An Electric Car Loses Its Juice - <AUTHOR> http://www.newsweek.com/id/169161

<comment><USER2> How can a troll get work as a Newsweek reporter?

You can start complaining when Tesla starts begging for a government bailout after producing shitty products for 20 years. In fact, Detroit does so badly that just about any advice would be an improvement. Developing a car like this would have cost them a billion dollars with the same number of delays, except they wouldn't have come up with the idea in the first place.

Let's not forget all the other projects that are "late and over budget, has gone through loads of redesigns, still has bugs". Just about any big project these days are. Construction projects, government restructurings, industrial design projects..it just happens that very much of what happens today is related to software.

Best of all, the conclusion doesn't match the derisive tone of the article. It actually sounds like he's praising the project in the last sentence.

<comment><USER3> "But the past two years have been rocky for Tesla, which first announced it would build a big factory in New Mexico, then said it would instead build in San Jose, after California dangled incentives to stay in the state."

Oh no! They took advantage of incentives to change their plans.

<comment><USER4> Yeah, I read that and was unable to understand how this was un-intelligent. Announce something, change plans without committing any work in exchange for payola. Sounds smart to me.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> _a classic Silicon Valley product—it's late and over budget, has gone through loads of redesigns, still has bugs and, at $109,000, costs more than originally planned._

Ugh. Is that what we're calling "classic" now? The real classic is still two guys in a garage with no schedule and a drop-dead budget ceiling in the thousands.

</comment><comment><USER6> _"I'm very unhappy about what's happened to my company" under Elon, says Eberhard, who still owns about 3 percent of Tesla. "I think he's a terrible CEO." Elon Musk responds that "Martin is the worst individual I've ever had the displeasure of working with."_

Wow, don't hold back guys.

</comment><comment><USER7> I do feel like Tesla is working on the wrong car. The future of the electric car is based on achieving cost-competitiveness with gasoline. I'm much more excited about $25k electric sedans, or something like the Chevy Volt.

<comment><USER8> In the long run yes, but I think they did the right thing to focus on the high end sports market initially. It gets more attraction from the media and creates brand awareness. It's a cool project that attracts the best engineering talent. It allows them to experiment with and push the technology far beyond what would be needed for an every day car with more room for early failure, and perhaps more understanding from early adopters. If they are able to execute on their plan, when regular folks are thinking of purchasing their first fully electric vehicles I think the Tesla name will have a more positive association in people's minds than the Chevy volt.

<comment><USER9> High end cars also have much higher profit margins. To make money with an affordable car, you need to sell a lot of cars, which takes a lot of infrastructure. As a new company, you don't have that infrastructure yet. Why not sell more profitable cars while you ramp up?</comment></comment></comment>


Tell HN: Thank You - <AUTHOR> http://micheleincalifornia.blogspot.com/2014/02/tell-hn-thank-you.html

<comment><AUTHOR> Just wanted to say "Thank You." (I don't know if a mod corrected the title or if I mistyped it initially. If it changes, I will assume a mod did it. If a mod did change it: Oops. Sorry. No offense.)</comment>


I was a master of my Commodore 64 way more than I am of my iPhone - <AUTHOR> http://tosbourn.com/mastering-tools <comment><USER2> I miss my Amstrad CPC 464 and Atari ST too.

The stack of softwares is too deep nowadays to control everything excepting in the world of microcontrollers.

<comment><USER3> Indeed. Which is why recreational programming on Amstrads is still fun :)

Check out [http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/](http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/) and [https://github.com/Octoate/cpc-sdcc-rom](https://github.com/Octoate/cpc-sdcc- rom) for some good starting points.

Amstrads can still be had on eBay for reasonable money, and one can gradually buy enough hardware to make a fun system. I just obtained a floppy drive interface that I plan to use to connect an SD-card floppy simulator to my 464 ... fun times :)

<comment><USER2> This is great.

I've seen a modern OS for 6128 but I can't find the link.

There is this kind of spirit in the Forth language. I try to build something around it.

<comment><USER3> You're probably thinking of SymbOS?

[http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/SymbOS](http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/SymbOS)

Screenshot here:

[http://www.cpcwiki.eu/imgs/7/73/Symbos21cpc.gif](http://www.cpcwiki.eu/imgs/7/73/Symbos21cpc.gif)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Crew Dragon Docks with ISS - <AUTHOR> https://spacenews.com/crew-dragon-docks-with-iss-2/ <comment><USER3> SpaceX runs basically as a giant R&D program that also happens to accomplish useful things as byproducts of its approach (with the miracle of insurance to cover costs if things get explody). Every flight is data for incremental improvement.

If you think of all SpaceX has ever done was try to get to this point, with somewhere around 80 flights on the Falcon 9, but for a variety of mission buyers (NASA, USAF, Commercial Sat companies, SpaceX itself!), somewhere around $5b (~$60m a launch) has been spent getting an entirely new, ground-up manned space program up and running to include launch vehicle with a majority re-usability. But along the way, numerous satellites and other stuff ended up in space as well. This allowed NASA to also split the R&D bill with multiple "partners".

To put this into context, the Mercury program ran about $2.25b in today's dollars, Gemini ran $7.3b ($723m per mission!).

The Space Shuttle program had a lifetime cost of $209b ($1.5b per flight!!!) If you think the Shuttle program is not comparable, the F9Heavy program, a derivative of this other work, can put up more mass than the Shuttle, managed to split much of the development costs with the Falcon 9, can land most of its mass, and has a per flight cost of $90m.

We now have the capability to put up another ISS _today_ , resupply it, and staff it, at a fraction of the cost, all with launch equipment made by a single company that started a decade ago as a side project for a guy who was trying to make electric cars after making money on the internet.

This is a ridiculous bargain and Spacex isn't even close to done yet.

<comment><USER4> Incredibly impressive, but you have to take into account both more modern technology, as well as the fact that they were able to build off the shoulders of giants. It is still amazing of course, but I doubt they could've done the same thing during the era of the mercury program, so not really apples to apples comparison.

<comment><USER5> Guidance systems are vastly less expensive now, and can take advantage of things like MEMs, fiber laser gyros, and GPS (and, of course, modern computing power).

The tanks on Falcon are welded using Friction Stir Welding, which was invented in the early 1990s.

The landing algorithm for the first stage uses convex optimization algorithms based on interior point methods, which were not available in the 1960s.

However, something very much like an expendable F9 could probably have been built in the 1980s. Simply evolving the Saturn 1B (which was cheaper, per lb of payload to orbit, than the Saturn V) could have easily beaten the Shuttle's economic performance.

