Onewheel [video] - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNqOU4jx62I

<comment><USER2> Here's a fun report of making something (very!) like this from scratch:

[http://transistor-man.com/flying_nimbus.html](http://transistor- man.com/flying_nimbus.html)

I don't think they're related, but they're so similar it's hard not to believe there's not some inspiration in some direction. Dunno which direction it is, though.

<comment><USER3> That is a surprisingly short code for the balancing logic.

<comment> transistor-man Small world! The flying nimbus-thing is my contraption, feel free to ask any questions. Just moved servers so some of the photos may load artificially small.

<comment><AUTHOR> any plans to make it commercially available?

<comment> transistor-man The onewheel folks's prototype inspired a lot of my build, there's quite a bit of tech to keep something like this happy and safe to use, check out their manufacturing line:

[http://techcrunch.com/2015/01/02/onewheel- assembly/](http://techcrunch.com/2015/01/02/onewheel-assembly/)

<comment><USER4> Textbook example of what a kickstarter campaign can do and how to run one.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Range: 4-6 miles = 6.437-9.656 km

Max. speed: 12 mph = 19.31 km/h

Recharge time: 20 minutes = 0.3803 microcenturies

<comment><USER5> You forgot the most important number!

Weight: 25 lbs / 11.3 kg.

I have an electric skateboard (Yuneec eGo) that weighs _only_ 14 lbs and I still don't take it from place to place because I don't want to carry it.

Think of carrying before you buy it. Carefully.

<comment><USER6> Agreed. I also had a Yuneec E-go and realized that electric skateboards, despite their low weight, are very annoying to carry around. I'm personally waiting around for a good electric kick-scooter or small foldable electric bike. Mainly because it's easy to travel with it, e.g. you just roll it around.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> The burning question I had since the start of the video was answered at 1:23 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=XN...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=XNqOU4jx62I#t=82)

</comment><comment><USER8> There are a number of these self-propelled things. I get it as entertainment, and plenty of people spend more money on their bikes or skis, but I can't wrap my head around people who suggest it as an everyday mode of transport. Like the Segway, it seems an overengineered toy that some may enjoy but few will find practical. By all means have a blast on the thing, though - that's what toys are for.

</comment><comment><USER9> I'm really excited about this product, I'll probably buy one but I would like to try it first. My main usage for it would be to go from my house to the train station about 1 mile away.

It would be very cool if future versions included some kind of hook or latch so it can be chained to a bike pole or something similar, that will make it not only a toy, but an important piece of my daily commute.

<comment><AUTHOR> This is similar to how I use my onewheel, public transportation is 3 miles away. You can put a chain on it as is but you can also carry it in with you (25 lbs)

<comment><USER9> I'm glad to hear that. The route from my house to the train station has a couple of gentle hills and my weight is 155 pounds. Should I be concerned that it won't have enough power to climb those hills?

<comment><AUTHOR> on one of these, those hills will be your favorite part of the ride. I've been up and down very steep inclines and get the feeling of defying gravity.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Back to the Future was slightly off :)

I love electric vehicles of all sorts, let's enjoy them to the fullest, the hoverboard will be there soon enough.

<comment><USER11> > let's enjoy them to the fullest, the hoverboard will be there soon enough.

My feeling is that we've been enjoying this _wheel_ technology for quite a while already :/

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Contrast the design and price with the electric unicycles like Solowheel, Airwheel, Rockwheel and various knockoffs that have been around a while. I got a Uni-wheel [1] for $300 last month and it's pretty fun to ride. The specs for the weight, top speed, and run time are pretty similar.

[1] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sF17hVc_VaM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sF17hVc_VaM)

<comment><USER13> Where did you buy it from at $300? How does it perform uphill?

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I wonder if it'd be possible to use a smaller wheel (maybe a sphere), and also raise the deck? Suspension?

I would try it, but just like with boosted boards, I think I would still prefer a normal skateboard. Because I can still kickflip a normal skateboard. :)

Hmm - other thoughts. What would make this really cool is if it goes really, really fast. Like balls to the wall speed. 12mph is definitely not fast enough.

<comment> TD-Linux Steering is achieved by deforming the wheel into a cone shape. A spherical wheel wouldn't allow steering by deformation.

<comment><USER14> Hmm, wouldn't a close-to-spherical material (something like tire rubber) work?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> The thing I really like about Onewheel vs Boosted is the size of the wheel. Even when I skateboarded 10 years ago, the small size of the wheels would always get me into trouble.

$1500 is definitely too much money for me right now, but if I move further away from the office and the price comes down about $500 in the 6-12 months I may be picking one of these up.

</comment><comment><USER16> Further reading:

[http://rideonewheel.com/](http://rideonewheel.com/)

[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/4422853/onewheel-the- se...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/4422853/onewheel-the-self- balancing-electric-skateboard)

</comment><comment><USER17> I was a kickstarter backer and my One Wheel just arrived today. One interesting thing, in order to dismount there is a small sensor strip about 3 inches wide where the one wheel senses a rider, after coming to a stop, you then slide your foot off the sensor strip, which disables the wheel allowing you to dismount. The other option is just hopping off with both feet.

</comment><comment><USER18> I saw someone riding one of these in Golden Gate Park in SF not long ago. It definitely got everyone to turn their heads. All the kids wanted to try, and the guy was cool and let a bunch of kids have turns, although small kids aren't big enough for the weight sensor so they can't really use it as designed. Pretty cool to see out in the wild though.

<comment><AUTHOR> think that was me :-) day 2 with my board back in Nov, I took it out to Golden Gate Park. the group of kids were skateboarders and people who already ride boards tend to be really curious about this new entrant. good point on kids too small, main thing is foot size as you need to cover the sensor to engage the board.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Question: Is it possible to wear a chest/back-strapped device which contains an electronically-controlled gyroscope that helps the rider stay balanced?

</comment><comment><USER20> Every single person in the video is wearing Nike socks and shoes. Is this just a coincidence or is Nike somehow related to this project?

</comment><comment><USER21> So pretty much what I gathered from watching this video is that your ankles, socks, pant legs or shoes will be caked with dirt and sand, and optionally soaked by sprays of water.

Does it come with a splash guard because if not, I can't really see this ever being a serious commute option.

</comment><comment><USER22> One of the cooler electric skateboard concepts.

</comment><comment><USER23> So Solowheel =~ skis, Onewheel =~ snowboard?

</comment><comment><USER24> Or.. just get a skateboard?

This actually does look pretty fun (for about 15m) but it's so goofy and impractical that at $1,500 I can only ever see rich SV dorks using this.

Curious for riders - can you ollie/nollie them? Is there an internal truck mechanism for turning, or do you have to pivot your feet? Does it have gyroscopic balancing, or are you always trying to "bongo-board" your balance while moving?

<comment><AUTHOR> OP here, just tried and no you can't ollie/nollie (at least i couldn't, but i'm not a skateboarder).

What's on rideonewheel.com regarding movement is all true "Just lean forward to drive forward, back to stop and press your heels or toes to turn."

You are not balancing the board, it is balancing you.

The price is worth it as this is a legitimate transportation vehicle on top of being really fun to ride. Consider some of the premium an early adopter fee as you will be the coolest kid on the block.

The popularity is a double edged sword though as you will attract crowds and will field a lot of questions.

