Who Defines Expertise? - <AUTHOR> https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/05/02/accreditors-rules-about-faculty-members-spark-debate-wayne-state-college-and-among <comment><USER2> I'm kind-of mystified what the objections to these new requirements are. 18 hours of coursework, or alternatively, at least have to explain your experience. That's a pretty low bar for being able to profess on a subject. If I were taking a course, I would certainly hope the professor had at least 18 hours of graduate coursework on a subject.

The rules these people are objecting to literally make an exception for them to explain that 50 years of teaching a subject counts as credit. If they can't do that, is it possible they shouldn't be teaching the subject?

Why shouldn't professors have a minimum requirement? It sounds like before these bare minimum rules it was a free-for-all.

> I have learned that English and philosophy have much in common. Both > disciplines emphasize effective and clear communication, critical thinking, > and the analysis and interpretation of texts,"

This quote is laughable. Those things are common across _all_ academic disciplines. This justifies a music teacher professing about medicine with no experience at all.

</comment><comment><USER3> I remember reading something once along the lines of "knowledge is just the opinions of those in power".

<comment><USER4> Interesting approach, and may be valid for some fields. I feel that most of science is about discovering falsifiable objective truths, though the specific set of potential truths that are chosen for research activity is definitely influenced by those in power.

<comment><USER5> In the long run that is correct. However, in decision making, when work is "cutting edge" the opinions of experts/"key opinion leaders" weighs more heavily, or equal to, data.

For example, it is now >50 years since anthropogenic global warming was first proposed. The first intergovernmental action I can find with a brief search that tackles climate change is the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Legislation surrounding CO2 emissions was not introduced until the 2000's. The matter is still "controversial".

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

<comment><USER4> To be fair, while we can run controlled experiments on components of this problem, I don't think we can run a global controlled experiment of the entire system, or fully understand the long-term impact of climate change on humans in the face of advancing technology.

<comment><USER5> That problem exists for almost all innovative work. Generally, a paradigm becomes accepted when the predictions that follow from it are found to hold true. For people to make the effort to test such predictions requires (from a human standpoint) a "leap of faith", regardless of the integrity of the data that lead to said paradigm being proposed.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This is more of a problem at smaller schools. At the "majors" (MIT/Harvard/Columbia) such cross-discipline work is unremarkable, if not necessarily common. Stanford, to my surprise, appears to me to be more bureaucratic in this regard.

And very small institutions don't care: they make their own way (and may not be able to afford a huge faculty).

If you're above tiny but not a marquee name then accreditation is vital to your survival. You don't do anything to mess that up!

</comment><comment><USER5> A similar conundrum exists in UK universities. It was decided that all university lecturers (professors in US parlance) should have a teaching qualification regardless of experience in actual teaching. The solution was to create a series of new post-graduate certificates in teaching, the requirements of some of which are fairly easy to fulfill if one does actually have academic teaching experience, e.g. 10,000 words one's teaching philosophy plus a few classes.</comment>


CastChat – Broadcast messages to other users near you - <AUTHOR> https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jonkussmann.castchat

<comment><AUTHOR> CastChat is an app that allows you to send "broadcasts" to other users in your area, with a range of up to 20km. These broadcasts will be sent directly to your phone, so there is no need to refresh/pull from a database each time you want to see if there are any new messages. You can then message users privately, if you wish. There is no need to make any accounts!</comment>


Obesity rising in American women - <AUTHOR> http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2526639 <comment><USER2> Speaking for all American men: we know.

<comment><USER3> Basically, yeah.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Maybe the title should be changed to match the actual paper title "Trends in Obesity Among Adults in the United States 2005 to 2014" ?

EDIT: as some people mentioned below that the title does match a sentence in the conclusion. The study is still for women and men, and has interesting cross-sectional data for both.

<comment><USER3> "For women, the prevalence of overall obesity and of class 3 obesity showed significant linear trends for increase between 2005 and 2014; there were no significant trends for men."</comment></comment>


How to flip a bit a specific bit in a human genome - <AUTHOR> https://serotiny.bio/notes/proteins/sabe4gam/ <comment><AUTHOR> David Liu's lab last week published [1] an updated version 4 of their genomic "Base Editor" that is capable of switching a C to a T with sequence specificity within a living genome. I try to break down the sequence and componentry of the genetic machine that provides the edits.

I'm trying to help demystify the mechanical nanotechnology being used in genetic engineering. In some senses they're quite simple, 5 or 6 component machines. This is one of the more 'advanced' proteins I've seen built, and it only contains 8 different kinds of components.

[1] [http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/8/eaao4774](http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/8/eaao4774)</comment>


Show HN: Find hotels near conference that you can reach by foot and public transit - <AUTHOR> https://hotel4conf.com <comment><USER2> Very well done! I like that you have a simple static url for each conference. I also like the clean, responsive layout. The pictures are a nice plus. Finally I like how easy it is to switch between distance or price. A great effort!

edit: rewording

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you. I am very pleased to hear that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Very cool implementation, I really like it! - are you using anything besides Booking.com?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. :)

Not at the moment. Maybe Airbnb in the near future. Any other suggestions?

<comment><USER3> Depends on what you are looking for and how much work you want to do. Booking.com is one of the easiest because you can simply refer to their "booking" page for purchase. With others you would likely need to have your own purchase page ([http://rentalsunited.com/](http://rentalsunited.com/) for example...you'd want to get set up as a Channel Partner).

<comment><AUTHOR> Thx rentalsunited looks great.

<comment><USER3> Great company to work with as well - good luck!</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


80 legs: Web Crawler as a Service - <AUTHOR> http://www.80legs.com/index.html

<comment><USER2> Hi guys. We were actually about to do an "Ask HN: Review our startup" post, but I guess someone beat us to it.

So, please review our startup. :)

We are launching the beta today to a handful of users and will be letting in more and more users over time.

One other note: We don't just offer crawling. Our model is actually to allow you to analyze the web content that you discover. Using your own custom code that you push into 80legs, you can do sophisticated text processing, image processing, look inside PDFs, etc.

<comment><AUTHOR> Sorry for hijacking your plan to post here first, but i found the idea incredibly cool and useful, and didn't know you guys are around here on HN. 80 legs can potentially save a lot of effort for people/companies who need to crawl web for data and analyze it.

Hope this really works out well for all of you.

p.s. Just in case you are curious, i got a reference note about your application from someone who was following Web 2.0 Expo.

<comment><USER2> Thanks for the nice comments luckystrike. We had a great time at the Web 2.0 Expo and we've been overwhelmed by all the interest in our service. We're pretty hopeful that we've built something that people want. :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Interesting, it's a botnet! From the FAQ: "How can the prices be so low?" "Plura pays developers to embed lightweight widgets in their desktop applications or websites. These widgets harness the idle and excess bandwidth and computing power on the computers of people using the applications and websites."

<comment><USER2> Plura affiliates actually accept responsibility for getting the permission of their users. Plura encourages disclosure and has found that it is actually very well received by the users once it is explained. It always works our better for Plura affiliates when they disclose. To that end, Plura has actually changed it's TOS with affiliates so that they directly take responsibility for getting user acceptance.

Most Plura apps/websites give users optin/optout capabilities. Rather than anything ill-intentioned, the actual model is really that Plura gives application developers a means of offering their application at a discount (or free) to users that don't mind trading their excess computer resources for the app. For those that don't want Plura+free, the application developer can give them other options (pay, ads, whatever).

Once the users really understand it, they are almost always happy that the developer has a new means of monetization so that the developer will continue to improve the software they are using.

BTW, this all runs in a secure java sandbox where nothing can actually see the users data, disk, what programs are running, or anything else about the computer. Plura has gone to great lengths to try to sanitize the entire process and be good guys.

<comment><USER4> Interesting way to earn money. However, why a regular user can't run a plura client too so that they can earn cash themsleves?

<comment><USER2> There's certainly no problem with individual users doing it. Just contact Plura through the web form at <http://pluraprocessing.com/contact.php>.

Alternatively, you can use one of our affiliates to raise money for charity (not related to our company) <http://donatebot.com>

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Very interesting service! A number of questions...

What User-Agent do you use?

Do you crawl non-textual resources?

Do you save all headers from the crawled responses?

Do you perform any processing on the returned content (like de-chunking or de- compressing) or can it be retrieved verbatim?

If two customers request the same URL/site be crawled, are their requests merged so the site is only crawled once?

