Intermediate Vim - <AUTHOR> https://dn.ht/intermediate-vim/ <comment><USER2> Maybe you can cover macros since they are conceptually very simple and very powerful.

They may seem a bit complex but are quite simple. Basically you just record your editing movements and play it back.

How macros work: press q x to record and q to end. Then repeat with @ x, where x is the name of the macro you want to use (you can have several macros). Anything you do will be played back. That's it... Conceptually simple.

A nice trick is to record a macro for a single line and place the cursor on the start of the next line at the end of the recording. This way it's possible to operate upon large blocks of text in a similar way by just repeating the macro. The key then is to use generic movements like "go to the beginning of line" (^), "go to the end of line" ($), "skip word" (w), etc.

As a silly toy example, if you have a list of strings in a text file, you can turn it into a list of quotes with (from the top of my head):

      qx<Home>i"<Esc>$i<Right>",<Down><Home><Esc>q

(Record macro, go to beginning of line, insert mode, write a quote, exit insert mode, go to end of line, insert mode, move right, write a quote and a comma, move down to next line, move to the beginning of line, exit insert mode, end macro recording)

Then to process 100 lines, you'd do:

100@x

That turns these:

      alpha
      bravo
      charlie
      delta
      ...

into

      "alpha",
      "bravo",
      "charlie",
      "delta",
      ...

If you have hundreds of lines of that you'll start to appreciate the easy automation.

I use macros to do drive-by mass-edits without resorting to sed, scripting, regular expressions etc. since the cognitive load of those is higher for me.

Edit: formatting

<comment><USER3> I've used vim for a couple of decades, but never pushed to many advanced features. For your example above I'd do :%s/^/"/ and :%s/$/",/

Unless I use a feature regularly I find it's a higher cognative load. I use bash, sed and perl regexps on a near daily basis. Macros are very rare.

<comment><USER4> For that same example, you can accomplish the job in one substitute command:

        :%s/.*/"&",/

The _&_ special character gets replaced with the whole matched pattern.

<comment><USER5> How do you escape the & character? I have been bit by this (not escaping &) a few times but never enough to have found the answer.

<comment><USER6> The same way you escape anything - with a \\. E.g. if you wanted to substitute the character x with the sequence &/\ you would type

:s/x/\&\/\\\

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'd highly recommend Drew Neil's Practical Vim[0] for much more like this; it's broken down into easy chunks and gets into the _why_ as well as the _how_ of Vim's techniques.

Modern Vim[1], mentioned elsewhere in the comments, covers more advanced Vim usage.

[0]: [https://pragprog.com/book/dnvim2/practical-vim-second- editio...](https://pragprog.com/book/dnvim2/practical-vim-second-edition)

[1]: [https://pragprog.com/book/modvim/modern- vim](https://pragprog.com/book/modvim/modern-vim)

<comment><USER8> Drew Neil also created great video tutorials, the vimcasts[1].

[1]: [http://vimcasts.org/episodes/](http://vimcasts.org/episodes/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I feel composing commands is where the real power of Vi(m) comes from. This can be really helpful to someone just starting out with Vim.

I got a boost in my Vim productivity after reading a similar StackOverflow answer a couple of years ago. It's a nice read for people familiar with Vim, and another good resource for new users.

"Your problem with Vim is that you don't grok vi." [https://stackoverflow.com/a/1220118](https://stackoverflow.com/a/1220118)

</comment><comment><USER10> I'm not sure I'd call any of this "intermediate" Vim. Most of it appears in vimtutor, and the rest in the "basic editing" portion of the reference manual.

<comment><USER11> Vim: difficult to learn, difficult to master.

Most of it is "intemediate".

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> For anybody who's found more IDE-y activities a bit beyond the current generation of VIM plugins (looking at you Typescript), the Vim plugins for VsCode and Visual Studio are actually surprisingly good and I find myself at least as productive as I do in Vim.

I imagine it might be quite a good starting point for somebody who's used to VsCode productivity but wanted to get into vim without going full vim!

<comment><USER13> The problem I have with those plugins is that I use a lot of split buffers not just for editing but also for exploring directories using :Explore for example. Some IDEs+vim plugins support horizontal splits but then when you have to jump between different modes such as explorer or console they use different shortcuts.

Nevertheless, I think that VIM support for IDEs has improved a lot these past years. VSCode and Jet brains have done an awesome work integrating it to their software.

<comment><USER12> I've managed to get the classic vim `<C>-w` + h|j|k|l working in VSCode. Sadly my convenient remapping of that doesn't work :(

My annoyances are pretty small: not being able to do `:e ` and then tab complete the directory structure and the fact that VSCode has splits with tabs rather than tabs with splits.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Hey all, I'm the author. Feedback is welcome! :)

The reason I wrote this is because I've been pair programming quite a bit lately and also mentoring some new vim users—so I wrote this little guide to help vim beginners level up their skills a bit.

What I noticed is that a lot of vim beginners find composing commands and text-objects to be kind of mind blowing.. and even more experienced vim users mentioned that these were the things that made them have that "aha" moment and convinced them to learn more.

<comment><USER15> Nice checklist...

I'm not quite convinced about this as general advice :

> If you're like me and never learned to touch type properly, just use the > arrow keys, it's fine, don't worry about it.

When I decided to go all-in on Vim keys some time ago (trying to find plugins for everything), it didn't take long to transition to hjkl. I think it's easier and more convenient to stay near the home row rather than moving my hand over for the arrows. I don't strictly touch type either.

<comment><USER16> Was going to comment the same. OP you must be a glutton for punishment if you can't touch type and are using vim

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> "If you're like me and never learned to touch type properly, just use the arrow keys, it's fine, don't worry about it."

Are touch typists rare these days? I feel like people these days forego even learning to type properly. I dont understand why they refuse to just learn it, it is such an essential skill to have.

<comment><USER18> We were taught to touch type in grade school, but I goofed off during those lessons. I got through college without needing it. I was a speedy point-and- peck typist, which was good enough for that period of my life.

Later on, when I learned to program, I found that my slow typing speed frequently caused me to lose my train of thought midway through a line of code. It was frustrating enough that I spent a month teaching myself to touch type. Basically, I took online typing tests over and over after work.

Since then, my typing speed has at least doubled. I don't look at the keyboard anymore, and I'm able to get my thoughts down with _much_ less friction. I can't recommend it enough.

<comment><USER19> Mind if I asked which course/website you used to learn how to type properly?

<comment><USER20> Idea for someone looking for something to build, on my list but probably won't prioritize it for many years as I'll build it eventually but would welcome someone else building it. If anyone wants to work on this ping me and maybe I can help collaborate/mentor.

Typing App for Engineers, MVP:

* Load a canvas with a preloaded code snippet, the text is mostly greyed out

* When typing your text shows over the greyed out text, but darker, red if the character doesn't match

* Time how long it takes to type it perfectly

Gold plating:

* Users can login

* Users can upload own code snippets for community contributions

* Leaderboard shows top times and users for those who typed it perfectly, only perfect scores are registered, because code must be perfect or it won't run.

This could also allow an engineer to learn APIs while learning to type. I did this with 60 or so pages of Drupal code a few years ago. I used Compiz fusion's overlay opacity control to put a loaded code snippet into VIM,reduced the opacity of the window slightly, then laid another VIM terminal on top of it, reduced the opacity of that terminal window so I could see behind it and started typing the slightly greyed out text from the window behind.

Been meaning to put this out on my blog but this is a good start.

<comment><USER18> I was actually learning React around the time I was learning to touch type. So, naturally, my first project was to build a typing test[0] :) Looking back, I cringe at the code quality. But it worked and I had fun doing it. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

I like the idea of typing out code though! I think there are some sites that do that, like [https://typing.io/](https://typing.io/)

[0] [https://github.com/breyerjs/typequick](https://github.com/breyerjs/typequick)

<comment><USER20> SWEET! Typing.io is perfect and almost* exactly what I was intending to build. Can even upload own samples, and it focuses on working code, no typos. I think I'll actually pay for this too!

* It doesn't seem to have the social/competition/gamification aspect built in like Vim Golf.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> TIL I'm an intermediate user of Vim! /s

I think this is pretty basic in terms of general vim commands. Navigation and insertion are all basic use cases that beginners should know. That said, the section about composing commands was really interesting!

<comment><USER22> That's what I was thinking! These are pretty basic.

<comment><USER23> I think I need the expert guide.

<comment><USER24> It exists, it's called :h(elp). I've barely begun to delve into the mountain of documentation that is :h.

You can read Pro Vim or Modern Vim as well.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> One thing I miss on Vim I have on Spacemacs with the Evil layer is the "a" object (for "argument"). With it I can delete/change an argument of a function in a flash.

