How Dirty Is Your Air? - <AUTHOR> https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601609/how-dirty-is-your-air/ <comment><USER2> > _The World Health Organization estimates that 80 percent of people living in > urban environments are being exposed to unhealthy levels of air pollution > from particulates and it says they cause four million deaths annually around > the world._

The level of particulates middle-class people face indoors in the worst urban environments is tiny compared to the level of particulates people face (esp. in rural areas) wherever cooking is done indoors over a wood fire. We're talking about a level of wood smoke filling the room which causes eyes to redden and start watering, and makes it physically difficult to breathe. (Source: my parents are anthropologists and my godparents are indigenous rural Mexican peasant farmers, and I spent lots of time growing up sitting next to wood-burning hearth fires.) On average, by historical standards, humans' current exposure to particulates is very low and continues to drop every year.

I don't know if it makes sense for people to freak out about cooking eggs in their houses, though having effective indoor ventilation is obviously worthwhile, all else equal.

Edit: I looked up the actual WHO source (not linked in the OP): [http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2014/air- pollut...](http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2014/air- pollution/en/)

> _After analysing the risk factors and taking into account revisions in > methodology, WHO estimates indoor air pollution was linked to 4.3 million > deaths in 2012 in households cooking over coal, wood and biomass stoves._

This is _not_ talking about people using a gas range with an underpowered ventilation hood to cook eggs, and the 4 million deaths number is not restricted to urban areas. The people dying here don't need a little electronic air quality detector, they need electrification and rising incomes so they can afford better heaters and stoves.

To cut outdoor air pollution, we should get people to stop burning piles of trash, stop using fire to clear large areas for agriculture, switch away from coal power plants as soon as possible, and try to get the worst polluting old vehicles off the roads.

<comment><USER3> Agree with all of that.

Still no reason not to be optimizing our environments a bit more than the usual person might. There are less obvious threats to respiratory health in the developed world but the ones that are left are probably more insidious e.g. radon gas, VOCs from paints.

Having cooking fires sucks for the women tending them in the Third World but most family members probably aren't in the house/hut for most of the day. They're probably engaged in plenty of physical activity outdoors. We on the other hand are sitting in places with artificial florescent lights and are in the same spots on a consistent basis.

We should:

\- have natural sunlight (using my magical heliostats)

\- run about more

\- be surrounded by plants (perhaps visits from cool animals)

I should start a minor religion.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I live in China and have a Laser Egg (1) in my home. It's extremely accurate, often matching the AQI reading found by online services. What I'm interested in is learning how to purify the air inside. I knew cooking was a major culprit in raising PM2.5 levels. But even when running two air purifiers sometimes the AQI just can't be lowered too much. I think it's leaky seals in the apartment. We're on the 18th floor and on a windy day can feel a huge draft from the front door and hear the wind escaping the balcony windows.

1\. [http://www.originstech.com/products/laseregg/](http://www.originstech.com/products/laseregg/)

<comment><USER5> One thing I've never figured out about air purification is how to keep air both particle-free, and oxygenated. I don't _want_ to seal all my doors and windows to run an air purifier—I immediately feel suffocated by the CO2 buildup from my own breathing. Is there a best of both worlds?

<comment><USER6> Fresh air systems are what you are looking for. They purify and bring in outside air (be warned, they lower HVAC efficiency), a lot of them with a high enough CFM to pressurize your house to, exhausting all of the air inside outward so that the leaky seals aren't an issue.

<comment><USER7> The problem is that these don't fit into most Chinese apartment rentals. Landlords could make some big bank by installing an HVAC, but they are missing even in new buildings where 90sqm apartments are going for more than a million bucks.

<comment><USER5> Yep. My little apartment (400m²) in a low-rise in Canada, built just five years ago, has no in-unit ventilation whatsoever. If I want a cross-breeze (and I always want a cross-breeze), I have to open the outside windows and the door to the hallway, and let a ton of dust and pollen flow into the unit from outside. I have no idea who thought building an apartment building today like this made sense, but it seems to be a common perspective.

<comment><USER7> 400 sqm is a "little" apartment? Sheesh, first-world problems :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I'm curious about the composition of the particles emitted when frying the eggs, and on the specific toxicity of cooking oil droplets and specs of albumin...

I'd expect both to be readily processed by macrophages, without harm, unlike the soot particles produced by burning either wood, coal or petrol derivatives...

<comment><USER5> Makes me wonder how much it would cost to turn an oven range hood into a full- on chemical fume-hood, with the hanging plastic isolation flaps.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Funnily enough I'm just embarking on a little project to monitor the the air around me and have ordered a particle counter off ebay ([http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Hot-Selling-USB-Port-Laser- Dus...](http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Hot-Selling-USB-Port-Laser-Dust-Sensor- Module- PM1-0-PM2-5-PM10-Detector-/172139517641?hash=item28145096c9:g:mBcAAOSwu1VW7X9u))

£29, hooks up to usb somehow. I've yet to get it and try to figure drivers.

I'm now trying to find a cheap NO2 sensor. Those seem to be the main categories that do people in in London. The Guardian figured 3,537 deaths for pm2.5, 5,879 deaths from NO2 in 2010 approx.

<comment><USER10> [https://www.cooking-hacks.com/no2-gas-sensor-5339](https://www.cooking- hacks.com/no2-gas-sensor-5339)

<comment><USER9> Ta

<comment><USER9> Update - bought and cancelled that one as it's specs didn't seem sensitive enough - not quite sure - says to 0.05ppm which is still quite high. Now checking out [http://www.alphasense.com/index.php/products/nitrogen- dioxid...](http://www.alphasense.com/index.php/products/nitrogen-dioxide-2/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Is this an ad?

<comment><USER12> Yes, and these cheap devices sadly don't have accuracy description. I would be OK to pay for it if some accuracy would be guaranteed, but writing that it's calibrated and not specifying the maximal error looks always fishy.

<comment><USER13> I would also be wary of how the accuracy declines over time. E.g. how does the device keep properly sized dust from staying or small scratches from developing on the surfaces that are involved in the measurement (e.g. lenses and mirrors for optical devices)?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> During undergrad, me and some peers (all chemists) talked about having such a network of air sensors. Having good resolution on air quality measurements could drastically improve the quality of life of people living in big cities. We never knew how to monetize this, however. One way we thought about was to install a private network of sensors (inside and outside houses) and then sell the datasets to research agencies. Doesn't see too profitable though.

Ideally what you need is a machine that can take different measurements: wind speed and direction, temperature, humidity, VOC levels, ozone, nitrogen compounds and general particulate matter.

A static network of sensors is a great start, but your measurements basically define a surface. What you'd want is a fleet of drones which could "stand still" in formation, let's say a 50 x 50 x 50 drone cube each 1m apart, and take volumetric + time measurements. That would be _awesome_ :)

<comment><USER9> There's a fair network in London [https://www.londonair.org.uk/london/asp/PublicEpisodes.asp](https://www.londonair.org.uk/london/asp/PublicEpisodes.asp)

The pollution seems fairly spread out so I'm not sure how much having higher resolution would help. I think those are government/council owned.

I was toying with a commercial service where householders could pay a bit for measurements on their homes and could try to counter bad stuff with filters and the like. Not quite sure about the economics - the cost of sensors seems to be dropping rapidly. The government monitoring stations I think are like $25k but there's cheaper stuff out there.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Reasonable lower priced option from china:

[https://www.amazon.com/UNI-T-UT938C-Detector-Thermometer- Tem...](https://www.amazon.com/UNI-T-UT938C-Detector-Thermometer- Temperature/dp/B013SOD0LA/)

or slightly lower priced slightly older version on eBay

[http://www.ebay.com/itm/UNI-T-UT-338C-Indoor-VOC- PM2-5-Air-Q...](http://www.ebay.com/itm/UNI-T-UT-338C-Indoor-VOC-PM2-5-Air- Quality-Detector-Monitor- Thermometer-41E9-/131595466298?hash=item1ea3b3763a:g:KF4AAOSwZtJW9Q4p)

</comment><comment><USER10> Some indoor air purifiers have particle count sensors that activate the purifier fan.

BTW - anyone have recommendations for an air purifier with a true HEPA filter?

<comment><USER16> I've heard good things about this: [http://smartairfilters.com/en](http://smartairfilters.com/en) which is really just a fan with a HEPA filter attached to it.

<comment><USER10> Was looking them earlier - really like what they're doing (back to basics - airflow + HEPA Filter) but prohibitive shipping costs to UK/Europe from China

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Canary - [https://canary.is/](https://canary.is/) \- the home security camera comes equipped with sensors that are capable of measuring air quality. I reckon this will be a big deal for a lot of people, although right now most don't even know that such measurements are possible or why they're important.

</comment><comment><USER18> Surprisingly, I haven't heard of AirViz before. Their CEO is Allah Nourbakhsh, CMU Robotics Institute professor, previously(?) involved with GigaPan.

</comment><comment><USER19> not a very good name for international expansion as "Speck" means "bacon" in German.

[https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speck](https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speck)

<comment><USER20> Are there anywhere near enough German speakers to make that a problem?

<comment><USER19> roughly 100 million, which is not that much in the cosmic scale of things. But if it becomes a globally successful product, they'd have to live with sarcastic comments from us, or come up with a different name in DE.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> This is a clickbait ad, "See what one family learned!" I come to HN to avoid this.

<comment><USER22>
      MIT Technology Review Magazine

Better than your average clickbait, but yeah cliffhanger-as-headline is a cheesey tactic.

I still enjoy this site, as a serious indicator of regional, population- center-oriented indicator of air quality: [https://plumelabs.com](https://plumelabs.com)

<comment><USER21> I wish that I could just come to the full-throated defense of MIT's publications, but I think we all know how press offices can be, and that doesn't reflect on the researchers or academics IMO.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> If you've ever worked as a cleaner you'll appreciate what tobacco smoke, foods cooked in Indian style, people not venting their rooms (hello mold) can do to the furnishings, walls and ceilings. Maybe if your environment is turning a deep ocher, it isn't healthy to live in it. I am completely unsurprised if the people who live in them die younger.

