The Quest for the Next Billion-Dollar Color - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2018-quest-for-billion-dollar-red/ <comment><USER3> When I was a kid, I was remarkably incurious. Reasonably smart, I'd like to think, but it never really occurred to me that everything around me had to be invented by someone.

The thought that creating a safe, lasting red pigment could be sufficiently difficult as to be worth millions or billions of dollars is astonishing. To all the people who've made my world possible, I apologize for my apathy, and I'll do better.

<comment><USER4> One of the interesting ways I found out about this was in a history class that was talking about "royal" fabrics. These were fabrics that only royalty could own. And while there was the general "lets make a rule to distinguish us from the common people" there was also that challenge that some colors were so rare because the pigments were only available to make them in very small quantities. As a young man it amazed me that people had fights over what color clothes you could wear or that purple pants would be 10x the expense of white or grey pants.

<comment><USER5> This led me down a rabbit hole of ancient Roman pricing information! Turns out that a pair of purple silk pants (it seems purple dye was reserved only for silk) was actually closer to 2000x more expensive than standard (wool) pants. Also, the penalty for commoners wearing it was death, so there's that.

<comment><USER6> >Therefore, the dye can be collected either by "milking" the snails, which is more labour-intensive but is a renewable resource, or by collecting and destructively crushing the snails. David Jacoby remarks that "twelve thousand snails of Murex brandaris yield no more than 1.4 g of pure dye, enough to colour only the trim of a single garment."[14] (from Wikipedia, Tirian Purple //

It's my understanding that it was a badge of the senate, so wearing it would be like impersonation of a senator. Or worse, impersonation of the Emperor.

Snail Milker isn't a job one hears much of.

Many people will have heard of Lydia from the New Testament of the Holy Bible, who is referred to as a seller of purple, [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lydia_of_Thyatira](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lydia_of_Thyatira).

<comment><USER7> I am suspicious of the 12,000 snail number. I see that people nowadays who make a similar dye from snails called tekhelet need around 30 snails for each yarn they dye, which I would guess would extrapolate to the 12,000 being for an entire garment.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> The world of colors (and who "owns" them) is both odd and fascinating. For instance, Vanta Black can only be used by one artist - Anish Kapoor:

[https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/one-artist-has- mon...](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/one-artist-has-monopoly- worlds-blackest-black-pigment-180958264/)

In response to that rule, another artist created the pinkest pink and a competing black ... available for anyone in the world to use -- except Kapoor:

[https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/artist-only- person...](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/artist-only-person- banned-using-worlds-pinkest-pink-180961464/)

[http://www.konbini.com/us/inspiration/stuart-semple-new- vant...](http://www.konbini.com/us/inspiration/stuart-semple-new-vantablack- paint/)

<comment><USER9> Anish Kapoor seems like a huge scumbag

<comment><USER10> It's a bit of a gimmick. Vantablack is a highly specialised coating intended for use in precision optical equipment. It isn't really usable as an art material because it's prohibitively expensive, it needs to be applied under laboratory conditions and it's extremely fragile. It's considered a dual-use technology under arms control legislation and can only be exported under license.

Semple's feud with Kapoor is similarly gimmicky. He described his Pinkest Pink (and the ban on selling it to Kapoor) as "like a piece of performance art".

<comment><USER11> > Semple's feud with Kapoor is similarly gimmicky. He described his Pinkest > Pink (and the ban on selling it to Kapoor) as "like a piece of performance > art".

Yes. Kapoor eventually got his hands on some of the Pink, and he published a photo of him sticking his middle finger in the pigment.

Semple then created a new pigment called Diamond Dust which contains pieces of broken glass. The whole purpose of Diamond Dust was "I dare you to stick your finger in _this!_ ".

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> > For decades, red Lego bricks contained cadmium, a carcinogen.

Ack.

From another article [1]

> One toy to watch out for? "Lego bricks from the '70s and '80s are the big > fail," Andrew Turner, the study's lead researcher, told the BBC.

> Roar Rude Trangbæk, a spokesperson for Lego, told The Sun that in regards to > hazardous elements, the company "phased that material out back in 1979 to > 1981."

Apparently its both yellow & red bricks. From a forum post [2] about the phase-out:

> Not much information has ever been given out by TLG in regards to the switch > from LEGO "with" Cadmium to LEGO without it, except that TLG switched over > to Cadmium free LEGO in 1973. However, that doesn't really say a lot. Just > look at the switch from old gray to new gray that started in 2003. It took > many years for the switch to be complete (old gray elements were still found > in LEGO sets for many years). So a 1973 switchover likely only means that > the Bayer Corporation stopped sending TLG red and yellow plastic pellets. As > for what was still in the TLG inventory.... my guess would be that it > continued to find its' way into LEGO sets for several years until the supply > of old red/yellow pellets was finally depleted.

Makes me a bit wary to pass those down to my kids.

[1] [https://offspring.lifehacker.com/your-old-legos-might-be- tox...](https://offspring.lifehacker.com/your-old-legos-might-be- toxic-1822608757)

[2] [https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/773...](https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/77306-cadmium- in-lego-bricks/)

<comment><USER13> I remember biting on my red LEGO bricks as a kid to remove those ones that would get stuck. Never knew that they contained cadmium 'til now.

<comment><USER14> It's no biggy. Plenty of artists consumed way more heavy metals, 10000x more than kids licking legos. And most didn't become mad hatters or suffer any real issues. The limits we set in medicine are much lower than what may manifest as biological damage. Better safe than sorry, right?

<comment><USER15> Or they didn't realize they were ever exposed to toxins, and they just think they got moody over time or that poor memory they have is normal aging.

<comment><USER14> Same could be said for asbestos as well as the undiscovered but numerous carcinogens and toxins we currently use in mass quantities. Every century has some type of widely used, but toxic, chemical discoveries. This century won't be any different.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Somewhat-related... I just found out about "structural" coloration[1], which is "production of color by microscopically structured surfaces fine enough to interfere with visible light".

It took Lexus ~15 years to develop "structural blue", a colorless paint that creates blue light using this structural interference. The making-of video[2] is pretty amazing, and definitely worth watching.

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

[2] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JU541_zm2w](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JU541_zm2w)

<comment><USER17> After learning about light interference creating the iridescence of butterflies and of CDs, I wondered whether you could burn a CD to control the structure of the CD to change that interference enough to, say, draw an iridescent image. However, it looks like the writeable elements of a CD are a too large. With a Bluray though, it might be possible... I haven't tried and I'm not entirely sure how you'd go about doing it.

<comment><USER18> LightScribe kind of does this though it's not iridescent. You can also find some free code to achieve a similar effect on the data side of a disk.

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

<comment><USER19> For anyone who was curious: I found this instructable that includes MATLAB code to generate the data for the image to be burned to the data side of a CD. [http://www.instructables.com/id/Burning-visible-images- onto-...](http://www.instructables.com/id/Burning-visible-images-onto-CD-Rs- with-data-beta/)

This was all I could really find, unfortunately...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> One interesting aspect of red pigment usage that I feel this article could have explained better is why it fares poorest under the sun: of all the color pigments, it absorbs the most of the short-wavelength (high energy) light. Now, you'll naturally think, "but what about black?" Well, most of the black pigments we use are very chemically stable materials, like powdered carbon or some iron oxide compounds.

(Once you know this you'll suddenly start to see how a disproportionate share of red cars have failing paint -- particularly after sometime around the early 1980s when the use of Cadmium pigments started to fall out of favor for most uses.)

<comment><USER21> > (Once you know this you'll suddenly start to see how a disproportionate > share of red cars have failing paint -- particularly after sometime around > the early 1980s when the use of Cadmium pigments started to fall out of > favor for most uses.)

I believe this has largely been remediated by using a clear coat over solid colors. Older cars had single-stage paint for non-metallic colors, so there would be nothing on top of your nice red paint to protect it. Modern clear coats typically block UV light, so the color should last much longer (long enough that your car will be all scratched and swirled well before the color fades).

<comment><USER22> The auto industry also pushed for development of new red pigments - <USER2> Red is considered quite lightfast, but only became available starting in the late 80s. I regularly see 90s era red cars on the road with good looking paint these days. (Yes, the clear coat I'm sure is a factor as well.)

[http://blog.cleveland.com/pdextra/2007/10/pollock_cuts.html](http://blog.cleveland.com/pdextra/2007/10/pollock_cuts.html)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> I first learned about Yttrium blue from the new AMD Radeon Pro GPUs that are painted with them. They're really remarkably saturated (Google image search Radeon Pro WX 7100 for an example)

<comment><USER24> Just keep in mind your monitor really cannot accurately display the colour.

