Kindle Paperwhite - <AUTHOR> http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OQVZDJM <comment><USER2> _(warning: meta)_

Is it a fair assumption that someone 'de-editorialized' the title of this article? It's really starting to bug me that mods are removing pertinent information from submission titles, like this one from me where the title was changed from something like "Final Retail Oculus Rift Hardware Announced" to "Oculus Rift" ([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9701298](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9701298))

"Kindle Paperwhite" as an article title doesn't mean anything. It would be nice if we were allowed to give such articles meaningful titles, and not have that change on us.

<comment><AUTHOR> I submitted the page with the title "Kindle Paperwhite". I assumed that most HN readers would recognize a new Kindle model. I usually get my titles edited, so I am trying to help the mods.

Of course, "Amazon releases the Kindle Paperwhite" or "New Kindle Paperwhite preorders" would be a lot clearer.

<comment><USER3> With the amount of completely random crap that gets posted, some indicator that you didn't just find out about paperwhite/want to talk about the paperwhite for some reason seems justified.

Could also link to [http://www.theverge.com/2015/6/17/8793511/amazons-kindle- pap...](http://www.theverge.com/2015/6/17/8793511/amazons-kindle- paperwhite-2015-high-resolution-screen) which has a much better title.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I've owned every single small Kindle, since the Kindle 1, I think so far I've bought 4 Kindles including 2 PWs (1st gen, 2nd gen). They keep upgrading things that don't bother me. What I WANT them to upgrade is the software. Why can't I sort books by Genre? Or Tags? Or Series? Making Collections is a pain so I never use it. I've got hundreds of books and the sorting is rough. I'd like to be able to list #SpaceOpera, or #Mystery, #Vampire, etc. Having to be online to get book info sucks. Most books don't have descriptions so I can't pick a random free book I've downloaded and read the jacket to see if I'd enjoy it. I'd like an offline synopsis.

<comment><USER5> I primarily use Google Play Books, and have thought the same exact thing. Is there maybe not a high demand for this kind of thing?

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I wish there were more details about the changes from the last paperwhite. From what I read, primarily it's a higher resolution display; the rest of the stuff on there seems like it could just be OS features that will be applied to old paperwhites as well.

Oddly enough, given that they have a higher resolution display, it does not appear that they've changed the smallest font size, which is something that I would definitely like to see. I can't help but wonder why they made that decision, when the smallest font is still noticeably larger than what you would find in a standard print book.

</comment><comment><USER7> What ebook reader would be good for those who would like to read ebooks on their own terms?

After long deliberation (because Amazon doesn't really sell books in my native language) I finally bought myself a basic Kindle 5, because it's made by Amazon, the large company that has enough production prowess to do the hardware and software _right_ and basically it looks like all books are _there_. I don't like the DRM, locking down my books from me, but I decided I'll figure that later.

When I _did_ try to figure out how to _liberate_ my books [1] from my Kindle, I was basically asked 'Are you asking us for help on breaking the law here? (TOS, actually)' Oops, turns out like I am. Now that I thought this over and figured that I want a reader that provides comforts of reading like a Kindle does, but allows me to read my books on my own terms, I am very reluctant on buying another Kindle. What options are there?

[1] Ebooks StackExchange: How do I liberate ebooks from Kindle device? [http://ebooks.stackexchange.com/questions/1192/how-do-i- libe...](http://ebooks.stackexchange.com/questions/1192/how-do-i-liberate- ebooks-from-kindle-device)

<comment><USER8> [https://apprenticealf.wordpress.com](https://apprenticealf.wordpress.com)

<comment><USER9> I quote from the grandparent's link:

> I use Linux, so I can't use Apprentice Alf because apparently it is Windows > and Mac-only (even though Calibre works on Linux)

<comment><USER10> Apprentice Alf is not windows / mac only. The Apprentice Alf tools work on Linux.

<comment><USER9> I was just going by what the linked Stack Exchange post said. If they are incorrect, correct them.

<comment><USER10> They get to see my reply so I am correcting them with that post. Also, I'm letting you know. How should I have worded the correction? (Genuine question. I'm not good at communicating and want to do better.)

<comment><USER9> You handled that pretty well. Although you may wish to directly reply to them as well.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> > All-new typesetting engine lays out words just as the author intended for > beautiful rendering of pages. With improved character spacing and the > addition of hyphenation, justification, kerning, ligatures, and drop cap > support, our best-in-class typography helps you read faster with less > eyestrain.

 _Finally._

And I say that un-ironically. Would've switched to a Kobo just for this if it weren't for the Kindle store.

Any news for if the Voyage will get a software upgrade? I only got one a few months ago and it'd be a shame for it to be obsoleted by a cheaper product so soon after it was launched.

Edit: Nice to see in-line translate too.

</comment><comment><USER12> Neat, reminds me that I want to turn an older one into an uptime / analytics monitor sorta like this:

[http://mpetroff.net/2012/09/kindle-weather- display/](http://mpetroff.net/2012/09/kindle-weather-display/)

<comment><USER13> Unfortunately since the 5.6 firmware, you can't root it without opening it up and connecting a serial port.

<comment><USER14> But it does have a web browser. Could always serve a website with the uptime that auto-reloads every so often.

</comment></comment></comment><comment> rob-alarcon I want more cpu and memory specs, I really like my kindle but it's extremely slow.

</comment><comment><USER15> I'm kind of bummed out that they didn't update the Voyage too. The Voyage still seems to be better but I don't want to buy an "old" model. I specifically waited for the next Kindle generation to update mine...

</comment><comment><USER16> Yawn.

I upgraded from a Paperwhite 1 to a Voyage because I thought the screen and haptic buttons would be improvements. I can barely see a difference in the screen quality when I'm deliberately looking (and don't notice any while reading), and the haptic buttons are poorly placed so I rarely use them. The Voyage is nice but was questionably worth the extra money over the Paperwhite 1. Now with the Paperwhite 3? Fuggetaboutit.

You know what feature would be a great improvement? A backlight without blue light, for reading at night without screwing up sleep cycles.

edit: clarified

<comment><USER17> Is the Paperwhite worth upgrading from the regular Kindle? I've never bought one before but considering it

<comment><USER18> For me the swipe / touch has been worthwhile ! The page turn buttons on the regular used to drive me nuts. Others might be used to it. The Paperwhite is a bit smaller, but has no audio, so the old Kindle is still useful to listen to audio books - though the Audible app on iphone/android is what i use nowadays for audio books. Oh and the backlight - very useful. (as @lambdaelite) pointed out.

<comment><USER7> I, on the other hand, love the page turn buttons on my Kindle 5 and reluctant to upgrade for exactly the lack of this feature. I'm afraid I will keep stubbornly refusing to get used to swiping for turning pages. Why couldn't Amazon provide both options (swiping and clicking) for page turning, at least on some of their newer devices?

<comment><USER19> I've got a version 1 Kindle Paperwhite, and you can tap the screen to turn a page. That's what I do.

Random ramble time... (because this aspect of the Kindle Paperwhite annoys me every time I think about it)

The tapping bit is fine, so reading books is no problem, but to be honest, in general, the touch UI is no more than resoundingly adequate. The tapping is fine, and the swiping works, but it doesn't feel as nice as it does on iOS. For me, swiping works best when the UI updates pretty much instantly as your finger moves (e.g., iOS, Android). The Kindle, on the other hand, doesn't do anything until your swipe is finished and the action has been registered. Feels like somebody who's never used an iPad read was given a one-sentence summary of what swiping was, and then wrote some code to do what they imagined. (Maybe they were worried about the screen going all blurry? Well, that's fair enough. But technical reasons won't make the touch UI suddenly brilliant.)

This makes the experimental web browser rather hard to use - a shame, as this could have been such a great feature! - and the book list a bit annoying.

But, still, compared to the non-Paperwhite equivalent, it has a backlight, and it's a bit smaller. And there's never anything wrong with a few more pixels. So overall, I don't mind, and the Kindle Paperwhite gets a thumbs up. It would still have been improved by some more UX work and/or a couple of physical inputs. I think this is what annoys me about it so much - the device is good, _but it could have been better_ , and it's really obvious.

Ramble over. Phew! Sorry about that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Wow, 'Holds thousands of books' is now _technical_ details. How do we stop this trend of dumbing down the specs?

<comment><AUTHOR> The previous versions of Kindle Paperwhite did include 4gb of storage space. Consumers may start to compare the storage between their ebook reader and their phones, and feel that they are getting ripped off by Amazon. Of course, 4gb for a reader is a lot more appropriate than 16gb for a phone (I'm looking at you, Apple).

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> In my opinion, Kindle 4/5 was the perfect product. It's the lightest of all Kindles, and it can survive pretty much any environment. Maybe I'm a minority, but I'm using Kindle like I'd use a paper book, not as an electronic device. I couldn't care less about any feature besides opening a book and turning pages. I take it with me hiking and camping, so it's often in freezing temperatures. The screen often gets wet, because I like to read while taking a bath. I can't imagine using something with touchscreen in similar conditions.

</comment><comment><USER21> I wish Amazon or someone would make a smaller kindle. I'd really like something the size of an iphone (6 or lower). It would be nice to have an ebook reader that could fit in my pant or jacket pocket.

<comment><USER10> Kobo mini?

It has some unpleasant requirements to connect to the Internet to set it up. This can be avoided with a bit of SAL on the microSD card (which is hidden inside the device).

[http://uscoffings.net/clc/tech/embedded/kobo- touch/](http://uscoffings.net/clc/tech/embedded/kobo-touch/)

> Connect the Kobo via USB, and mount its onboard storage on your desktop > machine.

