Netflix and the Napoleon Dynamite Problem (2008) - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/23/magazine/23Netflix-t.html <comment><USER2> From what I understand, they never implemented any of the algorithms, because their existing one was good enough, and the premise has changed. It used to be, you'd make suggestions so people could get DVDs sent to them, and you'd know they would enjoy it. Now with streaming, the cost to send something you don't like is cheap. So the recommendation engine just has to come up with something you'd try to watch and perhaps enjoy. If you start watching something, it's not your taste, you switch streams. So there's not a lot to gain from improving recommendations 10% unless they were pretty low quality ratings to begin with.

<comment><USER3> I think the cost of postage/fulfillment/bandwidth should be a secondary concern to how many users can Netflix attract by providing content they actually enjoy. A bad recommendation for streaming or DVD both waste n minutes of viewing time. A bad DVD recommendation additionally wastes 2-6 days of waiting on USPS.

They already have the recommendation engine built and they need every differentiation they can get to compete with the crowd of streaming providers.

<comment><USER4> I completely agree. Real hype is generated when Netflix consistently nails recommendation. Content is still king, but curation of that content is the engine that drives the whole thing

<comment><USER5> I agree about your "real hype" statement. There is always the potential for a provider to build business value by nailing recommendation, _especially_ when it comes to lesser known content. Most viewers have heard of big-budget films they plan to watch, or they'll watch any movie with <insert actor>. However, if someone created a system that did this well enough for users to trust it with unknown content, it would go a long way toward meaningful differentiation.

Right now, I don't know of anyone who has limited spare time who would risk trying something unknown just because it shows up in their Netflix recommendations. If Netflix got those right frequently, people would rely on it more and probably enjoy it more. A 10% increase in accuracy has a decent chance to push beyond the invisible "good enough to trust" threshold and create an experience other streaming services just don't have.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> "If you use a computerized system based on ratings, you will tend to get very relevant but safe answers"... I call this my "Radiohead metric": for a given music recommendation system, how long do I have to use it before it tries to recommend me Radiohead.

One of the problems I find in music algorithms is they can't know how I've changed - suggesting music based on what I play or input - but that's stuff I liked in mid-2000s when I was in peak music consumption mode. Most suggestions then get picked from the same pool.

I'd love these algorithms to take my age into consideration: "If you liked X when you were 25, you're going to love Y now that you're 35!"

<comment><USER7> Applying weight to each rating based on its age seems like such an obvious fix that someone must have tried it and realized that it makes things worse.

<comment><USER8> Maybe, but I'd think you'd have to take the age weight with a pinch of salt.

The are 14 year olds who are obsessed with jazz and blues, while some 70 year olds only listen to hardcore punk and deathgrind

<comment><USER7> Age of the vote, not age of the voter.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> All those hours and millions of dollars into perfecting their recommendation system, and Popcorn Time still has a better UI for viewing movies than Netflix does. Just show me all the top movies and let me pick one, why partition them into drama/comedy and filter out the one's you don't think I'll like? it makes the experience worse.

<comment><USER10> Or you know, just let me use scrollbars instead of having to wait for your stupid javascript to SLOOOOOWLY pan the movie list. And then I have to hover and usually click through to get details about a movie.

What's wrong with vertical lists with relevant information next to the picture? Something like every shopping interface ever? Using Netflix is like going to a grocery store, deciding that you want some canned corn, and having to walk up to a conveyer belt and wait while canned beans, turnips, tomatoes, mushrooms, etc... slide by before the corn comes around. And it is like this for every single item.

<comment><USER11> Seriously, Netflix' UI is a complete trainwreck. The searching is painful too. I still cannot find a way to say "give me all your View Askew movies" or "all your DC Animated movies". The search is woefully primitive and there is functionally no UI for categories... can't I just pick multiple category tags? Or see _all_ the categories you're using under the hood?

<comment><USER12> I agree there are some problems with the ui, but at the same time the number of devices they design for is quite large (desktop web, mobile phone, set-top boxes, Apple TV, Google TV, Amazon TV, etc). Creating a UI that is consistent between all of them must be a bit daunting.

<comment><USER13> So don't do that. Make a few UIs. They are a big company, they can do that if they actually have anyone who knows how to program.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I've been getting increasingly frustrated at Netflix, because it keeps recommended things I have already seen, or definitely do not want to see. Having to keep scrolling through unwanted content like that really reinforces just how dumb it is, despite all these claims about their intelligence.

Eventually I did figure out that on the website you can say you aren't interested in particular items, but Android/Roku etc do not have that option. Of course those Netflix employees who work on this stuff deal with the PC/web based interface all the time, but apparently don't realise that not everyone does that.

Android/Roku etc do let you set ratings on items, but to me there is a big difference between "I am not interested in this item" and "I have watched it and give it one star".

<comment><USER15> > Eventually I did figure out that on the website you can say you aren't > interested in particular items

I didn't know you could do this. Looking forward to telling Netflix that no, I do not want to watch The Interview.

<comment><USER16> I haven't looked into in a while, but from what I remember it lets you say whether you are interested in categories of content and not specific content.

<comment><USER17> You can say not interested specific content as well (on the web interface at least). It doesn't always seem to get the message straight away though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I'm not sure there's a reasonable way past the "Napoleon Dynamite Problem". They mentioned, in the article, other movies where it's difficult to predict if someone would like them or not.

The list was "I Heart Huckabees," "Lost in Translation," "Fahrenheit 9/11," "The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou," "Kill Bill: Volume 1" and "Sideways."

Personally, the common thread I see across those is that the viewer would be more likely to enjoy the movie if they had the right context.

Kill Bill, for example, is far easier to enjoy if you've seen (not necessarily liked...but have seen) cheesy old Kung Fu / Karate movies.

Napoleon Dynamite is easier to appreciate if you were socially awkward yourself in high school. There's also some humor in there that's more relevant if you were a kid in the 80's, as well as some humor that might make more sense if you lived somewhere rural, or even more specifically, rural Idaho/Utah/Wisconsin.

All that to say that Netflix may not have enough data at their disposal to know if you have the right context to enjoy movies that almost require it.

<comment><USER19> Yea, a user's expectations surely plays a role here. I am unsure how computers would be able to notice someone "gets it" while someone else just stumbled upon the movie.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> To be fair, even people aren't able to judge a movie properly. People often change their opinion of movies on second viewing.

Just watching a movie at different times of day can significantly alter your opinion of a movie.

<comment><USER21> Agreed here. I also think that the overall vagueness of the five-star rating system makes it hard for users to express their true opinion. Algorithms are "garbage-in, garbage-out", and I think a five-star rating response represents "garbage-in". Unfortunately it would be risky and expensive for Netflix to change its rating system at this point.

<comment><USER22> Interesting. What do you think is vague about the five star system? Or is it any rating system that would be "garbage-in"?

Being interested in video games, I've thought a lot about rating systems. Older magazines used to use 10 (or even 100) point scales, and you quickly realize all the rating ends up taking place in the top 30-40 percent of your scale anyway... so why not limit the gradations. For my money, 5 stars makes sense... you've got a middle of the road "average" 3 star movie, and then two stars above and below.