<comment><USER25> a bit ironic, considering your monitor may very well be powered by that impossibly-blue GPU :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Is the missing stable red pigment the reason why red clothes give off their color in the laundry much easier than the other colors?

<comment><USER27> Clothing is usually dyed, rather than inked or painted. Some dyes are better at attaching to fibers than others, and some synthetic polymer fibers are notoriously hard to dye.

But on the other hand, some dyes diffuse into certain plastics very easily, and then never come out. It depends on the chemistry.

The only pigmented clothes I am aware of are "dirt shirts" that are infused with strongly colored soil. The reddish orange color is undoubtedly iron oxide, and they will fade with every washing, because there is no binder to keep the pigment attached to the fiber.

<comment><USER28> One exception is Japanese kakishibu/kaki-shibu: fermented unripe persimmons, creates a sort of rusty brown red which darkens over time, heavily used in traditional Japanese clothing for water-resistance and fire protection. People still like to use it for paper, shirts, and home-made or high-end jeans (eg [https://www.weargustin.com/store/6683](https://www.weargustin.com/store/6683) )

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> I had a friend in school whose father would work at a local chemical plant. He used to say: "Did you know that red as a color isn't stable? Just look at all the old red cars, they are so pale". I'm ashamed to say, that I thought that was total BS. Now, years later, I know better and will remember this every time I see an old red car. You should too.

PS: I think I'll call him up tomorrow

<comment><USER30> Also look at hair salons with all of their old pictures of hair styles on the front window and notice how blue they all are.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> Is there a museum for these extreme colors? (Like the blue in the article or the pink in this video - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NzVmtbPOrM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NzVmtbPOrM))

<comment><USER32> There is the Forbes pigment collection at Harvard's art museum.

[https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2015/09/a-wall-of- col...](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2015/09/a-wall-of-color-a- window-to-the-past/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> This reminds me of the 15+ years of work Lexus put into their new 'structural blue' color. It was designed to mimic the American Morpho butterfly. Color comes from the assembly of structures rather than pigment (there is no blue material used during the creation of the paint) Pretty wild stuff. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYu1ruSakRg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYu1ruSakRg)

</comment><comment><USER34> Very cool how the search for a material for use in computing led to a better blue pigment. Reminds me of all the technologies developed during the space race or for the military that wound up being use in every day applications.

</comment><comment><USER35> colors are a fascinating subspecialty of the coatings industry.

YInMin blue is stupid expensive. A typical oil paint sells for between 13 and $60. One company trialed YInMn, and asked for $200 per tube to use up their samples, as I recall.

[https://www.gamblincolors.com/new-blue-color-oil-paint- yinmn...](https://www.gamblincolors.com/new-blue-color-oil-paint-yinmn-blue/)

Take a look at their review.

</comment><comment><USER36> I'm surprised nobody picked up on this mistake about colors: "Modern computers can display about 16.8 million of them, far more than people can see or printers can reproduce."

No, that's far more than people can DISTINGUISH, but we can certainly see them all, and printers can reproduce them. In fact, monitors (even the new higher- gamut monitors) can't cover the full range of human vision, so there are plenty of hues we can see that monitors can't make.

</comment><comment><USER37> Speaking of red... In Sweden we have a color called "Falu red" that's the icon red that long has been put on many cottages and houses. The pigment is based on the copper in the copper mines of Falun. The metal helps against fungal infestion and absorbs UV rays helping the paint last longer. There are some areas where it's the only color allowed to help preserve their heritage.

[https://www.theawl.com/2017/12/falu-red-the-color-of- bucolic...](https://www.theawl.com/2017/12/falu-red-the-color-of-bucolic- barns-and-mummified-swedes/)

As a bonus or most famous sausage is called "Falukorv", it's also red.

<comment><USER38> The pigment in Falu rödfärg is not based on copper, it's iron oxide, a byproduct from the copper mine.

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> I'm a little confused at the safety claims. Manganese is a cumulative poison:

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

I'm not really qualified to quantify the toxicity of metals, but the chemists I've known are usually very careful when they have to work with manganese.

<comment><USER40> Typically, the toxicity of metals depend on how they're structured within molecules. For example, inorganic copper is cytotoxic, while organic copper is necessary for survival. In this case, the yttrium blue has a unique chemical structure. More so, I believe they use Manganese oxide to create the color. Manganese oxide is not dangerous, as far as we know, at least. It's a somewhat common food additive. According to [wikipedia]([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manganese(II)_oxide](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manganese\(II\)_oxide)), we consume tons of it per year.

Ultimately, what typically matters is how a molecule interacts with the body, not necessarily how each component interacts. By that measure, Cyanide (which is just carbon + nitrogen) ought to have no ill effect, while cuprous oxide ought to be poisonous.

</comment></comment><comment><USER41> Not to nitpick,

> Raised in Chennai, on the southeastern coast of India

> After getting his doctorate in chemistry at the Indian Institute of > Technology at Madras

Madras is just the colonial name for Chennai, which is currently the name of the city and the capital of the sate - Tamilnadu.

Wonderful article, we've taken the colors for granted; Subramanian didn't and I'm glad that it has rewarded him.

<comment><USER42> The article is right. It is Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (1) and not Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai.

"Madras" above is part of the institute's name and it would take an amendment of the IIT act to rename it but I don't think it will happen.

1\. [https://www.iitm.ac.in/](https://www.iitm.ac.in/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> Where can I view these brilliant colors in person? Apparently these colors are so vibrant, they cannot be accurately displayed on monitors: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NzVmtbPOrM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NzVmtbPOrM)

<comment><USER44> One of the most unique blues I've seen is 'Baystate Blue' it's a fountain pen ink [1], cameras and screen doesn't capture how beautiful this ink is. This ink is also highly controversial in fountain pen community because it is accused of destroying fountain pens. (Also you drop it on plastic, and you'd need to use bleach to get it off), but man I love this ink.

1\. [http://www.inksandpens.com/content/images/2015/09/IMG_5211.j...](http://www.inksandpens.com/content/images/2015/09/IMG_5211.jpg)

</comment></comment><comment><USER45> So, is there more to YInMn blue than mixing proportions of these elements and kiln-firing them in a crucible?

Because if that's all there is to it, then what's to stop me from experimenting to find the best proportions and personally violating any patents, for my own DIY projects?

</comment><comment><USER46> I first heard of the fading red problem on a luxury yacht show, where the clients' new cushions kept fading in the sun, which was a bit of a problem for the outfitting company.

It's amazing what random facts you pick up wherever.

</comment><comment><USER47> > Modern computers can display about 16.8 million of them, far more than > people can see

Not quite true. The colour gamut of most (in not all) displays is much smaller than the gamut we can see.

<comment><USER48> This is always misreported. It's true that we can't distinguish between two adjacent rgb values (in most cases, on most displays...), which is where this comes from. But as you say, displays only cover a portion of the space.

The easiest example I usually give is with blacks-- computer monitors just can't reproduce the absence of light well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER49> What amazes and dumbfounds me is that there are still colors we haven't discovered. A perfect example of: we don't know what we don't know.

</comment><comment><USER50> Cool article. The title made me think this was going to be an article from 2011 about Color the company [1]

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

</comment><comment><USER51> Could use a snappier name. How about Hooloovoo?

</comment><comment><USER52> They could invent it, but to most of us men, it's just going to look like a pre-existing red. We don't do color distinctions very well. We've got bright red, pale red, and in-between.

<comment><USER53> Indeed. Tetrachromacy is real, and men are unlikely to enjoy the superpower:

[http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140905-the-women-with- supe...](http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140905-the-women-with-super-human- vision)

<comment><USER54> Tetrachromacy is real but vanishingly rare. However, I've read before that women have more bars and cones in their eyes than men & therefore better color reception, without being tetrachromatic.

<comment><USER4> I suspected my wife was a tetrachromat when we started debating what color something was. There are the "standard" arguments about is that blue or green or is that red or purple. But these were around yellow. Where she clearly saw two different yellows I could not distinguish them. She is unwilling to get the genetic test though, no matter how much I encourage her.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


C-Level executive are a major target for Phishing, the new low hanging fruits - <AUTHOR> http://ironscales.com/whaling-cybercriminals-are-now-after-the-big-phish/ <comment><USER2> Yes, I have first hand experience with this.

These are more sophisticated than traditional phishing attempts. They are targeted and personal. The phisher researches his target, finds out the email address of the CFO or other key people in accounting, and then targets the organization accordingly, spoofing email addresses to commit wire fraud or similar exploits.