People with wealth probably imagine themselves immune to the problem as they have a cleaning staff but that is not true either. They need to watch out with new cars and new houses. These should be ideally left alone for up to six months so the off gassing of paints, lacquers, chaulking can happen and also the dust level from construction can die down.

</comment><comment><USER3> Yes it's an advert but the problem itself is a real one.

Dirty air will grind your respiratory system down. Your lungs. You need those to breathe.</comment>


It's Not the File Size That's Killing iPad Magazines - <AUTHOR> http://bcolbow.tumblr.com/post/19708636095/its-not-file-size-thats-killing-ipad-magazines

<comment><USER3> I think his point is the least of the problems with magazines. In fact, I strongly disagree that fast moving blog-style content is a good thing for magazines. I want to wait for the right mix of browsability and depth, and I want a "periodic" relationship with my periodicals.

I subscribe to a variety of magazines in print and iPad editions. Wired, Mens Health, Economist, Car and Driver, National Geographic, and Popular Photography, to name a few.

I haven't opened a print edition in over a year. That said, I also am not opening these on the iPad, except when stuck on a plane waiting for the flight attendant to finish his seatbelt dance.

Why not?

1\. Every time there's an iOS update, the apps forget who I am, and I have to re-register. This usually results in me just ignoring magazines for a quarter or two.

2\. They notify of new content, but do not pre-download it. They're huge, 500MB for a magazine, but I have a 64GB iPad -- a lot more memory than patience. When I launch the magazine and see I'll have to wait 5 minutes to download the latest issue, I close it again, and that magazine is lost to me.

3\. _Some_ make me scroll around too much. Economist does not. Economist is actually even easier to navigate on the iPad than in print. Of the magazines I do get, GQ is the worst at trying to leverage "new media". I have to paw at the screen 20 times to skim one factoid page, and it's ridiculous. Popular Photography is similar, and I have finished issues only to realize I'd missed entire sections.

4\. The pricing model is stupid, and too many magazines don't give a digital subscription along with the print. I can see why most want their print circulation numbers higher -- they're a whole different set of ads and ad pricing. But to have "digital only" subscriptions cost 4x the wholesale print price is ridiculous. Every magazine I mentioned, I buy in print, copy the subscriber ID off the label, and get the digital. I chuck the printed copy or leave it in the company lobby. It's a waste, but when it costs $5/year for print+digital instead of $50 for just digital, I suspect I'm doing exactly what they want. If, however, the publishers that don't have this kind of offer were to let me subscribe digitally for a reasonable price (no more than $1/month since I still have to see the ads and they don't have to handle printing and mailing it), I'd subscribe to a lot more titles.

So, these are the problems, and they're fixable. What he is proposing, however, I disagree with, strongly. Fast moving content is not what magazines are for.

DPReview is a fantastic photo blog, but it's a fundamentally different experience than browsing an issue of Popular Photography. The issue has a theme, a connective binding that ties all its articles together. There's a comfortable familiarity with the voice of the editor. You enjoy a sense of expectation when waiting for the next issue. You go back and revisit a prior month's issue when you're considering a certain kind of gear. These are all very different from the ephemera of the journo-blogs. Each has its place. Blogs replaced the daily newspaper, essentially giving me my Tech section, my Startup News section, instead of whatever my local paper had. But magazines and newspapers coexisted for over a century and it's because they're fundamentally different experiences.

With magazines on the iPad, it's fantastic to travel with 50 magazines at hand, not taking any space. The color images in National Geographic are spectacular, and I don't miss the paper edition. (Mine are all still in their plastic.) The article typography and minimalist layout on Economist is a joy to read.

When done wrong, I can't be bothered to wait for a download, to paw around to find the end of a story, or to pay 5x as much as I would for print.

When done right, I'm convinced these digital editions are the future of periodicals, and blogs are the future of newspapers.

<comment> Apple-Guy 1\. That's not normal. I've used magazine apps on iPad 1 to iPad 3 and I haven't seen one that "forgets" who I am. 2\. Magazines can pre-download on iPad. It's been that way for awhile. 3\. Agree. Many of those involved don't understand the new medium. 4\. Agree. It's the problem of the publishing / content industry.

<comment><USER3> 2\. Should be, and the Newsstand settings are enabled for it. But mine doesn't. 1. I used to do the restore method of updates. The ota updates don't forget. But ths last I did a restore and it forgot again.

<comment><USER4> It seems iOS/iTunes does not back up the keychain if you don't encrypt your backups via the iTunes setting.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I think he nailed it when he indicated that the Blog has done a great job of replacing magazines.

I used to be a huge newspaper/magazine junkie - I haven't purchased a physical instance in 4+ years. What has replaced it:

      o xkcd
      o wsj.com
      o nyt.com
      o HN
      o daring fireball
      o theverge
      o Yahoo Finance (Stock Portfolio)
      o macrumors/appleinsider/loopinsight
      o asymco

And, somewhat less often:

      o Techcrunch
      o parislemon
      o dpreview
      o pandodaily

And, for some reason, I keep tripping over interesting articles here:

      o http://www.vulture.com/

I won't even get into how TV has been replaced with iTunes, and Radio has been replaced by podcasts (See [http://www.macdrifter.com/2012/03/more-on-podcasts- changing-...](http://www.macdrifter.com/2012/03/more-on-podcasts-changing-of- the-guard/) for a good collection of many of the ones I listen to)

I've _tried_ to purchase these magazines on my Gen1/2/3 iPad - Wired, NatGeo, Economist, various Zino instances (horrible experience), Popular Mechanics - but Colbow has it nailed - you always feel like you are reading a broken PDF, and you are never certain that you've read all the content)

Other than blogs in web format, NYT has recently (finally) started doing a good job of presenting their content in a readable format on the iPad. I still balance it out with the web version, but I find, for long reading, more often sinking back for an hour or so with the Application.

Who knows, maybe we've seen the future of magazines, and it's the blog.

<comment><USER6> > _I won't even get into how TV has been replaced with iTunes, and Radio has > been replaced by podcasts_

Not sure they have yet - among everyone I know, including tech people and people whose ability just allows them to use emails, and everyone inbetween, the order of popularity I've observed goes:

      1.) Illegal downloads (torrents or rapidshare/etc.)
      2.) Legal digital distribution (iTunes, Netflix, etc.)
      3.) Traditional physical media

And 2./3. are really very close, might even be the wrong way around

As for radio, the order is:

      1.) Replaced radio with mp3s and mp3 players
      2.) Still listen to radio
      3.) Podcasts (very few people)

<comment><USER5> I was going to make a comment about how I don't purchase physical media - <USER2> I just looked around my bedroom at my iPad, iPhone, kindle and MacBook Air, and realized I don't -own- anything that can play physical media. I may be the leading edge of a trend, but I'm betting the majority of people will follow very quickly.

Re: podcasts - all of my friends (bay area) listen to podcasts+spotify+pandora+ a little bit of kqed. Not sure how atypical they are.

<comment><USER7> No game consoles?

Once we see an Xbox or a Playstation without an optical drive, we can declare it dead. Which seems likely to be next year.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I've pretty much ignored the entire concept of iPad magazines (via Newsstand) until I got my iPad III. Right now I'm trying out the free 7 day trial of The Guardian, and I'm impressed. It's £9.99/month, so I'm still debating if it's worth it, but after 4 days I'm leaning towards yes.

Why? Well, in contradiction of the original article's charges, it does innovate and provide more than just a static page by page experience. You can navigate in a page-by-page sense, but it also groups subjects, provides links to other articles, and has a top level navigation. The front page [[https://img.skitch.com/20120321-jg1fn7y9u4ktw7ktx229uygnja.p...](https://img.skitch.com/20120321-jg1fn7y9u4ktw7ktx229uygnja.png)] does a great job of highlighting interesting subjects that day, and where an article has a video it can be played inline.

In many ways it's basically a heavily device-oriented website, but it has the advantage that all the content is downloaded automatically each day (without me having to remember to download it whilst on wifi before I head onto the tube). Also, unlike many of the magazines on Newsstand, it actually embeds their gorgeous Guardian Egyptian Text typeface [[https://img.skitch.com/20120321-1xb6ybrcyem76rw29569tf9kp5.p...](https://img.skitch.com/20120321-1xb6ybrcyem76rw29569tf9kp5.png)], so even though most of the graphics aren't retina-resolution yet, the text is still beautiful to read.

Contrast this experience with Edge magazine. I've been reading this in print since 1995, and it's always been a high-production quality publication. I'd expect the iPad experience to match, but it doesn't even come close. Apparently one of the oft-mentioned magazines which simply bundles up a bunch of JPEGs, I could probably get past that were it not for the horrible way it loads each page, first apparently using a low-resolution image resized to fit, then gradually drawing in the full-resolution image in tiles [[https://img.skitch.com/20120321-kam5qxxn3rens7a1x534jgyidh.p...](https://img.skitch.com/20120321-kam5qxxn3rens7a1x534jgyidh.png)]. This happens with _every single page transition_ , even with pages you've already visited, meaning that switching between two pages of a gatefold article is an incredibly irritating process. Also, as it's a resized image, the text isn't especially clear, particularly when you compare to the high standard The Guardian sets.

The way I look at it, if old-world print publications want to survive the transition to digital, then they can't expect to get away with the latter, but instead should be striving towards the former. Make a good product and people will buy it. Try and push rubbish and when you finally discover you have to stop the physical presses, the virtual product won't stand up to scrutiny.

</comment><comment><USER9> I don't think it's about content, it's about usability. I don't want the magazine publisher's 35 different counterintuitive UX innovations all over the artfully designed page with copy too small to read.

I just want to read the content of the magazine without something getting in the way. If the magazine is visual that's fine too, but show pictures or artwork separate from whatever text I'm supposed to read.

Newspapers for IOS suffer from this too. I download a huge app and it works like a website that someone went crazy with animations on.

Blogs are taking market share from magazines b/c lots of what goes into magazines is filler, and blogs don't have the same pressure to publish filler. Consumers of content know the difference and rarely prefer magazine "filler" to decent quality blog posts.

Want to ruin blogs? Give the authors deadlines and tell them what to write about. You'd end up with a magazine.

