All About Circuits - <AUTHOR> http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/ <comment><USER2> I am an electrical engineer. I used this site as a reference all throughout my schooling. Yes, it's incomplete, but it's a great resource nonetheless.

<comment><USER3> I'm surprised that this has never shown up on HN before. I can't think of any ECE or EE students I know who haven't used the resources from this site. Maybe there aren't as many of us here as I'd imagined.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Am I the only one who can work through electronics textbook after textbook and still can't figure out how to wire a reasonably useful circuit?

<comment><USER5> I've found that with hardware design, at least at the beginner level, you can read up and cram all the theory you can get into your brain, and not really be able to build much. I think that by actually doing, and having someone show you the basics of "this is the way we do something, and this is why we do that something" is much more helpful, and opens up realms of possibility.

<comment><USER4> I remember from learning to program that there was a point where, probably because of good teaching, I "got it" and then I was able to teach myself. But I haven't yet gotten to the autodidact point in electronics. I've been looking for the book that gives me this "got it" experience!

<comment><USER6> In my EE work, I tend to use formal analogies in my thought processes, sometimes unconsciously. For example, water and electricity behave in same way [1]. You don't design the whole circuit in the water domain, but you might temporarily flip over to water to understand a particular aspect, then flip back to electrical. Typically I won't write anything down in the alternative domain, using it just enough to clarify my thinking in the electrical domain, then recording things in electrical terms. There's all sorts of other domains too: acoustics, mechanics, pneumatics, ... Pick the one you are most comfortable with in the situation.

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_analogy>

<comment><USER7> In short: Learn constant coefficient 2nd order differential equations, and you can design a whole slew of mechanical, electrical, and hydraulic contraptions.

A real application of this: before computers, mechanical systems control engineers would write the equations of their mechanical systems, write their controllers, and then implement their controllers around the electrical circuit that duplicated the behavior of their mechanical system. Sort of an analog computer way of simulating a system.

<comment><USER8> Or as in my experience as an EE, learn how to use Laplace transforms, find a table for the 2nd order differential equations, use Laplace transforms, forget how to solve differential equations.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> <http://www.play-hookey.com/> is a similar site that has been helpful to me over the years. It has interactive examples as well.

</comment><comment><USER10> I remember this from a few years ago; hopefully it's more complete now than it was then. I stuck with Sedra and Smith.

Edit: looks like there are still a lot of missing and incomplete sections in the semiconductor volume.

<comment><USER11> Sedra/Smith was a classic - I remember I picked mine up used from the campus bookstore, and it'd been cycled through the course so many times it was almost perfectly annotated and highlighted for the way one particular prof taught the material.

Of all the textbooks I used in my schooling, Sedra & Smith is on the short list of ones I remember explicitly - along with Silberschatz & Galvin on operating systems (with the ridiculous dinosaurs on the cover), Oppenheim and Willsky's _Signals and Systems_ , EOPL, and Stewart's _Calculus_.

<comment><USER10> I also had the Silberschatz (such a weird cover!) and Oppenheim books. I think Sedra and Smith is pretty widely accepted as the canonical introductory electronics book.

Most frustrating book I had to deal with: Random Variables and Stochastic Processes by Papoulis and Pillai. I understand it's also very popular, but I found it really hard to follow.</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Grim Tweeper, easy way to clean up Twitter 'follow' lists - <AUTHOR> http://grimtweeper.com

<comment><USER2> Seems like all it does is iterate through my Twitter followers and ask me if I want to unfollow each one. I was a little disappointed, I was hoping it would tell me which ones never post anything or something slightly more useful.

<comment><USER3> <http://tweepsect.com/> might be what you need. I built it a few years ago, it tells you who is following you back, and if they haven't tweeted recently, etc.

Unfortunately it doesn't scale well to really huge accounts (+5k nodes).

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I see a button to sign in with Twitter, but nothing to tell me what--if anything--you will do with any data you obtain from Twitter or from observing my activities using your application. I suggest you put your privacy policy right on the front page. If it's privacy-positive, I'd brag about it, e.g. "We'll never share your data with 419 scammers."

<comment><USER5> Good points. We are privacy positive, so we'll figure out a good way to convey that. Thanks!

<comment><USER6> Also, why does _every_ app request permission to write to my Twitter stream, even if it has no business doing that? You're supposed to only read my stream, no?

<comment><USER7> because twitter doesn't granulate permissions like facebook does.

<comment><USER6> Of course it does, just pass "oauth_access_type=read" when calling /oauth/authorize...

Posted here, as nobody seems to know about this:

[http://blog.stochastictechnologies.com/gaining-read-only- acc...](http://blog.stochastictechnologies.com/gaining-read-only-access-to- twitters-api)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Useful tool. Some advice: It seems the order of user is random, I hope there're some better algorithms to present the potential users I may want to kill. The activities of user, times of one user have been killed may count.

<comment><USER9> Indeed. I can manually remove people (sure, it isn't as fun) but you have a real opportunity to add value here.

The criteria I look at when I do one of my periodic follower purges:

* Do I know them personally?

* Do I follow them back?

* Have they tweeted recently?

* Are their tweets content-laden or link spam?

* (Where you can add value: Do other people unfollow this person frequently?)

<comment><AUTHOR> 1) I would actually love to know what you think would be a good metric for 'do I know them personally'. I believe this would be a big deal for us. We attempted to sort of do this in an earlier iteration by getting your latest @mentions and counting how many times the user @mentioned you and what the mentions were. However the problem was either an extra API call per a person to get the last 200 (the limit by Twitter) or make 1 call and only look through 50. We decided either way wouldn't be worth it.

2) We actually do show if they follow you back, but I guess we need to make it more clear.

3) We also have a recent tweets/day as well as recent tweets. Again I guess we need to figure out how to emphasize this better.

4) This is actually good, how would you go about doing this?

5) Very smart idea, we will start tracking this in our DB. I think.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Neat application - keep up the good work. A couple points of improvement are 1) after being redirected to the site, I couldn't really go back to where I came from (HN, in this case), 2) not to be overtly meticulous but I was wondering why the buttons are pushed around 2px down on hover (tested in Firefox 4 on OSX 10.6), and 3) the comfy AJAX-y feel could be there if the box was a static size beforehand, when latency increases client side, the kill/keep buttons are really in a funny position. Overall this is definitely something to use again - cleaning up lists on Twitter seems to be egregious (and I'd imagine without the API rate limiting it'd be more than 1 person/screen :-P).

<comment><AUTHOR> Good calls! I think we are going to try to clean up a bit tonight and implement some of those suggestions. And for sure. The Twitter Rate limit (350 calls/hr/person) is something always on our mind.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> You might want to handle this exception. <http://d.pr/UZOm> It sucks that Twitter's 'Over capacity' responses are being sent in HTML, rather than as an API response.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for letting us know! I just added a line of code that should catch that exception and return a better response.

We had caught other exceptions and thought we were good, but glad you showed us one more! Thanks.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I like this - a lot.

Please give me the option to see a long list containing all of the people that I follow.

Showing me the users follow to followers ratio as a percentage would be useful data. If I could sort the long list based on this number, it would be even better.

I'm not sure about the current Twitter TOS, but having the option to bulk unfollow with a checkbox would make things fast and friendly.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey so there are two reasons we actually opted not to do this:

1) The Twitter TOS does sort of prohibit this. We know this empirically because some apps that have done this before have been cut-off by Twitter.

2) It would not be scalable to users with huge numbers of friends and also it would take a much longer time to load and sort.

<comment><USER12> Hmm... yeah, after about a half hour clicking the buttons, I don't think that I'll use your app more then once.

It really is a nice way to cull my followers. I'm trying really hard to keep my Twitter account topical and interesting. However, spending the time to go through each and every user more then once doesn't sound like a lot of fun.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Admittedly, I didn't log in and actually try your site but from the looks of the landing page, why couldn't I just march down my timeline and essentially do the same thing? Where's the added value? Also, I can't see ever paying to use this. Sorry if I sound harsh...

<comment><USER14> Thanks for your feedback. We felt like the value added features are the convenience that the app affords e.g no scrolling, and the decision to follow or unfollow is done with just one click. We also provide information to help you make your decision such as the average tweets per day that the person makes. As for money this is mostly just for fun to build something that people might find useful and cool :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I like it. Couple of nit-picky points.

1) The instructions are too small and placed wrong. Shouldn't it be shown above the login button? I do like that it's a clear 1,2,3 though.

2) No way to log out (that I could find anyway).

<comment><USER14> Interesting, we'll definitely look at improving the landing page. Good point on the logout button that will be added shortly.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> cool, now a tool to clean up my followers would be awesome. i believe 75percent of my followers are just parasitic twitter accounts. a way to get rid of them would be awesome

<comment><USER17> That's what I thought this was :(. I wasn't aware that people had the opposite problem!

<comment><USER5> Something else for us to look into then!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> damn, got rate limited just as I was picking up steam in chopping off heads

<comment><AUTHOR> Haha that's awesome! Sorry that the rate limit occurred. We tried our best to make calls as efficient as possible so you could make as many double/triple kills before the Grim Tweeper got tired.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> First Twitter link at the bottom, is misspelt,</comment>


Ask HN: What is the highest number of browser tabs you have ever had open? - <AUTHOR>

Just curious what your records are on number of tabs, maybe also your average tabs or how many tabs you have open at the moment. Also curious on the people with high counts, what kind of setup you are running... <comment><USER2> It was in the 60s, maybe 63 tabs? Firefox 30 on Win8. Amazingly (not!!!) it crashed. FF crashes every day for me. Unless I crash it myself in Task Mgr first. I typically have no fewer than 30 tabs open. Can't get FF to run 24 hrs without burning 2 gigs of memory. It leaks like a sieve. I typically have several Twitter tabs, a couple LinkedIns, one Gmail, Blogger and Wordpress (a couple each), Google Finance, Hacker News, and miscellaneous articles/blogs open, plus Mailchimp and Hushmail. Lots of AJAX-intensive pages and Flash pages (Google Finance, for example). No porn.

Sometimes Flash will complain, but most of the time FF just runs out of memory and starts giving the spinning cursor. Once in a while it will crash without bringing up the crash reporter window. It'll just go down silently.