 _full disclosure_ i'm an investor in future motion, makers of onewheel

<comment><USER25> > _The price is worth it as this is a legitimate transportation vehicle on top > of being really fun to ride._

That's all pretty subjective. Plus, for $1500, I could also literally buy a dozen bikes, and just put them at every endpoint of my commute where I'm on on a train or bus. (e.g., ride Bike A to subway stop, chain it up; get off half a mile from work, unchain Bike B, ride it to work, chain it up; leave work, ride Bike C to bar, chain it up. Take subway home, unchain Bike A, ride it home. Duplicate 4x to eliminate worries about having any bike stolen.)

<comment><USER26> It is more common to find people spending $1500+ for a single bike in SV, which puts this well within the price range of many sports enthusiasts.

<comment><USER27> Except this isn't a sport? You don't actually do any exercise riding this thing.

<comment><AUTHOR> and some sports are non-physical. creativity in technique and terrain could make this an interesting extreme sport despite lack of physical strain.

<comment><USER27> From the oxford dictionary; Sport: An activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.

Basically you're subverting the definition, you're thinking of maybe a game?

<comment><USER25> Let's define "salad" and "sandwich" next.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Hit Charade: Meet the unknowns who actually write the songs that top the charts - <AUTHOR> http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/10/hit-charade/403192/?single_page=true <comment><AUTHOR> A lot of this can be explained by: "If information is cheap, attention becomes expensive." Breakout hit songs must be nothing but hooks because people today _scan_ for music.</comment>


Installing and Configuring SSL Certificates for Nginx with CertBot - <AUTHOR> http://techarena51.com/index.php/installing-and-securing-nginx-websites-on-linux-with-a-free-ssl-certificate-from-lets-encrypt/ <comment><USER2> Is this from Let's Encrypt?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yup</comment></comment>


Is Jeff Miller's Hacker News RSS Feed Down?  Any Replacement Suggestions? - <AUTHOR>

For a couple years now I've relied on Jeff Miller's Hacker News RSS feed (http://feeds.feedburner.com/newsyc50), which assembles every Hacker News article that exceeds 50 points.  (I believe he has feeds for other levels, as well.)  Over the past few weeks, this RSS feed has stopped updating.  Anyone know what's going on here?  Anyone know how to contact Jeff?  Perhaps most importantly, can anyone suggest a RSS feed that does more or less the same thing? <comment><USER2> Mix and match the below link

[http://news.ycombinator.com/over?points=50](http://news.ycombinator.com/over?points=50)

I'm sure scraping can be done to make a RSS subscription</comment>


Original Apple I computer up for auction - <AUTHOR> http://money.cnn.com/2013/06/24/technology/enterprise/apple-i-christies/index.html?hpt=hp_t3 <comment><USER2> I wonder how long before unscrupulous individuals figure out a way to counterfeit Apple I's.</comment>


Ask HN: A payment model similar to Google's App Engine? - <AUTHOR>

I'm building an application that will be able to register events from companies/bars/theaters etc. that are interested in exposing their events to a larger audience.
If a user finds an event interesting, he/she can favourite it or save it in their calendar. Once the user does this, it's a +1 count on the number of people/potential visitors for that event.
On the business side of things, I'm wondering if something like the GAE payment method would be a good idea.
That is: allowing the company that posts the event 20 'potential visitors' for free (a free quota), and for every other visitor above these 20, they would have to pay something like 5 cents/visitor. That virtual money would be coming from a balance in which they deposit money via paypal or something. When that deposit runs out, the event goes offline (is not shown to the users anymore).
Has anyone (well...except Google) tried this with any success in their business? Is it a good/bad idea? Any shortcomings? Do you have any suggestions or recommendations with regards to this plan of payment?
The reason I want to offer this quota is for small, independent events to be noticed for free...at least for the first 20 people.
Thanks! <comment><USER2> One shortcoming I see is that some dishonest person could target a competitor/company he dislikes by creating fake accounts and subscribing to events just to make these spend money.

I cannot asses if this is a model that could work, but you need to find a way to prevent abuses which could drive away customers.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's a good observation. And come to think of it, I did think of a way to disallow this type of activity, but not entirely.

Since the client app will run on a smartphone, the person using the phone will have to reinstall the application many times so that he could intentionally subscribe again and again to an event. So I guess one thing to do would be to register the mobile user with his mobile phone's unique identifier and not allow him to subscribe again to a previously subscribed-to event.

Otherwise he would just have to buy more phones, but I don't think that's a practical solution.</comment></comment>


Ford Promises Fleets of Driverless Cars Within Five Years - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/17/business/ford-promises-fleets-of-driverless-cars-within-five-years.html <comment><USER2> Duplicated multiple times:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12300210](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12300210) (12 comments)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12301815](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12301815) (15 comments)</comment>


Ask HN: Real-time collaborative text javascript plugin? - saiko-chriskun

I remember coming across a really next javascript plugin awhile back which basically let you have a text area editable by multiple people at the same time.. anyone know of anything like this? <comment><AUTHOR> You could be thinking of this: <http://sharejs.org/>

It's the Google Wave protocol implemented in JS.

</comment><comment><USER2> Etherpad lite - <https://github.com/Pita/etherpad-lite></comment>


Show HN: SendCatch – transfer files with a bump - <AUTHOR> https://www.sendcatch.com/ <comment><USER2> Does it use WebRTC? WebTorrent?

Shameless self-promotion: [https://localfiles.alhur.es/](https://localfiles.alhur.es/), a file-transfer utility tool that lets you tie your file to geographical location (in a map) so people can browse by location and find the file. No need to send a link or memorize codes.

</comment><comment><USER3> Seems interesting. Similar to bump (I wonder what Google did with it - it was a great tool)</comment>


Think You Deserve To Be Called a CEO? - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2012/05/06/think-you-deserve-to-be-called-a-ceo/

<comment><USER2> This article had a link bait title -- but actually turned out to be a good read. I would take it a step further: It's not so much that you need to learn about finance -- you need to feel that "own finance" which means having a command of the numbers involved and having your finger on the rough pulse of your business. These skills are natural to MBA students, but alas these have to be acquired skills for the rest of us -- but don't be afraid to own it...</comment>


Pyreshark v0.0.5 released – Wireshark plugins in Python - <AUTHOR> https://code.google.com/p/pyreshark/

<comment><USER2> Seems that it does not allow creating dissectors that use wireshark ability to reassemble TCP (_pdus() function).

</comment><comment><USER3> A version number of 0.0.5 is about the most untrustworthy and suspicious version number I've ever seen.

<comment><USER4> So the software would be better if it was 1.0?

<comment><USER5> It's why I start all my pet projects at 192.0.1.</comment></comment></comment>


Billionaire Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Arrested in Corruption Crackdown - <AUTHOR> https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/04/billionaire-saudi-prince-alwaleed-bin-talal-arrested-in-corruption-crackdown-local-reports.html <comment><USER2> Hashtag #الملك_يحارب_الفساد trending on $TWTR right now. Which apparently translates as #King_Fights_Corruption.

Other Middle East events of note today. Lebanese PM Hariri resigns over Hezbollah security situation. Trump urges Saudi Aramco IPO on NYSE. ASEAN conference may include talks of a Qatari oil blockade. Yemen's Houthi- controlled air ministry fires a missile at the Riyadh airport, that was intercepted by the Saudis.

And now what appears to be a coup with a dozen members of the royal family charged with "corruption". Besides a consolidation of power, asset forfeiture, or other conspiracy theories. Wondering if any Arabic speakers may have a deeper insight as to timing of these remarkable event ;)

<comment><USER3> I don't live in the Middle East and do not speak Arabic, but arguably the coup occurred in June.[1]

Saudi Arabia faces an unfavorable trend where less of world GDP will be allocated to purchase oil, and a growing royal family that expects a continued high quality of life and massive amounts of imported labor. It is also jockeying with Iran to be the most influential power in the region.

