1981 Radio Shack computer catalog (2015) - <AUTHOR> http://mashable.com/2015/02/06/radio-shack-catalog-1981/ <comment><USER2> This made me realize how much money my parents had to save in order to buy us a computer for our home. They must have had to save up for months and months for it. My father was a loan officer at a small community bank and my mom was a homemaker (is that still PC?). Now I work in IT. Thanks for the investment, mom and dad. How humbling.

<comment><USER3> Similar experiences here, spoonman.

A computer in the 70s/80s was a serious expense, similar to buying a nice used car, or a year of state college.

My folks bought me an Apple ][ around 1980. $2500 bought : 1mhz, 48k of ram, 1 floppy drive, a 9" Sanyo monochrome monitor, and what seemed like an endless universe of possibilities. The next six years were a blur of Assembly (Lazer Systems Interactive Compiler), and Applesoft Basic, trying to unlock the secrets of that machine and write my own games. It was magic! I am 100% certain that $2500 investment by my folks is the reason I have had a career in software.

I remember riding a 10-speed bike downtown to Computerland to buy an individual floppy disc @ $5/each. The university bookstore only sold Gorilla brand, and they were around $7 each.

Imagine the joy when I learned to use a scissors (later, a nibbler tool) to cut a notch out of floppy case so I could use both sides. Like finding free money!

Now a RaspPi Zero is $5 and information is limitless. This is a gilded age.

<comment><USER4> > This is a gilded age.

That is quite possibly the biggest understatement in the history of humanity. And it's not just because computer hardware has become essentially free. When I was a kid, to get any kind of information meant waiting for the daily newspaper to be delivered, or a trip to the library, or, if you were lucky, pulling out a volume from the encyclopedia on the book shelf (another very pricey commodity in those days). It still boggles my mind that you can buy a full-featured Gnu/Linux server for the price of a hamburger, and Wikipedia is literally free. It's a freakin' miracle.

<comment><USER5> And your local library often didn't even have any books in whatever interest area you were looking for. Or maybe it had one from 1967 that was hopelessly out of date with the current state of the art.

My parents bought a Commodore 64 when I was a kid and I loved the thing, but I've come to realize over the years that I knew almost nothing about it as a kid. I had never even heard of PEEK/POKE and if it wasn't in the (admittedly pretty good) manual then there was basically no chance that I would. I remember the manual briefly touched on the sprite generator, but not in enough detail that a kid who only knows BASIC could use it. It never even mentioned the SID sound chip. The only "computer" books my library had were talking about CDC machines and IBM mainframes, or extremely general discussions about core memory and them fancy new transistor things. I think they might have had some programming language books too, but since I didn't have any compilers they were useless. This was in the 80s.

Today's kids can get in depth information on almost anything, and have ways of talking with experts if they get stuck. I'm excited to see how they turn out.

<comment><USER6> Actually, the manual, at least the one I got with my C64, did mention many of those aspects and even gave examples of them.

This is the one: [http://www.retrogamingworld.co.uk/images/thumbnails/350/525/...](http://www.retrogamingworld.co.uk/images/thumbnails/350/525/detailed/3/commodore64usermanual-2518.jpg)

As a kid I didn't really understand much of it, I remember making a simple sprite move around the screen, and designing my own sprite using the grid example it gave.

However looking back at the manual now, it's amazing how much detail it goes into, from sprite positioning, sprite expansion, drawing multiple sprites ( all via POKE and PEEK) to programming the SID chip (one whole chapter on this).

It doesn't deal with handling sprite collision though, so you would struggle to make a game I suppose. But the manual is surprisingly in depth. It does mention that for more advanced topics you would need the "C64 programmers reference guide".

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> The TRS-80 is still alive! Everyone come listen to our TRS-80 focused podcast TRS-80 Trash Talk

[http://www.trs80trashtalk.com](http://www.trs80trashtalk.com)

</comment><comment><USER8> Original source seems to be

[https://archive.org/details/radio-shack-catalog- rsc-04-compu...](https://archive.org/details/radio-shack-catalog- rsc-04-computer-catalog-1981)

Theres a lot more to see at archive.org of course.

<comment><USER9> That is a wonderful site, so much information, they even had full emulators for favorite old programs and games that run in the browser. (Curse JavaScript for working so well.)

<comment><USER10> I played with this a while back -- brought back memories. Takes a few steps to set it up. [https://github.com/lkesteloot/trs80](https://github.com/lkesteloot/trs80)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> So many gray haired models are in the photos. You don't see that anymore, and certainly not in computer ads!

<comment><USER12> Marketing has become more biased in some areas, but at least we can say it's definitely become less so in others. The only black person appearing in _any_ of the photos in the entire thing was shown as an example of a user for the 'starter' (lowest end) system.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I graduated High School that year, I'd done some BASIC programming on an Atari 2600 with a BASIC cartridge. I imagined a consumer computer like the ones on that cover but with several tape machines and a loader top program so the user wouldn't have to load tapes manually for common programs. Little did I know the hard disk had been invented by IBM in the 1950's.

Today kids learn Java in High School and carry powerful computers in their pockets and on their wrists. I'll probably be pushed out of the Java industry before I even retire by one of them.

<comment><USER13> I had a 2600 back in the late 70s, but never knew that they had a BASIC cartridge. That must've been one helluva limited programming experience considering how limited the 2600 was for game programmers writing in Assembly.

<comment><USER14> It is. Here's a picture of what it looks like ([http://boston.conman.org/2015/06/14.1](http://boston.conman.org/2015/06/14.1)) and I even wrote about my experience in using it: [http://boston.conman.org/2015/06/16.1](http://boston.conman.org/2015/06/16.1)

The executive summary: it's both incredible (it has features I've never seen elsewhere) and horrifying (wait until you see the keyboard, and you only have 64 BYTES for everything).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> That's cool; thanks for posting. Brings back memories.

We had several Model 2 (gray) and 3 (white) in our school (mid 80's), but only a few had floppy drives. The ones that didn't were connected to the instructors machine (had had dual drives; oooohh) connected via that network controller (box with big knob). It hooked to the cassette port of the client machine so a program could be dumped to multiple machine simultaneously, or the knob could be switched to receive from a particular client machine.

Used to play Telengard, and use the hex editor to insert foul words into certain programs.

Computing back then just seemed so much more exciting; Tandy, Commodore, Atari, Apple, original PC. It's ubiquitous and drab now, or maybe it's my middle agedness.

<comment><USER16> I feel the 'drab' aspect of what you're saying, although I also see that we focus more on what we can do, vs 'how' it might get done (different versions of software for Commodore, Atari, PC, Apple, IBM, etc).