</comment><comment><USER3> Very low number here - I never have more than 10 open. I keep closing things periodically and quickly. If a tab is unread for say a couple of hours, I just usually close it since I would never get around to reading it anyway and it's probably not important.

</comment><comment><USER4> Normally around 20, but I had much more. Then I've discovered One Tab - [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/onetab/chphlpgkkbo...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/onetab/chphlpgkkbolifaimnlloiipkdnihall?hl=en) \- but actually I'm ending always with lots of tabs anyway!

</comment><comment><USER5> Over 300 in chrome. I have a problem.</comment>


Lenovo used Windows anti-theft feature to install persistent crapware - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/08/lenovo-used-windows-anti-theft-feature-to-install-persistent-crapware/

<comment><USER2> Discussion from yesterday: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10043792](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10043792)</comment>


Learning the art of creating computer games can boost student skills - <AUTHOR> http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100121101124.htm?

<comment><USER2> I'm amused that the submitted article, which spells "boost" in the expected way in the article text, has a headline with the word "boot." That word is subject to both a favorable and an unfavorable interpretation. I guess spelling skills may not be boosted by all computer games.

P.S. Obligatory disclaimer--my oldest son likes to program roguelike and other computer games, and almost any computer science class he has taken has included assignments to program what are in essence games. I think game programming is great--but I don't think it is sufficient to constitute a complete education.

</comment><comment><USER3> I think a lot of the guys here probably got interested in computer science because of games.

I started by making websites using a textarea on tripod and writing HTML for a Worms website. C++ and DirectX were just another 4 years away (I was 11).

I did 4 years of game programming in high school before going to college where I finally sat down next to others that wanted to learn. Some of them had never programmed before. But things that making computer games taught me intuitively instead of in a text book (and therefore understanding it deeper because I made the mistakes that called for these concepts):

\- Polymorphism / Interfaces

\- Large Project management and organization (main.cpp:10045 anyone?)

\- Problem decomposition / abstraction

\- "Full stack" multi-tool pipelining (photoshop->custom sprite sheet editor->low level image loading->memory management framework->abstraction layer->game logic) \- The interaction of a full system.

These things gave me an edge in school, and I'm not (just) beating my chest when I saw I wasn't really challenged until the second semester of my sophomore year. This is more likely because I had 200,000 lines under my belt by the time I got to school but its games that got me there.

I strongly encourage game programming as a way to start because the first time you get a picture moving on a screen you're going to want to do more, and it'll bring you back every time.

<comment><USER4> I am in the last of my high school and I am still writing games. I only have somewhere around 70K loc under my belt though.

The peers that I have in AP Computer Science seem to be also inexperienced as well.

Being able to start programming earlier than most of your peers definitely give you lot of edges. This is more so when you already have lot of projects(not necessary all successful) under your belt.

<comment><USER3> Just remember that the best line of code is the one that's never written ;)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I spent a few years doing 'game AI' for Nintendo games and some Disney VR. I like to mention to young gamers that to prepare for this kind of work, ideally one should study: math (especially linear algebra and calculus), physics, computer science, art, and literature.

Not very many people have all of these skills, but the president of Angel Studios once mentioned that he liked to see as many of these skill areas as possible.

</comment><comment><USER6> Is it me or should that read "boost" not "boot?"</comment>


WHLSL: Web High Level Shading Language - <AUTHOR> https://webkit.org/blog/8482/web-high-level-shading-language/ <comment><USER2> The article is full of inaccuracies, unfortunately. It mixes up the objective criteria W3C CG agreed upon with subjective claims of Apple, leading to WHLSL as a collaborative product of the group... it is not.

> Last year, Apple established the WebGPU Community Group inside the W3C to > standardize a new 3D graphics API which provides the benefits of these > native APIs, but is also suitable for the Web environment. <...> All of the > major browser vendors are participating and contributing to the > standardization effort.

The browser vendors negotiated and agreed to proceed with W3C group (as opposed to Khronos/WebGLNext). It's a collaborative effort from day one (where all of Google, Mozilla, and Apple had prototypes), not exactly Apple-led like the article attempts to present it.

> Forking the SPIR-V language means developers would have to recompile their > shaders, possibly being forced to rewrite their source code anyway.

This (and the whole section about SPIR-V) reads like FUD to me.

> Weirdly, this would mean on those two platforms, the starting point and the > ending point are both human readable, but the bit in between is obfuscated > with no benefit.

Inaccurate. The end point is always GPU machine code, and on the way there _all_ the APIs introduced their own intermediate binary formats (SPIR-V, DXBC, DXIL, AIR). It's just that not all of them are clearly specified. We should be able to convert SPIR-V to DXBC/DXIL without going through HLSL, and the AIR limitations are up to Apple to unblock.

<comment><USER3> > This (and the whole section about SPIR-V) reads like FUD to me.

It's really not. These are legit arguments:

\- SPIR-V does not yet have a documented security story that is suitable for the web. Maybe it could have one eventually, but this does not exist right now.

\- There is not yet a story for what web-SPIR-V would do about all those optional capabilities and other issues of SPIR-V that are a bad fit for the web. That includes, for example, SPIR-V's underspecification of most operations to allow for UB-style optimizations.

\- It's easier to write a code generator that targets a text-based language than a binary one. If I want to write a JS program, or even an offline program, that emits shader code that a browser can run, then: (A) to emit WHLSL all I would need is strings and appending; (B) to emit SPIR-V, realistically I would need some SPIR-V library. Sure there are many SPIR-V libraries, but string appending is easier every time.

It's not FUD. It's just arguments that you don't agree with.

> Inaccurate. The end point is always GPU machine code, and on the way there > all the APIs introduced their own intermediate binary formats (SPIR-V, DXBC, > DXIL, AIR). It's just that not all of them are clearly specified. We should > be able to convert SPIR-V to DXBC/DXIL without going through HLSL, and the > AIR limitations are up to Apple to unblock.

Binary formats that are underspecified. What a shocker. Maybe it's because text-based languages are easier to clearly specify.

Creating a clear specification of a text-based language is easier for lots of reasons. Probably the biggest is that the specification has an easy way of citing code examples. Binary specs always have a hard time with that. No question in my mind that trying to glean the C/JS/Java syntaxes from those specs is easier than trying to do the same for x86/arm/wasm/spir-v "syntax".

<comment><USER2> > It's really not.

Let's take the biggest offender (that I quoted):

> developers would have to recompile their shaders, possibly being forced to > rewrite their source code anyway

Those are likely to hit WHLSL harder than SPIR-V, given that WHLSL is attempting to be a whole new specification of the format _and_ execution model, while SPIR-V is only missing the execution model for the Web. The compatibility story of WHLSL (towards HLSL) is still to be figured out, yet the blog focuses on the issue only in the context of SPIR-V (compatibility of existing SPIR-V versus WebSPIR-V)...

I agree there is work to be done for SPIR-V to be adopted on the Web. From the last call, I thought there is also work to be done on WHLSL. This blog post tries to show it as the latter is ready, and SPIR-V is likely to fail, hence I called it FUD.

> It's easier to write a code generator that targets a text-based language > than a binary one.

It's easier to s/one/two/, but if you are doing anything more complex, you'd still build a logical representation in memory that is non-textual (hello, AST). From there, emitting binary output isn't more complex. Needless to say, there is already a large ecosystem around SPIR-V, which can be targeted from other SLs like HLSL and GLSL, and even output directly from Rust.

> Binary formats that are underspecified. What a shocker. Maybe it's because > text-based languages are easier to clearly specify.

Is HLSL specified? Is MSL? They are documented, but not strictly specified. I only see an actual specification for SPIR-V (among the current-gen graphics shading languages), which is binary. So I don't buy the argument that text- based languages are easier to specify. Let's take a floating point number for example. In binary, you'd just say here come 32bits denoting IEEE 754 float (basically, piggy back on the existing spec). In text you need to say what symbols are accepted (exponent form, dot-based form, sign, how many digits are allowed, etc), which doesn't appear simpler to me.

> Probably the biggest is that the specification has an easy way of citing > code examples.

Examples are not required to specify a format, they are basically documentation. In that sense, I agree with you - text formats are easier to document.

<comment><USER4> To elaborate on the float example, see JSON, where text-based representations of numbers has led to massive incompatibilities among different parsers and generators. The original "spec" didn't even define if numbers were doubles or infinite precision or what. This is much harder to mess up with a binary format.

[http://seriot.ch/parsing_json.php](http://seriot.ch/parsing_json.php)

<comment><USER3> Programming languages and intermediate representations are about a lot more than representing floats. I think that it's true that the best specification for how to store floats is a binary one. But programs have a lot more than just float literals and text wins at most of the other ones.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> "There is active debate in the Community Group about whether or not this human-readable language should be the one that's natively accepted by the API"

[https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public- gpu/2018Nov/](https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-gpu/2018Nov/)

<comment><USER6> IMO there's no reason to adopt a text-based standard. WASM/SPIRV seem to be a step in the right direction: assembly is by default more compact and less ambiguous than a high level language represented as UTF-8 characters.

Let programmers work with whatever high-level language they prefer, and compile it down to a consistent, compact assembly representation to transmit it over the network.

<comment><USER3> binary code formats are not more compact than text formats. SPIR-V is particularly fat - you need four bytes to refer to a variable, which is less than what you need in minified source.

WHLSL is a great compilation target so it doesn't prevent you from using whatever language you like.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> It's weird that Apple says "The WebAssembly Community Group expected that parsing a bytecode would be more performant than parsing a text language. However, that turned out not to be true; Asm.js, which is JavaScript source, is still faster than WebAssembly for many use cases." and then links to a page that shows WebAssembly being 3x faster.

Also the page they link to is not just measuring parse time but also compilation time.

</comment><comment><USER8> > The language is insprired by HLSL, the dominant shading language for > graphics app developers.

sorry wat ? [https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=glsl,hlsl](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=glsl,hlsl)

GLSL is used for multimedia apps, user interfaces (Qt at least uses it quite a bit), 3D authoring apps. ISF (Interactive Shader Format [https://www.interactiveshaderformat.com/spec](https://www.interactiveshaderformat.com/spec)), fairly used in all the software chain around audio-visual installations, is based on GLSL. It's used on android, on embedded devices, etc etc...

