NSA Reform Gathers Momentum In Congress After Late-Night Vote - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2014/06/20/nsa-reform-gathers-momentum-in-congress-after-late-night-vote/ <comment><USER2> The USA Freedom Act was severely weakened before this, but at least it became a little more meaningful in the last hour thanks to Rep. Lofgren and her amendment against subverting encryption. Without it, it was almost useless before that.</comment>


Mac Apps I use to say productive - <AUTHOR> http://tosbourn.com/productivity-apps <comment><USER2> I'm a big fan of Evernote, although I find that at the end of the day, I have to spend a little while organising the notes I've taken during the day to avoid a big pile of note 'mush'.

Personally, I'm a big fan of [https://culturedcode.com/things](https://culturedcode.com/things) for a todo list.

<comment><AUTHOR> I never tried Things, I went from Wunderlist (which I loved) to Omnifocus.

I agree about the organisation in Evernote, I _try_ and tag/prune as I go along but sometimes you do need to dedicate time to it.</comment></comment>


New proof of a minimum property of the regular n-gon (1947) - <AUTHOR> http://fermatslibrary.com/s/new-proof-of-a-minimum-property-of-the-regular-n-gon <comment><USER2> In other words:

1) Take a regular n-gon P.

2) Inscribe a circle C1, and circumscribe a circle C2.

3) The parts of C2 that lie outside P are n circle segments, whose straight sides are tangent to C1.

4) If you move these segments around in any way, they will overlap each other, so the uncovered area of C2 will become larger.

5) Therefore P is the smallest possible n-gon whose inscribed circle is C1.

<comment><USER3> So the new property found is that, for any given circle C1, the smallest n-gon whose inscribed circle is C1 is a regular n-gon?

Edit: rephrasing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Needs a (1947).

Full cite: Tóth, L. Fejes. "New Proof of a Minimum Property of the Regular n-GON." The American Mathematical Monthly 54.10 (1947): 589-589.

<comment><USER5> Is there any reason why this proof from 1947 is on the front page? Is this proof particularly gratifying of intellectual curiosity or is this just a random feedback loop?

<comment><USER6> It is the "paper of the week" on [http://fermatslibrary.com](http://fermatslibrary.com), so quite a few people will have seen it for the first time recently.

Being on that site typically means that the proof is short and reasonably accessible for amateurs (you won't see "A monad is just a monoid in the category of endofunctors" style proofs that aren't hard, but require one to grasp terminology that few master there)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> As an amateur math enthusiast, I find this kind of thing both fascinating and frustrating. It would be _amazing_ if someone were to make a 3-D gif animation of what exactly this proof is talking about, because I can't make heads or tails of the proof language / formulae.

<comment><USER8> It's a 2D problem: If you know the difference between circles circumscribed around vs circles inscribed in a polygon, that's probably all the geometry you need. The proof is a series of inequalities about the various areas inside the circumscribed circle and outside the polygon, and also the parts of the circumscribed circle that would be cut off by a tangent to the inscribed circle at the points where it touches the polygon.

Does that help a bit?

<comment><USER7> Yes, in addition to the [current] top comment, this helps a great deal. thanks!

HackerNews: Simulating AI-generated human readable proofs from real math proofs since 2011

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> The proof is short, but frankly I can't read it (as I am not sure what all the products are sisj ; I presume they are line segments and the + is union/area or some such). Yes, I know it because I didn't study classic geometry long enough.

If we take the brutal step of resorting to trigonometry and calculus we can prove the statement using general techniques. It may seem long and technical- but I think it demonstrates re-usable methods that give some intuition (after you use them a few times!).

To prove: the regular n-gon has the maximal area of any n-gon inscribed inside the unit circle.

Proof sketch:

We will prove only the lemma that if theta1, and theta2 are angles summing to C < pi then sum of the areas of the area of the figure formed by the convex hull of (0,0), (sin(theta1),cos(theta1)), (0,1), and (-sin(theta2),cos(theta2)) is maximized for a given C when theta1=theta2. That is: the area formed by subdividing a segment of the circle of angle theta1+theta2 is maximized by dividing in the middle. This would let us prove the theorem as it implies any non-regular division can be improved by re- centering one of the sub-divisions.

Proof of lemma:

The area of triangle formed by the convex hull of the center of a unit circle and the points (sin(theta/2),cos(theta/2)), (-sin(theta/2),cos(theta/2)) is (1/2) base height = (1/2) (2 sin(theta/2)) cos(theta/2) = sin(theta/2) cos(theta/2).

So if f(theta1,theta2) is the area of the two inscribed triangles of angles theta1 and theta2 we have: f(theta1,theta2) = sin(theta1/2) cos(theta1/2) + sin(theta2/2) cos(theta2/2)

If we add the constraint theta1+theta2=C then we expect the maximum to occur at one of theta1=0,theta2=C; theta1=C,theta2=0 or an point where the Lagrange auxiliary function L(theta1,theta2,lambda) = f(theta1,theta2) + lamba (theta1+theta2-C) has a zero gradient (gradient with respect to theta1, theta2))

Gradient((theta1,theta2),L) = (1/2) (cos(theta1/2)^2 -sin(theta1/2)^2, cos(theta2/2)^2 -sin(theta2/2)^2) + lambda (1,1)

For this vector quantity to be equal to zero we would have to have the coordinates equal (so the lambda (1,1) can stomp them out): cos(theta1/2)^2 -sin(theta1/2)^2 = cos(theta2/2)^2 - sin(theta2/2)^2

But cos(x)^2 -sin(x)^2 = 1 - 2 sin(x)^2 which is a 1 to 1 function in the range [0,pi) so to have cos(theta1/2)^2 -sin(theta1/2)^2 = cos(theta2/2)^2 -sin(theta2/2)^2 we must have theta1=theta2.

So we check that f(C/2,C/2) >= max(f(C,0),f(0,C)) and we are done.

Again I know that is long and technical (and bringing in overly big hammers)- but the steps are all standard re-usable ideas. (actually longer than I even intended)

<comment><USER10> It's worth noting that this proof implicitly uses the parallel axiom (since it assumes a Cartesian coordinate system). The linked proof is independent of that, and applies to non-Euclidean geometries as well.

<comment><USER9> Good point.</comment></comment></comment>


24 Amazing, Homemade Dungeons and Dragons Maps - <AUTHOR> https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/homebrew-dungeons-and-dragons-maps <comment><USER2> The creativity really amazes me. For example,

 _Mollusca Tullie (to the East, in the Unfathomed Fens) is actually a small settlement of nomadic halflings—built on the back of a giant snail. They defend the snail with their mastiff cavalry and in exchange, the snail provides its shell as a shelter._

Are there online communities where this sort of thing is common?</comment>


Geohot Arrested for Marijuana Possession En Route to SXSW - <AUTHOR> http://www.iclarified.com/entry/index.php?enid=20672

<comment><USER2> What will this look like 20 years from now when marijuana is decriminalised? I always wonder that when seeing these sad stories. How will our future selves view the ignorance of the past in regards to drug laws?

Even 5 years ago I never thought gay marriage had a chance in America. But now it seems like just a matter of time and entirely obvious. There will come a tipping point with drugs laws in America where marijuana decriminalization seems equally inevitable. Unfortunately we still have a ways to go.

<comment><USER3> It likely is not going to take 20 years... at least, for states that aren't Texas. My state (Washington) is the front-runner to regulate the sale of marijuana in this year. I-502 polled with an 8 point lead last month, with 47% in favor, 39% opposed, and 15% undecided. [1] Of course, the initiative in California polled well last year and still failed, but this is almost certainly going to pass in less than twenty years on the west coast.

[1] [http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/2011/PPP_Release_WA_2...](http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/2011/PPP_Release_WA_222.pdf)

<comment><USER4> The federal government can and will still enforce its more severe marijuana laws against residents of states without such laws.

The Supreme Court has taken this case (Gonzales v. Raich) and decided that state medical marijuana laws provide no protection. The court decided 6-3 against medical marijuana laws with one justice a cancer patient and one's husband a cancer patient at the time providing two surprise votes for sanity; most observers expect such state reforms to never again have more than one vote (Clarence Thomas) on the court since those two soon died and retired.