Example (cursor on the last arg):

      importAntigravity(usePython, crashTheUniverse)
      <type daa for "delete an arg">
      importAntigravity(usePython)

<comment><USER26> This does that in Vim: [https://github.com/wellle/targets.vim](https://github.com/wellle/targets.vim)

I use it all the time! The only reason I don't use Spacemacs is the startup time/GUI lag, but if it works for you keep at it!

<comment><USER27> Running emacs as a daemon will get rid of the lag :)

<comment><USER28> As an emacs refugee, I disagree. I tried everything to get rid of the lag and it just became unbearable after having significant exposure to vim through pair programming. Now I just use Vim instead of trying to get Emacs to work like Vim.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Recommended:

Learn vim For the Last Time: A Tutorial and Primer

[https://danielmiessler.com/study/vim/](https://danielmiessler.com/study/vim/)

Mastering the Vim Language

[https://youtube.com/watch?v=wlR5gYd6um0](https://youtube.com/watch?v=wlR5gYd6um0)

An Incremental Approach to Vim

[https://ctoomey.com/writing/an-incremental-approach-to- vim/](https://ctoomey.com/writing/an-incremental-approach-to-vim/)

</comment><comment><USER30> I use Emacs/Evil for hobby programming and vi for quick edits on servers. Wish I had this guide years ago. Incredibly helpful. :)

</comment><comment><USER31> A well written guide for introducing some of the power of Vim to a new user.

One thing I'd suggest for the author, based on a quote from the article - "Invest your time to learn new skills" \- Try and invest some time to learn touch typing.

I worked as a developer for years thinking that it wasn't worth the effort, but after taking a couple of weeks to learn, I never looked back. My productivity, particularly with Vim has jumped leaps and bounds.

</comment><comment><USER32> After years of using Vim, I recently learned that I could use `Ctrl+C` instead of `ESC` to get back to command mode. Mind blown.

<comment><USER33> Several years ago I wrote a simple blog post on ESC alternatives:

[https://www.eduardobautista.com/escape-key-alternatives- in-v...](https://www.eduardobautista.com/escape-key-alternatives-in-vim/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> Disappointingly elementary.

Even I, an Emacs user who occasionally uses vi am familiar the material in this.

Can anybody suggest any real intermediate vi material?

<comment><USER35> Beginner vim is being able to exit vim successfully, knowing how to hit i to insert text, and how to save your file. Just because you are familiar with it doesn't mean it isn't intermediate, it just means you are already intermediate.

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> As a Vim user one of my gripes when first using Vim was how cumbersome the built in help files were. I guess that's why there are so many "vim cheatsheets" out there, the built in documentation is a pain to use.

<comment><USER37> The biggest pain in vim is the escape key. And no, ctrl+[ isn't any better.

<comment><USER3> I have capslock mapped to escape and never notice which one I use (started doing that after my escape key broke on a laptop about 15 years ago)

I believe people with poor keyboards don't even have escape keys any more though

<comment><USER38> What do you mean by "poor keyboards"?

<comment><USER3> My collegues are constantly complaining their (mac) laptop keyboards are terrible, however aren't ballsy enough to say "F-U" to the corporate choice of a mac or a windows laptop.

<comment><USER39> Well, HNers complains the MacBook keyboard as it's a complete trash, but please remember that there are plenty of people that likes and even loves the butterfly keyboard. The keyboard itself is pretty awesome and provides much stabler keys than usual keyboards (whether it's membrane or mechanical). They work regardless of what part of key I press, which means that typo rates significantly decreases. I'm happily using my MBP's butterfly keyboard with Vim. Just please, don't say keyboards are terrible after using for a few hours. There's a reason why Apple is keep placing the butterfly keyboards in top-range Macbooks.

<comment><USER3> I'm not saying it, the people using them all the time are saying it.

I'm happy with the generic HP keyboard I'm using at the moment, circa 2014, and my T410s old style thinkpad keyboard.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> If this is considered "intermediate," then for more advanced Vim tips I recommend [http://vimcasts.org/episodes/](http://vimcasts.org/episodes/)

</comment><comment><USER41> One thing I always wished VIM had was the generalized ability to repeat the last navigation command with "," and ";". I mean if I use "[m" to go to the previous method, then I want to be able to repeat that with ",". Never understood why ",' and ";" are _only_ for "f" and "F"

</comment><comment><USER42> The balloon comparison is strange. I would've just said that adding shift to a shortcut often reverses it... / for search and ? for search backwards, alt-tab to switch windows, alt-shift-tab to go the other way, ctrl-tab to go to next tab in Firefox, ctrl-shift-tab for backwards. It's incredibly common.

<comment><USER43> So common, that cars shift into reverse!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> The defaults in vim 8 in debian and ubuntu really changed the way vim worked, it was horrendous

As far as I'm concerned, the following is an non-negotiable requirement for vimrc.

      source /usr/share/vim/vim80/defaults.vim
      set noincsearch
      set scrolloff=0
      set mouse=

<comment><USER44> Just to extend this - if you're often using different users (or need to otherwise deploy via a configuration manager), I've found out that a good way of having system-wide options on Debian is /etc/vim/vimrc.local with something like:

       " Workaround stupid defaults.vim behaviour
       if filereadable("/usr/share/vim/vim80/defaults.vim")
          source /usr/share/vim/vim80/defaults.vim
       endif
       let g:skip_defaults_vim = 1

       " Disable stupid seeking to last position
       autocmd! vimStartup BufRead

       " Disable stupid mouse support
       set mouse=

</comment></comment><comment><USER45> I learned a new one recently. zt redraw so that current line is at top, zb redraw so that current line is at bottom, zz redraw so that current line is at the center.

If you are on twitter, you might want to follow MasteringVim. You'll learn one trick every day.

</comment><comment><USER46> If this is intermediate, then I must be an expert.

<comment><USER47> Its so easy you can become an expert in merely hours :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER48> I liked it, as someone who has just started learning vim. Thanks.

</comment><comment><USER49> This is less than beginner Vim, certainly less than vimtutor, and far less than any other Vim tutorial I've seen. This makes the title feel like clickbait.

<comment><USER14> Hey yeah thanks, it's really difficult to know where to start and how much to cover in an article like this.

I think I agree now that the title isn't quite right—my intention was to help beginners get towards some intermediate topics.

<comment><USER50> What about "Towards Vim Fluency"? Just as click-baity, but maybe a bit more precise ;-)

BTW, even though I've used vim for a long time and consider myself fairly advanced, I had somehow forgotten about "I". You've saved me countless "^i" invocations... Wait... That's cording! It's cheating :-) (But it's OK because I'm a closet Emacs fan)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER51> Well I didn't think I would learn anything but I didn't know about cit/cat - very cool!

</comment><comment><USER52> Cityhometution is an online portal to find the professional tutors and tutor jobs which give the special and wide opportunity to the students/learners to select the best Home/online Tutor by their own choice under one roof with our unique features.

We are in the field of connecting Qualified Home/Online Tutors since 2005 with an extensive experience in dealing students and tutors in a familiar way.

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</comment><comment><USER53> Adding one to the great article:

Shift+k on a word to enter the corresponding man-page if such one exists :)

<comment><USER29> That command can be remapped according to context. For email and other prose, I set it to 'dict' instead.

</comment></comment><comment><USER54> The most notable tool to help improving your skill in vim (after doing the excellent vimtutor), is to go and do some vim golf. You can see the solution from just one point better than you, improving your skill gradually.

</comment><comment><USER55> Love the not shaming for using the arrow keys.

</comment><comment><USER56> tbh this looks like beginner vim to me

</comment><comment><USER57> These are the basics, not intermediate. Otherwise what are the basics - just i and esc? Undo and redo are intermediate? Nope.</comment>


DNS Push Notifications - <AUTHOR> http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8765.txt <comment><USER2> > The DNS Long-Lived Queries (LLQ) mechanism [RFC8764] is an existing deployed > solution to provide asynchronous change notifications; it was used by > Apple's Back to My Mac [RFC6281] service introduced in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard > in 2007. Back to My Mac was designed in an era when the data center > operations staff asserted that it was impossible for a server to handle > large numbers of TCP connections, even if those connections carried very > little traffic and spent most of their time idle. Consequently, LLQ was > defined as a UDP-based protocol, effectively replicating much of TCP's > connection state management logic in user space and creating its own > imitation of existing TCP features like flow control, reliability, and the > three-way handshake.

I can't help but hear the skepticism in "asserted"!

Also, fun that Apple want to move a service from UDP to TCP at a time when Google are trying to move another service from TCP to UDP.

<comment><USER3> It's still tricky to handle more than, say, a million or so TCP connections per box, but moving the connections to UDP with TCP-like state machine in user-space solves none of the issues.