Do you save the exact time of the request (not trusting the returned 'Date' header)?</comment>


The Science of Mental Fitness (2012) - <AUTHOR> http://www.damninteresting.com/the-science-of-mental-fitness

<comment><USER2> Josh Waitzkin describes something like this in his book The Art of Learning. Basically, he broke his arm a few months before an important martial arts tournament. While it was immobilized in a sling, he worked out the other arm then meditated, imagining he was working out the busted arm. He reported that this helped keep his bad arm from atrophying and becoming weak while he couldn't use it.

<comment><USER3> someone should redo this, but break both arms, and only imagine working out with one of them.

<comment><USER4> You don't have to break 'em, just put them in casts.

I realize you're joking, but it reminded me of this story: one of my ex- girlfriends actually did something like this as part of her PhD: she signed up half a dozen volunteers--including herself--to wear casts on one arm for six weeks.

It was a total bust: she was the only subject who made it through more than half the investigation period. The rest mostly came in after a week or so and asked to have the casts removed. One didn't even want to wait for that once they had decided they couldn't stand to go on with it, and soaked it off at home.

Maybe with modern plastic immobilization it would be easier to do this kind of research, but it was pretty extreme at the time and getting ethics approval today would be almost impossible.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> >>the mental-exercise group physically increased the strength of one of their fingers by imagining, repeatedly, over the course of about three months, that they were exercising it. They didn't have to lift a finger in order to convince their brains that they were, in fact, lifting a finger.

Wow! Now that is something to think about. No pun intended. But wow. Mind over matter, literally.

<comment><USER6> I wonder how they controlled for the ideomotor effect - if you think about moving a muscle without moving it, you tend to still flex/move it slightly even without noticing it. This might be enough to explain the strength increae.

<comment><USER7> Some strength gains from strength training are a result of more neurons making connections from the motor center of the brain to the muscle tissue. Thinking about moving a muscle might make more neurons form to the muscle, making more of them contract when it does move.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Props to the author/website for providing links to the papers it discusses at the bottom of the page. Drives me nuts when articles neglect to do this.

</comment><comment><USER9> Very interesting article. In hindu mythology, we hear tales of sages having great powers that they could do lot of things just by thought and I always thought it was all untrue. But it seems they don't seem to be much farther from reality!

</comment><comment><USER10> "A 2007 Canadian study targeting hip muscles had the same outcome: a group of college students using weightlifting increased their hip-muscle strength by 28.3%, a control-group doing nothing to their hip muscles exhibited no change in strength, and a group working on the muscles only via mental imagery showed an increase in the strength of those muscles by 23.7%."

I wonder if you get all benefits of workout/cardio by just imagining. Would love to go for 10 minutes imaginary runs while sitting at my desk when my brain needs a break.

</comment><comment><USER11> Would seem that this could tie into Lucid Dreaming and Dream Control. Wonder what would happen if the same workouts were done while dreaming. Same results?

<comment><USER12> Probably not, because the relevant bits are probably too disconnected. I've often dreamed of running down the road at ~50mph, complete with proprioceptive cues that I am running, and I can't say I've seen an effect.

<comment><USER11> I'm not talking just about dreaming, I'm talking about lucid dreaming and dream control. If you're not lucid in your dreams, then I don't think it's too ridiculous of me to assume that those dreams are "normal" for you, so you wouldn't expect to see any improvement, even if dreaming about things like that could offer improvement.

What I'm talking about is people who can realize they are dreaming, and then make a concerted effort to consistently use that time for mental training like the article mentions. That seems far more likely to yield results than sporadic running dreams.

<comment><USER12> Sorry, yes, I wasn't clear. I've been a natural lucid dreamer for 25 years now, to the point that I can't even remember the last time I had the "recognition" that I was dreaming... for me I long since just know, pretty much all the time. I'll cop I wasn't deliberately trying to exercise, but I doubt it'll matter.

Besides, this sounds like the sort of thing you can already do in your down time, riding the bus, sitting at your desk, etc. Regardless of how "lucid" you are, counting on getting anything like this done in your sleep is a crapshoot compared to setting an alarm on your phone and doing it during the day.

If indeed it works that well, which I'm still skeptical about. Common sense suggests that if it were this easy we'd have collectively discovered this as a race a long time ago. (Kinda like Larry Niven's arguments about why humans almost certainly don't have psi powers... if they worked, we'd _know_. The very fact we're "wondering" is strong evidence that there's nothing there, or the effect is so small as to be useless and essentially undetectable.)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Where Systemd and Containers Meet: Q&A with Lennart Poettering - <AUTHOR> https://coreos.com/blog/qa-with-lennart-systemd/ <comment><USER2> See [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10230227](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10230227)</comment>


Gitlab 12.7 - <AUTHOR> https://about.gitlab.com/releases/2020/01/22/gitlab-12-7-released/ <comment><USER2> > Resource Groups help you limit pipeline concurrency to more efficiently and > effectively manage jobs and resources.

Nice, I missed that for automated Kubernetes or Terraform Deployments.</comment>


Apple announces September 12 media event - <AUTHOR> http://www.loopinsight.com/2012/09/04/apple-announces-special-event-for-september-12/

<comment><AUTHOR> Not at all surprised that it's going to be the "iPhone 5". Apple accepts that two-year contracts mean there's going to be an ebb and flow to their phone sales, and thus it's worth making as big a "bang" as possible for each new device, even at the expense of having buyers delay their purchase waiting on the new release.

But the iPad doesn't have a contract, and they'd prefer the average consumer not sit around waiting for the "new" iPad any more than they'd wait around for the "new" Macbook. Obviously some consumers are going to go to the Mac Rumors buying guide, but not many. By not hanging a big number on the brand, they mitigate the "I'll wait for N+1" mentality and hopefully spread out sales into the months post-release when their margins improve.

<comment><USER2> I was thinking it could (also) be an allusion to 5 complete years of the iPhone.

<comment><USER3> It can't really be by years:

1: iPhone (2G)

2: iPhone 3G

3: iPhone 3GS

4: iPhone 4

5: iPhone 4S

6: iPhone 5?

<comment><USER4> The original iPhone debuted in 2007.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm waiting for Apple to invite all it's friends to an event and then just provide a nice party. "You're our friends and we wanted to treat you well" would be a nice sentiment and the perfect way to confuse people who try to predict what they'll do next.

<comment><USER6> I guess you will wait for a long time then, I don't see it happening anytime soon.

For that kind of philosophy to appear, it would mean Apple is losing market shares and needs a new strategy to attract developers and users.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> For those that didn't notice, the shadow on the "12" forms a "5":

[http://www.loopinsight.com/2012/09/04/apple-announces- specia...](http://www.loopinsight.com/2012/09/04/apple-announces-special- event-for-september-12/)

</comment><comment><USER8> Thank God, seems like it'll be called iPhone 5 instead of "the new iPhone".

<comment><USER9> iPhone 5 would be more confusing considering this will be the 6th generation.

<comment><USER10> 6th iPhone, arguably the 4th generation (iPhone 1, iPhone 3G and 3GS as one generation, iPhone 4 and 4S as one generation).

Naming it iPhone 6 would be extremely confusing for consumers (Where did the 5 go?!), as would 4G. The only workable alternative is iPhone 5. Anything else would be a horrible idea from a marketing point of view.

Yeah, it's slightly inconsistent, but that's just how it is. (Apple used the 4 both as an iPhone number – with the iPhone 4 – and like a generation number – with the iPhone 4S. That's how they already introduced the inconsistency they now have to work around.)

Your homework: Why did Apple count iPhones and not generations when they introduced the iPhone 4? There is a pretty simple answer to that.

<comment><USER9> > 6th iPhone, arguably the 4th generation (iPhone 1, iPhone 3G and 3GS as one > generation, iPhone 4 and 4S as one generation).

Are you still going to think that when the new iPhone still looks like the 4/4s model?

> Naming it iPhone 6 would be extremely confusing for consumers (Where did the > 5 go?!), as would 4G. The only workable alternative is iPhone 5. Anything > else would be a horrible idea from a marketing point of view.

Or drop the number altogether and leave the math to the nerds who care.

<comment><USER10> If the rumours are anything to go by the next iPhone is deservedly a new generation. New metal back, larger screen, different connector, …

Sure, it looks somewhat similar to the 4/4S, but you would have to be extremely superficial if you think only a completely new look deserves to be a new generation name. That's not how Apple thinks. If they like a look they keep it. They don't change it for change's sake.