It is difficult to think of what the best solution is for such a difficult problem. Shifting away from an economy based on extracting rents to one with more enterprise, such as engaging with the sorts of businesses Prince Alwaleed invested in seems like a wise decision. The new heir seems to favor boldness, such as pursuing whatever Saudi Arabia's goals are in Yemen right now.

Based on the context of what the leadership is going through right now, actual corruption seems unlikely to have anything to do with this charge.

[https://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-palace- coup/addicti...](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-palace- coup/addiction-and-intrigue-inside-the-saudi-palace-coup-idUSKBN1A41IS)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> March 14, 2017

Saudi deputy crown prince, Trump meeting a 'turning point': Saudi adviser

[https://archive.is/nAC1H](https://archive.is/nAC1H)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia hailed a "historical turning point" in U.S.-Saudi relations after a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman highlighted the two leaders' shared view that Iran posed a regional security threat.

The meeting on Tuesday appeared to signal a meeting of the minds on many issues between Trump and Prince Mohammed, in a marked difference from Riyadh's often fraught relationship with the Obama administration, especially in the wake of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

"This meeting is considered a historical turning point in relations between both countries and which had passed through a period of divergence of views on many issues," a senior adviser to Prince Mohammed said in a statement.

"But the meeting today restored issues to their right path and form a big change in relations between both countries in political, military, security and economic issues," the adviser said.

</comment><comment><USER5> Live by the sword, die by the sword (literally)

<comment><USER6> Saudi does not have capital punishment for corruption either on the books or in practice unless you can link it?

China does however seem to have it on the books and practices it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Apparently this is the so called progrwssive prince behind the crackdown, the one who among other things allowed women to drive.

I wonder what this could mean for the middle east and the Saudi export of Wahhabism...

</comment><comment><USER8> He is a big Apple shareholder.

</comment><comment><USER9> Trump was right again it seems: [https://mobile.twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/6755237280...](https://mobile.twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/675523728055410689?lang=en)

<comment><USER10> Wait, I'm confused. Right about what? Trump was saying that Talal was trying to buy American politicians. Talal wasn't arrested for that. Or are you saying that Trump is somehow responsible for the king's actions, because that seems like a ridiculous conspiracy to me. Please connect the dots for me.

<comment><USER9> Think broader: he called the prince a corrupt, holier than thou douche. It seems he was right.

<comment><USER10> He was arrested on the orders of someone who has a lot to gain politically, and in a country that regularly arrests people for what we consider to be basic human rights, so this doesn't convince me of anything about his character.

<comment><USER9> Regardless, he was trying to buy influence here in the US, and his candidate didn't win. And he managed to piss off the guy who did win. Too bad.

[http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2015/12/figures-saudi- prince...](http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2015/12/figures-saudi-prince-who- bashed-donald-trump-is-big-clinton-foundation-donor-enjoys-dwarf-tossing/)</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


The Simpsons is dubbed into two different versions for French markets - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> On link talking about the subject: [https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.5239185](https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.5239185)</comment>


Google's Eric Schmidt on What the Web Will Look Like in 5 Years - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/external/readwriteweb/2009/10/27/27readwriteweb-googles-eric-schmidt-on-what-the-web-will-l-68067.html <comment><USER2> So far, I've yet to see any accurate popular prediction about technology. I see no reason to believe this one. Making any prediction about technology is a surefire way to end up on lists with such gems as "640K (of memory) ought to be enough for anybody".

<comment><USER3> _"640K (of memory) ought to be enough for anybody"_

That was my high school yearbook quote. Everyone laughed about how nerdy I was to quote Bill Gates. Little did they know, the quote gets better with age, in 2 ways...

1\. It becomes ever more outlandish of a claim

2\. At some point, conversations about RAM will become highly commonplace, as it is eventually grafted into our brains

At this point, my quote will be considered prescient and I will be redeemed!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The associated video is also good. <http://www.tubechop.com/watch/32815>

</comment><comment><USER5> All I know is that even the experts will be surprised. In tech it's hard to predict six months from now let alone five years.</comment>


New Leaks of the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano - <AUTHOR> https://www.notebookcheck.net/Leak-Lenovo-ThinkPad-X1-Nano-with-a-16-10-screen-Intel-Tiger-Lake-weighs-less-than-1-kg.481319.0.html <comment><USER2> > 13.0 | 16:10 | 2K | 450nits | 100% sRGB | Optional Touch

> Ultra-narrow bezel | 85% STB

It is very nice move from the Dell [0], and also now Lenovo to bring 16:10 display in laptops. It was always for me strange decision, when laptop manufactures decided to use 16:9 displays for all, even for pricey, high-end models. I am highly enthusiastic to see 16:10 displays back after ten years, when numerous notebooks had 15.4" display.

[0]: For example Dell Precision 5550 - [https://www.dell.com/en- us/work/shop/dell-laptops-and-notebo...](https://www.dell.com/en- us/work/shop/dell-laptops-and-notebooks/precision-5550-mobile- workstation/spd/precision-15-5550-laptop?AID=8984087&cjevent=a74879349abf11ea81ac05fc0a180510&gacd=9694607-23736398-5750457-266319267-127795103&dgc=af&VEN1=12578053-8984087-ArsDellPrecisionLatitude&dclid=CKSU_JD8wukCFcaLsgodiE8Dxw#features_section)

<comment><USER3> I was doing some work on an old 4:3 IBM X41 last weekend. Reminded me what we've lost.

<comment><USER4> What have we lost?

I have _always_ preferred a wider screen to a taller one because it means I can fit more xterms side-by-side.

<comment><USER5> ThinkPad T61 models changed from 1400x1050 (SXGA+) to 1440x900 (WXGA+) when they went widescreen.

They literally just lopped off 150 vertical pixels. There wasn't some corresponding gain in horizontal space. You could fit the same number of xterms side-by-side on either laptop.

<comment><USER6> I had one of the lovely T61s models that did 1600x1200. That machine had a long, long lifespan for a 3+g memory it could support. Miss the 4:3

<comment><USER5> Probably still worth something to the right person!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> ThinkPad's announcement of 16:9 displays in 2009:

\---

> I stated in my last post that the industry is going to go through yet > another display ratio change over the next year or so.

> For years we've had 4:3 "square" displays. These have all but disappeared > from the market as the current standard is 16:10 "wide."

> The industry is about to move yet again to true 16:9 wide. This means that > the ratio of your PC display will match that of your HDTV. This change won't > happen overnight, but will phase in gradually. In fact, it's already > started. Many of the newest consumer notebooks, especially in the 15″ class > now sport the more rectangular 16:9 display.

> Again, we can thank the LCD manufacturers for this change. By cutting > everything in the same aspect ratio, they have less waste per large sheet of > glass. Since these manufacturers make more selling TV displays than laptop > displays, the PC vendors have almost zero say in this change. We simply have > to adapt. As much as I would like it to be so, 4:3 is not coming back.

> For readers of this blog, yes, I had our team run the math. In order to > provide a high end IPS display option, we'd need well over 15,000 confirmed > orders to make it even worth considering. This is due to minimum order > quantities, creating models, stocking replacement parts for years to come, > etc. If someone enterprising wants to create a database of (legitimate) > credit card numbers of confirmed, non-cancellable orders, I'm sure that it > would get some attention around here. (For you legal types, this does not > constitute an offer to sell.)