<comment><USER4> yeah really, aren't you just moving the buffers that track the TCP connection states from the kernel to some program in user space? how does that solve anything

<comment><USER5> memory management techniques in userspace are much more diverse, you can reuse RAM efficiently.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Does anyone know what mechanism is used between Route 53 and Google DNS? When I update a record in Route 53, there seems to be 0 delay in the updated records being present in 126.96.36.199, even if I've recently request the old value. I've been imagining that they had set up some sort of "cache invalidate" message that AWS could send Google, but I haven't done any investigation.

<comment><USER7> 220.127.116.11 is a bunch of servers, and you may be getting different server to service your request than the one that cached your recently requested old value. Make several requests, and observe the TTL -- you may notice that it jumps around as you get different servers, especially if you space your requests apart a few seconds.

<comment><USER8> Specifically, 126.96.36.199 is an AnyCast address.

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

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> HTML version with a TOC sidebar for easier navigation: [https://www.rfc- editor.org/rfc/rfc8765.html](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8765.html)

</comment><comment><USER10> I can instantly think of a gazzillion ways how this can be abused :D

<comment><USER11> Go on....

<comment><USER12> DNS rebinding attacks is probably one of them.

<comment><USER13> Browsers will need to update their same-origin policy so that a change in IP address will block same requesting a different site under a different name.

<comment><USER14> This would mean that long-lived single page web apps would need to be hard- refreshed every once in a while when, through no fault of the app developer, all the IP addresses that their domain name resolves to have rotated.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> The DNS already supports NOTIFY, which is a push notification for updates to a zone (this is something set up by the operators of the auth servers, typically for mirrors/secondaries so that they know when to request a zone transfer); the alternative, polling, requests the SOA RR for a zone and compares serial numbers.

Didn't give it a detailed read, but this looks like a more granular proposal, an example given being printer discovery.

</comment><comment><USER16> A question for anyone with more knowledge: does this circumvent the need for a TTL on DNS records?

<comment><USER17> Then does anyone understand what are differences between push notifications and using a record until the TTL expires? Thanks!

<comment><USER18> TTL tells servers and clients in the wild how long to hold on to a query result. You'll want to set this very high if you expect a nuclear war soon. There is no push notification for this.

Push notifications occur when the primary is HUP'd or restarted, telling the secondaries to pull fresh zones so that everybody's is known to have the same serial. After this the secondaries poll the primary every 'refesh' seconds to check for a newer copy of the zone.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I would be interested to of any implementation of these protocol extensions outside Apple.

</comment><comment><USER20> This getting released during WWDC does not feel like a coincidence. I wonder what Apple will be using it for, it'll probably be mentioned in a session sometime this week.

<comment><USER21> Just speculating here, but they still have a Back-to-my-Mac-like feature: The HomePod allows for remote access to things in your home WiFi, e.g. IoT devices.

As IP addresses of home routers change often enough, this might be a use case for DNS push. Access has to work across work across carrier-grade NAT though, so they might still need more than DNS.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> What's the difference between this and server sent events in http2? You don't need a live persistent connection to issue events?

<comment><USER23> Well, you can listen on UDP (which DNS uses anyway).

<comment><USER22> The more I think about this the less it makes sense to me.

My understanding of UDP is it's supposed to be for heavy, lossy traffic where late traffic is pointless or harmful (like video streaming frames, if your frame is late better toss it out than keep it). But I kind of want my notifications even if they're late. I think I'm missing something in my understanding. I was thinking if you can _stream_ using DNS, and cut out something like Kafka, that might be a big deal, but on second thought it doesn't make sense because DNS is more about service discovery than it is about piping load; you want an alias to a server that does the heavy lifting.

Brain messy today.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Love that this is now in rfc. The benefits of caching with the benefits of zero caching.

</comment><comment><USER25> Haven't read the whole proposal, but some concerns that stand out to me are: 1 - impact on DNS system performance; and 2 - what infrastructure does this proposal rely upon?

</comment><comment><USER26> I see this is defined in terms of DNS over TLS over TCP.

I don't see any mention of DNS over HTTPS or DNS over QUIC.

Could this work with either of those?

</comment><comment><USER27> Does this RFC just sherlock DNS Spy?

</comment><comment><USER28> As a methodology, push is _always_ better than polling.

Change my mind.

<comment><USER29> I _mostly_ agree with you, but having spent a good part of my career dealing with data integration patterns, I'm all too familiar with the problem of missed messages from the consumer (or failed-to-send messages from the producer) that results in something downstream being in an incoherent state. The simplest fix for that incoherent state is often to _also_ poll periodically, or something similar.

<comment><USER28> Sounds like it would share solutions with the "two generals problem".</comment></comment></comment>


How to Choose Between DevOps Engineering and Full-Stack Development - <AUTHOR> https://tekslate.com/choose-between-devops-engineering-and-full-stack-development <comment><USER2> How to choose between two semi-meaningless buzzwords?

The title may as well be "Do you want to be a snaffle waffler or a mungo bejuizler?"

</comment><comment><USER3> Thanks Kavya.. I got clarity now..</comment>


Non-official site with a tampered version of KeePass - <AUTHOR> https://security.infoteam.ch/en/blog/posts/notice-non-official-site-with-a-tampered-version-of-keepass.html <comment><USER3> Hah, the Linux version points you to the original website (only the Mac and Windows versions appear to be modified)! The year of the Linux desktop is truly here.

<comment><USER4> doesnt that just imply that these scammers thought the linux userbase to be too small to be worthwhile?

the comparatively small userbase is actually an underappreciated security feature of linux ;)

<comment><USER5> Or that Linux users would instantly raise a hue and cry on seeing ads?

<comment><USER6> Kind of like how scammers use bad grammar on purpose to weed out the people too smart to be a victim.

<comment><USER5> Yes, now that you mention it - they deliberately tried to design their dragnet to exclude victims who were likely to be problematic. :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I've reported the website here: [https://safebrowsing.google.com/safebrowsing/report_phish/?t...](https://safebrowsing.google.com/safebrowsing/report_phish/?tpl=mozilla&hl=en- US&url=https%3A%2F%2Fkeepass.fr%2F)

Hopefull it will be blocked by the browsers using the safe browsing list.

<comment><USER8> safebrowsing is useless. We've reported scams of VLC shipping malware for years. They are still there.

<comment><USER9> FWIW, report the domains to [https://someonewhocares.org/](https://someonewhocares.org/) , as he keeps updating it, and it is used by e.g. PiHole and my own hostfile generator.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I've had discussions with coworkers on why you shouldn't ve downloading putty from putty.org. Sure, they seem to be linking to the official downloads _now_ , but imho it's just poor hygiene to use such pages. It takes just a moment of carelessness to get pwned

<comment><USER11> Rather unfortunate that "putty.org" is the first result in searches and looks a lot more legit than "chiark.greenend.org.uk" even if it (currently) links there.

I've had discussions with coworkers on why they shouldn't look up "free online json beautifier" and dump thousands of lines of crown jewels into them (http too). Meanwhile we're doing web dev and JSON responses are autoformatted in Firefox dev tools so there's an amazingly convenient and perfectly safe alternative right there...

How do we impart urgency with this kind of stuff?

<comment><USER12> It's putty's own fault. They used to (and perhaps still do) have a section on how they don't want your donated domain - they like their current one.

From their FAQ:

> No, thank you. Even if you can find one (most of them seem to have been > registered already, by people who didn't ask whether we actually wanted it > before they applied), we're happy with the PuTTY web site being exactly > where it is. It's not hard to find (just type 'putty' into google.com and > we're the first link returned), and we don't believe the administrative > hassle of moving the site would be worth the benefit.

<comment><USER11> >>we don't believe the administrative hassle of moving the site would be worth the benefit

this is so short sighted, especially for software used to admin productive systems

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> There are quite a few of these:

[https://keepass.fr/](https://keepass.fr/) [https://7zip.fr](https://7zip.fr) [https://audacity.fr](https://audacity.fr) [https://gparted.fr](https://gparted.fr) [https://keepass.fr](https://keepass.fr) [https://nc3354.nexylan.net](https://nc3354.nexylan.net) [https://paintnet.fr](https://paintnet.fr)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the update, they all look to come from the same guys.

<comment><USER13> They do. They're all registered via one email: [https://domainbigdata.com/gmail.com/mj/0DnwUjDWo0L7ysS4kB00p...](https://domainbigdata.com/gmail.com/mj/0DnwUjDWo0L7ysS4kB00pg)

<comment><USER14> Good find! Can't believe this person made that many fake domains.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> What are some safety measures you take when downloading a new version of keepass? Checking the digital signature of the binary?

Original keepass downloads are hosted on sourceforge which has not had the best history of integrity the way I see it.

<comment><USER16> Compile it from source, it's a standard Visual Studio solution that builds without issues.