Obama has been an exceptionally lenient president, reducing the prosecution of medical marijuana patients so long as they aren't caught in his frequent raids of buyers' clubs and aren't involved in any kind of commerce or production. Even licensed facilities have been granted no leniency. States that consider state provision and regulation of marijuana have been consistently threatened by Obama's AG Eric Holder with prosecution and incarceration of state officials.

That will likely be enough to defeat legalization initiatives and certainly end the likelihood of measures passed through the legislatures.

But if legalization initiatives pass, expect a new growing industry of federal prosecutions to reverse the new laws. When the Republicans next elect a president, the states that tolerate marijuana will probably see massive punishment doled out until the laws change back.

Actual legal marijuana is not likely to be seen anywhere in America before 2030 and then only if the pace of reform continues to accelerate.

Changes in public opinion are really insufficient in the near term. This is politics. Fear, inertia, and moneyed interestes are arrayed strongly against legalization. The voice of the people enters the discussion weakly and slowly, but it can win over a long period of time.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Attention medical marijuana card holders! It's not protection in other jurisdictions. Don't get casual.

</comment><comment><USER6> He still made it to SXSW.

His talk (audio only) can be found here: <http://schedule.sxsw.com/2012/events/event_IAP992467>

</comment><comment><USER7> It's unfortunate that Austin, such a creative and progressive city, is surrounded by the rest of Texas.

<comment><USER8> "If I owned Texs and Hell, I'd rent out Texas and live in Hell" is how Ben Franklin put it.

<comment><USER9> First, you miss attributed this. It was Philip Sheridan; a Union General assigned to occupy Texas and oversee reconstruction after the Civil War. He was less than popular and removed from his post by president Andrew Johnson for his harsh application of the Military Reconstruction Acts.

Which leads me to a much better quote.

"Fuck You! I'm from Texas."

The guy wasn't even arrested in Texas. He was arrested by the Feds... who Texans usually have no love for. Succeed is on bumper stickers here. But yeah, I admit... Texas enforcement and sentencing can be BS. So don't break our laws and we wont break you.

<comment><USER10> > Succeed is on bumper stickers here.

Took me a minute to figure out what that bumper sticker was supposed to mean, but it's perfect.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> What a waste of time and taxpayer money.

</comment><comment><USER12> Ruining people's lives for no reason at all. Completely nonsensical, but then again when things like this baffle me I get reminded of humanity's past (and present) - gladiators, slaves, genocide, ritual sacrifice, lynching, witch- hunts, genital mutilation, whatever...and things like this no longer seem so bad in comparison.

But I lose significant faith in humanity.

<comment><USER13> "for no reason at all"

Private prisons gotta have their supply of prisoners. (I think you mean no _good_ reason.)

<comment><USER12> Whoah. Didn't realize private prisons existed. Forgot anything can be capitalized

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> what a fucking waste of money. don't these law enforcement officials have anything more useful to do?

<comment> wh-uws As a lifelong resident of the south and a current resident of (Austin) Texas I can tell you.

No

You have to be very careful driving through the smaller towns. The cops have absolutely nothing else to do and the jursidictions make a lot of money of pulling out of towners over. Mostly for speeding butaparently narcotics busts as well too now

<comment><USER15> I have never seen so many cops by the side of the road as I have in Texas...

<comment><USER16> I wish they'd loan a few to Italy, which could sorely use a few more traffic stops for things like tailgating at 2 meters and flashing the brights to indicate that at 150km/h, you're way too slow and get the fuck out of the way right now god dammit because I've got a bitchin Camaro.

I have daydreams about one of those guys with some Texan cop... "sir, d'ya know just how fast you were goin'? Yer gonna have to come down to the station with me...".

<comment><USER17> People in Italy drive Camaros? God, I can think of a couple dozen cars I would rather drive in Italy than an American muscle car. Hell, any Alfa Romeo will likely be classier and of a better build quality.

<comment><USER16> No, they don't:-) A "Bitchin' Camaro" is not an actual car, it's a state of mind...

<comment><USER17> Ah, being an American, when I hear "bitchin' Camaro" I think of a muscle car with a loud exhaust.

<comment><USER16> When I hear "Bitchin' Camaro", I think "Dead Milkmen".

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> This iClarified link is a summary of a much longer article from Above the Law that seems to be the commom source of all current stories (which also means this really should be considered uncorroborated).

[http://abovethelaw.com/2012/03/famed-hacker-arrested-for- pot...](http://abovethelaw.com/2012/03/famed-hacker-arrested-for-pot- possession-en-route-to-sxsw/)

</comment><comment><USER19> I got busted for smoking weed in public in Eugene, Oregon. I walked away with a ticket. I had a 1/8th on me at the time.

The ticket was ten dollars more then the weed that was confiscated.

</comment><comment><USER20> Sounds like when weev got raided in Fayetteville, AR and they found his (small) stash of drugs by the computer, too. The local drug charges were dropped eventually.

</comment><comment><USER21> I grew up in Arizona and Border Patrol is _everywhere_ down south. It looks like Geohot ran into a permanent checkpoint. Seems like a really poor choice.

</comment><comment><USER22> Hopefully he knows some lawyers. The article mentions some oddities about the search.

I don't take cannabis (and I wouldn't even if it was legal) but I recognise the current status is causing considerable harm; both to people like Geohot getting caught with tiny amounts and to people in Mexico being killed in drug- gang wars.

</comment><comment><USER23> Some people are using this post as an opportunity to bash Texas, but the article says he was arrested by DHS (federal authorities) in Seirra Blanca, which is in New Mexico. This doesn't have anything to do with Texas.

</comment><comment><USER24> I agree current laws are crap. But isn't is possible for someone to refrain while traveling to avoid such a circumstance? And no, medical use is crapola - folks treat this like some miracle drug.

</comment><comment><USER25> Damn you glaucoma, thou art a vile affliction.

</comment><comment><USER26> Why is there a checkpoint? US turning into 1940's Germany?

<comment><USER27> They've been there for a long time. For the children.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> What an unfortunate choice of picture for that article.

Also, what a trumped up set of charges. I had a friend just tell me the other day about some hippies that got locked up because they were charged by the weight of their edibles. What a fucking waste of time, money and prosecution of perfectly good members of society.

<comment><USER29> _What an unfortunate choice of picture for that article_

The funniest photo of geohot is the one on his Wikipedia entry: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Hotz>

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> Haha! I was listening to the song "Young wild and free" <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa5B22KAkEk> just now =P

</comment><comment><USER31> I am constantly amazed that people seem so surprised that when people break the law, they get in trouble.

Just because you don't like a law, doesn't mean you should be surprised when, like so many people before them, people get caught for breaking it.

I often wonder if I am the only person in the tech world who wouldn't mind much higher penalties for possessions of narcotics, instead of this current "illegal, but most of the time not really" business. I'd be fine with legalisation too, I just wish the law would go heavily one way or the other.

<comment><USER32> ORLY?

I'm against higher penalties for narcotics, since the penalties themselves don't seem to provide a deterrent, and just serve to increase the prison population.

People are gonna do what they're gonna do, and I'm for lower penalties, since I think that would mean less people in prison.

<comment><USER31> Are you sure that a fixed prison sentence, enforced on everybody, for possession of any amount of cannabis, wouldn't cause many people to stop?

I'm fairly sure it would, looking at my friends who smoke because they believe (rightly) the worst they will get for possession is a smallish fine.

<comment><USER33> I'm sure that's not the prevailing reason for their choice.

Please do not pursue a career in government or law enforcement.

<comment><USER31> Do you think that everyone who currently smokes cannabis would continue to smoke it, even if the penalties were massively increased, and strictly enforced?

I find that fascinating. I can't imagine why anyone wouldn't think introducing prison sentences would reduce usage, and believe that the existing scientific evidence backs my viewpoint. You clearly disagree with me. Unfortunately ycombinator is not the best place to have a discussion about such things, but I would recommend in future if you would like cannabis to be legalised, you shouldn't be so dismissive and insulting to people who hold an opposing viewpoint to you, who I assume you would want to convert.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


New Startup Raises $100M for Portable Ultrasound - <AUTHOR> http://www.technologyreview.com/news/532166/with-100-million-entrepreneur-sees-path-to-disrupt-medical-imaging/ <comment><USER2> Rothberg is something of a character.