The payoffs are huge, and the victims, having never been targeted before, are naive and vulnerable. One organization I was involved with lost mid-5 figures to one such scheme, and almost lost double that again before someone got wise.

</comment><comment><USER3> Maybe if we move the executives above sea level, they won't get fished anymore.</comment>


Apple changed the world (again). How do they do it? - <AUTHOR>

No other company I can think of executes so well on such great products.
Personal Computer, Music, and the Phone- each Apple product changed their entire space and moved the world forward.
After playing around with iPhone V2 I can only imagine all the great products and companies that will born on mobile.
Yes, people have been saying mobile is the "next-gen" platform for years but the fact is no mobile app before the iPhone matters (With the exception of email). It's a clean slate, and I think the real mobile platform began today.
Great time to be in the tech industry. <comment><USER2> Did you catch today's post on the Kindle?

[http://ryanspoon.com/blog/2008/07/10/amazon-kindle-is-a- hit-...](http://ryanspoon.com/blog/2008/07/10/amazon-kindle-is-a-hit-12-of- book-sales-on-amazon-doubled-since-may/)

Plus recent posts on the latest ranges of ultra small format PCs from a range of suppliers?

Yes - something interesting is happening in this market place at last.</comment>


Tiny Lisp Computer 2 - <AUTHOR> http://www.technoblogy.com/show?1INT <comment><USER2> All it needs is a keyboard, and WiFi mosule, and its basically the last project I worked on! (Some key differences, but close enough).

Seriously though, setting up mini laptop-style devices with a REPL and perhaps an SD to flash programs to, took off as an option at some schools in my area.

Students learn with a device that:

* Is simply maintained, and won't bring down the network * With a device that doesn't have the same privileges as their machine. (Running Python locally? Students can disable GPOs) * They can take anywhere and play with anywhere * Can be cheaply and quickly replaced

The risk/reward scenario meant schools loved the device. To most students, it replaced their TI calculators. Especially for games, once we taught them how.

This project is very cool, and approaches the magic I felt when I got my very own first DOS machine, and discovered BASIC. But it has modern conveniences.

<comment><USER3> it has a keyboard interface.</comment></comment>


Show HN: Bamboo – HAProxy Auto Configuration for Apache Mesos and Marathon - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/QubitProducts/bamboo

<comment><AUTHOR> Version 0.2.1 supports non-DNS proxy solution with custom ACL rules.

[https://github.com/QubitProducts/bamboo/releases/tag/v0.2.1](https://github.com/QubitProducts/bamboo/releases/tag/v0.2.1)</comment>


WikiLeaks: Texas Company Helped Pimp Little Boys To Stoned Afghan Cops  - daniel-cussen http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2010/12/wikileaks_texas_company_helped.php <comment> daniel-cussen Published because, though political, you can all start using this to win conversations:

"Wikileaks is anti-American."

"Oh yeah? Wikileaks exposed that US diplomats were covering for Afghani pedophiles."

You won't lose because pedophilia is considered worse than threats to national security.

<comment><AUTHOR> If sexual abuse and rape of children is the price to pay for national security, is that price worth paying?

<comment> daniel-cussen Pedophilia in all its forms is _rightly_ considered worse than threats to national security.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER2> I guess that helps explain last Sunday's Doonesbury strip:

<http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/archive/2010/12/05></comment>


Show HN: a semantic wiki built with Django/Python - <AUTHOR>

We're working on this side project which allows users to create & edit their academic genealogy. Essentially it is a semantic wiki powered by Django/Python. So far all the basic wiki functions like CRUD, tracking edit history, diff different versions, reverting back to previous version, etc are completed.
Here is a demo: http://phdtree.org/
Would appreciate it if anyone can provide feedback/comments/suggestions. Many thanks!! <comment><USER2> I may be narrowed minded, but how is this demo site related to "semantic wiki"? Couldn't really see the connection here.

<comment><USER3> Semantic is really just a buzz word. People say their projects are "semantic" all the time. The word is becoming meaningless. I can see how it's a wiki... It's a database people can edit. Not sure how it's semantic.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The family tree is semantic by nature, it shows the relationships between "entities". But you might have been joking?

<comment><AUTHOR> Joking about what?

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Clickable: <http://phdtree.org/>

</comment><comment><USER4> Is your data stored in a graph database? Because that would be cool.

</comment><comment><USER6> Great, let's take a look.</comment>


Pandora Is Said to Have Held Talks About Selling Itself - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/12/business/dealbook/pandora-is-said-to-have-held-talks-about-selling-itself.html <comment><USER2> I pay for Pandora b/c I get to listen to radio without ads and talk show hosts. I don't want to worry about what songs to play. Select a station and go.

"Pandora to post $1.2 billion in revenue for the year, an increase of 27 percent from 2014, the company's slowest annual growth ever." ... It's cases like this where I wish it wasn't a public company and instead was run by someone who wanted to keep making the best music streaming app/website in town.

<comment><USER3> I paid for pandora for a period. But now it wants to play the same songs all the time.

Moved to spotify. I can listen to an available playlist or to every album from an artist one at a time or make my own playlist and store it for offline use. Seems more natural and wide open.

I had (and still do in the vehicle) XM radio, which basically solves your use case. Radio with no adverts. Some stations do have hosts, but it's not a talk show.

<comment><USER4> 1\. New company comes in with VC funding

2\. Uses funding to operate at a loss and undercut and outperform existing players

3\. Growth slows because there are only a couple billion internet users out there. Raises prices or decreases value to try to find a profit.

4\. See step 1

It's hard to see this as an efficient method for finding the best product in a free market.

<comment><USER5> Repeat 1-4 enough times and you have yourself a bubble.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> It would be great if Netflix bought pandora, I can see Netflix doing really great things with the underlying tech and expanding on the general idea and service of pandora. Also the pandora recommendation engine could be leveraged to provide improved Netflix recommendations.

<comment><USER7> Pandora's algorithm is specific to music and it requires musicians to hand label each song.

<comment><USER8> I don't think they continued doing this. It seems like they bootstrapped this way, but last time I used it (a few years ago) it was recommending the same artist 's work in two vastly different styles.

<comment><USER9> The genome is still in use, and many professional musicians are happily employed as curators for it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> It would be so depressing if Pandora's incredible music trait database went down the acquisition drain. I would pay good money for a service that let me search for songs by sets of traits. ("Give me some songs in minor, with technically impressive solos, with haunting female vocals, without any drums.")

</comment><comment><USER11> Can't we just get Rdio back? Please. :-(

<comment><USER12> It's a shame Rdio died, it's UI/UX was far superior to Spotify. Navigating Spotify is like have a razor blade poking out of your mouse.

<comment><USER13> How are you struggling to navigate with Spotify? I think the Spotify usability is great. But I have been using it since it first came out and so any "quirks" I'm possibly just used to. Still, I find it easy to use.

If you think Spotify is bad, have you tried Apple Music? Jesus, that is a stinking pile of shit. It's awful and exactly what stopped me from using it beyond two weeks into the trial.

Google Play Music is somewhere between the two but I find absolutely no problem with Spotify's UI/UX. That said, I never used Rdio so don't have that to compare it with.

<comment><USER14> The spotify queue system is just awful. Various examples:

\- I can't just put music in the queue to play and then stop with an empty queue. There always has to be something in "next tracks", either an album or a playlist.

\- I can't add a playlist to the queue.

\- The queue is not synced between all my devices (spotify desktop on osx, spotify beta on linux, play.spotify.com, android app, mopidy-spotify for home stereo). With Rdio there was just one queue and everything played it. Spotify Connect is trying to fix this but it's not supported everywhere yet.

\- Sometimes things I've deleted from my queue magically reappear.

\- Restarting the app (on osx) makes me lose the first song from my queue (since it jumps back to "next tracks").

<comment><USER15> oh geez you just reminded me of a huge wtf on the mobile app. Whenever you get to an album or playlist, the gigantic green button says "Shuffle Play" and there is no way to change that.

Why is the default play button "shuffle" when I do not have shuffle turned on?

<comment><USER14> Yes! The first time I used the mobile app I literally spent five minutes trying to figure out how to play an album in the correct order, until I eventually realized I could hit play on the first song. Definitely a huge wtf. Does anyone at Spotify actually listen to whole albums?

It's so maddening I'm considering switching to Google Music, but I'm not sure it's much better. Their mobile app has also really annoyed me in the past.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> It would be a bummer if Pandora is sold and the service changed appreciably. One would hope you could somehow get your ratings out of the system.

<comment><USER17> Not the best, but [https://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/12202/is- there-a...](https://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/12202/is-there-a-way- to-export-list-of-pandora-songs-that-i-have-upvoted-or-downvoted).