<comment><USER15> But there are no guarantees about the source either unless I am willing to audit all of it?

<comment><USER16> I agree, that's why signed source code releases are the safest thing you can get. Keepass has signed releases (including the source code archive) that can be checked with OpenPGP.

[https://keepass.info/integrity.html](https://keepass.info/integrity.html)

<comment><USER17> If you trust the signed source code there's no reason you shouldn't trust the signed binary - unless you have sufficient time and expertise to audit the source.

<comment><USER16> This is how I view it:

* Being open source protects against a malicious developer. Otherwise there is nothing preventing him to build the binary with a different source, and send the passwords to his own server.

* Signed code archive prevents against a compromised hosting site.

<comment><USER18> In order to get from a trusted source to a trusted binary, you have to trust the compiler and its dependencies as well, I think.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I'm getting a different installer file from this website with not as many ad bundles detected : [https://www.virustotal.com/#/file/23c3a4564265bc996ab61c1227...](https://www.virustotal.com/#/file/23c3a4564265bc996ab61c1227feda7aa5a3e41033717421310fef3e42871bfc/detection)

Anyway, this wouldn't be the first time an open source software is packaged with some adware. Unsavory, but I think within the limits of the license.

<comment> slipstream- seems to be just another bundler from the same network (installcore), but packed with a different exe packer

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Pretty ironicly, Terms of use warn to be very careful when downloading files with an exe.,. Vbs,. Lnk,. Bat,. Sys, or a suffix com., Because these files may contain a virus or spyware !

<comment><USER21> It's a common technique used by hucksters, "here's some friendly advice ...", it's both an attempt to signal good intent and to load the mark with a subconscious sense of having been done a favour (and so needing to do a favour back to the huckster/salesman.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Who did this without thinking about an exfiltration tool instead?

<comment> slipstream- one of those "make money online"/"internet marketing" type people just wanting to get the affiliate commissions from a pay-per-install network of the PUP bundler type.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Unfortunately I can't read the article without enabling javascript - <USER2> care to post a summary? :)

</comment><comment><USER23> Unrelated to the topic, the article points out a lot of things about certificates in the URL bar. That got me to think about the URLs themselves, can I set my browser up so it displays the punycode representation of my url?

<comment><USER24> network.IDN_show_punycode in firefox

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> The french is also terrible, google-translated french.

<comment><USER26> This is correct french, and there is no way this was machine translated.

Source : am french

<comment><USER20> It's proper french. I think I can be fooled by this website.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Something I don't understand though is when I do a google search, google sometimes sponsors these phony sites.

One time I downloaded the wrong google chrome which was ironic because I was on google searching it.

Other examples that come to mind with different sites are popcorn.sh vs popcorn-time.to. There not the same repository.

Normally I just do a sanity check by checking the domain URL and checking if it has authority.

If its on sourceforge... I just assume its malware or has bundled PUPware on it, run it through antivirus and SHA/MD5 checks.

Ninite.com is pretty convenient I hope they don't get comprimised one of these days and get sold to a shady vendor</comment>


Litmus Test: Can You Be An Entrepreneur? - <AUTHOR> http://go.DanielOdio.com/tickets

<comment><USER2> It sounds like I'm not cut out to be an entrepreneur because I wish to actually create value rather than just skimming.</comment>


A Visual Guide to Net Neutrality and its Importance - <AUTHOR> http://www.theopeninter.net <comment><USER2> I find it remarkable that people want to involve the government in regulating the internet when there isn't even a problem and yet can see the vast wasteland that is government regulation in other industries. If there's a problem, ok you might want to call for some regulation -- since there isn't one, why waste your time... keep the arguments ready so that if there is one then you can try to solve it.

</comment><comment><USER3> Very, very nice. Though I still find it funny that you guys are balking at the idea of datacaps. Unlimited data is something we in NZ can only dream of (though obviously prioritised traffic hurts everyone)

</comment><comment><USER4> _That means AT &T or Comcast could block a service like Google Maps and charge for their own._

McDonald's could serve french fries that taste like gravel! Malls could charge you $1 to go to the bathroom! Circuit City and others could sell DVDs that self-destruct after 48 hours! Apple could offer singles only in an onerously- DRM-protected format rather than MP3s!

There are plenty of awful products that are _possible_. What protects us from their infinite variety is not the FCC/FTC/FBI/FHA/etc., but _competition_ and _consumer sovereignty_.

The spook-scenarios of net-neut advocates, like the oft-repeated 'internet sites charged like cable channel packages' (appearing again here), probably wouldn't even be tried. But if they were tried, they'd fail in the marketplace. Perhaps immediately to consumer ridicule, like the case of disposable DVDs mentioned above; perhaps after a few years, like the case of Apple and DRM'd music.

Further, it's important to let this battle be played out. The give and take generates information about what people really want, at what prices. Preempting it with regulation based on scary bedtime stories, such as this page, means parts of the solution space that could be exciting for consumers die in uncertainty over legality or as collateral damage of overbroad rulemaking.

(My favorite hypothetical: why shouldn't an ISP be allowed to offer a free service that's a measly 128Kbps to the 'whole internet', but 6Mbps+ to preferred partners, as a way to extend basic connectivity to households that can't pay otherwise? Is such cross-subsidized non-neutral service, which could 'bridge the digital divide' and 'serve underserved communities', so self- evidently evil we need to ban it by law before it's even tried?)

All the long-term trends are for more access, cheaper. The internet already defeated a slew of walled-gardens and then gardens-plus-internet (classic AOL, CompuServe, others). Bandwidth to every point is increasing. The ability for upstarts to launch giant challenges to incumbents – in bandwidth and services – is increasing. The techniques for putting any traffic in any 'pipe' – bits is bits – are growing.

Don't believe an infographic written at an elementary-school level that tells you the internet is a delicate flower about to be trampled. The internet is a rampaging monster. Its logic will crush the DRM, bit-discrimination, and pipe- monopolization schemes of corporate dinosaurs – if we just let it. The worst thing to do is move any discretion at all into the DC 'halls of power' where AT&T, Comcast, and other big lobbies have disproportionate voice.

</comment><comment><USER5> If "Big ISP's" really wanted to do what this presentation suspects them of wanting to do, they could have done it already.

There are much better arguments for net neutrality than this one.

<comment><USER6> > There are much better arguments for net neutrality than this one.

for example...?

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Beautiful, simple, to the point.

The only thing missing is a "take action" section at the bottom.

<comment><USER8> There is a 'tweet this website' action at the bottom

<comment><USER9> A box to type in your zip code and get info about contacting local government representatives might yield actual results.</comment></comment></comment>


She makes enough to pay 200 news reporters $75,000 a year - <AUTHOR> http://www.drudgereport.com/flashkcc.htm

<comment><USER2> The familiarity of faces in media presents a level of comfort on a psychological level. Typically your news target audience consists of older generations who demand consistency. So, a prime face in the news = more views = more ads = money = happy viewers. She doesn't do anything special or have some third eye, but everyone knows her.

They could hire 200 new reporters, but if the person presenting the information doesn't get viewed, what is the point?</comment>


60 Twitter Tips for Your Startup - <AUTHOR> http://www.dostartup.com/twitter-tips-startup/

<comment><USER2> Cool tips! I think that the first three (Share remarkable content consistently, Use hash tags & Buffer) are the most important!

<comment><AUTHOR> Buffer has really kicked ass in the Twitter scene. Did you catch the FB profile of the guy who found it?</comment></comment>


Satellites, spacecraft malfunction as Earth's magnetic field weakens - <AUTHOR> https://news.sky.com/story/earths-magnetic-field-which-protects-us-from-solar-radiation-is-mysteriously-weakening-11992022 <comment><USER2> "the intensity dip in the South Atlantic occurring now is well within what is considered normal levels of fluctuations."

[https://phys.org/news/2020-05-swarm-probes-weakening- earth-m...](https://phys.org/news/2020-05-swarm-probes-weakening-earth- magnetic.html)</comment>


Seth's Blog: Organizing customers - <AUTHOR> http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/09/organizing-customers.html <comment><USER2> basically, like groupon.com. I recently bought sky diving tickets $100 lower than the retail price since there were more than X number of people also buying. The first time I read what the site was about, I thought it was a brilliant idea.

</comment><comment><USER3> Horrible idea.

</comment><comment><USER4> Customers self-organize if you build a good enough community.</comment>


Women's Unpaid Labor is Worth $11T - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/04/opinion/women-unpaid-labor.html <comment><USER2> If someone posts an article comparing the performance of two Android phones the comments aren't filled with "what about iPhones?!". And yet every time gender is mentioned...

Guys, it's OK for an article to discuss the different levels of unpaid labour performed by women in different countries. You don't _have_ to perceive it as an attack on men if you don't want to.