</comment><comment><USER10> A thought, iPad magazines would be an excellent place to implement many of Bret Victor's ideas for interactive numerical content, i.e. adjusting variables and seeing how they impact a final result and perhaps seeing that graphed. This seems like a more easily updated model than really unique interactive content in each issue because the artwork can be generic.

The iPad would probably be more usable for this than the web, because it is easier, more natural, and is a more common interaction paradigm to interact with sliders and such on the iPad versus the web. Popovers would also work well here.

It would probably work well for the Economist, which is known for having many great graphs and charts, but I think it would be fun for any news outlet because it isn't gimicky.

Small edits for clarity, popovers.

</comment><comment><USER11> What I thought could be a step in the right direction was Gilt's partnership with GQ. I envisioned a GQ magazine that was actually interactive, meaning each piece of clothing worn could be tagged with a link to purchase said piece of clothing, or at least get taken to a useful google search about it.

Instead what I saw was more of the same in large corporate partnerships...only one page would be dedicated to the actual items you can purchase. If you clicked on any of the items, you were actually taken to Gilt's Park and Bond store completely outside of the app.

Too bad. i'd really be interested in creating a Magazine using Pinterest, with the business model being links to affiliates.

</comment><comment><USER12> While what he writes is true, most magazines are not innovating for tablets. Compare Nat Geo with Dwell:

Nat Geo is pretty much an app (I get it through Zinio), the fonts are sized properly for readabilty, and there's a ton of interactive content with hooks into the web for updated content.

Dwell, and just about every other digital magazine, is basically a photocopy. Sure, the images look nice, but the text is unreadable unless you zoom in, and the experience feels wrong. Not to mention they are still pretty pricey.

None of them are searchable, though, which would be an awesome if hooked into spotlight so you could search across all of your magazines.

</comment><comment><USER13> I have been using Nook and 10.1 Tab for over a year now. It has become a painful experience to carry 'dead-tree' magazines or book. Some vendors just scan and upload copies of their magazines in a poorly designed pdf readers. This diminishes the quality of reading. A dedicated app would be a better idea. It will save bandwidth and provide better experience.

One of the biggest problem with blogging is unlimited availability of space. Blogging does not has to be supported by credible organization. They serve you blog with thousands of ads.

</comment><comment><USER14> I think that WIRED has done a fantastic job both in terms of their physical copies and digital distribution as well. But even as a techie, the interaction on the iPad just isn't what it should be. I've seen plenty of ads where there's a link you can't click, and other physical representations of digital interactions that are unavailable.

It's 100% about usability, and 5% more about cost.

</comment><comment><USER15> Seems like ipad magazines are made by people that don't read on the ipad.

Why can't they be more like instapaper & flipboard ?

</comment><comment><USER16> I have subscriptions to Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, and Wired. All three are pretty good and I have few complaints. I believe I paid $15 for 1 year for each one. Barely more than $1 an issue which is quite reasonable.

</comment><comment><USER17> i was very excited about the ipad magazines and subscribed to a couple. at the time, the way that they were downloaded prevented me from ever actually getting them.

i had to load up the PopSci app, tell it to download, and then just sit there and wait (for hours, on my shitty wifi connection). if the connection died or the ipad went to sleep it had to start again.

i bought 3 annual subscriptions and have never actually been able to read any of them.

</comment><comment><USER18> TRVL is the best iPad magazine. Lots of more interesting content, some attempts at interactivity ... and it's free.</comment>


Why some mosquitoes prefer humans - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/science/mosquitoes-genetics-africa.html <comment><AUTHOR> >Climate and Urbanization Drive Mosquito Preference for Humans

[https://www.cell.com/current- biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(20)...](https://www.cell.com/current- biology/fulltext/S0960-9822\(20\)30978-7)</comment>


Linux 'grinch' vulnerability - <AUTHOR> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2860032/this-linux-grinch-could-put-a-hole-in-your-security-stocking.html <comment><USER2> So wheel is acting as expected? How is this not fixed by replacing

        auth sufficient pam_wheel.so use_uid group=wheel trust

with

        auth required   pam_wheel.so use_uid group=wheel

in /etc/pam.d/su? Or replace all pam_wheel.so entries with something else? (i.e. pam_unix.so)

This seems like fairly standard behavior these days - are distros really shipping with wheel enabled by default?

</comment><comment><USER3> Please read this explanation by Redhat's Kurt Seifried: [http://seclists.org/oss-sec/2014/q4/1075](http://seclists.org/oss- sec/2014/q4/1075)

tl;dr not a vulnerability</comment>


Ask HN: Who's hiring in Europe? - <AUTHOR>

Especially Ruby and Objective-C shops! <comment><USER3> Please, when "publishing" your offer state if you would consider some kind of remote working too. Thank you

</comment><comment><USER4> London (UK) (as well as Boston US, if you prefer that) - youDevise, Ltd.

We're a 90-person financial-software firm committed to learning and improvement as well as great web software and agile development. Some of you may know us from our sponsorship of Hacker News meetups in London. We're hiring developers and other smart folks of many kinds. See <https://dev.youdevise.com> and <http://www.youdevise.com/careers>.

While we don't have remote workers, we do help successful candidates relocate to London or Boston including arranging visas where needed. For example, last year we hired HN readers from Denmark and the US, and we moved a Polish employee to Boston.

</comment><comment><USER5> Forward Internet Group in London, UK: <http://www.forward.co.uk>

We're a young entrepreneurial company that bootstrapped its way from its founder bedroom to a 150-strong company with very healthy profits in 6 years without any external capital.

We are behind uswitch.com, getinvisiblehand.com, omio.com, justcages.co.uk, petvillas.co.uk, forward3d.co.uk etc. You can take a look at who we are and what we do at <http://www.forwardtechnology.co.uk>.

We have been doubling our revenues every single year (up to £118m in 2010) and plan to continue to do it as long as possible. So, we need great people!

We're looking for great developers (and many other roles too) to work on a variety of exciting online projects. We use Clojure, Ruby, Hadoop, Node.js, Sinatra etc.

Above all we're looking for smart, ambitious, entrepreneurial people. Full job spec is here: <http://www.forward.co.uk/careers> or here: <http://www.forwardtechnology.co.uk/>

And it's fun to work here: you choose the hardware you want, you buy the books you need, the hours are flexible, no dress code, the people are reasonable and the entertainment budget is generous: for example the entire company hangs out in Las Vegas night clubs and casinos for 4 days every December, not to mention other trips.

To find out more email me at email@example.com with your CV.

p.s. sorry, all our devs are on-site, we don't hire remote devs. Also, given the recent changes to the immigration laws in the UK, it will be very challenging (maybe even impossible) for us to arrange a visa unless you're an EU national or already have a work permit.

</comment><comment><USER6> Google:

UK: <http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en/jobs/uk/swe/>

Paris: <http://www.google.fr/intl/fr/jobs/paris/>

Munich: [http://www.google.de/intl/en/jobs/germanylocations/munich/sw...](http://www.google.de/intl/en/jobs/germanylocations/munich/swe/index.html)

Other offices are hiring too, see <http://www.google.de/intl/en/jobs/locations/index.html>.

<comment><USER7> Zurich, Switzerland: <http://www.google.ch/jobs/zurich/swe/index.html>

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Sofa in Amsterdam - <http://www.madebysofa.com/jobs>

<comment><USER9> Looks like a great place to work...

<comment><USER8> It really is. I've been working at Sofa for almost 2 years with some of the most talented people I've ever met. I can't recommend it enough.

<comment><USER9> Still have a few months till I graduate and not the perfect fit for me, but otherwise :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> We (<http://www.josekibold.ro/jobs> ) are hiring a part-time junior researcher/student to work purely on Javascript type inference.

It is designed to be a remote job, but the pay isn't great since it's basically a sponsorship for students doing their University thesis. After the work/thesis is done, a full-time job offer might follow depending on results.

</comment><comment><USER11> Net-A-Porter is hiring; it's a very well-funded and very profitable company in central(ish) London, and is a Perl shop, although willing to consider non-Perl programmers who are willing to learn Perl instead!

[http://london.pm.org/pipermail/jobs/2011-February/000281.htm...](http://london.pm.org/pipermail/jobs/2011-February/000281.html)

</comment><comment><USER12> Timetric in London – python hacker into data (<http://timetric.com/about/jobs/>, if you email us say Hacker News sent you). We're funded and in White Bear Yard (<http://whitebearyard.com/>), which is a very cool place to work.

<comment><USER13> (Co-founder butting in here!) Also, we're generally always interested in people into data visualization and the UX around it - come and chat to us <firstname.lastname@example.com> if that's your sort of thing!

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Trendiction in Luxembourg:

<http://www.trendiction.com/> <http://blog.trendiction.com/tag/joboffer>

No remote.

Looking for 3-4 more java developers in the field of: - distributed large scale crawling, content extraction, data analysis - web applications

We crawl, analyze (extract article, author, date, theme, sentiment,...) and monitor websites (news, blogs, ...) for our clients.

You can contact me directly under firstname.lastname@example.com

</comment><comment><USER15> Covalent Software, Taunton, England (near Bristol)

Java developers wanting a great working environment, in Taunton. We've an expanding thick client app, we're already market leading in the UK for public sector and currently looking to expand into other markets and product areas. We hired the last guy who responded to a who's hiring post on HN and now need another excellent dev wanting to work in Taunton.

<http://www.covalentsoftware.com/company/careers.php>

</comment><comment><USER16> We (<http://labs.linkfluence.net/>) are a research company based in Paris, working on communication and product-oriented strategies by analyzing, segmenting, and mapping conversations which take place on social web communities. We develop a lot of technologies to harvest and analyse web data. We are looking for 2 developers (1 senior + 1 junior). More details are available here : <http://labs.linkfluence.net/jobs.html>

</comment><comment><USER17> connex.io in Zurich - Python Developer [http://blog.connex.io/connexio-is- looking-for-you-searching-...](http://blog.connex.io/connexio-is-looking-for- you-searching-a-fullt)

<comment><USER7> Nice to see a job posting from a Zurich-based startup here :)

<comment><USER17> Thanks giu. I guess you are based in Zurich as well. Up for a coffee some time?

<comment><USER7> Yes, I am. Sure, I'm up for it :)

<comment><USER18> Well, is this turning into a HN Zurich meetup thingie?