Additionally, Pandora does have an API that allows you to pull your favorites. [https://6xq.net/pandora-apidoc/json/](https://6xq.net/pandora-apidoc/json/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Right after buying Rdio? Grr.

<comment><USER19> I hear ya, that pisses me off.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> If Netflix buys Pandora, the resulting entity will be an Internet Media power house.

</comment><comment><USER21> I think it would be interesting to have google buy it. Pandora's strength seems to come from their massive dataset of song traits. Google could probably make good use of that data. They'd probably feed it into a neural net and see if they can teach a machine to detect those traits, if they haven't already.

<comment><USER22> I already prefer auto-playlists from Google Play Music to Pandora's. I think the acquisition of Songza probably helped.

<comment><USER23> I agree, Songza was a big win for them. I was really impressed at how quick they got their features moved into Google Music, not super typical for Google.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> I really hope they give some way to export out my ratings. Is it possible to do that right now?

</comment><comment><USER25> Spotify, with help from The Echo Nest acquisition, replicated Pandora a while ago.

</comment><comment><USER26> Pandora is said to be a very beautiful and dangerous woman. I am sorry to hear she is selling herself. There's still hope, though...

</comment><comment><USER27> Is there a venture backed company that hasn't had this kind of conversation?

I don't see how you could raise money without having this kind of conversation.

<comment><USER28> They are public though

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> Off-topic: [http://ridetheclown.com/wp/saver2/](http://ridetheclown.com/wp/saver2/)</comment>


Would you pay for an idea? - <AUTHOR>

It would be nice to ask as a poll, but would you pay a nominal fee for an idea? The general consensus is that ideas are cheap but execution is expensive.<p>Let's say there's a website that has many ideas posted to the public. Would you pay $20 to take a good idea down from that site? Would you perhaps pay a little to browse through ideas made by potential users of that idea for inspiration? <comment><USER2> A remix for your idea would be a "website factory": You take ideas, build a version 1.0 website, then sell it. Plenty of people would buy it, and try to compete based on marketing. Many people who go into business view the world as nothing more than:

      mediocre product -> loudmouth marketing -> profit

You can also then charge maintenance fees and feature requests. This would be better than charging for ideas because words are abstract. You tell a great idea to someone, they design the product/service in their heads, and then tell you all the ways it won't work. This happened to Google, VLSI circuits, HP and the Alan Kay's recommendation for the netbook in 2004, etc.

Creating a v1.0 or working prototype lowers the chance people will misinterpret/mis-design the idea in their greedy brains. The people dumb enough to pay for ideas are the type of people who avoid anything technical. So they would definitively pay since you are taking away their #1 annoyance: product design and implementation. Then they can focus on what they do best: loudmouth marketing.

</comment><comment><USER3> No.

Because an idea is only a fragment of the necessary vision to execute and on it's own represents something of virtually no value.

I realise that the vision is supposed to be brought by the purchaser who sees the potential in the idea, but my problem with this is that without a deep understanding of the problem that the idea solves I could never do justice to the idea.

I would be more interested in purchasing for $10-a-piece well described problem spaces.

</comment><comment><USER4> Idea backed up by market research and analysis: maybe?

</comment><comment><USER5> I've taken to telling people about other startup ideas I have that I may or may not ever work on because I know that they would likely approach the problem differently than I would and any idea will likely change drastically if you're doing it right.

I thought it might be a fun exercise to just start a page on my blog for them, but I haven't taken the time to do that yet.

</comment><comment><USER6> I wonder if this question was triggered by the <http://www.34ideas.com/> site that was posted here a couple days ago. I wouldn't pay to browse ideas. I might pay to use an idea but I'm not sure how, if multiple people are browsing ideas, you only let the person that "bought" it use it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for linking that. It was triggered by reading <http://ideashower.posterous.com/> and seeing that the person managing the blog was taking down ideas and password protecting them sometimes. Also by a general feeling of frustration in not being able to come up with an idea that I'm passionate about. :P

<comment><USER7> I think you may be confusing passion with infatuation.

It's hard to have a meaningful commitment to a product which you haven't started building. You have to develop the relationship first.

On the other hand, it's very easy to get excited over something which you haven't had to put any effort into yet.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> In my opinion, people in the 'it's all about the idea' camp, won't appreciate others immediately competing against them with the same idea. And people in the 'it's all about execution' camp, probably won't care enough about the ideas to pay for a site like this.

</comment><comment><USER9> Probably not when there are free alternatives like <http://www.ideaoverload.com/>

</comment><comment><USER7> People pay for information all the time. When it's valuable or somehow desirable.

</comment><comment><USER10> I have so many good ideas of my own, I don't think I would pay for one.

</comment><comment><USER11> For certain definitions of "good" ideas, maybe.

</comment><comment><USER12> No, I would not pay for an idea.

</comment><comment><USER13> I'd give my life for an idea.

</comment><comment><USER14> No.</comment>


Why we should memorize? - <AUTHOR> http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2013/01/why-we-should-memorize.html

<comment><AUTHOR> I envy my dad's ability to recite Shakespeare plays that he learnt many...many years back. The more I use my gadgets, the more i am losing my memory. Need to find ways to improve my memory.</comment>


Ask HN:  Easiest video embedding service (besides YouTube) - <AUTHOR>

I'm recording screen captures of my product, and now I want to put it on my website.  I don't feel it's suitable to share it on YouTube... it just seems a bit unprofessional.<p>Are there any services that take a video, and wrap a standalone player around it? <comment><USER2> Some of the options are 'delve', 'flowplayer' and 'brightcove'. But you're going to have to pay I think.

cf. here about licensing fees on the codecs

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=451264>

I've seen this free one recommended but it's not for commercial use:

<http://www.longtailvideo.com/players/jw-flv-player/>

</comment><comment><USER3> Can't you make your video private on YouTube ([http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en...](http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=59208)), then embed it on your site?

<comment><USER2> I think he's worried about the branding on the embedded player. It will say "YouTube" and also have the extraneous features included in their player (like what on youtube to look at next, etc.).

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Flowplayer is good. It's $95. If you don't want to pay and host your own player, Vimeo is nicer looking than Youtube.

<http://flowplayer.org/index.html>

<comment><AUTHOR> Looks pretty good, thanks</comment></comment>


What it's like to work with Mark Pincus - <AUTHOR> http://sashmackinnon.com/what-its-like-to-work-with-mark-pincus <comment><USER2> This is an accurate and uplifting account of what it was like for _Sash_ to work with Mark.

The reality for many other people, myself included, is quite different.

And that's all I'm going to say about that.

</comment><comment><USER3> I am stumped.

That is the first terrible read I had on svtble, the first so excessively positive view of Mark Pincus that it reads like a PR stunt, and the first time I wonder what the hell happened.

I mean, seriously? WHY? What is the point? Why write a bordering absurd praise of a guy that is so infamous for his own admitted horrible things in the book?

If it was more realistic, I mean, praising the good and the calling out the bad is one thing, but I don't see this sort of treatment even with Steve Jobs (even very positive texts on Steve Jobs mention how he had bad temper and people feared to get fired by just being near him, or how he sometimes got stubborn with ideas that were not necessarily good ones).

<comment><USER4> I didn't read the OP, but I did read the other posts in the blog. I'm not really impressed by her capacity for insight.

<comment><USER5> > Working at Zynga, people always tell me they "had the idea for Draw > Something before Draw Something".

Well, considering Pictionary was first published in 1985..

<comment><USER6> There was also an extremely popular mobile game in Japan that had the same basic premise, a year or so before Draw Something hit it big.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Why so many negative responses to this post? Are you disappointed that not everyone that has interacted with Mark Pincus had a bad experience? I found it interesting because it was certainly different. It shows another side.

I do not know about most of you guys calling this piece "puff" because it is not bashing Pincus, but i do like balance while learning about people and things.

It is possible to infer from this that Pincus goes out of his way to be kind to talented workaholics and is not an all round devil. Therefore, if you are naturally a workaholic, you would enjoy working for him. If not, you should really consider.

This post brings a balance to the otherwise one-sided narrative about Mr Pincus/Zynga.

<comment><USER8> I think the negative responses come from the total disconnect with what is known about Pincus and Zynga.

The piece would have a lot more credibility if he acknowledged the issues. He could have denied them, or, better, could have explained that they were legitimate but that there was another side to Pincus.

But as it is, all I can feel about the piece is WTF. Is the guy clueless? Is this denial? Is he kissing ass? Did he just see the hero he was looking to see? Is he right but only seeing a narrow slice? Do we all just have Pincus wrong?