His two DNA sequencing companies (454 and Ion torrent) have both had what I would consider successful exits (solid to Roche and Life technologies respectively). But more importantly both products made their way into the hands of consumers (which is actually rare for DNA sequencing startups). However after acquisition both products failed to gain significant traction (Roche has just shelved 454).

He also engages in a certain amount of showmanship [1], which has as gained him some ridicule. I think he has to be respected to successfully executing in a market where most startups fizzle out though.

I hope this pans out though, it sounds awesome. I really hope this (and other research/medical device) technology makes its way into the hands of normal consumers (not just research labs/medical institutes).

[1] Oh and he has a scale model of Stonehenge in his back yard. [http://clonehenge.com/2009/01/17/circle-of-life- connecticuts...](http://clonehenge.com/2009/01/17/circle-of-life-connecticuts- stonehenge/)

<comment><USER3> My only experience with Roche is that they buy promising new technologies and shutter them. First they purchase the product, then they invest, then they purchase the company then they shut it down.

<comment><USER2> This is really interesting. They certainly have a reputation for killing 454. What other companies have they done this with?

<comment><USER4> I wouldn't say Roche "killed" 454\. Illumina is absolutely dominating the sequencing market. I would say killing something that isn't profitable is a good business decision.

<comment><USER2> You might not, I might not. But they do have somewhat of a reputation for not executing well on the 454 technology. It has been said that they failed to scale out what was a fundamentally sound platform. That they didn't really push on density to the increase device throughput as much as they could have.

The truth maybe that the technology just has fundamental limitations. But I'd would say that's not objectively clear.

The Illumina (Solexa) platform also had significant limitations, it took a lot of platform development to get it where it is today. In contrast Illumina have executed quite well, providing systematic improvements to the Solexa platform.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Some researchers at wash u engineering built a cheap, phone based ultrasound in 2009:

[http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/13928.aspx](http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/13928.aspx)

I did various forms of cardiac ultrasound research for 10 years at the med school. So, I know a little bit about it. It's easy to find your heart or a baby, but knowing enough to make any sort of diagnosis takes a lot of practice. No matter how smart you think you are, you won't be able to order one of these on Amazon Prime and find a leaky valve or a problem with your gallbladder. The images are noisy. Positioning the probe to get a clear view of the structure you want to see is an art. If you're obese, forget about it.

I'm all for disrupting the imaging industry with cheap hardware, but this article and a lot of the comments here show the general lack of knowledge about medicine. Have a look at the comments in the heart attack thread. Some people think they can just buy an ECG and self-diagnose a heart attack. If anyone spent twenty minutes looking at ECG's (or ultrasounds) with a knowledgable tech they'd cringe at how stupid they sounded. Ultrasound is the exact same thing.

Finally, ultrasounds are regulated medical devices. As far as I know, it's illegal to own one.

On a happier note, 3D ultrasound is kind of awesome. If you get a probe that can rotate 180 degrees, it is really easy to make a 3D model of the structures. I did it for a work-study job in 1998 on an old SGI indigo. Sadly, you can get much better pictures in MRI or CT so 3D ultrasound is not really used in the clinic (it's gaining some traction in cardiology, though)

</comment><comment><USER6> I guess what's new here is the capacitive micro-machined ultrasound transducers (CMUT), ultrasound emitters directly on a semi-conductor wafer. Though I would like to see what we can do with this technology without limitations of mobile/portable.

In terms of portable ultrasound, there are a few existing solutions on the market:

This looks pretty portable (connected to an iPhone too): [http://www.mobisante.com/](http://www.mobisante.com/)

GE's portable ultrasound seems pretty portable too: [http://www3.gehealthcare.com/en/Products/Categories/Ultrasou...](http://www3.gehealthcare.com/en/Products/Categories/Ultrasound/Vscan_Family/Vscan#tabs/tab034ECFD4634747698D1F9B59CE785D9F)

Best of luck to Rothberg et al., I believe there's a huge consumer market for a portable ultrasound done right! The pregnancy market alone is vast, e.g. [https://www.bellabeat.com/](https://www.bellabeat.com/)

<comment><USER7> The difference with GE Vscan seems to be the 3D reconstruction capabilities. However I am not sure if the 3D is really needed. I always understood the 3D ultrasound reconstruction as a gimmick (at least in obstetrics) to show parent the head of their future baby.

<comment><USER8> Most of the ultrasound-using doctors that I've talked to in med school seem to agree with you; if there's a real need for 3D imaging today, doctors (in 1st world countries at least) send the patient for a CT. The cost/benefit for 3D ultrasound doesn't compare favorably to CT because it is a much noisier imaging process and it takes just about as long as a CT.

That's why if you Google image search for "3D ultrasound", you get mostly pictures of fetus faces and very few medical conditions.

So, I see this product mostly benefitting the 3rd world, unless they vastly improve image quality and lowered the technical hurdles compared to existing ultrasound equipment. (Which would be awesome, but is a _hard_ problem.)

Disclaimer: have used the Vscan as a student, but am no means an expert in ultrasound.

<comment><USER9> good luck trying to ct scan a pregnant woman!

<comment><USER8> True, but you've just emphasized my (and the GP's) point: 3D ultrasound is probably most relevant for pregnant women and 3rd world situations.

Incidentally, besides the abdomen and pelvis, you can safely CT just about any other part of a pregnant woman.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> On the darker side, a dangerous social impact that this device would have is an increase female foeticide

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex- selective_abortion](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex-selective_abortion)

Though there is a lot being done against this social evil, it is still very prevalent.

<comment><USER11> A few questions.

Why would a cheaper technology lead to an increase in abortions? Don't they just kill the fetus anyway upon realization of the sex if it's undesirable?

Wouldn't it ultimately be safer for the mother, to perform a very early term abortion if that's what she wants, rather than waiting?

If a mother wants to abort at 60 days pregnant (assuming the new tech enables earlier sex identification), why shouldn't she be allowed to for any reason she deems worthy?

<comment><USER12> Because in countries where this is a problem it's common to have extreme restrictions on use of ultrasound machines. For example requiring two doctors to be present to use it and banning gender identification uses.

If this device is cheap/small enough that illegal clinics could have it, it would make gender identification much more widely available then it is now.

Selective abortion can be dangerous population-wise because even a small gender skew can be hugely problematic.

<comment><USER13> On a micro level I sympathize with freedom of choice.

On a macro level, population skew is certainly a problem.

Tough call.

<comment><USER14> Not to start a flamewar, but it really isn't a tough call at all. It's just that you got trapped in this debate-framing message that abortions are about freedom.

You know another problem with legalized abortions? Women that sell them in exchange of suing for child support. [0]

[0]: [https://blogs.law.harvard.edu/philg/2014/10/30/who-knows- abo...](https://blogs.law.harvard.edu/philg/2014/10/30/who-knows-about- divorce-laws-in-countries-other-than-the-u-s/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I have an ultrasound that we bought on eBay when my wife was pregnant.

The reason more individuals don't own them is that it's illegal! No company that makes ultrasound machines will sell them to a non-doctor, because of some kind of regulations. I believe they don't want people to think they can diagnose themselves when it actually takes a doctor. Whatever the reason, that's why more people don't own sub-$10k ultrasound machines, and omitting that fact to make the story one purely about the march of technological progress is poor journalism.

<comment><USER16> > I believe they don't want people to think they can diagnose themselves when > it actually takes a doctor.

That is not the only reason. Long-term effects of ultrasound are unknown. Short-term effects are increases in temperature of the tissue being scanned. Improper use _can_ lead to harm.

Not saying they should be illegal to own or purchase by consumers, but you really shouldn't be scanning things for shits and giggles. Remember, not that long ago, x-rays were considered routine and harmless.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Hope they destroy the industry.

10 minutes of ultrasound to diagnose a serious illness can cost several hundred dollars in the USA

Maybe in a decade it can even be built into smartphones like a tricorder.