<comment><USER21> My thoughts are generally in line with yours - big problem from the consumer's perspective is tendency for most titles to end up in the 3.8 to 4.2 range. Not very helpful when I'm browsing titles.

The stars are also just a snapshot of feeling, and don't account for any context like expectations, identity, mood etc. Maybe I'd give Black Swan five stars because it was impressive and won awards, but it doesn't mean I necessarily enjoyed it or would recommend it to others. Perhaps a system based loosely on Net Promoter Score ideas could be more helpful

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> A controversial observation might be they maximize profit by having the most people sign up and then stream the least possible, correct? And they have a semi-monopoly, correct, where theres no real competition? I mean, I have and use Prime but I don't seriously watch videos and I'm in it for the shipping...

Anyway there's this assumption that they'd want to present results that encourage you to watch as much as possible, yet they have a financial incentive to present results that are just barely good enough that you won't cancel and/or sign up for a minor competitor.

This is NOT like a public library card catalog where next years funding depends on increasing circulation counts.

In some ways I think my proposed search result criteria are more difficult than presenting result I'd actually want.

</comment><comment><USER24> Netflix, having crushed the video store industry, no longer needs this. What's the alternative? Redbox?

 _" Even though Netflix has a good deal of demographic information about its users, the company does not currently use it much to generate movie recommendations; merely knowing who people are, paradoxically, isn't very predictive of their movie tastes."_

"Targeted" advertising suffers from that model. Demographics matter only a little. What you've bought (which Amazon knows) matters far more.

</comment><comment><USER25> I feel like one thing Netflix doesn't do a good job of noticing is what movies I actually order/watch. That is, the mere fact that I ordered a movie means a lot, whether or not I rate it.

The biggest manifestation of this issue is that I tend to order new movies, but I seem to get a lot of recommendations for older movies. Netflix should see that I've ordered maybe 2 out of 200 movies that are older than the year 2000.

</comment><comment><USER26> Netflix doesn't show user comments in the app version of its (streaming) product.

I'm sure there are reasons for this. Nonetheless, it continues to strike me that, in that context, their own, internal information on product offerings is restricted to a two sentence blurb and an unqualified single five start rating metric.

</comment><comment><USER27> There's a related problem: if you enjoy both good movies and some so-bad- they're-good movies, how do you rate the latter?

</comment><comment><USER28> In Notes from Underground, Dostoevsky nailed the reason computers and science and algorithms will never be able to replicate humanity or predict the actions of man, when he wrote:

"What is to be done with the millions of facts that bear witness that men, consciously, that is fully understanding their real interests, have left them in the background and have rushed headlong on another path, to meet peril and danger, compelled to this course by nobody and by nothing, but, as it were, simply disliking the beaten track, and have obstinately, wilfully, struck out another difficult, absurd way, seeking it almost in the darkness. So, I suppose, this obstinacy and perversity were pleasanter to them than any advantage...

The fact is, gentlemen, it seems there must really exist something that is dearer to almost every man than his greatest advantages, or (not to be illogical) there is a most advantageous advantage (the very one omitted of which we spoke just now) which is more important and more advantageous than all other advantages, for the sake of which a man if necessary is ready to act in opposition to all laws; that is, in opposition to reason, honour, peace, prosperity -- in fact, in opposition to all those excellent and useful things if only he can attain that fundamental, most advantageous advantage which is dearer to him than all. "Yes, but it's advantage all the same," you will retort. But excuse me, I'll make the point clear, and it is not a case of playing upon words. What matters is, that this advantage is remarkable from the very fact that it breaks down all our classifications, and continually shatters every system constructed by lovers of mankind for the benefit of mankind. In fact, it upsets everything...

One's own free unfettered choice, one's own caprice, however wild it may be, one's own fancy worked up at times to frenzy -- is that very "most advantageous advantage" which we have overlooked, which comes under no classification and against which all systems and theories are continually being shattered to atoms. And how do these wiseacres know that man wants a normal, a virtuous choice? What has made them conceive that man must want a rationally advantageous choice? What man wants is simply independent choice, whatever that independence may cost and wherever it may lead. And choice, of course, the devil only knows what choice.

Of course, this very stupid thing, this caprice of ours, may be in reality, gentlemen, more advantageous for us than anything else on earth, especially in certain cases… for in any circumstances it preserves for us what is most precious and most important -- that is, our personality, our individuality. Some, you see, maintain that this really is the most precious thing for mankind; choice can, of course, if it chooses, be in agreement with reason… It is profitable and sometimes even praiseworthy. But very often, and even most often, choice is utterly and stubbornly opposed to reason ... and ... and ... do you know that that, too, is profitable, sometimes even praiseworthy?

I believe in it, I answer for it, for the whole work of man really seems to consist in nothing but proving to himself every minute that he is a man and not a piano-key! …And this being so, can one help being tempted to rejoice that it has not yet come off, and that desire still depends on something we don't know?

You will scream at me (that is, if you condescend to do so) that no one is touching my free will, that all they are concerned with is that my will should of itself, of its own free will, coincide with my own normal interests, with the laws of nature and arithmetic. Good heavens, gentlemen, what sort of free will is left when we come to tabulation and arithmetic, when it will all be a case of twice two make four? Twice two makes four without my will. As if free will meant that!"

I think it comes down to authenticity. Humans can predict the actions of humans, so long as humans act by and large as they think they're supposed to act or like the things they think they're supposed to like. The moment an individual walks in, an individual who does what they truly want to do when they want to do it, all correlations and inferences and predictors fall to waste.

<comment><USER29> The point of any system should never be to choose for a person, but rather, to improve the quality of available choices.

<comment><USER28> In that case, aren't you, in effect, choosing for me the set of choices available to me for selection, based upon a preconceived notion of "quality"?

The Underground Man goes on to say, "I agree that two times two makes four is an excellent thing; but if we are dispensing praise, then two times two makes five is sometimes a most charming little thing as well."

Would two times two makes five be included in a set of high-quality choices?

<comment><USER30> And Rush said, "If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.".

There is no alternative to curation. If you display all the possible options, there is still the order -- humans, being humans, will not thoroughly read and equally consider even a list of a thousand options, so the order will affect their choice. Choosing to display the results in random order, or in alphabetical order, or in chronological order, is still a decision which affects the choice of the user.

Curation cannot be avoided, as long as we are men.

I am reminded of Stanislaw Lem's Demon of the Second Kind.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Improving Document Preview Performance - <AUTHOR> https://blogs.dropbox.com/tech/2017/12/improving-document-preview-performance/ <comment><USER2> Hello everyone! Author here. Happy to answer any question!</comment>


Communicating Sequential Processes - <AUTHOR> http://www.usingcsp.com/

<comment><USER2> Thanks should go to Jim Davies at the Dept of Computer Science, University of Oxford for editing & releasing this updated version on the web by the way.

( <http://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/people/jim.davies/> )

</comment><comment><USER3> There is a library for Haskell that is largely inspired by these ideas.