> GLSL is the language used by WebGL, and was adopted by WebGL for the web > platform. However, reaching cross-browser interoperability was extremely > difficult due to incompatibilities in GLSL compilers. There remains a long > tail of security and portability bugs with GLSL still being investigated

and how will implementing a whole new set of compilers for WHLSL solve this ?

> And since Windows and macOS/iOS don't support Vulkan,

now this is just FUD. you can entirely write vulkan code and have it run on windows and apple platforms.

> the incoming SPIR-V would still need to be translated/compiled into another > language

yes, that's the freakin point of SPIR-V

Also...

> In Metal Shading Language, you could, for example, write a shader that casts > a pointer to an integer, adds 17, casts it back to a pointer, and > dereferences it. This is a security problem because it means the shader > could access any resource that happens to be in the address space of the > application, which is contrary to the Web's security model. Theoretically, > it could be possible to specify a dialect of Metal Shading Language that > doesn't have raw pointers, but pointers are so fundamental to the C and C++ > languages that the result would be completely unfamiliar. C++ also heavily > relies on undefined behavior, so any effort to fully specify each of C++'s > numerous features would be unlikely to be successful.

followed by

> The first is the safe pointer. Some form of reference semantics, which is > the behavior pointers allow for, are used in almost every CPU-side > programming language. Including pointers in WHLSL will make it easier for > developers to migrate existing CPU-side code to the GPU

so instead of reusing an existing thing and just add one tiny dot of safety semantics on top of it, well no let's just NIH and reimplement a _whole new language_. Seriously, they don't want to use a "safe metal" because "pointers are so fundamental to the C and C++ languages that the result would be completely unfamiliar".

So instead, they write a freakin new language - why the hell do they use the familiarity argument then ?

<comment><USER9> > GLSL is used for multimedia apps, user interfaces (Qt at least uses it quite > a bit), 3D authoring apps. ISF (Interactive Shader Format > [https://www.interactiveshaderformat.com/spec](https://www.interactiveshaderformat.com/spec)), > fairly used in all the software chain around audio-visual installations, is > based on GLSL. It's used on android, on embedded devices, etc etc...

Google and Samsung are developing HLSL compiler for Vulkan, because a large majority of game studios don't want to bother with Vulkan on Android if they cannot port their shaders.

There are plenty of HLSL compiler status talks at the Khronos web site and YouTube channel.

> > And since Windows and macOS/iOS don't support Vulkan,

> now this is just FUD. you can entirely write vulkan code and have it run on > windows and apple platforms.

On the contrary, this is quite true.

Apple does not support Vulkan, you need VulkanMK, which is basically a Vulkan portability layer making use of Metal API, and only supports the subset common to both APIs.

Microsoft does not allow OpenGL ICDs on UWP/Store Apps, which is the mechanism used by Vulkan drivers on Windows, thus it is not possible to run either OpenGL or Vulkan code on UWP and Store apps.

Which is why Microsoft ported Angle for UWP, however they haven't bothered with similar support for Vulkan.

[https://github.com/Microsoft/angle](https://github.com/Microsoft/angle)

<comment><USER10> and who will make microsoft support whlsl? w3c? (serious question)

I'm not against new standards, but I'd rather stick with something already adopted. Vulkan seems better than metal (proprietary). And I really don't have enough experience with HLSL and GLSL but they seemed fine both.

<comment><USER11> WHLSL is primarily relevant for the browser. So if Microsoft adds WebGPU support to their browser, they'll add a WHLSL compiler to it.

I'm also quite sure there will be translation tools to translate WHLSL to HLSL, GLSL and MetalSL (probably going through SPIRV as IR, see for instance [https://github.com/KhronosGroup/SPIRV- Cross](https://github.com/KhronosGroup/SPIRV-Cross))</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Another startup or a comfortable position? - <AUTHOR>

I am a full stack engineer.
I have been doing startups since I was 21 years old. Since then, I experienced consecutive failures in 3 different startups, being a technical co-founder in all of them.
1st startup: After bootstrapping the company for 2.5 years (launched after 1 year), team fell apart due to drama relating with equity.
2nd startup: Company received $500k in funding, burned through it, launched within 4 months, and died when it failed to pick up traction. Lasted 1 year.
3rd startup: Company received $100k in funding, finished MVP within 3 weeks, launched, failed to pick up traction. Lasted 8 months.
Ever since, I've been planning my 4th startup, and have managed to finish the MVP on my own, while working at a full time job. It's been 8 months, and I have found a solid team to get this company off the ground. We just finished our homepage and is ready to launch this week.
However, I recently received an offer from a very successful startup, with high salary, stock options, and awesome benefits.
I am at a crossroad right now. I have no idea what to do next.
Startup life is tough, and with each and every failure, I felt devastated. I've been poor most of my life, but I've been doing my best at not giving up and have learned tremendously through each failures.
If you were in my position, what would you do? <comment><USER2> You are talking about the startup like it is a commodity. Is it a brilliant game changing idea that could fundamentally revolutionize a space? Is it a To- Do list knock off? You should not do a start-up to do a start-up, you should do a startup because somewhere inside of you there is an outrageous, nearly undefinable force driving you to do it because you know the idea in some form or another must exist for the world to be as it should

<comment><AUTHOR> I agree with you completely. I wouldn't have went for the 2nd or 3rd, if I didn't truly believe in the idea. Same goes for the 4th.

I personally believe it's a brilliant game changing idea.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I would go for the 4th one. I am 25 years old in a 3rd world country working as front-end developer, and I would give everything just to be in your place. Life is short you can always work at some places, I think you should go for it. Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.

</comment><comment><USER4> Take the offer and become an advisor to your 4th startup?</comment>


Windows 7 - $30 For Students - <AUTHOR> http://www.crn.com/software/220000907

<comment><USER2> If your startup participates in Microsoft Bizspark, you can use every Microsoft software for free for 3 years.

<comment><USER3> It is of little interest to me because I have never used the Microsoft stack, but if your startup does, Bizspark is the deal of the century and comes highly recommended by some of my developer friends.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> My school (UIC) is a part of msdnaa so we get windows 7 for free.

<comment><USER5> If your university doesn't have MSDNAA - and almost any decent CompSci/IT/etc dept should have it - you can get MSDNAA through IEEE. I don't think there's any program requirement for IEEE other than being a current student. IEEE student membership for one year is $15.

MSDNAA comes with multiple copies of every version of Windows, Visual Studio, and all sorts of other pricey MS software,

<comment><USER6> Both ACM and IEEE student memberships come with MSDNAA access. The selection they have is larger than I've seen with three different universities' MSDNAA for CS students, although maybe not always that useful.

<comment><USER7> ACM offers Win 7 Professional (RTM) no more. It was pulled this week after a huge growth spike of people joining and going after several Win 7 licences.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Ah, but this is the _Home Premium_ edition. If I could navigate their maze of feature matrices maybe I'd know if that does what I need.

<comment><USER9> Unless you're running an Active Directory domain, more than likely. And really, this isn't that confusing.

[http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/compare- editions/...](http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/compare- editions/default.aspx)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I realise this is new news, But any hope for students outside the US?

Really enjoying W7.RC at the moment, Would be great on my budget to be able to do it this way.

<comment><USER11> The site FAQ says that they're going to make the offer available in other countries as well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> It appears to be an _upgrade_ version for $30.

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't get that from the site:

[http://drh.img.digitalriver.com/store/mswpus/ContentTheme/pb...](http://drh.img.digitalriver.com/store/mswpus/ContentTheme/pbPage.Terms)

I could be wrong though.

They do tell you to run the upgrade checker to insure that your computer will handle Windows 7.

<comment><USER12> It's possible they're being intentionally misleading about it.

Top left of the image says "Upgrade":

[http://drh.img.digitalriver.com/DRHM/Storefront/Site/mswpus/...](http://drh.img.digitalriver.com/DRHM/Storefront/Site/mswpus/cm/images/product- hero.png)

I'm still not 100% sure though. It's very confusing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I have a Mac. So can i install the Windows 7 Upgrade? Does "Upgrade" means that i need to have a windows in order to install it ? or it doesn't matter?

</comment><comment><USER14> Kids: Never trust the guy who offers you free candy.

</comment><comment><USER15> overpriced</comment>


DeTeXt – iOS 14 app that can find LaTeX commands from drawn symbols - <AUTHOR> https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id1531906207 <comment><AUTHOR> App developer again, forgot to post the link to the source code which I know you all wanna see :)

[https://github.com/venkatasg/DeTeXt](https://github.com/venkatasg/DeTeXt)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Hey all, this is my first app, built using SwiftUI, Combine, CoreML and PencilKit. I hope some of you find this useful:)

For those curious, the symbol classifier is a Mobilenetv2 model trained on the Detexify training data.

<comment><USER2> A very interesting app you've built. So good in fact, I would license it as Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial. Anyone can take everything and re-upload your work as their own and monetize your work as they please.

Well done on your release though. I think this project is worthy of Apple promoting it (Seriously). Unfortunately, they are mostly after projects that have subscriptions.

Don't end up being like this guy: [https://twitter.com/videodrome/status/1055285640420483073](https://twitter.com/videodrome/status/1055285640420483073)

<comment><AUTHOR> I have licensed it under the MIT License like NetNewsWire. I honestly don't mind if someone makes something commercial from this - this app wouldn't have been possible without opensource software and data (from Detexify). I made this app mostly as a learning exercise, and to test my skills.

Thank you so much for the kind words! I don't think Apple would promote it because LaTeX means something completely different to most people haha.</comment></comment></comment>


What Caffeine Really Does to Your Brain - <AUTHOR> http://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddisalvo/2012/07/26/what-caffeine-really-does-to-your-brain/?ss=innovation-science <comment><USER2> One thing that a lot of these kinds of articles don't mention is that tolerance effects in drugs tend to be at least somewhat dosage dependent, and there is some evidence that this is the case with caffeine[1]. Look at amphetamines, for example; at large doses they have a large tolerance effect and are highly addictive. At small doses the tolerance effect is smaller, and they are non-addictive, yet still therapeutic against disorders like ADHD.