Could be interesting.

<comment><USER17> My email address is in my profile, just write me if you are interested in a meetup. I will then bundle those and start organizing. Inputs such as location etc. will be appreciated :-)

<comment><USER18> Will do so, this evening and think about locations in the meantime :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> We're looking for a Python/Django developer in Berlin, 1-2 days a week (long- term freelance): <http://www.jonasundderwolf.de>

<comment><USER20> Jonas, are you looking at telecommuting applicants too?

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Everything Everywhere Ltd. Two permanent "Senior Designer" positions based in Hatfield, UK. Looking for solid Erlang programming skills. Knowledge of IN/SS7 a bonus.

[http://www.orangejobs.co.uk/fe/tpl_orange01.asp?newms=jj&...](http://www.orangejobs.co.uk/fe/tpl_orange01.asp?newms=jj&id=78829&newlang=1)

Please ignore the C++/Java in the description. I'm looking for people who are currently programming in Erlang.

</comment><comment><USER22> We are just about to advertise two dev roles (mainly python). In London - <USER2> remote options.

Email me (address in profile) and I'll let you know when spec is live.

</comment><comment><USER23> We're recruiting a Polyvalent developer to work with Ruby/Rails/Sinatra, Javascript (jQuery), web services and capable of handling basic ops.

We're in Paris but we'll relocate in California(our market is in LA but the technical staff we'll maybe go to SF) by the end of the year for our launch in the US.

<http://letitcast.com>

edit: Remote working is an option

</comment><comment><USER24> LaterPay in Munich, Germany is hiring. We're building a next-generation payment platform for internet content.

LaterPay is looking for Python developers with Django experience and general knowledge about databases and "NoSQL" datastores. More details can be found here: <http://laterpay.net/unternehmen/wachsen-sie-mit-uns/>

</comment><comment><USER7> Wuala in Zurich, Switzerland: <http://www.wuala.com/en/about/jobs>

</comment><comment><USER25> If you like working with (advanced) Python in a wonderful city (Groningen, Netherlands) and with a team of great experts you should have a look here:

[http://www.python.org/community/jobs/#paylogic-nederland- bv-...](http://www.python.org/community/jobs/#paylogic-nederland-bv-groningen- the-netherlands)

</comment><comment><USER26> We are hiring a senior web developer for a well-funded Munich startup with interests in mobile applications and high quality standards. We develop code mostly in C, C++, ObjC, Python and Java. Our yet-to-launch product is a Spotify for ebooks. Get in touch with me for more details: firstname.lastname@example.com or +49 89 / 2429267-13

</comment><comment><USER27> Cambridge, UK - Ruby/Rails developer <http://about.nhs.info/>

<comment><USER28> I'd be a little hesitant about a Rails developer with all of the required skills in that job posting who'd take 25-40K in Cambridge. I know the economic climate isn't great but that's going to be a tricky role to fill.

<comment><USER27> Upvoted and I agree, we're offering equity (common stock) too (and have a pretty high valuation). We have four interviews lined up now for the next two weeks, it's not been easy though you're right. We ARE a startup (3 months old) though and bootstrapping still from the angel round, however, we're now in talks with a couple of VCs atm. Would be a good time to get in tbh. The job description and required skills is way too optimistic and we haven't used the one on the site for some time, I should update that to 'good developer who can learn on the job' :)

<comment><USER28> Training a competent developer across from another technology certainly seems to be popular in the UK nowadays, especially outside of London. I can't see why it wouldn't work. The equity point is interesting and does tip it in your favor somewhat.. Most of the comedy "senior" Rails developer ads offering 28K or whatever are at consultancies or agencies where the chance of any riches is extremely low ;-) Good luck!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Wordtracker are looking: <http://www.wordtracker.com/blog/rails-developer- position> \- would suit a Rails dev with decent experience, or maybe a PHP guy looking to move across to Ruby.

</comment><comment><USER30> Neofonie Mobile in Berlin - Android, iOS (also Grails) <http://mobile.neofonie.de/karriere/jobs>

Not speaking german is not a problem. As long as you speak english.

</comment><comment><USER31> Changer <http://www.changer.nl>

We're looking for a Python/Django developer and a .NET developer in Leidschendam, the Netherlands.

No remote work possible, sorry.

</comment><comment><USER32> Global Personals, based in Windsor, UK, are looking for smart developers to join our engineering team, as well as Rails devs: <http://globaldev.co.uk/jobs/>

</comment><comment><USER33> We're looking for freelance Drupal devs to work from anywhere, we're based in London though: <http://wemakewebsites.info/jobs>

</comment><comment><USER34> Sourcesense in several locations (Amsterdam, London, Milan, Rome)

<http://www.sourcesense.com/en/careers/>

</comment><comment><USER35> VouChaCha, a location based coupon start-up is hiring PHP developers in the UK with commercial Zend experience. firstname.lastname@example.com | www.vouchacha.com

</comment><comment><USER36> nurago.com in Germany (Hanover,Berlin,Hamburg) is looking for all-rounders with relevant experience in one or more of these areas: QA, Hadoop, Mobile.

Project Managers with background in market research and/or online advertising are also highly welcomed.

We conduct online research for clients like Google, eBay, Yahoo, MSN etc.

PM me for details.

</comment><comment><USER37> Criteo in Paris, is hiring dozens of engineers

</comment><comment><USER38> Wildfuse (<http://wildfuse.com>) in Prague and soon in Brno (CZ).

</comment><comment><USER39> T-Mobile is hiring hardware hackers, designers, interaction designers/developers.

PM me for details

</comment><comment><USER40> totemo in Zurich - www.totemo.ch: two junior java software engineers and one team leader

<comment><USER41> Are these positions available for remote work?

<comment><USER40> No, we'r sorry. The guys should move to Zurich

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> Anywhere specific in mind?

<comment><AUTHOR> Let's keep the thread generic. But personally, relocation is not a problem.

<comment><USER42> I'm a Tech recruiter. Not what you are looking for in here no doubt but I'm not the typical bottom feeding type with no soul.

I focus primarily on London but the company I work for has offices throughout Europe.

If you find yourself struggling, then give me a shout. My email is in my profile. Good luck!

<comment><USER43> Are tech recruiters as reviled as laywers now?

<comment><USER42> Close enough! Maybe not with the same level of disdain but I find the general consensus is that we have no idea what we are talking about, we are only interested in squeezing candidates for leads and that we like to pigeon-hole everyone we speak to into a specific role.

<comment><USER44> Those things are true for 99% of IT recruiters that I've encountered. What makes you different?

<comment><USER42>
      we have no idea what we are talking about

1st in Software Development from a leading tech institute. A few years practical experience as a developer. An active, ongoing interest in new technology coupled with a semi-impressive github profile.

      we are only interested in squeezing candidates for leads

If you offer me a lead, I'll take it. I don't however, speak to candidates with the intention of simply farming them for market info. I will only ever speak to a candidate if I legitimately think I can help them. Your time is just as valuable as mine and I've no interest in wasting either.

      we like to pigeon-hole everyone we speak to into a specific role

Key-word matching is what bad recruiters do. They also happen to be the same people who can't differentiate between Java & javascript. How am I meant to know what your perfect job is if I have never spoken to you? That's why I don't ring people with the intention of shoe-horning them into a generic job spec that's sitting on my desk.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Examples of things that are MORE successful due to coronavirus? - <AUTHOR> Some businesses/events/organisations have discovered they are MORE successful as whatever they morphed into due to coronavirus.
It would be great to read a list of them.
Here's an example:
Melbourne International Film Festival numbers way up as digital-only festival proves a huge hit.
https://www.theage.com.au/culture/movies/miff-audience-numbers-way-up-as-digital-only-festival-proves-a-huge-hit-20200820-p55nqh.html
Do you know of any business/organisation/event that has found that its new Covid/isolation/remote configuration works better than the old? <comment><USER2> E-Commerce, Shopify, Apps, Home Improvement / Hardware (Bunnings), Consumer Electronics & TV Sales (JB Hi-Fi, Amazon)

Acceptance of Government Authoritarianism and reduction of privacy to aid the fight against COVID-19. Nationalism, de-globalisation (closure of borders, lower interstate and international travel).

</comment><comment><USER3> Amazon, and other online businesses for sure. Netflix/Hulu because everyone has more time now at home. Gaming platforms and video games. Even those "meal boxes" services like hello fresh and blue apron

</comment><comment><USER4> Camping and outdoor activity, real estate prices, new housing starts. Sales of gym and excercise equipment, playgrounds, video games, really all the hobby sectors boats I think.

</comment><comment><USER5> mobile gaming, e commerce, pornographic websites, basically everything addictive and online...

</comment><comment><USER5> Another one, real estate...</comment>


Plusnet (UK ISP) using reversible encryption, pasting passwords to users - <AUTHOR> http://blog.timje.info/plusnet-needs-to-update-its-security/

<comment><USER2> Get them to lose more money than they gain by having this "feature" and they'll change.

<comment><AUTHOR> Short of actually hacking them, how do you propose to do that?

<comment><USER2> Have you noticed Target, Sony, Paris Hilton, and other hacking victims are still in business?

You could get promoted to support level two somehow. You could talk to them in person. You could have someone else do the hacking. Does the UK have a civil liberties union?

EDIT: you might be able to get someone they do business with to fine them for not following best security practices. But hacking seems ethical compared to that :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Tesco, not Tescos.

<comment><AUTHOR> Fixed, thanks</comment></comment>


Made in China 2025 - <AUTHOR> https://www.bbc.com/news/av/44652064/made-in-china-2025-how-china-aims-to-be-known-for-quality <comment><USER2> "Made in Japan" meant low quality in the west even in the 80's when it was not necessarily true anymore.

That's how Japan grew, that's how South Korea and Taiwan grew. And that's how China grew. Start making low quality items and gradually improve.</comment>


Clojure developers wanted in Copenhagen - <AUTHOR> http://www.skm.dk/ministeriet/ministeriet/job/it-udviklere-til-nyt-ejendomsvurderingssystem/

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm starting up a new team in copenhagen, and we need solid developers, that knows functional programming, and especially Clojure, or who really want's to learn. The advert is in danish btw.