You can find the project page at <http://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/projects/ofa/chp/> and an introduction to CSP that relates the ideas back to this library here [http://chplib.wordpress.com/2009/11/16/an-introduction-to- co...](http://chplib.wordpress.com/2009/11/16/an-introduction-to- communicating-sequential-processes/)

</comment><comment><USER4> Here's a link to a PDF of the original 1978 paper:

[http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.132...](http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.132.6772&rep=rep1&type=pdf)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> via <http://golang.org/doc/effective_go.html#concurrency>

</comment><comment><USER5> Slightly off topic, but does anyone have experience of the Software Engineering course mentioned at the end of the linked page? The functional/concurrent programming courses look quite interesting, speaking as someone who hasn't studied CS formally, but has dabbled in Haskell/PL theory and would like to learn more.

<comment><USER2> I work in the department, so I can at least tell you who to ask if you've got any questions: Email is in my profile.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> related by Hewitt (1973) and Agha:

[http://gbracha.blogspot.com/2011/01/maybe-monads-might- not-m...](http://gbracha.blogspot.com/2011/01/maybe-monads-might-not- matter.html)</comment>


To Explain Longevity Gap, Look Past Health System - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/22/science/22tier.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

<comment><USER2> As much as I like fact-based smackdowns, this seem a bit thin to me. Particularly the big conclusion:

 _"The U.S. has had one spectacular achievement in preventive medicine," he says. "It has had the largest drop in cigarette consumption per adult of any developed country since 1985."_

But didn't we just learn, a few paragraphs back that:

 _"For four decades, until the mid-1980s, per-capita cigarette consumption was higher in the United States (particularly among women) than anywhere else in the developed world."_

So the one big comparative success in preventative medicine may just be a statistical fluke based on the larger number of smokers. How do the stats compare if you ask what percentage of smokers quit? If the percentage is the exact same the US per-capita drop would be higher simply because more cigarettes were smoked intially.

I'm also not sure being "more likely to recieve medication" for a short list of problems is necessarily a good thing if lifestyle changes could have a better effect (both from the perspective of the patient and of taxpayers funding the treatment).

</comment><comment><USER3> I belong to a number of health-related lists. The debate about the healthcare system raged on endlessly on some of those lists. Any time I said that there are other differences between the US and other countries besides who pays the medical bills, it was largely ignored. So I was happy to see this article -- and never mind that it is also getting ignored as there are no comments on it (other than mine now).

<comment><AUTHOR> I had posted this partly because it offered another point of view on the health care debate, but mostly as an example of how people can misunderstand data and come to suspect conclusions.

I would think this is of general interest to people looking to understand a market or some behavior. Certainly more comments would be welcome.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: What is your job role and what are the side projects you are working on? - <AUTHOR> The question in itself is self-explanatory. Please mention your normal day job role (backend developer, full stack engineer etc) and what are the side projects you are doing currently. This question is about having insight about what people are doing. <comment><USER3> Java Developer / Linux Sysadmin.

* Android location sharing app - [https://graticule.link/](https://graticule.link/)

* HN "Who's Hiring?" thread search frontend - [https://hnjobs.emilburzo.com/](https://hnjobs.emilburzo.com/)

* DIY home monitoring - [http://ambient.emilburzo.com/#overview](http://ambient.emilburzo.com/#overview)

* SMS enabler for crippled Nexus 7 2013 LTE tablets - [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.emilburzo....](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.emilburzo.nexus7sms)

* A webapp for browsing the top 1000 indebted companies from Romania - [http://datoriistat.emilburzo.com/top1000](http://datoriistat.emilburzo.com/top1000) (it's in Romanian)

* A paragliding exam refresher/quiz (not online yet)

<comment><USER4> What are you using for monitoring individual rooms?

<comment><USER3> Right now I have the following on a breadboard (see [1] for the illustrated version)

* ATTiny84

* DHT22 temp/humidity sensor

* 433 MHz TX module

* 3 x AAA batteries

* LED used for signalling (like booting up)

Initially I was using an Arduino Nano, but I couldn't optimize it enough so that it can live only on batteries, so I went with the ATTiny which is pretty impressive.

My oldest sensor node has been running for over 6 months on the same batteries and it still has some juice left (3.9V currently, it should work until it gets below 3.7V)

After I've settled with a final design I'm planning to solder it on a perfboard.

The DHT22 sensor accuracy is my only issue left, specifically the humidity measurement part (see [2] for some extensive research by someone smarter than me).

Everything is on github[3] but it's pretty messy at the moment (hardcoded and such) because there's never enough time for everything.

[1] - [https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ambient- monitoring/node/ma...](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ambient- monitoring/node/master/node_breadboard.png)

[2] - [http://www.kandrsmith.org/RJS/Misc/Hygrometers/calib_dht22.h...](http://www.kandrsmith.org/RJS/Misc/Hygrometers/calib_dht22.html)

[3] - [https://github.com/ambient-monitoring](https://github.com/ambient- monitoring)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Senior software engineer @ Gogobot

In my day job I do 100% of Gogobot's Devops. I feel that statup stacks are too complicated to bootstrap on the cloud so I am working on the-startup-stack[1]

It's a framework to get things started, it's a toolset of other open source tools to consolidate everything under one roof with a set or production-ready bulletproof recipes.

I realize it's a mouthful, docs attached.

[1] [http://docs.the-startup-stack.com/](http://docs.the-startup-stack.com/)

I've been working on this during my spare time for a long time now. I have 3 startups already running on earlier versions of this and it's a work in progress.

Looking for contributors and early adopters.

<comment><USER6> I haven't looked at your docs more than 30 seconds yet, but I totally agree that it would be incredibly useful for there to exist a book/docs, set of tools, configurations, etc to get started more quickly and not have to reinvent the wheel. I think documentation is actually a major primary component of such an effort, so awesome to see you start with docs.

<comment><USER5> I spent 80% of the time on docs and I am making sure that every doc I write I follow like I have no idea what this project is about.

This means, going back with every step of the doc and making sure it is 100% reproducible and viable.

The most frustrating thing to me in the Devops world is missing documentation because the author thinks/assumes his readers know X or Y.

With these docs (and I would appreciate any feedback here or on Github) it's not the case, you can follow it as an engineer with no Devops background and you will be able to bootstrap the cluster.

It's still very much an effort and a WIP, but it's getting there.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Job Role:

Firmware developer with some scripting on the side. C, shell script, Python, ARM/Thumb ASM on occasion. Mostly C.

Side project(s):

Probabilistic programming in Haskell and Venture. This involves using Haskell and Python to do most of the coding. Writing a paper involving some information theoretic properties of certain probabilistic programs, which involved translating a bunch of estimators to get them working quickly on larger datasets.

Also eventually going to finish formalizing the correctness of my type- inference algorithm in Coq.

I eventually want to learn enough of how monad-bayes and Clash work to write a compiler that takes monad-bayes probabilistic programs down to hardware descriptions I can flash onto an FPGA and use it as an accelerator for probprog.