> Ensure you have an SQLite3 database browser installed, or some way to > execute SQL. For example, sudo apt-get install sqlitebrowser

> Open /mnt/onboard/.kobo/KoboReader.sqlite.

> Execute this SQL: insert into USER values("foo", "foo", "foo", "foo", > "foo");

> Save, unmount, and disconnect.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> This looks nice but until Kindle supports EPUB it's a no-go for me.

<comment><USER23> i haven't seen an EPUB that calibre couldn't convert into a MOBI with less than good results.

<comment><USER24> I find that some more advanced things get messed up pretty badly and need manual tweaking (ie table of contents).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> I'm glad that the display has improved. The screenshot shows better typography than ebook readers typically have, but I bet that won't be the norm.

I have a Kindle touch that was gifted to me, but I don't think I'll buy one of these to replace it. I'd rather stay away from the Amazon ecosystem as much as I can.

<comment><USER26> I don't see why it wouldn't be the norm, given that they have half a million books converted already. If Knuth could make good typography happen in software decades ago I'm sure Amazon can do it now.

<comment><USER25> I was guessing that books might have to be reformatted. Hopefully not, and if it works on any text you supply it with I might very well buy one.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Ouch, they ran a father's day promotion for all of last week in the UK where they sold the Paperwhite with £10 discount and then they announce a new model just before Father's day. I wonder how many geek dads will get a disappointing gift on Sunday.

</comment><comment><USER28> Not-too-informative notice at Wired: [http://www.wired.com/2015/06/kindle- paperwhite-upgrade/](http://www.wired.com/2015/06/kindle-paperwhite-upgrade/)

</comment><comment><USER29> Same bad typography (and full justification), no page turn buttons, still heavier than my Kindle 4.

I would really like to buy a newer Kindle, but everything past the 4 has been a disappointment.

<comment><USER30> Better typography is "coming soon":

 _" All-new typesetting engine lays out words just as the author intended for beautiful rendering of pages. With improved character spacing and the addition of hyphenation, justification, kerning, ligatures, and drop cap support, our best-in-class typography helps you read faster with less eyestrain."_

<comment><USER31> It does look pretty good on iPad. I guess we'll just have to wait for them to figure out how to release it for their... ya know, flagship e-reader.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> Why would you name your product to sound like "paperweight"? What's next, Apple iBrick?

</comment><comment><USER33> I really hope they bring back the large screen version. For PDFs the screen size really matters.

<comment><USER7> At least they do upgrade the resolution. I guess it should help as well, if one has good eyesight.</comment></comment>


Russia readies supercomputer to improve World Cup weather forecasts - <AUTHOR> https://www.reuters.com/article/us-soccer-worldcup-weather/russia-readies-supercomputer-to-improve-world-cup-weather-forecasts-idUSKBN1F51N7 <comment><USER2> I remember when people used to run SETI with spare CPU capacity, and still wonder why no distributed weather forecasting system has sprung up. So had aquick google: [https://www.quora.com/Is-there-any-distributed-computing- pro...](https://www.quora.com/Is-there-any-distributed-computing-project- similar-to-SETI-Home-for-weather-forecast)</comment>


Google Tests Search Results That Update As You Type - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/21/live-update-search/

<comment><USER2> I've seen this today. It's interesting; I'm not sure if I like it. Pretty cool that Google can pull search results so quickly, but it can be a bit distracting...</comment>


Those Entry-Level Startup Jobs? They're Now Mostly Dead Ends in the Boondocks - <AUTHOR> https://backchannel.com/those-entry-level-startup-jobs-they-re-now-mostly-dead-ends-in-the-boondocks-af3b4066f5dd <comment><USER2> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11348893](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11348893)

</comment><comment><USER3> I watched this happen to our CS team at previous employer.

Having a close relationship with CS folks was enlightening. I had a direct feed into into issues that I never would have known existed, because of conversations at the coffee maker. Our CS people had a keen eye for "emerging issues", and by the time they became bad enough to make it through the management filter I had already thought through solutions to the issues I knew were going to land in my lap.</comment>


Use dereference if you want know what hiding behind short link. - <AUTHOR> http://dereference-ru.rhcloud.com/

<comment><USER2> Kind of fun to just type in random short urls and see what you get.

<comment><AUTHOR> You can check for safety the links which you get from untrusted sources with GoogleSafeBrowsing</comment></comment>


Welcome to the 21st Century: How to Plan for the Post-Covid Future - <AUTHOR> https://www.oreilly.com/tim/21stcentury/ <comment><USER2> The article's comparison of what's shaping up to be a year or two long disease outbreak to a 4yr global conflict that massively altered the global balance of power and spread industrialization across many industries that had thus far resisted it seems a little premature.

Wall street, shady billionaires pulling strings, governments and normal everyday people have a massive economic interest in things becoming as normal as they possibly can post-covid and they are all going to work toward furthering that goal in their own ways. Sure some of the things that were trialed during COVID (work from home, mask wearing, etc) may stick around but they are going to go away and if they come back it will be slowly over years/decades and on their own merits.

<comment><USER3> I think an important point the author is trying to make is that we _don 't know_ how this is going to play out, with "scenario planning" being a central theme of the article.

We have only experienced a few of the pandemic's direct effects a few months in, and in many parts of the globe the first wave is still in full swing. The second- and higher-order effects are largely unknown at this point, and many will only be fully understood by future historians.

While the direct comparison to WWI/II may be hyperbolic, I think it's a fair assessment to say that COVID is the biggest, truly global event since. During each war there were many turning points that may have ended them early, turning them into smaller, regional conflicts. The people who experienced the first six months of them weren't to know they would leave tens of millions dead and society changed forever after. Now I'm not suggesting that COVID will be on remotely this scale, however I believe the author's argument that it will likely trigger large societal change, and to try and prepare accordingly, is a good one.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> COVID is an accelerator, not an innovator

Travel is the big unraveling. Tourism has ballooned since 2000 but it was no longer tourism: how many tourists even talk to locals anymore? Look at Youtube travelogues - how often do you see locals? Tourism degenerated to fodder for the social media/instagram economy and every holiday is the same packaged experience , just different background. That makes it easy to virtualize. It's also fueled by high density urbanization, tiny living spaces in insufferable cities (urbanites travel more). There are entire countries and world regions that rely on tourism, and for them this is going to be the most consequential long-lasting change (also for environmental reasons).

In person entertainment, privacy, work from home, remote schooling, all these have been slowly eating the world.

There s another one: Biotech. We are now testing things like mRNA drugs and antibody therapies at an unprecedented pace. If one of them proves safe, biomedicine will be next to eat the world.

This is not happening at the national level, it's happening at the individual / company level and people are noticing. The overfunded US and China army can't do nothing for the pandemic or the climate, and govt agencies across the world have proven unreliable. The pandemic has been a shitshow for politics / governments and a boon for private initiative, and people are noticing.

<comment><USER5> > There are entire countries and world regions that rely on tourism, and for > them this is going to be the most consequential long-lasting change (also > for environmental reasons).

I don't see how people stop traveling once Covid is gone (or at least reduced to a regular flu level of danger). Why would people ever prefer not to travel? I agree that some paranoid people won't travel until 5 years after the pandemic, but the vast majority of people will do.

<comment><USER4> tourism is one part of traveling. people from highly urbanized areas tend to travel long distances more ([https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aac9d2](https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aac9d2)) . If this density drops (due to convenient remote work) tourish would drop as well

<comment><USER6> > If this density drops (due to convenient remote work) tourish would drop as > well

I've never understood this one. Do people really think that work is the only big reason people flock to cities?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> This all strikes me as extremely alarmist and far-fetched. The chances of COVID causing an indefinite pandemic that alters the nature of human behavior and the course of history forever in my estimation is zero. Business and economic difficulties for a few years, yes. Total destruction of the travel industry for all time? Not a chance.

Some of the stuff just makes no sense, for example; "There's already talk of a race to produce vaccines, where a country that has the vaccine will use the vaccine for itself in order to gain advantage rather than spreading it around the world."

I could imagine the country that discovers it giving priority to their citizens when there is, at first, limited supply but withholding it indefinitely for advantage seems like it would not happen because of the incredible profit motive.

<comment><USER8> > I could imagine the country that discovers it giving priority to their > citizens when there is, at first, limited supply but withholding it > indefinitely for advantage seems like it would not happen because of the > incredible profit motive.

Turns out that those doing vaccine trials have actually thought of that, and most of them are making partnerships in different countries to prevent "bad side effects" from this (such as forced seizure).

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> This is a great article.

<comment><USER10> I agree. Long and well though out.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Hmm.

I agree in part, but I am not sure if we can compare COVID-19 against the horrors of two world wars where tens of millions died (15-22,000,000 deaths in WW1 and 70-85,000,000 deaths in WW2 according to wikipedia) and entire cities were literally flattened and millions more left homeless and jobless?

The strange thing about COVID-19 is that it is largely _invisible_ (unless you happen to work in a hospital or morgue or something). Apart from people wearing masks and Starbucks only doing takeaway and those unlucky enough to have lost a loved one/friend/colleague (my condolences if so) it is hard for people to actually "see" the impact. For me, the largest impact is I have to plan my grocery deliveries a bit more carefully (since I can't do a top-up shop easily) and I work from home more than I usually did - nothing else has changed in my life really.

Will Starbucks re-open their doors and be selling double-tall skinny frap extra-cold within a few days of getting the say-so? You bet - and who can blame them? Nothing will have changed for them - people will still buy the coffee just like they are buying them right now _during the pandemic_.