It's reasonable, therefore, to suppose that there should be a "sweet spot" for caffeine use, where the tolerance you build is small, but the effects are still significant.

It's also worth mentioning that "tolerance" is not an all or nothing thing. With nicotine and amphetamines, there is a tolerance effect, but some of the effects of those drugs actually become _stronger_ with regular use (and this is believed to play a role in the formation of addictions to those substances)[2]. So while tolerance and withdrawal are real problems, it is a myth that addicts merely return to the baseline in all respects when exposed to the drug they're addicted to.

In any case, if you are bothered by caffeine side effects, you might want to get some theanine. It's cheap, relatively flavorless, and when used in a 2:1 ratio with caffeine, it's been shown to reduce the side effects of caffeine[3], while adding some other cognitive benefits besides what you get from caffeine alone[3][4].

[1] [http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/00913057889...](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0091305788901797)

[2] <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14592678>

[3] <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18006208>

[4] <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18681988>

<comment><USER3> I second Theanine. Personally I've been taking it before my morning coffee and I notice that I am less jittery and less stressful, while still having that caffeine high. I will even take it alone sometimes before a high stress situations and it helps with the nerves.

I oftentimes choose to consume Green Tea or Matcha as they contain a varying amount of natural Theanine.

That said these are anecdotal and could very likely be the placebo effect.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The importance and effectiveness of caffeine has a lot to do with your job and lifestyle. If you are a mostly sedentary computer worker, the lack of blood circulation from sitting all day is going to make you super tired and slow your brain down. If you're a more active person, either from daily exercise, standing up at work, or a more physically strenuous job you're going to have more maintained energy levels as your body consumes and uses food and pumps blood harder.

Caffeine in either of these situations is going to enable your body to squeeze out more energy but for the person with more active blood flow and metabolism it's probably going to be overkill and they'll be able to get through the day without constant yawning. On the other hand, if you sit for 8 hours you're going to feel almost extreme tiredness towards the end of the day especially if you over consume for lunch.

I guess what I'm saying is that if you want to have a good energetic, drug free day, you should be taking steps to eat well and keep your blood flow up.

Also, when considering the effects of drugs on your body, all anecdotal evidence, like this comment, should really be regarded with extreme scrutiny if not disregarded all together. A good place to begin learning about caffeine would be here: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caffeine#Health_effects>

<comment><USER5> Another anecdote, this is mine:

I made a change in my lifestyle and I can work faster and for about three times the hours I was working before that.

My lifestyle change is not related to caffeine, I stopped eating lots of carbs and now I follow a keto diet.

YMMV, etc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> This is interesting, but the article just explains the benefits of coffee. What are the downsides? I would like to hear _why_ he quit.

<comment><USER7> Dr. Andrew Weil says, _"On the down side are coffee's well-documented side effects: anxiety, insomnia, tremor and irregular heartbeat. It can also irritate the digestive system, bladder and prostate."_

[http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/QAA400146/Is-Coffee-Good-For- You...](http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/QAA400146/Is-Coffee-Good-For-You.html)

<comment><USER8> There's also a lot of interesting data coming up mildly positive on Caffeine health benefits in the literature.

<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=caffeine%20cancer> <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21907331> <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19581722>

Moderate caffeine intake is on track to be firmly in the green for most people. However, not everyone metabolizes and reacts to it identically, so the author of the article in question may be one of those people who does not get a lot of benefits.

But there is this funny idea floating around that caffeine is carcinogenic and long-term use may cause cognitive impairment, and there is very little evidence for that.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> A few years ago I traded being permanently sleep deprived and drinking tons of coffee (which I love) for _always_ sleeping 8 hours per night. My productivity has been very consistent and stronger than ever since. No more boom and bust cycles.

<comment><USER8> This has nothing to do with coffee and much more to do with regular sleep.

Neither of which are mutually exclusive.

<comment><USER9> Caffeine can certainly interfere with one's ability to maintain a consistent sleep cycle.

<comment><USER10> True, and I believe partly because people underestimate some time-related aspects. They seem to vary a lot person to person, but a few bits:

1\. Peak blood caffeine levels come about an hour after ingestion, at least for coffee. So a 3pm coffee, for example, is really hitting its peak closer to 4pm.

2\. Biological half-life is anywhere from 3 to 6 hours, and that's counting from peak blood levels, so it's more like 4-7 hours considering #1. So if you have two cups of coffee at 3pm, you might still have a cup of coffee's worth of caffeine in the blood stream well into the evening. Much worse if you had 3 or 4 cups in the afternoon.

My guess is that there will be less sleep disruption if you stick to no more than 2 cups of coffee, no later than mid-morning, which should give enough time for most of it to be eliminated by evening. But not aware of whether there's good evidence on that.

<comment><USER11> Also some people, such as myself, metabolize caffeine at a slower rate due to genetics. SNP rs762551

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> A better article, IMO: [http://lifehacker.com/5585217/what-caffeine-actually- does-to...](http://lifehacker.com/5585217/what-caffeine-actually-does-to-your- brain)

</comment><comment><USER13> I gave up caffeine a few years ago. I get far fewer headaches, and I've noticed while soldering my hand is now rock solid, no trembling.

For me at least caffeine wasn't giving me any kind of boost, just fighting off the withdrawal symptoms.

I think that's a problem for most people, they think coffee is giving them a boost, but really it's just that they feel relatively better because without it they are suffering withdrawal symptoms.

<comment><USER14> Interesting, my hands are more precise when I'm on caffeine, and it also increases my ability to think logically + dulls my emotions (which helps when dealing with anything non-creative every day)...

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> The author makes it seem as if you have two choices: "tolerance and dependence" or "kick the habit". Maybe acting like caffeine is methamphetamine bumps up the pageviews, I don't know.

But I do know that caffeine once or twice a week for a burst of energy won't see you developing a tolerance - so you can continue to benefit.

<comment><USER16> There's also quite a bit of range between people who drink two cups of mild coffee a day, people who drink soda and people who chug down espressi.

<comment><USER17> It depends on the quantity too. We drink espresso, but only 1-2 oz of coffee per cup, which has less caffeine than one of the buckets of diluted coffee from e.g. Starbucks.

<comment><USER18> Yeah, really. I can drunk a "shot" of Turkish coffee and not feel anything like the jittery hit I get from a full mug of normal filter-coffee.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I've seen heroin addicts say that caffeine withrawal is worse than the one caused by opiates.

The headaches are unimaginable. The energy levels are lower than being hung- over.

Short-term memory works in a state siimiliar to that when you have 70% packet loss in multiplayer video games. Everything is annoying and you just want to disintegrate people.

<comment><USER14> Oh yeah, it sucks after using a lot of it over the course of 1+ months. However, I found that I can significantly reduce the withdrawal time (to 3-5 days) and alleviate the symptoms by using piracetam - 2.4 grams every day, no headaches and near-normal energy levels...

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> There are two more aspects of how coffe works that the author did not cover. Caffeine also affects your blood vessels and adrenaline levels. <http://science.howstuffworks.com/caffeine.htm>

</comment><comment><USER21> The Oatmeal said it before and better: <http://theoatmeal.com/comics/coffee>

</comment><comment><USER22> This article doesn't address any downsides of drinking caffeine. It does happen to be a retrograde neuroinhibitor for adenosine, but to date, there's no evidence that this has negative long term health effects...

</comment><comment><USER23> Not a comment on the article as such, but a pet peeve about the way it is displayed. There is a "floating" header on top which covers the text. If one hits the space bar to scroll a full screen worth, some unread text is covered up by that header. The same would be the case for the footer but, that one at least, can be collapsed. This is not the only site guilty of this (in fact it seems to be a growing trend) and I am surprised that no more people comment negatively about this.

</comment><comment><USER24> I have never drunk a cup of coffe in my life. I don't care for the taste. I was just now considering forcing myself to drink it because of it's supposed good effects. Guess I won't

</comment><comment><USER25> I keep switching between tea and coffee. I like tea more at the moment (green, white, black, pu-erh, sometimes herbal).

There just seems to be a wider variety of teas that I can switch between. I don't do it for alertness or withdrawal symptoms as much as I do it for the taste. Coffee to me, while tasting good, more or less seems similar (short of changes in roasting levels).

<comment><USER8> Coffee has as much variety as tea. Any good roaster can show you the difference between, say, a Kenyan and a Costa Rican. There's also more variety in coffee preparation with varying results. Tea steeping is a lot more 1-dimensional.

But what Tea has in quantity is L-theanine, which has additional stimulative effects on top of caffeine. A lot of people prefer it to coffee for stimulative effects because of this added kick.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> I drink one cup of coffee each morning just because I like it. It doesn't do anything to me. It just tastes good.

<comment><USER27> I used to say the same thing. Then I had kids, and went from an irregular sleep schedule where at least twice a week I was getting 8+ hours to one where every night I get 6.5-7, with few excursions in either direction.

Coffee suddenly has a much more significant effect.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> I'll probably be downvoted for saying so, but there have been an awful lot of Forbes articles on HN of late. They cover topics that should be interesting to HN, but are fluffier than the norm I'd expect here.

</comment><comment><USER29> I de-caffinate for about 2 to 3 months per year. It's 2 weeks of hell followed by refreshment.

I also abstain from alcohol for 4-5 months per year in order to keep myself a cheap drunk.

Obviously, those two time groupings never overlap.

<comment><USER30> 4-5 months to reset your tolerance? How many times / how much per week do you drink in the following 7-8 months? That seems like quite a long time.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> The Forbes site now holds the title of "Most Annoying to Read on a Mobile Browser. "

Thank goodness for Pocket.

But then I find out article wasn't even worth the hassle.

</comment><comment><USER32> You guys are all probably on adderall anyway :P

<comment><USER14> Sadly, no :-)

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> I find an empty stomach, similar to alcohol, allows it to work to full effect.

</comment><comment><USER34> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_effects_of_coffee>

From that we learn that coffe is linked to increased levels of smoking and lack of exercise -- AND:

 _A May 2012 study by the New England Journal of Medicine found that, during the course of their study, coffee drinkers "who drank at least two or three cups a day were about 10 percent or 15 percent less likely to die for any reason during the 13 years of the study."_

That combination seems to imply that coffee in itself is healthy.