</comment><comment><USER8> Data Engineer consultant - Working with Spark, Hadoop, HBase, Kafka, HIVE, scikit-learn, Yarn, LOTS of crappy legacy Java. Python

Startup 1: Media monitoring - Cassandra, Kafka, RabbitMQ, scikit-learn, nodejs, AngularJS, Python, Cython, Postgres, Spark, Hadoop

Startup 2: Forex Trading - Keras, TensorFlow, Kafka, Spark, RabbitMQ, nodejs, postgres, Pandas, celery, scikit-learn, iOS App, Flink

<comment><USER9> Do you have links to either? I'd love to contribute!

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Backend developer.

Main side project is Tablesaw, a dataframe for "large" data (100M to 1B rows) in Java ([https://github.com/lwhite1/tablesaw](https://github.com/lwhite1/tablesaw)). Although, it might be better described as a personal, in-memory, column- oriented, data warehouse. :)

</comment><comment><USER11> Sr. Product Manager/Architect in Fraud Risk Management

Tickerstorm.io - An algo trading platform in Java (pretty early still).

Difference from other platforms I've found: integrated machine learning phase which reuses the same data pipelines used by the algo when backtesting or trading live. Trying to reuse as many open source frameworks as possible to reduce the amount of new things a user has to learn. Based on Apache Storm, H2O machine learning, guava, Spring Framework etc. Not HF focused.

Most other platforms start off with you coding up your rules and allow you to back test those assumptions. However, this platform also incorporates the discovery phase of these rules rather than just assume you already have a set of rules.

</comment><comment><USER12> Jobless student.

Current project: Going to HEB to buy detergent.

</comment><comment><USER13> DBA (Postgres, Oracle, MySQL) [https://rebrickable.com](https://rebrickable.com) \- A LEGO database that shows you which sets you can build from your existing collection, also includes thousands of fan-submitted designs.

</comment><comment><USER14> Backend developer working with prop trading outfit.

Side project - a concurrent stock exchange written in Haskell. Could potentially be used as a component of a bitcoin exchange if I get time to fully flesh it out.

</comment><comment><USER15> Job Role:

Senior Software Engineer - Working on a large-scale web app in Play Framework (Scala). I worked on various aspects (e.g. backend to frontend, incl. some DevOps).

Side Project(s):

Simpoel - A cross between Facebook groups and Meetup, based on Play Framework (Scala) + PostgreSQL on AWS, was in hibernation for almost a year... Now picking up steam again.

Diskusi - A Slack clone for learning Phoenix (Elixir) + Elm, just started.

</comment><comment><USER16> Software Engineer @ big old enterprise company doing security work.

Side projects: None. I believe in having a life outside of programming. I don't touch code after 5PM. Currently training to run a half-marathon and getting more serious about powerlifting.

</comment><comment><USER17> Senior BI/ETL Engineer working with DataStage and OBIEE.

Working on www.appsulagam.com : "Tamil language" content based mobile app discovery site. Learning Python, machine learning and text analysis for this project. Would appreciate any feedback/comments/help.

</comment><comment><USER18> Nonprofit researcher with web design/management responsibilities

Side project: vertical farming startup and website: [https://urbanverticalproject.wordpress.com/](https://urbanverticalproject.wordpress.com/)

Hydroponics installs

</comment><comment><USER19> software engineer, backend stuff, mostly c++

side project: working on a crossword editor, intended as a complement to the (fantastic) open source app qxw [[http://www.quinapalus.com/qxw.html](http://www.quinapalus.com/qxw.html)]. qxw does one thing (grid filling) and does it well; v1 of my app will import a grid from qxw and deal with adding clues to it, and publishing it in a variety of formats. v2 will add support for importing a blank grid and clues in various popular formats, and letting you solve the crossword interactively. (i might add a web frontend somewhere around then too; right now it's a desktop app in F#/Gtk#/.NET)

</comment><comment><USER20> Acoustical consultant - mainly to architects in new construction

Side project - building software tools for acoustics[1]

[1] [https://10log.com](https://10log.com)

</comment><comment><USER21> UI and UX Designer

Fixa: The baby of Uber and Angieslist

Dressed: On demand dress rental for girls in NYC(Currently Manhattan Only).

Symple: Airbnb for entertainment and services(DJs, bands, bartenders, photographers)

Qalendar: Saas startup focused on automating your life

</comment><comment><USER22> Day job, iOS developer

Side project, currently I am building an app to try to teach myself a new language (not programming language).

Also some other stuff which are more or less on and off.

</comment><comment><USER23> Non-standard CAE and mech / nuclear eng consultant. Side project - <USER2> local kids set up a small data science shop at www.databot.it

</comment><comment><USER24> Day Job: Senior Software Engineer

Side project: SaaS offering for service based small businesses, procedure and job instruction creation and management.

</comment><comment><USER25> Firmware Engineer on a wearable product. C, Python2, ARM, FreeRTOS.

Side project: a "long serverless" crossword analysis website. Python3, AWS.

</comment><comment><USER26> research and development general manager side project: working on sports disruption technology golang, js, redis, postgres, arduino, swift

</comment><comment> saiko-chriskun full-stack web developer.

working on a meal planning tool to help people eat healthier and a collaborative music streaming app.

elixir - clojurescript - rethinkdb.

<comment><USER27> Meal planning tool - Nice. I would be very interested to use if it could also give food recipes based on stuffs available with me.</comment></comment>


ApacheCon Europe publishes program for 2019 conference - <AUTHOR> https://aceu19.apachecon.com/news/program-schedule-online-now <comment><AUTHOR> Keynoters are Nanjala Nyabola (author & political analyst), Thomas Gageik (EU commission) and Miguel Gamiño (Mastercard). Dozens of Apache projects will be represented across dedicated project tracks, including Airflow, Beam, Calcite, Cassandra, Flink, Hivemall (incubating), HTTP Server, Ignite, IoTDB (incubating), Kafka, MXNet, Mynewt, NiFi, Spark, Tika, Tomcat, Training (incubating), and more.</comment>


The new legend of Zelda is a toy box of delights - noir-york https://www.1843magazine.com/culture/the-daily/the-new-legend-of-zelda-is-a-toy-box-of-delights <comment><AUTHOR> I've had so much fun with this game. The game design is on a whole other level.

The fact I can take a regular arrow, walk up to a campfire, light the arrow on fire, shoot the ground and light THAT on fire, create an updraft and ride it with the paraglider and then swing my hammer downwards to kill everything around me is incredible.

Quite possibly one of the best gaming experiences I've ever had.

<comment><USER2> Just out of curiosity, have you experienced any of these problems I keep hearing so much about? The videos from launch have led me to think everyone has scratched their screen and the system barely runs Zelda.

<comment> aaron-lebo The game does have performance issues. Anyone telling you they aren't there is either in love with the game (and not seeing it) or is only used to low framerate games

It's not an issue undocked (because it runs at 720) and the game looks fantastic. If you play docked, though, there's lots of performance stutters - look at a certain area, attack a specific enemy and framerate drops to sub-30 and it might stay that way for a few seconds.

That being said, it's a good enough game that you can ignore it and even forget about it, but it's always there. It's my only real issue with the game.