<comment><USER6> I had not heard of Friction Stir Welding previously. Video that demonstrates the technique is here:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNbQH8XBgxQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNbQH8XBgxQ)

<comment><USER7> Smarter Every Day has a very interesting video[1] inside the factory of United Launch Alliance in which, among a lot of other things, shows the friction stir welding used in their Atlas Rocket[2]:

[1] [https://youtu.be/o0fG_lnVhHw](https://youtu.be/o0fG_lnVhHw)

[2] [https://youtu.be/o0fG_lnVhHw?t=1933](https://youtu.be/o0fG_lnVhHw?t=1933)

<comment><USER6> This is a great video. Thank you for sharing it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> You can try docking yourself at [https://iss-sim.spacex.com](https://iss- sim.spacex.com)

<comment><USER9> Took me 3 tries to do it; my bad was not carefully reading the instructions.

<comment><USER10> First three times I tried doing it by eye and ended up hopelessly lost. Needed to pull out my trigonometry to figure out how to line up the capsule to get the Y/Z aligned...

<comment><USER11> I got it on the first try, but only because I've got 600+ hours of Kerbal Space Program under my belt (where docking is much harder when you consider that docking in KSP entails actually getting to the target and doing it with imbalanced RCS thrusters that I placed on the craft willy-nilly; SpaceX's online docking sim was a breeze in comparison).

Trick was to get rotation aligned first, then worry about translation. And yeah, might as well ignore visual; just went by the numbers.

<comment><USER12> If you do rotation then translation, you're either going to waste fuel or time. Just aim for the target and get within 20 meters before doing any of that, and the amount of translation you'll have to do is minimal. It's like traveling on the hypotenuse instead of the other two sides of a right triangle.

<comment><USER11> Rotating before translating should have little to no impact on fuel consumption. You still have to do the same amount of translation no matter how the craft is oriented. That means the same amount of energy, and thus the same amount of fuel. It took a _little_ bit more time, but at the timeframes typical of orbital docking it's negligible.

In my first-try-success attempt, I was doing _all_ translations at once, not something silly like lining up the numbers one at a time (that won't work well anyway, due to the differences in orbit between yourself and the docking target). That is: moving toward the ISS while simultaneously moving up/down and left/right to line up, and thus moving along the hypotenuse.

And by the way, this seems to be the exact approach Crew Dragon _Endeavour_ took, judging by what I saw in the livestream early Sunday morning. They were already lined up rotationally before starting the final docking approach.

<comment><USER12> Yes, you're right. You can of course travel on the hypotenuse even if you're not oriented along it. I was probably stuck in some fixed front wheel thinking. I would think it's a lot easier to get the the proportion of lateral speed exactly right if you're aimed along the hypotenuse though.

<comment><USER11> True. Still, if you wanted to get really exact about it, you could surely work it out mathematically (i.e. by making sure your velocity components are proportional to your distance components).

So for example, with the simulator loaded up in a tab right now, after lining up the rotation, I'm seeing:

        X | 200.0 m
        Y | 12.0 m
        Z | 30.0 m

So if I then apply an X thrust of 20 m/s, Y thrust of 1.2 m/s, and Z thrust of 3.0 m/s, then I should travel along the hypotenuse and reach the docking port in 10 seconds. Likewise, a thrust of X=2,Y=0.12,Z=0.3 would get me there in 100 seconds (and X=200,Y=12,Z=30 would get me there in an insane single second). Of course, some corrections will be necessary along the way to account for small differences between my orbit and the target orbit (which is more relevant the longer it takes for you to get to the target), and the velocity change ain't instantaneous so I'll need to adjust for that, too (making 10s or 1s runs kinda implausible with the current interface, unless perhaps I do some kind of browser-level scripting to click the buttons and read the numbers).

Crucially, this makes it feasible for a computer to do automatically (though automated docking tends to stop shy of actually docking from what I understand, instead using CanadArm to grab the craft and put it on the dock).

You're right that aiming along the hypotenuse makes this a little bit easier to eyeball, but it also makes it a bit harder in other respects since now you'll have to adjust both rotation _and_ translation along the way to stay along that slightly-curving hypotenuse.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I recall Elon was hoping to get an order of magnitude reduction in cost per launch, but Wikipedia claims it costs $160 million per launch versus the Soyuz price of $76 million per astronaut. That would "only" be a 3x reduction with a crew of seven, but they've configured for a crew of four, which is a hair under 2x.

I wonder how reuse affects the math, and what they'll be able to do to lower those prices further. Obviously the optics on getting a domestic launch for half the price makes it an easy sale for Congress, but we were all hoping for more. An order of magnitude reduction might have gotten us 20x as many launches.

<comment><USER14> Worth noting that Dragon also carries tons of cargo, whereas the Soyuz "sticker price" is for just a seat.

<comment><USER15> > Dragon also carries tons of cargo

Does it? I seem to remember reading somewhere that the "trunk" section will be mostly empty on crewed vehicles.

It makes sense. We've seen that Dragon aborts with the trunk attached for aerodynamic reasons. It seems likely that hauling a bunch of cargo together with an escaping crewed capsule isn't feasible.

You could also see that during the Demo-2 launch stream when the Dragon separated from the upper stage. There was a short segment where camera from the stage showed the underside of the Dragon and you could see that it was mostly just empty space inside.

<comment><USER13> The color commentary yesterday suggested that a bit of cargo could be where the other 3 passengers should be, so he might be right.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> From NASA's Mission Updates:

> The Crew Dragon arrived at the station's Harmony port, docking at 10:16 a.m. > EDT while the spacecraft were flying about 262 miles above the northern > border of China and Mongolia.

It's hard for me to wrap my brain around this. They seem so far away but 262 miles above earth is about the distance from NYC to DC which doesn't seem far at all.

<comment><USER17> There is a fantastic what if that talks about this.

[https://what-if.xkcd.com/58/](https://what-if.xkcd.com/58/)

<comment><USER18> You're right. That was fantastic. Hadn't seen that one before. Thank you.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> SpaceX Live Stream: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIZsnKGV8TE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIZsnKGV8TE)

Docking begins to occur around 3:10PM GMT in the video. This link may send you to that point: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIZsnKGV8TE&t=695m0s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIZsnKGV8TE&t=695m0s)

Is there an easy way to link to a specific time in live videos? I had to manually play around with the time to find the right point.

</comment><comment><USER20> They mentioned something about the suit pressure for one of them being lower than expected and asked them to check for "white teeth" on 3 zippers, which they reported seeing on all 3. Can anyone explain what that is?

<comment><USER21> Sounds like when the zippers are fully closed the white teeth of the zipper should be covered by the seal around the zipper. If any teeth are visible the seal is not complete.

<comment><USER13> Or perhaps the seal is behind the zipper and high contrast.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Currently they have problems with the voice between ISS and Dragon. There is a huge interference and they can't read it. Funny enough we the viewers hear it loud and clear

<comment><USER23> I'm sure an easy workaround would be to use Houston as a relay rather than direct communication.