Besides, we Scandinavians drink the most coffee on the planet and we are are are are healthy as He He He Hell, but a bit twitchy. It is a totally false rumor that we die if our blood turn red.

Edit: I should add that no chemical is good for everyone, not even caffeine.

<comment><USER35> "Edit: I should add that no chemical is good for everyone, not even caffeine."

I don't think it's the caffeine that causes all these benefits. (Though, being an avid hacker myself, I of course can think of a few benefits of that particular chemical.)

Also, 'water' falsifies your statement. ;)

<comment><USER11> You should not give someone water if they have washed their salt out, at least not on its own..</comment></comment></comment>


Why the Google Meet button is so big - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/sbyrnes/status/1261088805114658817 <comment><USER2> The link was always too small anyway.

Now if they would work on the Meet UI...</comment>


Show HN: ShapeForm – Schema Driven Forms for React - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/TakeShape/shape-form <comment><USER2> Andrew from TakeShape here! The primary author of this library. We tired a number of different form libraries before settling on writing our own. You can check out a full talk I gave on ShapeForm ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iplY8Le1zK0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iplY8Le1zK0)) or you can just read my slides ([https://shape-form- talk.netlify.com/](https://shape-form-talk.netlify.com/)) from the talk.

ShapeForm has several nice features that make it perfect for our use case, and may yours:

JSON Schema validation - Easily share the same form validation frontend and backend

 Fast - Pure components for fast rendering even with large forms

Redux / Standalone state management - Choose your own adventure

Custom widgets - Widgets are simply React components

Form reducers - Useful for async validation, data normalization, the sky's the limit.

If you find ShapeForm useful or want to make it more useful I'd love for you to contribute to the project!

<comment><USER3> Oi! Thanks for this. Really great work. Forms and Data tables are two major sore points for me in react land. I've been wanting to see something with json schema other than the mozilla project (which as you said, has weird dependencies).

Any reason for not building around react-final-form as a basis? So far, I've found that one to be my favorite. Zero dependencies and tiny (especially compared with the alternatives).

[https://github.com/final-form/react-final-form](https://github.com/final- form/react-final-form)

I couldn't easily find a demo of your stuff, but one thing they've really gotten right is the renders for field updates...

[https://final-form.org/docs/react-final- form/examples/subscr...](https://final-form.org/docs/react-final- form/examples/subscriptions)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> How does shapeform compare to [https://github.com/mozilla-services/react- jsonschema-form](https://github.com/mozilla-services/react-jsonschema-form)

<comment><USER5> There is also [https://frontier-forms.dev](https://frontier-forms.dev) inspired by react-jsonschema-form. It generates forms based on your graphql schema with types in typescript. It is pretty cool too. Based on final-form.

Author talks about it here [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ovg9CYwWFBM&t=6s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ovg9CYwWFBM&t=6s)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> It's great to see more libraries that deal with rendering JSONSchema. I've been working on a drag and drop formbuilder / grid [0] for creating crud apps that leverages react-jsonschema-form.[1]

I noticed that while I create custom rails apps for clients, they often want to create additional forms and still leverage the authentication, permissions, and existing data in the app. This rules out most 3rd party form builders like typeform, jotform etc. which are mostly for surveys anyway. Sometimes the dev time to create them(UI, DB migrations, testing, validations) is too costly for an idea they just want to test.

So, I use the builder to create a JSON Schema, then embed the form into the rails app. What's cool is that I can utilize permissions from the core app to disable certain fields, and I can pass in enum values so drop downs have up- to-date options pulled right from the DB.

We use react-jsonschema-form, but the jsonschema we produce could be used in any of the tools mentioned in this thread.

I'm close to opening this up to other devs soon, and would love your feedback. There's a signup form on the website if you're interested.

[0] [https://responsevault.com/](https://responsevault.com/) [1] [https://github.com/mozilla-services/react-jsonschema- form](https://github.com/mozilla-services/react-jsonschema-form)

<comment><USER7> Signed up for alpha. Definitely sparked my curiosity regarding the type of client needs you encounter for things like form builders.

We are currently working on our own visual app builder, starting out with Vue/Vuetify. Demo:

[https://youtu.be/6ywDYebcxdo](https://youtu.be/6ywDYebcxdo)

[https://youtu.be/jdb0j_vN9RM](https://youtu.be/jdb0j_vN9RM)

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Wow this looks awesome! I've been using Alpaca.js [1] at FormAPI [2], which is also a JSON Schema form builder. This looks much better, and much easier to customize, since I already use React / Redux / React DnD for other parts of the application. I was also looking at react-jsonschema-form, but agree with all the downsides they mentioned in the talk (hard to customize, requires Bootstrap, hard to use with Redux, etc.)

So I think I will definitely switch to ShapeForm in the future, and I was actually planning to build something like this myself. I'm definitely looking forward to the TypeScript support.

[1] [http://www.alpacajs.org](http://www.alpacajs.org)

[2] [http://formapi.io](http://formapi.io)

</comment><comment><USER9> I like it. I moved away from react (and all other frameworks) but I wish I had this 4 years ago when I was exclusively building react apps.

</comment><comment><USER10> This is pretty darned cool. Really strong example of how to walk through a set of slides exploring why to build a new form library, too.

</comment><comment><USER11> Looks nice! Our forms have a lot of logic where certain answers hide/show other fields/sections. Does this have the ability to swap the schema/form fields on the fly?

<comment><USER12> JSON schema has in one of it's drafts a way to define business rules like these, no idea if this library supports it (most likely not)

On a previous project I needed something like this and used react-json-schema as a form renderer and created my own rule engine that evaluated a lot of rules defined in a custom format I needed.

The result was a generated schema that was rendered by react-json-schema.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Also check out uniforms [0] which integrates nicely with other Schema libraries

[0] [https://github.com/vazco/uniforms](https://github.com/vazco/uniforms)

<comment><USER3> No hooks (yet). Just starting to figure out typescript.

Should just base this project around [https://final- form.org/react](https://final-form.org/react)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Sorry to say, but it looks deprecated already. ES6, pure components, redux(without hooks), etc.. It's sad, but JS community is just moving too fast. We build things for today, not tomorrow..

</comment><comment><USER15> Disclosure: I work on Tree Notation.

Down the line (maybe in 2020) you might want to consider looking at using Tree Notation instead of JSONSchema. Could simplify things quite a bit.

Here's what that might look like, using your example on your Readme:

[http://treenotation.org/designer/#grammar%0A%20shapeFormNode...](http://treenotation.org/designer/#grammar%0A%20shapeFormNode%0A%20%20description%20Exploring%20what%20Shape%20form%20https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2FTakeShape%2Fshape- form%20could%20look%20like%20as%20a%20tree%20language.%0A%20%20root%0A%20%20catchAllNodeType%20abstractFieldNode%0A%20anyCell%0A%20%20highlightScope%20string%0A%20typeCell%0A%20%20enum%20string%20boolean%0A%20%20highlightScope%20constant.numeric.integer%0A%20keywordCell%0A%20%20highlightScope%20keyword%0A%20abstractKeywordNode%0A%20%20abstract%0A%20%20firstCellType%20keywordCell%0A%20abstractFieldNode%0A%20%20abstract%0A%20%20firstCellType%20keywordCell%0A%20%20inScope%20abstractKeywordNode%0A%20fullNameNode%0A%20%20inScope%20titleNode%20typeNode%0A%20%20extends%20abstractKeywordNode%0A%20titleNode%0A%20%20catchAllCellType%20anyCell%0A%20%20extends%20abstractKeywordNode%0A%20typeNode%0A%20%20cells%20typeCell%0A%20%20extends%20abstractKeywordNode%0A%20emailNode%0A%20%20inScope%20titleNode%20typeNode%20formatNode%0A%20%20extends%20abstractKeywordNode%0A%20formatNode%0A%20%20cells%20anyCell%0A%20%20extends%20abstractKeywordNode%0A%20newsletterNode%0A%20%20inScope%20titleNode%20typeNode%0A%20%20extends%20abstractKeywordNode%0Asample%0A%20fullName%0A%20%20title%20Full%20Name%0A%20%20type%20string%0A%20email%0A%20%20title%20Email%0A%20%20type%20string%0A%20%20format%20email%0A%20newsletter%0A%20%20title%20Sign%20up%20for%20our%20newsletter%0A%20%20type%20boolean)</comment>


Quantum FFT in O(log^2 M) - <AUTHOR> http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~vazirani/algorithms/chap10.pdf

<comment><USER2> The entire _Algorithms_ book is available here: <http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~vazirani/algorithms.html>

I was taught under this book, and it was amazing. My professor told the class that while _CLRS_ was an encyclopedia of algorithms, _Algorithms_ was their poetry. It is so simple and concise, yet explains everything with just enough detail for you to grasp it.

For the record, this chapter is based on _Shor's Algorithm_.</comment>


Indian Government to develop its own Operating System and anti virus products - <AUTHOR> http://www.pluggd.in/indian-government-operating-system-anti-virus-software-297/

<comment><USER3> With due respect to the Indian government (I am Indian and quite a bit of work for the govt) producing a new operating system is a completely misguided effort. And anyway this sounds like a new _distribution_ of linux (the article does say "Derived from debian"), not a new "operating system".

I would imagine the simpler explanation is that a few "scientists" at CDAC need to justify their existence and have convinced programming illiterate politicians/bureaucrats they are doing something useful fo a change.

<comment><USER4> Respect due for a government?! Wow, yours is a strange and different country...

And from what we can see, it's not deserved.

<comment><USER5> The phrase looked more like rhetorical device to me.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I wish press would stop phrasing "will customize a Linux distribution for their own use and internally standardize on that" as "will create their own operating system". See also Red Flag Linux, which was described in the press in the same way IIRC.

One is millions to billions of man hours, the other in the low thousands. They're not synonyms.

</comment><comment><USER7> Building a new OS can come later (if ever) - they first need to build decent websites for the houses of Parliaments - <USER2> [http://188.8.131.52/LssNew/members/memberdebate14.aspx?mps...](http://18.104.22.168/LssNew/members/memberdebate14.aspx?mpsno=4064) (JS Pagination hurts my sensibilities - as does the more than occasional broken HTML).