Did Hiroshima/Dresden/Hamburg/Berlin/Tokyo/Stalingrad/others re-open after VE/VJ day? No - because they were absolutely physically obliterated with the population killed, maimed or displaced (...and even if they weren't, physiologically it must have been absolutely crippling to be a survivor).

Were I alive in WW2, would my life only be mildly inconvenienced like it is today with COVID-19? No way - if I had even survived at all, I'd be happy to have a home to live in (and no doubt without reliable electricity, gas or sewage), even luckier to have a job to work at, and even luckier still to have shops to visit with stock to allow me to even purchase any food. And I'd no doubt have known friends family and colleagues who died in unspeakably horrible ways. Whatever happened I'd be psychologically scarred for life.

It just doesn't feel like COVID-19 is in the same league... And this is before we even mention genocide from WW2.

That said though I am all for fiscal stimulus only going to green companies though! No government hand-outs to the cruiseline, airline, oil, or shipping industries please! :)

.

.

.

.

.

Aside: ... I note that COVID-19 is now "worse" than the WW2 Blitz in London in that it has killed more people (1). I sincerely hope now that the rose-tinted nostalgia for people citing the "Blitz Spirit" etc in the context of Brexit can go away. London has now faced worse than the Blitz - and when it did it was immigrant nurses (one _from the EU_ , one from the Commonwealth) that literally nursed even our Prime Minister back to health. We are stronger together.</politics>

1 - [https://www.economist.com/britain/2020/04/30/covid-19-is- kil...](https://www.economist.com/britain/2020/04/30/covid-19-is-killing- londoners-at-a-faster-rate-than-german-bombs-did)

<comment><USER12> Note the difference between the people killed in WW2 and those killed by COVID-19: the WW2 deaths were primarily healthy young men in their late teens and early 20s. The COVID-19 deaths have been primarily among the elderly and infirm. There are numerous exceptions, sure, but the societal impact of deaths among the two different demographic groups is pretty different, qualitatively if not quantitatively.

<comment><USER13> The comparison is not even close in terms of numbers, we can see the huge difference at a glance if we check the stats: [http://www.world- war-2.info/statistics/](http://www.world-war-2.info/statistics/) [https://covidbynumbers.com/](https://covidbynumbers.com/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> >So too, when we look back, we will understand that the 21st century truly began this year, when the COVID19 pandemic took hold

Couldn't one argue 9/11 was the 'start' of the 21st century? And all the effects and tone it caused that last to this day?

<comment><USER15> >Couldn't one argue 9/11 was the 'start' of the 21st century?

There was one major US political event in the 21st Century before 9/11 and arguably even lead to 9/11.

People tend to forget the 2000 Presidential Election between Gore/Bush. It seems common place for a candidate to lose the popular vote but win the Election, which was the case between Gore/Bush, but we hadn't seen that prior to Gore/Bush since 1888. Not to mention the shenanigans (electronic votes in swing states like FL going to the opposite candidate, entire truck loads of missing ballots)...it ended in a lawsuit and the SCOTUS deciding the election.

Politics/news coverage was set down a path of partisanship we have never recovered from and has only gotten worse. But to your point there is a chance 9/11 is stopped or never happens under Gore, and if 9/11 happened anyway, the response for sure would have been different and Iraq/Afghanistan wars likely never happen (perhaps an entire generation doesn't go off to the longest war in American history).

<comment><USER16> > It seems common place for a candidate to lose the popular vote but win the > Election, which was the case between Gore/Bush

I know the education of the average HNer is a bit higher than the average person off of the street. How is the electoral college perceived here? I've heard a great argument from a conservative friend: it prevents densely populated cities like LA + NY for speaking on the needs/wants of the entire country.

<comment><USER17> What's the implied harm in that, though? Given it violates the principle of "one person, one vote", it needs justification beyond gesturing towards the idea of "it prevents bigger regions from bullying smaller ones".

Maybe there is a dark history that has been avoided by the EC, but it seems incomplete to just just allude to it with a vague David and Goliath analogy.

<comment><USER2> The federal government is set up to allow minority positions to roadblock majority positions unless you have an overwhelming majority (look at basically every big social issue of the past century and you will see this is how it has played out). The purpose of this is to prevent people from moving fast and breaking things at the federal level. This is all fine so long as states have decent autonomy. CA can have all the weed and abortions they want and KY can have all the guns and christian values they want and neither has to bother the other. Unfortunately we've put of a hell of a lot of authority at the federal level over the last 120yr or so and as a result government's ability to do things is handicapped because more of the doing things necessarily has to happen at a level where the system was designed to only allow things to be done when practically nobody could disagree with them.

<comment><USER17> I agree there can exist a tyranny of the slight majority. But we're talking about the EC, which is used to choose the President. Given the enormous power of the executive branch (relative to most parliamentary democracies, for example), this actually causes a minority to gain positive power over the majority. Positive power here meaning power to direct action through executive orders and (most importantly) military action, not merely to veto law. But the executive also enjoys some veto power!

The EC and 2 senators per state system that the US uses seems to lead to a tyranny of the minority, especially if you consider that senate "rules" regarding filibustering, simple, absolute majorities are almost all conventions rather than laws or immutable procedures.

However, I do agree with your line of argument as it relates to constitutional amendments.

Edit: I said the executive could create law, when I meant to say they can direct action.

<comment><USER2> The people getting shafted by the EC deal should tell their congressmen and senators to take back some of that legislate authority they've dumped on the executive bureaucracy.

We're holding a knife by the blade and trying to cut with the handle and complaining it hurts. Of course it does. We're not using the tool properly.

We could also massively increase the number of states which would make the two points that all states get just for existing much less relevant (and have other benefits). Even if you just look at the house the number of people represented by any given person is massive compared to what it was 100yr ago let alone when the system was designed.

<comment><USER17> I agree to a large extent. I think EC should be part of a larger set of changes, but it is understood by a reasonable amount of the public, so it's arguably the best starting point.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> There is a lying madman at the top superpower, none of these words matter as muchas getting him voted out. The single most important thing in human history could be to make Americans go and vote in November.

</comment><comment><USER19> Have you not yet realized the futility of planning?

<comment><USER20> Failing to plan, is planing to failure.</comment></comment>


Show HN: Microscaling-in-a-Box – now run your own container images - <AUTHOR> https://app.force12.io/?updated <comment><AUTHOR> Hi, I'm Ross one of the developers at Force12.io. We just launched a major update to our container scaling demo. You can now run your own container images and control how many containers appear in the demo.

We've also added sign up with GitHub to make it easier to create an account. If you've got any questions or feedback on the demo we'd love to hear from you.</comment>


Full-text searching in Django with PostgreSQL and tsearch2 - <AUTHOR> http://www.rossp.org/blog/2009/jan/28/django-postgresql-fulltext/

<comment><USER2> I have to ask: why would the author still be using PostgreSQL 8.1?

I run 8.3 or 8.4, and having tsearch2 built in is nice in addition to running a newer release for bug fixes, performance improvements, etc.

BTW, for Ruby, the texticle plugin smoothly integrates tsearch2 with ActiveRecord.</comment>


Microsoft patches IE vulnerability, but perhaps 3 months later than it should - <AUTHOR> http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/askjack/2010/jan/22/microsoft-ie-patch-scandal

<comment><USER2> I would assume the patch was making its way through QA, though there was probably a delay in there from MS deciding whether they wanted to fix it.</comment>


The Genius Dilemma  - <AUTHOR> http://www.newsweek.com/2011/01/23/the-genius-dilemma.html <comment><USER2> Single page:

[http://www.newsweek.com/2011/01/23/the-genius- dilemma.print....](http://www.newsweek.com/2011/01/23/the-genius- dilemma.print.html)

<comment><USER3> I was actually just about to comment on Newsweek's great use of javascript in their "view as single page" link at the bottom of the article. No page reload so you get to keep reading right from where you were.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> "So Page—so integral to what makes Google Google that its central PageRank algorithm is named for him—is pushing his way into the CEO job, leaving Schmidt as chairman."

Really? I was always under the impression that PageRank got its name because, you know, it ranked pages. Is there more of a story behind the naming?

<comment><USER5> From <http://www.google.com/press/funfacts.html> :

        The basis of Google's search technology is called PageRank™,
        and assigns an "importance" value to each page on the web and
        gives it a rank to determine how useful it is. However, that's
        not why it's called PageRank. It's actually named after Google
        co-founder Larry Page.

(Edited to remove the snark. Sorry, it's been a long day and it isn't over.)

<comment><USER6> I can't tell which one is the joke.

The explanation is similar to the name pg gave to the markup language for Viaweb, RTML:

>We made up various explanations for what Rtml was supposed to stand for, but actually I named it after Robert Morris, the other founder of Viaweb, whose username is Rtm.

source: <http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/paulgraham/bbnexcerpts.txt></comment></comment></comment>


Design: Voting up or Down is Dead - <AUTHOR> http://www.whattofix.com/blog/archives/2007/10/voting_up_or_do.php <comment><USER3> It's not a voting problem, it's a scaling problem; I believe. Simply put: social news sites don't scale very well.

As communities grow:

1\. You and I can't get things on the home page any more. It becomes only for the well connected.

2\. Subjects lose focus.

3\. It becomes a gold mine for spammers. They'd do anything to game the system if they can get 234,000 visitors from one post [1].

The solution, I believe: Keep communities smaller and focused. If need be, create many small communities.

[1] [http://blog.mindvalleylabs.com/marketing/how-to-get- traffic-...](http://blog.mindvalleylabs.com/marketing/how-to-get-traffic-from- web-20-like-digg-reddit-stumbleupon/)

<comment><USER4> At the same time, monetizing eyeballs requires lots of numbers. I guess the solution then is to make a site that feels like a ton of people are there, but still operates quality-wise as if there's a small community actually controlling the content.