<comment><USER2> That seems reasonable. I just seen one video in particular where they made it seem like it's impossible not to scratch the screen on the recharging station, and very easy to put the handles on incorrectly and have them stuck, also dead pixels and the game just bugging out completely. I have no plans to buy one, as it's just not my cup of tea, but very interested to hear if this was actually common.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> I stopped playing video games by the time I started college. I can't recall once specific game or event or thought that spurred the change. Recently, as I near 30 yrs old, I wanted to step back into my childhood and picked up a Switch with Zelda. The game starts with a nice intro, light game mechanics, and then sets you loose. It has been a week and I have been playing 2-3 hours per day, every day. I can't remember the last time, I played a game that teleported me to a new world, feel like a kid, success. Any other games you all recommend from the last decade?

<comment><USER4> Mass Effect, Last of Us, Uncharted, Metal Gear Solid, God of War, Portal, Metroid Prime, Super Mario Galaxy.

Mass Effect 1-3 is one of the greatest space epics of all time. Seriously, amazing.

The Last of Us is just perfect storytelling, a true last hurrah to that generation.

Uncharted is straight up living the life of Indiana Jones in modern day, in the most AMAZING set pieces ever.

Metal Gear Solid, I don't even know how to begin. From the first game to the last, the vision, the scope, the insane story, the even more insane characters. It's the alpha and the omega in storytelling, and presentation.

God of War has the most insane boss battles.

Portal is just the most unique IP, totally different than anything else.

Metroid Prime brings Metroid into 3D PERFECTLY.

Mario Galaxy, is just charming.

<comment><USER5> I've been so disappointed by mass effet. After finishing fallout 2 recently, I looked up for some quality material, and people oversold it to me so I bought it on steam.

Yes, having a SF + FPS + RPG is an nice innovation. And the atmosphere is really well done. All in all it's a decent game, with several endings, and a finely crafted epic touch.

But it's nowhere close to the hype it got.

The dialogues are terrible. Star wars episode 2 level.

The environments are incredibly dull. Empty. Repetitive. "Illusion of openness" but really just closed connected corridors except on the empty planets. What saves the game is the space exploration system making you feel you are really bad ass.

The combat system is a mess. I never could tell when I was winning because of my skill or some chance. Does my new equipment works ? Was this spell used right ? No idea. I just powered through the last 2 levels because it was just more efficient. Like in any modern game, healing is so easy anyway.

The UI Is terrible. Your bag is full, but you can't mass manipulate things to sell them. Reading an item description takes a split second, which cumulatively makes choosing gear a torture.

The game is buggy. FPS drops (it's an old game on a recent graphic card, damn it), characters stuck in walls, camera not moving... I was ok with that... on the PS1.

The writing isn't close to any classical RPG (fallout, baldur's gate, final fantasy 7, tale of fantasia, chrono trigger...). The motivation of characters are underwhelming: you feel no passion, anger or driving emotion of any kind, nor intellectual master plans. Everything seems a reason and a shortcut to get going. The person you are playing has the charisma of an oyster. The backstories are the only thing not messed up, and each of your comrade have a cool unique personality.

And god, half of the game time is spent on those awful planet exploration transitions with the mako. Not to mention moving anywhere is slow and clunky while being a good part of the game. And those unskipable animations (docking, mako droping, elevators, mass relays...), really what were they thinking ? The game is basically unplayable without using the apparently famous "bind game acceleration to middle click" hack so you can just speed up time and not become crazy. Having to cheat in a game not to win but to be able to enjoy it is not good design.

<comment><USER4> Well, Mass Effect never put itself in the category of those CRPG's, ever. It's absolutely inline with Star Wars, as that is what it was HIGHLY influenced by.

If we're talking crummy UI, and buggy gameplay. ANYTHING in the Fallout series isn't exactly something I would hold up in high regards :)

Mass Effect is supposed to be a space opera, not an open world like you were looking for. It's very much a story driven, go to x y z story line. With _some_ branching.

If you've only played the first one, I can see why you'd have these reactions, it's A LOT rougher than the sequels. Which are far more polished.

<comment><USER5> I don't understand why you have been downvoted, since your reply makes sense. HN is a weird place, so many intelligent people and so many emotional reactions.

> ANYTHING in the Fallout series isn't exactly something I would hold up in > high regards :)

Yes, it's the only one in the list though. Plus Fallout 1 and 2 (the goods ones) are more complex and old than mass effect.

I didn't play KOTOR so I couldn't compare to it. The space opera part is definitely a success, so I didn't hate the game. I quite enjoyed it. It's just not on my "must play" list, which contrast with everything I heard or read about the game, some even stating it was the best game of their life. I got too high expectations.

<comment><USER4> Wasn't so much the gameplay for me, but the 100+ hours of story, and the universe that was created. If it wasn't for that god damn ME3 ending, it would have been a perfect trilogy for me.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Never played Zelda before. First Nintendo device was a Wii but did not buy Zelda. My daughters loved the Wii (sports,resort) but last year it finally went down (green tint screen). I thought about the WiiU but knew the Switch was on track and decided to wait it out.

The game has taken up our free time. I let my daughter drive but "we" played - as Zelda newbies we were helping each other out with ideas. Took about 2 days, but we finished the plateau with just one internet cheat [stasis shrine]. We are still getting a hang of the controls/camera and fighting. The game is so clean, scenic, responsive, detailed, responsible and well thought out. An immersive alternate reality. Kid friendly to boot.

I still know so little since we do not have prior Zelda history. Is there a trick to getting Rupees? Where to find arrows... how do we get powerful tools like swords and bows? Can I sell a horse that I trained? Better clothing? What do you buy vs find? In spite of all that we managed to finish the plateau and when we flew down in the paraglider, it actually felt like we accomplished something. And thats key... we were always making progress or when stuck went and did something else before coming back.

Side note: So what made me buy Zelda given that I had no history with it? Well, it was really the only real game that the system launched with (not counting 1-2 Switch as it is a demo). Lucked into it.

I am not sure how Nintendo did it. Perhaps I did not understand who Nintendo was (via the Wii). This game seems to expose their true capability and soul. Maybe there are other non Nintendo games as fluid as this; I just don't know.

Switch Negatives: Just an opinion... Wii Sports is better than 1-2 Switch.

<comment><USER7> > I still know so little since we do not have prior Zelda history.

It doesn't help, BotW is very different to all the previous games. Finding better swords and bows gets a lot better in time (probably another dozen hours), eventually you don't have to worry about stuff breaking so much (my biggest gripe early on).

But yes, you do have a misconception about nintendo, they are usually on the cutting edge of what can be done. That bit with the paraglider for instance, that's what stepping out into Hyrule field for the first time felt like 20 years ago.

<comment><USER8> > that's what stepping out into Hyrule field for the first time felt like 20 > years ago.

Or what taking the boat out onto sea in Wind Waker felt like.

They really have got feel right. Though I think some of the atmosphere isn't there in this Zelda.

I miss the music that plays at dawn in Wind Waker and also in Twilight Princess (and probably others). A very nice melody that doesn't seem to be in this game.