I've written scrapers to gather data from these sites for my website, and besides dealing with the above mentioned issues, I have to constantly beware of not overloading their servers - as an example, simply fetching the next page for each MP listed in <http://18.104.22.168/LssNew/Members/Alphabaticallist.aspx> without a timeout crashes their servers :(.

</comment><comment><USER8> Developing an OS is lame. First, the Govt OS is not going to be usable (compared to the modern OSs). Second, not everyone (even in the Govt) is not going to use it. The variety of apps deployed and being used in the Indian offices is mind-blowing. There is no way the Govt can convince all these offices to switch to a different platform without spending a huge amount as switching costs.

[Tangential: I want the Indian Government to come up with its own cryptographic protocols/algorithms like the NIST in the US does. Even if it is a variant of the prevalent crypto systems, it is better than nothing, at least for the top secret documents.

Anybody know what crypto algorithms/protocols the Govts other than US use for their classified information?]

<comment><USER3> " I want the Indian Government to some up with its own cryptographic protocols/algorithms like the NIST in the US does. "

Fwiw they do use their own algorithms. I know (and have worked with) people doing exactly this. Like most of the NSA's work in the USA what they do is classified. I am sure every government worth its name does similair things.

<comment><USER9> _I am sure every government worth its name does similair things._

Eh, this is arguably bad. Cryptpography is only secure with _massive_ peer review. The United States manages because the NSA is one of the largest cryptographic organizations in the world. Very few governments have the specialty mathematicians, cryptographs, and computer scientists to establish a suitable internal peer review process. India may be one of those countries, but I'm not sure.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Nothing New.

BOSS, the Debian-based Linux flavor mentioned in the article, has been available for quite some time (atleast 3 years). IMO, haven't seen anybody using it (including majority of people who developed it - NRCFOSS and C-DAC)

</comment><comment><USER11> The Indian Govt. first needs to provide electricity to run electronic devices. Once they have figured that, and a million other basic necessities, maybe they can go ahead and waste some scientists on stuff like this.

</comment><comment><USER12> Umm, I can't see a single source mentioned in the pluggd.in article, or the TOI article.([http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/enterprise- it/infras...](http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/enterprise- it/infrastucture/Govt-to-develop-own-operating- system/articleshow/5913140.cms?curpg=2)), or whether its a press release my Ministry of IT, or a blog post by an employee.

</comment><comment><USER13> This is a very badly written article. We are not familiar with the kind or degree of attacks a government's information systems (in this case, Indian Gov) may be facing. We are also not familiar how many other governments have already done or are doing this (This stuff is generally not public).

When the defense ministry of the fourth largest military power is involved, there are reasons.

<comment><USER14> I can vouch for pluggd.in but not TOI, trust me. Refer [http://www.pluggd.in/party-uid-the-big-opportunity-it- servic...](http://www.pluggd.in/party-uid-the-big-opportunity-it-services- industry-297/) and [http://www.pluggd.in/iit-jee-engineering-education-in- india-...](http://www.pluggd.in/iit-jee-engineering-education-in-india-297/) as some the most internationally appreciated coverages that this blog has done.

Govt. in India has had a poor track record in technology and overspending too.

<comment><USER13> Comparing TOI with Pluggd.in is a terrible parallel. TOI (Times of India) is world's largest read english daily with very high reputation in the country.

That said, I do agree with you that Indian Gov have had some past cases of overspending. But when things like 9/11 (New York) and 26/11 (Mumbai) happen, it's the Government we blame first. India is shifting towards a massive (given the population) National electronic ID infrastructure, security is needed.

Moreover, creating an OS is hardly a significant expense in a country's budget. After an event like 26/11 and given the fact that India is about to host multiple worldwide sporting events in next 1-2 years, this hardly looks like a waste.

<comment><USER15> Refer this: " Moreover, creating an OS is hardly a significant expense in a country's budget. After an event like 26/11 and given the fact that India is about to host multiple worldwide sporting events in next 1-2 years, this hardly looks like a waste."

That is one confused assessment of reality dude. Are you like saying guzzling down millions means nothing for a poor country like India?

And dude saying "TOI is world's largest bla bla" and then commenting The articles are badly written does really prove your mental state, is it?

<comment><USER13> The estimated Union budget for India this year is 10,20,838 Crore Indian Rupees (1 crore = 10 Million). Yes, building an OS is hardly an expense.

I was commenting on Pluggd.in article being written badly.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> It sounds like they're doing it simply because they have a lot of break ins.

How is a new operating system supposed to ensure better passwords? 99% of break ins are because of really lame passwords, isn't that true?

Creating your own OS is for that reason like inventing your own type of house because you never remember to lock your door.

<comment><USER5> You could get away with passwords. There are some zero-knowledge protocols you can do with humans, instead of handing over a password.

You would probably not need a new operating system, since revamping logins (and similar) stuff would suffice. But you could get rid of passwords.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Please, the needs of a multi-lingual Asian government is vastly different from, what is popularly construed, the popular choice.

For e.g. Harfbuzz - the unified text layout engine for Linux. The competing technology is SIL-Graphite, which supports Smartfonts and compound alphabets. So what does Harfbuzz say ?

 _For established scripts though, there is not much reason to prefer Graphite over OpenType._

I am Indian and support this exercise - maybe 90% of it will be waste, maybe 10% wont be. Maybe finally we will have a Linux Desktop Summit in India, which is potentially the biggest market for open source software.

</comment><comment><USER18> Maybe operating systems are something governments need to worry about. I would be happy if the National Security Agency submitted security patches.

<comment><USER19> SELinux was an extraordinary contribution by the NSA, and is now pervasive in Linux distributions.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Honestly creating an OS 40 years after desktops appeared on earth is a dumbass approach. And that not the desktops are dying too! It seems purely a plan to drain out taxpayers money as it has been the case in past for India anyway!

</comment><comment><USER20> so tomorrow will they make their own cars because the driver couldn't keep off an accident.

</comment><comment><USER21> What a waste of taxpayer money.

<comment><USER14> +1</comment></comment>


Offer HN: Improve and show your skills by working with a NPO/NGO - <AUTHOR>

Hello hackers!
So I am part of the non-profit organization (NGO) called "Adelante Africa" (Go Africa!) based in Uk/Spain. We really try our best to keep the things going but we really could use a bit of help, and you will be able to add your collaboration to your showcase =)
This is our memory and objectives: http://www.adelanteafrica.com/wp//wp-content/themes/Pilgrim/docs/Annual%20Report%202012.pdf  (The 2013 report will come out next May).
You can find all the information in English and Spanish in the main web page and I will answer any question regarding this topic here or by e-mail, so let's get to the point.
We have already deployed with a bit of help a Wordpress Site (replacing the previous static web-page) but we are not design experts, and also, we don't have the money to pay for one.
So, let's go to the point, what are we looking for:
0. UpVoters: anyone reading this who can help us by voting this very same post.
1. A designer: someone who has the time and the willing to facelift our page so it becomes nicer and easier to use.
2. A SEO: someone who has the time and the willing to help us to reach more people.
3. A hosting enterprise: currently we are paying for it nearly 200€/year (hosting/domain). It would be great to cut-off this cost. In exchange we can provide a badge.
4. Any enterprise who is willing to collaborate with the cause, anyone willing to collaborate with the project.
5. Any others! If you think you can help us in any other way, you will be so very welcome, just e-mail me.
In exchange we provide: gratitude and acknowledgement.
In exchange the children will provide: smiles.
Contact me at: professorTuring [ at ] gmail [ . ] com <comment><USER2> We're building a site, [http://solvers.io](http://solvers.io), to enable projects that improve the world to recruit highly skilled volunteers.

Adelante Africa is a great fit - we'd love you to post to Solvers and we'll try to put some eyes on the project.

Just this morning I heard that a Solver had helped fix the website of another Africa-related charity, TReND in Africa. We're still in open beta and would love feedback.

<comment><USER3> Your website is pretty borked.

It comes up with 'Uh-oh couldn't find that page' and then loads after a few seconds whenever I middle click a project to open a new tab.

Also when I click a project on the home page it doesn't reset the scroll position, so for many projects I'm left looking at a bunch of tags.

It also looks like it presents a completely blank page when js is turned off, even if I pretend to be a google bot in my UA string, which means you'll probably be screwed for SEO.

Windows 7/Chrome

My advice, don't try and make a Single Page App when a simple website would have sufficed. The tech available to us at the moment just doesn't support it.

<comment><USER2> Thanks very much for the feedback - I've added issues to our tracker.

We're already quite far down the single page app route. It does have some drawbacks, but has also allowed us to develop pretty fast and enables some planned features that are hard with simple websites. There are solutions for the SEO thing - but none that I know of for people with JS turned off.

PRs very welcome: [https://github.com/solvers/solvers/issues?state=open](https://github.com/solvers/solvers/issues?state=open).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Clickable report: [http://www.adelanteafrica.com/wp//wp- content/themes/Pilgrim/...](http://www.adelanteafrica.com/wp//wp- content/themes/Pilgrim/docs/Annual%20Report%202012.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER4> By the way, non-profit organization is not the same as non-governmental organization (NGO)

<comment><AUTHOR> Ok, let me add that since we are both an NGO and an NPO.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Because most NGOs (I know it's not all of them, but I would say the majority) are bullcrap, do-nothing orgs. Spending more money on lobbying and staffing than the original cause.

<comment><USER6> [citation needed]

I work for one (Wikimedia Foundation), and we seem to be doing alright.

<comment><USER5> That's why I said it's not all. I'm not generalizing, I'm just stating the fact of what I've noticed.

<comment><USER7> You're not stating a fact, you're stating an opinion as though it were a fact.