<comment><USER2> I can understand names of technologies/languages you use, but it would be nice to have offer in English.

p.s. I'm looking for a job in JVM languages in Western Europe or remote. Is Dutch mandatory at your place?

<comment><AUTHOR> It's danish, as is the company language, it being the Ministry of Taxation</comment></comment></comment>


Italian universities hacked (Story in Italian)  - <AUTHOR> http://www.repubblica.it/tecnologia/2011/07/06/news/hacker_di_nuovo_all_attaco_stavolta_delle_univesit_italiane-18761507/

<comment><AUTHOR> Translated with Google: THE EVENT Extremely serious hacker attack at Italian universities Stolen sensitive data of thousands of people including students and professors. Hit 18 universities including the one in Rome, Milan, Bologna, Turin, Naples, Bari Pages and pages of information with phone numbers, passwords, birth dates, names and surnames</comment>


Speak geek: The world of made-up language - <AUTHOR> http://www.reghardware.com/2010/11/17/languages_of_the_geeks/

<comment><USER2> A somewhat old article. The D'Armand Speers-teaching-his-son-Klingon story will probably persist long into Dr Speers' eighties.

I participated in a little __Hol veS __with Arika Okrent on a radio programme a while back. It was a challenge, and I won with honour.

I think that the people who mock conlangs the most tend to come from monoglot environments, so probably even those people, who seek to study natlangs outside of the one language they know, may baffle and perplex the monoglots.

Those who come from bilingual or polyglot backgrounds (myself included), on the other hand, would probably consider conlangs as just yet more, different languages to add to the lists of those languages they already know.</comment>


Things you can do with a browser in 2020 - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/luruke/browser-2020 <comment><USER2> As a user, so many of these I wish did NOT exist. E.g: Push Notifications, Banners, Web Share, Contacts, Page Visibility, Badging.

Uncertain about USB, Bluetooth, Locks, Keyboard Lock, and Native File System.

I don't _want_ my browser doing those things.

<comment><USER3> Then you're out of step with what users want these days.

Nothing wrong with that! But to take an example, when I hit a share button on a page I want to see the native share box, not some hideous iframed monstrosity that only works with Facebook. So I want Web Share. And I don't want to download an entire native app just so that I can receive a push alert when my food order is on the way, a web site works much better for that. So I'm happy that Web Push exists.

I get the nostalgia for the "simpler days", but web browers are essentially a universal OS these days. As both a user and a developer I'm quite happy with this.

<comment><USER4> I prefer copying the link to the page I'm on to share. No popups, native or otherwise.

Similarly, I like not having an app running so that you could just send me a text. Sms is bad for security, but great see sending short notifications. Almost better, as it is so limited.

<comment><USER5> FYI on Chrome/Brave Android, when you use 'share' button -> copy URL, it uses link rel=canonical meta tag if available (which generally doesn't have all FB tracking crap in the URL etc.)

Much better than directly copying the URL.

<comment><USER6> Or you could just trim the URL yourself.

<comment><USER7> Which is a behaviour I observed in most power users, but none in the non-power user group.

I don't think most non-power user even want to try to trim that stuff, because they don't know what can be trimmed and what can't.

<comment><USER5> Yep unfortunately true. I recently saw an official document from local CDC in my home country. There were two URLs "find more info at" in the document:

file:///C:/Users/blabla/something.pdf

httpx://who.int/something?fbclid=<200-hundred-chars>

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> A few things that aren't mentioned:

\- Web MIDI - access digital keyboards/synthesizers. I believe in some browsers there's no prompt, unlike Web USB.

\- Screen sharing via getDisplayMedia, analogous to getUserMedia for cameras.

\- WebRTC, peer-to-peer connections.

\- Security keys (WebAuthn), specific support for cheap ($10-$50 depending on features) devices that do second-factor login to websites. Importantly, these devices communicate with the browser about which site you're logging into, making for phishing-proof logins.

<comment><USER9> Is WebRTC really peer-to-peer if you need a server?

<comment><USER10> A while back I wrote a screen sharer that uses WebRTC and Gun.js for signaling [0]. Nowadays you could use IPFS's JS lib to do this (or webtorrent even). Now if both people are behind a restrictive NAT or something, you do need a TURN server.

0 - [https://myscreen.live](https://myscreen.live)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Worth noting is that "prefers-color-scheme" works in _all_ major OSes at this point, mobile and desktop. If your site already has a dark theme, there is no reason at all not to be integrating it this way.

Even if you don't have a dark theme already, it's a huge value-add..... (@dang?)

<comment><USER12> Yes, it's such an obscure feature that many of the people who enable it don't even realize it... Ever since I added dark mode to gwern.net, I've been getting or seeing complaints about how my website is broken or 'defaults to black-on-white' (it doesn't). :(

<comment><USER13> Looks like we need prefers-prefers-color-scheme

<comment><USER12> But then what happens when they forget opting into the opting in?!

<comment><USER12> In all seriousness, because people keep not realizing or forgetting, we're adding a 'theme switcher' little widget. I dislike the need, but lots of people genuinely like dark mode, and this seems to be the best compromise.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> This list doesn't include the Screen Capture API.

[https://www.w3.org/TR/screen-capture/](https://www.w3.org/TR/screen-capture/)

[https://developer.mozilla.org/en- US/docs/Web/API/Screen_Capt...](https://developer.mozilla.org/en- US/docs/Web/API/Screen_Capture_API/Using_Screen_Capture)

[https://www.webrtc-experiment.com/getDisplayMedia/](https://www.webrtc- experiment.com/getDisplayMedia/)

</comment><comment><USER15> > Browsers can register push notifications

Oh yes I didn't notice EVERY PAGE on the planet asking me for that.

(After asking me for e-mail newsletter signup and cookie consent.)

<comment><USER16> Firfox recently changed this so that you have it can only be invoked from within a button click or equivalent event[0] - I _think_ Chrome is following suit.

0 - [https://developer.mozilla.org/en- US/docs/Web/API/Push_API](https://developer.mozilla.org/en- US/docs/Web/API/Push_API)

<comment><USER17> Yeah, and this works somewhat but sites just listen for the events on every element and trigger the popup then.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> For anyone wondering how well supported these features are globally (from caniuse):

prefers-color-scheme: 80.85%

prefers-reduced-motion: 84.05%

Payment Request API: 90.06%

Web Share API: 49.25%

Push API: 78.57%

Service Workers: 94.42%

Web/native app install banners: 68.19%

Get Installed Related Apps API: Not launched, 0%

WebXR: 61.83%

Picture-in-Picture: 85.01%

Media Session API: 66.31%

Chrome Sender API: 64.75%

AirPlay: Unknown

Force Touch API: 55.74%

AR Quick Look: Unknown

GamePad API: 95.18%

WebUSB API: 65.27%

Web Bluetooth API: 68.6%

Web Locks API: 67.43%

Keyboard Lock: 30.47%

Generic Sensor API: 67.43%

Credential Management API: 70.86%

Clipboard API: 70.86%

Presentation API: 15.24% full support, 80.14% partial

Screen Orientation API: 76.16%

getUserMedia camera selection: 93.48%

Pointer Lock (Mouse Lock): 55.06%

Theme Color: 37.39%

Vibration API: 77.13%

Web Coffee API: Unknown

Battery Status API: 72.36%

Page Visibility API: 97.44%

Web Speech API: 92.88%

<comment><USER19> The web coffee API is a troll FYI. There is no covfefe protocol.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> I had no idea the Web Coffee API was so mature.

<comment><USER21> Why is this even an API?

Seems like a joke API rather than something actually useful.

<comment><USER22> Go click the link in the github repo, it's actually very cool

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> ... and Safari still holding out on web push - this lack is a reason many native apps get written.

<comment><USER24> I'm not sure why I read this in a negative tone, this is fantastic.

<comment><USER23> I'm not sure about other browsers, but Firefox asks once per website that wants a push, and even that can be turned off.

What's fantastic about not even having the option? What's fantastic about having to pay $100/year or reinstall your apps once a week, in addition to having Apple MITM any notifications?

<comment><USER17> Battery life is the main reason for this it seems. It's not about "having the option" it's "if you give devs the option they will use it leading to an overall worse experience." Web push notifications can't possibly leverage the single low-power TCP connection that iOS (and Android with gplay) devices keep open.

Push notifications in the way that phones do it are necessarily platform and service specific.

You don't have to allow Apple to MITM your push notifications BTW. Just send a generic ping to your app, and when it wakes up pull the actual content from your server and display the notification.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> [https://whatwebcando.today](https://whatwebcando.today)

</comment><comment><USER26> browsers are truly a universal too and a great equalizer. not only do they enable open platforms, away from the walled gardens. they also provide a way to share software for 94% majority. But alas, people these days are fighting against browsers. heck a good portion of web developers out there don't know semantic html or what good it can do. they were raised in the SPA era. view source is now foreign to most people. or that html pages are automatically cached for offline is foreign to most people too. what a sad state of affairs.

</comment><comment><USER27> This is a great list some of these APIs look pretty interesting and didn't know about them this is a great list.

Push notifications are becoming an irritation mainly because of their overuse. The number of sites where you go to them to have a look at one piece of information and you have to tell them no to push notifications is becoming quite an annoyance.

<comment><USER28> This was an example of where web developers really should've known better in advance. They literally coded an intentional new way for people to make popup ads, and it's the primary use of the web notifications API.

I regularly hear of complaints about spammy popups on people's computers, even when they don't "have the web browser open". And it turns out it's just stock Google Chrome, doing exactly what Google Chrome was designed to do: Pop up ads, that everyone has since started shipping ads through.

<comment><USER27> I believe Brave has them disabled by default or an option for it. It is a shame a good feature has been abused, but yes you are right it is to be expected.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Suggestion: add a rough indicator of what platforms support each feature. You could link to the relevant page on [https://caniuse.com/](https://caniuse.com/) but even a very quick "Supported: Mobile Safari, Chrome on Desktop" sentence next to each one would be enormously useful.