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> I wrote agricultural software for both the Pocket Computer and the Mod II working my way through college. The PC was actually a very nice piece of kit. We wrote some of the first software that farmers could use while carrying it in the fields - IPM (integrated pest management).

Ah, backing up to cassette.

<comment><USER18> Ah, the Pocket Computer. I had one of those in early 90's when I was a student pilot. I programmed it to do flight calculations and learned valuable lessons in UX. Trying to operate those tiny keys and read the display while trying to fly a hot, noisy, vibrating Cessna 152 was an exercise in frustration.

<comment><USER19> By 1982 there was the second-generation Pocket Computer, with the optional 4-color printer/plotter and the RS-232 ("COM Port") interface so I could also connect to an acoustic coupler telephone modem, then use any dial or touch- tone telephone to connect to time-sharing services.

This all fit into a carrying case not much smaller than a regular laptop these days.

The Standard API Petroleum Measurement Tables had been recently reapproved in 1980, for the first time as a computer routine rather than hardcopy handbooks of 83,000 entries each. This was a specific standard computer program, about 2K of Fortran77 32-bit mainframe floating-point code which had been jointly adopted by API & ASTM complete consensus. That much text would not fit into the Pocket Computer anyway. To get the 4-bit Pocket computer functional as a replacement for the handbook, I had to ditch the floating point, not use the exact algorithms the table was based on in any recognizable way, and come up with a bit-saving scheme not unlike the UNUMs of Gustafson[0] which have been discussed here. Each byte of memory was economized.

Carrying it while boarding tankers and barges back then, I would guess that pretty much turns out to be the first laptop on the Ship Channel.

Now everybody's got a laptop and it's no big deal.

[0] [http://ubiquity.acm.org/article.cfm?id=2913029](http://ubiquity.acm.org/article.cfm?id=2913029)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> My friend has a TRS-80 Model II. I translated some games for him from other computer magazines. It was a fun experience. I can't remember much about it other than I did it and was quite proud of myself (being only 12 at the time).

<comment><USER21> Yeah, back before my friends and I had computers, we would pour over the program listings in various magazines. We even started writing our own adventure game, modeled after one we saw the source for... even though we weren't able to even run it.

Crazy computer kids, we were...

<comment><USER15> I remember some magazine came out with BASIC programs translated into bar codes, and with their special scanner, you'd scan in your program instead of typing it. Damn how I wanted that thing, of course you would not learn as you did from typing it in and finding your errors.

<comment><USER20> I learned to code by transcribing code for the Acorn Electron (which I didn't own or have access to) from teletext onto paper !

What I didn't know at the time was that some of it was encoded so that say "#" would mean "print", I didn't find out until the internet came along and I read stuff like the link [1] for nostalgia.

I still have a BBC computer and Cub RGB monitor - I have an SD card adapter for it nowadays. I have a BBC Forth ROM chip in it and so I have a Forth Machine at the flick on a switch with a built in A/D convertor, Speech Synthesis also in ROM and a 1Mhz interface bus. Pretty cool gadget still.

[1] [http://www.acornelectron.co.uk/mags/aab/revs/morley/Teletext...](http://www.acornelectron.co.uk/mags/aab/revs/morley/Teletext_Adaptor_000.html)

<comment><USER15> I have a C64 with many bells and whistles (modern interface adapters), an Apple II, and a Briel Computers Altair clone kit (blinken lights). Also have a C64-SX portable, and Tandy 100.

[https://rfpoweramp.com](https://rfpoweramp.com)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> "telephone interface - $199". That's roughly $500 today.

And the $299 8K ram expansion gives a bit of context to "640k should be enough" comment.

<comment><USER23> Back around that time in the UK I brought 5 modems 4 answer 1 answer originate. I think they where around £350 for the answer and £600 for the answer originate one.

I wish I had had the nerve to get our electronics shop to build the $20/$30 modem design that was published in BYTE

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> I was a 6502 man at the time - still looking down on all the Z80s. I eventually put a Z80 card in my Apple ][ to run CP/M but it felt dirty.

<comment><USER25> Well if you don't like the Z80 models, there's a 6809 one too! That should be more to 6502 programmer tastes.

The weird thing about the range is how none of them is compatible with any of the others.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> I think the TRS-80 model III has generated more love / hate relationships than any other computer. My Dad had them for teaching college classes, and they definitely took folks on a love to hate to love ride in the space of 15 minutes. They were pretty damn useful though. I miss the old daisy wheel printers sometimes. Documents seemed more formal being pounded out.

</comment><comment><USER27> My cousin had the pocket computer, I always coveted a model III, but my school installed 8 (eventually 16) Apple //e computers networked to a corvus constelation 10MB hard drive. So I ended up with a Apple //e at home.

<comment><USER28> 10 GB?

<comment><USER29> Kids these days :-)

Check out the add [https://habrastorage.org/getpro/habr/post_images/5b6/a0b/e6d...](https://habrastorage.org/getpro/habr/post_images/5b6/a0b/e6d/5b6a0be6d0d4c0c58c10c925ff4218d4.jpg)

Makes me feel better about the 2 grand I dropped after I graduated from college on a 1G hard drive.

<comment><USER30> I think the GP's post originally said 10 GB.

<comment><USER27> Yes, I corrected after realizing, and having it pointed out.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> I saved money from lawn mowing and paper delivering to buy a trs-80 model 1 level 1. I remember it being around $525 which was a really tough goal to reach. It was awesome though to finally reach it and bring the trs-80 home.

<comment><USER32> $525? Coincidentally that is the exact amount I paid for my first computer (in NZD though). That was two years of saving up money from delivering newspapers.

It was the TRS80 model II and model III from my fathers work that made me want a computer. My the time I had saved up a chunk of money, the ZX Spectrum was released and I could finally afford one (I waited a bit longer so I could get the 48k one). The C64 was far too expensive for me at the time.

</comment></comment><comment> norea-armozel Wow this takes me back. I think my parents had one of the cheaper models. All I ever did was play games on it. It's sad my dad eventually gave it away or threw it out. I would love to play with it now.

<comment><USER33> Same here. Our first home computer was a TRS-80 when I was a little kid, maybe 7 or 8. I'm not sure how my parents afforded it, but I think by the time we got one it was already deeply discounted. We had to use a tape drive to load programs and I'd ride my bike to Radio Shack to buy little games on tape. I mostly used it to program simple things in Basic. It came with this wonderful manual narrated by a cartoon TRS-80 robot that was very kid friendly.