Don't be surprised when nobody's fooled.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Boids - a mini artificial life simulator - <AUTHOR> http://psiphi.co.za/psi/?p=658 <comment><USER2> I read a scientific american article (or blurb if i recall) about boids when I was a kid. I wanted to have boids so badly after reading it, I stayed up on school nights teaching myself java. Haven't stopped hacking since -- still stay up on work nights, still trying to learn java...

anyways, just thought i'd share that little piece of nostalgia, how it all began for me

<comment><USER3> I think I read the same article; it was a very inspiring piece for a sophomore in HS just learning C.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The 'original' 'boids' source is here: <http://www.red3d.com/cwr/code/boids.lisp>

</comment><comment><USER5> I am reading 'Complexity' by Mitchell Waldrop and it mentioned boids a few chapters back. It is a pretty interesting book if you like this sort of stuff, lots of background on the game of life, artificial life, and emergent behavior of all kinds. quote: "To them that hath shall be given", meaning that positive feedback loops exist in the world of economics.

</comment><comment><USER6> It's always good to go back to the original source, <http://www.red3d.com/cwr/steer/gdc99/></comment>


Show HN: WhenEpisode.com (Simple weekend project) - <AUTHOR> http://whenepisode.com/ <comment><USER2> Pretty cool. I like the thinly-veiled SEO work in the "See also" section. Smart :)

On a show's page, I'm confused by the "Featured series" button that leads to the homepage as seen here: <http://whenepisode.com/coming/t/breaking+bad> Since it's a button I thought it would add the show to the featured shows (for my session), but it's just a link.

That's actually a "problem" I've been having with series I watch on Hulu, which made me check my queue every now and then just to see that, no, there wasn't a new episode of The Office this week…

My way to solve problems is mostly through Chrome extensions these days, so, here is the shameless plug for the extension I built: [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/qulu-–-your- hulu-q...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/qulu-–-your-hulu- queue/iggfkakbafpkgjaocfjaoehcclhcjckb) A badge shows you when you have new shows to watch from your Chrome toolbar.

<comment><USER3> I installed your chrome qulu plugin...nice work! It partially solves the problem I describe on the main thread. However, the badge showed me _all_ the episodes in my queue, even the ones that I had already watched. Also, I have started using the "favorites" section instead of the queues interface in Hulu. It would be great if the plugin could tell me new episodes of my favorite shows..

<comment><USER2> _the badge showed me all the episodes in my queue, even the ones that I had already watched._

It will actually show the new ones as "+4" for example until you click it, then it shows the total number of shows in your queue. However, _Hulu_ should automatically be removing the shows you've watched, not sure why it doesn't.

I'll have to look at the favorites section… I'm not really sure how it works actually. It seems that new episodes added to your favorites will be added to your queue by default, no? Maybe it's not by default and just the way I have mine set up. I could look into it, but at first sight, it seems that it would be a fairly significant change, since I would need to track down the existing episodes for each favorite show and then periodically check again on each show page. Whereas I only check on the queue page for now.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I like it. It's more series-focused than other sites I've seen, which is easier than flipping through months trying to find when Breaking Bad starts again. (<http://pogdesign.co.uk/cat/>)

<comment><USER5> The pogdesign TV calendar is amazing. It does have a next airing page, which you can filter if you sign up. It also lets you specify your time zone, which is very useful for me (in the UK).

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Pretty cool. A mix of <http://tvcountdown.com> and <http://eztv.it/countdown/>

</comment><comment><USER7> Instantly bookmarked. Useful, simple, and no nagging sign up or share buttons plastered everywhere.

What are your plans going forward?

<comment><AUTHOR> Not much, simple FB fan page and auto posting reminds about new episodes.

<comment><USER8> Please consider an API. Having this data in an easily parseable format like JSON would be awesome.

<comment><USER9> TheTVDB.com has an API for this: [http://www.thetvdb.com/wiki/index.php/API:GetEpisodeByAirDat...](http://www.thetvdb.com/wiki/index.php/API:GetEpisodeByAirDate)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> A few more requests:

<http://epguides.com/Suits/> <http://epguides.com/1600Penn/> <http://epguides.com/30Rock/> <http://epguides.com/Copper/> <http://epguides.com/HellonWheels/> <http://epguides.com/Hunted/> <http://epguides.com/PeepShow/> <http://epguides.com/Survivor/> <http://epguides.com/Newsroom_2012/>

Pretty please :)

</comment><comment><USER11> Where's the GitHub repo so I can submit pull requests for shows I care about?

<http://epguides.com/Castle/> <http://epguides.com/CovertAffairs/> <http://epguides.com/WhiteCollar/> <http://epguides.com/ModernFamily/> <http://epguides.com/Middle/>

<comment><AUTHOR> Added!

<comment><USER12> If youre adding tons of shows add search too. Can't go wrong with elasticsearch :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> A categorization in "running", "on hiatus" (e.g.: Community) or "finished" (e.g.: House) would be nice.

Also: a calendar and feature to semi-personalize it, by simply using cookies to store series "to watch". Merge both for a semi-personalized calendar.

Speaking of "Episodes", this series is missing ;-)

</comment><comment><USER8> Wow, great. Searched for a site like this a while now, but never found one with such a simple interface. I would like to have an API though, to integrate it into my current episode-reporting-bot :)

</comment><comment><USER14> US only? :( A service like this that existed for all online services (country independent) and TV channels (eg: Netflix UK, Netflix US, iTunes, HBO...) would be awesome.

<comment><USER9> This is a basic feature of all the private TV trackers i've been on. I've yet to see a good one that's publicly available and not associated with some piracy site.

<comment><USER15> They all use <http://thetvdb.com/> iirc.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Pretty cool for TV watching! In my case, I do most of my TV watching online - Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, etc. And when I sit down to watch something I spend 90% of my time searching for a show and obviously end up not watching anything :-P Anybody else has the same "problem"? Anybody know of a product that keeps an eye on my different sources and tells me when something new or interesting (for me) pops up?

</comment><comment><USER16> FYI, "sezon" (sic) is written as "season." Cool project!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks!

<comment><USER17> Also, when listing episodes, the date "unknow" should be "unknown".

Nice site, I really like the clean design. I'll be using this in conjunction with TV Calendar (<http://www.pogdesign.co.uk/cat/>).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Android users, if you are looking for a great way to track your show, you should try out SeriesGuide Show Manager, excellent app: [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.battlelanc...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.battlelancer.seriesguide&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5iYXR0bGVsYW5jZXIuc2VyaWVzZ3VpZGUiXQ.).

</comment><comment><USER19> Really good job on this. One feature that you might want to think about is adding support for timezones. I live in Europe so I have to re-calculate all times in my head. It would be nice to have an option to set a specific timezone.

<comment><AUTHOR> Good idea, I will add It soon.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Dude, you should put an about page. Link to who you are, why you did this, how do I find you? (Twitter, FB etc. This is a really good piece for your portfolio.

Good developers (who have ideas & are proactive) are always in high demand!

</comment><comment><USER21> Really nice! Maybe I'm missing it, but a series filter would be great on the home page. I'd like to type the name of the program I'm interested in and just hit enter. Gonna bookmark this either way and see how it develops.

</comment><comment><USER22> Awesome.

Give me an email notification option for when they'll be aired and this will be perfect.

<comment><USER20> Yes, +1 for some type of notification. When shows are added (Nurse Jackie?) or when a new date is added

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Is it automated?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes

<comment><USER23> Would be interesting to hear more about how you built it.

<comment><AUTHOR> twitter bootstrap + simple scripts in PHP. I've created small custom cms to add new series. I get episodes and air dates from epguides.com. Hosting: Cheap linode instance.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Looks great! A web feed (and/or email notifications) of selected shows would be helpful.

By the way, a similar service for album releases: <https://muspy.com/>

</comment><comment><USER25> I have been using <http://episodecalendar.com/> for this, to manage my shows and where im at. Does anyone have similar picks?

<comment><USER26> I've been using episodecalendar too, great service.

<comment><USER27> <http://myepisodes.com/>

Keeps track of which shows you've watched, which you need to record, and which you have but haven't watched yet.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Nice work, very impressive for a weekend project! Did something similar a couple years ago called <http://remembertowatch.com>.

</comment><comment><USER29> This is great. If you could then link each episode to a torrent on the pirate bay and notify me each time a new episode is released, you would be my hero.

</comment><comment><USER30> Can someone explain what is the difference between this and existing ones like: <http://onmytv.info/>

<comment><USER31> Simplicity.

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> I use <http://followmy.tv>.

Screenshot: <http://imgur.com/nJmvx>

</comment><comment><USER33> for me theres too many missing shows for this to be useful. Just because I'm american I dislike the date formatting. The list by seasons should be in reverse order from the latest, because really isn't that what matters. Theres a lot of other resources for this, but I'd like to see it in a weekly type view, but again theres too many missing shows.

</comment><comment><USER34> my fav website like this has been <http://www.pogdesign.co.uk/cat/>

</comment><comment><USER35> Great idea! On the long run, if you keep it as simple as possible and clutter free, you'll have a winner. Good job.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for positive feedback.

<comment><USER36> I like the simplicity of this. Where are you pulling the thumbnail images from?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> Please add support for showing the air time and (if you select your TV provider) channel.

</comment><comment><USER38> I use www.mytvrss.com which can be customized for specific shows.

</comment><comment><USER39> What about adding a feature for email/sms/calendar reminders?

</comment><comment><USER40> Didn't have the first show I went to check. (Shark Tank)

</comment><comment><USER41> Needs more Adventure Time! Other than that, nice.

</comment><comment><USER42> Season <\--- is spelled this way, not sezon.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> Great, where do you get your data?

</comment><comment><USER44> Nice work!

</comment><comment><USER45> Very cool

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER46> awesome!</comment>


HN meet-up at JavaOne - <AUTHOR>

Taking advantage of the thriving conversation regarding PG's Java predictions, I'd like to invite anyone who's interested to meet-up at JavaOne.  Propose times and places and we'll see if there's a consensus. <comment><AUTHOR> The other conversation is here: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4504375>

<comment><AUTHOR> I just checked my schedule and I think the best chance for me attending would be Sunday night after the keynote (it ends at 7:00PM) or Wednesday after 5:30PM. Tuesday would be almost undoable as I've got sessions until 8:30 and my hotel is in Oakland.