<comment><USER3> > _You don't have to perceive it as an attack on men if you don't want to._

I think people react like that because we have been conditioned into thinking that men are to blame for the status quo.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I know I will get downvoted for saying this but every thread on women issues always get hijacked by men talking about themselves and how the world is unfair to them. That doesn't happen on articles on men. Those don't get hijacked by women similarly.

My female friends always point this out and this is true. Every time someone talks about issues surrounding women, instead of letting them, men comes in swamp telling them how miserable their lives are. They don't go to a therapist to resolve issues they should but instead take any chance to vent on women. They don't try to make a community, movement or some statement to help other men left out but cry in misery. They told me how it awful was and the experience really sucked for them. It was toxic. They needed a baby sitter instead of a partner. They also wasted a lot of time on useless things and less on improving their lives i.e, hygiene, eating habits, schedule etc. They told me how they were relying them to pick up those daily stuff for them. That I'd consider unpaid labor and god knows how much labor they are performing for free.

Edit: I am only describing what I heard from them in the second part of the post.

<comment><USER3> > _every thread on women issues always get hijacked by men talking about > themselves_

But why do you want men to fix it ? Should we ask more women to come comment on men's articles ?

From my point of view it seems like the lack of women coming to comment on men's problems articles - I don't believe we should _ban men from commenting on women articles_.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I don' see what is the point of this article. Because of how priorities and values work, labor performed for others must be paid (as otherwise why do it?), while labor performed for yourself and your family does not need payment, as the motivation is intrinsic. Calling it unpaid labor is manipulative and disingenuous - who should be paying me if I fix my own shoes for example? The whole problem statement makes no sense.

<comment><USER2> > who should be paying me if I fix my own shoes for example?

At no point does the article suggest that women should be paid $10,900B for their work. It is simply pointing out that the work they do has monetary value and highlights how different the gender balance is in different countries.

You fixing your own shoes is unpaid work, sure. Why does that render the article invalid?

<comment><USER6> It does seem disingenuous, as no one has ever claimed that "unpaid" work doesn't have value. It does have value, and that's why it's always compensated in one way or another.

In fact, arguably it's highly beneficial to families to have one partner that isn't paid on the books for this work, as that means they don't have to pay taxes on that pay.

My parents both worked, but a lot of my friends had stay-at-home mothers, and they seemed to be doing a lot better financially, perhaps partly due to this effect.

<comment><USER7> I would argue the exact opposite. Taxes substantially favor two smaller incomes over one bigger one because of tax brackets. Two people earning 30k before taxes will get a lot more money after taxes than one person earning 60k. Because of that, adding a second income of $X adds a lot more money than simply getting a pay increase of $X dollars.

Your example feels more like correlation than causation. The families that were well off could afford for one parent to stay home, while poor families required both parents to work to make ends meet.

<comment><USER6> That might be so if one could choose to work half-time for half pay. This option is usually not available, though, at least in the US. (Certainly I couldn't, particularly once one rolls in medical insurance effects.) There are pretty good reasons why many positions don't offer this option.

As for my example, I've no idea if the impression was correct. But it's certainly the case that stay-at-home moms stayed at home for cultural reasons and/or because they wanted to, at least where I lived. Being well off (ha) enabled this option, but it certainly didn't drive it.

edit: Note also that your scenario doesn't involve taxing unpaid work, which is what I was discussing. Instead you're just shuffling it around, which is a different argument.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> My mother stayed at home while my father worked in an office. She did a lot of "unpaid work." He also fixed the car, re-tiled the roof, fixed the plumbing, changed the car's oil, and so on ... never got paid for it either.

So why is one type of unpaid work suddenly worth trillions, but the other isn't?

<comment><USER5> Also, your father presumably supported your mother and you with his wages. There are millions (billions?) of cases like that, and yet nobody is talking about "unprecedented wealth transfer".

<comment><USER9> It seems like the opposite of "unpaid". Husband does X hours of labour each year and gets 0.5 * total salary. Wife does Y hours of labour each year and also gets 0.5 * total salary.

It's not unpaid labour if you're getting paid for it, right?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Here the research[0] the article is mentionning, and a direct link[1] to the paper:

[0]: [https://www.oxfamamerica.org/explore/research- publications/t...](https://www.oxfamamerica.org/explore/research- publications/time-care/)

[1]: [https://ousweb-prodv2-shared- media.s3.amazonaws.com/media/do...](https://ousweb-prodv2-shared- media.s3.amazonaws.com/media/documents/FINAL_bp-time-to-care- inequality-200120-en.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER4> One way we can solve this and make it right is by taxing overtime more. Men tend to do overtime frequently due to having more time in the absence of unpaid labor work women have to. That overtime tax can be used to compensate everyone equally. While it may not remove all disparity but it will level up the ground without direct discrimination.

<comment><USER11> That's already assuming that overtime is paid which is not the case in the vast majority of cases.</comment></comment>


The Making of Star Fox (2013) - <AUTHOR> http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-07-04-born-slippy-the-making-of-star-fox

<comment><USER2> >They canned Star Fox 2 even though it was finished and used much of our code in Star Fox 64 without paying us a penny.

There is a somewhat happy ending to this tragic story for Star Fox fans: A nearly complete prototype of Star Fox 2 was stolen (!) from a trade show in the mid-90s, and later dumped and released on the internet. The beta is somewhat buggy and in Japanese, but dedicated romhackers produced a patch that fixed most of the bugs and translated all of the text into English. Obviously I can't link the ROM, but if you can find it on your own, the patch is here:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Fox_2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Fox_2)

[http://agtp.romhack.net/project.php?id=starfox2](http://agtp.romhack.net/project.php?id=starfox2)

It's a very ambitious sequel and worth checking out. It's something of a strategy game/arcade flight sim hybrid: You start the game looking at a map of the Lylat system, but instead of it being a glorified stage select, there are also various enemy units positioned on it. These units move in real time, both as you navigate the map and as you are undergoing a mission. So, there are situations where you might need to complete a mission quickly in order to defend your home planet from missiles, or the Star Wolf mercenaries might attack you in the middle of trying to do so, and so on, adding a layer of depth to the game.

[http://agtp.romhack.net/images/projects/starfox2/9.png](http://agtp.romhack.net/images/projects/starfox2/9.png)

The other interesting part is that the entire game is in "all range mode" (as it was called in Star Fox 64), so you are never "on rails" and can always navigate wherever you want throughout a level. This is particularly interesting in space stages, where you can have Star Wars-esque dogfights in completely unoriented 3D space.

It's just a damn shame that Nintendo never bothered releasing it, either back in the day or in modern times as a VC download.

</comment><comment><USER3> IANAL, but...

The digital restrictions management that Nintendo implemented with the Gameboy described here sounds like something that I've heard actual lawyers say works: you write an API in a way that the only way to use it is to make your code declare something or other. For example, you make you code do something like

        some_function(posarg1, posarg2, i_agree_to_the_license=True)

and if you don't pass that named boolean parameter, the API just refuses to work.

If I understood these lawyers correctly, code is indeed law.

<comment><USER4> Interesting. So what if the program presents the user a window saying "do you agree to be bound by <company X's EULA> which explicitly forbids third-party use of their API and thus agreeing to it will constitute breaking the law?" and pass that as a parameter. Or if you distribute it in source code only with the parameter settable via a configure param and asking the user to build a version that works? Or make a shim library that hooks to the API then distribute your product with a different shim library that passes false in this particular parameter, but leave notes on which bit to flip with a hex editor in the compiled binary to enable the functionality.

This obviously gets less and less user-friendly the more we abstract it, but I'm wondering what its legal standing is.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> "[Nintendo] canned Star Fox 2 even though it was finished and used much of our code in Star Fox 64 without paying us a penny." Pretty serious allegations. Does not paint a pretty picture of working with nintendo as a 3rd party.

<comment><USER6> It was even pretty much done and ready to be released, but they wanted to focus on Star Fox 64. There's ROMs of it floating around on the internet if you look.

Here's Wikipedia's page on it: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Fox_2](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Fox_2)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Suddenly I feel stupid for complaining about CSS rotation not working when I was 18 or 20.

It is interesting how Nintendo used existing trademark law to prevent reverse engineering before DMCA: games had to display the official Nintendo mark at a certain time or the boot loader would fail, they could sue unauthorized companies that displayed it for trademark infringement.

Obviously I would prefer that they hadn't been so closed off but it is an interesting "hack".

<comment><USER8> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_v._Accolade](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_v._Accolade)

On August 28, 1992, the Ninth Circuit overturned the district court's verdict and ruled that Accolade's decompilation of the Sega software constituted fair use. The court's written opinion followed on October 20 and noted that the use of the software was non-exploitative, despite being commercial,and that the trademark infringement, being required by the TMSS for a Genesis game to run on the system, was inadvertently triggered by a fair use act and the fault of Sega for causing false labeling.