Here is a reminder: iPhone 3G and 3GS as well as 4 and 4S looked exactly the same. I only dared to call them part of one generation because they really looked exactly the same. If the rumours are true the iPhone 5 will look somewhat similar but certainly not exactly the same as the 4/4S.

And sure, no numbers would also work, but if you want numbers 5 is the only way to do it and it honestly makes a ton of sense and is not the least bit confusing. Everyone will know what you are talking about, no one will be confused. It's unique, it's memorable, it even makes sense.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Is the image (12 reflecting 5) actually from Apple, or did someone else create it? I can't seem to find it anywhere on Apple's website.

<comment><USER12> They don't put these sorts of images on apple.com afaik - they're just sent to the invitees who then spread them.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Worst kept secret ever.

<comment><USER14> Best hype machine ever.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Samsung lawyers are watching that with attention, waiting for the word LTE to come up.

[http://www.droid-life.com/2012/08/30/samsung-if-apple- releas...](http://www.droid-life.com/2012/08/30/samsung-if-apple-releases-an- lte-iphone-were-ready-to-sue)

<comment><USER15> (from the article)

> _"[Samsung] decid[ed] not to go after Apple's less popular LTE-enabled iPad > device. The "hit them where it hurts" approach."_

Yeah. iPad has such a small marketshare and generates so little revenue for Apple that it's not worth going after. Right.

<comment><USER16> I think the idea would be that relatively few of iPads sold, percentage wise, are cellular/LTE, while all iPhones will be. The absolute number of devices sold probably doesn't hurt the case.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Apple-Google cross licensing agreement announcement - calling it now.

</comment><comment><USER18> Cool! Maybe Apple will also tell why they allow spyware on iOS as reported by Bloomberg? [http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-29/spyware-matching- fi...](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-29/spyware-matching-finfisher- can-take-over-iphone-and-blackberry.html)

<comment><USER19> Read the article. The whole article. It doesn't say what you think it says.</comment></comment>


Rails makes it feel like I cheated - <AUTHOR>

Last night I decided to take the dive and try building a website in ROR.  I had no prior experience, but I did have the new Agile Programming book.  And after four hours I have to say I feel like I cheated.  I was able to create a fully administrable website, with almost no coding on my part and very little learning curve.  It was almost too easy.  Anyone else have a similar experience with ROR or any other framework.  I tried Django, but I couldn't even get that setup properly, so I gave up on it for now. <comment><USER2> I also felt the same way after building a basic app reading along with "Rails Solutions" in two hours. Seems too easy...until you start getting into some meatier applications and use cases. Take a look at some of the tutorials over at peepcode.com. You won't feel like you are cheating any more if you can get through some of those.

</comment><comment><USER3> And why is that a bad thing :)

Some programming languages have us tuned that we have to do all the work ourselves.

It's a paradigm mind shift. Rails enables focus on business, not on code (not that it will scale easily though - it will present the same challenges as every other platform).

</comment><comment><USER4> My biggest issue with rails is that I don't really understand how the thing works. That bugs me.

It doesn't matter that I've got a fully functional and beautiful website. It bothers me that most of what's going on is happening is some black hole.

To be fair, this is more ruby's fault than rails, as it's a difficult language to parse for my western-aligned and procedural brain.

I find django/python much more satisfactory for this reason alone really.

</comment><comment><USER5> I went thru the same thing man. I must say its a good feeling :)</comment>


Surprise: Developing For Windows Phone 7 Isn't A Total Waste Of Time - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessinsider.com/why-develop-for-windows-phone-7-2010-10 <comment><USER2> Windows Phone 7 seems pretty good for a first version. Ease of development and some exclusive games from the XBox franchise can make it better.</comment>


Why hasn't anyone figured out neighborhood social networking? - <AUTHOR> http://www.killerstartups.com/Social-Networking/neighbortree-com-social-networking-for-neighbors

<comment><USER2> Because my neighbors aren't that cool?</comment>


NoSQL or NoJoin? - <AUTHOR> http://lemire.me/blog/archives/2010/06/28/nosql-or-nojoin/

<comment><USER2> Relational algebra is a conceptually different approach to "merging data back together". So, I think the key point you made is that people end up optimizing their data storage to support faster joins.

Key/value stores have a different approach to "merging data back together". They seem more inclined to keep the data together in the first place (documents).

Both require a language of some kind to do the merging. NoSql is like saying NoMapReduce or even more like NoAlgebra.

I agree it is more like NoJoin.

</comment><comment><USER3> Superb article. In fact when i first used NoSQL I realized that the real benefit was that I could avoid taking complicated joins.</comment>


Anonymized Engineering Compensation – A sheet full of salary data - <AUTHOR> https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JR4KrVH1dygniLiLFAMTvdSp5gGLVKKkOxBYiPQagvE <comment><USER2> Some of the data is clearly wrong and should probably be excluded from averages. Do you have any checks in place on the calculations. For example exclude data where total comp < salary ?

</comment><comment><USER3> Previous discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14538984](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14538984)</comment>


Facebook to face more scrutiny from Congress on Libra - <AUTHOR> https://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-cryptocurrency-senate/facebook-to-face-more-scrutiny-from-congress-on-libra-idUSKCN1UC1A4 <comment><USER2> Legislatures and regulators give a bunch of excuses for why this is bad, but the reality is that they don't want to lose control over the monetary system. and Facebook is already and easy political target.</comment>


Samsung announces two new Android Honeycomb tablets - <AUTHOR> http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2382376,00.asp

<comment><USER2> > The Galaxy Tab 10.1 Wi-Fi model will be available in 16GB and 32GB models. > The 16GB model will cost $499, and the 32GB version will cost $599. The > Galaxy Tab 8.9 Wi-Fi version will be available with 16GB of memory for $469, > and the 32GB version will cost $569.

And so it begins...

(I don't know why people thought that the tablet competition would be any different than the smartphone market. Critics were way too eager to proclaim that no one could compete with Apple on price.)

<comment><USER3> My complaint is not that said people (those who said no one could compete on price) are wrong, but that they totally miss the point. No one buys Apple products because they're cheaper.

These tablets look great, in terms of pricing and specs. But what will drive their success or lack thereof is the tightness and consistency of the overall experience. This is what Apple gets so well, even though delivering it flies in the face of so many things (lack of openness, vendor lock-in, app store approval policies, etc.).

<comment><USER3> As a rule, downvotes with no explanation really suck.

I meant this comment sincerely, and thought it worth reading. I'm quite willing to be wrong and learn, but I don't get anything from a bunch of -1s (given that I observed the no one-liners, no jokes, etc. rules).

Jus' sayin'.

<comment><USER4> Unless you've got multiple downvotes then it's just as likely to be someone with an iPhone and big fingers trying to upvote you.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> _Samsung wants to answer "yes" to every possible tablet size need, Samsung chief strategy officer Omar Khan said._

What are the guidelines (or general practice) for creating apps that scale across so many sizes?

My understanding is that Android apps tend to scale well across minor screen size/pixel density/aspect ratio variations, which is good, but I also note that most universal iOS apps have _substantially_ different layouts between their iPhone and iPad versions: not just differing sizes but a very different arrangement of controls and even substantially differing functionality and interaction paradigms... for example, iPhone apps tend to be much more about drilling down into a hierarchy while iPad apps are "flatter".

Is there a guideline regarding where to make that cutoff? In a world of 3.5" and 9.7" screens being the only two options, it's easy to know which device gets the "little" layout and which gets the "big" one... but what sort of layouts should an app give 5", 7", and 12" tablets?