<comment><USER11> Each link already goes to MDN, which has its own rough chart of browser support

<comment><USER30> I clicked the Web Credentials link, and was disappointed to be redirected to google's docs :P

[https://developer.mozilla.org/en- US/docs/Web/API/Credential_...](https://developer.mozilla.org/en- US/docs/Web/API/Credential_Management_API)

<comment><USER11> Ah. Well at least some of them go to MDN...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> The credential management api is super annoying. Many websites now have a very annoying sign in with google dialog whenever I visit them and there's no way I can find to disable it.

<comment><USER32> The Credential Management API is more like a API in to the browser's password manager. A page can save a username/password/token into secure storage (which the browser can sync to your other devices) and later retrieve it. This is nice because we don't have to rely on autofilling form field heuristics.

You're thinking of Google's One Tap, which is just a JS snippet that publishers include on their page, and has nothing to do with browser APIs. (The OP shows a screenshot of One Tap, which is confusing.)

These uBlock filters will make those sign up with Google popups go away entirely:

      ||accounts.google.com/gsi/iframe/select?*ux_mode=popup$all
      ||smartlock.google.com

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> Some people want a laptop that can make waffles, wash and iron clothes, vacuum the carpet, paint walls, repair blacktop and work as a vibrator.

My needs are simple. I want a small, rock-solid, terminal that is dedicated to HIGHLY secure and federally guaranteed transactions on a publicly funded military grade network for: Banking, Bill Payment, Tax payments, Voting.

I do not want it to take photos, listen to me, show advertisments, play games, stream media, maps, start coffee machines, do email and chat, play audio/video files, draw graphics or change themes.

And any "browser" that can do these additional functions should be banned from connecting to the high security network under penalty of death.

Very simple.

</comment><comment><USER34> Why should a browser be allowed to check for device battery life? That seems wayyy off limits

<comment><USER35> It has been deprecated because of privacy concerns, so it will probably be removed from browsers soon.

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> This article needs a complement: Things you can't do with a browser in 2020.

</comment><comment><USER37> Picture-in-Picture works great for Facebook videos, FB stops playing videos when the window is not focused, so this feature it's amazing :D

<comment><USER38> It's a hack that shouldn't even be necessary. It's none of FB's business whether its window is focussed.

<comment><USER39> In AwesomeWM (a linux window manager), we have APIs to lie to windows. Telling youtube it is in fullscreen mode when it isn't is very useful. A lot of websites have much better fullscreen / mobile modes.

(disclaimer, I am one of the dev)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> Mount and Unmount a VHD File in Windows Explorer via a Right-Click

[https://www.howtogeek.com/51174/mount-and-unmount-a-vhd- file...](https://www.howtogeek.com/51174/mount-and-unmount-a-vhd-file-in- windows-explorer-via-a-right-click/)

</comment><comment><USER41> What seperates psychological warfare from marketing?

If you pay attention to advertising for a week, you will be marginally educated on what the advertiser wants you to know about their products and services; this has some economic utility as you cannot buy what you don't know exists.

If you pay attention to psychological warfare for a week, first off you at bare minimum will not be happy or content as you are not buying if you are content or happy; they must torture you through mechanisms of persuation and manipulation in order to manufacture a desire. Once that is done, then they try to train you to have desirable habits to them; as a famous example McDonalds happy meals for kids creating obese adult customers 30 years later. If the food didn't have a serious downside (didn't literally injure you and make you depressed) you wouldn't come back to the restaraunt later for your momentary allevation of that depression\for a fix.

Now, Go try to find reliable information on Coronavirus. Which one of those is going on 99% of the time? The sales funnel is really training you to be the product for them.

The web is funded by marketers who engage in pyschological warfare for profit, no feature they will ever impliment is designed to make you happy, and technologists have tremendous profit motive to make up all sorts of excuses as to why this behaivour is acceptable when clearly it is destructive to both themselves and the web.

Browsers today are trying to become an operarting system so they have absolute conrtrol over the user experience and as they do that they are on a slow march towards building an unbelievably bloated application who's philosophy is to confuse, distract, and screw you at every turn all while managing your perception.

Case in point, it would take hours for me to research how to turn off all of those features as I don't need them and there's no mechanism in Firefox or Chrome to backup settings which those browsers reset randomly and intentionally.

So call these things what they are; at best, bloat, at worst, a stock pump and dump scheme combined with a tremendous waste of time.

</comment><comment><USER42> I'm rather sad that for example Battery API is deprecated... possibly might need a browser-wide toggle, but still... It can both be cool, and useful....mostly cool, though... you could have a complete web desktop (there several web desktops, and even more "fake" ones, like windows93) that shows the status, or a webpage that switches to dark mode with minimal javascript and theming, when battery is low, or a low distraction writing environment for example, that still notifies you of low battery, etc... more and more people are using battery-powered devices ;)

<comment><USER43> > a webpage that switches to dark mode with minimal javascript and theming, > when battery is low

Please don't arbitrarily change the theme of the website I'm using based on my battery level.

> a low distraction writing environment for example, that still notifies you > of low battery

My system does this.

<comment><USER44> > Please don't arbitrarily change the theme of the website I'm using based on > my battery level.

Yeah, just base your theme off of the dark mode setting. Then if the _system_ changes to dark mode when battery is low, your app can follow suite.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> I really, really, really wish iOS allowed push notifications through Safari. So many PWA ideas I want to explore are instantly stifled by that omission.

<comment><USER46> Is there no alternative way?

<comment><USER45> You can ask your users to download a third party app like PushBullet, but that's very lame and unprofessional.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER47> More like a "things Chrome can do in 2020".

<comment><USER48> Nearly all of these are supported by Firefox as well. Apple is slower at implementing Safari features, but most of the important ones work (prefers- color-scheme, for example).

</comment></comment><comment><USER49> I like the Intersection Observer:

[https://developer.mozilla.org/en- US/docs/Web/API/Intersectio...](https://developer.mozilla.org/en- US/docs/Web/API/Intersection_Observer_API)

</comment><comment><USER50> I fell for the coffee API It was half believable because of the teapot statue code.

</comment><comment><USER51> Of course this one goes where you'd expect... [https://github.com/luruke/browser-2020#web-coffee- api](https://github.com/luruke/browser-2020#web-coffee-api)

</comment><comment><USER52> See also, from yesterday: "The reckless, infinite scope of web browsers"

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22615894](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22615894)

</comment><comment><USER53> I am concerned that the "dark mode" and "reduce motion" detection features can be used for browser & OS fingerprinting. Does anyone know if any countermeasures are in place against that?

<comment><USER43> I think prefers-color-scheme was actually held up for a while due to fingerprinting concerns.

</comment></comment><comment><USER54> Additionally, here is a list of what browsers _will_ be able to do:

[https://goo.gle/fugu-api-tracker](https://goo.gle/fugu-api-tracker)

</comment><comment><USER55> So, uh, [https://github.com/luruke/browser-2020#web-coffee- api](https://github.com/luruke/browser-2020#web-coffee-api)

</comment><comment><USER56> I think WebUSB is all but dead. See: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22228879](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22228879)

<comment><USER57> It is very much not dead and is used for educational products all the time.

We use it ourselves for our internal ecommerce backend system.

We made our own WebUSB Postage Scales and Label Printer that enables 1-click creation of consignment labels.

We pull weights from the postage scales and chuck raw ZPL over the wire to the Label Printer.

Being able to skip the bugs in operating system printing queues is amazing.

Demo:

[https://vimeo.com/334547755/c387957a25](https://vimeo.com/334547755/c387957a25)

<comment><USER58> It's also used to flash Android devices too.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER59> Web Coffee API link tells you everything you need to know.

<comment><USER42> no, it doesn't tell me why there isn't a Web Team API ;p

<comment><USER42> *Tea, not Team

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER60> Surprised to find out covfefe is an actual protocol.

<comment><USER61> The documentation goes in much more detail.

</comment></comment><comment><USER62> If you'd have told me in 2010 that this would be the state of the art of the web in 2020, I'd have been sorely disappointed...

<comment><USER63> personal opinion -- almost all of these features are really cool to me as a user and a developer.

just shows, everyone's got an opinion.

</comment></comment><comment><USER64> This is an excellent resource to have when problem solving or brainstorming solutions.

Anyone know if something like this exists for Android and iOS?

</comment><comment><USER65> Who seriously thought the Battery Status API was a good idea? Someone thought this was useful enough to write a spec for it...

<comment><USER66> I suppose you're doing what might be a resource intensive task and want to be sure you don't kill the battery.

Granted I get folks might feel a rando website that is resource intensive would be horrific, but maybe we're talking about some specific web app / use case.

<comment><USER67> Even so, I think battery API is not the proper way to do it. Some sort of interrupt command (like UNIX has) may be better.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER68> Sigh. I fell for the Web Coffee API link. I saw mention of a covfefe protocol and was excited to read about it.

<comment><USER69> I did the same. I was hoping for an HTCPCP-like W3C specification that I had somehow missed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER70> Payments API is lit. Didn't realize I could do it from the browser!

</comment><comment><USER58> Hahahaha. There's an amazing flattering IR photo of me in there :)

</comment><comment><USER71> Wow "Web Coffee API" \- something I didn't know I needed

</comment><comment><USER72> I guess we can apply Greenspun's rule to modern browsers:

"Any sufficiently complicated browser contains an ad-hoc, informally- specified, bug-ridden, slow implementation of half of operating system."

</comment><comment><USER73> Can I create water, that I can _feel_?

</comment><comment><USER74> Looking at these, I feel that browsers do way too many things than they should.

<comment><USER67> Yes, I and others commented on other threads about such thing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER75> things you could do, if the browser supported them

</comment><comment><USER76> ...love a bit of rick astley with my morning Covfefe....

</comment><comment><USER77> The Web Coffee API ([https://github.com/luruke/browser-2020#web-coffee- api](https://github.com/luruke/browser-2020#web-coffee-api)) is my favorite of the bunch. I definitely recommend checking out the linked WHATWG documentation, as well as the relevant RFC for the HTTP protocol: [https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2324](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2324)

What can't a browser do these days?

<comment><USER78> > What can't a browser do these days?