<comment><USER9> It seems like once people realized that the internet and computers were going to stick around for a long time and make serious money, reasonable decisions like this pretty much went out the window. Maybe all of those late-90s laws like the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act and the DMCA bound the judiciary's hands.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Hate to be a downer, but I wasn't impressed with Star Fox even at the time as an 8 year old boy. Clearly a case where the technology had not yet caught up to the ambition.

That said, I've always been fascinated by the idea of cartridges as expansion cards. When your medium is a bulky plastic box plugging directly into the guts of the machine, you can do some crazy things.

<comment><USER11> >> Hate to be a downer, but I wasn't impressed with Star Fox even at the time as an 8 year old boy

I had mixed feelings about it. It was a pretty good game.

On the other hand, I wasn't terribly impressed by the visuals (especially the framerate), and I think between _StarFox_ and the coin-op _Hard Drivin '_, a lot of gamers were left with a bad taste in their mouth when it came to polygon graphics.

Remember, at the time on the PC there were games like Doom and X-Wing. Sure, you needed a fully-loaded 486 at the time to play these to the best of their ability, and even a SoundBlaster card was the cost of the SNES console.

<comment><USER12> Well, chalk that up to expectations.

With a driving game like Hard Drivin', people expected the game to respond like, well, driving a real car.

There were other games that used higher speed polygons to better effect (Atari's _I, Robot_ ), or faster gameplay (Sega's _Virtua Fighter_ ).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Note that the SuperFX may have been a nice trick from Nintendo, but Sega was also on it. That's how they did Virtua Racer on the Genesis/Megadrive (using a RISC processor included in the cartridge as well, but a standard one, Hitachi SH-1 if my memory is correct...)

</comment><comment><USER14> > _I do feel that Argonaut was used and then spat out by Nintendo. I also feel > they undervalued us; we could have done so much more. We had built a Virtual > Reality gaming system for them called Super Visor that would 've been > awesome, but instead they canned our project - which was full colour, had > head tracking and 3D texture mapping - and released the ill-fated Virtual > Boy in its place."_

Wow. If Nintendo had come out with a good VR headset back then it could have had a huge impact.

</comment><comment><USER15> Anyone know how to get an RSS feed of these weekly archive articles?</comment>


Bitcoin Paper Currency - <AUTHOR> http://www.adamgrant.me/design/bitcoin-currency/ <comment><USER2> I'm confused, is the private key represented on the face of the note? If so, isn't there a risk that anyone who ever sees the note might spend the bitcoins, breaking the association with the note?

<comment><AUTHOR> The private key is on a separate note, Darwin.

<comment><USER2> Well, I'm still confused, because then possession of the circulating note doesn't actually allow you to redeem it... or do you have a sort of central issuing bank that holds the Darwin notes and honors redemptions on request?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Great design.

Putting high achievers face on currency will quickly become a political issue. There are many cultures of people with almost no scientific achievement. Their people would never be on that currency.

Bitcoin paper currency will need more thought. Someone could steal your currency just by looking at it and thats not secure. We probably could take a range of coins and designate them as paper only currency and digitizing them would not be allowed.

<comment><AUTHOR> No, they would also need the private key, which is on the Darwin Note.</comment></comment>


Introducing Anypic: an open source clone of Instagram - <AUTHOR> https://parse.com/anypic <comment><USER2> Wonderful. So two people who work for Parse decide to post the same thing using two different links and both make this out to be something it's not?

I'm going to just say what I said in the other submission [1] here because I feel it deserves repeating if someone reads this one instead of the other.

Anypic: an example of what you can build with Parse.

This isn't an Instagram clone.

1) The site doesn't mention that you have to sign in with your Facebook account to even use it.

2) One of the big reasons Instagram was "cool" or "fun" was because of the photo transformations. These aren't there either.

It's a photo sharing app. I wouldn't compare it to Instagram and I certainly wouldn't declare it as a "clone" of it.

I agree with another user commenting that the cool part about this is the tutorial [2] available to show how to make it. Why not just emphasize that instead of making this out to be something it's not?

[1] - <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4297283>

[2] - <https://parse.com/tutorials/anypic>

</comment><comment><USER3> Parse must have an infinite number of engineers inside an infinity-sized office. They pump out new features and great tutorials like this at a much faster rate than anyone else in the PaaS space (except for AWS perhaps :-). Thanks for this! Cheers.

</comment><comment><USER4> Parse continues to impress with awesome tutorials. I wish all platform documentation was as well done! I'm not a Parse customer (yet) but tutorials like this are making me consider it if appropriate in upcoming projects.

</comment><comment><USER5> Now that we've got the technical part nailed, we just need a five minute way to get 30 million users. I know a lot of people who would pay for that service...

</comment><comment><USER6> If it just had been the open source clone of instagram which I could host somewhere of my own to really own the results. And get my friends to join this shared space as well, so we wouldn't be dependent on instagram as much.

Something like "diaspora-similarity" but with instagram features.

Or heck, I might just revert to email. :)

<comment><USER7> You're looking for The OpenPhoto Project. Comes complete with web and mobile apps, all open sourced and available as a hosted version.

<http://theopenphotoproject.org>

<https://openphoto.me>

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I don't understand...in the demo on the site, those pics don't seem to have any effects/filters that are near what instagram has?

</comment><comment><USER9> Or use imagemagick filters and upload your photos anywhere?

<comment><USER10> If that was all Instagram was, then Hipstamatic would be the $1 billion business.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Anyone got any more wheels they need reinventing today?</comment>


Extra Mass on Bike Wheels Is Worse than on Frames - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/2016/06/cycling-physics-extra-mass-bike-wheels-enemy <comment><USER2> Ex-Continental Tour Rider [1] & Computer Engineering Science PhD-student talking here.

\---

TL;DR Considering reasonable wheels: Wheel stiffness is more important than weight. A too light wheel, is not stable.

\---

Wired's physics are correct. However, neglect mechanical dynamics & handling.

Probably the biggest downside of light (& aero even more) wheels is: When your wheels are very light, they are prone to cross winds and "jump around" a lot due to their low inertia. And, well, you always have cross winds and bumpy roads, because only very few of us are track riders.

Considering the acceleration, you lose a lot of energy by "twisting" the wheel. That is: the hub starts to turn because the chain you pull with the crank arm in front is forcing it to do so. Then, all this tension is transferred to the spokes, rim and finally the tire. In that process most wheels lose a significant amount of energy by simply storing it via elastic torsion and releasing the energy without contributing to movement at all. As already said in another comment, we "pulse" the energy to the back wheel, as the maximum pulse comes due to our own biomechanics. And we have two pulses per revolution with a zero at almost vertical crank arm alignment!

Therefore you want to have stiff wheels! Which stands in stark contrast to light wheels.

The company Lightweight basically made its money by creating aerodynamic and very very stiff wheels for the weight they had. These wheels, however, are not maintainable any more & very expensive [2].

\---

[1]: [http://www.uci.ch/road/ucievents/continentalcircuits/](http://www.uci.ch/road/ucievents/continentalcircuits/)

[2]: [http://lightweight.info/us/en](http://lightweight.info/us/en)

<comment><USER3> Just out of curiosity, do you have any suggestions for stiff bicycle wheels? I've been looking for a sturdy wheelset for touring with a fairly heavy bike, but it's hard to navigate the offerings because they're all seemingly advertised based on lightness.

<comment><USER4> In my opinion, If you want durable wheels, the best way to go is wheels built by a _good_ wheel builder. That means properly tensioned (high), stress relieved (for fatigue life), and lubricated nipples (so you don't wind up the spokes). There are some places that will cater to tandems and touring bikes, but you have to be careful. I've seen a tandem specialty shop lace up a dedicated rear tandem hub to a lightweight mountain suspension front rim, with predictable results. Note that this is not a cheap option, as I think there's at least $150/wheel in parts here, as well as expert labor.

Parts wise, I'd look at something like:

* 36 hole hubs, either deore or ultegra level. 32 if you can't find 36. Not less than that. Some tandems go higher. This is more important on the rear wheel, where half (drive side) of the spokes are doing most of the work, because the other side's tension is so low.

* 3 cross, double butted spokes. It looks like the Dt Competitions are 2.0/1.7, which is a decent balance between elasticity and windup. 2.0/1.8 used to be my go-to choice, but that's hard to find now.

* Deepish section double eyelet rims, such as the Mavic Open Pro series. They should have closed section, not just a U for torsional rigidity.

* Grease the spoke threads and the nipple bearing surface.

* Tensioned just to the point of elastic instability in the rim, then backed off.

Reasoning:

* The key here is that you _never_ want a spoke to go slack under load. Once that happens, bad stuff happens with fatigue.