</comment><comment><USER6> I guaranty these units are buggy. Samsung is not known for their amazing programming skills. What are they known for? Good luck getting a system update for it.</comment>


Show HN: Lookiwasthere – Book guided tours from local operators - <AUTHOR> http://www.lookiwasthere.com/

<comment><AUTHOR> PS: We are looking for feedback about the website, what do you think?</comment>


Neal Stephenson and friends fight for the future of ebooks with "The Mongoliad" - <AUTHOR> http://io9.com/5549740/neal-stephenson-and-friends-fight-for-the-future-of-ebooks-with-the-mongoliad

<comment><USER2> It sounds like an open source e-book that you have to pay to "develop" for. Great idea in general, but although i don't mind doing work for free, i mind others getting paid for it instead of me. If they incorporate some sort of payment system, so that part of the revenue goes to contributors it might be a different story.</comment>


Leaked document: EU Commission mulls new law to regulate online platforms - <AUTHOR> https://netzpolitik.org/2019/leaked-document-eu-commission-mulls-new-law-to-regulate-online-platforms/ <comment><AUTHOR> The leak is here:

[https://cdn.netzpolitik.org/wp-upload/2019/07/Digital- Servic...](https://cdn.netzpolitik.org/wp-upload/2019/07/Digital-Services-Act- note-DG-Connect-June-2019.pdf)</comment>


The Story of the PING Program (1997) - <AUTHOR> http://ftp.arl.mil/mike/ping.html <comment><USER2> Sadly the author of ping, Mike Muss, died in a car accident in 2000. [1]

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

<comment><USER3> What a waste. Such talent and skill destroyed in an instant, forever.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Am I the only one that finds the MS Windows ping more useful for quick troubleshooting that the Linux/Unix variants? A few weeks ago I was dealing poor performance on my cable modem. When I pinged a valid IP, I was seeing the successful packets only. It didn't show time-out packets until the summary displayed on exit. This makes it useless for quick real-time monitoring. MS ping on the other hand will show time-outs along with the successful ones.

Why is Linux ping this way? Is this a fundamental design flaw?

<comment><USER5> 'oping' fixes that issue:

      $ oping msn.com
      PING msn.com (18.104.22.168) 56 bytes of data.
      echo reply from msn.com (18.104.22.168): icmp_seq=1 timeout
      echo reply from msn.com (188.8.131.52): icmp_seq=2 timeout
      echo reply from msn.com (22.214.171.124): icmp_seq=3 timeout

Also, in standard ping, you can type Ctrl+\ (sends the QUIT signal) to get an update, e.g.

      $ ping msn.com
      PING msn.com (188.8.131.52) 56(84) bytes of data.
      <<< Ctrl+\ >>>
      7/0 packets, 100% loss

<comment><USER6> ctrl+break does the same on windows ping.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I loved the bit about piping ping through sed through vocoder, playing it on the stereo at 11, and finding the network fault by seeing which wiggled connector caused silence.

<comment><USER8> A coworker and I once did a similar thing (Just a beep, no vocoder) to isolate a faulty switch. This switch had been causing horrible problems (data corruption style) for weeks and we just couldn't find it.

It's the only time I've ever seen my friend violent or aggressive. Upon find the switch he calmly unplugged everything, and then threw the switch at a concrete wall. I understood the sentiment.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> The Amazon review by "A reader from Upper Volta, Uzbekistan" is priceless.

</comment><comment><USER3> What software could someone write today and finish in an evening that would be as widely known and useful as PING is?

<comment><USER10> twitter? _rimshot_

<comment><USER6> Twitter is not known because of what it can do but because marketing

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> For those who want to reproduce the ping example, get espeak and run:

      ping mit.edu | sed -u 's/.*/ping/' | espeak

<comment><USER11>
      ping mit.edu | sed -u 's/.*/ping pong/' | espeak

is even funnier...

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I remember years ago the SunOS documentation used to have a ping joke: [http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19504-01/802-5753/6i9g71m4p/index...](http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19504-01/802-5753/6i9g71m4p/index.html)

</comment><comment><USER13> The following command will work on OS X and do the voice ping:

        ping google.com | sed -l -e 's/.*/ping/' | while read line; do say $line; done

The `while read line ...` is required because the `say(1)` command will wait for an EOF when reading from a non-TTY... so it won't speak line by line.

</comment><comment><USER14> Dr. A-hole says: Shouldn't the comment on line 283 say "Whom to ping"?

struct sockaddr whereto;/* Who to ping */</comment>


In Patagonia 2k years ago, it was common for people to modify skulls of babies - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20151119-the-people-who-reshaped-their-skulls <comment><USER2> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_cranial_deformation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_cranial_deformation)

And of course it's not just ancient ... my parents had my head shaped (and my brothers') over several years with metal and rubber bands, mostly in my mouth but sometimes attached to a frame wrapping around my neck, being slowly tightened over several years before puberty.

<comment><USER3> Wow, do elaborate! What's the shape of your head now? Is it extreme? Would you choose to have you head shaped if you were given a choice? Why did your parents do it, is it a cultural thing, did their heads get shaped too?

<comment><USER4> I believe the parent comment is referring to dental braces.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> It's fascinating how various cultures modify their children's bodies…also a bit unsettling, since it infringes on a person's bodily integrity before they're even properly a person. I find infant circumcision little different from head-binding or foot-binding—but that is a rather unpopular opinion here in the US.

<comment><USER6> > I find infant circumcision little different from head-binding or foot- > binding—but that is a rather unpopular opinion here in the US.

Circumcision is a lightning rod issue partly because it is often performed for religious reasons.

One thing that's often overlooked when it's discussed, though: if the child grows up to be a woman (ie, transgender woman assigned male at birth), being circumcised makes gender reassignment surgery more complicated and difficult. It's still possible, but the doctors have less to work with for reconstruction.

<comment><USER7> Circumcision and transgender issues in one sentence? You like playing with fire, don't you :) .

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I wonder what effect this has on brain development.

</comment><comment><USER9> This is still a thing today, but unintentional and to a mich smaller extent. In some cultures babies are put in tight clothes and lay flat on their backs most of the time, which gives them a less round skull.

</comment><comment><USER10> A friend from Sichuan told me that a less drastic form of head binding was common practice where she came from, though I can't seem to find references to it online.

</comment><comment><USER11> My grandfather tells stories from when he was a boy, about his mother getting "caps" to put on her kids so they would have a "nicely" shaped skull.

<comment><USER12> If you don't mind me asking, where did your grandfather grow up that that was a thing?

<comment><USER11> Either in South AL or Northwest FL.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I wonder if this modifications increased the brain volume, and if this was a motivation.

<comment><USER14> Wikipedia says it had no effect on cranial volume, for what that's worth.

<comment><USER13> I think I read the same article (not totally conclusive though). Their perception of a positive influence could have lead to this behavior (modifying skulls).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Sounds really interesting, but I'm getting a 503 from their site. :(

<comment><USER16> I was getting that as well, it's loading for me now if you check again.

<comment><USER15> Yep, working now. Thanks!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Wow. Is this the BBC?

FTA: "In 2009 a team of archaeologists found _intreaguing_ remains at an ancient burial."

I didn't read any more. I expected better proofreading from the BBC!

Sorry for the digression, but my OCD kicked in :(</comment>


The Pains of iPhone Ad Hoc Beta Testing - <AUTHOR> http://iphone.broadersheet.com/2009/09/the-iphone-ad-hoc-beta-testing-method-sucks/

<comment><USER2> Interesting. This problem is tractable with better software, and it seems to be well within the capability of a single developer to solve. (Make a dedicated beta client which automates all the stupidity for the end-user, including sniffing GUIDs, downloading your distribution, and reporting errors to you, and a web service for the beta clients to connect to to grab apps, report errors, and _cough_ ensure that your customers succeed in paying for your application.)

Unfortunately, while it is software that saves people pain (a plus) and helps make people money (a big plus), it is also sold to developers (ouch), most of whom are hobbyists (double ouch), would have to cost an awful lot in comparison to what _they_ charge for software (triple ouch), and requires Apple to remain clueless or else your investment gets vaporized with a patch.

<comment><USER3> I actually think it could be sold as a framework completely legally.

<comment><USER2> I have no doubt it is legal. The competitive position is just suboptimal:

1) I charge money to make iPhone development not suck

2) iPhone development is primarily controlled by Apple, a company with ...

3) ... smart people who have ...

4) ... more money than God and ...

5) ... could teach Japanese electronics manufacturers about user experience while ...

6) ... making hundreds of millions off the iPhone ...

7) ... justifying making any improvement available _free_ , and probably

8) ... announcing it at MacWorld, to the resounding cheers of their hundreds- of-thousands strong cult of fanboys who whose very identity is predicated on using Apple products.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> A couple tips to address some of his issues:

Issue: .app directory is browsable, don't use Vista to decompress.

Solution: Package your app as an .ipa. It is now no longer a directory, and your use can drag and drop this into iTunes. iTunes will handle the decompression. I usually send the following link to the users to help them through the install: [http://www.innerfence.com/howto/install-iphone- application-a...](http://www.innerfence.com/howto/install-iphone-application- ad-hoc-distribution?zip_file=AppName.app.AdHoc.ipa)

Issue: user needs to delete old version in order install new version. Can't test upgrades.

