, play and fail. A false idea of the crowd reduces the motivation for this investment, with the supposition that companies can tap the minds of inventors on the cheap."</comment>


CES 2013 Will Feature Over 20,000 PCs & Gadgets - <AUTHOR> http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/ces_2013_will_feature_over_20000_pc%E2%80%99s_gadget%E2%80%99s423

<comment><USER2> I'm hoping to be there!</comment>


Show HN: ItsMyCall.org – Have you legislator call you - <AUTHOR> https://itsmycall.org <comment><AUTHOR> We made this in the past few weeks. Uses node.js, express for the back end. Twilio for all the telephony. AWS for hosting and logging. Compose.io for Mongo DB. React/Redux front end.

</comment><comment><USER2> So, is there anything anywhere that tells us how this works and how it makes them call you?</comment>


Winter is Coming – Super Grand Solar Minimum - <AUTHOR> https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2018/11/winter-is-coming-super-grand-solar-minimum.html <comment><USER2> "In the press release, we didn't say anything about climate change. My guess is when they heard about Maunder minimum, they used Wikipedia or something to find out more about it."

\- Valentina Zharkova

[https://theconversation.com/the-mini-ice-age-hoopla-is-a- gia...](https://theconversation.com/the-mini-ice-age-hoopla-is-a-giant- failure-of-science-communication-45037)

edit - what I really want to know is why the people who stand so utterly in disbelief about the wide ranging study of fluid dynamics and the effects of the changing spectra of light absorption, transmission and radiation in the atmosphere here on earth, especially when it involves the phases of matter that we are generally most used to, are so quick to put their chips down on a single study predicting the long term magneto-hydrodynamics of an entire star.

<comment><USER3> That was a fun article, starbeast, but the most interesting part was buried at the end:

"So it seems Zharkova's justification is based on media extrapolation of her own press release and Wikipedia, not the extensive peer-reviewed literature on the Maunder minimum itself.

I emailed Zharkova and she sent me two studies that support her views, but they aren't representative of the literature and I don't believe she has critically evaluated their content." \- Michael J. I. Brown, author of The Conversation article

So the author of the article is upset that the astronomer in question never thought about the correlation between reduced solar activity and a mini-ice age until hearing the connection from the media. After she decides that, yes, "We didn't mention anything about the weather change, but I would have to agree that possibly you can expect it [a mini ice age]." He determines that a) Zharkova doesn't know what she believes and b) even if she did, her peer- reviewed literature is inferior to his own and she obviously doesn't what she's talking about.

Mr. Brown then concludes by _declaring_ there will be no mini-ice age, without any proof, drawing from the weasly "More recent studies, including those by Lean, find the solar irradiance varies less than was thought in 1997."

<comment><USER2> >So the author of the article is upset that the astronomer in question never thought about the correlation between reduced solar activity and a mini-ice age until hearing the connection from the media. After she decides that, yes, "We didn't mention anything about the weather change, but I would have to agree that possibly you can expect it [a mini ice age]." He determines that a) Zharkova doesn't know what she believes and b) even if she did, her peer- reviewed literature is inferior to his own and she obviously doesn't what she's talking about.

If a mathematician and astrophysicist pushing their theory about the inner working of the sun has only just thought about potential impacts on climatology due to sudden media excitement, then they have probably just skimmed it compared to actual climatologists. There is already existing research into the effects of a grand minimum on climate change, is not as though climatologists aren't going to think to look into that. Here's a paper from 2010;

"On the effect of a new grand minimum of solar activity on the future climate on Earth"

[http://www.pik- potsdam.de/%7Estefan/Publications/Journals/fe...](http://www.pik- potsdam.de/%7Estefan/Publications/Journals/feulner_rahmstorf_2010.pdf)

Here's the summary -

"In summary, global mean temperatures in the year 2100 would most likely be diminished by about 0.1°C. Even taking into account all uncertainties in the temperature re-construction, the forcings, and the model physics, the overall uncertainty is estimated to be at most a factor of 3, so the offset should not be larger than 0.3°C. Comparing this to the 3.7°C and 4.5°C temperature rise relative to 1961 1990 until the end of the century under the IPCC A1B and A2 emission scenarios, respectively, a new Maunder type solar activity minimum cannot offset the global warming caused by human greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, any offset of global warming due to a grand minimum of solar activity would be merely a temporary effect, since the distinct solar minima during the last millennium typically lasted for only several decades or a century at most."