<comment><USER9> There's a bit of music that occasionally appears which seems to reference the dawn theme, but a lot of standard Zelda musical cues are mostly absent, and almost none of the ones that are there go where you'd expect. The approach to music in this game is so much more minimal, and they deliberately twisted it all slightly, probably to reinforce how BOTW is different to its predecessors while sharing some of the same ideas.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I only peripherally pay attention to games, but is my impression right that Nintendo is just a brilliantly innovative company, light years ahead of any other (major) gaming developer?

Off the top of my head, I see the Wii, Pokemon Go, and now this.

In addition to being innovative, they seem focused on artistry, creativity, and positive experiences for their customers. Wii in many ways encouraged collaboration and activity, playing with others (i.e., rather than alone with pizza all night long); it focused on that over flashy graphics and shock-and- gore. Pokemon Go got people out on their feet, interacting, exploring and engaging with their towns, creatively rather than garishly introduced them to the possibilities of new tech (AR), and was fun but not violent.

Perhaps that's already Nintendo's reputation; I don't know. But they don't get enough attention and praise IMHO. They seem to me to be like the Pixar or Apple of games, or better.

<comment><USER11> Pokemon Go was not Ninetendo, just Nintendo IP. There was an interesting market reaction once people realized this:

[http://www.polygon.com/2016/7/25/12270074/pokemon-go- nintend...](http://www.polygon.com/2016/7/25/12270074/pokemon-go-nintendo- stock-price)

That's not to say that Nintendo did anything to mislead the public, they didn't, it was just a widespread misconception.

As a gamer, Nintendo is somewhat "brilliantly innovative" but they also appear to be somewhat disconnected from their market. Pokemon Go is actually a good example. The Nintendo fan base is positively _starving_ for content and Nintendo seems to consistently underestimate demand.

Or as you suggest, perhaps they are more interested in being innovative rather than servicing their fan base.

So while I think they should be praised for being innovative I would also say two things:

* Pokemon Go is not at all their innovation

* They definitely have problems

<comment><USER10> Thanks for the clarification. Do they at least get credit for backing and popularizing Pokemon Go? Where would it be without Nintendo?

(Real questions; I'm not advocating for Nintendo.)

<comment><USER11> As I understand it, not really. Niantic took their Ingress platform and modified it slightly to work with Pokemon IP with a minigame (casting poke- balls) inside. The original PokeStops were actually Ingress points of interest :)

<comment><USER10> EDIT: Per Wikipedia, the idea for the game came from a Pokemon Company employee (owned 33% by Nintendo [0]), inspired by Ingress, and the game was developed at the Pokemon Company. Another link says "The Pokémon Company... and Nintendo jointly developed the app". Where does the story that it was all Niantic come from?

Per Wikipedia:

* Ingress: It was downloaded 8 million times "as of" 2015, about a year after its release, and claimed 7 million players in 2015.

* Pokemon Go: 130 million downloads in its first month, 650 million within 8 months. PG was "the most active mobile game in the United States ever with 21 million active users" within a week of its launch; note that is in only one country.

From a software development perspective Nintendo might not have done anything, but who had the vision to invest in bringing this to such a huge market? That also is an investment in creativity and innovation. (That's not meant to be a rhetorical question; I don't know the answer.)

<comment><USER11> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_Go](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_Go)

As shown, the developer _and_ publisher is Niantic which is also the developer of Ingress.

Perhaps you are referring to this snippet:

> The concept for the game was conceived in 2014 by Satoru Iwata of Nintendo > and Tsunekazu Ishihara of The Pokémon Company as an April Fools' Day > collaboration with Google, called the Google Maps: Pokémon Challenge.[21] > Ishihara was a fan of developer Niantic's previous transreality game, > Ingress, and saw the game's concept as a perfect match for the Pokémon > series.[22] Niantic used the crowdsourced[23] data from Ingress to populate > the locations for PokéStops and gyms within Pokémon Go, and data from Google > Maps to spawn specific Pokémon on certain terrain or environment.[24][25]

So for background, The Pokémon Company is more or less a licensing body for handling licensing of the Pokémon IP and franchise. They collaborated with Niantic to meld an Ingress inspired augmented reality game with the Pokémon IP.

Yes The Pokémon Company is a subsidiary of Nintendo so in a way Nintendo had a hand in the collaboration...but I would probably classify it as a 2nd or even 3rd order relationship. But that is a personal judgement call I suppose.

In my mind, the augmented reality game design was wholly pioneered and executed by Niantic (not once but twice). The idea for melding said design with Pokémon IP came from the franchise licensing entity of The Pokémon Company which is a joint subsidiary of Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures who were the three businesses holding copyright on Pokémon at the time of its founding [1].

But again, somewhat of a personal view point.

To me, I wouldn't necessarily attribute much related to Pokémon Go to Nintendo.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pok%C3%A9mon_Company](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pok%C3%A9mon_Company)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> This video is an excellent demonstration of creative ways to play with the engine: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EvbqxBUG_c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EvbqxBUG_c)

It has some swearing and some very minor spoilers if you are just starting the game.

<comment><USER13> I came here to post the same link. Dunkey is by far my favourite YouTuber.

[https://www.youtube.com/user/videogamedunkey](https://www.youtube.com/user/videogamedunkey)

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> The game play is great, but I think this one has the weakest story telling of all the big Zelda games I've played. And the English voice acting is very terrible. The voices are annoying and badly done, from my perspective. I couldn't tell the difference between the voice of Zelda and the Mipha character, probably the same actor. My wife has to leave the room when a voice acted snippet comes on, and my kids make fun of it.

But me and the kids have been playing it non-stop. The actual game play is great.

The world is huge but maybe not as massive as I thought initially. Certainly the map is Skyrim-ish sized, but it doesn't have the same depth of dungeons and quests and items as Skyrim does. The focus really is still on the main quest.

So I suspect after I'm done the main quest I probably won't play it much. There's not really a character-building item-collecting aspect to it, despite the large open game world and adaptable mechanics, etc. the focus really is a typical Zelda game: rescue the princess and defeat Ganon.

</comment><comment><USER14> I would love to play it, but I can't find a Nintendo Switch. That is, I absolutely refuse to reward scalper behavior (which Nintendo encourages via their artificial shortages).

<comment><USER15> It's available on the Wii-U as well.

<comment><USER14> True, but I don't own a Wii-U, and the Wii-U is 5-year old technology, whose production has officially ended as of January ([http://kotaku.com/wii-u- production-has-officially-ended-for-...](http://kotaku.com/wii-u-production- has-officially-ended-for-japan-1791813878)).

Scalpers are lowlifes, IMO.

<comment><USER16> > Scalpers are lowlifes, IMO.

If the two alternatives are a world where no new Switches are available for anyone to buy, and a world where some new Switches are available for a high price, then surely the latter is strictly better than the former. Your sentiment places the scalpers in an unfair position of "ethical entanglement": if you try to make a problem slightly better, then by not fixing it entirely you are now to blame. Other examples at [http://blog.jaibot.com/the- copenhagen-interpretation-of-ethi...](http://blog.jaibot.com/the-copenhagen- interpretation-of-ethics/)

<comment><USER17> How are scalpers trying to make the situation better? They don't increase the supply, as in your erroneous hypothetical.