Then shortly after the Apple //e came into our lives. It was like night and day, especially considering we had a modem and I could dial into these strange things called BBS's. It even had color! Wow, what a game changer that was. Computer camp was little more than my classmates and I copying videos games. There was almost no DRM back then, maybe a question asking you to check something in the manual to make sure you at least had the manual that shipped with the floppy.

Its crazy to think how the Mac and Windows 1.0 came out shortly after. The innovation from 1981 to 1985 was incredible. In four years you went from using a TRS-80-like monstrosity to sitting there using a mouse and keyboard running a refined and user-friendly GUI interface. I remember the first time I used a mac. I just used paint for hours on end. It was magical to me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> Hacking in those days was a rather strightforward affair.

Walk into RS store.

Type

10 print "some profanity"

20 goto 10

Leave store before RS dude sees you.

<comment><USER35> As an obnoxious note from the past, it's way better if you do:

        10 PRINT "SOME PROFANITY ";
        20 GOTO 10

The trailing ; makes the PRINT not move the cursor to the next line, so you end up with your string plastering the entire screen in a cool (at least to early-teen me) way.

Also, of course computers of that day didn't use lower case (it seems that was an add-on for the TRS-80) quite as often as we do today. :)

And yes, I checked the BASIC manual for the TRS-80: [http://www.trs-80.com/trs80-info- level2.htm#IO](http://www.trs-80.com/trs80-info-level2.htm#IO) to make sure this was supported, I never had a TRS-80.

<comment><USER36> The pro-level trick was to make that string exactly 13 characters long.

Since the screen was 40 characters wide (at least on the Apple ][ it was), the print would happen 3 times and then the next one would wrap around and be offset by 1 character on the next line.

This had the effect of making the words appear to smoothly scroll horizontally across the screen as the text rolled vertically.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> My ex-boss used to sell Tandy computers (offered under collaboration with a domestic computer company here in India, called DCM Data Products) in the 1980s and I think he still has a few TRS-80 Model IV (running CP/M) and Tandy 1000 (their first IBM PC clone, 8088/4.77Mhz) stashed away somewhere.

<comment><USER22> There's probably a Youtube channel there, of getting old software running and doing a video review of it.

People kind of know that we had spreadsheets and word processors and payroll systems back then, but they don't know what they were like.

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> Any idea what the profit margin was on computers back then? That's what I'd really like to know.

<comment><USER18> I don't know about desktop computers, but in the late 80's-early 90's I worked for a peripheral company that made laboratory/light industrial I/O boards for TRS-80's, PC, etc.. Our rule of thumb was that selling price was roughly 5x Bill Of Materials cost. So a $100 relay board cost us around $20 in parts (and probably $5-10 in labor) to build.

Most of the non-parts cost was probably marketing expense.

These days I can buy a similar piece of hardware on Alibaba for $15!

<comment><USER39> I wouldn't be surprised if the same rule about BOM and labour cost still applies.

<comment><USER40> It does when the volumes are low due to overhead and non reoccurring engineering. Back in the 80's took an engineer and draftsman a 2-3 months to design and layout a PCB with tape. Might spend $100k on engineering, overhead, and sales and sell ~500 units/yr. ($200/unit)

<comment><USER18> Ugh! Tape layout! I did that a few times in high school the cheap way (scotch tape/duct tape and a Sharpie). By the time I graduated and got a job as an EE, at least we had (crappy) PCB software so I never had to do it again except for a few hobby projects.

And now I can get OSS tools for free that totally blows away the state of the art at that time. Amazing!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER41> I acquired a Heathkit H11 around 1981. Sadly, it's the one computer I later got rid of, and the only one (of probably dozens) I've ever owned that was worth a damn a few years later.

</comment><comment><USER23> I never knew that RS did a videotext system as well as its computer line.

</comment><comment><USER42> Wow that power controller is pretty cool. I'm curious how that works...

It sends a signal through the power socket, but do you have to have special light bulbs?

<comment><USER8> Standard X10 protocol, unchanged since the mid 70s. 4 bits of house address (usually a letter) plus 4 bits of unit address (usually a number) gives 256 theoretical devices.

As far as long lived protocols go, X10 is up there... 1975 to 2016 and counting...

<comment><USER43> And still useful. I use it to control a water pump to push water to sprinklers on my roof for the hot Atlanta summer months. 1 Gal of water evap from the roof is ~8000BTU's (I'm told - someone correct me if that's wrong).

<comment><USER44> 8000 BTU is about right. It's impressive that you actually got that water to evaporate from the roof in a decent amount of time in Atlanta though, since it's so humid. I'm not sure that it does much, since either your roof or your attic floor is insulated.

<comment><USER43> A gallon over a big enough area, with a roof that's dark, in 90+degree ambient temperature and direct sun... evaporates within a few minutes. Sometimes < 1 minute by visual inspection, anyway.

re: "doing any good", yes, that's hard to say. The ROI may not be for years, if ever. It was as much a "I have an idea,let's see it through" project as a real money saver.

The attic is insulated, and with a radiant barrier, to boot.

<comment><USER44> Yeah, a dark asphalt roof and direct sun would do it, as I've observe in my parents' house in Houston. You're also right the the ROI is probably zero or negative since your attic is insulated and has a radiant barrier so the temperature of the roof itself is close to irrelevant.

<comment><USER45> > dark asphalt roof and direct sun would do it

But if you were going for cooling, you wouldn't go for a dark asphalt roof.

<comment><USER43> HOA. Not much choice. We got the lightest we were allowed.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER46> In '91 I started HS and the one my parents wanted me to go to had a lab of Model IIs with the huge floppy discs. I guess they were well made.

<comment><USER13> The old 8" floppies like in WarGames [http://www.itworld.com/article/2823486/security/106464-The-t...](http://www.itworld.com/article/2823486/security/106464-The- technology-of-WarGames.html#slide3)

</comment></comment><comment><USER47> My middle school had about 6 Model III's in the library around 1986. One of the science teachers taught a programming class during study hall on those things, so it was one of the first computers I ever programmed on. A year or two later my parents bought a Tandy 1000 and I was hooked.

</comment><comment><USER48> I still have the flatbed plotter. I don't see it in that catalog; maybe it came out a little later.

</comment><comment><USER49> This takes me back. I just built a new home server and realized it has over one million times as much ram as the first computer I used (A Kaypro II).

Fun fact about the Kaypro II: it was the first Kaypro model, but they added the roman numeral II to borrow some of the Apple II's popularity.