Detect that you're _paying for bandwidth_ and not autoplay video.</comment></comment>


Education Dept. rejects most applicants for student loan forgiveness program - <AUTHOR> https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-student-loan-forgiveness-education-department-betsy-devos-20190403-story.html <comment><USER2> I started law school shortly after the PSLF program was created. The program created a loan forgiveness option after 10 years of qualifying public service. The criteria for qualification are clearly specified up front. Among other things, you need to make 120 monthly payments on a qualifying income-driven repayment plan. None of these criteria are arbitrary or hard to understand.

Nonetheless, because so many people couldn't figure it out, Congress allocated an _additional $700 million_ to help those folks. But, as far as I can tell from the article, the people being denied are the ones who still can't figure it out. 28,640 of the 38,640 had not previously applied for loan forgiveness. Of course those people must be rejected--this $700 million is a _supplemental program_ for people who goofed up and got rejected from the regular PSLF. It would make no sense to let people get money from that program before they were rejected from regular PSLF. The other reasons for rejection are even more meritorious. If you haven't been paying for 10 years, or were paying less on your incorrect plan than you would have under the PSLF plan, you shouldn't get loan forgiveness--you haven't paid in what you were supposed to. Likewise, the federal government cannot do anything about private student loans. It goes without saying that people who don't have 10 years in a qualifying public- service job shouldn't get forgiveness. Literally every reason mentioned in the article for rejecting these applications are good reasons for rejecting these applications.

<comment><USER3> OK so let's back up and look at this from a higher level.

A program that is supposed to help 10s of thousands of students ends up helping very few. Does this mean that all the rejected people are lazy, stupid, or grifters? Or is the program implemented poorly?

<comment><USER2> This is not a welfare program for needy people. It's a transactional arrangement with specific terms for college and graduate-school educated people. The government should be able to expect that the applicants will be able to dot their Is and cross their Ts.

<comment><USER4> Why are there any Is to dot and Ts to cross at all? Why isn't the application:

      Name: _________________
      Taxpayer ID: __________

? The government should be able to figure out from that what government loans you have that are eligible for the program, and if you've satisfied ongoing payment requirements. They should be able to figure out from your income tax returns if you are working in a qualifying public service job.

<comment><USER5> As it turns out, random government agencies can't just data mine your tax returns, bank accounts, and payment history from a third party servicer.

To build the infrastructure to do this would cost the government probably $100 billion. See healthcare.gov for an example where they tried to do something similar.

<comment><USER6> Healthcare.gov was insanely successful after the initial poor launch (the initial launch was poor only because the Supreme Court struck down certain aspects of the law, which meant that the entire scope of healthcare.gov changed overnight).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> FTA:

        In response to an inquiry from Kaine, the Education Department
        disclosed last week that 38,460 people had submitted requests
        for forgiveness as of Dec. 28 under the new program. Most of
        those, 28,640 people, were immediately rejected because they
        had not previously filled out a formal loan forgiveness
        application — one of the many criteria of the relief program.

        Of the 9,820 applicants who cleared the first hurdle, 1,184
        are still under consideration. The rest were rejected for
        myriad reasons. Of the applicants who cleared the initial
        hurdle, 40% still had years to go before hitting the required
        10-year mark. Nearly a quarter were ineligible because they
        were paying less money in the wrong payment plan than they
        would have in the correct one.

        Others were turned away for having the wrong type of federal
        loan — those originated by private lenders through the
        now-defunct Federal Family Education Loan Program. Some had
        not made enough on-time payments or had not had at least 10
        years of full-time employment certified by a qualifying
        employer, according to the department.

I really don't see the problem here. People aren't qualifying for the program (many in obvious ways, such as not meeting the 10 year minimum, or making on- time payments), and I'm supposed to (from the article's clear intent) feel outraged by this?

<comment><USER8> People aren't qualifying because, as the article points out, the requirements for the program are absurd. It's really apparent when you look at how little student debt has been forgiven compared to the amount allocated for the program.

<comment><USER2> What requirements are "absurd?"

<comment><USER9> From personal experience, I can tell you the requirement referenced in this snippet feels absurd:

"Others were turned away for having the wrong type of federal loan — those originated by private lenders through the now-defunct Federal Family Education Loan Program."

Federal loan? Check. Working for a 503c? Check. Oh, wait — the type of federal loan you took out is the wrong kind. So you need to consolidate under this other kind. And yeah, it resets it such that none of the payments you made for the past 10 years count.

I'm lucky enough that it personally doesn't really matter to me. I took on the loans for my education when the foregiveness program wasn't in existence so I certainly wasn't banking on a bailout. But the FFELP was still in existence when this program was being developed so I have no idea why those loans weren't included.

<comment><USER2> The government pays for PSLF, in part, through revenues brought in through federal loan programs. Why would PSLF apply to loans where a private lender is getting the interest payments?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Article is clear.

$700 million funding for this secondary phase program.

Only 262 applicants had success; 38,198 no success.

So program costs 2.67 million per successful applicant. With loans between a few thousand and a quarter million dollars. Let's say $40,000 on average, which is 10.5 million for all of them spent, and the remaining $690 million is thus the administrative overhead.

People OK with this seem to believe the $690 million in administrative overhead is money well spent and the $10.5 million spent on actual loan payouts is nearly an extravagance.

Interesting.

<comment><USER11> There's a not-insignificant school of thought in American politics that it is vastly more important to prevent people from getting benefits who are not ideal recipients than it is to make sure people who should get benefits do.

This spending ratio is in line with those priorities.

<comment><USER12> I'll bet you went to the same school as the OP.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> It's worth noting that there aren't many people who SHOULD be eligible for PSLF yet. This Forbes piece does the math:

[https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertfarrington/2019/01/22/why...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertfarrington/2019/01/22/why- the-public-service-loan-forgiveness-headlines-are-misleading/)

I say this as someone who has a lot of money on the line; I have been in an income based repayment plan for about nine years, work for a local government, have a Direct Loan, etc., etc.

We'll see how the program still stands when I'm actually eligible to apply in October 2020...

</comment><comment><USER14> There are some interesting case studies of these weird denials provided by 'jhfdbkofdcho below:

[https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/aba-news- archives/2...](https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/aba-news- archives/2019/02/judge-overturns-changes-to-student-loan-forgiveness-program- by-e/)

> _In a 54-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly said changes to > the eligibility requirements, made several years after the program began, > were "arbitrary and capricious." Kelly called one of the Education > Department's main arguments "nonsense" and said a series of internal > Education Department emails "decimates" another argument._

> _Kelly ruled in favor of three individual plaintiffs who worked several > years in public service and were initially approved for loan forgiveness, > only to be notified years later that the approval was retroactively denied > by the Education Department based on new rules._

[https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/18/borrowers-denied-public- serv...](https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/18/borrowers-denied-public-service-loan- forgiveness-file-lawsuits.html)

> _Here's another example but it's about being in the wrong loan program or > repayment plan. But the fact pattern is similar. The servicers and the dept > of Ed did a bad job implementing this program._

> _"Lawson-Ross said she spoke to staff at Great Lakes around 10 times to > confirm that she was on track for the forgiveness. "They told me, 'Don't > worry about it. You're good to go,'" she said. Had she known her loans > didn't actually qualify, she could have simply rolled them into a kind that > did."_

</comment><comment><USER15> It comes down to what the goal was of the program. Was it to issue $700MM and incentivize people to go into public service? If so then it really did fail if they only managed to dole out $10MM or so.

I would think the end goal would be that the program could say "Hey you gave us $700 MM and we managed to get all these public servants in it and on track".

</comment><comment><USER16> It took 8 requests from our end to get approval for my wife. We were rejected for the most ridiculous reasons on a 10 field form.

<comment><USER17> Rayiner has asserted with authority that you can't possibly end up in that situation if you and your wife have even basic reading comprehension skills once, let alone 7 times.

Can you provide examples of these ridiculous reasons so we can either conclude that the two of you are indeed invalids, or so he can re-evaluate his assumptions and perhaps stop denigrating folks like yourself?

<comment><USER14> Please don't be so confrontational. This forum depends on constructive engagement to be useful.

<comment><USER17> Are you kidding? _That's_ what passes for confrontational now? You kids, I tell ya ;)

It was very slightly snarky perhaps, but appropriate to make a point. Maybe it's better to hold off on the assumptions that everyone else must just be idiots. I'm fine with someone deciding that they are indeed idiots, but at least ask some questions and get their side first before declaring them so to the whole internet. Shit is rarely as simple as it might seem to an outsider. I doubt anyone who can manage to register for HN could fuck up the forgiveness application 7 times if the process was truly as simple as claimed.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> The fact that there is a need for such a program in the first place makes me uncomfortable. How bad has the student debt gotten to warrant such programs?

<comment><USER19> I don't blame student debt wholly for this, the second factor is that public sector jobs are somewhere between 1/2 to 2/3 of a private sector salary. There is also general hostility to match private sector salary with public funds (for many reasons) and the math just doesn't line up. This forgiveness program makes sense for some of the silliness of government funding and budget allocation but it doesn't make common sense. It also makes sense if salary is lower that you get some benefit for the fact you can't pay down loans aggressively to minimize the impact of interest.

I would also indicate that I feel like it's disingenuous to compare forgiveness programs of bachelors education compared to specialists like lawyers and PhD types where even state schools put you in the 80k+ club.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> I'm a little unclear why this is the taxpayer's burden to carry.

<comment><USER8> Should public workers be in debt for the rest of their life or should they be uneducated?

<comment><USER21> Maybe we should make educational debt dischargeable through bankruptcy.

<comment><USER22> Current "official" proposal is to make colleges pay share of the debt burden in case of the student's default to bind them with the risks.

<comment><USER21> ...I can't even. Why _not_ take a Byzantinely complex situation with a major flaw even more complex, instead of using a socially acceptable, simple solution that revolutionized human society for the better? I guess politicians have to put "plans" to their name, cant use something NIH

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Huh, isn't at all like the stop-loss payment program they had for military personnel.

They sent a bunch of letters which I ignored because (I thought) I didn't qualify until the last one with "Final Notice" so I figured why not? A while later they sent me a check for something like $2,600 -- they were literally begging me to take their money.

</comment><comment><USER24> well yes, because loan forgiveness is only for corporations.

<comment><USER25> Money for GM is ok but not for increasing the quality of public teachers.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> This program seems to be poorly structured - the loan forgiveness schedule should not be 0% for 10 years and then suddenly 100%.