Solution: Increment your Bundle Version for each version.

<comment><USER5> Yep. These are all things that simply take time to learn. It seems the author is just bit a inexperienced in these and mostly wanted to blow off steam. I was also annoyed by these things, but that's what drove me to figure out a better way and/or automate them. I added the same tips (and some more) as a comment to the blog.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Ad-hoc testers using Windows Vista have a couple of obstacles to overcome.

Not only the default unzip problem the post mentions (I've found it's just simpler to give the Vista testers an ipa file instead), but also removing the provisioning profile from iTunes usually involves going into the local filesystem and removing the .mobileprovision files manually: <http://denis.papathanasiou.org/?p=139>

</comment><comment><USER7> "Over 10% of our testers gave us the wrong number as their UDID."

It's not _that_ hard. There's a free app you can put on your device that will email your UDID to where ever you want, or you can just copy it over from iTunes/XCode. I haven't ever had a client give me the wrong UDID (they have given me the same UDID twice though, forgetting that I already have that device in the database). The hardest part usually is that it can sometimes take 5-6 tries of dragging the app into iTunes (on Windows at least) for it to work. But even that isn't too big of a deal, just quick and easy repetitive motion (once they get the profile installed).

I think the biggest pain in the ass is on the developer's side. Anytime you want to run the app on another device, you have to add another UDID to the device list on Apple's site, regenerate your provisioning profile, download it, delete the old adhoc profile from ~/Library/MobileDevices (good luck trying to find out which of the profiles in there is your old adhoc, the files are named with a random string of letters and numbers), install it to XCode, open your project, and change your adhoc build profile settings to the new profile.

Phew.

<comment><USER4> You can manage your provisioning profiles more easily through XCode -> Window -> Organizer.

It'll list your profiles by name and expiration date. You can click on them to see more details, and also delete them from there. You'll stil need to update your project manually after you've swapped out the provisioning profile.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Agreed. I often have to give people my UDID several times ... and then sometimes it still doesn't work.

<comment><USER9> You know, this is yet another thing why I really hesitate to start hacking for the iPhone, there are just so many hoops to jump through and being used to developing web apps this beta process just sounds insane... I wonder why so many people are still putting up with all that.

<comment><USER3> You can actually hack in the simulator quite easily.

It's just distribution to non-app store clients that is a pain in the ass (as well as going through the approval process)

<comment><USER10> > It's just distribution to non-app store clients that is a pain in the ass > (as well as going through the approval process)

Yep... it's just distribution to non-app store clients, and distribution to app store clients, that's a pain in the ass. Everything else is easy.

[http://www.alexc.me/android-distribution-vs-iphone- distribut...](http://www.alexc.me/android-distribution-vs-iphone- distribution/242/)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


China Is Building Enormous Self-Sustaining Cities All over the African Continent - <AUTHOR> http://themostimportantnews.com/archives/the-takeover-china-is-building-enormous-self-sustaining-chinese-cities-all-over-the-african-continent <comment><AUTHOR> Quotes this article extensively but I thought the original summary post made some additional good points [https://www.forbes.com/sites/panosmourdoukoutas/2018/08/04/c...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/panosmourdoukoutas/2018/08/04/china- is-treating-africa-the-same-way-european-colonists-did/#46a62191298b)

</comment><comment><USER2> I wonder if this will mean social and cultural mixing, where Chinese mingle and intermarry with the locals.

<comment><USER3> I think it is highly unlikely due to the chinese culture and how they view africans. There is a very good documentary called empire of dust that gives a good hindsight of the culture clash: [https://youtu.be/1a-QpyF7rNc](https://youtu.be/1a-QpyF7rNc)

The cultural mixing thing is a modern western fantasy of the elites, not shared at all by a majority of the world.</comment></comment>


Oxford Dictionaries API program is now live - <AUTHOR> https://developer.oxforddictionaries.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> Trust me, you can register and become an adopter. Mobile does indeed need work!

</comment><comment><USER2> it's not live, it's just a 'register your interest' landing page with some stupid avatar photos that don't load well on a mobile device</comment>


A Senior Engineer's CheckList - <AUTHOR> https://littleblah.com/post/2019-09-01-senior-engineer-checklist/ <comment><USER2> With respect, a checklist with sixty different top level items isn't going to help me.

If you could break this down into a maximum of eight different top level categories, and then eight or fewer sub-items, that might be a better start.

It's okay for checklists to have more than eight items in it, so long as they are sequential in nature and you're listing out the steps. At that point it's more of a flowchart than a checklist, but you can call it what you want.</comment>


Facebook, Hadoop, and Hive - <AUTHOR> http://www.dbms2.com/2009/05/11/facebook-hadoop-and-hive/ <comment><USER2> Pretty interesting article. My rss reader caught the text before the site went down:

I few weeks ago, I posted about a conversation I had with Jeff Hammerbacher of Cloudera, in which he discussed a Hadoop-based effort at Facebook he previously directed. Subsequently, Ashish Thusoo and Joydeep Sarma of Facebook contacted me to expand upon and in a couple of instances correct what Jeff had said. They also filled me in on Hive, a data-manipulation add-on to Hadoop that they developed and subsequently open-sourced.

Updating the metrics in my Cloudera post,

Facebook has 400 terabytes of disk managed by Hadoop/Hive, with a slightly better than 6:1 overall compression ratio. So the 2 1/2 petabytes figure for user data is reasonable.

Facebook's Hadoop/Hive system ingests 15 terabytes of new data per day now, not 10. Hadoop/Hive cycle times aren't as fast as I thought I heard from Jeff. Ad targeting queries are the most frequent, and they're run hourly. Dashboards are repopulated daily.

Nothing else in my Cloudera post was called out as being wrong.

In a new-to-me metric, Facebook has 610 Hadoop nodes, running in a single cluster, due to be increased to 1000 soon. Facebook thinks this is the second- largest* Hadoop installation, or else close to it. What's more, Facebook believes it is unusual in spreading all its apps across a single huge cluster, rather than doing different kinds of work on different, smaller sub-clusters.

*Apparently, Yahoo is at 2000 nodes (and headed for 4000), 1000 or so of which are operated as a single cluster for a single app.

Facebook decided in 2007 to move what was then a 15 terabyte big-DBMS-vendor data warehouse to Hadoop — augmented by Hive — rather than to an MPP data warehouse DBMS. Major drivers of the choice included:

License/maintenance costs. Free is a good price.

Open source flexibility. Facebook is one of the few users I've ever spoken with that actually cares about modifying open source code.

Ability to run on cheap hardware. Facebook runs real-time MySQL instances on boxes that cost $10K or so, and would expect to pay at least as much for an MPP DBMS node. But Hadoop nodes run on boxes that cost no more than $4K, and sometimes (depending e.g. on whether they have any disk at all) as little as $2K. These are "true" commodity boxes; they don't even use RAID.

Ability to scale out to lots of nodes. Few of the new low-cost MPP DBMS vendors have production systems even today of >100 nodes. (Actually, I'm not certain that any except Netezza do, although Kognitio in a prior release of its technology once built a 900ish node production system.)

Inherently better performance. Correctly or otherwise, the Facebook guys thought that Hadoop had performance advantages over DBMS, due to the lack of overhead associated with transactions and so on.

One option Facebook didn't seriously consider was sticking with the incumbent, which Facebook folks regarded as "horrible" and a "lost cause." The daily pipeline took more than 24 hours to process. Although aware that its big-DBMS- vendor warehouse could probably be tuned much better, Facebook didn't see that as a path to growing its warehouse more than 100-fold. (But based on my discussion with Cloudera, I gather that vendor's DBMS is indeed used to run some reporting today.)

Reliability of Facebook's Hadoop/Hive system seems to be so-so. It's designed for a few nodes at a time to fail; that's no biggie. There's a head node that's a single-point of failure; while there's a backup node, I gather failover takes 15 minutes or so, a figure the Facebook guys think they could reduce substantially if they put their minds to it. But users submitting long- running queries don't seem to mind delays of up to an hour, as long as they don't have to resubmit their queries. Keeping ETL up is a higher priority than keeping query execution going. Data loss would indeed be intolerable, but at that level Hadoop/Hive seems to be quite trustworthy.