> > [https://web.archive.org/web/20111030050311/http://www.lenovo...](https://web.archive.org/web/20111030050311/http://www.lenovoblogs.com:80/insidethebox/2009/04/display- > ratio-change-again/)

<comment><USER7> Huh, LCD manufacturers (at least in 2009) made TV and laptop displays together? Interesting..

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I'm glad to see a resurgence of 16:10 screens. I'm waiting to see bezels shrink to the point I'll have a nearly 15" 16:10 screen in a 14" laptop body, not to have a number pad.

<comment><USER9> As a programmer I would really like to have more choices of 3:2 or even 4:3 aspect ratio laptops (because of the added vertical space, which is really much more valuable when working mostly with text on fairly small displays). For 3:2 I'm only aware of the MS Surface and Huaewei MateBook laptops, and Thinkpads were probably the last 4:3 laptops(?).

<comment><USER10> The MateBook really is a nice looking laptop. The folks I've known that have purchased them have all run into reliability issues within a year (non-booting machines, spacebar stops working, other weird things) I looked into them before I bought my Thinkpad X1C. I still like that screen though.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> "the new model is even smaller and lighter, with a weight of less than 1 kg. To achieve this, Lenovo uses a slightly smaller 48 Wh battery and also slashes most ports that are present on the ThinkPad X1 Carbon"

Sounds like the X1 Nano is marginally better than a Macbook (the super small one, not Air or Pro).

I'm on my second X1 Carbon gen-5 (third X1C overall), and it already has nearly the fewest ports I prefer in a laptop. While I could do without the headphone jack (controversial I know) and Ethernet port (proprietary? I lost the OEM adapter long ago), I think two each of USB-C and USB-A is minimal enough.

USB-C for power USB-A for yubikey nano One of each for expansion

It's too bad there aren't more high-res (2k+) laptops in the slim form factor that Intel used to call "ultrabooks". I was really hoping the Purism Librem 14 would have that as an option.

edit: ...and I'm unwilling to give up anymore battery life as long as it's used for video conferencing

<comment><USER12> battery life and weight >> Any other feature on a laptop.

I'm waiting for that ARM mac.

<comment><USER13> I disagree, many people use laptops as replacement desktop these days so having expansion ports is important. My new job gave me an X1 Carbon with only two USB type A ports and this is my workstation now. If I want to use any accessories like a mouse or external keyboard (set the laptop on a stand so it's level with an external monitor), I immediately run into an issue with having enough expansion room.

If you're doing nothing but sitting in meetings and taking notes, the battery life will follow due to the light use. But for many people, a laptop is as much of a computer as they'll ever use, so having the ability to expand is crucial.

<comment><USER14> USB-C hubs nicely solve the problem of plugging USB devices, a monitor and a charger into a laptop. Like the docking stations in old laptops, but far cheaper. If you have multiple 4K screens or very high speed I/O devices you may need Thunderbolt, but for most people USB-C is fine.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Thunderbolt 3 or 4 ?

 _" The ThinkPad X1 Nano just has two Thunderbolt 3 ports, "_

vs.

 _" 2 brand new Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports."_

[https://www.slashgear.com/lenovo-thinkpad-x1-nano-leaked- to-...](https://www.slashgear.com/lenovo-thinkpad-x1-nano-leaked-to-be-its- lightest-yet-14629071/)

<comment><USER16> Tiger Lake has Thunderbolt 4. It's the same speed as Thunderbolt 3 so most people won't notice the difference anyway.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> When can we get 3:2 aspect ratio laptops with zero (>95% screen to body ratio) bezels? So far the Surfaces have one part of this, and the XPSes have the second part.

<comment><USER18> My daily driver is a Huawei Matebook Pro, with exactly those specs... But a horribly placed camera and I think nowadays you can't even buy them in the US anymore.

<comment><USER17> Yes the Matebook does have 3:2 and no bezels, but it's Huawei, it's only 13 inches, and the processors are the 15 watt versions rather than the 45 watt ones. I'm thinking more of an LG Gram 17 inch or at least 15 inch with these specs.

<comment><USER18> I agree about the screen size. I'm really looking forward to next year's XPS 15, once they deal with the usual 'first model' issues.

That said, I haven't found a situation where the processor has been a problem, but that's probably a matter of workload. For software development, it has never been an issue. If you are re-encoding video for a living or doing CAD, maybe it could be an issue.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Hopefully by 2K they mean 2.5K (2560x1600) and not actual 2K with a 1920x1200 screen.

<comment><USER17> 2K usually means 1440p

<comment><USER19> Apparently some manufacturers have adopted that confusing naming. 2K is 1080p though in any reasonable naming scheme:

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

<comment><USER20> >Apparently some manufacturers have adopted that confusing naming.

Gamers decided to call 1920 x 1080 as 1080P and 1440 as 2K.

It makes absolutely no sense. But this mis-information got so widespread it sort of became a norm.

<comment><USER19> 3K would make more sense even...

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> When Apple first eliminated all but two (or four) USB-C ports, there was a ton of vitriol towards Apple on HN. In the years since Apple's move, both Dell and IBM have adopted Apple's playbook and are in the process of eliminating ports, and there are no comments on how everyone will need dongles to connect peripherals or get their work done.

\- What has changed in our use of laptops over the last 12-months that dongles are no longer a pain point?

\- Did Apple make the right and, dare I say it, bold call by removing a whole host of ports in lieu of standardizing on USB-C?

<comment><USER22> Dongles are still hell, I regularly still use USB-A and HDMI on my notebook.

My Toshiba Portegé X-30-D is coveted in our company as it has:

1x Full-Size USB3

1x Full-Size HDMI

2x Thunderbolt USB-C (Displayport Support on both)

Micro-SD Slot

Headphone Jack

32GB of Socketed DDR4 Ram

1TB NVMe SSD

Matté Full-HD Touchscreen

Windows Hello Face&Fingerprint Recognition

and weighs only 1,05 kg

The only bottleneck is the i7-7500U Dual-Core CPU that I got because I couldn't wait another generation and now I just don't know what to upgrade to. I hope once USB4 becomes available there will be a Ryzen 4800U successor powered notebook available that just MATCHES the rest of the specs of my current one.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Why not use AMD CPUs?

<comment><USER24> I read that the X1 was developed with Intel, and thus they can't use AMD CPUs in that lineup. I don't know if it's true or not. It was a random reddit comment.

<comment><USER25> Time. I saw the HP Envy on Linus' Tech-tips review and the battery life on AMD CPUs is ridiculous. 14 hours on battery. For most people, you might be able to bring your laptop to work WITHOUT a power brick.

I'm personally not a fan of HP laptops, but i'm looking forward to AMD CPUs on thinkpad and Dell XPS laptops. There is no way there isn't going to be a X1 type laptop with an AMD CPU. Lenovo can't leave that kind of battery performance on the table without losing market share to Dell and HP.

<comment><USER26> 14 hours compared to 13h for a similar intel based laptop. Not really that impressive. Correct me if I'm wrong, but most of the power consumption comes from the screen anyways.

<comment><USER27> Yup, only 7% better battery.

But... 20% cheaper. 50% faster in multi-threaded tests, 20% faster in single- threaded tests.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> I can't even imagine what a laptop lighter than my X1 carbon would feel like. Thats so light.

<comment><USER29> Remember the 11" Macbook Air? It's pretty light, and it'd be lighter without the aluminum.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> > <999kg

Yeah I hope so.

</comment><comment><USER31> Are the USB ports on both sides? One of the nice things about the 15" MBP is being able to charge it from either side. Also, having >= 3 ports allows me to keep a yubikey installed semi-permanently and still charge from either side. Nice to see more laptop manufacturers adopting less wide screens.