<comment><USER21> I've been telling people for years that my optical mouse has more compute power than my first computer. It's crazy how far we've come.

It's also unfortunate that we're seeing the end of Moore's Law, and the easy gains in compute power through the use of a process shrink. Here's hoping people get really serious about molecular nanotechnology research.

</comment></comment><comment><USER50> I bought a model 3 a few months ago from a guy cleaning out his basement. Love it. TRS80s were a fantastic computers. Reminds me of walking into RS playing with the display computers, wishing I could take them home.

Was hoping to see a Dungeons of Daggorath game cartridge.

</comment><comment><USER51> This ad made me remember how much text "bulged out" at you on the screen in early computers (because they were CRT technology) and how it looked "sunk in" when the first flat screens came out. Good memories!

</comment><comment><USER10> More nostalgia -- old calculators:

[http://www.mrmartinweb.com/calculator.html](http://www.mrmartinweb.com/calculator.html)

</comment><comment><USER52> This is great. Thanks for sharing.

Really brings back some memories. My father ran his own business and had a few TRS-80s. The first programming I did was on these machines when I was in the second grade.

</comment><comment><USER53> On page 7, it seems that for twice the price, the "Business" system bested the "Engineer" system by including a set of curtains and a bad toupee.

</comment><comment><USER54> Those people needed to learn about ergonomics.

But seriously, my first computer was the handheld TRS-80 and I fondly remember programming Pascal on the TRS-80 Model III in H.S.

</comment><comment><USER55> This brings back my memories. Many nights of my elementary school years were spent up late hacking on basic programs on our Tandy Color Computer 3.

</comment><comment><USER56> I love how detailed and wordy the descriptions are.

</comment><comment><USER57> There's nothing quite like looking at old computer ads that takes me right back to my childhood.

<comment><USER13> Yep, reminds me of Byte

</comment></comment><comment><USER58> I love the "TRS-80 Certified Cassettes" on page 14.

</comment><comment><USER59> Note that it shows a lot of women using the computer. So much for "advertising drove women away".

<comment><USER5> It shows lots of secretaries using the computer. It's clearly something the boss bought to get fancy graphics on his reports that the secretary is typing up.

<comment><USER59> Right - because if they are women, they have to be secretaries, whereas the men are technicians? What about the teen girls that are also shown in the catalogue - training to be secretaries at an early age?

<comment><USER5> You are aware this catalog is from 1981 right?

<comment><USER59> That's the point - there is this meme going around that supposedly women lost interest in computing because of advertising in the 80ies.

Never mind that the whole field of computing changed with the advent of home computers and PCs.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Is it possible to escape mediocrity? - <AUTHOR> Yes, I know: old, cliché crisis, but I've been bothered recently. I have no friends anymore, and limited contact with my family, with a rough past with them as well. It's been this way for a few years, and I really don't see anything changing anytime soon. Given this, I've always considered that the one facet of life I could succeed in was career. Ofc, this hasn't been the case. I'm probably a below average software developer, not terrible, or anywhere near the horror stories you might read about online, but not very good either. I'm not great at the business side of things either. (perhaps I bit better than many of the <i>good</i> engineer's I've met, but not remotely near good enough to be successful there). I don't believe I'm stupid, but I believe, I'm not innately smart enough to go where I want to go and that's frustrating. I feel slightly guilty though, because I'm in a better place than [probably most people around me and at my young age am much better off than any of my family before me, but I'm not happy. I basically go to work to work on things I don't care about / am bored by, only to reach the weekend and do absolutely nothing by myself in my apartment. and if this is going to be my life for the next several decades, I don't want it. I know that many people would kill for that, but idk. <comment><USER3> >much better off than any of my family before me

How so? I doubt it. That sounds like a terrible life, with no enjoyment in it of any kind. A life worth living doesn't build itself! Really sounds like you are torturing yourself. Being very mean to yourself. It's easy to do - <USER2> aren't taught that _you_ are someone in your life you have to be kind to, the most important person in fact, as it's virtually impossible to love others while being so mean to yourself. I had to learn about _loving myself_. _Treat yourself like you would treat someone you really love_.

Imagine someone you really really love, then you forcing them to live how you are living. Doing a job they hate, no friends or family visits, not involved in anything, no joy or pleasure in life.. It would be obvious that it's a very cruel way to treat someone, amounting to torture. People don't enjoy those things, or being deprived of so many things. What things do people enjoy? Imagine a rich, fulfilling life, and work on giving that to the person you love - yourself.

Self-help books helped me a lot with this stuff. They're the main thing that helped, I guess, apart from being directly inspired by other people and inspiring books. Everyone has their own favourites, but some that helped me - SARK's first half-dozen books, Paul Kurtz _Exuberance_ , Carol Lloyd _Creating a Life Worth Living_ , Joanna Field/Marion Milner's books starting with _A Life of One 's Own_, Richard Bach books, Austin Kleon books, _Zen and the Art of Making a Living_ , Tristine Rainer _The New Diary_ , Ben Zander _The Art of Possibility_ , Gracian's _The Art of Wordly Wisdom_. Montaigne. Plutarch. Emerson. Susan Faludi's _Stiffed_ may help you understand yourself, your world, your work, your life better than any of these. Good luck!

 _To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance._ – Oscar Wilde</comment>


Luvit 0.6.0 released (asynchronous I/O for Lua) - <AUTHOR> https://plus.google.com/u/1/100928170734733785912/posts/j7gc62Ykheh <comment><USER2> I like Luvit, but what makes node so awesome is people wrote evented drivers for databases and such. I'm not sure that there is a community there to do that again in Lua. Also, the openresty approach seems like an interesting way to get high performance web lua without writing evented code.

<comment><USER3> Lua is an embedded language. I don't ever see the day when Luvit will be used for a backend server in lieu of Nodejs. In general, you shouldn't ever need an evented DB driver except for perhaps sqlite.

<comment><USER4> Kansface, the main pros for lua(jit) are reduced memory footprint and generally superior code execution performance to js. There's also the FFI which is more sophisticated in lua(jit) than node.

So depending on the details, I think there is a strong argument for luvit over nodejs - particularly when the breadth of the nodejs ecosystem isn't required and when a stronger language implementation is required.

<comment><USER5> Another pro for Lua is it has weak references and JS does not.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Not creating a google plus profile to read.

<http://luvit.io/> describes the project.

<comment><AUTHOR> Sorry, it should be public. This is the text of the post.

New luvit release! 0.6.0. Lots of good stability and bug fixes in this one. Check it out <http://luvit.io>

... And lots of changelog entries ...