<comment><USER22> Yep that's what they are doing now

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Am I the only one who can hear the Blue Danube Waltz just thinking about Dragon docking at the ISS?

[https://youtu.be/0ZoSYsNADtY?t=210](https://youtu.be/0ZoSYsNADtY?t=210)

</comment><comment><USER25> So when seeing this I had two questions, one of which I've found the answer to, one of which still remains a mystery.

1\. Why only two astronauts? and

2\. How much is Crew Dragon costing?

For (1), it's stated [1] that Crew Dragon has a capacity of seven astronauts but only 4 for NASA? How does that work? Does that mean the NASA configuration only has 4 seats? I found this [2] saying seats 1 and 4 were empty.

Why not 4 astronauts? The answer seems to be that this is technically a test flight (Crew Demo-2). Passing this will fully certify Dragon. I guess it's better to risk 2 astronauts than 4. It probably also depends how many people you want to have on the ISS.

As for (2), I found this [3], which states the cost at $55m per astronaut. This seems... high? A full complement of 4 would cost $210m. Falcon 9 launches cost a fraction of that. Even Falcon Heavy is ~$90m.

For some reason I thought SpaceX was enabling sending up 7 astronauts for <$100m.

Compared to Soyuz [4], which cost NASA $80m/astronaut, that's a saving but not as much as I would've thought.

[1]: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_2)

[2]: [https://blogs.nasa.gov/commercialcrew/2020/05/30/all- aboard-...](https://blogs.nasa.gov/commercialcrew/2020/05/30/all-aboard- astronauts-ingress-crew-dragon/)

[3]: [https://www.space.com/spacex-boeing-commercial-crew-seat- pri...](https://www.space.com/spacex-boeing-commercial-crew-seat-prices.html)

[4]: [https://www.wired.com/story/spacex-launched-two- astronauts-c...](https://www.wired.com/story/spacex-launched-two-astronauts- changing-spaceflight-forever/)

<comment><USER26> Edited - wrong number of seats for the next mission.

NASA asked SpaceX to change the configuration of the capsule to only support 4 astronauts for two reasons. The first is that they wanted a more mellow Load profile on the passengers in the case of a high-altitude (almost orbit) abort, so they wanted the seats in a different position. The first design had the seats fixed, and the screen pivoting down above them. This design has the seats pivoting, and the screen fixed. It also drops the maximum crew from 7 to 4. I'm not sure if SpaceX will use the larger configuration for their own private configurations.

The other reason is that seven is a lot, and NASA doesn't plan on sending that many up on a single mission.

Seats 1 and four are empty on this mission. For future missions that only have three they will remove the extra seat. That said, the capsule seems amazingly spacious, for being a capsule.

As far as costing, the contract was written similar to how NASA pays the Russians (though that number is upwards of 87 million per seat right now). SpaceX itself owns the rockets and the spacecraft - not NASA. Think of it as a airline seat.

Finally, the vast majority of cost at this point are not the hardware - <USER2> rather the cost of complying with NASA's testing. Everyone was assuming that NASA would do what they did with commercial cargo, and simply expect the cargo to show up with a minimal number of design reviews. With commercial crew, NASA took a much more proactive approach which led to a complete redesign of the capsule (SpaceX's original plan was simply to reuse cargo), plus many many many design reviews.

Finally SpaceX has full pricing control right now. SpaceX is running some pretty massive margins (from what I have heard) on everything - but they are flushing all of that money into the goal of getting starship and spaceship and their insane next generation engine up, as well as starlink. They have deliberately only lowered their costs below their competitors, soaking margin for a while.

<comment><USER27> Crew-1 is flying four astronauts.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USCV-1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USCV-1)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Watching now.. they were unable to get the "hard line" voice working. VOIP?

<comment><USER11> Considering how long the ISS has been up there, it could be POTS or something similarly-analog. Dragon→ISS was clear, but ISS→Dragon was not, making me think that maybe there's some wire or connector in the latter direction that's shoddy (and that'd be more common for analog/POTS than digital/VOIP, where such garbling would be bidirectional and/or nothing would be heard on either end).

Then again, I ain't exactly a space telecom engineer, so what do I know? ;)

They've since switched back to RF, so apparently it ain't the end of the world.

<comment><USER28> Makes sense. They just fixed the hard line

<comment><USER11> Was that the hardline or did they reroute through RF and/or "Big Loop"? I heard the loud and clear (and earlier about the cameras possibly interfering) but missed if that loud and clear was through the hardline.

<comment><USER28> Sorry dont know. Did hear mention of big loop

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Did Doug bump his head on the way in?

<comment><USER30> Came here hoping to find an answer to this. It looked like it was bothering him quite a bit

<comment><USER29> Apparently, space is hard...

<comment><USER31> Station hatches sure as hell are. Looks like it happened during the hug session, while still mostly inside the hatch.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> "flew exactly like the simulators"

<comment><USER32> They did complain about the thermal camera cutting out as the thrusters fired in real life and not in the simulator at one point. Was that fixed in the later test?

<comment><USER33> I thought what I heard is that the thermal cameras did cut out even in the sim, but that on-ship they cut out differently. My assumption is that this is something that gets fixed on the ground.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> What's with the gradient shadow? The space station shadow crossed the module, and it was blurry. I thought shadows in space were knife-sharp. The nose-cone shadow was.

Its not the stream resolution, is it? Other knife-sharp features were visible.

Maybe the space station is fuzzy? Maybe the module material blurs shadows? What am I missing?

<comment><USER35> Shadows in space aren't, in general, any sharper than on Earth. The "penumbra" of a shadow -- the blurry, partially-shaded region -- is basically a simple geometric effect, caused by the light source being partially obscured. The penumbra's size is approximately equal to the product of the light source's angular size and the distance from the shadow-casting object to the illuminated surface. (Diffraction has some effect as well, but only on very small scales that aren't particularly relevant here.)

The sun has almost exactly the same apparent angular size from either Earth's surface or LEO, because it's almost exactly the same distance away. But since that angular size is only about half a degree, shadows observed _at short distances_ appear fairly sharp, either on Earth or in space.

What you may be thinking of is that, in many cases, shadows are _darker_ in space, because the _sky_ is dark, even in broad daylight. There's no atmospheric scattering to provide indirect, ambient illumination of regions that are shaded from direct sunlight. But there can still be indirect lighting from other surfaces.

For example, in photos of Apollo astronauts on the moon, shaded regions of the astronauts' spacesuits are still fairly-well illuminated by light bouncing off the lunar surface. But shadowed regions of the surface itself appear almost pitch-black, because the only thing they can "see" is the dark sky.