</comment><comment><USER32> Woohoo! Praise for non-16:9 laptops.

<comment><USER33> Bring back 4:3!

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> I would much rather someone made a laptop with a keyboard with sculptured keys and reasonably full key travel. I would be glad to lose a pound of lightness for that.

</comment><comment><USER35> no 32GB option? pass.

<comment><USER36> what are you doing with an ultra book that would make it need 32gb of ram?

<comment><USER37> Lots of VMs. VMs don't need much CPU time but oh boy do they need the RAM.

<comment><USER38> What sort of a use case requires you to run "lots of VMs"? What nature of development do you do?

<comment><USER39> Some of the software I write must work on various different Linux releases (with different kernels), FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Haiku and Windows. This is realistically only possible because I have all these running in different VMs.

I'd like to add macOS to the mix but it's something of a pain to virtualize. I'm aware of hackintoshes but there seem to be a bunch of gotchas and it seems you can never upgrade them.

I also have some VMs where I need decent security guarantees and confinement, such as running different web services.

<comment><USER38> Makes sense, thank you!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> i think 1366x768 resolution on 15.6 inch screen is perfect in terms of UI elements size. like its a sweet spot between to small and too large with enought horizontal area.

physical width of such 15.6 inch screen is 34.53 cm so it gives you 0,025285037 cm per pixel.

so my "perfect" laptop would have 15.6 inch screen and 16:10 aspect ratio. i would double the resolution in order to avoid fractional scaling and use 200% scaling so final resolution would be 2732x1708 - anyone can recommend something close to that on the market?

<comment><USER41> Just get 4K with 300% scaling. 3840/3 = 1280, it's about the same.</comment></comment>


White Privilege and Male Privilege - <AUTHOR> http://www.odec.umd.edu/CD/GENDER/MCKIN.PDF

<comment><USER2> This is one of the reasons the left is always losing.

Just make students sit in a class and listen to a "tenured radical" and they will vote Republican for a lifetime.

I grew up in New England where it didn't matter if you were black or white but more what kind of black or white.

If you were French Canadian you were a dog but if you were a wasp you were on top. There were old respectable black families on Beacon Hill but if you came from the 'down home' South you were a nobody.

If you have any contact with elementary schools you see it is a girl centric boys and in fact the modern diagnosis for maleness is ADHD. If you ran a crappy clothing store and wrote a book called #BOYBOSS you just look like an ass and would never get on TV.

<comment><AUTHOR> The paper is a bit dated, but Peggy McIntosh recently gave an interview where she discussed some of the concerns you seem to be speaking to:

The key thing is to let people testify to their own experience. Then they'll stop fighting with each other... "Unless you let the students testify to what they know, which schools usually don't let them do, they will continue to do just what the dominant society wants them to do, which is to tear each other apart." The students who are sitting there fighting with one another aren't allowed to have their lives become the source for their own growth and development. Adrienne Rich wrote, at the beginning of women's studies, "Nobody told us we have to study our lives, make of our lives a study."

[http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2014/05/the- woma...](http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2014/05/the-woman-who- coined-the-term-white-privilege.html?mbid=gnep)

<comment><AUTHOR> Reported speech get's a downvote?

Single tear...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> > "Through work to bring materials and perspectives from Women's Studies into > the rest of the curriculum, I have often noticed men's unwillingness to > grant that they are overprivileged in the curriculum, even though they may > grant that women are disadvantaged. Denials that amount to taboos surround > the subject of advantages that men gain from women's disadvantages. These > denials protect male privilege from being fully recognized, acknowledged, > lessened, or ended."

Ok I read this then stopped. The word "overprivileged" is shockingly biased and ridiculous, and most of all deceptive.

<comment><AUTHOR> It's a personal account and you, of course, are under no compunction to consider it. So why comment? I mean, you didn't even read the article far enough to comprehend its context or understand what the author meant by using that word, or how it extends, by analogy, to her experience as a white woman.

It is your privilege that you can reject the article in its entirety after the first sentence, because you are not living any of the oppressive experiences described therein. I just don't see how doing so is less "shockingly biased" than the word itself. It seems like a sort of tu quoque fallacy to avoid engaging either the text or the arguments it might contain.</comment></comment>


Article on Micropledge.com - <AUTHOR> http://www.stuff.co.nz/4188474a28.html

<comment><USER2> i'm thinking of pledging some money for some ycnews features, like keyboard navigation</comment>


The One and Only Mac OS X Extensions Folder (2003) - <AUTHOR> http://daringfireball.net/2003/08/the_one_and_only_mac_os_x_extensions_folder <comment><AUTHOR> I ran across this article on Daring Fireball while checking out the non-Apple kernel extensions in the /System/Library/Extensions/ folder on my Mac. The article is ancient history now, but it's still useful and worth reading, especially if you're new to OS X. Also, the comments by Dean Reece on lists.apple.com are still available.

<comment><AUTHOR> Looks like the rules for building and installing third-party kernel extensions changed for OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) and later. Details at [http://asciiwwdc.com/2013/sessions/707](http://asciiwwdc.com/2013/sessions/707). Sorry for any confusion.</comment></comment>


Ancient Egyptians: Black or White? - <AUTHOR> https://gnxp.nofe.me/2017/05/30/ancient-egyptians-black-or-white/ <comment><USER2> Have you seen statuary depicting King Tutankhamun? He is obviously a black man.</comment>


'Why I am not canceling class tomorrow' - <AUTHOR> http://alumni.berkeley.edu/california-magazine/just-in/2013-11-21/cal-lecturers-email-students-goes-viral-why-i-am-not

<comment><USER2> This is incredible, and I'm happy to have read it. The whole thing is worth closing out of a few BuzzFeed tabs for, but the ending lines are my favorite:

 _In order for you to navigate the increasing complexity of the 21st century you need a world-class education, and thankfully you have an opportunity to get one. I don't just mean the education you get in class, but I mean the education you get in everything you do, every book you read, every conversation you have, every thought you think.

You need to optimize your life for learning.

You need to live and breath your education.

You need to be obsessed with your education.

Do not fall into the trap of thinking that because you are surrounded by so many dazzlingly smart fellow students that means you're no good. Nothing could be further from the truth.

And do not fall into the trap of thinking that you focusing on your education is a selfish thing. It's not a selfish thing. It's the most noble thing you could do.

Society is investing in you so that you can help solve the many challenges we are going to face in the coming decades, from profound technological challenges to helping people with the age old search for human happiness and meaning. _

<comment><USER3> Imo the end is quite dangerous, and in many cases ends up being incorrect. It's the classic view of: _I 'll put on blinders and not worry about the consequences of my actions now, because I need to ruthlessly push forward so I can get into a position where I can do good for society... later_. But often later never comes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Oddly, none of that brought me any closer to understanding why he's crossing the picket line. I can visualize a prof on the other side of the line writing the same thing. (hopefully a prof somewhat more fond of brevity)

<comment><USER5> Yeah! Math Prof has definitely chosen a side. He obscures that move in a fluff of "politics is complex, decisions are difficult." But politics is everything, and he's engaged in politics knee-deep while pretending not to be. "All I care about is education" calmly states the unwitting Math Prof as education is destroyed to become a hollow commodity for those who can afford it. He's obscuring his politics and hiding that fact that he wants a continuation of the current state of things.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> This is why educators get crap wages despite having a union -- because they refuse (rightly or wrongly) to allow the student's education to suffer by striking.