</comment><comment><USER27> A shocking example of the federal government actually doing good work.

The article explains the reasons for the rejections. It's pretty clear that rules were established and are being followed.

</comment><comment><USER28> If I needed any more of a sign to get out of public education, this is it.

</comment><comment><USER29> Yes, if you have a good reason to reject a loan forgiveness application, you should reject it.

I don't even agree with the concept of outright forgiveness of a loan without collateral without some genuine settlement; but surely a program like this needs some standards even if you don't disagree with the basic concept.</comment>


Pretty State Machine Patterns in Rust - <AUTHOR> https://hoverbear.org/2016/10/12/rust-state-machine-pattern/ <comment><USER2> Can't say I get much about the article, but the phrase "Pretty State Machine" has a certain industrial flair.

<comment><USER3> I'm almost certain it's a reference to Nine Inch Nails "Pretty Hate Machine"

<comment><AUTHOR> That and [http://prettystatemachine.blogspot.de/](http://prettystatemachine.blogspot.de/) :)</comment></comment></comment>


Google now answers "what is my ip"? - <AUTHOR> http://www.google.com/search?&q=what+is+my+ip <comment><USER2> DuckDuckGo also has this feature for the privacy-concerned.

</comment><comment><USER3> they just put many companies out of the business :)

</comment><comment><USER4> or just "ip"</comment>


Apple-Samsung case is 'far from over' - <AUTHOR> http://money.cnn.com/2012/08/27/technology/apple-samsung/index.html

<comment><USER2> This is a pretty mediocre article, but the specific topic is interesting. I've gone from being bummed on the verdict -- to me, it's like Kraft getting exclusive rights to make cheddar cheese (they really don't do it well) -- to being kinda stoked on it.

Virtually everybody on this forum (except Nathan Myhrvold's paid agents, perhaps) knows that the US patent system is _completely fucked_ ; still, there's been little hope of getting even 1% of Americans to appreciate the problems with it.

But, this Apple case, I think, breaks it down in a way such that _many_ more people can see the flaws in the system. And the jury errors probably increase that understanding (even though they logically shouldn't).

Nobody thinks that any company should have exclusive rights to pinch-to-zoom, the steering wheel, or cheddar cheese. And this case is actually helping to simplify that proposition for a lot of people who don't have a technical background or a lot of extra time to ponder such issues.</comment>


WebAssembly First Public Working Drafts - <AUTHOR> https://www.w3.org/blog/news/archives/6838 <comment> Ono-Sendai Had a quick look through, looks interesting. Some thoughts

* Only 32-bit address space (although they do say "Future version of WebAssembly might provide memory instructions with 64 bit address ranges")

* Webassembly is pretty low level. Just 4 basic types (integers, floats). No C-style structures even. This is lower level than e.g. LLVM IR, and lower level than the Java VM.

* No garbage collection support.

I hope Webassembly can be used from not just Javascript, but something like C++, directly.

<comment><USER2> I would say that 32bit are more than enough for most web applications. I struggle to recall any web application that would require more than 4GB of RAM to run.

<comment><USER3> Desktop applications are increasingly moving to the web. Regardless of whether you think this is a good thing, the standard has to take that into account.

<comment><USER2> I doubt that every single desktop application will move into the web for a good long while, long enough to have a smooth transition from 32bit to 64bit if necessary, though I doubt applications that need more will use WASM.

<comment><USER3> > I doubt that every single desktop application will move into the web for a > good long while

Oh sure, personally I hope it'll never quite happen. But It'll get there and a standard needs to be forward-facing.

<comment><USER4> so once all desktop is in the browser, can we then make the browser the sole interface, and all in one stroke have desktop apps again? Ouroboros eh?

<comment><USER5> WebAssembly apps don't _have_ to be hosted on the web, or run in a browser. They will, almost exclusively, because the "browser as OS" model is what modern web developers have fixated on, because of javascript. But, there's no reason users couldn't install and run WASM natively as well.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The asp.net team is already hard at work on the Blazor project a web UI framework using C#/Razor and HTML. [https://github.com/aspnet/Blazor](https://github.com/aspnet/Blazor)

<comment><USER7> It uses JavaScript for DOM?

<comment><USER8> No. I'm imagining it doesn't even have a traditional DOM. It's using it's own custom rolled framework and web assembly which makes the browser like a blank canvas. Super cool.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I really love the idea of WebAssembly but am super intimidated by it. Being a junior frontend dev it seems like a really powerful piece of tech that could go in a million directions in the future.

My big hangup is understanding a low level use case for it. I've console.logged in wasm but only knowing javascript I don't know where to go from here. Is the idea that you can utilize packages in any language then rebuild it in js?

<comment><USER10> With enough luck and given time you will be able to skip JS at all! If the community will find the life force after wasting many years on SPA, then we might even see some HTML—near-free canvas/WebGL GUIs!

<comment><USER11> Microsoft is already doing it with .NET, others as well.

Expect the revenge of browser plugins.

<comment><USER12> no way a .net plugin become mainstream, thankfully we left behind java-like- plugins.

<comment><USER11> Sorry to disappoint you, but everyone is on the WebAssembly race, all plugins will be back, like it or not.

[https://github.com/appcypher/awesome-wasm- langs](https://github.com/appcypher/awesome-wasm-langs)

[https://github.com/mbasso/awesome-wasm](https://github.com/mbasso/awesome- wasm)

As for Microsoft, they just announced the Blazor project.

[https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/webdev/2018/02/06/blazor- ex...](https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/webdev/2018/02/06/blazor-experimental- project/)

Thank browser developers for opening the pandora box.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I hope this is the future of the web.

If the DOM gets accessible from wasm, we'll finally be able to avoid using javascript entirely.

It's crazy how much time and effort are necessary to finally be able to make a piece of software work on any computer, without having to make different high level graphical API work together.

The cherry on top would be to have both the dom AND websockets.

<comment><USER14> Well, if it will support the DOM I believe it will support any web API(i.e. including websockets)

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Is anyone else afraid that this will enable a "Tower of Babel" effect where the coming sheer profusion of languages will fragment web programming into dozens of competing, mutually-incomprehensible linguistic camps.

Javascript sucks, but at least it's the web's lingua franca.

<comment><USER5> >Is anyone else afraid that this will enable a "Tower of Babel" effect where the coming sheer profusion of languages will fragment web programming into dozens of competing, mutually-incomprehensible linguistic camps.

That's already happening - web development seems to assume that compiling _to_ javascript from any one of a legion of languages should be standard practice.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> So you still need JS to load/compile wasm or do anything useful(i.e DOM)...what a disappointment!

<comment><USER17> Now that makes me wonder what the point of WASM is because we could have always transpiled code to JS

<comment><USER18> Performance. WebAssembly has no JIT stage, it gets AOT compiled straight to machine code. Plus, it gives (or will give) much lower-level access to features like threads and memory allocation.

<comment><USER19> > Plus, it gives (or will give) much lower-level access to features like > threads and memory allocation.

There's no reason JavaScript couldn't just have those features. It already has some amount of memory allocation control via ArrayBuffer & DataView.

<comment><USER20> You're describing asm.js which had significant issues as a compilation target. The generated javascript code was massive and it took several seconds just to parse it.

<comment><USER21> Related is a mozilla post on streaming wasm for big performance gains: [https://hacks.mozilla.org/2018/01/making-webassembly-even- fa...](https://hacks.mozilla.org/2018/01/making-webassembly-even-faster- firefoxs-new-streaming-and-tiering-compiler/)</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


How Mobile is Disrupting Even the Most Successful Internet Products - <AUTHOR> http://tomtunguz.com/mobile-frequency-of-use/ <comment><USER2> 110 times a day? Wow! The user interaction and ongoing connectivity that mobile provides is incredible.</comment>


Which music track you listen to while coding - <AUTHOR>

Hi there coders!<p>which music/sound track do you listen/suggest while you are coding. <comment><USER2> Anything I rate 4 stars or higher in my library I usually play while working. These tend to be songs I've listened to a lot so I don't think about them much while they are playing, a good thing when trying to focus (for this reason I avoid playing Last.fm radio during work… most of the time).

That being said I play BoA (Korean pop), Blutengel (German electronic/dance), Eisbrecher (German industrial) and Velcra (Finnish industrial) the most during that time.

</comment><comment><USER3> Most of the time i shuffle my music library. I skip tracks that distracts me easyly with gnome do. If i really need to concentrate, i prefer beethoven or dubstep.fm podcasts. In dubstep.fm podcasts, especially there is a dj named jungle visionary. I would recommend him.

</comment><comment><USER4> Gold Panda, Four Tet, Baths, Toro y Moi, Caribou, Pantha du Prince - [http://www.rhapsody.com/myrhapsody/playlists?playlistid=mp.1...](http://www.rhapsody.com/myrhapsody/playlists?playlistid=mp.145233611)

<comment><USER5> I think you would like Bonobo. He released a really good album this year. And Flying Lotus as well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Classical Beethoven and Mozart and Pachelbel and Vivaldi

Or typical heavy metal.

</comment><comment><USER7> Instrumental. Cinemix on iTunes. Favorite is Hanz Zimmer's soundtracks.

<comment><AUTHOR> any specific?

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Led Zeppelin Indian Classical (Raag Deshkaar) Instrumental

</comment><comment><USER9> Deadmau5, almost exclusively, or Groovesalad from soma.fm.

</comment><comment><USER10> Tech house, mostly. Or warp/rephlex/mu stuff.

</comment><comment><USER11> Lady Gaga.

</comment><comment><USER12> ...whatever local radio plays.

<comment><USER13> You don't have a preference? Nothing stands out as better than the other? Can't even give us a genre?</comment></comment>


What happens to your Steam account when you die? - <AUTHOR> http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-10-06-what-happens-to-your-steam-account-when-you-die <comment><USER2> funny that the they write

"How much have you spent on your Steam account, do you reckon? Even if it's a rough estimate, try and come up with a figure"

without trying to check if there exist steam account value calculators such as [https://steamdb.info/calculator/](https://steamdb.info/calculator/) so people can't get extra disappointed in themselves</comment>