<https://raw.github.com/luvit/luvit/master/ChangeLog></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Anyone Working on Amazon Kindle Loan Website - <AUTHOR>

Does anyone know of anyone working on this?<p>It appears there will be some limitations, but once its clear that you can lend out a book to anyone for a 14 day period over and over again, I'd think something like this would pop up all over.  I'd be willing to pay $25.00 a month to read all the books I could, with that $25.00 going to buy more and more books in kindle format. <comment><USER2> My understanding of the kindle lending process currently is that we will only be allowed to lend a book once[1]. Unless they say otherwise, this model would not work. I do think that eventually this will be opened up to work like actual book lending would though. Also, remember that publishers will be able to specify whether or not books are lendable, so this may all be moot anyway.

[1] - [http://www.amazon.com/tag/kindle/forum/ref=cm_cd_tfp_ef_tft_...](http://www.amazon.com/tag/kindle/forum/ref=cm_cd_tfp_ef_tft_tp?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx1D7SY3BVSESG&cdThread=Tx1G2UIO9PJO50V&displayType=tagsDetail)

<comment><AUTHOR> "lent once" as far as I can tell hasn't been defined as "lent once and only once" or "lent once every 14 days"

Have you seen any clarification for this?

<comment><USER2> If the Nook is any indication of how this will work (and judging by how the game has been played with price drops / wifi versions so far, I think it is) the lending will be "once and only once". The details for the Nook lending feature are here: [http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook/container/standard_bothna...](http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook/container/standard_bothnavs.asp?PID=35677) with the relevant answer under FAQ #2. Don't get me wrong; I think _some day_ we will get full lending abilities on these devices, but this will probably be a baby step moment. Publishers probably think that if lending worked like real books, no one would ever buy one, so they will prevent it for now.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Even if they change it so people can, say, lend each book once a month, how exactly would you set up this site? I don't think anyone would want to sit there typing, for example, 100-200 book titles into a site ... for what payback? To be able to borrow a book from someone else? As someone who does eBooks, I can tell you that's a non-starter for me. Plus, do you understand how many _free_ books are available for the Kindle? And I don't mean public domain stuff, I mean just-published stuff from traditional publishers. I have over 200 of them and don't even own a Kindle yet! [typo edit]

</comment><comment><USER4> Have they changed the restrictions? When they first announced the service, each book could only be lent once.</comment>


Quine Relay: An uroboros program with 100 programming languages - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/mame/quine-relay <comment><USER2> Old thread from 2013: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6048761](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6048761)

</comment><comment><USER3> I'm proud to call this guy my colleague :D

<comment><USER4> Could you ask him if he's encountered any progress toward translating his artistic programming book into English? I would love to buy a copy if it were available in English!

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Glorious.</comment>


LightTable 0.5.5 released - <AUTHOR> https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/light-table-discussion/5Mf64RZ_eq4/VnkzPFDAapMJ <comment><USER2> Anyone out there spending any substantial part of their workflow in LT? Which languages? Would be curious to hear an experience report.

I check in every once in a while to see how it's coming along. The 0.5 series seems nice and I was impressed by the instarepl, but have yet to spend any real time with the editor.

<comment><USER3> I use it exclusively for all my clojure work and have been for a while. It works well, and especially shines with its REPL integration, and when paired with Leiningen. Chris really has done a great job at keeping things minimal and elegant.

However, I use it because I'm a vim user and clojure has never had stellar support in vim (whereas Light Table--or rather CodeMirror's editor--has vim bindings). If you're an emacs user, Light Table might not offer anything over existing emacs tools.

<comment><USER4> Curious, have you tried vim-fireplace? I'm enjoying it a lot, though I haven't tried lighttable.

<comment><USER5> Quite happy with vim/fireplace here, though I'm still pretty interested in lighttable.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I'm impressed by how LightTable works with iPython to provide a good environment for data analysis, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed and wishing that the stars will align to see LT be the go-to environment for Julia. They are both early projects, and seem to be a fantastic complement to one another. Julia also is able to talk to the iPython notebook backend, so I don't think this would be so difficult. I only wish I had the time and expertise to do it myself.

[https://github.com/JuliaLang/IJulia.jl](https://github.com/JuliaLang/IJulia.jl)

<comment><USER7> Do you prefer Light Table over IPython Notebook for data analysis?

<comment><USER6> I'm not sure yet, but I think so. I need to spend some more time with LightTable, but I think it has the potential to cover all the ground the notebook does but with a nicer interaction style (more keyboard-driven).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> 0.5.6 is out now:

quote:

##0.5.6

* FIX: handle massive numbers of messages from nrepl without blocking * ADDED: Clojure prints can now stream, allowing you to (print) and see the result without flushing.

(print ..) now does what you'd expect :)

[https://groups.google.com/d/msg/light-table- discussion/ye29s...](https://groups.google.com/d/msg/light-table- discussion/ye29sja-BEs/_6iOi5DqM1UJ)

</comment><comment><USER9> Based on Chris Granger's presentation at StrangeLoop I get the impression that he's moving on to something else now? The presentation was a little scattered so maybe I misinterpreted, but he sounded like he was starting over with some other thing that he didn't really give any details on.

<comment><USER10> Nope. What I presented there is a natural place for LT to end up eventually. :)

<comment><USER9> Didn't you end it with a new product name? I left the auditorium a little disappointed, I got a vague impression that LT wasn't living up to your expectations or something.

<comment><USER10> The project has a different name, but it's not divergent from LT, it's an extension of it. JS, Python, and even Clojure are far from the ideal for what we could be doing if we took the ideas behind LT to a logical extreme. What I showed is a very early example of what that might look like.

My end goal is to "fix" programming, that talk was me explaining that it will take far more than what I originally showed in those first videos of Light Table - we'll have to think about the problem differently. That doesn't detract from the value of LT in any way, and I still believe it's out to fill a very important gap in the programming world. But filling a gap is just the first step, not the end of the line. And since we have the opportunity to push some boundaries and try to find something "better", I fully intend to do so. :)

To be more explicit - LT is our focus and you'll see more and more of the thinking I expressed in my Strange Loop talk start to show in it over time.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> LightTable and the source material that inspired me mean a lot to me, but I don't use it because I'm a really conservative adopter of technology.

HN: Do you use it and should I use it for my HTML/CSS/JS? As I understand it, Python but not Ruby is supported, but I could just keep using xCode or Coda for Ruby. What do you think?

<comment><USER12> Genuine question: Is there a big advantage using an editor designed for HTML/CSS/JS? I do all my web work using straight Vim, but maybe I'm being a luddite... What am I missing out on?