Also, the scientist in question says that at best, "the Sun buys us time to stop these carbon emissions", so she is still worrying about the climate getting hotter.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> The lack of Solar variability in the IPCC models is a "known issue"[1] which is, in my opinion, an under stated position as the bulk of the heat/energy in the Earth's system comes from the Sun.

That said, the science around it is pretty interesting. Whether or not it puts the Earth into a cooling trend it is affecting the propagation of radio waves around the planet and as an amateur radio operator, having a 'quiet' Sun creates a pretty unique opportunity for operating in a previously unexplored solar regime.

[1] _More research to investigate the effects of solar behaviour on climate is needed before the magnitude of solar effects on climate can be stated with certainty._ \-- IPCC 2007 Working Group ([https://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg1/en/ch1s1-4...](https://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg1/en/ch1s1-4-3.html))

<comment><USER5> Out of curiosity, I just looked up solar variations. Wikipedia says the average (over a year) solar irradiance goes from 1365.5 /m^2 to 1366.5 W/m^2, which is larger than the estimate in your link.

By comparison, the estimated net effect of anthropogenic temperature forcing is 1.5 W/m^2.

Yes, this is relevant and should be in models.

However, I would be shocked if they have made _no_ effort to include it. It's a cycle with straightforward values, thinking they're ignoring it completely is like thinking Apple has made an iPhone app and forgotten to test it on an iPad for 40 years.

Indeed, most of your link appears to be the science version of "we tested it on every combination of device we can, but we'd like some budget to go on eBay and get an original iPad running iOS 3".

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I'm worrying; could it hide the effects of global warming? (or whatever name is used now)

I'm afraid this could result in even less support from the governments and/or less effort to reduce emissions and other climate-changing actions. Which could be disastrous at the end of the ~ 40 years...

<comment><USER7> More optimistically, this _could_ buy us a ~40 year stay of execution that'll be very useful in actually fixing the problems.

<comment><USER8> And what, pray tell, gives you cause to believe that we would spend those 40 years productively addressing said problems? Because all available evidence seems to point to the contrary.

<comment><USER7> _And what, pray tell, gives you cause to believe that we would spend those 40 years productively addressing said problems?_

I live in an apartment with a view over a port that maintains the ships that build offshore wind farms. They've been getting busier and busier over the past decade. I literally see people working on (a small part of) the solution every day.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maunder_Minimum#Little_Ice_Age](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maunder_Minimum#Little_Ice_Age) The last Maunder Minimum was between 1645 to 1715 but there is no agreement (as usual) on whether it was a major contributor to the 'mini ice age' that occurred at the same time and had a big impact on food supplies.

Interesting that Annie Maunder was not recognized at the time due to lack of formal education qualifications. Two papers were published in Edward Maunder's name in 1890[4] and 1894,[5] and he cited earlier papers written by Gustav Spörer.[6] Because Annie Maunder had not received a university degree, due to restrictions at the time, her contribution was not then publicly recognized.[7]

</comment><comment><USER9> This will cause the oceans to absorb a lot of CO2 from the atmosphere due to increased solubility of the lower temperature ocean water.

</comment><comment><USER10> We had all better do our part and emit as much carbon as possible to avoid the incoming solar winter!

</comment><comment><USER11> So - this is predicting cooler weather by 0.5 degrees Celsius that could last up to 40 years? This is not climate change ' this is due solar activity being out of alignment with the earth. However, this may cause people to believe global warming may not vve caused by humans.

<comment><USER12> How is this not climate change? It's a (predicted) change in the climate.

<comment><USER13> Because when people talk about "climate change" they're mostly referring to the change in the climate due to the increase in carbon emissions due to human activity.

<comment><USER12> Gee, it's almost as if the phrase means whatever is needed at the time to win an argument.

When an opponent says that the evidence of anthropogenic cause and/or catastrophic effects doesn't meet the threshold of proof they want before supporting regulatory schemes, oh look they are denying [that the] climate change[s]. It's basic science!

And if they say that of course the climate changes, has changed a lot more in the distant past than we've ever seen firsthand, and humans probably affect it in many ways, well they're ignoring how the phrase "climate change" is used in the literature, which implies a _particular_ anthropogenic cause and catastrophic effects!