Which means their strikes are never effective.

</comment><comment><USER7> don't cross picket lines dammit.

</comment><comment><USER8> This is a huge, huge goddamn yawn.

These students are no more "special" than any other students at any other university.

Even more-so, the students that "made it" to UC really, really don't need yet another person telling them that.

<comment><USER9> Come on, really? Out of all that, THIS is the message you take away, and yet manage to misconstrue?

He didn't say any of that. He didn't compare his students with others; he compared them only to _themselves_. He didn't mention other schools, or in fact other people altogether.

<comment><USER10> Really?

 _I'm telling you this because you all need to know that there is not some great pool of amazing people in some other place who are going to shape the way our species navigates the coming decades._</comment></comment></comment>


Hausschriften Der Bundesregierung - <AUTHOR> https://styleguide.bundesregierung.de/sg-de/schriften <comment><USER2> The Netherlands has something like this: Rijksoverheid (state-gov) fonts.[1]

They were designed by Peter Verheul[2] and were used in replacing all the logos of Dutch government agencies with a new style that is easy to recognize, combined with the new Rijkslogo.[3]

[1] [https://www.rijkshuisstijl.nl/basiselementen/basiselementen-...](https://www.rijkshuisstijl.nl/basiselementen/basiselementen- offline/lettertype)

[2] [https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Verheul](https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Verheul)

[3] [https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rijkslogo](https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rijkslogo)

</comment><comment><USER3> For Non-Germans: This is the official font of the German government to download. There is license information, but it seems to be - just as the font - behind a registration wall. So I didn't go and see what the license is. Would be interesting to know if it can be freely used, however I don't want to sign up.</comment>


Ask HN: Finding a job across the country? - <AUTHOR>

I recently read the post about moving across the country ( http://paulstamatiou.com/atlanta-to-san-francisco-moving-cross-country )and was wondering, how do you go about getting a job that far away? I've been thinking of moving lately, but it seems like a lot of companies prefer to hire locally. And why not? There must be qualified applicants in their vicinity. What are your experiences with finding a job in a completely different area than where you are now? Do you move first and look for a job once you're there?<p>Thanks. <comment><USER3> I just moved from New York to Minneapolis. In my experience, people were extremely wary of "relo's" (relocations), the common concern being that they interview me and then I change my mind. Explaining that I had just bought a house and am most certainly moving did not help. Once I moved, it was easy - <USER2> quickly landed interviews with several top companies and had a job within a week.

It depends on where you go though. I do open source and Minneapolis is a market where most companies are still on Microsoft stack so there wasn't as much demand for my skillset. Moving into a larger market such as New York or San Francisco could be completely different.

</comment><comment><USER4> Put a friends address on your resume.

This option only works if you are willing to lie about your location on your resume (hedge this lie in your cover letter, explaining you are in the process of relocating yourself so would need a few days notice for an interview), can get to the interview reasonably quickly, and don't expect relocation assistance.

Your best bet is to plan a few weeks or more to temporarily move to the new location while you search so you are able to quickly get to an interview.

</comment><comment><USER5> Big companies seem to care less, so are one option. For example, Microsoft hires plenty of people who didn't live in the Seattle area prior to being hired.</comment>


What's a Coronavirus Superspreader? - <AUTHOR> https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/06/15/1003576/whats-a-coronavirus-superspreader/ <comment><USER2> A lot of what makes a person a superspreader is not biology but behavior. They happen to be in a place with a lot of other people, they didn't maintained distance, didn't used facemasks, and probably neither the people that got infected did.

The point is that superspreader have the same behavior elements of most of the other people on those places, and each of them potentially will go to more big meetings and parties taking few if any measures to avoid keep infeting. You are dealing with clusters of superspreaders, not individuals, that may infect "normal" people as well as not all their contacts with other people will be in big parties.

Good policies to prevent the spreading of the disease should take those clusters and cultures into account.

<comment><USER3> Right. There aren't really "superspreaders" as much as "superspreading events".

It takes a combination of 1) high viral presentation, 2) breath activity that generates lots of droplets, such as singing, public speaking, shouting, exercise, cough or sneeze, and 3) a location where lots of unprotected people will breath the same air for a significant period of time.

Preventing the 1st is difficult, we don't know who is infectious. The 2nd is where masks as source prevention are critical. The 3rd is where social distance and 3C interventions help.

<comment><USER4> > 'There aren't really "superspreaders" as much as "superspreading events".'

the fundamental attribution error strikes again.

also, you only need masks when you can't effectively distance (i.e., at potential superspreader events, like inside a bar, at a party, etc.).

socialize this one key modification to the rules, and you'd get more compliance and less pushback, with at least the same reduced transmission rate.

you don't need to lock down anything, just distance, and when you can't, mask. self-quarantine when sick. easy, and anxiety-free to boot.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> > shedding more virus than is normal, but we still don't know what would > trigger this, let alone how to identify it through practical means.

What's the technical path to a airborne virus monitor? Something that sucks in air and detects viruses, and sounds an alarm like a smoke or carbon monoxide detector.

It doesn't have to be very specific to COVID-19, so you probably don't need RNA sequencing. Any significant number of viruses (except possibly a few harmless ones on an allow-list) should be reason to evacuate a building.

<comment><USER6> Wouldn't the system somehow need to detect the virus at incredibly low PPM, and rely on the virus being in that section of the room? Especially with coronavirus, which travels via water droplets and falls to the ground fairly quickly, you could have a spreader walk through the room without it hitting the device.

I'd also expect that the list of viruses that are worth evacuation over is much much shorter than the sum of all viruses in the air at one time. (Looked it up, looks like 219 viruses that can even just infect us[1] vs hundreds of millions [2])

[1] [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3427559/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3427559/)

[2] [https://www.virology.ws/2013/09/06/how-many-viruses-on- earth...](https://www.virology.ws/2013/09/06/how-many-viruses-on-earth/)

<comment><USER7> False positives would really mess this up. Can you imagine all the Ebola office fire drills?

<comment><USER6> It'd be absolutely terrifying - a totally invisible threat setting off an alarm that's telling you there's a danger in your immediate vicinity. And then what? The office building fire drill, where hundreds of people all trudge down 20 stories together in the claustrophobic confines of a concrete stairwell along with the unconsciously contagious? Or lock down the room until someone can decontaminate the whole thing?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> > _coronavirus transmission more or less follows the 80 /20 Pareto > Principle...while another looking at transmission in Shenzhen, China, pegs > the numbers closer to 80/10_

</comment><comment><USER9> While possible, and likely, there isn't necessarily a difference between the biology and behavior super-spreaders due to environment and chance.

</comment><comment><USER10> This seems like yet another reason for using universal contact tracing apps, assuming we can execute on the privacy aspect. What's going on with that currently? Have we just given up?

</comment><comment><USER11> "Super spreader" reminds me of the language "super predator" which was used to depict black kids as violent rapists in US media.

Edit: Sounds like some good ol media designed to get attention via fear.

There might be a few people carelessly running around spreading the virus. There are a few documented cases of this happening early on. Possibly there are some individuals who will do this again in time.

<comment><USER12> It is a broad brush used to paint fear into the population. Anyone _could_ be a superspreader so you must act as if _all_ people are. Why? b/c you don't know who's a "superspreader". Yes panic, now!

The article defines a superspreader, but the definition isn't useful:

>" _a generic term for an unusually contagious individual who's been infected with disease. In the context of the coronavirus, scientists haven't narrowed down how many infections someone needs to cause to qualify as a superspreader, but generally speaking it far exceeds the two to three individuals researchers initially estimated the average infected patient could infect._ "

Hmm, so granny kisses 2 grandchildren, she's not a superspreader but if she kisses 3, watch out! Pretty vague definition here.