There's an argument for scalpers, but it's more subtle. Companies want immediate sales and to be able to say they sold out. Scalpers let them do that by taking on some of the risks themselves. And it ostensibly allows people to make a time/money tradeoff between waiting in line or for later supplies versus paying more.

<comment><USER16> > And it ostensibly allows people to make a time/money tradeoff between > waiting in line or for later supplies versus paying more.

See my reply to vkou. This is exactly how scalpers make the situation better, by creating the availability of the choice to make a trade-off, where before there was no choice but to compete on latency or luck (which is fine for many consumers, but consumers vary in their ability to compete on latency and in their valuation of the trade-off).

<comment><USER18> Giving people 'choices' in how goods are distributed doesn't always make the situation better.

Consider rationing when there's a food shortage. We can either feed everyone (At reduced rations), or we can let some people pay more, to get more food, at the expense of letting others starve.

Isn't it great to give people the choice between destitution and starvation? (Or, in the case of the poor, between starvation, and starvation.)

There's a reason rationing is common in times of hunger.

<comment><USER19> Why consider this example, though, when a Switch, or a concert ticket or iPhone or whatever, is not necessary for survival?

<comment><USER18> Video games are obviously not life-saving food.

I was using this example to demonstrate that optimizing for [choice/wealth] does not always result in better outcomes. Just as the parent post posits that optimizing for first come-first serve does not always result in better outcomes.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> > Anything liquid can be frozen. Anything metal can be magnetised. Anything > flammable can be set alight.

Graphical NetHack? (Disclaimer: I played NetHack only once, a long time ago, and know it mostly by reputation.)

<comment><USER20> In their GDC talk ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyMsF31NdNc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyMsF31NdNc)) one of the core concepts they present is "multiplicative gameplay", which sounds a lot like what NetHack and Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup aim for as well.

It's a surprising amount of fun to have multiple ways to solve puzzles and try to come up with one that was or was not intended to solve it.

<comment><USER21> Here's a direct link to the timestamp where they talk about this, and show off an internal 2D prototype of their "chemistry engine":

[https://youtu.be/QyMsF31NdNc?t=1067](https://youtu.be/QyMsF31NdNc?t=1067)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Not particular to the genre, but I think this is one of the characteristics that had made games like NetHack and Dwarf Fortress so engaging to some. The right combination of mechanics and systems, alongside interesting or surprising placement to create scenarios that the brain interprets as a narrative.

<comment><USER23> More modern example is Rimworld, it really gets the design right. Each game item has multiple uses in different contexts, and randomly-generated events actually add up to meaningful story. It's also great example on how to build complex world while still allowing players to have good insights into mechanics and game state.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Does anybody subscribe to this magazine (1843)? I subscribe to the parent magazine The Economist, and this sounds appealing, but $50 for 6 issues seems steep (and no online subscription).

<comment><USER25> They send me a lot of issues with my normal Economist subscription, but you're definitely right that it's not cheap.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> It might be worth pointing out that if you're having trouble finding a console to play this on, refurbished Wii-Us are still an option for $200.

[https://store.nintendo.com/](https://store.nintendo.com/)

I bought one since I wanted some party games and didn't have any Nintendo console anymore. It was more than worth it. Mind you this was before end of life so the calculus might be a bit different now.

<comment><USER27> I can second this, in particular if 1) you like Nintendo games, and 2) you haven't played all the Wii and Wii U titles (or perhaps even GameCube).

I bought the Wii U even though I could've bought the Switch. It's my first Nintendo console since the Gameboy Advance (SP) and GameCube, and I'm very happy with my decision (giddy, even).

Here's a few arguments in favor of getting a Wii U:

\- you can play all the WiiU and (most?) Wii titles. Even just the first-party ones are worth it: Metroid Prime Trilogy, Zelda: Twilight Princess, Wind Waker HD, Mario 3D World, Mario Galaxy (1 and 2), Mario Kart, Wii Sports, and so on, along with and admittedly small selection of great third-party titles. \- through the Virtual Console you can also play a pretty decent selection of N64, NES, SNES, Gameboy Advance, and DS games. This gives you access to many if not most of Nintendo's Zelda, Mario, Paper Mario and Metroid titles, among others, as well as tons of games that at the very least have high nostalgia value (although the first party ones are generally highly acclaimed too). \- there's a decent amount of 'indie' titles available, although I suspect that to be quickly eclipsed by the Switch. \- based on (ridiculously extensive) googling around before making the decision, it seems that Breath of the Wild is just as good on the WiiU as it is on the switch, with the one big (but to me unimportant) exception of resolution (900p on Switch, 720p on WiiU). Plus, for now at least it's better than the 900p docked version for Switch, performance wise. But that might be fixed with a firmware update.

Basically, the Wii U is at this moment the ultimate Nintendo console. And even if (or when, really) they start offering these games for the Switch, I consider it unlikely that they'll support Wii games on account of having to support the Wii controls (remote + nunchuck).

All that said, obviously the Switch is far superior when looking forward (WiiU is discontinued, even) and for mobile play. If those things don't matter too much, I'd say get a WiiU even if you can get a Switch, and sell it once Mario Odyssey or some other new game you want comes out. The WiiU will probably retain much of its value, even as your 'retro-gaming machine' to handle all the weird control schemes Nintendo has been going through lately.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> I wonder whether future Zelda games will be more like this title, or more like its predecessors. I have had great experiences with both, and Ocarina of Time now contends with Breath of the Wild as my favorite game. Even I don't know what I would prefer.

<comment><USER20> I wonder whether now that they have a functioning engine and tools for large open worlds it might take less effort to create another open world like this — and then allow them to spend that time on also having the more traditional big dungeons in there. That'd be neat at least.

I think getting some longer more traditional dungeons as DLC would be amazing.

<comment><USER12> There are two DLC packs coming later in the year. Hopefully they do just that.

<comment><USER20> I'd like to see them succeed with episodic game play.

I'm not sure if anyone really ever did that. I know that Valve wanted to do it with Half Life 2 and then just stopped after two episodes.

It sounds like Witcher 3 had two great extensions, but that's it pretty much.

It sounds like one of my favorite childhood games had that in mind, but then others figured out how to create content, and they let the community create new content instead.

Is anyone actually doing episodic game content successfully? I guess MMORPGs like WoW do, but is anyone successfully doing episodic content for games outside that genre?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Agreed. I've always wanted a useful house in a Zelda game. Now I have one. And the game just keeps getting better (albeit a little too easy so far)

<comment><USER30> What use did you find for a house? I bought one, upgraded everything and the only use was the bed.

<comment><USER20> It allows you to store extra swords, shields, and bows AFAIK. Also has a couple of tools (hammer, others) conveniently available nearby.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> > Chop wood or light fires in the glacial wastes of "Skyrim"? No chance.

You can chop wood even in vanilla Skyrim, and with mods you can light fires, ride dragons or do whatever you want.

<comment><USER32> >and with mods you can light fires, ride dragons or do whatever you want.

Not to pick on you directly, but this rebuttal seems to come out every time an unfavorable comparison is drawn to Skyrim lately, and it honestly makes no sense to me.