* 36 spokes puts either more spokes in the loaded zone.

* 3 cross lacing makes the spokes come in tangential to the hub, which reduces stresses on the spoke holes and prevents tearing of the hub.

* Double butted spokes allow the spoke to stretch more in initial tensioning for a given force on the spoke. As the rim deforms under load, the spoke will remain under tension to larger deformations.

* Eyelets make the nipples easier to turn in the rim, greasing even more so. Double eyelets also get support from second wall of the rim. I've had single eyelet rims (e.g. old MA series) fail where the inner wall of the rim pulled away from the braking surfaces.

* Grease the spoke threads and nipples. You want the nipples to turn on the spoke threads, not seize up and torque up the spoke like a spring. If you first ride a new wheel and hear it pinging, that's the spokes unspringing and unscrewing. Likewise, a good builder will always back off the tension a bit till there's no torque in the spoke.

* All other things equal, a wheel with twice the tension on the spokes will hold twice the load before you unload the bottom spokes, and have a much better fatigue resistance. So, take the tension as high as possible.

<comment><USER2> Ha, really love that one, wiredfool! :-)

Using 32 (front) and 36 (back) using your mentioned double eyelet rims (tubular) in Cyclo-Cross racing these days.

<comment><USER4> FWIW, nearly all that advice agrees with "The Bicycle Wheel" by Jobst Brandt, with the exception of rim selection. Rim selection though is tricky these days, as most wheels are now sold as a unit rather than parts.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This is one of the most persistent and silly myths in cycling.

When biking at a steady speed, _even_ when accounting for the fact that steady speed isn't entirely steady because humans pulse their power a bit, wheel weight is not worse than frame weight (the extra effort of each micro- acceleration is offset by the reduce slowdown between micro-accelerations _and then some_ )

When climbing a mountain, wheel weight is not worse than frame weight

Yes, when accelerating, wheel mass is worse than frame weight, but only a tiny amount. source: physics: [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1N2aS3E0K4wrTa5jKqed7...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1N2aS3E0K4wrTa5jKqed7etJY_0XEyA6-23kUFR3KNmI/edit#gid=0)

That is my spreadsheet, it is very very basic physics and it drives me crazy that people spew pseduo physics and comment on this "without taking the time to comapre the sizes of the effects"

take the time!

TLDNR; don't worry about wheel weight any more than frame weight. Addendum: don't worry about frame weight much either.

<comment><USER6> > That is my spreadsheet

I think your spreadsheet makes several assumptions that are only true in theory.

As other have said, acceleration costs more energy. You don't get that back when braking.

More importantly, in practice, the road is not flat at all. There are small movements at every brick / stone that you cross, slightly rotating the bike forward and back. The momentum (MOI) multiplied with the weight of the bike for those those small movements is lost in energy. Weight at the ends of the bike (mostly the wheels) increases the momentum of the bike far more than weight in the center of the bike. I don't remember the exact energy formula, but think there is a power of 4 with the distance from the center in it...

<comment><USER7> I too have done the calculations, and with reasonable weight wheels it is totally trivial. Actually the weight of the bike itself is fairly trivial too unless you are a professional cyclist or regularly ride up mountains. The biggest difference it makes is how hard it is to pick the bike up.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> The article's conclusion isn't entirely correct. Mass on the wheels also affects braking (the reverse of acceleration), and handling (gyroscopes with less mass turn more easily). But otherwise, yeah, the standard line amongst racers is to upgrade your wheels before anything else (albeit racers do a lot more accelerating and braking that your average Sunday rider). Lighter wheels are like the SSDs of cycling: biggest bang-for-the-buck.

As a sidenote, the picture looks to be a late-1880s Columbia of some sort. Yup, same Columbia from whom you can buy a bicycle today (well, at least something bicycle-shaped; they haven't made good bicycles in over 100 years).

<comment><USER5> "Lighter wheels are like the SSDs of cycling: biggest bang-for-the-buck."

Completely wrong. Biggest bang for the buck is low CRR tires, then skinsuits, then, I don't know, maybe helmets. Then 100 other things, then light wheels.

<comment><USER9> Completely agreed. Tires a neglected by most cyclist. It is shocking how many people buy a nice bike and keep the stock tires, or worse, slap on conti gator-skins.

<comment><USER10> Gator skins are heavy, but they do protect you from punctures on the road.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I haven't taken the time to compare the sizes of the effects, but it doesn't sit well that they blow past seemingly obvious ways extra wheel mass would go in the opposite direction. I see at least two places they do this:

Air Resistance:

> However, this force will produce a greater change in speed on the bike with > less mass.

But the wheels act as (unsurprisingly) flywheels. Extra weight in the wheels adds both momentum and angular momentum, while frame mass adds only the former. This is exactly symmetric to their acceleration argument, so it's kind of shocking they skipped it.

Internal Friction

> More mass on a bike can increase the friction in the bearings—but again, > this won't matter where the mass is located.

As an extreme example, a massful wheel with a massless frame clearly has no bearing friction. I'm pretty sure wheel weight does not contribute to bearing friction.

Does anyone have any insight into why these matter less than the acceleration bit?

<comment><USER12> In a road race, you have to attack to get away from the group, or win the race in a sprint. Either way, acceleration is critical.

<comment><USER11> That seems like a very reasonable observation, and I would accept that as an answer if this were a discussion about road racing. However, the completely unqualified title (including the word "prove") implies something deeper. Road racing is never mentioned.

<comment><USER13> It's very common for bicycle enthusiasts to equate "better" with road racing. It's not just acceleration away from the group either. Almost all the effort you put into cycling at high speeds (say over 30 km/h) is overcoming wind resistance. You can save a huge portion of that effort by drafting behind someone. So in terms of saving effort (or making other people hurt) making and closing gaps is crucial.

But of course most people riding a bike are not racing. Even still acceleration is quite important. When you are on a relatively uniform gradient you can judge your power easily and make sure you don't go anaerobic. It's when you have to push hard to get over a small bump, or sprint ahead to get out of traffic, etc that you get into the red zone. Making those situations easier will make your whole ride easier.

But it is fair to point out that "good" bikes are really only "better" for certain situations. For example, my wife almost never travels faster than 20 km/h. Many of the things that are absolutely necessary on a "good" bike that is travelling at 40+ km/h make absolutely no difference for her. Lot's of people tootle around at 10-15 km/h. Any well maintained bicycle will be completely fine. In fact a "good" bicycle will be unsatisfactory because it will be hard to handle.

It's all about context. And in the context of talking about which bicycle is "better", the convention is to assume you are talking about road racing unless otherwise stated.

<comment><USER14> If you are not racing (and thus not subject to racing conditions) and you want to go fast, you should be riding a fully covered recumbent.

There's only so much that toying around with slightly better uprights can do.

<comment><USER13> I have never ridden one (and I really want to ;-) ), but I've heard mixed reports on hills. You can push against the back of the seat, but you lose the advantage of using your weight on the pedals. Can anyone comment on what it's like for difficult hills? I have lots of gradients over 20% here and one of the hills I ride has a 30% section!

<comment><USER15> I have never ridden one either but weight on the pedals shouldn't matter. If you push down on a pedal as you extend your leg leaving your body at a constant height, that should be the same work as pushing just as hard over just as far against a seat. I'm sure there are subtleties – you can push more than your weight against a seat but a seat absorbs energy – but to first order it should be a wash.

<comment><USER12> I'm skeptical. When you're up out of the pedals and sprinting on a bike, you are transmitting an awful lot of energy. I don't quite see being able to push quite so hard when sat down.

<comment><USER15> One way of thinking about it is that work is force times distance, so if you aren't moving WRT the bike, and push just as far work goes by force. Assuming you don't have toe clips and so aren't pulling up with one foot while you push down with the other, then at most you can push down with your body weight. (You could push harder but that would leave your body accelerating up at the end of the stroke.)

<comment><USER12> You're thinking about it from a physics point of view, which is kind of abstract, and possibly not considering all the movement involved. I'm thinking about it from the point of sprinting for the finish line at a race last Sunday. I really don't think I could have brought the same force to bear while sitting down.

Also: modern bikes have clipless pedals, not toe clips.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> >Here's The Thing With Ad Blockers

Here's the thing with "I'm a print subscriber but hate having to log in on every device I might read your site on".

</comment><comment><USER17> Last year I paid the $700 for custom made wheels. I fairly regularly go down short staircases (3 or 4 steps, or big curbs) and I used to blow through spokes like birthday cake candles.

No longer. Screw minimizing wheel weight. I want my bike to be an extension of myself. I want to be able to push it and for it to deliver. If I need to spend some extra joules on angular momentum, fine. My thighs need the workout anyway.