<comment><USER14> I think you're being downvoted because you pose a false dichotomy. Crazy people say stuff all the time. Say "A" and group X denounces you, say "not A" and group Y denounces you. They aren't always the same people.

But regardless, I think you're giving a very cartoonish version of any of these scenarios, perhaps just due to brevity.

But I'll counter by being brief, too. Yep, the climate is changing. It's mostly bad. Lots of shit is dying, and we could too. And it's mostly our fault.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Mobirise Bootstrap Theme Generator v2.0 is out! - <AUTHOR> http://mobirise.com <comment><AUTHOR> [http://mobirise.com](http://mobirise.com)

What's new in v2.0:

* Form blocks with email notifications without any server-side integration. Just type your email in parameters and get submissions instantly.

* Menu block redesigned. Now menu can have buttons, larger logo, be sticky, and collapsed.

* Slider supports autoplay.

* Smooth scroll added.

* Massive bug fixes.

* Mobirise.com site updated.</comment>


'Survival of our democracy' depends on banning websites, Dem senator says - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/survival-of-our-democracy-depends-on-banning-sites-like-infowars-democratic-senator-says <comment><USER2> Every time I get sick of the Dems, the Republicans come along and show me why I can never support them. Then when I get sick of the Republicans... repeat.</comment>


If you think it's rude to look at co-authors' data, you're not doing science - <AUTHOR> http://retractionwatch.com/2015/06/18/if-you-think-its-rude-to-ask-to-look-at-your-co-authors-data-youre-not-doing-science-guest-post/

<comment><USER2> Sounds to me like he just wanted author credit without doing the work.</comment>


Ex-Adobe Engineers on Thoughts on Flash - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/04/adobe-flash-jobs <comment><USER3> "Luh was also formerly employed by Apple on the Final Cut Pro team. He said that because Adobe's Flash Packager didn't use Apple's toolchain to create apps, the resulting code would not work well on an iPhone or iPad. A simple "Hello World" app created in Flash and compiled to work on the iPhone would take up 8 MB, he said, when it should be no longer than a few KB. (Wired.com verified this figure with two other developers who have tested the iPhone Packager tool in CS5.)"

8 MB for a simple binary? Really? That alone is almost enough justification for me. I frequently end up downloading apps directly via my iPhone - <USER2> massive increase in download time for no actual gain in value _would_ hurt the experience.

<comment><USER4> I would still rather have a large download than no download. Adding flash wouldn't hurt anything, it would simply enable some more developers into the iPhone space.

<comment><USER5> meh... I'd pick quality over quantity any day...

<comment><USER6> Unless you didn't have enough to choose from; that is, you were drastically deficient in quantity.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's one thing the iPhone App Store isn't.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> > If Adobe crashes on Macs, that actually has something "to do with the Apple > operating system ," Adobe's CEO Shantanu Narayen told The Wall Street > Journal.

Yeah, that's it. Program crashes. Must be the OS. Right.... Heck, why not blame the hardware, too!

<comment><USER8> Not that I agree with him but this article kind of murdered his quote. He was replying to the fact that Jobs had implied that Flash was responsible for the majority of Mac crashes.

I think jobs just meant that Flash simply crashed a lot on Macs but he seemed to infer that Flash actually caused the OS to crash. If Flash is causing the OS to crash then yes there is a problem as you'd hope a program residing in the user space wouldn't crash the kernel.

<comment><USER9> I think when they say "crash" they mean crashing Safari, not crashing OSX.

That stat came from Apple's automated crash reporting tool, and I can't imagine that'd work after a kernel panic.

<comment><USER10> OS X saves a log and sends (or asks to send) the report back to Apple the next time the user logs in.

<comment><USER11> A program in user space cannot be the root cause for a kernel panic. He meant Safari.

<comment><USER10> I was simply referring to OS X's automated crash reporting tool. Which _does_ work after a kernel panic, regardless of what messed up badly enough to cause such an event.

<comment><USER9> Cool, thanks for the info.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Interestingly enough these Ex-Adobe engineers are likely just as affected as Adobe. On their blog they believe their project Corona will prevail, I'm not so sure.

Unfortunately, I can't go into much detail, but Apple is definitely cracking down on these multi-platform developer tools.