Later the article states:

> _" What makes someone a superspreader? We don't yet know what it is about > the biology of some people that causes them to be superspreaders. It might > have something to do with increased viral loads and shedding more virus than > is normal, but we still don't know what would trigger this, let alone how to > identify it through practical means."_<

So it's a term they haven't established a definition for yet, a term for people they cannot identify, and, most of all, it is useless not only for epidemiologists' demonstrably invalid models which did not work before and continue to not work, nor is it useful for anyone else except scaremongers.

This article is beneath MIT. Shame!

<comment><USER13> This is a long-used term that isn't specific to COVID-19, which describes a legitimate medical phenomenon with a wide historical basis. Ever head of Typhoid Mary? She was a superspreader.

Interestingly, people who claim everything about COVID-19 is a conspiracy by the media (or the elites, or whoever) to control the populace with fear are significantly more likely to be superspreaders. Why? Because all the simple, moderately-inconvenient precautions they refuse to take legitimately do slow the spread of the disease. Someone who frequently goes within 6 feet of other people while not wearing a mask and leaves their home more frequently than necessary has a much higher chance of getting the disease, a much higher chance of transmitting the disease to each person they come into contact with while contagious, and also a much higher number of contacts to potentially infect.

The term is actually incredibly useful, even on an individual level - if I'm considering who I'm willing to interact with, someone who's come into close contact with 500 people in the past week while not wearing a mask is significantly more dangerous to me and my loved ones than someone who has come into contact with 50 people at a distance of 6 feet or more while wearing a mask.</comment></comment></comment>


Rating everything from your Uber driver to Airbnb host has become a nightmare - <AUTHOR> https://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-rating-everything-from-your-uber-driver-to-your-airbnb-host-has-become-a-nightmare-2019-04-01?link=sfmw_tw <comment><USER2> > Some people, initially excited by the convenience of the sharing economy, > may have now experienced the anxieties and pitfalls of navigating the rating > system, Belk said.

This is exactly why I hesitate to use Uber or any other apps that allows rating.

When I was in US, I had to depend on ride sharing for 3 months since USCIS was finding all sorts of reasons to delay visa extensions for Indians thereby preventing me from renewing my license. I rarely carry cash with me. On my first Uber ride, I saw the driver had a tip jar with some cash and a note saying 'tips are welcome'. I told him 'I will tip in app' which, as I later found out from /r/uber, was a grave sin. My rating was 4.9 before and came down to 4.82. I followed everything that I saw in internet: wait for driver at an easy to find spot, say hello and engage in small talk despite being really miserable because of visa issues, ensuring I don't smell (I bath twice a day, wear deo, always fresh clothes), close the door gently, no touching anything in car and so on. I absolutely hated it when my rating again dropped to 4.74 (most likely because I used Uber after grocery purchase, I had 6 bags and tipped in app). After that, I used mostly Lyft for almost 1.5 months because I won't at least see my rating. At some point, I started tipping in cash in Uber whenever I couldn't find a Lyft. By the end of 3rd month, my rating came back to 4.9.

I had couple of bad experiences with Uber-one guy dropped me and wife in the 4th lane of a 5 lane road while waiting in a signal, one lady left the rear windows open while driving at 70 mph, one had really loud music with a weird navigation voice, another yelled at me because I wasn't standing at the proper block in New York and didn't know how to tell him where I am (I was a tourist and thought gps would be accurate). I still rated all of them 5. But the Uber drivers seemed to be looking for any reason to rate me less. Normally, I wouldn't have cared, but if /r/uber is to be believed, drivers would reject rides from 4.7 and below especially at night.

I really hated the whole experience, and I try to avoid these kind of apps whenever possible. Same reason I don't use Swiggy (like Uber Eats) any more. The delivery guy rated me 3 out of 5 in front of me because he wasn't happy with my directions to find my home.</comment>


WikiWikiWeb is back online - <AUTHOR> http://wiki.c2.com/ <comment><USER2> Sad the site is now a Javascript powered site. Its not even old SEO friendly (I know most of the engines now run JS but it slows down indexing).

I thought for sure they did a PJAX [1] like design when I saw the spinner to keep asset loading minimal (why c2 would need that is beyond me).

But it is even worse. A full page reload on each click and then an XMLHTTPRequest call is made for some JSON.

I wonder who is running and why they picked such an awful design. Do people just not know how to write old web 1.0 apps?

For now I will play devils advocate and just assume perhaps they are offering JSON like API so that someone else can maybe write a better skin. If some one does hopefully they will use push state.

EDIT

I clicked around to see what Ward has been up to and now I can sort of see why c2 is the way it is. Basically Ward is working on Federated Wiki. I think the idea is sort of cool as it is yet another attempt to continue to decentralize the web.

I believe it is going to be based on some JSON protocol but it would be interesting and perhaps have greater consumption if it was in Google AMP format or supported that format or converted or whatever (not c2 but the federated wiki stuff).

[1]: [https://github.com/defunkt/jquery- pjax](https://github.com/defunkt/jquery-pjax)

<comment><USER3> I think that is because Ward Cunningham wanted to transition to a static site instead of running it old style CGI way.

See also: [https://github.com/WardCunningham/remodeling/issues/2](https://github.com/WardCunningham/remodeling/issues/2) [http://wardcunningham.github.io/](http://wardcunningham.github.io/)

<comment><USER2> It appears the root of his problem is an old database in a weird format. If he just gave access (to the DB) I'm sure a fellow githuber / HNer could probably get the database converted correctly for him to some other DB or format.

Then again I probably don't fully understand all of the problems.

<comment><USER4> see my comment floating somewhere in this thread.

it took some digging but I managed to grab a dump of every page in JSON. he hid it well but I scraped everything and put it up for people to see (it's in its original markup form, and I'm working on converting it to HTML again.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This is a regrettable redesign. Every page loads a megabyte of crap (640 KB "names.txt" file + 260KB jquery) and requires javascript for what could be a static text site.

<comment><USER6> Yeah. This tweet summarizes it nicely:

[https://twitter.com/errstr/status/792418938881662976](https://twitter.com/errstr/status/792418938881662976)

<comment><USER7> I wonder why they didn't use the minified version of jquery? Would of been a lot smaller.

<comment><USER6> Or Zepto. I saw nothing happening that couldn't be done with it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> so, because of the weird format that ward has gone with, and because I'm not a fan of the federated wiki concept as he sees it, I mirrored the JSON dump of the old c2 wiki, did a little bit of processing on it and generated a directory for all the pages.

[https://imode.gitlab.io/projects/c2/index.html](https://imode.gitlab.io/projects/c2/index.html)

if someone wants me to, I can archive it up.

<comment><USER8> Note though that the wiki from what I can tell the wiki explicitly doesn't grant the right to host the contents somewhere else (in contrast to many other wikis)

<comment><USER4> if they take issue with it, they can go after myself and the internet archive.

I'm not concerned.

<comment><USER9> Thank you for uploading this to the Internet Archive.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Sadly it is now invisible to the web archive [http://web.archive.org/web/20161024110012/http://wiki.c2.com...](http://web.archive.org/web/20161024110012/http://wiki.c2.com/)

<comment><USER11> The current design would prompt one to guess that it is by design.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> > Cross-Origin Request Blocked: The Same Origin Policy disallows reading the > remote resource at > [http://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.1.1.js](http://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.1.1.js). > (Reason: CORS header 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin' missing).