There also are occasional longer partial(?) outages, when an upgrade introduces a bug or something, but those don't seem to be a major concern. Facebook's variability in node hardware raises an obvious question — how does Hadoop deal with heterogeneous hardware among its nodes? Apparently a fair scheduling capability has been built for Hadoop, with Facebook as the first major user and Yahoo apparently moving in that direction as well. As for inputs to the scheduler (or any more primitive workload allocator) — well, that depends on the kind of heterogeneity.

Disk heterogeneity — a distributed file system reports back about disk.

CPU heterogeneity — different nodes can be configured to run different numbers of concurrent tasks each.

RAM heterogeneity — Hadoop does not understand the memory requirements of each task, and does not do a good job of matching tasks to boxes accordingly. But the Hadoop community is working to fix this.

Further notes on Hive

Without Hive, some basic Hadoop data manipulations can be a pain in the butt. A GROUP BY or the equivalent could take >100 lines of Java or Python code, and unless the person writing it knew something about database technologically, it could use some pretty sub-optimal algorithms even then. Enter Hive.

Hive sets out to fix this problem. Originally developed at Facebook (in Java, like Hadoop is), Hive was open-sourced last summer, by which time its SQL interface was in place, and now has 6 main developers. The essence of Hive seems to be:

An interface that implements a subset of SQL

Compilation of that SQL into a MapReduce configuration file.

An execution engine to run same.

The SQL implemented so far seems to, unsurprisingly be, what is most needed to analyze Facebook's log files. I.e., it's some basic stuff, plus some timestamp functionality. There also is an extensibility framework, and some ELT functionality. Known users of Hive include Facebook (definitely in production) and hi5 (apparently in production as well). Also, there's a Hive code committer from Last.fm.

Other links about huge data warehouses:

eBay has a 6 1/2 petabyte database running on Greenplum and a 2 1/2 petabyte enterprise data warehouse running on Teradata.

Wal-Mart, Bank of America, another financial services company, and Dell also have very large Teradata databases.

Yahoo's web/network events database, running on proprietary software, sounded about 1/6th the size of eBay's Greenplum system when it was described about a year ago.

Fox Interactive Media/MySpace has multi-hundred terabyte databases running on each of Greenplum and Aster Data nCluster.

TEOCO has 100s of terabytes running on DATAllegro. To a probably lesser extent, the same is now also true of Dell.

Vertica has a couple of unnamed customers with databases in the 200 terabyte range.</comment>


The Next Twenty Years: What Windows 8's Closed Distribution Means for Developers - <AUTHOR> http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/179420/ <comment><USER2> I wonder if MSFT will stop supporting SDK's that don't run through their store long term. At some point will you only be able to write things that run on Windows that go through the Windows store? It looks like Win RT is going to go that route. I think it will be hard for MSFT to totally shut that down on mainline Windows for a while, but longer term it might all look a lot like walled garden distribution across all Windows.

I imagine that MSFT will have some kind of enterprise program where you can run your own Windows Store Server to do enterprise deploys of Metro apps.

Either way, it looks like Linux might end up the one place where you can install and run your own software over the long haul.

<comment><USER3> It's going to take a while, but they are definitely going to keep moving in that direction. I think it's safe to expect future versions of Windows to continually de-emphasize and virtualize the desktop (much like what they did with DOS). Remember how they almost didn't release a version of Visual Studio Express 2012 that could target the desktop?

<comment><USER4> If they do this - and they have always wanted to - it will open the door for massive development on other platforms. I say this as a Microsoft developer. After looking at what's coming, both in the mediocrity of the upcoming OS releases and the push to put everything behind a MSFT wall, I've been actively looking at whether we should be moving primarily to Linux.

<comment><USER5> The only thing keeping me on Windows is the games. If Steam was on Linux with a strong library to back it up, I'd switch right now.

<comment><USER6> Games, document formats, workforce familiarity, and pre-existing infrastructure (Exchange, bureaucratic corporate IT depts, etc).

Still a fairly large hurdle to overcome, but I'm hoping Valve can at least break down the games one.

<comment><USER7> Document formats don't seem to be a problem any more. Back when MS switched to .docx people I knew continued using .doc to maintain compatibilty with old versions. I actually got support for the 2007 formats before most of my windows using friends. As long as you change your default file format to the MS one, I don't think you'll run into issues on that front.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I find it very impossible to believe that in 20 years there will be no "adult" games available.

For one thing the XboX is a very closed platform run by Microsoft and there is no lack of violent games available there. I imagine this part of the agreement is simply an oversight that will be corrected in one form or another.

The only other possible way that this could play out if MS stubbornly don't want to allow adult content on computers is that anybody who wants to play games will switch to another platform, be it Android or Ubuntu or whatever.

The most likely dangerous thing that this could do for game developers would be if MS took control of launch dates for third party games so that they didn't clash with games they planned to heavily promote themselves or with preferred partners.

So maybe if you're an Indie developer you can't launch a game during the Xmas period if Halo 6 is due to come out or something like that.

<comment><USER3> Yeah, there's no way they don't make an exception for legitimate mature rated games. The restrictions are just there so they have something they can point to when they reject malware apps or apps that are blatantly promoting violence or drug use or whatever.

They just released a Netflix app, and you can watch as many R-rated movies on it as you like. You can certainly view adult content with any Metro-enabled web browser. There's no way, as a corporation, that they're going to give up the revenue stream that is mature rated PC games.

<comment><USER9> > Yeah, there's no way they don't make an exception for legitimate mature > rated games.

Why should they? They don't have any reason to allow mature games, which certainly haven't been very common on consoles. It looks like PCs are headed in the same direction. Chances are these sorts of products will simply follow the path of least resistance and move to the web.

Edit: my bad, I'm not a big gamer, so I'm not familiar with the ratings terminology. When I said "mature" games, I was referring to games with adult content, not the games where you can shoot/kill people.

<comment><USER10> _"Why should they? They don't have any reason to allow mature games [...]"_

Can you elaborate on what you mean here? Microsoft publishes games that are designated with the M (Mature) rating. For example, see the _Gears of War_ franchise, published by Microsoft Studios (formerly known as Microsoft Game Studios).

"Microsoft and Epic Games today announced that the Xbox 360 exclusive sold more than three million copies in its first week since release, cementing "Gears 3" as the biggest game of 2011 and catapulting the franchise beyond one billion dollars in lifetime sales." [1]

[1] [http://epicgames.com/news/gears-of-war-3-soars-past-three- mi...](http://epicgames.com/news/gears-of-war-3-soars-past-three-million-in- first-week-sales-propels-franchi/)

Edit: w1ntermute & freehunter: Thanks for the clarification!

<comment><USER11> Either it's sarcasm or he's thinking about AO (Adults Only) and saying Mature by mistake. AO is uncommon because no major console maker will let AO games on their system and no major store will stock them. Mature games are the most popular category of console games.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I don't get it.

Everyone is gushing about the post-pc era, Eric Schmidt announced a few days ago that Microsoft is irrelevant, and the article takes for granted that Microsoft and PC as we know it will survive for next 20 years, and Windows will be dominant platform on PC?

If history teach us anything, it's that there's always some solution for the problem. If Windows 8 marketplace turns to be too restrictive, game developers will turn to Steam on Linux. And with enough gamers on Linux, Asus or Gigabyte will not be pressed to make only "compatible with Windows 8" UEFI-locked motherboards.

Or the consumers (and the gamers) will find Win8 marketplace acceptable. Or maybe in five or ten years some other player will sweep the market.

Looking at the current technology and lamenting about the end of the world is just plain stupid.

<comment><USER13> Yeah. This is the "extrapolate one technology, ignore everything else and base your future on that" syndrome.

Star Trek did that with spaceships and AI. You can explore the galaxy way past lightspeed, but your computer can't put up the shields to save your life unless your captain yells "Shields!". Right.

<comment><USER14> To be fair (and a pedant) that was for the sake of melodrama. The computers exploded in a shower of sparks during battle for the same reason. Rule of cool.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> FUD.

Desktop apps don't have to be distributed through Windows Store. In fact they can not. Windows Store contains only Metro UI apps, available for both tablets and desktops. All the software and games and stuff are installed exactly the same way as in other Windowses, without any restrictions implied by the article. Steam isn't going anywhere, Skyrim, Mass Effect are not, either. The problem does not exist.