This device already looks like it can plug into a smartphone [http://www.mobisante.com/products/product- overview/](http://www.mobisante.com/products/product-overview/)

<comment><USER18> An you can feed a software consultant on 1 dollar a day.

The price in medicine is mostly not the hardware but the required expertise to analyse the data. Ultrasound imaging is not easy. The american health system is very expensive though, a ultrasound is around 50 euro's here.

That said, 3D ultrasound can have tons of other applications not just in diagnostic medicine. Real time surgcial feedback in soft tissue, yes please!

<comment><USER19> This is the sort of tool that will find loads of uses in different areas if it's cheap, portable and flexible.

I can imagine engineers using it to examine materials, plant scientists looking at plant growth or builders using it to find out where different things are located in walls.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Exciting development from R&D perspective for sure. Love the infusion of capital and the media buzz.

We have been tackling the opportunity of point-of-care ultrasound with a phone and tablet solution for a few years now (www.mobisante.com). There are interesting nuances related to business model, education, and market adoption even within US, and non-trivial complexity in purchasing dynamics and politics when it comes to emerging markets. These are just as important to break through as cost and complexity barriers – which we have already done to some extent.

That said, we would love to source these transducers when commercially available and cleared by the FDA, and integrate them in our solution offering!

Sailesh Chutani, CEO Mobisante

</comment><comment><USER21> GE has a $9k version (Vscan), and Rothberg says he wants to make this for $6k ("1000 times cheaper [than a $6M MRI machine]" is $6k). Is that really a significant improvement? I guess any price competition is good, but I was hoping for a <$1k version. Everyone should have one of these next to their toothbrush.

Here's some reports from someone who has been using GE's portable ultrasound machine:

[http://whyisamericanhealthcaresoexpensive.blogspot.com/2014/...](http://whyisamericanhealthcaresoexpensive.blogspot.com/2014/04/pocket- ultrasound-machines-why-doesnt.html)

[http://whyisamericanhealthcaresoexpensive.blogspot.com/2013/...](http://whyisamericanhealthcaresoexpensive.blogspot.com/2013/02/how- to-make-your-own-ultrasound-gel.html)

" _It was an unexpected and welcome bonus that my patients and their families loved it. I would share the moving ultrasound pictures with them, often having them hold the machine so I could point out how beautiful their internal organs were and what we could see that helped give us a clue about their disease process. Many of these same patients also got full, detailed ultrasounds or other imaging by radiology technicians, but since the technicians aren 't supposed to discuss findings with the patients and often they couldn't see the screen, it wasn't nearly as gratifying._"

" _When I see a patient now, instead of taking their pulse and placing my stethoscope on their chest and back, hearing the vague taps and clunks and bubbles and whooshes of the internal organs I have come to trust are in there, I open the ultrasound machine that lives in my white coat, squeeze a little gel from a tube I keep warm in my pocket...._ "

" _The most common comment I get from patients is, "Wow, that's really cool!" "I agree!" I answer. Then they will ask, "Why doesn't everyone have one of these things?" That is kind of a difficult question. "They're pretty expensive," I usually say. They are. At least for now. The little machines (Vscan, by GE) retail for over $8000, though you can buy them cheaper used or overseas. Physicians balk at spending this amount of money on a piece of equipment. Most of the expensive gadgets we use are owned by hospitals or by our group practices. Musicians, however, who make a fraction of what we do, buy their own musical instruments which often cost in excess of $10,000. I'm not sure the cost ought to be a serious consideration._"

I think in parts this can get down to way under $1k. Right now the bottleneck is the ultrasound transducer probe tips/fronts/arrays, which are apparently quite laborious to make. The image processing techniques are pretty standard and appear as open source software in at least one of TI's development kits.

edit: And as another commenter points out, yeah it's illegal to sell these machines or something (blame the Federal Death Administration).

<comment><USER22> The price should be in the hundreds. According to re/code, "Butterfly's goal is to launch the device in as soon as 18 months — pending development and regulatory approval — with a price tag of hundreds of dollars, Rothberg said"

[https://recode.net/2014/11/02/butterfly-network- raises-100-m...](https://recode.net/2014/11/02/butterfly-network- raises-100-million-to-bring-deep-learning-to-medical-imaging/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Butterfly Network, one of the companies mentioned in the article, has a panel discussion next week in NYC on artificial intelligence. Panel includes David Ferrucci (one of the creators of IBM's Watson) and Max Tegmark (who hypothesizes that consciousness is a state of matter that can be mathematically described). More info here: [https://4combinator-speaker- series.eventbrite.com](https://4combinator-speaker-series.eventbrite.com)

</comment><comment><USER9> I think a network of sensors is an interesting, like what you see in Extant. A lot of the ultrasound technicians job is to move the wand around to get images and adjust the frequency to see different things. They do also push down a lot. When we had our babies, I never understood why they just didn't drape a bunch of sensors over and run a single scan that calculates everything.

</comment><comment><USER24> Best of luck to Rothberg! Amazing!</comment>


Smartphones Have an Unexpected New Rival - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-02-07/smartphones-have-an-unexpected-new-rival <comment><USER2> Smartphones surpassed feature phones in numbers just two years ago. The tide may turn again.</comment>


The Problem with Gender Studies (2016) - <AUTHOR> http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2016/07/17119/ <comment><USER2> According to the notes at the end of the article, the author is a professor of Moral Theology at Calvin Theological Seminary, which suggests some degree of prejudice against gender studies; apparently enough to cause serious misunderstanding of "gender differences" and "gender inequality".

</comment><comment><USER3> > When I recently asked a class of undergraduates at Oglethorpe University if > any of them thought there were "no meaningful differences between men and > women," two female students raised their hands. When I pointed to the > obvious reproductive differences between males and females,

What a baity question.

If you don't believe in the one-to-one mapping from "men/women" to "female/male" than the author's response comes across as ignorance of the basics of gender studies. Since the author, based on the later text, knows about that distinction ("Indeed, the very distinction between sex and gender is itself a modern social construct.") it's at the very least sloppy.

To avoid being categorized as a "Courtier's Reply" argument, it seems important to show how the arguments are invalid. But the arguments are more along the lines as follows:

> even we in the twenty-first century recognize that there are some basic > physical differences between women and men—differences that have important > social implications for the way we order society.

There are some basic physical differences between left-handed and right-handed people, between tall and short people, etc. The questions then are _why are they important_ and _should they be important_?

Which is part of what gender studies does.

> The problem is not that they fail to appreciate the facts about human > genitalia, which any three-year-old could explain to them.

So, if even one three-year-old states that "some girls have penises" then that would undermine the argument, yes?

And if we teach three-year-olds that "some girls have penises and some boys have vulvas", then it becomes a baseless argument, yes?

That is, this doesn't seem like a solid argument as it's based entirely in social practices. Quoting the Wikipedia entry for "Third gender":

"The traditional Diné of the Southwestern US acknowledge four genders: feminine woman, masculine woman, feminine man, masculine man.[10] The term "third gender" has also been used to describe hijras of India[11] who have gained legal identity, fa'afafine of Polynesia, and sworn virgins of Albania."

If we ask a three-year-old from those cultures, would they give the same answer?

> Kimmel concedes that women and men are physically and sexually different, > but he refuses to recognize that such sex differences have any necessary > gender implications. He ignores the fact that for all of human history human > beings have assumed the opposite.

"All of human history"? See earlier comments about cultures with more than two distinct genders.

Or quoting from [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_gender#History](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_gender#History) :

"The two great Sanskrit epic poems, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata,[99] indicate the existence of a third gender in ancient Indic society."

"In the Buddhist Vinaya, codified in its present form around the 2nd century BC and said to be handed down by oral tradition from Buddha himself, there are four main sex/gender categories: males, females, ubhatobyañjanaka (people of a dual sexual nature) and paṇḍaka (people of non-normative sexual natures, perhaps originally denoting a deficiency in male sexual capacity)."

"Contrary to what is often portrayed in the West, sex with male (specifically receptive oral and anal sex) was the gender role of the third gender, not their defining feature. Thus, in ancient India, as in present-day India, the society made a distinction between a third gender having sex with a man, and a man having sex with a man."