> None of the "sha256" hashes in the integrity attribute match the content of > the subresource.

</comment><comment><USER13> Good that it's back but kind of sad that it has fallen victim to [http://c2.com/cgi/wikix?JavaScriptAbuse](http://c2.com/cgi/wikix?JavaScriptAbuse) since for so long it was one of the few sites that managed to [http://c2.com/cgi/wikix?KeepItSimple](http://c2.com/cgi/wikix?KeepItSimple) The wave of the future unfortunately goes even further from that.

The basic concept behind federated wiki is interesting, but it still needs to be simple, clean, and usable. As it is, the most basic things like selecting text or navigation do not work or work in totally unexpected ways. It shouldn't actually need instructions for basic things like How to Follow Links and How to View Changes ("you can view the changed page on that site by clicking on the flag of that page. Don't expect the link to find the remote site because it will likely be hidden behind the original page on your site." What?)

Just trying to find the list of sites, I have no idea what's going on here: [http://c2.fed.wiki.org/view/welcome- visitors/view/federated-...](http://c2.fed.wiki.org/view/welcome- visitors/view/federated- wiki/sites.fed.wiki.org/sitesfedwikiorg/sites.fed.wiki.org/sitesfedwikiorg/sites.fed.wiki.org/sitesfedwikiorg/localhost/welcome- visitors/fed.wiki.org/welcome-visitors/197217.c2.fed.wiki.org/welcome- visitors)

<comment><USER4> ward cunningham has a great idea with poor execution, and he's holding years worth of commentary on various technical subjects in order to satisfy his desire to implement his idea.

I'm not a fan. I worry for the other rabbit holes of the internet that are still smart and able to be searched, mined, and mirrored easily.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> One of my favourites: ChurchTuringThesis [0]

[0] [http://wiki.c2.com/?ChurchTuringThesis](http://wiki.c2.com/?ChurchTuringThesis)

</comment><comment><USER15> Great, so now Ward Cunningham doesn't know how to write a good wiki system. Federation is all well and good, but it doesn't excuse the absolute garbage UI.

</comment><comment><USER16> I'm happy that it's back. It seems to be running on a new engine. When I click around I see a spinner sometimes, I don't remember seeing that in the past.

<comment><USER17> Seems like they hacked up a new system to fetch the old page quickly, nothing more. IIUC it happened because of some hardware failure, so I'm just happy it's still up, even though the full JS spinner thing is a bit sad.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Still the same content (and old bookmarks work fine) so I can live with the new bizarre delivery system (could've been worse, like one of those old flash websites). You can overwrite the css style to make it look normal.

</comment><comment><USER19> And now just giving a loading spinner...

</comment><comment><USER20> I didn't even know it was down. Sad that it's become forgotten, I used to spend a lot of time there. After GoogleLovesWikiNot, contributions dropped and now most of the articles are very dated.

<comment><USER16> I has not become forgotten, people care about it.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12705774](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12705774)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12715560](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12715560)

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Most disappointing: It doesn't work in safari right now.

<comment><USER22> Works for me (using Safari Tech Preview 16).

<comment><USER21> Only on the Tech Preview. Not every person is running the bleeding edge of everything. It's the fetch api that's causing problems.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Absolutely love this site; learnt so much going through this in, gosh, 2005-odd.

</comment><comment><USER24> Best viewed on a 14" monitor?</comment>


UN Official Equates Chelsea Manning Incarceration to Torture - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2020/01/02/us/ap-us-chelsea-manning.html <comment><USER2> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21935155](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21935155)</comment>


Ask HN: What can I do to improve my website? - <AUTHOR>

I am the co-owner of http://www.novapress.net, a site that sells test preparation products developed by my business partner.  We recently made a major change to our website (switching from Drupal to Wordpress, which should make our lives easier, since we want the site to be as 'hands-off' as possible).  Since the transition, site traffic has decreased noticeably; I think the main reason is that we changed our site structure, and the new site navigation is not reflected in our Google listing.<p>I believe that our website has great potential to be a profitable medium for selling our test prep products.  What actionable advice do you have for how we could increase directed traffic to the site, increase conversion, and generally make the site more profitable? <comment><USER2> Doesn't sound like you want to improve your website, just drive traffic. Basically you've got 3 major ways to drive traffic:

search - paid or organic

links - from anywhere, anyone

type in - people going to your site directly, often connected to offline advertising

you're probably best of scaling one/both of the first two options.

organic seo rankings is going to take time, you should spend maybe couple hours a day building links to your site for keywords you think are most relevant.

paid search (sem) is another scalable and faster strategy. it's not 'hands off' and requires you to create (well ok, not requires, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND) some landing pages optimized to each keyword and drive traffic to them. It's a math game, clicks * price per click < your margin * conversion rate. YOU WILL LOSE MONEY. You will also learn and improve if you do this properly and can find keywords where you can meet that basic criteria.

as far as getting links... there is the tried and true for SEO purposes: article marketing, directory marketing, social commenting. But don't forget the real purpose of those links back in the day was to actually DRIVE traffic. I saw some creative ways here about having myspace messages, same with twitter, facebook, etc. The best advice I can give you here is MAKE PEOPLE WANT TO LINK YOU. Create some compelling and interesting content. (checkout mint's strategy [http://jasonputorti.com/post/472866002/how-mint-com- acquired...](http://jasonputorti.com/post/472866002/how-mint-com- acquired-1-5m-users))

Good luck.

</comment><comment><USER3> I'm going to assume the design ect. isn't causing the problem, so I have some suggestions in the order of what I would do:

1\. Posting on HN

2\. Email all your favorite bloggers

3\. Email TechCrunch (you may get lucky with a ten second email)

4\. Go onto the correct types of forum and advertise (possibly Second Life forums?)

Now, if you are _just_ interested in getting some traffic, you can:

1\. Ask your friends to post the link on their social media sites

2\. Pay some myspace dudes with tens of thousands of friends $50 bucks to message all of their friends a _note_ you have written (including the link of course)

3\. Go onto Second Life and pay advertisers to advertise for you

4\. Eh, Google Adsense

Well, that's all I can think of off the top of my head.

<comment><USER4> that's a good list.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Can't you do redirects for Google from the old navigation to the new?

<comment> mike-cardwell Redirecting your old pages to the new versions should have been the first thing you considered before changing it... Otherwise you're just wasting all the page rank you previously built up.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Not that's probably an issue, but the site looks too much like apple!

</comment><comment><USER7> One thing I'm noticing is that what I believe to be a read more button is mostly hidden to me. <http://imgur.com/rkaHx.png>

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the advice on redirects; I'll do those post-haste.

As far as the site content and navigational structure go, does anyone have any comments? Thanks brianlash for the compliment - I do wholeheartedly stand behind our product.

A big issue is that of conversion. Our jump rate is about 70% right now; it was 80% before the switch to Wordpress, which is a good sign. Still, our conversion is ~0.1% currently, I would estimate.

</comment><comment><USER8> I wanted to tell you that I used Nova materials to study for the GMAT and absolutely loved them. I remember Nova's concern for teaching fundamental math and verbal stuff where most other companies were preoccupied with superficial strategies and one-trick pony tactics.

That stuff has its place in test prep, but there's a strong case for balance between theory and strategy. I really appreciated your materials for that.

</comment><comment><USER9> Clickable link: <http://www.novapress.net>

</comment><comment><USER10> No direct experience but I have always thought running affiliate programs for online-digital products makes great sense. Let the sellers do the selling and everybody wins.</comment>