<comment><USER13> _On their blog they believe their project Corona will prevail, I'm not so sure._

They're not sure either. That's why they're kissing up to Apple and hoping by showing allegiance they might get an exception. They're probably thinking that Apple would be happy to partner with, or buy out, a flash-like platform that's iPhone OS friendly.

I don't think these guys are the most credible arbiters on the issue; they have a horse in the race, and probably an axe to grind.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> This reads like Adobe left flash to wither on the vine. In retrospect perhaps Adobe is better at tools and they should have open sourced the flash plugin 5 years ago. Allowing them to concentrate on world class tools.

I can't help thinking that acrobat reader is perhaps going the same way. Will anyone use the plugin in a few years?

<comment><USER15> Adobe only acquired Flash (w/ Macromedia) ~4.5 years ago, so they could hardly have open-sourced the plugin 5 years ago.

<comment><USER14> I thought the acquisition may have been almost exactly 5 years ago, but you're right that it wasn't complete till December.

Also I was thinking if the plugin were opensource over this period when there has been increased browser competition how much more innovation we would get natively in the browser.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> "Flash was designed for the desktop world, for web and large screens, not the user experiences you want to create in these new devices with touch, accelerometers and GPS," Luh said. "It wasn't designed with that in mind at all."

Bingo...

<comment><USER17> The same can be said of all technology whether that's HTML or any runtime or platform ever in existence. The fact that it existed before these things (touch, accelerometers, GPS) means that obviously it wasn't designed for these things. But technology advances. You wouldn't say that HTML 5 shouldn't be used for drawing capabilities because HTML 4 wasn't created for drawing. That's just silly.

The current beta of Flash player supports touch events (including gestures), accelerometer input, and GPS.

<comment><USER18> The iPhone was announced over 3 years ago. Now it's 2010 and this Flash player is _only_ in beta. It demonstrates how Adobe has struggled to deliver their software for these devices, likely due to the reasons these former employees suggest in the article.

In the meantime, Apple has delivered an excellent mobile video and HTML5 implementation, and they did it using open standards and open source.

<comment><USER17> Well ok then... I wasn't saying that they did it fast or that it's released or anything of the sort. I was simply saying that the argument that a technology was first developed before the current needs of the technology is a completely bullshit argument.

<comment><USER16> The point is that HTML5 was designed for touch, accelerometers and GPS where as Flash was not.

<comment><USER17> and my point was that HTML _5_ is being designed for touch, not any prior version of HTML. Just like Flash Player _10.1_ is being designed for touch, not any prior version of Flash.

Saying Flash wasn't originally designed for touch, etc. is the same as saying HTML wasn't originally designed for touch, etc.

<comment><USER16> but all flash apps, up till 10.1 where not. where as all HTML 5 apps are.

listen, I get what you are saying: the past is the past, but we want to move on, now, and adobe seems to be moving glacially.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> There was something called "Flash Lite 1.0" that was usually on cell phone demos circa 2004-2007. I don't recall any apps ever being built for it, getting any buzz, etcetera (especially on my Treo 650 which was a great phone). I do remember a few Vaporware™ press releases though. Sorry, plugins are _ghetto_.

<comment><USER20> Flash Lite is alive and well on the Symbian os, including applications and websites.

In fact Symbian is probably the os with the most dev tools available: java, c++, python, flash, ruby(?). There was a .net too but the company that made it closed shop.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> "A simple 'Hello World' app created in Flash and compiled to work on the iPhone is substantially larger in file size, and it would take up 3.6 MB when it should be no larger than 400K when made with Xcode..."

Am I the only one that finds both scenarios to be ridiculous? 400k or 3.6MB doesn't matter -- both are stupidly large just to put up hello world...

<comment><USER22> Making Hello World apps is an edge case for commerical software development frameworks. They're not optimized for it and there is no reason for them to be.

<comment><USER23> When your framework is made to build apps that may be downloaded over the air on the nation's least reliable cellular network, you should at least try not to include the kitchen sink with every app. Waiting for the app to download is the user's first impression after clicking "buy".