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> Hatch opening scheduled for approximately 12:30pm EDT

Edit: time slipping

</comment><comment><USER37> We are a small step closer inhabiting Mars.

When we will, it will be the most important event in the five billion years history of our solar system. In other words, we are witnessing some pretty cool stuff.

<comment><USER38> Elon Musk will have cities on planets names after him for generations to come.

The legacy he leaves will be greater than that of Ghengis Kahn, Ceasar, or Alexander the Great.

<comment><USER39> Elonville, Musktown?

<comment><USER40> I put like 90% liklihood we'll have a nation state named "Musk" on Mars in 50 years.

<comment><USER41> A nation in 50 years sounds like an Elon timescale. More likely a small settlement of <100 people for research and exploration.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> I was surprised they slept on the trip. I assume they took turns.

<comment><USER43> Autopilot :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Right? It's basically a Tesla.

<comment><USER44> Yeah. Except autopilot is easier in space than on the road, because it doesn't have to take into account the multitudes of vehicles (and pedestrians) without an autopilot, just zooming around.

<comment><USER11> I mean, not yet. Someday, though...

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> Why is it such a big deal this time? Don't the Russians fly to ISS all the time?

<comment><USER46> Few reasons, it's been 9 years since the last crewed spacecraft took off from American soil.

Second reason is this is the first time the spacecraft has been built and run by a commercial company (spacex)

<comment><USER45> For me (as a European) it is mainly exceptional because of the SpaceX effort. It just appeared to me as if it was something America was proud of, because they invented space flight or something, which they didn't. It's just never "celebrated" anywhere when the Russians fly to space over and over.

<comment><USER47> America is proud because SpaceX is an American company that has made this possible while being commercially viable.

It's a testament to American capitalism. It's something to be very proud of.

It's the next step in the space age. This paves the way for many more companies and ventures.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER48> Do we have a link to rewatch both the launch and the docking?

</comment><comment><USER49> Unbelievable what Elon Musk has been able to create for humanity. So grateful for him and this administration. Looking forward to see more free market ingenuity

<comment><USER50> Free market doesn't seem correct here since the government is the customer.

<comment><USER49> Govt is 100% funded from the free market

<comment><USER50> > In a free market, the laws and forces of supply and demand are free from any > intervention by a government or other authority and from all forms of > economic privilege, monopolies and artificial scarcities

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

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER51> Very impressive - only sixty years after the Communists put a man into space, the private sector has managed to catch up.

</comment><comment><USER52> How much AI/ML do you think is running on the software associated with this launch and docking? I suspect there's a great deal of very explicit, well tested code, but very little AI/ML.

<comment><USER23> Very little in terms of what you would consider AI or ML. It's a lot of trig and control theory. You do a lot of the math beforehand to figure out the script the craft will follow to reach the ISS. Once it gets close, you either use manual controls or let autopilot do the docking. The autopilot is basically looking some dots on a camera and firing the thrusters to make the dots line up right. It's more like a dumb PID controller than an AI. The autopilot isn't learning anything or somehow making connections that weren't already programmed. This is all stuff NASA figured out how to do in the 60s so it's nothing novel except for the mission and the hardware the math is done on.

<comment><USER53> What you wrote is what I would have _guessed_. Are you also guessing or do you know for sure? It sounds right, but I'm very curious about the actual answer to this question.

<comment><USER54> No one is putting non deterministic code anywhere near one of the most expensive objects ever produced

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER55> I am so excited by this achievement, and offer hearty congratulations to SpaceX and NASA.

That said, I think that everyone anticipating a dramatic reduction in orbital cost needs to temper their enthusiasm a bit. UAL was expensive, as many other have previously noted, because it was a political jobs program. The _existence of UAL_ gave the necessary cover for Musk & Co to envision radically more efficient designs.

However, that was then. As SpaceX continues to succeed, it will be harder to justify continued funding of UAL at the previous levels. Costs will be cut. People will cheer. And then, a well-meaning congressperson or two (with their eye on re-election) will introduce a rider onto the next funding bill: "Yes we want these great launch capabilities, but at least $1B must be spent within the state of Alabama" (or whatever).

This will work for a little while, but then more members of congress will jump on the gravy train. In order for SpaceX to maintain their launch contracts they will need to perform more and more work in distributed places. This will result in reduced organizational efficiency and increased launch cost.

The big opportunity here is commercial launch. If SpaceX can grow their civilian and international order book enough, they become less beholden to the US Govt and can push back on make-work contract requirements. But if not... I await their inevitable induction into UAL v2.

<comment><USER56> I think your last paragraph is the most likely. SpaceX will simply not accept a government contract that works against their interests since they are a private entity. If starlink pans out, government contracts won't be such an important source of revenue long term.</comment></comment>


This is what happens when you Google the word "idiot" (not Bing/DuckDuckGo) - <AUTHOR> https://www.iafrikan.com/2018/07/21/this-is-what-appears-when-you-google-the-word-idiot/ <comment><USER2> The reason that Bing and DuckDuckGo have such similar results is that DDG uses Bing's search API, so the comparison here is only really between Bing and Google.

<comment><AUTHOR> Noted.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Reminded me of this recent piece [https://spectator.org/everyone-is-smart- except-trump/](https://spectator.org/everyone-is-smart-except-trump/)

</comment><comment><USER4> Actually the results now show lots of 'news' sites saying 'This is what happens when you Google idiot".

A self-fulfilling prophecy in the world of fake news - few people have pointed out 'traditional' medias role in this.

<comment><AUTHOR> We pointed it out in the article when we said it will get worse.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> This story has reached the major news sites which I guess will increase the effect :)

[https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jul/17/trump- idiot-...](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jul/17/trump-idiot-google- images-search)

</comment><comment><USER6> I checked this when it was first noticed a few days ago and it appears to be that someone at Google added "Trump" as a synonym to "idiot" (and possibly other words). A strict search for "idiot" (with quotes) didn't yield the same result (only one or two Trump photos with context to idiot). This does not appear to be someone "poisoning" the results with clever tricks like some have said previously.

</comment><comment><USER7> This is what a idiot sees when he is searching his own search bubble.

No mentioning of disabled cookies and search from different mac-adresses and IPs.

I always expect everybody to know that he/she is locked in on his/her political view island - but no, people assume that they get the same result when searching as everyone else.

<comment><USER8> Search results don't vary _that_ much based on these things, with the exception of how your location affects location-relevant results (like searching for tax info in the UK will less likely show pages from the IRS). Let's not exaggerate here.

<comment><AUTHOR> Exactly. Those points apply mostly to Ads, not search.

<comment><USER7> Searched, idiot, showed a picture of me. I stand corrected.

<comment><AUTHOR> Well...