<comment><USER13> There was a vid floating around where you could edit the js and the browser could see the changes without a browser refresh. They were interacting with the code in realtime via the browser api. Great stuff.

I wish LT had more workflow vids as it tries hard to know hard to be a next gen editor it can be a little difficult to find the cool features.

<comment><USER14> From what I can see, all of the sibling links just eval javascript. I believe LT goes one step further and uses the jit to replace code, so that even closures (eg event handlers attached to the dom) are updated to use the new code.

<comment><USER10> That's correct! We're not just doing window.eval(yourCode)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This guy does some nice clojure screencasts in light table and I think they show it if off pretty well, for people who are curious: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxE5wDbt964#t=3m00s](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxE5wDbt964#t=3m00s)

(I don't have my headphones on me so I don't know what I cut out, but he starts using light table at ~3 minutes in).

Edit: his intro to datomic is really good for anyone looking to get started with that

<comment><USER15> This is a very good demo of the basic functionality. The in-the-moment appearance of some variables could be very helpful.

Side note: his explanations of regex made me shiver.

<comment><USER5> Were his explanations bad? I don't remember anything wrong with them.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> How does LightTable work for Go? Anyone have any thoughts on it?

<comment><USER17> As far as I'm aware there is no Go support.

It primarily supports Clojure and Javascript, with Python support somewhere behind that. There is also some support for HTML and CSS.

<comment><USER18> Unfortunately, that's right.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I really like this but don't use it because, although it has a vim mode, it's not really vim - as far as I can tell, you can't use your .vimrc or plugins. If vim could be somehow plugged in to this, that would be awesome.

<comment><USER20> I'd like to call out the Visual Studio extension VsVim ([http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/59ca71b3-a4a3-...](http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/59ca71b3-a4a3-46ca-8fe1-0e90e3f79329)) as doing a Vim emulation mode right. It actually does run your .vimrc, ignoring commands it doesn't understand. So when I installed it, my custom mappings were already set up.

But I think supporting Vim plugins is too much to ask for in any other environment. Often, the reason you're using another environment is because it has great plugins of its own that you want to use. It would be a lot of work for little gain to make an editor support Vim-style plugins if it already has its own better way of writing plugins.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> I love the LightTable "waY". But unfortunately as an Eclipse user, it will probably take me a long time before I want to adopt it. Even though Eclipse is a bulky heap, You can make it so easily adept to whatever you want to program. Sub <0.5 LT versions have been disappointing / too buggy for me to seriously consider. I'm really looking for a LightTable way of a truly modular editor.. (That means without having to switch workspaces).</comment>


Easy sorting in Go - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/miolini/easysort <comment><USER2> Yeah, OO interface for sort from Go's standard library is crap. But why reflect and all that magic? I was expecting something based on function literals as a decent way to sort truly arbitrary data and not break context.

<comment><AUTHOR> Could you please get some example?

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Same idea: [https://github.com/patrickmn/sortutil](https://github.com/patrickmn/sortutil)

Wish it was easier without reflection.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. But it's also use reflect package.</comment></comment>


EDL leader Stephen Lennon jailed for false passport offence - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-20935502

<comment><AUTHOR> How is it that somebody using a false passport can get out of a US airport once the use of such a passport has been identified?</comment>


It's official: Microsoft's concerned about GNU/Linux - <AUTHOR> http://larrythefreesoftwareguy.wordpress.com/2008/03/25/its-official-microsofts-concerned-about-gnulinux/ <comment><USER2> I'm not surprised to see MSFT include an entry about open source in their 10-K form. They're required to include a listing of risks to the business. Businesses tend to enumerate any and all conceivable risks in the document so as to not be accused of hiding information if something not listed hurts the company.

I do find it amusing that the risk they list is that the popularization of open-source software may force them to lower their prices (and therefore margins) in order to compete.

Funny, I thought that was the point of capitalism and free markets?</comment>


Ask HN: How do you inform users of new features? - <AUTHOR>

Recently I've been thinking about how to inform users of new features for a web app. How do you do it? <comment><USER2> Interesting subject. I just finish posting about a new feature 5mn ago 1\. I write a blog post about the new feature (<http://blog.snapabug.com>) 2\. I send a link to the post through our Twitter (@snapabug) 3\. I send a link to the post from our Facebook Fan Page. I will then later, add this new feature description to our monthly email newsletter. I'd be curious to know how others do it too.

</comment><comment><USER3> At Arktan, we do the following, 1\. Write a blog post describing the new feature. 2\. Send a message using our internal messaging feature with a link to the blog post. 3\. Send out a tweet with a link to the blog post.

We have built a notification system, we are not using it yet, but we are going to use it for announcements.

Srikanth <http://www.arktan.com/user/srikanth>

</comment><comment><USER4> on our site we have an "announcements" section on the profile page (first page user sees when they sign in) so we can post something there. We usually will like the announcement to a longer story (similar to a blog post) where users can comment and provide feedback. We also have public feedback groups on our site, so we'll often post the updates there as well as let some of the more active users know directly. \- Julio from Experience Project (<http://experienceproject.com>)

</comment><comment><USER5> Besides the normal stuff (newsletter, blog post, etc), I e-mail current evangelist users directly and ask them to spread the word.</comment>


Fixing your terminal Unix History - <AUTHOR> https://htmlhive.com/fixing-your-terminal-unix-history-command/ <comment><USER2> I also log date/time with each command. Sensible bash provides this: [https://github.com/mrzool/bash-sensible](https://github.com/mrzool/bash- sensible)

</comment><comment><USER3> This article erroneously conflates _terminal_ and _shell_ and then proceeds to talk about only one shell, the Bourne Again shell. (It is Windows NT where command history is a function of the console object rather than of the command interpreter.) Nor do "all software engineers use history". Some use the standard "fc" command. 93 Korn shell users can use "fc" or "hist" as well. The article's abuse of "legacy" to mean "undesirable" is almost a side-issue.

* [http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/fc...](http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/fc.html)

* [http://jdebp.uk./FGA/legacy-is-not-a-pejorative.html](http://jdebp.uk./FGA/legacy-is-not-a-pejorative.html)

Of course, the idea that Unix, which was multi-user from 1st Edition onwards, "could only have one shell open at a time" is nonsense. And I can attest from personal experience that people cottoned on to having two terminals side-by- side before screen came to comp.sources.unix.