Hello World is not just an edge case - it's a lower bound. There are plenty of non-trivial apps that can be implemented in under the ~3MB overhead for Flash. Once multitasking arrives, this kind of overhead will be even more important, because small single-purpose utilities will be more useful. Also, if the overhead is 3MB on-disk, the in-memory overhead is likely to be even bigger, and it's not likely that it could be shared between several Flash utilities running simultaneously.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Now I really want to hear the an ex-Macromedia engineer's thoughts on Flash.</comment>


Astrid shutting down - <AUTHOR>

This came via email today.
Subject: Astrid Winding Down
Hi xxx,
First off, we want to sincerely thank you for being an Astrid user over the years. Your support every step of the way has meant the world to us. As of August 5, 2013, we will be closing the Astrid service.
We know that a transition can be tough, but we want to make it as easy as possible for you. Please go to this link: astrid.com/home/export to download your data.
Once you have your data, we recommend you check out one of these applications. They will allow you to easily import your data, so you can pick up where you left off: Wrike, Wunderlist, Sandglaz, and Any.do.
When we built Astrid, we sought to help as many people as possible become happier, healthier and more productive – and we certainly hope we helped you. Thank you again for your support.
Best regards, Jon Paris & the Astrid Team <comment><USER2> They were bought by Yahoo so it was only a matter of time. 90 days of notice (the notice was May 2nd) is not much.

</comment><comment><USER3> Sad</comment>


Why Has No One Heard of the World's First Poet? (2017) - <AUTHOR> https://lithub.com/why-has-no-one-ever-heard-of-the-worlds-first-poet <comment><USER2> I'm going to hazard a guess that the answer to the question in the title is a combination of:

\+ she wasn't even well known to specialist academics until the late 60's.

\+ the works really aren't very interesting to anyone other than said specialists.

I mean, we're talking about a number of short hymns to obscure temples. Not exactly the Iliad.

</comment><comment><USER3> The reason everyone knows who Homer was or who Sappho was is that there was a continuous line of people quoting them and being inspired by them, from Ancient Greece to today. There were probably Greek poets before homer that we just don't know about and even if we did discover a pile of pre-Homeric Greek poetry, most people would never study it or learn about it.

</comment><comment><USER4> " _In any case, we have an almost divine-like ability to take ultra- fascinating ideas and make them slightly less exciting than a traffic ticket. This is not the skill you need when trying to present the results of your research to a Netflix-addled public. No wonder no one knows Enheduanna's name._ "

This is entirely true.

Sumerian literature is fascinating and hilarious. Those translaters, though...

(Has anyone mentioned that Gilgamesh offered to get the monster Humbaba a wife if he would give them the cedars---the suggested wife being the father of Gil's rival, the king of Kish?)

<comment><USER5> Haha I remember thinking that when I read the Epic of Gilgamesh in school. I thought, "this story can not possibly be as boring as the translation is making it."

Years later, reading all different sorts of literature in a effort to make myself "more cultured," I realized how different certain pieces of literature made me feel (I know, duh) despite them all being written originally in English, and I despaired that even great translations were probably cutting out or changing a lot of meaning.

<comment><USER4> Weirdly, I was just watching a video ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYSqscmp_f0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYSqscmp_f0)) of a lecture by Andrew George (who has a recent translation of Gilgamesh) at the Oriental Institute, where he discusses the difficulties of and approaches to translating Sumerian.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The first novel was most certainly not in the 11th century.

There's still a published Roman novel, the metamorphisis. And there were others which were lost.

<comment><USER7> The Metamorphoses is not a novel. It isn't prose and it isn't narrative. A better candidate is Apuleius' "The Golden Ass".

<comment><USER6> That's one and the same. The Metamorphosis of Apuleis, otherwise known as the golden ass ;)

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

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> What the text doesn't mention is that she was the daughter of Sargon the Great.

</comment><comment><USER9> Well, almost everyone knows about the existence of Sumerian poetry, or at least of the epic Gilgamesh (which should have been at least mentioned in school).

</comment><comment><USER10> ..it is impossible to know who was the first..?

</comment><comment><USER8> Dammit, I was so damn proud that I knew this xD

</comment><comment><USER11> Obviously, because writing didn't exist at the time.

<comment><USER12> True, but what is meant by the term here is "first poet that we have evidence for existing" \-- there are tablets of this Sumerian priestess/poet Enheduana.

<comment><USER13> Existing, and signed.

Many preexisting poems and works by poets survive. I think the author was a bit liberal with the phrasing for a better title.

<comment><USER14> "Please don't tease us! Some actual information would be nice." \- sctb</comment></comment></comment></comment>