¯\\_(ツ)_/¯</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ecocapsule - <AUTHOR> http://www.ecocapsule.sk/ecocapsule

<comment><AUTHOR> I wonder how it is collecting the water -rain and condensation , it looks like their is strategically placed small capture cisterns along the body in areas around the windows and such, and probably some sort of receptive lip on the bottom panel . Any how really great design , Like living in a big dinosaur egg !

</comment><comment><USER2> Slovakia, with good infrastructure and education and a 2€ an hour minimum wage looks more and more reasonable as a place to manufacture outside of China.</comment>


IRS SSL problems - <AUTHOR> https://sa.www4.irs.gov/irfof-efp/start.do;jsessionid=vNun6wfS+l+xKLt39TSDaOfF <comment><AUTHOR> It appears to only give you a warning when using Windows, Chrome, and on a desktop. Says they are using SHA1 and RSA.</comment>


The other kind of "flash" that we used to worry about - <AUTHOR> http://rachelbythebay.com/w/2018/12/26/flash/ <comment><USER2> I was reading an article the other day and it took me a moment to realize that it was talking about flash as in software and not about flash as in flash storage. Based on the headline I thought Rachel would write about the same, so I was quite surprised and amused to read that she was talking about an even older meaning of flash.

</comment><comment><USER3> > I should mention that there have been many variants on this theme. You could > jam those same fun escape sequences into a mail

This happened to me once as an undergraduate. I was in a lab full of dying Suns (they were replaced the following semester). It was late at night, late in the term and the hushed lab was packed with students wrapping up their projects. I used Pine to open an e-mail from one of my friends at another university, which turned out to be an animated Christmas tree, complete with blinking lights and beeping out "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" on the internal speaker. I killed the terminal window as fast as I could, which wasn't very fast because the poor Sun was so busy rendering it. Everybody gave me dirty looks.

<comment><USER4> A long long time ago, at a gig I desperately despised, I accidentally ran `cat MyResume.pdf`, causing a mix of garbage and readable ascii to print to my xterm. Unfortunately somewhere in that binary garbage were the escape sequences to turn on printerControlMode in the xterm.

Not long after, my boss shows up at my desk with a sheet of garbage with snippets of my resume mixed in. Learned an important lesson about accidentally spewing binary data into an xterm that day...

<comment><USER3> Ouch!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This is still possible at CMU. Guaranteed to annoy your friends doing their homework.

mesg y is the default and write works. However when you try to run wall you get "-bash: /usr/bin/wall: Permission denied."

</comment><comment><USER6> I knew about talkd and other shenanigans but I have never heard it called "getting flashed" before

<comment><USER7> This is probably the proof that I spent way too much time on IRC over the years.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Sometimes I think this happens to me when I accidentally `cat` binary files! It's particularly interesting that people used to add such strange features as "automatic file transfer" to their terminals.

<comment><USER9> and the solution to this problem is still

> _to suspend the program and hope they could blind-type out a "reset"._

I find myself doing it a few times in a month, sometimes because of accidentally catting binary garbage, other time it was became a ncurses program crashed without resetting the terminal back to the normal mode.

Next time I'll remember to call it "getting flashed".

Unfortuately, ESR hasn't curated the Jargon File since 2002, and this word was not included. AFAIK, Bob Mottram maintains his own fork of Jargon File, [https://code.freedombone.net/bashrc/TheJargonFile](https://code.freedombone.net/bashrc/TheJargonFile). I should request him to add the definition into the file.

<comment><USER9> _Update: added[https://code.freedombone.net/bashrc/TheJargonFile/src/652aff...](https://code.freedombone.net/bashrc/TheJargonFile/src/652aff1386b37f5dd333d4d0e88e9090f97244c9/entries/flash.txt) _

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> You can often find escape sequences embedded in requests in web server log files, waiting for some unsuspecting user with a vulnerable terminal to read them.

</comment><comment><USER11> Simpler times... I remember when running talkd, fingerd, etc. was the norm. Not to mention unshadowed password files.

</comment><comment><USER12> "Flash" is also a term of art in manufacturing, where it's the excess material squeezed out along the mold lines where the molds join.</comment>


The New Wisdom of the Web - <AUTHOR> http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12015774/site/newsweek/ <comment><USER2> If Web2.0 is now in Newsweek, is that itself an indicator that the wave has passed?

<comment><USER3> or crested at least. probably. but that's ok since no one defined web 2.0 to begin with.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Facebook is referred to as an imitation of MySpace. Of course, Friendster was earlier, but really--they're all just online Frontpages, aren't they? (I've never used any of them, actually.)

About Flickr: "so we built a lot of features that were deliberately viral."

Ugh. A raw FTP server has half the features of Flickr, and 95 percent of the features that actually matter. It's reading panegyrics about upload-your-photo services that trouble me: Are we all just hacks? I mean, it wasn't so long ago the entrepenuership meant building railroads and auto factories. Now--you can be a millionaire if you use the "</comment>


Facebook faces IPO class-action lawsuits - <AUTHOR> http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/403077b8-af28-11e5-993b-c425a3d2b65a.html <comment><USER2> I am not able to open the article.

<comment><USER3> it's FT's form of paywalling: pay first, or we bounce you to the front page.</comment></comment>


Now that AI is debating. I's wondering, what will remain impossible for it? - <AUTHOR> https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/technology-44531132 <comment><AUTHOR> To hear that program argue, reason and reach logical conclusions was both exciting and scary. Immediately, you would think what are some things they won't learn how to do? Why would humans be important? Indispensable?</comment>


Ask HN: Enhancement Proposals for Engineering Teams? - <AUTHOR> I'm currently evolving my team's process and wearing half a product management hat until our startup gets its own organization for that.
We have two PM boards. One for high-level product roadmap with goal and feature-level card titles and checklists for business requirements, and target delivery dates. Another board for technical work that follows a different Kanban-ish flow to limit work in progress (todo, research, prototype, test, deploy, monitor, release etc.).
In trying to capture the rationale for various designs, tooling, and architecture choices, I've mostly been writing comments and notes in the cards directly, or just making decisions behind the scenes and implementing straight away.
I'd like to have some more durable reference for design decisions to make sure we are always considering alternatives, tradeoffs, and utilizing skills and experience, rather than rushing under pressure from the business or adopting over-complicated abstractions that future selves/colleagues will pay the price for.
Has anyone used a PEP-like process for technical designs outside of community projects? <comment><AUTHOR> Also curious about techniques for re-translating enhancement proposals back into business terms and updating high-level requirements based on capabilities discovered in the research/prototyping for the designs, if anyone can spare some wisdom on that side.