<comment><USER3> True; monetization requires big numbers. But why not split them into smaller communities? Rather than one huge home page, have a lot of smaller ones. And, then, allow the user to select the 5 or so that they like to participate in.

Restrictions are sometimes good. Compare Facebook to MySpace. With MySpace it's one huge community; everyone can see everyone. With Facebook, you can only join a small set of networks. You cannot even join San Francisco and Silicon Valley at the same time. True, people hate it, but it keeps the system manageable as it scales.

This is a subject I'm interested in and trying to build a startup to address it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Do people really know which topics they are interested in? I mean, there's stuff I like, such as astronomy, philosophy, or politics, but would I want to choose a group to limit my discourse there? I like philosophy but I'd hate reading a thesis in the subject. But a little light rationalist vs. subjectivist or philosophy of science reading would be great. Except for those times I'd just like to see pictures of naked famous people. How would these sub-groups come into existence? I just can't see it being topic-based.

<comment><USER3> Edited: A web site doesn't have to cover ALL types of stories. This one doesn't cover politics or astronomy, for example. And, in fact, your point is more of an argument for a multi-community approach. Don't you think? For example, if you have multiple communities to choose from, you can read about marketing in the morning and about programming in the evening. Whatever you like.

Google News is organized this way, and it seems to work.

<comment><AUTHOR> Edited:

I think my point was more that people have "favorite" topics, but it's a loose and free-flowing thing, not a rigid structure. Computers are really good at rigid definitions, while people may be amenable to all kinds of fuzziness. Perhaps my group is better defined as "people who like science, astronomy, politics, and startups" -- but that wouldn't be the topics of the articles! The topics of the articles I like could be anything. And over time, I might add or subtract the stuff I like, even without being consciously aware of it. Heck, I'm not even sure I'm able to give you a precise list of topics I'm interested in, much less self-select against a preconceived ontology.

<comment><USER3> I see your point. So how about this: a community for people who like science, and another one for those who like politics, and so on. And, then, you choose to be a member of the science, astronomy, and politics clubs, and I choose to join the science and startups clubs. At least this is what I want to build.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Seems to me like Slashdot's comment system does two things that might address many of the problems you mention:

\- instead of "Up" or "Down", the voting is a bit more granular - "+1 Informative", "-1 Flamebait" etc. The UI isn't MUCH more complicated - <USER2> of a "vote up / vote down" link you have a dropdown.

\- Voting points are a limited resource - assigned to "reliable users" randomly and expire after a few days. This makes it a bit harder to get a core of power users who are practically guaranteed to be voted up. As a bonus, the scarcity probably means that people are more likely to use their votes "wisely".

I wonder if something like this has been tried for selecting the front-page stories on a social news site, and how well it would work. As far as I know everyone's following Digg's model.

<comment><USER6> Yay for mentioning Slashdot!

Slashdot has a good system, but for increased granuarity users actually need to think more about what they're voting, instead of what is possibly a subconscious, wholistic, instantaneous judgment, which seems pretty applicable for Digg. So there's a tradeoff for a system to be "easy to use" rather than "intelligent."

In this sense the UI becomes a bigger challenge than the data processing. See <http://x-o-o.com/news.php?sort=new> It's a dictionary-supported rating system with granular voting, in the sense that you can vote 10 or 0.1 if you choose to do so; it also supports weighted voting.

It is much harder to use than digg though so such a system probably will not reach popularity. But I think theory wise it is the best implementation.

<comment><USER7> Slashdot's commenting system is one of the best I've seen. One thing I wish they had though is the ability to filter out types of comments. You can already label comment as "funny","interesting", or whatever, but you can't filter by those labels. I want to be able to read at a threshold of 3+ and not funny.

<comment><USER8> Are you crazy? You can just set a -1 funny modifier (I set -2, Slashdot's meme humor rampant and unbearable). If you do that, and browse sorted by highest score, Slashdot has by far the best comments anywhere on the net, aside from certain niche newsgroups.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I think you must have arrived since the explanation of how we're going to avoid drift.

<http://ycombinator.com/hackernews.html>

Vote weighting isn't turned on yet, but for the last couple weeks I've been thinking it was time to.

Incidentally, the poll problem can easily be fixed by changing the frontpage ranking algorithm to treat poll votes as worth e.g. a third as much.

<comment><USER10> I think one thing that might help is if the choice was a little less binary. A one to five star rating system might help sort out the difference between "a decent way to kill some time at work, so up vote" (3 stars) and "something that will actually change the way that I look at the world, so up vote" (5 stars). Something to think about.

<comment><USER11> "Maybe" is one option too many

[http://www.zeldman.com/2007/06/20/remove-maybe-from- invitati...](http://www.zeldman.com/2007/06/20/remove-maybe-from-invitation- systems/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Since my YC app deals with this directly, I've been thinking about it a lot. My idea has to do with voting quotes up/down (kinda like Jyte, <http://jyte.com> ).

In allowing people to vote up/down, I realized that there needed to be a separation between 'Yes this quote is accurate' and 'Yes I think this quote is important', since the two can be exclusive.

In the end I decided to implement a two-step process. The first step is to Agree/Disagree with the quote at hand. Once a user has voted in this way, they have an optional second step to vote for how 'Important' the quote is (important or unimportant).

I have yet to see how it will work out, but I'd love any comments you guys could provide.

<comment><USER3> By doing so, you make the UI complex. Only a small percentage of people vote in social news sites as it is, even with the simple one-click up/down.

<comment><USER12> I've designed it so that the user doesn't see the voting option for importance until after they've voted for the accuracy of the quote.

<comment><USER3> I'm not sure this fixes it. Try to factor the human emotional side into the equation. For example, for an article that says "RoR sucks", what do you think Ruby enthusiasts will vote? Even if it's accurate, they'll still mark it as inaccurate, because they'd be hating it and wouldn't want it to go up on the home page. It's human nature.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> To the argument about reddit suffering from "Vote up if..." syndrome, we've thought about building a "poll" submission type (like a self-post) that would create an actual poll on reddit as the submission. We'd like to see fewer of these polls on the front page, too, but still give worthwhile poll a chance -- they're just in the minority.

We figured this would make the poll have to earn the "up vote" instead of just sucking people into clicking up because they "want Bush in prison." It could even graph the results! Histograms are sexy.

Incidentally, newsvine has something like this. We're in the middle of getting new reddit online, so who knows when/if this would actually happen. Perhaps voting up/down will already be dead by then ;)

</comment><comment><USER14> Explicit rating & ranking will inevitably crumble under its own weight. You have to use implicit data that isn't easily subject to collusion. Look for trends among disjointed groups that are acting in their own self interest.

I wrote about this a while back: [http://breasy.com/blog/2007/07/01/implicit- kicks-explicits-a...](http://breasy.com/blog/2007/07/01/implicit-kicks- explicits-ass/)

</comment><comment><USER15> In my opinion, this is as strong AI problem, and only people have strong AI. Therefore, large social sites are always going to need human moderators to have a good signal to noise ratio.

<comment><USER4> That's a bit generous, I think. Most people aren't smart at all. And even the ones that are don't act objectively and without bias. Ever.

Although I will admit that moderated solutions almost always come out better. See slashdot's complete lack of this problem.

<comment><USER16> Slashdot may not have the problem on a story/post level, but have you ever tried to read every comment on a story? A third are hate speech or spam, another third are repetitious or illogical, a sixth are insightful/funny, and the other sixth would be if they didn't happen to be against the wider political views of the people that had mod points that day.

I think the only real solution is to have a small community whose members are actually heavily invested in the topic... basically, experts.

If I try to go add to a discussion about some new Myspace feature, my thoughts are likely going to be off topic, misguided, or an outright waste of space... all because I don't have a Myspace account, and never have. For the same reason, if a bunch of Joe Sixpacks show up on Hacker News to discuss startups, they are probably going to bury any thoughts from actual startup founders or people involved in the 'scene' (whatever the scene is).

I'm not sure how you maintain that, short of making a community invite only. Even Hacker News is starting to show the pain of size. The front page often has pretty off topic stuff on it, when I, for one, came here originally to keep up on the startups funded by YC and the thoughts of the people involved in them.

Sure, PG still comments here regularly, but how long until this place grows and he becomes an absentee owner like CmdrTaco? He may not stop commenting, but there will be so much crap in the comments that few may notice what he says.

<comment><USER3> > I think the only real solution is to have a small community

I share the same point of view, and that's what I'm building right now with my new startup. There has to be a balance somewhere. Too small, and you get a dead community that rarely updates. Too big and it loses focus. The sweet spot is somewhere in between.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I voted up because I agree. Would I have done so if I disagreed, despite it being decently well-presented? Should I have?

So here's the question: How do you do better?

<comment><AUTHOR> I would form a startup that had a better idea and I would try to adapt it to make more users happy!

Not trying to be a pain, just that it's a big question, and whoever makes progress in this area is going to be accomplishing something big, in my opinion. I have my ideas, which I'd like to try out in the market and not kick around on a board. Hope that's an okay answer. I'm not a "cool idea makes the business work" guy, but neither am I a "give away the store" guy either. I think there's going to be some proprietary magic going on when this nut gets cracked, much the same as when search was cracked there was a lot of behind- the-scenes magic that Google did.

BTW -- thanks for the vote. Karma whores unite! :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> I had up and down ratings on <http://www.klipboardz.com> and then decided to switch them out for a system that just rates on number of times the story is read and the number of comments. I think it's a better system than most social sites. The only problem I expect is burying content, but that isn't a problem since the site is so small.