Interestingly, the manual page for the TENEX C shell points out that shell variables controlling history should be set in .tcshrc rather than in .login so that they affect the sourcing of $histfile which is done before the sourcing of .login. What it does not also point out is that this results in always setting them in all interactive shells without need to import them from the associated environment variables. If always set in this way, it is largely meaningless to export the shell variables into environment variables visible to other programs in child processes, as the headlined article has one do.

The same can be done with the Z shell, setting the history control shell variables in .zshrc or the $ENV file, the 93 Korn shell and PD Korn shell, setting the history control shell variables in the $ENV file, and the Watanabe shell, setting the history control shell variables in .yashrc or the $ENV file.

</comment><comment><USER4> Thanks for posting this, this makes history so much better and I have only been using these changes for 20 minutes.

</comment><comment><USER5> Is this an Apple problem? I've used a few different Linux distros over the decades, and all already had these improvements built into the default bashrc (well, maybe HISTSIZE and HISTFILESIZE could afford to be larger, but they're still larger than 500, the claim made in this post).

<comment><USER6> Apple bash is ancient.

<comment><USER7> I thought Mac os used zsh. Haven't used Mac in over 10 years so I don't remember

<comment><USER6> Ha no I think v3 bash is default. You would think zsh tho bc it kind of falls in line with the mac user experience goals.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> What are some tips on effeciently searching through it? ctrl+r to search history and ctrl+r again for cycling backwards is an obvious one, but there doesn't seem to be an obvious way to cycle forwards (e.g. I accidentally passed a line in a search that I wanted).

<comment><USER9> For quite a while now, I've been using fzf[1]. Among other things, it replaces Ctrl-R and allows you to fuzzy search your command history. I almost can't imagine not having it now...

[1] [https://github.com/junegunn/fzf](https://github.com/junegunn/fzf)

<comment><USER8> Huh. I had no idea fzf did history too. I will have to give this tool another look.

edit: wow, this is GREAT. thank you!

<comment><USER9> Alt-C is another feature I like. Fuzzy find directories to cd into. I'm a bit of a fanboy at this point.

<comment><USER10> Oh! This is awesome, I've been doing ctrl+t, fuzzy finds files, then just erasing the file name at the end. This is so much much better.

Though, normally I use autojump to traverse around, this is really helpful when you're searching for a folder in somewhere you haven't been before or in a while (autojump uses your history).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Am I the only one who doesn't like their command history to be saved? I don't like the idea of that being recorded, even if it would save me time in some occasions.

<comment><USER12> in early internet days, I would either chmod 000 the .bash_history file, or symlink it to /dev/null, to signal to the sysadmin that i don't like being watched...

20 years later and I meticulously save all of my own history, even command output/terminal transcripts. It has become too rich of information and important for me to callback to, it makes me a more effective worker

<comment><USER11> Interesting.

Out of curiosity, how much history do you save? And do you sync it between machines (assuming you have more than one)?

<comment><USER12> I save millions of commands or megabytes of bash history, its customized for maximum values, and to persist often on both of my primary computers (workstation, laptop).

for the rest of the ~hundreds of computers I login to in a year I mostly just use default 1,000 maximum lines history of bash. I make no effort to synchronize across machines, it is helpful for me to keep them separate -- which computer it was executed on is also the computer to recall it from.

I have also considered full-time full-screen recording! I just wanted to express that using Linux professionally for 20 some years has turned me around to the opposite of extreme I began with, maybe you do not know that you are missing out on a fantastic "recall" skill :)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


World War 3.0 - <AUTHOR> http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2012/05/internet-regulation-war-sopa-pipa-defcon-hacking

<comment><USER2> "Arrayed on one side will be representatives from the United States and other major Western powers, advocating what many call "Internet freedom,""

Yeah, somehow I doubt they will try _too_ hard to fight for Internet freedom. If there's any positive aspect to come out of this, it's the fact that they don't want US to act as if they have power over the whole Internet. It still worries me that China, Russia and others will get to "negotiate" anything about the Internet, though.</comment>


Personal Invisibility Cloak Stymies People Detectors - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/syncedreview/personal-invisibility-cloak-stymies-people-detectors-15bebdcc7943 <comment><USER2> Eventually the AI will catch up to this, so you'll need a smart shirt that can modify its own image, and then you're on your way to having a scramble suit.</comment>


Giant Pumice Raft Floating Towards Australia Could Replenish Great Barrier Reef - <AUTHOR> https://www.tpr.org/post/giant-pumice-raft-floating-towards-australia-could-help-replenish-great-barrier-reef <comment><USER2> I expect the Australian government is looking for a way they can collect up the rocks to sell. Or better yet, give them away for free for someone else to sell.

<comment><USER3> > a way they can collect up the rocks to sell

FYI, yes you can sell pumice, it has uses:

e.g. [https://www.amazon.com/s?k=pumice](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=pumice)

<comment><USER4> I think you misread a sarcasm comment, I read it to satire Australian gov. who give away to the corporates that exploit environment (the Great Barrier Reef) for profits[0].

[0] [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jun/14/campaign...](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jun/14/campaigners- criticise-reckless-approval-adani-mine-australia)

<comment><USER3> Oh, I get that this is sarcasm at the Australian government's usual pro- corporate anti-environment attitudes. The best sarcasm tends to makes a weird kind of sense, e.g. yes you can actually sell these rocks.

<comment><USER5> This lead me down quite a rabbit hole to answer the following question: would it be economical to collect and sell this pumice?

Because the original joke and your comment were both premised on how we valuing things / create valuations for things, and at its core, this is was why the field of environmental economics exists.

Prior to environmental economics, we had capitalists saying non-market environmental goods (e.g. the existence/conservation of whales, conserved lands / national parks, etc) are not worth anything bc they don't have a market value. And on the other extreme you had environmentalists who were claiming that these goods are priceless / immeasurable / infinite value.

The chasm between 0 and infinite didn't leave much room for these two sides to compromise. And so the field of non-market valuation was born. It attempts to value non-market goods by calculating the positive and negative externalities of these goods. Thus, in the case of the Great Barrier Reef, we could attempt to calculate how much effect this pumice raft would have on the health of the reef and then we would calculate how much value the reef provides through its biodiversity.

Even if we are extremely underestimating the value, a lower bound estimate is still better than is being valued at 0.[1]

And then we can estimate the internalized market value of this good. i.e. what would the market pay given current market prices for pumice? And what is the cost of harvesting this pumice versus other pumice. Because other pumice doesn't have these potential environmental benefits. It simply sits on the ground or underground close to the surface.

So if the costs of these 2 sources of pumice are close but the benefits of the sea raft pumice is much higher, than the government should put a Pigouvian tax[2] on the raft pumice to discourage its harvesting (or simply ban such harvesting).