Would keeping some kind of technical functionality-to-sales features/benefits matrix be a worthwhile exercise?</comment>


Mapping the Hourly Wage Needed to Rent a 2-Bedroom Apartment in Every U.S. State - <AUTHOR> http://www.citylab.com/housing/2015/05/mapping-the-hourly-wage-needed-to-rent-a-2-bedroom-apartment-in-every-us-state/394142/ <comment><USER3> This sort of stuff rubs me the wrong way.

I live about 20 minutes outside of Pittsburgh. When I graduated college 6 years ago, I held down a restaurant job while doing an internship that would eventually lead to my first full-time job in my field. I had a roommate who worked at a hotel. We found a two-bedroom apartment (a house split into 3 units) that was going for $425/month plus utilities. Because we split, I had to pay about $300/month to keep a roof over my head. I think I was making $8/hr, so the first week of the month mostly covered my living expenses (not including taxes and the like of course). Very different than the 78 hours that shows for PA.

Anecdotal, I know, but the point being that if you're willing to make tradeoffs, you can find a way to live. My friend in Manhattan takes on two roommates to make his rent affordable. After my spouse and I got a house, we rented out our spare bedroom for a time to help pay down school loans and provide an affordable space for friends. I always remind myself that my grandmother was one of 13 children in a 3-bedroom home, and that many immigrant families of her generation had a boarder to help cover costs.

There are always edge cases that need to be dealt with compassionately - <USER2> single, unskilled mom with a few kids, etc. But the underlying assumption of articles like this seems to be that minimum wage should get you a 2BR apartment, and that's a premise that I don't agree with.

<comment><USER4> In additional most of these lower wage job should be for younger high school age or college students. A grown adult(lets say 25) shouldn't be working the entry level position at MickeyD's. That should be an outlying case and policy shouldn't be decided on corner cases.

Youth unemployment is significantly higher than the national average and if wages are mandated even higher then no one will take the chance on a 15 year old.

<comment><USER5> > A grown adult(lets say 25) shouldn't be working the entry level position at > MickeyD's. That should be an outlying case and policy shouldn't be decided > on corner cases.

Maybe you think they shouldn't be, but statistics show they _are_. Good jobs are hard to come by and the median age of fast-food workers is 28[0] (meaning half are older than that). It's absolutely not a weird corner case. It's a very common thing, and if we don't want adults with kids working those jobs, we're going to have to reverse decades of economic trends and start creating lots of better-paying jobs for marginally skilled workers.

[0] [http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/11/mcjobs-s...](http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/11/mcjobs- should-pay-too-inside-fast-food-workers-historic-protest-for-living- wages/265714/)

<comment><USER6> Uniquely, it seems the act of grilling meat, and putting that between slices of bread, is harder to automate than driving a car. Or at least it's hard to automate for less than $15 an hour. Err $8 an hour.

<comment><USER4> I would argue that if the FEDs mandate 15$/hour, the impetus to automate the grilling and sandwich making will increase.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Am I the only one that doesn't see the value of assessing this at the state level? Given the drastic variability of rents within states, this seems like a useless (not to mention misleading) unit of analysis.

Even worse, this kind of sensationalism around rising rents seems to be bringing the rent control zombie back to life in a number of cities. What a disaster that would be.

<comment><USER8> Agreed, county-level data would be a lot more relevant.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> The article doesn't address why the hourly wage for 2-bedroom is relevant in relation to say, a 1-bedroom, studio, or mansion. Looking briefly at the BLS data, it seems that there are about equal numbers of single- and double-earner households. It's not clear to me that a single-earner household should expect to be able to rent a two bedroom apartment.

<comment><USER10> How dare single parent families expect to live somewhere decent.

<comment><USER11> This chart wouldn't take into account the various subsidies you would get if you were actually making $13/hr as a single parent -- housing assistance, food stamps, medicaid, welfare itself, etc. The effective income -- after all assistance is accounted for -- is going be far higher than the quoted hourly wage.

<comment><USER12> At $13 an hour, TANF (the best match on "Welfare") would not be available. $25,000 per year is in the taper for the EIC, but would qualify for ~$2000 each of the first two children and a bit more for a third.

In some states, $25,000 per year would also disqualify a family of 4 from Medicaid (but ACA subsidies would still apply).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Someone else already has already done the work for me, and written a bunch of reasons why the conclusions people tend to draw from this less-meaningful- than-you-think set of datapoints are faulty:

[http://slatestarcodex.com/2013/04/04/lies-damned-lies-and- fa...](http://slatestarcodex.com/2013/04/04/lies-damned-lies-and-facebook- part-1-of-%E2%88%9E/)

</comment><comment><USER14> The idea that you could calculate a meaningful number like this for the entire state is absurd. Perhaps if you could drill down into county or zipcode this would be more useful.

<comment><USER15> Using average or even median rent is not that meaningful either. Some people pay high rent by choice not because there aren't other options.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> The argument here is comparing the AVERAGE rental price with the MINIMUM wage, and then concluding that the minimum wage is less than the average rental?

Well no shit!

States that have rich people will have a higher average. But there are also plenty of cheap 2-bedroom apartments too!

Why don't you compare the MINIMUM available 2-bedroom price with the MINIMUM wage? Then you can see if our poor can afford to live.

<comment><USER17> I swear I have been seeing this average/minimum bait-and-switch everyday for the last 3 weeks now. I don't know how something so false is having such momentum.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Being from Arkansas, I always thought our housing prices were crazy low. When I was in university there, I paid something like $450/mo for a two bedroom, 1000 square foot (92 square meters) apartment.

Then I moved to Seattle and pay 6x as much per square foot. That's to be expected, I guess. Seattle is much more desirable than Arkansas.

<comment><USER19> I am also from Arkansas! I am planning on moving back in the next few years as my remote work jobs solidify. Information like this really hammers that point home. If you have family/friends in Arkansas, it's a cheap way to live with a fairly reasonable quality of life - at least the NW corner where I grew up.

<comment><USER18> The NW corner is where my apartment was (Fayetteville, University of Arkansas).

Central Arkansas is more expensive, but still extremely affordable compared to the rest of the country. My sister just bought a 3 bedroom house in a good neighborhood in Little Rock for < $150K. It would easily cost $600K+ here in Seattle.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I wonder how much California and New York averages are bumped by due to places like San Francisco and New York City.

<comment><USER21> Keep in mind that in NYC there are very high priced apartments, but there are also a LOT of low income housing/slums/projects where rent is dirt cheap, it's just that people live in terrible conditions compared to what that same rent could get you elsewhere.

<comment><USER20> That's actually another good question - does NYCHA and other low-income housing push the average down as well? I'm not sure what it takes to qualify to get rent assistance; seems like it's unreasonable to compare a luxury apartment on the Upper East Side to my apartment in Hamilton Heights to a low- income housing project.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> If someone do the same analysis for european and asian cities then it will be apparent how affordable (relative to wage) US still is!