No idea, but the piece gives me no reason to find out.

<comment><USER7> I would have supported your point if I remember people demanding for the "positive side" of Pincus in comments discussing posts bashing him/Zynga.

I read this as a deeply grateful person writing about his positive experience with a mentor of his. It might have been written because the author wants to balance the solely negative stories we hear of him.

Because this is Svbtle does not mean we should forget that this is a _personal_ blog.

<comment><USER5> Edit: Since this link was posted to HN, Sash has removed each of his other posts, so those are what I am referring to in the second-to-last paragraph.

> It might have been written because the author wants to balance the solely > negative stories we hear of him.

My opinion of the company was not based on what other employees have said; their business practices before all of this alone made them look bad. The employee accounts and admissions Pincus made regarding doing anything to make money just added insult to injury. Additionally, I don't think there's anything worth balancing regarding a CEO who tells his employees to steal rather than innovate because they're not as smart as their competitors.

The OP used the term "groomed" to speak to how many young employees were quickly shot up the ranks without any experience and how this was intentional. I would be grateful to someone that irresponsibly gave me a fancy title and put me in charge of something too, despite the reality that he was using my youthful ambitions to his advantage, working me to the bone under the guise that I was capable of the work I was doing, despite failing in doing so. I also don't know anything about the author's health before the incident where he collapsed, but it wouldn't surprise me if the stress of working in such a way played a role in it. It all seems a little too Stockholm Syndrome to me, but I'm not Sash so I really can't say.

> Because this is Svbtle does not mean we should forget that this is a > personal blog.

So then what is the point of Svbtle as an exclusionist platform if at the end of the day it's no different from any other?

".. an invite-only publishing network that brings some of the best things from newspapers and magazines to a network of great people. We focus on the people, the writing, and the ideas. Everything else is secondary."

His first post on the platform was a quote from Pincus from an article written last year about how well the company was doing, and a single sentence agreement with it. The second entry was a few sentences about how ideas are useless (when actually dreamers are just as important as doers, but I guess when you can make money profiting off of other people's ideas, you would hold this sentiment). Outside of the linked entry, the rest were just a few sentences to a paragraph or two on nothing all that earth-shattering.

Personally, I think they should put the answers the authors write in response to the "Expertise + Authority: Who are you? Why should people listen to you?" and "What do you plan to write [about]?" questions they answer when they apply in the sidebar. That's what I want to know before I sink my teeth into the entry.

<comment><USER9> I'm just an observer of this conversation, but I'm afraid I have to agree with OoTheNigerian with this one. I'm well aware of Mark Pincus's idiotic mishaps, but it's readily apparent your arguments were made up a long time ago to snarkily criticize everything, in terms of framing everything to fit your negative picture of Mark.

Exaxmple: You frame "grooming" as "irresponsibly" giving a "fancy title", when it could just have well been framed by someone with a positive view of Mark as "establishing the best meritocracy," "Mark has a razor eye for the best talent" and other similarly inane and unsubstantiated labels.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> This is the first time I've read a piece from a Zynga employee that hasn't been a tale of nightmares.

Unfortunately it goes beyond just being a positive story of the experience someone had at Zynga to a nearly comical worshipping of its CEO.

I think the author is either in love with Pincus or is hoping Pincus will invest in his next project.

<comment><USER11> Twist, the author IS Pincus

<comment><USER12> HN is not reddit. So please no more 'twist' comments. :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> "I did every horrible thing in the book to, just to get revenues right away. I mean we gave our users poker chips if they downloaded this zwinky toolbar which was like, I dont know, I downloaded it once and couldn't get rid of it. _laughs_ We did anything possible just to just get revenues so that we could grow and be a real business…"

[http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/06/zynga-scamville-mark- pinkus...](http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/06/zynga-scamville-mark-pinkus- faceboo/)

Not to mention the stock option scandal [1], and notoriously horrible working conditions [2]. I haven't met the guy, but it seems to me like the ship he runs is pretty fucked.

[1] [http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-57322150-17/zynga-to- emplo...](http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-57322150-17/zynga-to-employees- give-back-our-stock-or-youll-be-fired/) [2] [http://www.itworld.com/software/228383/more-why-it-sucks- wor...](http://www.itworld.com/software/228383/more-why-it-sucks-work-zynga)

<comment><USER14> notoriously horrible working conditions? really? I work here, interact with plenty of the teams and it is very far from horrible. Yes things get a little hectic when deadlines are due but thats the nature of things. Zynga cant teach you a work life balance, you do, and that seems to be respected by managers.

<comment><USER8> Zynga _is_ notorious for it. E.g.:

[http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/11/27/zyngas-tough- culture-...](http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/11/27/zyngas-tough-culture- risks-a-talent-drain/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I found this to be an interesting read, simply because (1) it rings true, and (2) it's contrary to everything I know about Pincus and runs up against my personal ire towards Zynga's apparent M.O.

Concerning (1) -- Yes, "rings true" is subjective. But even if the story's exaggerated emotionally, it still managed to generate empathy in me towards someone I previously would have written off (and maybe unjustly) as, well, scum.

Which leads me to (2) -- Contending with competing notions of persons one hasn't met is a valuable thing. Human subjects should ideally be humanized, which means engaging the idea that people are sometimes very contrary beasts.

Whenever that idea is buried over, wrong thinking. Whenever that idea is illuminated, better thinking.

That said, the write up could be disingenuous, false or true. Even so, I took value from it simply because it humanized someone I previously would have cheered being thrown to the wolves. No longer, even if he is a total dirt-bag, as others contend.

</comment><comment><USER16> This reads mostly like a content-free puff piece, where Pincus' former assistant is kissing his former boss' ass. Typical corporate cheerleading.

<comment><USER17> Aw, come on. I hate "typical corporate cheerleading" as much as anyone, and your comment is totally unfair. This is a kid writing about an experience of mentorship. It's natural for someone to be grateful for that and want to express it, and it's natural to be effusive when doing so.

<comment><USER18> Yes, but we all knew it was going to be 100% positive, even before clicking on the link. He might as well have not written it in the first place.

<comment><USER19> So from your vantage point, how is anyone supposed to write about Fabrice Bellard, or, for that matter, Wire's "Pink Flag"? Do we have to make up negative things about them, or are we just not allowed to write about them at all?

<comment><USER17> > _Wire's "Pink Flag"_

[http://dangerousminds.net/comments/the_seven_commandments_of...](http://dangerousminds.net/comments/the_seven_commandments_of_art_punk_wires_rules)

<comment><USER19> I call BS; they routinely break rule 5.

<comment><USER17> #4 too, though not routinely – "Mannequin", a song I suspect we'd disagree on, definitely "choruses out".

Edit: hmm, I'm not sure what kind of BS you meant to call this but I'm starting to suspect it might be made up. The few Googleable instances of it all go back to a single source that posted it without attribution. Plus, "negative self-definition" sounds suspiciously PoMo... You realize what it means that I posted this, don't you? Must now explode.

Edit edit: Saved. The image is made up and the caption was added later but the substance did come from Graham Lewis. [http://books.google.ca/books?ei=YMQvUeffEsKWiALI4YG4Aw&i...](http://books.google.ca/books?ei=YMQvUeffEsKWiALI4YG4Aw&id=4FEIAQAAMAAJ&dq=wire+pink+flag+33+1%2F3&q=rules#search_anchor)

Edit edit edit: since when else will this ever be apropos, here is some of the most uncomfortable television ever: [http://dangerousminds.net/comments/truly_post- punk_suzanne_s...](http://dangerousminds.net/comments/truly_post- punk_suzanne_somers_meets_wire_on_the_late_show_1987)

<comment><USER19> Crap, forgot who I was talking to. Should have known a silly comment about Wire rocking out might send you into a fugue state of attribution hunting. I DIDN'T MEAN IT!

<comment><USER17> You can't take the literature grad school out of the boy.

But isn't that Suzanne Somers - Wire interview seriously... whatever it is? Come on, who else am I going to get to watch that? :)

<comment><USER19> That was I think one of the greatest videos I have seen in the last 5 years, despite it capturing Wire in their ill-advised Public Image Limited phase.

<comment><USER17> Oh, I'm glad I checked back in here to read that. A month or two ago Dangerous Minds posted a late 70s Wire concert from Rockpalast (German TV show which is now perhaps the greatest archive of punk-new wave bands at their peaks) and it was stunning. It's been taken down, but there are still clips up.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> In my view (having never met or worked for him), Pincus will always be the guy who bragged about making money no matter what it takes, even if it means screwing over users with mal/spy/ad-ware. But it is important to remember that people are multifaceted, and might treat some people well, even if he treats others like crap.