<comment><USER16> The article argues that Metro apps are the future, not desktop apps. If the past is any guide to the future, desktop apps will be unacceptable to consumers in 10 years time and completely unusable in 20 years time (based on the MS-DOS to Windows transition).

Steam and other apps may work fine now, but what happens in 10 years? That is the long-term issue this article is trying to bring up.

<comment><USER8> I'm still a bit sceptical of this. Metro only allows you to work with one app on the screen at a time and you have to hit start every time you want to switch apps instead of a taskbar.

If people want to use their desktop computers in such a way, why didn't they build the UI this way years ago?

<comment><USER17> In Metro mode, you can have an application running and another application running on the side. [1]

[1] [http://www.digitaltrends.com/wp- content/uploads/2012/03/wind...](http://www.digitaltrends.com/wp- content/uploads/2012/03/windows-8-consumer-preview-flow-then-bing.jpg)

<comment><USER18> So 2 at a time. Meanwhile I have..

 _counts_

24 windows open across 9 different applications.

<comment><USER17> That you're looking at at the same time?

<comment><USER18> I've long since opened and closed things since last comment, but I've got lets see.. 5 windows visible on my screen right now. This browser, a XenCenter session, an IRC client, a script for that IRC client, and a miniaturized iTunes.

2 is such an absurdly low limit as to be virtually useless.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I talked to the author about this article, but I don't buy some of what was said. I wrote up a rebuttal ([http://digitalbalance.tumblr.com/post/33276814981/windows-8-...](http://digitalbalance.tumblr.com/post/33276814981/windows-8-is- just-as-open-as-windows-7)) when the author originally posted it.

Basically, IMO, the article didn't really have hard facts and was mainly just pushing slippery slope arguments. Whilst there's potential for this to become a closed platform, there's no evidence that it will be. The DOS/Win 3.0 similarity doesn't work because Win 3.0 did not close off the platform at all. There's been no precedence set on the desktop to close the platform off completely and I doubt it'd do MS any favours to do such a thing, especially when gamers will soon have Steam on Linux (which is the one thing stopping some gamers from moving from Windows to Linux).

<comment><USER20> Not sure why you're being down voted, the very first sentence in the article is quite a stretching of the truth.

<comment><USER19> The whole article came off a bit sensationalist (do people really believe there won't be any 18+ games in the future on PC?). I agree that MS _could_ close the platform, I felt the article assumed that it already has and built it up from there. I guess people disagree with me here and do feel that it's closed :/

<comment><USER21> The point isn't whether or not there will be a PC or whether or not there will be 18+ games on it.

The point is whether or not there Microsoft will be on the PC loading them. If so, how does Microsoft get from A to B? How do developers deal with the restrictions in the meantime?

<comment><USER19> I mentioned the 18+ games part to highlight the hyperbolic nature of the article. It assumed, based on current guidelines , that Skyrim et al. would not be allowed by MS. But that situation is quite absurd because it assumes the guidelines will never change and that MS is willing to lose money on the biggest gaming franchises.

Using extremes like this doesn't support an argument. There is no actual evidence (i.e. non-hypothetical) in the article that MS plans on losing the hardcore gamer demographic on the PC. I don't see any restrictions on developers that haven't existed before. Developers can still program desktop games and avoid the store, just like they've been doing all these years.

I feel there's this illusion where it's either the old, "open", Microsoft business model or the closed down Apple model. There can be a middle area where certain form factors, such as tablets, can benefit profit-wise from a closed down system (iPad, WinRT) and other form factors, like the desktop, can benefit from a dual system (ie consumers can opt for the store, or just download like normal). This notion that MS has and will fully lock down all their platforms seems unlikely to me personally.

<comment><USER21> > I don't see any restrictions on developers that haven't existed before.

A developer can't write a program that integrates with the preferred UI on the latest version of Windows without conforming to an approval process.

This is indeed a huge change for 3rd party developers on the Microsoft platform.

<comment><USER19> That comment you quoted was in the context of hardcore games. I doubt the next Elder Scrolls planned on being a Metro-style app.

However, that's a fair comment regarding apps in general, and I agree with that. But developers aren't being forced to use the store, so if they don't want to meet market demands (if there is any - Metro with a mouse has had mixed reviews), that's their choice. MS has never been in a position to dictate this sort of choice before, so it's impossible for that type of restriction to have occurred before.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> With one anti-trust case behind them, and a loss (packaging IE as the only browser for those to young to remember), a single access point for all software would likely raise similar flags.

Apple can get away with it (or close to it) because they are still not the dominant platform.

I suspect we'll get to a point where the App Store, Google Play and Microsoft Store (not sure what Microsoft's is called) will be considered monopolizing the sales channel and be decoupled forcing competition in the store space, or allowing software to be installed without going through a store at all.

Thankfully we've got history on our side with installing apps from any source being the default behavior.

</comment><comment><USER23> In what way are Windows 8 app certification requirements written in stone? If there are hundreds of millions to be made from changing some text, trust me, those rules will fall faster than Felix Baumgartner.

<comment><USER24> Sure, and if there _aren't_ hundreds of millions to be made in some area, the rules for that area might not change.

The point is that we should be very unexcited about the walled garden approach because it will exclude a lot of cool and fun and useful software. Even if they make an exception for high-grossing software, the whole idea is still a bad one.

<comment><USER25> Indeed. The concern isn't for AAA-level games or multi-billion dollar software industries, they will find their way.

The problem is: how many billion-dollar markets are we nipping in the bud _because_ we operate strictly in a walled garden?

<comment><USER18> That depends on how high the walls are, and the argument could be made they're not very high at all. A minor entry fee, hardware (don't count this highly, someone wanting to develop for platform x likely already has platform x), and an approvals process that blocks mostly porn and malware (plus a few more edge cases).

<comment><USER8> What's wrong with porn? I know there will be plenty available through the browser anyway but it seems odd for an OS vendor to be in a position to take a puritan stance.

The problem with not allowing for 'edge cases' is that a lot of popular software probably started as a weird 'edge case'.

<comment><USER26> > _...there will be plenty available through the browser anyway..._

Except there won't.

Imagine:

1\. No third-party browsers.

2\. No non-whitelisted sites viewable in the default browser (except maybe in "legacy mode", meaning no scripts, no videos and the browser censors the text.)

3\. If you're lucky, there will be an "adult mode", where you can access URLs with adult content (but the "guardians" will be notified of each URL in real- time, along with your name and address. Not the NSA, and not in secret, but one of the filtering companies we know today. And everyone living in the same street as you will get a "Warning! pervert in neighbourhood!" alert.)

<comment><USER18> 1\. Not happening 2\. Not happening 3\. Not happening in your wildest nightmares.

This isn't a cyberpunk movie.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> The original article link, from the author's own blog: <http://mollyrocket.com/casey/index.html>

(happens to be much more readable there, too)

</comment><comment><USER28> So the point of the article is that because of the bundling of windows store and Metro UI, Windows will become a closed platform. Like with DOS, in some versions the desktop UI will vanish.

If that would happen, GNU/Linux would be the biggest remaining open (biggest free it is already) operating system. That would be a good thing. If Microsoft really tries to control Windows-Apps that much that they ban popular games, they probably will kill Windows and games will adapt to Linux. Fine with me.

But it doesn't have to come that way. The comparison to DOS is probably flawed. The new UI is, as far as i understood without being a windows developer, just an UI (with maybe a new API). The classical desktop is not like DOS an operating system Windows has to evolve from. Though it's quite possible that they might try to kill it sometime, it is not the same technical cause like the move away from DOS.

Anyway, before declaring Windows dead, let's wait how well Windows 8 sells and how many will use the new UI and the Windows store.

<comment><USER29> >If that would happen, GNU/Linux would be the biggest remaining open (biggest free it is already) operating system.

OSX and Android are both open and both have larger install-bases than GNU/Linux. Linux is fourth in the pecking order of open operating systems, or third if you only mean desktop computers.

>Though it's quite possible that they might try to kill it sometime, it is not the same technical cause like the move away from DOS.

It's not about any technical cause. The argument is that users will flock towards the new method of interacting with computers, the same way they went headlong towards the windows/mouse/icon thing and the developers will be forced to follow suit, and thereby become slaved to Microsoft (or alternatively, run off and join the GNU/Linux/Android circus).