</comment><comment><USER23> I'm missing some definitions here. Not sure if I didn't see something, but what are they assuming in terms of number of hours/week and what does "two- bedroom housing wage" mean: is this just the wage at x hours/week that allows you to rent the average 2BR or does it include some other kind of spending like food? Because what does it help if minimum wage pays for the apartment but I can't eat? On a different note, in relation to everyone asking why 2BR is important: please just imagine being a single parent with, say, 1-2 kids and a minimum wage job.

<comment><USER24> They're looking at how many hours worked at minimum wage that it would take to afford an average priced 2 bedroom apartment, if you only spend 30% of your income of housing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> "Ask people what level of income would make them poor and they tend to come up with a number that's relative to their income. In the U.S., people are surveyed as to the amount of income necessary for a family of four to "get along." In 1950, the answer was $48 a week (PDF), or around 75 percent of household mean income that year. More than half a century later in 2007, the average answer was $1,000 a week—or around 77 percent of mean income."

Shouldn't they be using the median income since it's more resistant to outliers? Or did they just disregard the outliers?

</comment><comment><USER26> 1\. You can't raise the minimum wage without also having rent control or more public (section 8) housing. People on minimum wage usually have little negotiating power. Landlords servo the rents to what the market will bear. The market isn't sympathetic to low wage earners.

2\. The California prices mentioned seem to be weighted to population (Rent in large cities). I have a 2br. rental unit in the eastern sierra, and the market there only allows me to charge $900.00/Month.

</comment><comment><USER27> Like Pavel says above/below, state level data like this is ok, but county level or even finer-grained data would be a lot better. There's a _big_ difference in cost of living between Portland, Oregon and Burns, Oregon.

<comment><USER28> However, I would also guess there's a big difference in the amount and kind of jobs available.

<comment><USER29> And if you try to apply a minimum wage fit for living in portland, the difference in amount of jobs would only grow.</comment></comment></comment>


Hinton's Neural Network Simulation (Generative) - <AUTHOR> http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~hinton/adi/index.htm

<comment><USER2> I worked with Yann LeCun at NYU (who is Hinton's student) on recurrent neural networks, which, although well-known within the machine learning world, are really obscure in the CS/Tech world in general. So refreshing to see a link to that area come up here. E-Mail me if you'd like to geek out over this some more.

</comment><comment><USER3> <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyzOUbkUf3M>

Great Google TechTalk about exactly this simulation and so much more.

:D Love this video.

</comment><comment><USER4> I made this flash demo of Dr. Hinton's generative neural network simulation about two and a half years ago. It's a small world. Hinton is the smartest man I have ever met.</comment>


iOwnIt a quick intro - <AUTHOR> https://timleland.com/iownit-share-what-you-own/ <comment><USER2> Love this!! Thanks for consolidating everything I use!

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Creator here. Let me know what you'll think.</comment>


Box, Inc. S-1 - <AUTHOR> http://secfilings.nasdaq.com/filingFrameset.asp?FileName=0001193125-14-439087%2Etxt&FilePath=%5C2014%5C12%5C10%5C&CoName=BOX+INC&FormType=S-1%2FA&RcvdDate=12%2F10%2F2014&pdf=

<comment><USER2> So their loss is increasing quarterly and then they sign this massive lease (below)? Did they lease out both towers?

In September 2014, we entered into a lease for approximately 340,000 square feet in Redwood City, California, which lease expires in 2028. We plan to use this space as our new corporate headquarters and to sublease a portion of this space.</comment>


Is the tech sector producing more startups than other areas? - <AUTHOR>

As a 19 year old who reads HackerNews, it can feel overwhelming to read about all the startups that are being founded in the tech sector.
I'm wondering if this is just an effect of the HN echo chamber, or whether other industries are just as actively producing startups.
When I read about all the startups being founded in tech, I just start thinking "How am I supposed to start anything that competes with all these other people?"
I'm pretty sure this is an effect of the HN echo chamber, but it would be helpful if more educated people could tell me whether the tech sector produces a disproportionate number of startups, or whether it's this way in other areas too. <comment><USER2> I can't say for certain on the number of tech vs non-tech startups and it varies depending on what each person's take of a startup is. So putting that aside, what I can say is _I_ that not every startup is tech base, even if a large number are being covered here. For example, I think of Zappos (although fairly no longer a startup by any means) as a shoe company. Not a tech company. They merely utilize tech to run their business. Some startups are very tech centric. Some utilize tech to run. And there are a range of everything in between. I think because of the community, HN tends to clearly have a lot of tech related startups covered but there certainly are a number of non-tech businesses out there.

What industries are you interested in?</comment>


A Canvas Made of Pixels - <AUTHOR> http://www.claybavor.com/?p=407 <comment><AUTHOR> Nice but pricey to assemble at home

</comment><comment><USER2> the face recognition stopping it from changing when it is being looked at is a neat idea.</comment>


Dutch radio amateurs image far side of the Moon using Chinese satellite data - <AUTHOR> https://www.camras.nl/en/blog/2018/precious-earth-and-lunar-far-side/ <comment><USER2> > The transceiver on board Longjiang-2 was designed to allow radio amateurs to > downlink telemetry and relay messages through a satellite in lunar orbit, as > well as command it to take and downlink images.

This is so cool and would have made such an impact on me as a kid if I got to see it in action. I wish we could better demonstrate this sort of thing in middle school or high school science classes, such as how easy it is to download a weather satellite image live, via SDR.

</comment><comment><USER3> > designed by radio amateur and Nobel prize winning astrophysicist Joe Taylor

He doesn't sound like an amateur at all

<comment><USER4> I am not a native speaker, but it is my understanding that amateur has 2 definitions: 1) unpaid, 2) incompetent or inept.

The Camras team is maintaining and operating the telescope on their own time. The members have dayjobs like programmers and scientists, or are retired professionals. So I'll go with the first definition.

<comment><USER5> unpaid as in never having done something as a paid profession. A professional software developer who retires and programs as a hobby is not suddenly an amateur developer.

<comment><USER6> I don't think there's a definition like that anywhere. Only if you define 'amateur' as some who doesn't really know the trade. We should remember that 'amateur' actually means "lover of", i.e. that an amateur is simply someone doing it because they love to (as opposed to "just" because they're paid to do it). It doesn't say anything about the level.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> This is amazing! I have a background in physics and electronics, but I have never been involved in amateur radio. However, I would love to and would like to ask if one could point me to resources for delving into it? When it comes to math and e.g. electrodynamics and practical filters, I wouldn't need an introduction. Thanks!