And so on.</comment>


Make Updates Enjoyable - <AUTHOR> http://bjoernw.com/bjoerns-blog/2008/10/6/make-updates-enjoyable.html

<comment><AUTHOR> Another example for an annoying update was the recent xbox live update. The service was down for 24hrs and nothing had changed. Users were pissed.</comment>


Airbnb to Halt All Marketing, Most Hiring as Losses Mount - <AUTHOR> https://www.theinformation.com/articles/airbnb-to-halt-all-marketing-most-hiring-as-losses-mount <comment><USER3> I think there was a previous discussion on this article a couple of days ago at [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22707365](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22707365)

The link there is non-paywalled.

</comment><comment><USER4> It would be surprising if marketing wasn't already down by 99% a month ago. Travel industry is going through an existential crisis. Even when the pandemic is controlled, it would take atleast 1-3 quarters for consumer confidence to be back enough to sustainable tourism industry. Corporate will also reduce travel because of scare and in general financial pressure.

Places like Maldives, Bali, Hawaii will be badly hit, as most of the economy is based on tourism.

<comment><USER5> This is precisely why I'm largely against bailouts. This is a time for the better run companies — whose CEOs were prudent, saved up for a rainy day, and are all-around better operators — _should_ be snapping up inferior run companies at bargain prices.

The sick companies should be allowed to die a peaceful death so the better ones can multiply.

<comment><USER6> > The sick companies should be allowed to die a peaceful death so the better > ones can multiply.

I don't quite buy that for travel, though, which is in a depression that has never been seen before. It's not like putting some antibiotics on a petri dish and letting the "strongest" microbes survive to reproduce. It's like throwing the petri dish in an incinerator and saying "Oh yeah, just waiting for those fire-resistant microbes to get stronger!"

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I wonder, in such moments is it better to layoff completely or put the employees in perhaps pre-aggreed 20 to 25% work regimes, in order to be flexible when the times are good again? Because eventually, they will.

<comment><USER8> Most employees will not accept this and would rather go work somewhere full time, and can find such work since the FAANGs shouldn't be too harshly impacted.

<comment><USER9> I think you're being a little overly optimistic. FAANGs will have pick of the litter, they're not just going to absorb all refugees from travel tech.

<comment><USER8> Right, but I feel like almost any Airbnb engineer can get more than 25% of their salary somewhere.

<comment><USER9> But why do you feel that way?

<comment><USER8> Because software engineering is valuable even in a recession, and someone will be willing to pay someone more to work than Airbnb will pay them to not work.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> It's going to be interesting to see what they do about their IPO, it seems like their RSU's "are set to start expiring in November 2020 and in mid-2021" [1]

[1] [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/20/technology/airbnb- employe...](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/20/technology/airbnb-employees- ipo-payouts.html)

</comment><comment><USER11> Say bye to that projected 2020 IPO

</comment><comment><USER12> Ironically the amount of people that want to get out of town for a weekend is likely higher than ever. Was just looking at flights tonight, $42 round trip from Columbus to San Diego on Spirit (pack light!) and $200 on pretty much any airline to any spot along the west coast. I'm working from home, my kids are either unencumbered or schooling remotely, really never been a better time to book a place for a month and get out of this undecided Ohio weather. Tis a shame...

Edit: I'm not really going to travel folks, lol.

<comment><USER6> AirBnB has always had a really high concentration of units in cities, though, were people are leaving, and a lower concentration of units in "typical" vacation destinations like beaches and mountains when compared to a site like VRBO. That has changed a lot over time as AirBnB has expanded and VRBO has tried, especially after it was acquired by Expedia, to get more urban inventory, but my guess is it is still largely true. The more traditional vacation homes on VRBO are also the types of homes where I would prefer to be in a quarantine, as opposed to a place that looked (and felt) like it was obviously someone's primary residence most of the time.

<comment><USER12> Yeah we almost exclusively used VRBO for 10+ years as the family was growing. The thing here is i wouldn't want anything to do with a metro or vacation spot. I'd be looking for a place in some backwater town that nobody would have any interest vacationing in. That kind of setting seems like the domain of AirBnB. My local town has three properties on AirBnB, for example, and nothing on VRBO within ten miles.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> "Start up" companies need to also cut down their frivolous expenditures such as office deco, unhealthy snacks, company boondoggle trips...and a long list of pareto tail items that if added can be a significant recurring cost to the business. It almost feels like when economy is good, instead of capitalizing on efficiency and perfection; the choice is instead to ship broken products and waste insane amounts of money - reminds me of pre-dotcom bubble when people were spending VC cash like there is no tomorrow. Use capital to increase business leverage. Employees are also at fault - startup folks demand such cool places to work because that's what everybody does. The effect compounds with no one looking at it from the bird's eyes perspective - <USER2> company leaders, not employees and not investors.

<comment><USER14> really not sure what you're getting at and how this is connected to the pandemic. Contrary to what HN may peddle, "startup" is not an industry. Many startups are in industries that are doing extremely well right now. E.g., with people spending so much time inside, online entertainment in all its varieties is thriving.

<comment><USER13> I am just speaking in general - nothing to do with this pandemic. If we look at the difference of company culture in say Munich, Boston, Osaka, etc vs. Silicon Valley; there is a huge amount of waste:

Airbnb Office: [https://www.google.com/search?q=airbnb+offices&client=firefo...](https://www.google.com/search?q=airbnb+offices&client=firefox-b-1-d&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiWw_WOrcHoAhUEP30KHXp5AuAQ_AUoAXoECBYQAw&biw=1920&bih=921)

I am sure there are exceptions but I am commenting on what I perceive as a person living in the silicon valley. "Start up" companies - meaning the unicorns - sink a lot of money into things to attract people. What they have a simple office and benefits, provide more pay to the employees or invest back into the company to increase leverage? I also heard that Airbnb CEO was grilled by the board for all this spending, quoting WSJ [1]

> Executives were grilled at a board meeting late last year on why overheads > such as its head office and employee expenses had been allowed to balloon, > outpacing even the then-rapid growth in revenue.

[1] [https://www.wsj.com/articles/airbnb-racks-up-hundreds-of- mil...](https://www.wsj.com/articles/airbnb-racks-up-hundreds-of-millions-in- losses-due-to-coronavirus-11584723498)

This seems to be a pattern in silicon valley. Get a ton of VC money, spend it on nice stuff because profitability is 10 years down the line.</comment></comment></comment>


Forge – mobile 3-D capture [video] - <AUTHOR> http://aboundlabs.com/

<comment><USER2> At the end of the video, one camera is from PrimeSense, and the other (appears) to be a SoftKinetic (or Senz3D); is that correct? Does anyone have experience comparing those cameras for accuracy/fov/framerate/etc.?

<comment><USER3> Correct. It's a SoftKinetic DS325.

Its FOV is higher than the PrimeSense sensor, it's capable of higher frame rate but it's a little less accurate and it's range is currently shorter.

The two technologies (structured light vs time of flight) have different strengths/weaknesses, but I believe ToF is the future.

<comment><USER2> Thanks. Have been playing with the Senz3D (rebranded DS325) for a rather different application, but was a bit underwhelmed so far with both accuracy and range. (On the other hand, it's kind of amazing for $125).

<comment><USER3> Well, the DS325/Senz3D is tuned for gesture recognition which explains why it's not great for some use cases.

I'd keep an eye out for SoftKinetic's new DS320 long-range camera, due late Q2.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Seems like the tip of a very big iceberg. I sent this on to a friend who creates 3D construction and real estate models. I think he needs to diversify before too long...

<comment><USER3> I agree. Also, Forge's underlying streaming 3D technology has lots of applications - mobile capture is just the first.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Great demo! A few questions:

1) What previously existing libraries are you using (if any)?

2) Since the video capture (assuming it's from the tablet's camera) is detached from the depth capture, how do you coordinate the two to make the grid layout in the video? Structure.io seems to require attaching the depth device to the video device (so the perspectives are relatively fixed).

<comment><USER3> 1) The core reconstruction technology is written from scratch (it's been a full-time project for over 18 mths.)

Some open source projects it uses: Eigen, OpenNL, OpenMesh, OpenCTM, GLM, Protobuf, Redis, Gluster, Node.