The users didn't care whether DOS was an operating system or Windows 95 was just a shell on DOS 6 point whatever. They just wanted to be able to run their mission-critical applications like Word and Excel and Solitaire without having to learn and then invoke inscrutable command line incantations like 'DIR' and 'FORMAT A:' and 'ECHO c:\XCOM\XCOM.EXE > c:\AUTOEXEC.BAT'.

Microsoft thinks the same thing is going to happen with our Brave New Tabletized World; they'll keep the old desktop-style around as a legacy, but they'll exert control over anything touchscreeny, and let nature take it's course.

<comment><USER28> OSX isn't even targeted for normal PCs and afaik not easily installable. And it has means in place to close the system, see <https://developer.apple.com/resources/developer-id/> and the consequences. And yes, obviously talking about desktop-systems here, so Android is not fitting (and in this context subset of Linux anyway).

And I still think the different technical situation influences the situation, it is not only about the UI (and the jump not as big as the jump away from DOS).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> > And these are just some of the features in this version of Windows. Who > knows what new features Microsoft will add in future versions that will make > desktop apps even less able to compete with native apps?

Slippery slopes are fun to think about, but are difficult to form a logical and rational argument with. You can't base decisions on a slippery slope. All we have are the facts currently available today.

Today we have one version of Windows being sold. Next week we'll have three (Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows RT)! What if the week after that we end up with six versions of Windows?!

<comment><USER30> _You can't base decisions on a slippery slope. All we have are the facts currently available today._

This kind of thinking is essential for a court system. That's why we say that _justice is blind_. But if you are not in the middle of a lawsuit, you should not use this type of thinking.

Thinking about trends and creating testable theories is essential for polity planing. You can't prepare for the future if you don't make projections about it.

<comment><USER11> But this same line of thinking can be extrapolated on any system. OSX has a software store! Sure they let you install third party software now, but who knows what other restrictions they'll put on it later? Linux systems have software repositories! Sure they let you install software outside of these repos, but who knows what kind of restrictions they'll put on it later? The new version of my laptop doesn't have a floppy drive! Sure there's a DVD drive and USB, but who knows what other ports they're going to remove?

It's been a year since Microsoft announced Windows 8's restrictions. That's a pretty darn good run-up time, industry-wide. If/when they do put in some new restrictions, it's not going to be sprung on anyone overnight. All these articles are doing is spreading fear, uncertainty, and doubt about something that may or may not come to pass.

<comment><USER8> Well it can be wise (if a little gloomy) to think about the worst case scenario. I remember people having the same worries about OS X anyway.

At least with Linux you have multiple distributions and the source code available so if you don't like a particular decision it can just be forked.

The article is talking more about 20 years down the line.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> What about open source software? How about applications we might write for ourselves?

OS X Mountain Lion is a little fussy about apps from the Internet that did not come from the APple App Store, but it is easy enough to override this default on an app by app basis.

I would hope that Microsoft would also allow users to override this restriction. e.g., installing Emacs.

</comment><comment><USER32> How come I could install chrome and get a metro UI on windows 8, even though it didn't go through Microsoft's store?

I keep reading that windows 8 distribution is limited to the ms store for apps with metro UI , but that doesn't seem to be the case from my limited experience.

Can anyone clarify?

<comment><USER33> _In general_ , Metro applications must go through Microsoft's app store.

There are three exceptions:

      1. You can add self-signed certificates and side-load.  This is actually quite
         easy for developers, but a no-go for most people;
      2. You can push corporate apps out to Windows 8 Enterprise devices; and finally,
         the way Chrome is doing this, which is
      3. Browsers are treated really, really specially.

Microsoft is still bound by the US anti-trust agreement to allow other browsers on Intel computers. In order to facilitate that with the Metro environment, on Intel-based Windows 8 computers _only_ (i.e., not Windows RT tablets), _the DEFAULT browser may optionally provide a Metro interface, even if that browser does not come through the Microsoft store._

It is this exception that Chrome (and, in beta, Firefox) is exploiting.

This trick _only_ works for browsers. And, further, the way it's implemented is an insanely stupid horrible pain in the ass. I really like IE10 for tablet browsing: it's very fast, it has outstanding touch support, and it's actually a great rendering engine. On the other hand, you can pry Chrome out of my cold, dead, festering corpse's fingers when I'm on Windows 8's desktop. So the logical thing would be to use IE in Metro, and Chrome on the desktop.

But you know what? You can't sanely do that. Only the default browser gets to live in Metro. And when I say default, I really mean default. If you set Chrome as your default browser, then _you cannot launch Metro IE_ \--the ONLY Metro browser you can launch is Chrome.

It's the little things like this that are making it REALLY hard for me to stay a Windows 8 supporter. The more I use it, the more the little, idiotic things like this are making me go crazy.

<comment><USER18> I ended up doing the self-sign-certificate-sideload thing to get a prerelease leak of Skype for the Metro UI loaded. It was no harder than running a provided batch file. Once someone sets up a simple application to handle this (and you can bet they will), the whole "closed store" thing goes away.

<comment><USER34> Until next version of windows when it's completely locked down. Look, if you're Microsoft & you want to own the entire platform like Apple, you can't just lock it down from day 1. You need to slowly "educate" the users and measure how much resistance there is to a gradual tightening of restrictions. You do things like lower the price to increase adoption. In another 10 years it might be completely normal, just like it's normal for people to post personal stuff on facebook.

<comment><USER18> >Until next version of windows when it's completely locked down.

Excuse me while I go pick up my eyes that rolled across the office floor.

Please. This sort of slippery slope fearmongering belongs in a Gutmann article, not a HN comment. It's BS when someone says it about Apple, and it's BS when someone says it about Microsoft. There will always be a need for general purpose computers that can run anything.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> is there really no way to "side-load?" According to this, that will be enabled in the Server and Enterprise editions:

[http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12008252/sideloading- apps...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12008252/sideloading-apps-on- windows-8-pro)

Between this and UEFI secure boot these guys are really messing up the PC ecosystem.

<comment><USER11> What about the UEFI secure boot is messing up the PC ecosystem? You're referring to the widely-spread but extremely false rumor that secure boot is turned on, can't be turned off, and Microsoft has to approve any other OS you want to install?

Because that's not true. Secure boot is turned on, but for Windows 8 certification, it _must_ be able to be disabled by the user. Microsoft is mandating that PC builders give you the option to disable secure boot. So I don't see how this is changing really anything. Maybe you can explain.

<comment><USER21> Last I heard any manufacturer of an ARM device capable of running Windows RT would be required to prevent the loading any other OSes via secure boot, or the disabling of secure boot.

<comment><USER11> But that's not messing up the PC ecosystem. PCs running Windows will be just like PCs running Windows always have been. Tablets and other ARM devices will be just like tablets and other ARM devices traditionally have been; the OS that comes preinstalled is the OS you have. You've really never been able to install, for example, Linux overtop of Windows on an ARM device before. The status quo isn't changing.

The only exception to the ARM rule in recent years has been Android, in a niche market, and only on some devices. That's not changing either.

<comment><USER21> > You've really never been able to install, for example, Linux overtop of > Windows on an ARM device before.

Only because there's never been a port of Windows to ARM before.

If you want to claim locked-bootloader Windows RT devices represent a new class of hardware like, say, the Kindle, then I guess we'll have to see how they end up relating to the rest of the market.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> Windows 8 is the Oogieloves of operating systems: no one wants it, but that doesn't stop its creator from pushing it hard.

<comment><USER37> Actually Win 8 is a great OS (from my personal point of view is Ms best OS so far). So saying no one wants it it a stretch.

<comment><USER38> I like Win 8, I work for Microsoft, but we will have to wait until its released to see how the market accepts it (and pass judgement). So saying either way is a bit early so far, its definitely a risky bet.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> In my opinion the only reason a closed system like Windows is still so dominant is the open nature of it's software distribution. Close that and the masses will move away. I write Windows apps purely because there are no restrictions on distribution/deployment, and because of the huge user base. When the status quo changes, I move.

</comment><comment><USER40> is it legal to make an installer that would explicitly add a self-signed certificate to be able to add the application?

 _assuming there would be a way to distribute that installer other than microsoft's store_

</comment><comment><USER41> We shit on Microsoft for this but with iOS it's somehow OK?

</comment><comment><USER42> Saying that closed software ecosystems are bad because they hurt games is like saying the Nazis were bad because they made it harder to find good Jewish rye bread. It's like... um... way to focus on the important stuff, Mr. Muratori.</comment>