<comment><USER21> Yes, I'm sure his kids love him.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> This sounds kind of like the Valve circle-jerking, except Valve is actually profitable.

Given Zynga's balance sheet, I'd do the exact opposite of what Mark Pincus does.

</comment><comment><USER23> I can't help but wonder if there's a correlation between "spending many late nights at the office" and the fact that the OP had a heart attack at the age of 21...

</comment><comment><USER24> Not sure why people up vote and then trash it in comments. This is good read and something positive about Zynga's master mind.

<comment><USER25> An up vote is not a sign of agreement. It means that the subject matter is interesting and merits discussion.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Regardless of the truth of this story, I hope someday to have a manager/mentor that works with me with such care and talent.

</comment><comment><USER27> We seem to want everyone to be one dimensional, but nobody on earth is.In the 90's Gates was synonymous with evil in the tech collective consciousness, yet now he relentlessly works to improve the lives of millions. In the last decade jobs was elevated to near deity status by many, despite his status as a legendary dick. People are complex, deal with it.

<comment><USER28> At my first startup, the founder was a legendary dick to almost everyone, but he was always cool to me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> Most of the time people think things are necessarily black or white, but often it is somewhere in the middle and may also depend in the context. I believe he genuinely thinks what he wrote and it might be his truth. Of course, it doesn't discard all the justified criticisms on Marc Pincus, it is just another side, there are not mutually exclusive imo.

</comment><comment><USER30> You know what else you saw while at Zynga? The stock price drop like a rock. They spent two months teaching you things someone in your position of Technical Assistant to CEO of a public company should already know. This is an example of poor allocation of resources.

</comment><comment><USER31> This is not a pro Zynga blog post.

The main point of the story that the OP was highly valued by Zynga, but he left anyway. It details his rapid access to key people and that his old boss begged him to stay (multiple hour convo at boss' house).

It's sort of like saying your old girlfriend was super into you, and begged you to stay with her, but you left her anyway. Most people might agree that making a public declaration of this would not be doing her any favors.

A reasonable person could consider this post unprofessional. Zygna (whatever your personal opinion of the company) was singing his paychecks and could be considered to deserve the sort of respect many people give former employers in public.

</comment><comment><USER32> Just as a little side-story, it would appear as though Sash is the same person from dcurtis's The Fight blog post: <http://dcurt.is/the-fight>

</comment><comment><USER33> I find the reaction about the text interesting

For one, apparently no one saw "The Devil Wears Prada"

Oh I am sure Pincus is everything (bad) they say of him. Every word.

What we were missing is someone that's capable of adapting to his style and seeing the things beyond that.

Yes, sorry, 'his style' is usually an euphemism for 'making people cry and being awful', but there's more to it than that usually (because of what he did).

"Angry bosses" are a dime a dozen, but only few of them manage what MP has achieved (with a lot of moral issues, I'm sure).

</comment><comment><USER34> _He came into the room and sat on the arm of a chair with his feet resting on the seat._

I have to assume that wasn't a typical conference-room chair -- or it was _really_ well engineered.

</comment><comment><USER35> Cool, I just realized I'm doing something very similar for my job.

</comment><comment><USER36> I read it and my first thought was: YMMV

(Your Millage May Vary)

</comment><comment><USER18> Obviously it was a positive write up. If it was negative he wouldn't be posting it. The post was useless.</comment>


Ask HN: I have 1000 things in mind but get done 0. How do you make it work? - <AUTHOR> I get 100s of ideas that are mostly about additional learning tangential to my Software job or growing skills and I'm so excited about them. If I get through 10% of them, it would be really fulfilling. I know I'm unable to get through even any, and that is very unsettling. How do I get over this? <comment><USER2> It's actually pretty simple.

1) Make a list. It does not have to be perfect. Just get started.

2) Divide it into 2 lists, need to do and fun to do

3) Order list in terms of importance, both lists

4)Pick one in need-to-do list and plan on how you will accomplish

5) Once 4 is done pick an item from the fun to-do list and once done go to 4 and start again.

6) Continue until done

Note: Review and reorder the list every 2 months or whatever period you pick. Make sure to follow the order. It's easy to skip what you really don't want to do.

The hardest part is getting started. Once you start to see accomplishments it will motivate you to continue.

Keeping the list in your mind does not work. It just gives you an excuse not to start. Also trying to accomplish everything as fast as possible will just force you to quit when it gets too difficult. Set a pace you can follow.

</comment><comment><USER3> Go through your list once a week. Identify the things you must do that week or something important will blow up. Then add one, and no more than one, additional goal for the week.

We tend to overestimate how much we can get done in a week but underestimate what we can do in dozens of weeks. We overestimate what we can accomplish in a year but underestimate what we can accomplish in 10 years.

</comment><comment><USER4> Have you tried using GTD method with a task tracking tool? It might help in your case.

<comment><AUTHOR> I have followed plaintext productivity. [http://plaintext- productivity.net/2-11-standing-lists-for-gt...](http://plaintext- productivity.net/2-11-standing-lists-for-gtd-or-other-organizational- systems.html) The problem though is following it studiously.</comment></comment>


How Game of Thrones changed television - Can the show's formula be repeated? - <AUTHOR> https://www.ft.com/content/7476eff2-59f2-11e9-939a-341f5ada9d40 <comment><USER2> please remove this. it's behind a paywall

<comment><AUTHOR> This may help: please click on the word 'web', which is right next to the words 'past' and 'favorite', below the title of this thread. This will pop up a Google web search page. On this page, the first or second search result should be the FT article and if you click on it, this gives free access.</comment></comment>


Economist solves puzzle: toilet seat up or down? - <AUTHOR> https://www.msu.edu/~choijay/etiquette.pdf

<comment><USER2> Now economists, but previously game theorists:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=183158>

</comment><comment><USER3> The correct answer is: always put seat _and_ lid down, as this prevents the bathroom from being filled with a fine mist of your urine/faeces when you flush.

<comment><USER3> Tsk. Don't just downvote, _say why you disagree_.</comment></comment>


Show HN: single page sites for creative freelancers - <AUTHOR> http://singlepagers.com

<comment><USER2> Looks like it could be interesting, but doesn't give enough info to warrant a signup. Not going to signup just to see what it is. Plus, the signup isn't even a signup, but a request for an invite, so approval isn't even guaranteed for the signup. More trouble than its worth IMO. Too bad there's nothing explaining what it is/does for anyone.</comment>


Build an API in your Rails app now - <AUTHOR> https://labs.kollegorna.se/blog/2015/04/build-an-api-now/

<comment><USER2> Great work!

The EmberJS panel is also a good read.</comment>


Are You a Guitar Player or a Club Owner? - <AUTHOR> http://calnewport.com/blog/2009/12/08/are-you-a-guitar-player-or-club-owner/

<comment><USER2> I think you're getting close to the point but somewhat fail to nail it. The thing is that most people can't actually do anything if not forced to do it. They can't make anything on their own. They have barely enough will to put themselves in a situation where they know they'll have to move their ass.

I'm actually like that when it comes to sport. I don't have the will to go to a gym for instance, and I used to always find a last minute excuse not to go. Then I joined a futsal club, because I have enough will to commit myself to play next week. Then it's my culture to actually show up if I said I will... Problem solved : I managed to protect myself from my own laziness.

Basically students loads themselves with classes, or employees with work, because they have the will to commit themselves _now_ to work like crazy for the next 3 months. But don't have the will everyday to work a little bit on their own.

</comment><comment><USER3> From the title, I thought the article would go the other way, admonishing the lackadaisical one-a-week which becomes once-a-month practicing that simply peters off.

The article compares the dedicated amateur to the club owner, not the starving musician. The dedicated amateur, with an hour a day of self-motivated practice, is able to succeed in a low-stress non-demanding environment, whereas the club owner is a high-stress, high-demand environment.

I don't view either environments as being inherently better than the other. Different people thrive in different environments. I have a researcher friend, whom, given a task and some time, will come back with results and he'll do an excellent job. Put him in a frazzling high-demand situation? He quickly falls apart.

Someone else I know, given a task, will waste the day reading blogs and watching TV and only start working on it after midnight, but put into a high- stress situation does much better work than the researcher is able to output in the same situation.

I see this akin to individually being a producer vs. a consumer. Neither is inherently better, but, like consumers outnumber producers by a large margin, so too, do the club owners vs the guitar players.

</comment><comment><USER4> While the analogy can fall apart if you stare at it too hard, I think he has a valid point. Hard concentration is one of the most productive useful things you can do. It is also absurdly hard to get into the zone. If I'm a little tired, or I think that I might want to do some other stuff, I might avoid it the way I might avoid doing pushups (I'll do it later).