</comment><comment><USER18> This is why for a new project I just launched I'm using pageviews as the metric (it's a pic sharing site) instead of voting up/down.

Each IP address can only register one unique "vote" per 24 hour period. This makes the system still vulnerable to proxy servers and botnets, but it's not nearly to the point anyone would want to game it yet. (blacklists will go a long way against proxy server attacks)

</comment><comment><USER19> the problem is that even though WE don't like poll stories or random bush bashing on the front page, a TON of people do like them obviously, and you need to accomadate them too

anyone ever used pandora.com?

you give it an artist, it plays you a song by the artist or in the same genre, you vote the song up or down, eventually pandora learns enough about your tastes to only play songs that you enjoy

what if a social news site kept track of what kind of stories you voted up or down, did some magic to draw connections between types of stories, so the front page of the site would look different for each user... people that don't like poll stories wouldn't have poll stories on the front page, etc, etc

<comment><USER9> _even though WE don't like poll stories or random bush bashing on the front page, a TON of people do like them_

Not quite, unfortunately. The problem with voting, as the reddits realized from the very beginning, is that people will vote something up not just because they liked it, but because they want other people to read it. And a site full of what the majority want everyone else to read could be significantly less interesting than one full of what people like themselves.

And with polls there's not even a pretense that they reflect anyone's interest. The voting mechanism is being hacked for another use.

<comment><USER4> People voting for whatever they want other people to read is basically the same as voting for what they want themselves. I know surveyors occasionally ask questions like "How do you think most people would answer the following question: ___" in order to get an honest answer in cases where people might not want to fess up to some position personally.

<comment><USER9> _People voting for whatever they want other people to read is basically the same as voting for what they want themselves._

Only if the Bible is basically the same as porn.

<comment><USER4> Not the best comparison. I don't see why a person would vote something up that they have no interest in personally. Altruism isn't all that common.

<comment><USER9> There's a difference between what people want to read and what they want other people to read. I know of no precise word for this. Altruism is too charitable, and hypocrisy too uncharitable.

Imagine yourself inside the head of, say, an abortion rights advocate. A story appears with a headline saying that abortion is just as common where it's illegal. You don't read it; you already know that; but you upvote it as a way of saying "hear hear." Now apply the same rule to articles about Bush, Ron Paul, the RIAA, police abuses, etc, and you've filled up most of the frontpage of a site.

<comment><AUTHOR> Seems to me like we're confusing the users and the system. The users want to read the best material for them. The system only has two states: yes/no. If people are voting _knowing that their vote will influence what others read_, then they aren't working for the best interests of the users, only their own best interests. As you indicate, I don't think there's a word for that, but if there is a recommendation-consumption impedance mismatch (a gap between recommender interests and reader interests) then the system will always swing out of whack. That's true no matter how much it is weighted, because all you're doing is switching the impedance mismatch from a user-to-user scenario to a user-to-editor one.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I think up/downs are to judge the worthiness of the link, and agreements should be expressed in the comments.

<comment><AUTHOR> Would you vote up for a link to a story that you violently disagreed with? Be honest now. And if you would (I _think_ I would) do you really think that's the way others are voting?

<comment><USER12> I just experienced this dilemma with the 'Facebook Sucks' post by Dave Winer (heh) that went up on YC news earlier today or last night.

I thought the linked story was pretty lame, but at the same time, I thought it was an interesting conversation. In the end, I didn't vote up the link, but I did participate pretty heavily in the comments.

I would like a way to distinguish between liking the story and thinking that other people should see it. But at the same time, I realize how complicated that would make things.

This question/dilemma actually relates directly to my YC app/idea, so I'm going to be following the comments in this thread pretty closely.

<comment><AUTHOR> I have a hard time voting anything up, mainly because I have no idea what I'm signifying.

I literally have to remind myself go through the news list and comments and vote up every so often -- after I've consumed the material. It's not part of the consumption process for me at all.

There have been a lot of stories on YC that I agreed with, but I thought the linked article was poor. And what about good AskYC questions that have no-so- good conversations? Would you vote up the question because it's good, or ignore it because there's nothing of value there for anybody else?

This is kind of one of those seemingly pointless philosophical conversations that have a great deal of meaning once they turn into solid solutions.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Good posts/resources on how user data is sold? - <AUTHOR> My friend just sent me a link to usphonebook.com which apparently has some accurate info on people's addresses and phone numbers (including cell). She asked me how this is possible. I remember reading several good articles on HN about how data is acquired and bought, etc but I couldn't find any links to them after searching. Anyone have good resources explaining this? <comment><USER2> Telecoms traditionally published the name associated with every landline in the metro area. Local governments publish the names and addresses of property owners, registered voters, and participants in court proceedings.

In old movies, and some newer ones ( _Spotlight_ ), you'll see the heroes traveling to drab government offices in the middle of nowhere and standing in line for photocopies. Data brokers [0] in their simplest form are just running this ground game "at scale" and caching the result in a convenient place.

Basic demographic information like you're describing does not require any of the sophisticated conspiracies of modern ad-tech, which is more focused on associating these 20th-century profiles with information about preferences, personality, and even current emotional state in order to bid exactly the right amount to show exactly the right ad at the right time.

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

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Here's one I was thinking of actually [https://www.dataviper.io/blog/2019/pdl- data-exposure-billion...](https://www.dataviper.io/blog/2019/pdl-data- exposure-billion-people/)

</comment><comment><USER3> See Natasha Singer's reporting in the NYTimes on data brokers. [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13805613](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13805613)</comment>


Angry letter from minimum-wage Yelp employee (now fired) - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@taliajane/an-open-letter-to-my-ceo-fb73df021e7a#.zhg8q53sh <comment><USER2> Current discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11138086](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11138086) (74 points, 8 hours ago, 20 comments)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I feel really conflicted about this story. On the one hand, she's shooting at the wrong target: CEOs don't make minimum wage and healthcare laws. On the other hand, Yelp is a Bay Area tech company and something feels really wrong about their low-prestige support employees struggling to make ends meet. Then again, that's how supply and demand works on the labor market...

<comment><USER3> No. Paying someone the minimum wage sends the message "If I could pay you less, I would". Legal minimum wage establishes a limit on how evil people are allowed to be to each other.

And working for minimum wage sends the message "I still believe I can work my way out of this".

In _my_ opinion -- if you don't have enough money for a tip, you don't have enough money to eat at a restaurant -- and if you don't have enough to pay a living wage for every job at your company -- you don't have enough money to hire anybody.

Minimum wage laws are meant to prevent employers from exploiting the vulnerable.

She had the perfect target in her gunsights.</comment></comment>


Deploying New Image Formats on the Web - <AUTHOR> http://www.igvita.com/2012/12/18/deploying-new-image-formats-on-the-web/ <comment><USER2> As a server engineer this sounds like the correct solution. As someone who runs some blogs, not so much.

If I want to put various formats of images on my blogger.com site (or other similar service) today, assuming some syntax was added to HTML to allow it, I can do that immediately. I don't have to wait N years for the people who run blogger.com to update their software.

This is a problem often run into between sys admins who run their own servers and the rest of use who don't. They forgot that the majority of users don't run their own servers.

<comment><AUTHOR> You can put as many img tags as you want, with any format that you like, today. If your visitors support the formats you're emdedding, then you're good to go. Strategy #2: javascript detection, ala modernizr webp tests.

Most users who don't run their own servers also don't know a thing about image formats - so the point may be moot. :-)

In fact, this is why this problem should be automated. Most blogs are serving uncompressed images, which are resized on the client - worst of all cases.

<comment><USER2> > You can put as many img tags as you want, with any format that you like, > today. If your visitors support the formats you're emdedding you're good to > go

Hmmm, If I put multiple image tags with various formats that may or may not work on different browsers I'll get lots of broken image boxes on my page. Not quite "good to go" I think. No?

> Most users who don't run their own servers also don't know a thing about > image formats

Really? I suspect that very few web designers know how to run a server but all of them know the differences between .png, .gif, .jpg and now whatever is needed for HD-DPI

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> The img lowsrc attribute was deprecated a long time ago. If content negotiation isn't going to be used, then a system like that, with separate attributes for the different URLs, makes more sense than overloading the contents of the current src attribute with a custom, differently parsed format (explode on commas or whathaveyou).

<comment><USER4> The comma delimited list of file extensions was an illustration of a bad solution. The actual proposal was to use proper content negotiation and the Vary header for intermediate caches.</comment></comment>


LoopBack, a new Node.js framework by StrongLoop - <AUTHOR> http://loopback.io <comment><USER2> Nitpick, but the "GET /people/{id}/exists" in the example to check if the instance exists is a bit weird, would suggest "HEAD /people/{id}" for this type of operation.

<comment><USER3> Actually the resource should typically 404 to indicate it doesn't exists (generally speaking for http apis).

<comment><USER4> Yeah, the HEAD or GET should return a 404 on not existence; however, the HEAD also won't return data which is the point. GET implies that you have need of the returned data (presumably all the properties of that person). GET is for "it exists AND I want to know about it". HEAD really is more appropriate here.

<comment><USER5> HEAD is a good fit. We'll add support for that. Please open github issues to help us track the feature requests or bug fixes at [https://github.com/strongloop/loopback/issues](https://github.com/strongloop/loopback/issues).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> As someone that is in the middle of writing a nodejs thin API layer, working with express-resource, this looks really amazing to me. It looks like I can stop worrying about writing middle thin-API code, and focus on front-end manipulation of a stable middle/backend

However, the scale of this really worries me. I really like small tools (flask over django, knockoutjs over angular sometimes,etc) -- and this seems like a LOT to take in to a project, sort of hoping it all just works...