2) Video capture is actually from the RGB-D sensor, so it's registered with the depth. I believe the Structure sensor requires that the camera is fixed to the mobile device so that its IMU can be used for tracking. No such requirement here.

<comment><USER6> Jeff from the Structure Sensor team here. Structure Sensor comes with an attachment to hold it rigidly attached to an iPad (and CAD so you could 3D print attachments for other devices). Color-depth registration is handled by the SDK and is registered using vision (not IMU) -- but IMU is available if desired. Hope to see this project ported to be compatible with Structure Sensor!

<comment><USER3> Definitely possible - Forge is depth camera agnostic.

Before it could happen, though, I'd need you to ship my Structure Sensor USB cable and for you to release either an Android, Linux or Windows SDK. Hope that'll happen soon.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Will it be free? Will the models be free? Would be very neat when used with blender...

<comment><USER3> I'd really like for light usage to be free, but I'm undecided as to the best monetization strategy.

One option is for model creators to be paid when users download their public models.

<comment><USER7> The most profitable route would be aiming for a sharing platform, getting early stage investment, build a userbase, then sell the company. Both Facebook and Google are eyeing this field.

It's not even clear if this is more risky than a paid model, because the internet landscape is littered with corpses of paid-model web applications which didn't take off "enough".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I did not know you could buy off the shelf 3d cameras. Where can I buy one?

<comment><USER3> DepthSense 325 - [http://www.softkinetic.com/Store/tabid/579/ProductID/6/langu...](http://www.softkinetic.com/Store/tabid/579/ProductID/6/language/en- US/Default.aspx)

DepthSense 311 - [http://www.softkinetic.com/Store/tabid/579/ProductID/2/langu...](http://www.softkinetic.com/Store/tabid/579/ProductID/2/language/en- US/Default.aspx)

Creative Senz3D - [http://us.store.creative.com/Creative-Senz3D-Depth-and- Gestu...](http://us.store.creative.com/Creative-Senz3D-Depth-and-Gesture- Camera/M/B00EVWX7CG.htm)

Structure Sensor - [https://store.structure.io/preorder](https://store.structure.io/preorder)

Asus Xtion Pro - [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826785...](http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826785047)

<comment><USER9> This looks great! I'd like to use it to ease up the tech overhead for some mobile robotics applications. Is there anyway that the user's position in the world frame can be accessed? i.e. can this do SLAM over longish distances?

Basically I'm looking for Google's Project Tango, without the hardware constraints.

<comment><USER3> Sure, the pose in the world frame is estimated at 30 Hz. Over longish distances there's some drift so a global optimization step is needed.

I'd like to release a developer API (Forge currently runs on Android, Windows & Linux) hopefully later this year, which should be what you're looking for.

Also, I worked in mobile robotics at Willow Garage a few years ago ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aqghgoeCWk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aqghgoeCWk)), so I'm keen to see Forge used in robotics.

<comment><USER9> Neat. Looking forward to it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> This seems to be in line with Project Tango of Google. [https://www.google.com/atap/projecttango/](https://www.google.com/atap/projecttango/)

<comment><USER3> Project Tango has a 320x180 depth sensor running at 5 fps, i.e. 290k depth measurements per second. Compare this with off-the-shelf depth cameras (e.g. DS325) that generate 320x240 at 60 fps, i.e. 4.6m measurements per second.

The reason for this is that mobile processors aren't fast enough to process more information. So the Tango prototype has to have, in addition to its depth camera, a special motion tracking camera with a fish-eye lens and 2 dedicated processors in order to robustly track.

Even then, with less depth information, the quality of any Tango reconstruction will be far inferior. Maybe in 5-10 years, mobile processors can approach what desktop GPU's are capable of today.

In any case, it remains to be seen if Google can persuade cellphone manufacturers to include 2 special cameras + 2 extra processors in their future devices.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> nice! I'd be interested in the method they use to put everything together. My best bet is some basic structure from motion weighted by the depth sensor...or maybe it's simpler than that...

<comment><USER3> Author here. It uses color info as well as depth for tracking. Otherwise, it'd fail if you pointed the camera at featureless geometry, e.g. walls, floors.

<comment><USER12> Looks great :)

In the video it looks like you are using a volumetric representation, perhaps an Octree+isosurface extraction?

<comment><USER3> Correct. It stores a volumetric signed distance function in a tree-structure, which makes mesh generation (and raytracing) simple and fast.

<comment><USER13> Can it stitch together much larger captures? eg: a building exterior and interior?

<comment><USER3> You can download and manually align separate captures to create a larger mesh but, no, Forge doesn't do this automatically yet.

On the roadmap, but won't be in the first version.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I tried the URL that's shown at the end of the video and it didn't work :(

Any live demos?

<comment><USER3> No, sorry. I'm moving coast to coast next week, but hope to start beta testing late April.

Enter your email on the website and I'll let you know before beta testing starts.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> this is going to totally change the way we send dick pics.</comment>


Broadcast something interesting to your city and find other users on hackernews - <AUTHOR> Hey, We have a school project called Spotwire which is an app which broadcast your live photos and videos in your city but due to the fewer users the post can be been seen around the world, for now, so now people who are using hackers news can see from where others are from and explore their cities.
We need few users for testing for feedbacks.
The app may have some bugs but it will be updated soon
The app is in IOS only.
Let us know the review so we can make improvements to make a better project.
Please no negative comments we need genuine help
Thank you <comment><USER2> You should add a link to the app or a way to contact you.

Posting in the [https://news.ycombinator.com/show](https://news.ycombinator.com/show) category (just add 'Show HN' to the front of the title) will get you more exposure. That's the category for app developers looking for feedback. [https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html)

<comment><AUTHOR> Do I edit it or post a new one as I am don't know how to edit it?New post it says u r too fast. It does not allow to have both text and URL shell I post URL and then comment my text.

Please help

I am new.

<comment><USER2> No worries, just post a new one.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Will try to convince a group of friends, how many do you need per city?

<comment><AUTHOR> We really appreciate your effort

it's ok from different cities, just post something worth seeing in your city, frankly, the problem is people from the internet are shy and they post blackout picture so others users on app don't don't get things to see they are here for this may be because our users are less or they have to be guided.

We can also achieve the post from around the world from France, Italy, India and other countries and their cities which are worth.

Thank you very much again, it would be an honour to receive help.</comment></comment>


Show HN: A WebGL Tribute to Tron, the movie that made me fall in love with CGI - <AUTHOR> https://mgz.me/?scene=TheLightCycles <comment><USER2> This is fantastic! Is it open source, by any chance? I'd love to see how you implemented the scanline filters and particle effects.

I've been juuust dipping my toe into 3D games with a little spline generator I'm hoping to make a game with ([https://disco.zone/splines/3/](https://disco.zone/splines/3/)), and as a fellow Tron fan, I'm very inspired by what you were able to do aesthetically here!

<comment><USER3> That's strangely reminiscent of the gameplay from Stunt Car Racer on the Amiga...

You should definitely keep going with this!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Looks great!

This kind of generative art is, I think, one of the best "non-productive" things that computers have enabled.

Two extremely minor nitpicks -

* When browsing through scenes, I notice that a title subtly fades in and out in the lower left corner. I missed this for the first several scenes, and then would often miss it when hitting a new scene, and I'd wonder what the scene was called.

* The "gallery" menu to choose scenes isn't in the upper-left nav, but rather, the hamburger menu. Before trying it out, I expected that clicking on it would take me away from the graphics, and show me a gallery of other projects.

<comment><USER5> Another nitpick: it hijacks the back button.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Nice demo. It works well on my IPhone except that it breaks the back button in Safari. If you are making changes to the page address please use location.replace to avoid extra steps in the browser history.

</comment><comment><USER7> Nice! Some of these also remind me of Rez, which after eighteen years is still my favorite video game.

<comment><USER8> Reminds me of GLtron. It's GPL and tons of fun. [http://gltron.org/](http://gltron.org/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Maybe a typo, maybe not, but near the end of the About section it says "...pure sweatness...". Was thinking sweetness, but may be intentional as well.