But I would wager this is all a fruitless conversation because I bet the cost of harvesting the sea raft pumice is much higher than the cost of harvesting land pumice.

Pumice Prices (closer to retail)[3]: \- $7-18 per pound for cement mix \- $2-9 per stone for scrubbing, cleaning, and exfoliating \- $8-16 per pound for powder use in makeup and exfoliating body scrubs

Given that pumice is mined via open pit mining, it is very cheap, economical/efficient, and environmentally friendly:

>The mining of pumice is an environmentally friendly process compared with other mining methods because the igneous rock is deposited on the surface of the earth in loose aggregate form. The material is mined by open pit methods. Soils are removed by machinery in order to obtain more pure quality pumice. Scalping screens are used to filter impure surficial pumice of organic soils and unwanted rocks. Blasting is not necessary because the material is unconsolidated, therefore only simple machinery is used such as bulldozers and power shovels. Different sizes of pumice are needed for specific uses therefore crushers are used to achieve desired grades ranging from lump, coarse, intermediate, fine and extra fine. ...[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumice#Mining](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumice#Mining)

[https://hesspumice.com/pumice-pages/why-pumice/pumice- define...](https://hesspumice.com/pumice-pages/why-pumice/pumice-defined.html)

I don't think harvesting from the ocean would be cheaper than using simple bulldozers to fill trucks. Given that it then needs to be dry, the energy costs of ocean pumice would be much higher (even if the initial harvesting could be comparable in cost).

Thus, no intervention is needed because no one would even think about harvesting this pumice...

[1] A simple example is using the travel cost method from non-market valuation to value a national park. Even though parks are virtually free (visitors pay a nominal fee), we can add up all the money someone spends to fly their family to Yellowstone and then rent a vehicle and pay for hotels and say all that money spent is a lower bound

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

[3] [https://www.business.com/articles/pricing-and-costs-of- pumic...](https://www.business.com/articles/pricing-and-costs-of-pumice-stone- suppliers/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The reef is a lost cause. Corals won't survive global warming. Even if we manage to limit warming to 1.5° a large fraction will die. Currently we're on a 4°+ course.

<comment> barry-cotter The reef, as currently constituted, is a lost cause, assuming neither political nor technological solutions to global warming emerge. Genetically engineered coral or algae is one possibility[1][2]. Another is carbon sequestration by massive production of olivine sand weathering in the ocean[3]. The cost of reversing anthropogenic climate change since the 1750s are about $16 trillion, which if done over 10 years, would cost 1.7% of global GDP.

[1][https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/coral-reef- genetic...](https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/coral-reef-genetically- engineered-climate-change-great-barrier-global-warming-a8318756.html)

[2][https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2017.0122...](https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2017.01220/full)

[3][https://elidourado.com/blog/dawn-of- geoengineering/](https://elidourado.com/blog/dawn-of-geoengineering/)

<comment><USER7> another is mutations by coral allowing them to survive in higher temperatures.

<comment><USER6> I'd be really surprised if a significant fraction of the coral reef ecosystem manages to get the right mutations naturally in the next few dozen generations.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Coral is a living thing. It can't live in hot(ter) water.

Additionally, the minerals will dissolve in more acidic water.

The problems of coral reefs are caused by the water becoming hotter and more acidic. I fail to see how pumice makes the water cooler and more basic.

</comment><comment><USER9> Removing the word "help" from the title dramatically changes it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Had to remove 4 characters to get the title length to fit in max length, do you have a suggested better removal?

<comment><USER10> Original: "Giant Pumice Raft Floating Toward Australia Could Help Replenish Great Barrier Reef"

84 characters.

GBR is off Australia, we can drop that. "Toward" adds little. Rearrange:

"Giant Floating Pumice Raft Could Help Replenish Great Barrier Reef"

67 characters

Since "raft" implies "floating" and "giant" is a largely superfluous conditional (anything that might help the GBR would have to be substantive), you could drop those for a length of 52 characters.

Headline writing / editing is an art.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I really wanted to see a shot of their wake! I wanted to see how quickly it refilled.

</comment><comment><USER12> This should be flagged.

Why do people let crazy ideas like this get media time?

"Giant Hamburger Headed Towards Reef Could Replenish It".

Like the thing about robot fish saving the reef, or a garbage collecting boat clearing the plastic from the oceans.

May as well be writing about how aliens will be coming to save The Reef.

It enables climate change deniers.

<comment><USER13> There was no need to fabricate that part of the story for it to be interesting. It could have simply been about how freaking cool it is that the ocean has been turned into a sea of pumice (something I didn't know was possible) and that someone sailed through it.

<comment><USER14> Indeed, although in this case it seems it was not fabricated. According to the Guardian article, the idea came from Geologist Scott Bryan:

 _Bryan said the raft will be the temporary home for billions of marine organisms. Marine life including barnacles, corals, crabs, snails and worms will tag along as it travels toward Australia and become a "potential mechanism for restocking the Great Barrier Reef"._[0]

This was then more widely reported as "Scientists say..."

It appears Bryan is a geologist specializing in volcanology who has expertise in pumice rafts, but not in marine biology[1]. One would have hoped he would know better than to make such statements to the media.

[0] [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/aug/25/massive-...](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/aug/25/massive- pumice-raft-spotted-in-the-pacific-could-help-replenish-great-barrier-reef)

[1] [https://staff.qut.edu.au/staff/scott.bryan](https://staff.qut.edu.au/staff/scott.bryan)

<comment><USER15> I'm afraid your second link is not supporting your claim. He has expertise in pumice rafts and their effects on marine biology. Check out "Rapid, long- distance dispersal by pumice rafting" from him. I'm not an expert on the topic, but seems to be a widely cited work. Do you have some reason to disagree with his work or his conclusions?

<comment><USER13> But is that really going to "replenish the Great Barrier Reef?" That implies that the reef is just waiting for seeding by organisms for it to flourish and that is very likely not the case.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Blissify - <AUTHOR> http://www.blissify.io <comment><USER2> What was you idea when coming up and building this app?

Apart from the pure engineering challenge, I see no value in this application. It promotes coddling and echo-chambering.

</comment><comment><USER3> Can't I block sites myself with a click of a button? Besides privacy concerns and CPU burn I don't see what benefits blissify provides.

<comment><AUTHOR> barring overtly offensive/shocking material, do we really browse the internet with enough removal from the content we are viewing to consciously recognize (and take long-term action) when a website is making us uncomfortable? the position being put forward by this extension is 'no', though your point is valid in a general sense</comment></comment>