Anyone else?</comment></comment>


Yahoo Pipes a powerful composition tool to aggregate, manipulate, and mashup - <AUTHOR> http://www.theideallab.com/productivity/tools/yahoo-pipes-a-powerful-composition-tool-to-aggregate-manipulate-and-mashup/

<comment><USER2> true.I have been using it since it was launched. since then loving it.

my most cloned one is local search (kijiji, google base and craigslist): [http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?_id=605e7d7d80e11d957...](http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?_id=605e7d7d80e11d95741639cf9ea8ad44)</comment>


What's new, Atlas? – Boston Dynamics [video] - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRj34o4hN4I <comment><USER2> Looks like they're doing something with rapidly flexing pistons to stabilize. Anyone know what this is?

</comment><comment><USER3> Well, this is incredible...Robots are doing CrossFit now.

</comment><comment><USER4> Kung Fu Robot</comment>


Question about tech choices for app dev on android - <AUTHOR> Hi all,
I have an idea or two for simple and useful android apps, honestly they have been done before.  I am looking a doing them as a learning experience for mobile app dev.  Flutter looks really cool to me, I do have an attraction to shiny things that don't always work out.  I am aware of other options java/kotan and typescript/javascript/framework. It is not a very informed view.  I am thinking about TS as potnetially the quickest path to done and a marketable skill.  What are your thoughts on the matter?
Thanks,
M <comment><USER2> Me, I would go with Java as it is the "standard" language and I have a lot of experience with Java outside of Android. I have looked at Kotlin and my feeling it is on paper better than Java but in practice it is not much better than recent Java versions, not enough to be worth a new language.

If you are familiar with some other language that would change the equation.</comment>


Ubuntu is everywhere - <AUTHOR> https://insights.ubuntu.com/2016/04/07/ubuntu-is-everywhere/ <comment><USER2> It appears that Ubuntu is indeed, as I said, taking on Debian's "universal operating system" mantle.

* [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11415985](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11415985)</comment>


Pandemic not a threat to 'FIRE' movement - <AUTHOR> http://greyenlightenment.com/pandemic-not-a-threat-to-fire-movement/ <comment><USER2> > 1\. Joblessness due to the pandemic overwhelmingly affects low-income > workers. A recent survey showed "40 percent of households earning less than > $40K lost jobs in March," but most people who adhere to FIRE are in tech, > medical, and other high-paying fields, so their pay has not been disrupted, > and are able to work at home instead of being laid off.

That's not true at all. There are plenty of people on the FIRE forums that are going at it with low to medium paying fields - though many of their plans do involve trying to transition to a higher paying field. Making a blanket statement about the jobs had by FIRE adherents is a threat to the perception of the 'FIRE' movement.</comment>


Next-Gen Mazda2 Will Return 70 MPG, Without An Electric Motor - <AUTHOR> http://www.greencarreports.com/blog/1050675_next-gen-mazda2-will-return-70-mpg-without-an-electric

<comment><USER2> No it won't.

The 70mpg figure is from the Japanese test.

 _The Mazda release said the car would achieve 70 miles per gallon, but that number was based on the Japanese test cycle, meaning American mileage would be lower. A 15 percent increase from the existing Mazda 2 would result in a combined 37 m.p.g. (For comparison, the Toyota Prius, which gets a combined 50 m.p.g. from the Environmental Protection Agency, achieves 89 m.p.g. in the Japanese test.)_

More accurate article here:

[http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/21/mazda-next- genera...](http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/21/mazda-next-generation- mazda-2-will-get-70-m-p-g/)

</comment><comment><USER3> With a compression ratio of 14:1, it will be interesting to see if this car requires 91+ Octane (Premium Unleaded). Higher compression ratios are a great way of squeezing more power out of the same amount of gasoline, but raising the compression ratio also raises the risk of detonation.

Detonation occurs when the pressure and temperature inside the cylinder cause the air-fuel mixture to literally detonate, rather than burn (relatively) slowly and evenly as desired. If this occurs before the spark, it is called pre-ignition. When it occurs after the spark, while the flame front is progressing through the cylinder, it is referred to as detonation. Higher octane fuels are more resistant to detonation and pre-ignition, and usually go hand-in-hand with higher compression ratios.

As a side note, E85 Ethanol has a ridiculously high octane rating, among other things, which allows for higher compression ratios and much higher boost in forced-induction engines. I keep hoping E85 will catch on outside of the corn belt so I can effectively get race gas performance from pump gas in my turbocharged motor, but no such luck yet.

There are plenty of tricks that can be played to reduce the risk of detonation using low-octane fuels in high compression motors. Efficient head design with excellent cooling will reduce cylinder temperatures and minimize hot spotting within the cylinder head, reducing the risks of detonation and pre-ignition. Getting the heat out of the valves is particularly challenging as they only meet the cylinder head in a relatively small contact patch. The valves can be filled with sodium, which turns to liquid as the motor reaches operating temperature and circulates within the valve, cooling the valve and further reduce hot spots (pre-ignition points) within the motor. Also, designing the piston and head to thoroughly mix and swirl the intake charge helps create a quick, even, clean burn.

However, to get up to 14:1 on a production motor, I wonder if Mazda is playing serious games with the intake camshaft timing to reduce the effective compression ratio. If you leave the intake valves open long enough after the piston begins the compression stroke, it will actually push a tiny amount of air back out of the intake valves, reducing the effective compression ratio of the motor at top dead center. With variable valve timing, Mazda could just be doing this near full load, where detonation and pre-ignition are problems. At partial load, you can get away with much higher compression ratios (up to 20:1 in certain cases, IIRC) with associated increases in efficiency (and thus higher MPG).

Either way, I'm glad to see more efficient internal combustion engines. The internal combustion engine is a 100+ year old technology, so significant improvements are hard to come by without drastically increasing the cost of the motor. Good stuff.

<comment><USER4> It's guaranteed they are using some sort of variable valve timing, however I wouldn't dismiss a non-timed 14:1 motor. If they toss in some forged internals and keep the displacement small, they don't even need any sort of VVT to lower the dynamic compression ratio. My R6 has something like a 13.1:1 compression ratio with no VVT. Granted, the cam probably has some overlap.

<comment><USER3> Good point.

Motorcycle engines, with their smaller cylinder sizes and thus lower combustion chamber surface area vs. volume, have a much easier time cooling their cylinders and heads. This reduces hot spotting, making it easier to get away with larger displacements. I'm sure there was a healthy amount of overlap in your cam, since that motor was designed to rev to the moon.

Still, I did have a 14:1 piston in my single-cylinder, 450cc dirt bike motor and ran 91 Octane in it all day long without problems. Granted, I never took it below 4000ft altitude, which probably helped, but the cylinder, head, and valves were all designed for excellent cooling. And I had a really aggressive cam setup.

Either way, kudos to Mazda for pushing the limits here.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> People still won't buy it unless it is decent sized and powerful. The same reasons why VW didn't bring in the 1 liter turbo diesel that got something like 100mpg. The fuel has been available since 2007, there just isn't much market yet. Drive fuel prices sky high again and maybe...

<comment><USER5> Then why do you see smart cars everywhere? They're millage isn't that much better than a yaris! I would love to have a climate controlled aerodynamic motorcycle (which is what he 1L car is) A ton of people would purchase the car. Hell you can go from SF to NY on 13 gallons of gas with it. Hell you could put 2 Jerry cans in the trunk and never have to stop at a gas station! Most of the time when I'm driving, it's just one or two people plus a few bags of groceries, it's a great second car for anybody who has to commute 1 or 2 hours every day and have a family pile into the sedan when you all want to go together.

<comment><USER6> _I would love to have a climate controlled aerodynamic motorcycle (which is what he 1L car is_

You have either never driven a motorcycle or never driven a car with a 1L engine.

Even a 'slow' motorcycle beats ridiculous sports cars in 0-60 times. the suzuki sv650 I rode a while back? it's not a particular sporty bike, but it's rated at 0-60 in 3.7 seconds. You are competing with the tesla at that point, in a vehicle that was less than $6K out the door, brand new.

the geo metro that was my first car? (1 liter, 3 cylinder) it was approaching a 13 second 0-60. It's a completely different experience than a motorcycle. (and costs significantly more if you buy it new.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> As I often say "My 7 year old Rover 25 diesel gets actual 50mpg with 115hp (0-60 approx 9s)... And the wreck only cost me $1500 (£1000 in UK)".

I've a career in Mech/Auto Eng, so I know it's more complicated than that. Nonetheless, it shows how the car industry can confuse with these headline figures.

I will add that I'd probably rather breathe the exhaust of my Rover (with micron-scale smoke particles) than that of a modern car (with more biologically-active nano-scale particles)

<comment><USER4> Actually, the soot in diesel exhaust is much more carcinogenic than that of a (well tuned) gas engine. There are various studies, one california based study showed diesel soot was up to 70% of cancer for californians. Not saying that I want to breath either, but i'd rather suck down a mouthful of gasoline engine exhaust than diesel soot while on my morning bike commute.

Edited to add: After reading a bit more, I see your point. I guess there have been new studies since I last read that show that per unit of mass, the volatile organic compounds in gasoline exhaust are more harmful, they just have less volume than diesels. Seems to be about a draw.

<comment><USER2> In the US, yes, but thats a US problem.

But diesel in the UK now has 10 ppm sulfur.

In the US it used to be higher than 500 ppm, now its regulated to 500ppm for some vehicles and lower for some other classes.

Starting in 2014 all US will be 15ppm.

<comment><USER4> Actually, in the US it was 500ppm in 2007 (LSD), and by the end of 2010 it will all be ULSD (15ppm sufur) for onroad vehicles. 2014 is when the exemptions for some small offroad vehicles and the like are removed. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra- low_sulfur_diesel#United_...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra- low_sulfur_diesel#United_States)

Also, soot isn't directly related to sulfur in fuels. It's the suit removing mechanisms in newer diesel vehicles that are ruined by sulfur, so newer vehicles can't run fuel with sulfur in it without incurring a large repair bill. An older diesel vehicle that belches out soot will continue to do so, regardless of sulfur content.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


David Cameron – less popular in Scotland than Windows 8 - <AUTHOR> http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/08/scottish-independence-david-cameron-no-campaign-windows-8

<comment> o0-0o Two quick thougths on this are; a) if i were gonna vote YES, i would talk about Cameron all the time - calling him to the carpet - and b) start talking about Windows ME if I were David Cameron.

^_ _</comment>