Regardless, very well done. Liked the ability to swipe on my phone to essentially shift camera direction temporarily (specifically, during the "city" view). Everything seemed well thought out and interactive. Looked great and performed well on an iPhone X in Safari.

</comment><comment><USER10> Nice! I saw it was made with threejs which I hadnt really seen before. Gallery looks awesome. [https://threejs.org/](https://threejs.org/) eg [https://bruno- simon.com/](https://bruno-simon.com/)

</comment><comment><USER11> Very cool, it reminds me of Lifelike - So Electric music video; that was like one of the first synthwave tracks I ever head, too. Thanks for reminding me of it.

Never got into Tron, might have started it but left it mid way or earlier. And when the Disney versions came out I never bothered. I might give it a go this weekend.

<comment><USER12> The new movie has a fantastic soundtrack and awesome CGI.

Sadly that's pretty much the only parts that keep it fresh. It is pretty forgettable and uses some tropes that are both very lazy and "problematic" like born sexy yesterday.

Still, if you end up watching the first one and liking it, it might be worth a watch as well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I think it's incredible that a website and desktop computer can generate the kind of graphics in real-time that were state-of-the-art (and not real-time) "only" 38 years ago. I would show this to my friends, but none of them are technical so they'd just think it was a video that's playing.

Great work, thanks for sharing.

(And please fix the back button!)

<comment><USER14> It works decently even on a smartphone.

<comment><USER15> It didn't work on mine. There was a loading screen and then it pretty much froze the browser and I had to kill the tab.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Pretty cool! You got some other impressive projects in your website. Congrats!

It's impressive the type of 3D graphics that can be done in a modern browser, i'm surprised why we don't see more websites using these technologies.

<comment><USER17> With all due respect, please don't encourage more websites to use WebGL for trivial things! This stuff is only really useful for games or some other kind of interactive demo, and wastes power when used for decorative graphics on ordinary informational web sites.

I think compiling native OpenGL ES programs to WASM is probably a bit more of a practical use case, but that comes with its own set of problems... WebGL still suffers from various security issues and bugs on certain platforms: [https://github.com/chromium/chromium/blob/master/gpu/config/...](https://github.com/chromium/chromium/blob/master/gpu/config/software_rendering_list.json)

<comment><USER18> If only someone would invent a back button so you wouldn't have to stay on the same page.

Also OpenGl ES isn't something that is compiled to WASM, it is a javascript API. WASM does not have access to the DOM or IO.

<comment><USER17> I'm not sure what you're saying. WASM can definitely get access to those things through javascript shims. A native OpenGL ES program can be compiled relatively easily to WASM because it maps one-to-one with the WebGL API and barely needs a shim at all. This has been supported in Emscripten for a while now and makes it a lot easier to do things like port mobile games over to the web.

<comment><USER18> Yes, this is a more detailed version of what I said. Which part makes you want to control what other people make?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Looks good, but back button doesn't work when inside the website and I had to close the tab.

</comment><comment><USER20> It looks great on the desktop.

On a Nokia 7.1 Plus not so much, too slow loading the resource and it drops frames.

<comment><USER21> On a Pixel 4 it looks great!

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> This is really attractive, but a warning about it having a autoplaying soundtrack that I was not expecting and had no idea how to easily mute without killing the page.

</comment><comment><USER23> If you want a higher framerate, make the window smaller.

</comment><comment><USER24> The future was supposed to have surface lighting.

</comment><comment><USER25> this is so stylish. used to love stuff like this on the chrome experiments website.

</comment><comment><USER26> Great effort!

</comment><comment><USER27> oooh, shiny.

</comment><comment><USER28> Nice! But also, please stop breaking the back button.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you so much for the feedback! I'll keep in mind as a priority to fix the back button issue. I'm glad you enjoyed the scenes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> How is this done? I mean, are they original animations or mapped from videos in some automated way?</comment>


Android flaw leaves 99% of devices vulnerable to hackers - <AUTHOR> http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Science%2Band%2BTech/Story/A1Story20130705-434888.html

<comment><USER2> This has been thoroughly discussed:

[http://androidandme.com/2013/07/hacks/new-android-malware- fo...](http://androidandme.com/2013/07/hacks/new-android-malware-found- extremely-easy-to-avoid/)

</comment><comment><USER3> Oh come on .-.

I posted this from TC yesterday :P</comment>


Thiel says he decided several years ago to try to cripple Gawker - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2016/05/25/thiel-says-he-decided-several-years-ago-to-try-to-cripple-gawker/ <comment><USER2> then he is my new hero, whoever he is.</comment>


Uncertain - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/life-learning/uncertain-39e660bdf38f#.7ubd8s9up <comment><USER2> Wouldn't dismiss this so quickly. True, nothing grand in the post. But, the piece about the Muhammad Ali vs. George Foreman fight was insightful.

TL;DR Summary of OP's reading of this book Nonsense: The Power of Not Knowing, a recent book by Jamie Holmes

[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SEF112Y/](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SEF112Y/)

</comment><comment><USER3> Uncertain: how I feel after reading that article. I had trouble following it and taking something grand away from it.

<comment><USER4> Came here to comment just this. I was uncertain what I was reading after 10 paragraphs in. I gave up eventually.</comment></comment>


ASK HN: Might people be interested in a newsletter physically mailed to you? - <AUTHOR> Was thinking about newsletters and how most are forgettable or are left unread in your inbox amongst spam and everything else.<p>If it was physically mailed, it would be something a bit more special. <comment><USER2> This is essentially a magazine, or at least a zine. There's niche interest in these kinds of things. I think if the content has lasting and unique value, something that I'd want to keep around for a long time, then yes. Otherwise you're sending out junk mail.

<comment> open-source-ux I agree. It would need to be nicely designed and laid out. Each edition of the newsletter might have a different appearance. It should be something that makes people happy to collect and keep.

On the other hand, if the newsletter is the equivalent of an email simply copied and pasted into MS Word and then printed and mailed, people might view it as something throwaway and low value.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> The newsletters are forgettable because the content is forgettable, not because of the medium in my opinion. If the content is forgettable, and the medium is paper, it would be left unread in the physical trash bin instead of the virtual trash bin.

> _If it was physically mailed, it would be something a bit more special._

A counter-example to this is: physically mailed junk is no more special than emailed junk. It's even more irritating.

I think the goal is to write content that would at least survive the bin, at most entice people to have it in physical form.

One way to test your hypothesis is to do make digital content, with an option to print it beautifully, not just the browser/HTML print, but a button to download the nice printable PDF. Tracking the percentage of people who find the content interesting enough to want it as a PDF tells you something. The percentage of people clicking to print the content tells you something.

I think this could be a first step to answer your question.

Maybe having a field for an address and asking people if they want to receive the content in physical form can shed some light on your answer. Maybe you could also send a binder with a distinctive color/logo so people know where to put your newsletter, and it creates a "thing" where people share photos of their binder.

It could be a part of a ritual where recipients wait for your newsletter, it arrives, they read it, and they carefully put it with the previous _numbered_ issues.

Maybe you can send colored paper according to the season (spring, summer, autumn, winter). People could build collections.

Maybe you could do themed according to geographic locations, and maybe you could be inspired by philately and numismatics. People could share issues, or borrow issues unavailable.

</comment><comment><USER4> I would love it. But content should be very special, like unique DIY projects, innovative papers or something like phrack.org. I really miss good tech magazines.

But am not from Canada, fyi.

</comment><comment><USER5> No. We need less paper mail not more.

</comment><comment><USER6> Yes, it would differentiate. Use QR codes to quantify.