I don't know why this is either. If you master focus it will really pay off.

</comment><comment><USER5> nice thought.

wrench: the median club owner has more money than the median guitar player.

<comment><USER6> I think this blog is trying to get people to transcend the thought that money = happiness. If you read his other posts, you can see that he often talks in terms of fulfillment, not money.

<comment><USER7> I actually value the notion to try to attach a metric to a fuzzy term like 'happiness', even though it doesn't work. At least it displays the will to measure everything.

Edit: happiness = serotonin level in spinal fluid. Suicide cases show low levels after autopsy.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> This is a bad analogy because if you are the club owner _you already own a freaking club_. Of course I'd want to be the club owner, making big bucks as a guitar player is a crap-shoot. You'll most likely fail as a musician and end up a computer programmer. If i sell the club that's money in my pocket.

This analogy isn't a paradox. It has nothing to do with deep concentration. It is a choice between a sure thing and most likely nothing.

<comment><USER9> All analogies break down eventually, but in this case I think you're jumping the gun. Do you have any idea how many clubs open and fail? Anyone can get a loan and open a club. Making it successful is a whole nother ball of wax.

<comment><USER8> Well I'm sure a lot of clubs open and fail. But one has to assume that if you are opening a club, you have already been successful somewhere else. There is a much greater portrayal of starving musicians than there are starving club owners.

It clearly follows that if you were not elsewise successful, and able to buy a club, your cousin Vinny has gifted this club to you in an offer that you simply could not pass up.

Failing as a club owner almost directly implies that you failed in a secondary, non-career pursuit. The only way you can really starve in that situation is if you are a complete moron and actually invested your own money.

Millions of guitarists, however, go hungry in the streets every day.

Besides if you've taken out a loan to get the club, are you really a club owner? It seems like you are a proprietor most.

Besides, the point of analogies is that they be based on easily falsifiable things that /seem to be/ true. An analogy is a metaphor. You know, literature fluff.

This comparison doesn't /seem/ to be true, whether it is or not.

<comment><USER9> I understood the point of the article to be what it takes to be a successful club owner vs a successful guitarist and in that regard I think it worked even if the analogy is very rough around the edges.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Things Android Does Better Than iPhone OS - <AUTHOR> http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/10_things_android_does_better_iphone

<comment><USER2> Most of the author's complaints are completely valid. That said, a jailbroken iPhone can install software to mitigate a number of these issues. Not a sure- fire solution, of course - it's such a pain chasing after jailbreaks, and you never know if-and-when the magic update happens that'll stop jailbreaking forever.

Still, for those curious...

 _1: Android can Run Multiple Apps at the Same Time_

"Backgrounder" will give you basic multitasking. And "ProSwitcher" builds on it to give you wonderful, Pre-like task switching. Caveat - there just isn't enough memory in anything less then the 3GS to comfortably multitask.

 _2: Android Keeps Information Visible on Your Home Screen_

It'll cost a few dollars, but I've been very happy using "LockInfo" to provide a useful lock screen. It's a must-have application for me - it goes a long way to making my iPhone feel like an actual PDA rather then just a toy.

 _4: Android Gives You Better Notifications_

Not nearly as nice as the Android's, but "LockInfo" does a pretty good job of managing my notifications once I told it to suppress pop-ups when my phone's locked. Paired with "Notifier" to continue pestering me if I miss an important update, I'm pretty content.

 _8: Android Lets You Change Your Settings Faster_

"SBSettings" makes changing settings a snap - just slide my finger across the status bar at the top of the screen to access it. Though I'm not a fan of the default appearance - do yourself a favor and install the "Deep HUD" theme for a cleaner interface.

\--

And while I'm advocated bits and bobs to match up with the Android user experience:

"Simple Background" is a nice bit of eye candy, if you want your iPhone to have the same sort of parallax scrolling wallpaper that Android enjoys.

"Inspell" gives you red squiggly misspelling highlighting and intuitive spelling correction. It's a _fantastic_ addition. Honest question - does the Android have something like this?

<comment><USER3> _Most of the author's complaints are completely valid. That said, a jailbroken iPhone can install software to mitigate a number of these issues. Not a sure- fire solution, of course - it's such a pain chasing after jailbreaks, and you never know if-and-when the magic update happens that'll stop jailbreaking forever._

You've just pointed out that the general purpose CPU in the iPhone can run other software. This isn't what is at issue, what's at issue is the default/sanctioned install that comes with the iPhone. Of course you can get other android-like features on your iPhone if you replace or supplement the core iPhone software with something else. But then, your jailbroken iPhone isn't really an iPhone anymore, is it?

 _"Inspell" gives you red squiggly misspelling highlighting and intuitive spelling correction. It's a fantastic addition. Honest question - does the Android have something like this?_

The default Android keyboard, and other keyboards, corrects as you type and/or gives you spelling suggestions and word completions. This has been a much better experience than having to go back and try to correct misspellings after the fact.

<comment><USER2> _You've just pointed out that the general purpose CPU in the iPhone can run other software._

Actually, the gist of my message was to point out _specific bits_ of software to help folks who feel hindered by some of the limitations the article's author mentioned. I know they help me feel more comfortable using the iPhone.

I didn't _think_ I was being particularly subtle, but I guess I was mistaken. <shrug>

 _But then, your jailbroken iPhone isn't really an iPhone anymore, is it?_

That's a... strange claim to make. And the only way it seems even related to my message is if you ignore my explicit caveat about how annoying and fretful jailbreaking is. Which I'm fairly certain you read - why, it's right there, in the bit you quoted.

 _The default Android keyboard, and other keyboards, corrects as you type and/or gives you spelling suggestions and word completions. This has been a much better experience than having to go back and try to correct misspellings after the fact._

Given the tone of your response, I seem to have really irked you. I'm asking an honest question here - this is a feature I find really useful (enough that I gladly paid for this bit of jailbreak-only software that could vaporize at Apple's whim). I'm not asking for your opinion on how text input should be done (because frankly, I don't agree), nor for platform advocacy. Really, I thought my question was rather straight forward.

<comment><USER4> The point was about how things come out of the box - for the consumer, not the prosumer :). Of course it's annoying to jailbreak. That's why, for all intents and purposes, it doesn't matter. It's like Δx^2 while you take the first derivative: in the end, jailbreaking doesn't really affect the sales of a product.

Anyway, red squiggly lines are good for checking a mass of text after the fact. But only if your input method does not allow for checking and correcting _at time of input._ When this type of thing happens at input-type instead of scan-before-hitting-reply-time, you're probably less likely to miss something.

Also, given that you can manually add words to the phone's dictionary is something my iPhone never did have (another win for Android).

<comment><USER2> _The point was about how things come out of the box - for the consumer, not the prosumer :)_

And that's a completely valid concern... if I were engaged in platform advocacy or arguing these iPhone shortcomings are inconsequential or non- existent.

But I'm not.

For the record: I don't like jailbreaking my phone. I don't like installing jailbreak software. I'm annoyed that Apple will neither provide this functionality that I enjoy nor expose a legitimate mechanism for 3rd parties to create it.

But such is the state of things. And given I have an iPhone, I darn well am going to make the most of it. And _that_ matters. I'm not trying to affect software sales - I'm trying to help people like me. People who (for better or worse) have an iPhone, are hamstrung by some of the more valid critiques the article lists, and are looking for solutions.

As for the red squiggly text editing - let's consider that a red herring. I don't agree with your text editing philosophy, but that's neither here-nor- there. This wasn't meant as a dig on Android. I just assumed Android could do this, and was hoping to find out more.

Warfangle - I don't mean this to sound harsh. While I read your reply as assuming platform advocacy on my part, beyond that it was even handed. But golly, I _shouldn't_ have to defend information. Opinions, yes. Information, no. :(

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Maybe the Android Marketplace is "better" than the App Store because anybody can put an app up there, but the apps certainly aren't better, not by a long shot.

<comment><USER6> I think it's really hard to call one store "better" than the other. I'm an App Store developer, but I can see advantages to both:

App Store: Far more apps (and thus a stronger platform, attracts more users, attracts more developers). The review process generally controls quality (ignoring taste, for example fart apps), in the sense of no virus or battery drainers or network abusers or completely unusable apps. This is a plus and I think it's severely under-appreciated.

Android: No review process means you can potentially get any kind of app. Alternative app stores (or you can download right from the web). Ever- improving number of apps in the store (it's lagging behind App Store but quickly catching up).