Also, why is Postgres support not more prominently stated? It's there, but I had to search for it. And on that note, why is JSON stored in postgres as a varchar? why not use the postgres JSON type (compatibility reasons, maybe?)

<comment><USER7> Postgres almost warrants its own non-generic ORM. That would actually be kinda cool.

<comment><USER6> If I understand your comment right, are you looking for something like this:

[http://bookshelfjs.org/](http://bookshelfjs.org/)

I haven't done much work with a relational DB from nodejs (I've just used nosql databases that offered relational functionality -- i.e. rethinkdb), but this seems like as good a thing as any for ORM-y stuff with Postgres

<comment><USER8> There's also Sequelize ([http://sequelizejs.com/](http://sequelizejs.com/)) which is increasing its focus on Postgres specific features.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I feel like you should give a little shout out to the folks over at Wordnik [https://github.com/wordnik/swagger-ui](https://github.com/wordnik/swagger-ui) for putting together such an awesome API browser.

</comment><comment><USER10> This looks amazing, and the StrongLoop team is chalked full of some great Node.js developers.

But for some reason I'm still worried about using it as the backbone for an enterprise scale application; it almost does too much. Perhaps I'm just too averse to this amount of "magic" in any piece of infrastructure due to my Django days.

The code is open, but you're not just buying into a single module with a single purpose -- this is an entire architecture. I guess in such cases, worry is warranted before accepted it as the backbone of your company/application.

<comment><USER11> Off-topic note on "chalked full" \- you probably mean chock-full, an old phrase probably derived from the word "choke". I was entertained trying to imagine what a chalk filled team might be though :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Wow, I'm building something a bit similar in the Go area: [https://github.com/sergiotapia/paprika](https://github.com/sergiotapia/paprika)

Nice to know it's a good idea that a lot of people will find useful. :) Granted in it's current vision Paprika won't handle authentication.

It's basically an API server in-a-can. Defined your structs, set up your .toml database configuration and paprika.Start("3000") on a port.

<comment><USER13> I've seen ton of "expose DB as REST-like API" libraries in various languages, and even tried (unsuccessfully) to write one myself. I'd say just exposing model is trivial, even when coupled with content-type negotiation. Subjectively, the hardest part is permissions (operation, row and field-level ones) and making them play nice with REST and HTTP concepts (like ETags).

<comment><USER14> etags , hateoas,hypermedia... definetly the hard part,along with security. Getting an API right is hard work.Still search for the holy grail...

<comment><USER5> Agree. We try to solve the problems progressively. The connected model support is a foundation to those features. See [http://strongloop.com/strongblog/defining-and-mapping- data-r...](http://strongloop.com/strongblog/defining-and-mapping-data- relations-with-loopback-connected-models). Basically, we build models that relate to each other, partition the data graph with links, and expose them as REST APIs that can be used to navigate and aggregate the information from various data sources.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Nice landing page, I'll give them credit for that. But why would I want to use this instead of Express or Restler?

<comment><USER5> LoopBack is built on top of express. You can use express routing and middleware with LoopBack as is.

Express allows you to expose HTTP endpoints as APIs but it doesn't facilitate the quest to build/aggregate/protect/document APIs that interacts with various backend systems, such as DBs, Cloud services, and internal REST/SOAP APIs. LoopBack is positioned to be a fully-fledged API server with SDKs for JS, iOS, and Android.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> This is slick, especially the API explorer, but my biggest gripe about these orm's is that once you get past the very basic CRUD, you need to execute custom sql.

Does it support custom DB types?

For example, I want my primary keys to be bigint on Mysql, and not have to override the underlying dbdriver to do the mapping. I'd prefer to set the appropriate dbtype in the model, and have the driver pass it along directly.

Also does it support dbdriver level SQL query execution?

I have custom aggregation query across a self join, and that's not easily represented with static methods on a model.

Today I use node-orm2, with a custom SQL script that updates the identity columns to be bigints, and it supports executing raw sql queries (with some basic parameter sanitizing).

<comment><USER17> Has the same problem using Bookshelf (which built on Knex). The query language breaks down almost immediarely. Need to use PostGIS primitives? Awkward. Need to perform aggregate functions with group by, or add dynamically computed columns to the select? Impossible. Subqueries in the select? Nope. Need to order by a function? Impossible, too.

These libraries fail because they are not designed around a logical expression language (unlike Ruby's ARel, a very nice SQL building library that forms the underpinnings of ActiveRecord). You need to be able to programmatically build expressions as an AST which still preserving SQL language rules and avoid exposing yourself to injection.

<comment><USER18> > The query language breaks down almost immediarely.

Agreed. We dropped an ORM completely and use SQL in functions (aka stored procedures). For models we use plain JS objects and for validation we use Joi ([https://github.com/spumko/joi](https://github.com/spumko/joi)) from Walmart Labs.

Eliminating an ORM has been freeing. We did have to invest in upgrading our team's SQL skills, but we no longer run into limitations of an abstraction layer. Our queries are faster as there are fewer layers. Now that we're up to speed on SQL we find it to be expressive for our data access needs.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> For node-based API backends, I've been using Sails.js or Deployd. In addition to providing automatic RESTful CRUD APIs for your data models, both Sails and Deployd also provide WebSocket interfaces that make it really easy to support real-time capabilities without doing any extra work. It doesn't look like LoopBack does that.

I've been particularly happy with Sails.js as the backend framework for my single-page web apps. I get rid of the Sails view system and use it solely as an API backend. The current 0.10 beta, which adds support for associations in data models, is really nice.

<comment><USER20> I've been considering using Sails to redo a simple RoR project--mostly to help decrease the number of languages floating around in the project.

Any thoughts/gotchas from your experience with it?

<comment><USER19> * The Sails ORM (which is called Waterline) is very light and simple, but it doesn't have the maturity or the same degree of expressive power that you get with ActiveRecord. Associations were recently added and the query system doesn't really let you take advantage of them quite yet.

* There are also subtle differences in behavior that emerge when you use Waterline with different database adapters, so you really need to develop against the same DB adapter that you intend to use in production.

* When you need to customize the behavior of the CRUD methods that Sails gives you by default (like if you need to transform some parameters passed in by the user in the create method), it is often cleaner and easier to do it by applying custom policy methods rather than overriding the actual CRUD method in the controller.

* For a new Sails project, you probably want to start with the new version 0.10 even though it hasn't been officially released yet.

Those are the points that first come to mind. Despite the limitations, I've found it to be a pretty compelling framework. And it's very actively developed, so a lot of the deficiencies are being corrected.

<comment><USER20> Thank you!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Cool! Handling CRUD APIs and authentication desperately needs a flexible library! I can't seem to find any kind of versioning, changelist, etc to facilitate reactive clients tho. Is it lacking or am I not seeing it?

Edit: Whey! [http://docs.strongloop.com/display/DOC/Synchronization](http://docs.strongloop.com/display/DOC/Synchronization)

</comment><comment><USER22> Can you explain about Mongodb support? Does it use mongoose behind? What about if I have my own mongoose model, can I still continue with same?

I did look at loopback a while ago, it was appeared like a parse.com kind of API you host on your own infrastructures. I will reread the documentation again to see if any more clarity on mongodb side.

</comment><comment><USER23> This framework feels kind of like Rails for REST APIs, but not in a bad way. I really like it so far.

</comment><comment><USER24> I really like the Angular sdk. I find it really speeds up the process of spinning up a new project

<comment><USER25> Thanks! Please also check out [http://strongloop.com/strongblog/full-stack- javascript-isomo...](http://strongloop.com/strongblog/full-stack-javascript- isomorphic-loopback-browse/). LoopBack model APIs can be run inside the browsers too and they are backed by local storage and/or remote data sources. Isomorphic model!

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Spent a minute in confusion of the name: LoopBack. Before I have seen another dev tool/service with exact same domain but it was about recording the interactions history for your iOS app.

Then it occurred to me the iOS rewind service is looKback.io, so close :)

</comment><comment><USER27> Looks really awesome. Building my REST app with Baucis right now and finding ACL built-in is really nice!

Any plans for using Express > 4.x? More and more stuff is targeting Express 4.x these days.

<comment><USER28> Baucis takes the approach that monolithic frameworks are more costly in time and resources to build software with in all but the short term, and only then sometimes. Long live small libraries!

Putting that conversation aside, I'd be very interested to know what advantages there are for you in having ACL built-in vs. using one of the ACL middleware modules that are available through npm.

William Riley-Land (Author of baucis)

<comment><USER27> Requirements for ACL for json fetching/saving and regular rest endpoints are a bit different, so I couldn't find exact fit so far. In most cases you have to define a function, which become too verbose with very little re-usability.

That been said, there are a lot of node.js modules out there and I could simply miss right one. If you could point to a couple you think might play very well with baucis - I would really love it.

In general most of rest/mvc frameworks our there miss this part entirely. I am ok with acl being not part of particular framework as long as there is at least one 'blessed' combination to use.

= pavel karoukin - author of baucis-access plugin :)

<comment><USER28> Oh hey, Pavel :)

What're your "killer features" that are lacking for ACL in Node in your experience?

I'm becoming severely intrigued by the idea of using specialized proxy servers for applications like this…

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> This looks pretty cool! I'll be sure to give it a try. It's a shame that there's no support for Ember though.

<comment><USER30> Since LoopBack exposes a REST-like API, you should be able to use Ember modules in your client:

[http://emberjs.com/guides/models/the-rest- adapter/](http://emberjs.com/guides/models/the-rest-adapter/) [http://emberjs.com/api/data/classes/DS.RESTAdapter.html](http://emberjs.com/api/data/classes/DS.RESTAdapter.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> Gonna give this a go for my next project, I just hope they implement real-time capabilities like Sails/Deployd ASAP

</comment><comment><USER32> This definitely appears to be the most in-depth and fleshed out Node framework yet. Fantastic docs, too!