</comment><comment><USER7> Id rather spend the money on better content.</comment>


Chrome 13 Adds Option To Kill URL Bar - <AUTHOR> http://www.conceivablytech.com/7485/products/google-is-serious-you-can-kill-chromes-url-bar

<comment><USER2> I wonder how this might impact the overall security? Right now URL bar provides useful information about the domain where you are at. Hiding the URL box could bring back the most brain-dead attacks like hosting a phishing site on a regular HTTP (no cert = no warnings from the browser) and hidden URL cloacks the fact that the URL in fact is "bankofameri.ca".</comment>


Apple's custom ARM approach for A6 pays off in JavaScript performance - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/09/apples-custom-arm-approach-for-a6-pays-off-in-javascript-performance/

<comment><USER2> Also, single-core Atom based Razr shows similar sunspider gains over the dual- core ARM version, very strange:

[http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/18/motorolas-razr-i- benchmar...](http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/18/motorolas-razr-i-benchmarks- intel-2ghz-medfield/)

<comment><USER3> Sunspider is mostly single-threaded, that's why. Also, Intel is being misleading with their chip anyway, as it will run at its highest clock (2 Ghz) in benchmarks, but will only run at 1.3 Ghz in the vast majority of cases, otherwise it would quickly overheat.

It's Intel's first and only processor that they are advertising with its "turbo-boosted" speed, rather than the default real speed. What makes it not okay for all their other chips to be advertised with the TB'ed speed as the "default" speed in their marketing material, but perfectly okay to do it with this Atom chip in the RAZR?

<comment><USER2> Ah that is a great explanation with details, thanks - first good one I've seen to understand what's happening.

Was worried about ARM there for a day or two.</comment></comment></comment>


Fifth: a browser done right - <AUTHOR> http://fifth-browser.sourceforge.net/ <comment><USER2> Why make a great browser and then host it on sourceforge? My browser just gave me a security warning when I tried to open the link. Now THAT'S browsing done right.

<comment><USER3> Right. As soon as I saw that the source is on sourceforge I decided to move forward.</comment></comment>


Airbnb CEO: Travel may never be the same - <AUTHOR> https://www.axios.com/airbnb-travel-coronavirus-3f7ac17c-89d7-4ba6-9b5b-8905e4aa888a.html <comment><USER2> I just don't see a lot of reasoning for these claims. The reduction in business and travel, absolutely, but people suddenly having more diverse travel interests and desire to go to national parks because of the pandemic? I just don't know where that comes from. If anything, I would think that there'll be more pent up desire for people to go see all the big cities they can't visit right now.

<comment><USER3> More open spaces and places where social distancing is possible. Those Paris and Rome trips will probably not happen for the time being but maybe more people decide to drive (if feasible) to their local national park.

<comment><USER2> That's fair - I definitely buy that during the pandemic people will go to open places that they can drive to, but his comments felt more like they were addressing the post-pandemic world.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I can see his point about national parks, a ton of people are out on the bay area hiking trails nowadays, just eyeballing it I would say 50% increase easy

</comment><comment><USER5> I hope Airbnb will never be the same...

There are already stories out there of people renting flats to use in Airbnb only.

While you have and had strict regulations on hotels and renting flats out, Airbnb just ignored it. What happened? Cheap rooms for Tourists, pushing rent prices higher, and putting a dent on hotels who have to have high standards and high investments.

</comment><comment><USER6> International travel may never be the same, particularly if there is never an effective vaccine. It looks like the globe is breaking down in to areas where Covid-19 is effectively suppressed and other areas where it is not and herd immunity will be the eventual answer. Travel between the areas will require quarantine in at least one direction, limiting ad hoc travel and tourism.

International tourism and cruising may also lose their impact for social signalling. Both are at least partly motivated by the desire to come back and tell all your friends about where you were and what a wonderful time you had. The actual experience of having your pocket picked or being in a norovirus outbreak may not be all that great.

<comment><USER7> Can you imagine a flight of 300 - 400 people arriving, and a sudden detention and 2-week quarantine for them?

If you think the cruise ship stories were bad, those travellers at least had rooms and kitchens.

Airports don't have that.</comment></comment>


Zoom Became the Best Web-Conferencing Product in the World - <AUTHOR> https://usefyi.com/zoom-history/ <comment><USER2> Discord, Google Hangouts, VTC, Facetime. The list is long for services that excel above Zoom in everything except ease of use for basic video conferencing. This is in my opinion as a person that has done video conferencing since 2002, when I set up a recurring twice-weekly secure VTC between folks in four different countries on three different continents.

Personally I prefer Discord, because it has a good balance between features and ease of use.

Also, with the security on Zoom I consider using it the equivalent of leaving your front door wide open while eating in the kitchen. Not something I or any of my family will do unless forced to.</comment>


Fritz Leiber: A Pail of Air (1951) - <AUTHOR> http://www.webscription.net/chapters/0743498747/0743498747___6.htm

<comment><USER2> I enjoyed this story many years ago. Reading it now I'm reminded of why. Thanks @brazzy.

</comment><comment><USER3> I loved this one as a kid too. Thanks for posting.</comment>


Designing and Implementing Scalable Applications with Memcached and MySQL - <AUTHOR> http://downloads.mysql.com/webinars/pdf/memcached_may_29.pdf

<comment><AUTHOR> Here is the PDF document: <http://downloads.mysql.com/webinars/pdf/memcached_may_29.pdf></comment>


Last.fm founder says Apple F'd over online music subscriptions - <AUTHOR> http://www.edibleapple.com/lastfm-founder-says-apple-just-fd-over-online-music-subscriptions/

<comment><USER2> Dupe: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2230710></comment>


Canvas Experiment with Code: Particles Web Matrix - <AUTHOR> http://cssdeck.com/item/602/particles-web-matrix

<comment><USER2> As I left it going the particles seemed to be accelerating. I think this is because the acceleration term is proportional to the distance, rather than the usual 1/(distance)^2

<comment><USER3> Take a look at the code again, specially lines 180 - 188. You'll see that the velocity is varying proportional to the distance, not the acceleration.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Had some fun messing with the variables for number of particles, acceleration and other things. There are some interesting patterns (kinda like interference patterns) if you make the acceleration large (change the denominator from 2000 to around 10). The code itself isn't that interesting, except to the extent that modern JS engines can keep up with a brute force update of 200x200 particles at almost 60fps.

</comment><comment><USER5> Wasn't this idea the basis for the spoof MMO Asteroids earlier this year?

<http://seb.ly/2012/04/gotcha-fake-mmo-asteroids-april-fool/>

</comment><comment><USER6> much faster in chrome than FF

</comment><comment><USER7> This is so trivial. Why is it on the front page?

<comment><USER8> all those triangles look kinda cool. i guess.</comment></comment>


How to Outwit Excessive Programming Job Requirements - <AUTHOR> http://news.dice.com/2015/03/23/how-to-outwit-excessive-job-requirements/

<comment><USER2> > "While the position calls for X, my decade of developing Y is closely > applicable to the position because…" Smart way to hit keywords and point > towards what you're interested in learning/doing next. I think it's > important to speak to what you want to learn next and how your previous > experience is a foundation for successful progression.</comment>


Building Great Presentations - <AUTHOR> http://www.slideshare.net/mattangriffel/building-great-presentations-14607985 <comment><USER2> Its a nice way to create a presentation, thanks for the share...

</comment><comment><USER3> Thank you for sharing

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> No problem, enjoy</comment>


Ask HN: Does the first developer always get screwed? - <AUTHOR> This question is motivated by my personal experience, I've been at half a dozen startups so far (that is between 10 and 50 employees).  I have been first developer, I have had access to compensation information of first developers and here is the pattern I noticed:
- the first engineer is usually hired right after seed money, sometimes after series A.  The money is tight so the salary is usually way below market value.  And the stock options aren't that great (I've seen from 0.1% to 0.3%)
- After a few months, more engineers are hired at a higher salary.  Probably because the board is more confident that the machinery is working and willing to increase the budget for payroll. These second wave engineers are usually given the same stock options as the first engineer.
- After series B, salaries are sometimes revisited but usually the increase is the same percentage for everybody, which means that the guy who was their first is still the lowest salary.
Has this pattern been observed by others? Is it just pure coincidence that I've seen that everywhere so far or is it a real trend? <comment><USER2> I think it might be "just pure coincidence", though I think the way you describe it takes away from the validity.

I think it's NOT USUAL for the first engineer to get the same stock options as the "these second wave engineers". It's possible, if the first engineer is a horrible negotiator or the founders are not people you want to work with, but not usual by any means.

I have seen the second wave engineers get a higher salary (but lower overall compensation package) than the first. That happens quite a bit.

Hope that helps.</comment>