So it really depends on what you're after and what you value. I don't think it's really fair to for the article to call one store "better" than the other.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Many of the points are valid (I really, really, _really_ would like widgets or something on the lockscreen), but the author's tone makes it seem like he's short AAPL posting on Yahoo finance. (Or more likely, inciting fanboys on each side to generate site traffic)

<comment><USER8> Those points are valid, and many of them pulled me back from buying an iPhone since before there were Android widgets on the market.

I am pretty sure though that one can find 10 things the iPhone does better than Android ... like fixed screen resolution, better dev tools (although that's debatable, as I just want to work on my OS of choice), more polished design for the hardware, etc...

Competition is such a wonderful thing ... those guys at Google that decided to throw Android in the marketplace to increase competition (such that their search engine remains in business) are pure geniuses.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> The date says June 3rd, but then the text says "the Android Marketplace has only just broken the 50,000 mark". That number is, like, so last month. <http://www.androlib.com/appstats.aspx>

Ordinarily a month-old fact would probably be fine, but things are moving a bit fast in the smartphone world these days. So in this case it leads to an error of 26%.

</comment><comment><USER10> Could someone elaborate on how Android's multitasking is better than iPhone OS 4's?

I was under the impression that the mechanics of each were nearly identical.

<comment><USER11> > I was under the impression that the mechanics of each were nearly identical.

They're actually very different: with Android you create what's basically a daemon server, no UI but does everything it want, while with OS4 you register against service (there are 7 service types to choose from) and the OS itself runs and manages it, calling your registered service hooks.

Android gives far more control, at the cost of more (programmatic) complexity and more battery life risks (a badly implemented daemon/service will kill your battery life quick, whereas on the OS4 since the OS keeps full control of the execution it has a much better shot at managing battery/power issues, and it can more efficiently handle multiple applications registering for the same service).

The part that is similar is the handling of non-multitasking-aware applications (regular applications in OS4, applications with no daemon in Android): they're simply frozen in RAM, and killed if memory pressure becomes an issue.

<comment><USER4> A poorly implemented daemon sure can kill your battery life quickly.

Thank goodness there's a tool that lets us figure out what applications use the most battery! :)

<comment><USER11> Yes but that puts the onus of battery-care on the user of the phone. It's fine for geeks (nb: not a put down, I'm in that category myself) which are going to spend half their time between that and the task killer anyway, but that's not the demographic Apple targets, and that's not the kind of tradeoffs they'd find acceptable. Hence their selection of a different solution, which (they believe) gets you 90% of the way with 10% of the costs.

<comment><USER12> Not necessarily. It could also be the developer of the application that is taking advantage of the battery monitor functionality to see if their application needs improvement.

I agree that no end user should have to be keeping a watch for applications that use too much battery, but it sure is nice to have that information easily accessible for developers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I wrote a medium sized post about why I like iPhone OS4's approach to multithreading, but once again when I submit it I get "this link is expired" and go back to find my text gone.

Seaside used to use continuations for everything but realized that the only place you really need it is wizard-like work flows, so they've removed it everywhere else. This allows them to not need a session unless you're in a workflow and things like "expired link" for pretty static looking pages doesn't happen.

Hint, hint, hint....

</comment><comment><USER14> A lot of the points are certainly valid, though somewhat debatable. The #1 one-up (Multitasking) is set to become an iPhone feature in about a month. As for no notifications on the lock screen, have the authors never received a push notification? Again though, local notifications are coming in iPhone OS 4.

<comment><USER15> I was under the impression that both the Android and Apple multi-tasking implemntations were limited in various ways, but that the Apple one was more limited, so you could probably still count that if you wanted to.

<comment><USER11> The Android way has less (if any) limitations (you register a service/daemon which behaves as an application server, it's headless but other than that does whatever it wants). Apple's solution is much more limited (you register tasks against the OS and the OS runs it, which limits what you can do to what the OS itself provides) but the tradeoff is that "debatable" programming has lower chances of eating your battery alive (and the OS can more efficiently handle some services e.g. if 5 different applications asked for GPS/movement notification, the OS can poll the chip once and it will then dispatch that one message to everybody, whereas with the Android solution you'd have 5 different services polling the location API)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> The background on this website makes my monitor flash...</comment>


Trump will sign an order suspending work visas (including H-1B) - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/22/world/coronavirus-updates.html#link-2dd2e3cb <comment><USER2> This really sucks for people caught in the H-1B process...

My understanding is that it doesn't allow new visas, but it doesn't affect current ones. How about rewnewals?

</comment><comment><USER3> Might be the stake in the heart of the tech industry.. It will create a shortage of local labor, and if you can't fill the demand here, there's really no choice but to use teleworkers from other countries. Once that becomes normal practice nobody will want to spend the money for local labor.

<comment><USER4> It's funny how the Visa suspension will probably backfire and normalize outsourcing. Broad actions like this one have a ton of unintended consequences.</comment></comment>


Free real time rendering resources - <AUTHOR> http://www.realtimerendering.com

<comment><AUTHOR> Look for some gems in the 'free' section.</comment>


Cpp-Taskflow: A New C++ Library for Parallel Programming with Task Dependencies - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/cpp-taskflow/cpp-taskflow <comment><USER2> What is the difference with TBB?

<comment><AUTHOR> The API is neater, more expressive, and easier to use. Also, it is single- header only, easy for drop-in integration.</comment></comment>


Should we criminalize difficult exam questions? - <AUTHOR> http://www.google.com/buzz/amichail/dpVuBFxQ9tC/Should-we-criminalize-difficult-exam-questions-One

<comment><USER2> Question: Should we criminalize proposing something crazy by prefixing it with "One might say that..." or "One could make an argument that...", relieving the author of the responsibility of actually substantially defending their crazy remark?

Answer: No. That author should only be liable in civil court.

<comment><USER3> I love amichail's posts. A few more gems:

"There's quite a lot of pressure to excel in high school and university. I wonder if getting an education is more dangerous than say smoking. What do you think?"

"Should games get upset when not played much? For example, a tetris-type game could show sad faces in the blocks when it is neglected."

And, my favourite (edited for brevity):

"Students should be taught to lie and cheat. These things require intelligence. Encouraging students to lie and cheat in school would improve their thinking abilities... You could reward the students whose cheating was successful with bonus marks. To get these bonus marks, students would need to fully disclose how they cheated after they got away with it. Their cheating techniques would then be made known to all students, who could then use them as ideas for more elaborate techniques... In the end, students may end up smarter and more honest."

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I truly wish this was a joke. An actual exchange I had with a student:

Visibly agitated student: "Your test was badly designed! I only got an 80 on it!"

Me: "I accurately measured who understands the material and who does not. Everyone here knows what they know and knows some things they don't know. Also, you got the 3'rd highest grade and an A. What's the problem?"

Student: "But what about my self esteem? I never got lower than a 90 before."

<comment><AUTHOR> There are many exams given where questions require not just study and understanding but also a high level of innate intelligence.

So no matter how hard the average student may study, he/she would have little chance of making progress on such questions.

This could be devastating mentally -- and perhaps science will show that it eventually results in permanent brain damage.

<comment><USER5> Are you joking? If you aren't smart enough, then maybe you just shouldn't be in that course. There is no god given right to pass any exam.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The major issue with this is finding a good formalization of "difficult" and especially "too difficult". At this university course, theoretical computer science or electronical engineering have devastating success quotas. I found at least the first one easy. I also had to check an exam if it was too difficult or too long. It took me around 20 minutes to finish. There were people who needed more than the allocated 2 hours. Thus, I just cannot see how this could work out.

</comment><comment><USER7> There is always some one better and some one worse than you at everything, that's life. Should we deceive students making them believe that they will always get good grades? Maybe we should just skip this and lower the standard?

I think it's better that we strive for excellence even if we don't achieve than we strive for a false accomplishments (mediocrity).

</comment><comment><USER8> Remember when school was hard?

Remember when you had to _study_ for tests?

Remember when you knuckled down and did the work, or else flunked and were held back?

Yeah, say goodbye to all that and hello to the self-esteem regime. Emitting busloads of incompetents who _feel good about themselves_. Since the thing to aspire to nowadays is to get on a reality show, I guess they'll have all the skills they need regardless.

God bless America, huh?</comment>


Best American History Reads of 2018 - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/bunk/best-american-history-reads-of-2018-226dffc7f87b <comment><USER2> Wow, this list of "best reads" certainly seems like it would appeal to very specific segment on the political spectrum.

Not sure if you'll get much of an unbiased view of American history from these books.

<comment><USER3> FYI, they aren't books.

>articles, essays, videos, podcasts, conversations, maps, and visualizations.</comment></comment>