Awesome work.

</comment><comment><USER33> Looks great, but what about validation for the models? Didn't see that mentioned anywhere.

</comment><comment><USER34> Love the SOAP connector and storage service. Looking for docs around the offline sync support

</comment><comment><USER35> Hehe, I owned that domain, loopback.io, a year or two ago. I didn't renew it obviously.

<comment><USER35> OTOH I still have monospace.io which is a pretty nice domain. Anyone interested?

<comment><USER17> That would be great for a personal side project of mine, can you email me? Email address on my profile page. Thanks!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> This is very impressive.

</comment><comment><USER37> What's the Omega in the terminal??

<comment><USER38> I'm guessing it's just his prompt. The Node/JS community has a bit of thing for using unicode characters everywhere.

Case in point:

[https://github.com/mbostock/d3/blob/c247e1626118de41b3d40e2a...](https://github.com/mbostock/d3/blob/c247e1626118de41b3d40e2a711354f76e004343/src/geo/conic.js)

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> I thought that LoopBack appeared promising until I came across their astroturf campaigns on reddit. That completely turned me off to them.

<comment><USER40> Can you please provide more information? What campaigns and how did you discover them?

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> hmm, new? no,good for rest rad yes.

But we still need a nodejs framework for good old html apps with a strong view layer (e.g. forms...).It definetly doesnt exist in nodejs space.

<comment><USER41> Seen sails.js? How's it different from what you're looking for?

</comment></comment><comment><USER42> Didn't we all agree that JavaScript is a bad language for development in large? So why won't we switch to e.g. TypeScript?</comment>


Show HN: LetsPaste - <AUTHOR>

tldr: I made a gaming screenshot sharing app: http://letspaste.com
A while ago, I noticed LetsPlays (making & sharing gameplay videos) were extremely popular, but I couldn't find any site dedicated specifically to screenshots.
Lots of game devs use Twitter (and there is a big movement there called #screenshotsaturday), but I find their handling of screenshots totally awful. I think devs could really benefit from a site like this.
I'd prefer not to post it on HN this early, but I've had a really hard time find someone to test it. Some of the design decisions are kind of bizarre. It might help to note that I made this with a (personal) bias towards indie games and pixel art.
This is an MVP!! It only works on CHROME currently. I've got plenty more ideas and polish to add (e.g. recommendations, filtering, more twitter integration), but I don't want to develop it further if there is no interest.
I'd appreciate ANY feedback you have, but especially:
1. how useful you think this is, how to make it more useful
2. usability, especially on uploading screenshots <comment><USER2> clicky: [http://letspaste.com](http://letspaste.com)</comment>


'It's Enrico Pallazzo': The inside Story of 'The Naked Gun' Baseball Game - <AUTHOR> http://www.sportingnews.com/us/mlb/news/naked-gun-baseball-game-scene-national-anthem-angels-mariners-dodgers-stadium-enrico-pallazzo/zztjoa4obui818oo9waqjyf34 <comment><USER2> It's the same old story- Boy finds girl, boy loses girl. Girl finds boy, boy forgets girl. Boy remembers girl, girls dies in a tragic blimp accident over the Orange Bowl on New Year's Day.

<comment><USER3> Goodyear?

<comment><USER4> No, the worst.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> _> [T]he national anthem seemed fair game for spoofing in 1988. That's a major contrast to 2018, when the anthem has been elevated to a sacred, untouchable level by a large segment of the American public.

> "I don't know that we'd get away with that scene today," Abrahams said. "We > probably wouldn't."_

<comment><USER6> Along similar lines, I strongly believe that "Blazing Saddles" could not be made today. It would send people into utter hysterics, and not the kind the writers intended.

<comment><USER7> I agree with you. I saw it for the first time last year, and went "oh wow - this is edgy by today's standards". I was surprised it was played on TV.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> >Not that the story should be the main appeal of a parody, just that there must be a good story for the jokes to serve. Although "Airplane!" was a joke- and gag-heavy enterprise, the film had an obvious story with three distinct acts, along with a main character who had a clear arc. "Top Secret!", though, had major narrative and character issues.

It seems like modern style parodies seem to ignore this point entirely but it is exactly why Airplane and Hot Shots and Naked Gun worked. I can't think of a single spoof that has worked so effectively since the 90s.

<comment><USER8> Tropic Thunder, but it's almost a meta spoof.

<comment><USER9> I was going to say this. I just saw that movie for the first time about 6 months ago and it killed me. For some reason I had it in my mind it wasn't a good movie, but it's one of my recent favorites now.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> _This game features the Mariners and Angels, two real-life baseball teams. But that was never the plan. The Zuckers and Abrahams, three Wisconsinites, hoped for some hometown flair._

 _"We wanted the Brewers," David Zucker said. "We applied to MLB and they said you have to take the Mariners. … I think they were trying to help that franchise. That was a weak franchise (at the time) and must've been weaker than the Brewers."_

I doubt it was in any way deliberate, but there's another angle here.

MLB was in a phase of expansion in the 1960s. Two teams were added in 1961 (in the American League), two in 1962 (National League), and plans were in place to add four more -- two in each league -- in two groups. The National League would gain two new teams in 1969 (Montréal and San Diego), and the American League would gain two new teams in 1971. The 1971 expansion would add the Seattle Pilots and the Kansas City Royals, with the Royals being a replacement for the former Kansas City Athletics, who relocated to Oakland after the 1967 season.

But Missouri Senator Stuart Symington didn't want Kansas City to go three full seasons without a local team, so the AL expansion was moved up, and the Kansas City Royals and Seattle Pilots began play in 1969 instead. Seattle was nowhere near ready for such an accelerated schedule; they played in a decrepit and poorly-converted minor-league stadium, and the team was disastrously bad and had trouble with finances.

The Pilots' ownership filed for bankruptcy protection shortly before the 1970 season was scheduled to begin. The team ended up being bought by Bud Selig, who immediately relocated them to Milwaukee, where they still play as the Brewers.

Seattle eventually got a permanent MLB franchise in another round of expansion in 1977, when the Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays began play. But there is still a feeling among baseball fans that the rush to push the 1971 expansion up two years, and the dealings in the offseason after 1969, resulted in Milwaukee "stealing" Seattle's original major-league team.

So having Milwaukee get its baseball spotlight stolen by Seattle was arguably poetic justice.

Bud Selig, incidentally, went on to become MLB Commissioner, and is a pretty notorious character. His rise from minority owner of an eventually-relocated franchise (the Milwaukee Braves, who moved to Atlanta), to outright owner of the Brewers (née Pilots), to Commissioner, is just full of shady stuff.

<comment><USER11> ... including forcing the Astros to switch leagues to the AL to balance him moving his team from the AL to the NL.

<comment><USER10> The league switches at least had some rational justification. Yanking the Pilots out of Seattle was pure vanity. The owners' collusion in the 80s was pure greed. The retaliation against Fay Vincent was pure vengeful pettiness. And the "tie" in the All-Star Game, followed by making it "meaningful", was a pure travesty.

Besides, everybody's focused now on the possibility of expanding to 32 teams and redoing the entire league and divisional alignments anyway.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> How great this was is that this is still very, very funny despite me not knowing jack crap about baseball (as a non-american).

The last time TNG was up on HN someone recommended Angie Tribeca and I have to say, after a handful of episodes, it's the best replacement I've seen so far.

[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3597790/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3597790/)

</comment><comment><USER13> For me as a non-American, this scene is where most of my knowledge of baseball comes from.

</comment><comment><USER14> > _It was their usual collaborative process: One idea would lead to another, > then another, then another. One gag would piggyback onto something else. > Everyone contributed, and all agreed to not take sole credit for anything._

I wish collaboration worked that way in software development!

<comment><USER15> I think software development would work best if it focused on software, not jokes.

<comment><USER16> I don't think there's much of a difference. If software devs were focused on entertainment value of their output rather than some other nonsensical metric, it might be a much better thing.

<comment><USER17> So, like Apple in the 80's and 90's.

[https://www.macworld.com/article/2032517/software/hidden- mes...](https://www.macworld.com/article/2032517/software/hidden-messages-an- apple-easter-egg-hunt.html)

<comment><USER16> Basically.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> > "She goes, 'I don't know the (bleepin') song!'"

That should have been a clue to them that the English actress spoke for most of the World. The whole baseball scene was funny but utterly alien and confusing to me. What was parody and what was gameplay?

Imagine a comedy finale set in a cricket match. Over a billion people have some familiarity with the rules but it probably still wouldn't be a good idea.

<comment><USER19> >Imagine a comedy finale set in a cricket match. Over a billion people have some familiarity with the rules but it probably still wouldn't be a good idea.

It'd be a great idea if it was being made in a country for people who have familiarity with the rules. Not everything has to, or even should be, intended for a global audience.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> I'd be willing to bet that every single one of the millions of people who have watched this movie in the last 30 years has laughed at "Hey, it's Enrico Pallazzo!"

I will go to my grave insisting those are the four funniest words ever uttered in a movie.

</comment><comment><USER21> Netflix, or Amazon, or someone. Please bring back Police Squad!

<comment><USER22> I can't imagine it being the same without Leslie Nielsen.

<comment><USER23> So difficult for someone to follow that. You need someone with the gravitas of a serious actor but with the tiniest of glints in their eye, willing to send themselves up, has to have spot-on timing, and an ability to do slapstick. Closest kind of match I can think of is someone like Steve Carrell, but he's probably not straight enough. I think Nielsen fit that role more perfectly than anyone else possibly could.