If the comparison is to the base game, which everyone experiences regardless of platform, why would anyone ever consider mods in that comparison? Of course you can do things that aren't in the game _if you change the game_. I can also add custom reticles to any game I want, provided I have plastic wrap, tape and a marker, but that doesn't imply they're part of the game.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> Caveat being the only consoles that can play it are either impossible to find or at the very end of its lifecycle.

<comment><USER34> > at the very end of its lifecycle

This might not be a bad thing. Plenty of quality software already released that you can obtain cheaply. I skipped the Wii U, but am going to pick one up so that I can actually play Zelda, as well as explore the other games I missed.

<comment><USER8> It's not a bad little machine for a few games. You could keep yourself busy and totally immersed in Legend of Zelda just playing BoTW, the HD re-issue of Wind Waker (_highly_ recommended), the re-issue of Twilight Princess, the Wii copy of Skyward Sword (weakest of the bunch imho, but there) and Minish Cap in virtual console. Worth the buy just to play those.

Same goes for Mario. Super Mario Wii U is great. Super Mario 3d World is great. Super Mario Galaxy series for Wii runs great on it.

And Mario Maker! Hours of fun.

I hear great things about Spatoon. The Pikmin games are great.

But my kids mainly use it for Minecraft and Mario Maker.

A highly underrated system, imho. Nintendo released some great titles for it.

<comment><USER27> How can you leave out Metroid Prime Trilogy! The first installment is probably the first in a list of less than fives games that I've finished multiple times.

Other than that I agree with what you said.

<comment><USER8> Sure, but Metroid Prime is a GC series that they haven't updated :-( To play it these days you're actually just better off playing it in Dolphin, which I recently did. It looks great you can even get texture packs to upgrade it.

<comment><USER27> True, I'm really hoping we'll get a new Metroid game on Switch. That said, for many people the control scheme of the original put them off, so being able to play it using the (easier) Wii controls, higher resolution, and getting the whole trilogy for about 20 bucks is a pretty nice plus of having a WiiU.

Unless you hate these types of backtracking games, of course :).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> Current status: Watching the memories I got so far in different languages. French is excellent.

</comment><comment><USER36> Is it just me or does it seem like there's something wrong that these 30-year- old game franchises are continually being milked? Is it really that hard to come up with something new these days? Back when these things were new, there were no other, much older franchises to draw from. Metroid, Zelda, etc. were all brand-new and came out at about the same time.

<comment><USER37> They aren't mutually exclusive. Splatoon received critical acclaim, for example.

This is also true for every other media -- we relentlessly rebuild, recycle, and remix old work to create new content. It's a part of being human.

<comment><USER36> >we relentlessly rebuild, recycle, and remix old work to create new content. It's a part of being human.

I addressed that before: this simply isn't true for Nintendo games circa 1985-6. At that time, these characters and games were all-new, except perhaps for Mario, and he came from Donkey Kong which only came out a few years earlier. So why were they able to come up with so many original characters all in such a short span of time, which have lasted this long, but they haven't created anything original in the last 10-20 years that even remotely compare? Personally I think it points to some change in our society.

<comment><USER38> As posters above have mentioned, all "sequels" in a Nintendo franchise tend to be completely independent with basically the character models swapped in later in development to make it part of a series. There's no shortage of ideas for new characters and stories, but if you don't put a recognizable name on the box, you immediately sacrifice half your sales.

Movies are the same, so maybe you're right there's something different about society's taste these days.

<comment><USER36> I think it reflects on a severe amount of risk-averseness on the part of the corporate producers these days. Decades ago, they were willing to take risks on new ideas, both in movies and in video games. Now they're not; they only want stuff that's basically guaranteed a profit, even if it's not that large. So we get a lot of "safe" stuff, like ever-more installments in some comic- book movie franchise, or video games that reuse the same characters over and over, instead of truly all-new concepts. You can't have truly new stories if you're using the same characters; that limits you.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> There is giveaway going on for it - [https://gethealthpack.com/giveaways/the- legend-of-zelda-brea...](https://gethealthpack.com/giveaways/the-legend-of- zelda-breath-of-the-wild-giveaway/?lucky=69)

</comment><comment><USER4> It's a shame the game is only available on the two most underpowered gaming devices. Can you imagine this game on a PS4, or a PC. I cry thinking about it.

If Nintendo just became an elite third party triple a developer for the big boy consoles, I think they would make a killing. They can also make their little gimmicky peripherals for said console. That will satisfy their need to reinvent the user interface every time, and then abandon it shortly after. Without screwing over an entire console generation.

<comment><USER40> >It's a shame the game is only available on the two most underpowered gaming devices.

The Switch is handheld gaming device.

<comment><USER41> Then I guess an alternate way to phrase it is that it's a shame Nintendo doesn't and won't have a current-gen normal TV console. Bizarre choice because they were already leading by far the mobile space among console developers.</comment></comment></comment>


GitHub accidentally writes clear text user passwords to logs - <AUTHOR> I just received an eMail from GitHub, stating that they accidentally wrote clear text user passwords to their logs (full eMail body below), when passwords were changed.
Hi there,
During the course of regular auditing, GitHub discovered that a recently introduced bug exposed a small number of users' passwords to our internal logging system, including yours. We have corrected this, but you'll need to reset your password to regain access to your account.
GitHub stores user passwords with secure cryptographic hashes (bcrypt). However, this recently introduced bug resulted in our secure internal logs recording plaintext user passwords when users initiated a password reset. Rest assured, these passwords were not accessible to the public or other GitHub users at any time. Additionally, they were not accessible to the majority of GitHub staff and we have determined that it is very unlikely that any GitHub staff accessed these logs. GitHub does not intentionally store passwords in plaintext format. Instead, we use modern cryptographic methods to ensure passwords are stored securely in production. To note, GitHub has not been hacked or compromised in any way.
You can regain access to your account by resetting your password using the link below::
https://github.com/password_reset
If you have any lingering questions or concerns about this, don't hesitate to let us know. You can reach us by emailing firstname.lastname@example.com or by using our contact form:
https://github.com/contact
Thanks,
GitHub Support
Ref #19343129 <comment><USER2> Dupe: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16972050](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16972050)

</comment><comment><USER3> Good on them for letting you know.

</comment><comment><USER4> I got the exact same email a second ago :/

</comment><comment><USER5> Sounds like someone left a console.log in.

</comment><comment><USER6> Up! It's ugly. I got it too.</comment>


Dotcom's Mega Launches To Unprecedented Demand - <AUTHOR> http://torrentfreak.com/dotcoms-mega-launches-to-unprecedented-demand-130120/ <comment><USER2> Two things I don't do. Actually several more things. I don't do smart phones. And I don't do downloading of illegal files, copyrighted files. Why? I don't have to watch the next movie for free. I just don't care enough or want to waste the bandwidth.

<comment><USER3> Please excuse the bluntness, but neither of the two things you mentioned (using smartphones and downloading illegal copies of movies) have anything to do with Kim Dotcom or his new startup, Mega.

Your comment is therefore neither particularly relevant, nor does it contribute to the discussion.</comment></comment>