<comment><USER18> How much do you weigh? I (used to) regularly drop off of stuff a foot or two and I never had any problems. My bike wheels can't have come close to that price. (I did need to move to downhill tubes as those kept getting pinches).

<comment><USER19> Tall guy who used to bmx here. Never broke a spoke but munted a few few wheels and one set of bearings. I dearly wish for a bmx scaled up by something like 1.3x or 1.5x. My neck has never recovered from the stupid head-tilted-up pose that bike forced me into. Loved the bike though!

<comment><USER20> How tall are you? We've got all kinds of stuff for tall people. Check out 24" BMX bikes (aka cruisers) - a cruiser with a long frame and 7" or 8" bars would probably suit you well.

<comment><USER19> 1.95m. And thanks!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Road bike nerds have known this for a while. If you ride a lot you will immediately feel the acceleration difference in a wheelset that totals around 1450g front and rear with hubs, spokes, nipples and rims (example: White Industries road hubs, Sapim CX-Ray spokes, medium profile high quality aluminum rim) vs the same spoke count "cheap" wheelset that might weigh 1800g.

That is all before you get into the category of exotic and expensive deep profile CF rim wheelsets that cost $1500+/pair...

<comment><USER22> And us tri dorks don't care what we weigh because aero beats weight on most courses that we ride.

The science of bikes is pretty great.

<comment><USER23> That's why we buy $3800 Zipps. Though they are both aero and light.

That said, got mine used for $1800. Sold them 2 years later for.... $1850.

<comment><USER22> ya zips are spendy (but very nice). I am more of Flo fan for me $900 for a pair.. plenty aero.. fairly heavy.. but I can lose 1 pound from my belly for less than the $3000 nicer wheels would cost me to lose a pound.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> > You will have double the increase in energy by adding mass to the wheel.

Is this always true regardless of wheel radius? At first I was thinking it has to depend on radius, but then thought about how the ground contact point has a zero velocity, and the exact other side of the wheel is always double the velocity of the bike frame relative to the ground, regardless of wheel radius. I'm not sure if this is a reasonable intuition. Maybe it makes sense that a gram added to the rim is always double the difference in effort that a gram added to the axle or frame or rider is.

<comment><USER22> Well for adult bikes you are pretty much fixed at 700C. If making a bike pedaled contraption not so much.

<comment><USER25> >Well for adult bikes you are pretty much fixed at 700C. If making a bike pedaled contraption not so much.

For racing/road bikes, maybe. You're leaving out the 26" wheel adult bikes (which over time has encompassed 5 different rim diameters[1]) and 24" wheel bikes that are targeted at youth, but smaller adults sometimes prefer (well, those that have been give the option).

My bike pedaled contraption is a rear suspension compact long wheelbase recumbent with two real 20" (406mm rim) tires and they're spectacular.

[1] [http://www.sheldonbrown.com/26.html](http://www.sheldonbrown.com/26.html)

<comment><USER22> I feel like less and less bikes are going for 26s. It used to be that the smallest bike or so from each manufacturer used 650C, then everything else used 700C. Seems like most manufactures just went to 700C for all adult bikes over the last few years...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Aerodynamics trumps weight for cyclists, even for wheels.

"In summary, wheels account for almost 10% of the total power required to race your bike and the dominant factor in wheel performance is aerodynamics. Wheel mass is a second order effect (nearly 10 times less significant) and wheel inertia is a third order effect (nearly 100 times less significant)."

[http://www.biketechreview.com/reviews/wheels/63-wheel- perfor...](http://www.biketechreview.com/reviews/wheels/63-wheel-performance) [http://www.slowtwitch.com/Tech/Why_Wheel_Aerodynamics_Can_Ou...](http://www.slowtwitch.com/Tech/Why_Wheel_Aerodynamics_Can_Outweigh_Wheel_Weight_and_Inertia_2106.html)

<comment><USER26> Some worthwhile further reading, including worked examples, comparing a wheelset with superior aerodynamics versus one that is lighter.

"... the point of all this was to demonstrate the relative unimportance of wheel rim mass and why aerodynamics matters even when accelerating"

[1] [http://alex-cycle.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/the-sum-of-parts- ii...](http://alex-cycle.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/the-sum-of-parts-ii.html)

[2] [http://alex-cycle.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/the-sum-of-parts- ii...](http://alex-cycle.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/the-sum-of-parts-ii.html)

[3] [http://bicycles.stackexchange.com/questions/15047/are- aerody...](http://bicycles.stackexchange.com/questions/15047/are-aerodynamic- rims-worth-additional-weight)

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> >Here's The Thing With Ad Blockers

Today I learned that a VPN counts as an ad blocker. Hooray.

</comment><comment><USER28> This is pretty standard stuff in automobile land. Unsprung weight (includes slightly more stuff than this, but same basics) is known to have a disproportionate effect relative to, say, the driver gaining a couple lbs. People don't talk about it as much as other performance factors, but this is why magnesium wheels have existed for upper end cars for a while, and carbon- fiber more recently.

On the flip side, this is also exactly the same reason why flywheels outside of automobile land, when used as energy storage devices, are hugely massive.

</comment><comment><USER29> Or to take the alternate view, if you want to get fit, get a heavy wheel. I'm having a super strong one built right now, and extra weight is fine by me.

<comment><USER30> Or take another alternate view: if you want to have a lighter bike and you don't want to pay for it, lose body weight instead. Then you'll be both lighter and fitter. Only once you've lost as much body weight as you can reasonably lose does investing heavily in a lighter bike make sense!

Naturally this doesn't, of course, diminish the fact that lighter wheels give you more bang-for-the-buck than lighter anything-else, due to the physics described in the article. But if the difference between heavy, cheap wheels and light, expensive ones is a few hundred grams and a few thousand dollars, losing a pound of body fat is likely a better bet.

<comment><USER14> Depends on how much body weight you start out with. There's such as thing as too skinny.

<comment><USER31> Yeah, this advice isn't good for my 147-pound, six-feet frame ;)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> Increase in unsprung weight is also bad for suspension[1] and handling[2].

Here's something they don't mention in the article: the location of the mass in the wheel has a direct relationship to torque. The same mass located in the hub will take less torque to move than if the mass were located in the rim. So acceleration could in part be improved merely by relocating mass in the wheel. (But that's just wheel acceleration torque; you'll still need to do the same amount of work to move the same total mass of the bike at the same speed)

Also, for the same weight tire rubber, wider tires would create increased friction and slow the tire down more.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsprung_mass#Effects_of_unspr...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsprung_mass#Effects_of_unsprung_weight) [2] [http://www.formula1-dictionary.net/unsprung_weight.html](http://www.formula1-dictionary.net/unsprung_weight.html)

</comment><comment><USER12> I'd be curious to see the math on 29 inch mtb wheels vs other sizes. Of course there are other things in play there like the ability to roll over obstacles (29ers do this well) and maneuver in tight spaces (not quite so good).

<comment><USER33> [http://hyperphysics.phy- astr.gsu.edu/hbase/ihoop.html](http://hyperphysics.phy- astr.gsu.edu/hbase/ihoop.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> There is a similar concept with cars: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsprung_mass](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsprung_mass)

The same conclusions about mass hurting acceleration also occur with the car, but the relative masses are so different, it's mostly irrelevant (cars are a lot heavier than bike frames).

The main difference comes with the ability of a lighter wheel to be able to fully track the road, and not leave it on a bounce. This gives better traction. (But somewhat greater vibration in the cabin.)

<comment><USER35> Unsprung mass is more about the effectiveness of suspension in keeping the wheel on the road. This is about rotating mass and the fact that you have to 'speed up the wheel twice', once in translation and once in rotation, and so rotating mass stores more kinetic energy than non-rotating mass.

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> Taken to the extreme, what is going to move faster, a thin strip of steel on 6 logs, or 6 logs on a thin strip of steel with, say cartwheels wheels under that?

</comment><comment><USER37> in racing I've heard this referred to as "unsprung weight" or mass. Makes it a little easier to find more information if you're interested.

<comment><USER38> I think "unsprung weight" is a different idea, at least in bike racing. Unsprung weight represents the weight not supported by suspension. In road racing, the suspension is the rider, so the entire bike is unsprung weight.

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> Drag racers have known this forever :-)

<comment><USER35> The rule-of-thumb I've always heard is that 1kg off your wheels is equivalent to 4kg off the weight of the car.

<comment><USER19> Wonder if you can apply the same theory that had me shaving the crank on an old car a bike...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> I never was a weight weenie in my cycling. I never understood the obsession.

Humblebrag: I could bunny hop my 28 pound trial bike 2 ft, and sidehop 30 inches too.

</comment><comment><USER41> is this something about unsprung weight? Similar rational for using carbon wheels on the new Mustang GT350R

</comment><comment><USER42> The comments here are better than the article.</comment>