<comment><USER24> Liam Neeson. Known for action/dramatic movies (much like Nielsen pre-airplane) and plays a great straight man.

<comment><USER21> Oh man I was thinking of him too. Just playing it straight with Police Squad lines.... hilarious.

<comment><USER25> The straight/sane man is the funniest, to me, character in any kind of comedy.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> That's one of the funniest movie scenes ever. The anthem is so painful.

<comment><USER27> Every time I hear our national anthem, I hear "...buncha bombs in the air..." and chuckle a bit to myself.

> "I don't know that we'd get away with that scene today," Abrahams said. "We > probably wouldn't."

Without a doubt! These days, this gag would appear to be political and would be polarizing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> Love that movie.</comment>


Ask YC: Programming career exit strategies? - <AUTHOR>

a) Pure ageism in the programming job market to begin with. Young programmers have a better chance of knowing the hot new languages, they work for less, and they're more likely to accept long hours and weekend crunches. Meanwhile, older programmers are seen as dinosaurs with out-of-date skills.
b) A skilled developer's salary tops out at, what, $150,000 in the best case, most expensive market? And let's not forget that comment Giles Bowkett quoted recently: "You're a programmer ... that makes you a tool to be used by people much smarter than yourself." We want to think we're genius intellects, but the truth is that there's some crushing-handshake jock at the other end of the table whose daughter's 16th birthday party cost more than you'll make in your career.
Conclusion: Software development is great fun, and satisfying, and I will always keep doing it as a hobby, but it is not what I want to be trying to do at 50. What do you see as the career path, short of a 100% career switch? <comment><USER2> "Meanwhile, older programmers are seen as dinosaurs with out-of-date skills."

So here's the thing: which languages are "hot"? C and C++ are still in the TIOBE top 10, but there's Java, VB, PHP... all languages with very low barriers to entry. So we are seeing a misleading picture of the market right now. If (and admittedly this is a complete unknown) the industry shifts in favour of languages with a higher barrier to entry then the game changes radically. Without wanting to step on anyone's toes, a (good) C++ programmer can probably hold their own in any language with a little lead time to get up to speed. A VB or PHP type might _never_ get enough of a grasp on C++ to make it as a professional.

There was another article on HN recently about how hard it is to hire parallel programmers. See where I'm going with this...?

<comment><USER3> C++? Linus Torvalds wouldn't agree:

"C++ is a horrible language. It's made more horrible by the fact that a lot of substandard programmers use it, to the point where it's much much easier to generate total and utter crap with it. Quite frankly, even if the choice of C were to do nothing but keep the C++ programmers out, that in itself would be a huge reason to use C."

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Go freelance maybe. Then you are in control. As a business, you also won't be making statements like "young programmers have a better chance of knowing the hot new languages" but rather "my business needs to keep on top of new technologies to survive." It is a different mind set.

I'm not sure your observations reflect reality though. I think you are over generalizing.

Everyone is a tool.

Making $150K per year is good pretty much anywhere.

The owner might actually be making less than you.

There is always a "top" when trading dollars for hours.

There is nothing wrong with programming at 50. I know lots of web developers (I am a web developer as well) around that age. I actually look up to them.

<comment><USER5> _There is always a "top" when trading dollars for hours._

I think this is the key thing. As much as I dislike Steve Pavlina, he understands this. See #1 here: [http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/07/10-reasons-you- shou...](http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/07/10-reasons-you-should-never- get-a-job/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I don't mean to be glib but isn't the answer, given the context of this site, sort of obvious?

Developer -> Entrepreneur

</comment><comment><USER7> It seems standard for cube-dwellers to move from programming to project management.

Not that I think the grass is at all greener there; but who knows what tickles your pickle.

</comment><comment><USER8> Go work for yourself.</comment>


Homevoters v. the growth machine: Who controls the development of cities? - <AUTHOR> http://cityobservatory.org/homevoters-v-the-growth-machine/ <comment><USER2> Left out the most crucial land reform. Shifting away from taxing improvements, and shifting towards taxing land by value.

We must stop encouraging people to enclose valuable land for idle speculative purposes. That land should be available at an affordable rate for those who actually want to make productive use of it.

<comment><USER3> My reading on this subject suggests that it's super hard to figure out the unimproved land value of improved land. That seems like it's an important hurdle.

<comment><USER4> That's an objection that many have raised (Hayek thought it made LVT impractical), though there are schemes to make it better than the current system (county-run assessors, whose values often bear very little connection to reality)-- self-assessment of your land value being one.

<comment><USER5> Self assessment doesn't really solve anything, especially if it's for unimproved value (which is the tax basis in LVT), but all other important uses (including, e.g., eminent domain) use as-is, improved value.

Self-assessment is arguably efficient for setting tax basis value for things with ad valorem taxes when it serves as a firm and irrevocable offer to sell at the price (e.g., if it were the firm, out upper limit, value for eminent domain purposes.) But when the value taxed if definitionally different from the price expected in any transaction, as it is worth unimproved land value taxes, self assessment is trivially fallbacks to the point of uselessness.

In any case, I'm unconvinced that land value tax makes sense in a post- industrial economy; in an agricultural economy out industrial economy, sure, I can see the attraction.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Upzoning and downzoning are fairly different: upzoning often immediately precedes building larger buildings. Downzoning puts an upper bound on growth, but never results in a building being demolished (except in cases of a derelict building, where downzoning makes it impossible to replace – though even then it's usually possible to create replace a building with an equivalent building regardless of zoning in the case of something like a fire).

<comment><USER7> This would suggest that zoning codes represent a substantial constraint on development, and form a substantial driver of rising rents.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> [http://runvnc.github.io/tinyvillage](http://runvnc.github.io/tinyvillage)

<comment><USER9> Limiting the vehicle size by weight is crazy. At 300lbs you're specifying nearly the bulk of a normal American adult (we have a lot of obese and nearly obese people; but a lot of strength trainers also qualify). The effort would be better spent more directly attacking the desired result; short-medium (intra small city) transit in extremely lightweight vehicles (bicycles are the traditional solution, but electric scooters are another option).

Of course instead of those moving beltways might be a better use of one of the pathways (and promote walking).

<comment><USER8> There aren't really a lot of people that overweight. Probably needs to be more than 300 lbs, but what I am going for is for there to be a small enough amount of force involved that people will almost certainly survive crashes. So the vehicle has to be very light and that is what I was trying to go for. If the person or vehicle is heavier then maybe it has to move slower to stay safe.

You say its better to make it a rule for people to use bicycles or scooters in between towns. Well, I suggested in the same section to use bicycles or velomobiles which is the same thing, except ideally since this is relatively dense and mixed use you don't have to go very far to get to your store or wherever and so its in the same town.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Why not a GEO dispersed startup? - <AUTHOR>

This is some kind a follow up to this - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1565375
Why not to model a startup as a hybrid of an open source project (say, Cassandra) and some team-building and a payment model form a soccer team?
Isn't co-called 'sponsored' projects works exactly this way?
There are some kind of healthy competition and rotation among contributors. You can pay a premiums for a milestone achievement, or for closing a ticket and the like.
If there are thousands of a successful GEO dispersed OSS projects (linux kernel, freebsd, nginx, sqlite, git, to name a few) why not adapt this model as a basis for a startup? <comment><USER2> Money causes problems that a bunch of semi-anonymous people in most cases won't be able to handle without a clear organization.

<comment><AUTHOR> But a lot of shared-payments schemes are working well, especially in porn, SEO and web-advertising.</comment></comment>


The Doom That Came to Puppet - <AUTHOR> http://thedoomthatcametopuppet.tumblr.com/

<comment><USER2> Absolutely hilarious, reminds me of the @KimKierkegaard Twitter account. I'm a little skeptical of how algorithmic this is, not at least without some significant human curation!</comment>


You could have invented fractional cascading (2012) - <AUTHOR> http://blog.ezyang.com/2012/03/you-could-have-invented-fractional-cascading/ <comment><USER2> I'm sure someone has been asked to invent fractional cascading on a whiteboard interview at some point.

They ultimately turned him down because he had trouble speaking, being scrutinized, and operating at peak intellectual capacity at the same time.

<comment><USER3> Please write a PhD thesis with a marker in the next 30 minutes.

If you erase anything, or make a false start, it will be held against you.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Pretty minor, but this reminded me of how much I'm irked by the use of the word "obvious" in technical writing.

</comment><comment><USER5> Edward Yang's blog is an absolute gem.</comment>


What happened to Mangan's blog? - <AUTHOR> http://www.halfsigma.com/2009/11/what-happened-to-mangans-blog.html

<comment><AUTHOR> The author has stated that his account was disabled. Some info:

[http://www.halfsigma.com/2009/11/what-happened-to-mangans- bl...](http://www.halfsigma.com/2009/11/what-happened-to-mangans-blog.html)

[http://www.halfsigma.com/2009/11/google-censorship-rears- its...](http://www.halfsigma.com/2009/11/google-censorship-rears-its-ugly- head.html)

[http://isteve.blogspot.com/2009/11/where-did-dennis- mangans-...](http://isteve.blogspot.com/2009/11/where-did-dennis-mangans-blog- go.html)</comment>


Startup Quote from David Karp, Founder, Tumblr - <AUTHOR> http://startupquote.com/post/12522195335

<comment><AUTHOR> Every feature has some maintenance cost, and having fewer features lets us focus on the ones we care about and make sure they work very well.

\- David Karp (@davidkarp)

<http://startupquote.com/post/12522195335></comment>