<comment><USER6> What I did was to find the local club, go there, learn about the next course & exam, and focus solely on learning morse code (because I wanted the full license). Because I had an electronics&radio background I didn't have to spend any time on that part, I could focus all my time on the specific amateur radio regulations (not difficult) and learning morse (although IIRC I still had to take a written exam about radio transmission theory - not sure though, it's been a _long_ time. I remember though that professional "telegraph" operators from ships didn't have to take any exams at all, but I don't think that kind of ship operators exist anymore. No morse code there, for sure..).

<comment><USER8> CW coding hasn't been a requirement at any level for 12 years. Its good to know but unless you want to do HF, it's irrelevant.

<comment><USER6> I only want to do HF.. but that's outside the point, I did write that this was a long time ago, and at that time you did need CW to get the full license.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> What causes the pink hue in the original photos?

[http://lilacsat.hit.edu.cn/DSLWP-B/865fbeb5-116d-4f6a-bb86-0...](http://lilacsat.hit.edu.cn/DSLWP-B/865fbeb5-116d-4f6a-bb86-0a67a09b41ff.jpeg)

<comment><USER10> The camera used does not have all the filters for space. In particular it does not have a UV cutter.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Rock on, amateur operators!

HAMs did the same thing in the 60s, decoding Soviet communications coming from the moon, which were the first closeup images of the surface at the time. They released the images to wide fanfare, and did a lot to defuse the Soviets' political agenda of holding this accomplishment above the western world.

</comment><comment><USER12> Isn't it a copyright infringement to pick up some radio signal, reassemble it to pictures and publish them?

<comment><USER13> Written with tongue only half in cheek:

Depends. In the US where media companies write copyright law and hand it to legislators, yes. In China where there appears to be no Rule of Law, no.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> So interesting! How do you send "error-resistant digitally modulated transmissions"? Is that the same thing as a duplex signal? Is there other technology used nowadays?

<comment><USER15> Could be coding (Turbo coding is where it's at, while hamming (no relation) error correcting codes are purely digital and ubiquitous), could be simple double transmissions separated in the time domain as in FEC SITOR/AMTOR. My money's on Turbo coding. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbo_code](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbo_code)

<comment><USER14> Super interesting! Is this still the standard for this sort of communication nowadays or are there successors?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> How do pixels work in radio astronomy? Does the antenna only capture one pixel every time the "shutter" is opened and then move to the next position?

<comment><USER17> This is a normal camera, a normal radio that transmits it, and a large radio telescope (once, over half a century ago, the largest in the world, but now amateur operated; [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwingeloo_Radio_Observatory](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwingeloo_Radio_Observatory)) used as an antenna to receive that broadcast.

I expect the data to be transferred one pixel at a time, but possibly, it's losslessly compressed.

It's "Dutch radio amateurs image" because they controlled the camera.

<comment><USER18> They controlled the camera? I can't find any statement indicating so.

<comment><USER19> > The transceiver on board Longjiang-2 was designed to allow radio amateurs to > [...] command it to take and downlink images.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> The RTL-SDR community at Reddit is a good place to look for resources if you are looking to get into this: [https://www.reddit.com/r/RTLSDR](https://www.reddit.com/r/RTLSDR)

</comment><comment><USER21> Dang...and I thought we would find all the aliens on the dark side of the moon. Where did they all go?

<comment><USER22> They are deep in Uranus.</comment></comment>


Building a Live Data Visualization in 4 Days Using Redis Pub/Sub - <AUTHOR> https://heapanalytics.com/blog/engineering/data-virtualization-redis <comment><AUTHOR> Hey all, author here. This project was a fun demonstration of the versatility of Redis. Happy to answer any questions.

<comment><USER2> Hey! Maybe I'm missing something, but why do you need to lock Kafka consumers? You can run multiple consumers within the same consumer group and get built-in high-availability (partition rebalancing when one consumer goes down)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> uBlock and DNSBL is blocking heapanalytics.com

had to view on VM :)

<comment><USER4> AdAway also blocks it. Read here: [https://outline.com/T2x8Pg](https://outline.com/T2x8Pg)</comment></comment>


Commodore 64 is back  - <AUTHOR> http://www.cnet.com.au/commodore-64-is-back-339305567.htm

<comment><USER2> The Register covered it a) better and b) earlier.

[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/08/25/commodore_name_bounc...](http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/08/25/commodore_name_bounces_again/)

And it has the story of crazy commodore name lottery. Older stories linked in article.

<comment><USER3> What is with the last line in the article?

> When we initially phoned Barry Altman this morning, > he said he wasn't > Barry Altman.

Isn't that how you deal with bill collectors, not the press?

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Awesome! A branded computer I can plug in to my TV -- hey, wait a sec...

Or is the appeal supposed to be the easy-to-use programming environment like the days of old? Qbasic on my TV perhaps?

<comment><USER2> The modern versions: vim + gcc + curses.

<comment><USER5> Try vim + Python/Ruby/Perl + wx (or whatever you like)

Or, probably better: vim + JavaScript + modern browser

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I always tear up a little when I hear Amiga name. Hardware isn't enough though, it would need an AmigaOS at least. But, AmigaOS has it's own share of drama which will make it highly unlikely.

</comment><comment><USER7> They've been drum beating the trademark acquisition for about 2 years. They've said a lot but so far there isn't anything concrete yet.

</comment><comment><USER8> Besides the name what makes this a commodore 64?

<comment><USER9> the picture in the article is misleading. <http://www.commodoreusa.net/index.html> (middle bottom)

I think they pictured the Pro version. They are making the PC64 one a more authentic replica

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> the picture looks like an amiga. The screenshot is like AmigaOS >3.x, the keyboard is very similar to my amiga 500 keyboard.

</comment><comment><USER11> I'll believe it only if they bundle Jumpman

</comment><comment><USER12> No, that was no Commodore. This a real new Commodore 64, daymit: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C64_Direct-to-TV>

<comment><USER13> In response to that other thread about females in tech, this was designed by a very successful female entrepreneur.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeri_Ellsworth>

<comment><USER14> Oh, Ellsworth is amazing. As that article mentions in passing, she did enough research to successfully make transistors from scratch in a pottery kiln.

<http://makerfaire.com/pub/e/2545>

<comment><USER13> Funny, I posted that link a couple of hours ago :)

<comment><USER14> So you did! I stumbled across her work at Maker Faire (too stunned to fanboy, thankfully) and I keep thinking it's a shame she isn't better known.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Phantom - <AUTHOR> http://phanto.mx/

<comment><USER3> I don't see how this could possibly work. I'm root on my machine, how could a software that some other people use can prevent me to do whatever I want with data that my machine receives? In the worst case, I can screenshot anything that appear on my screen. The app claim to be screenshot-proof. I call bullshit.

<comment><USER4> Yeah this can't work for the same myriad reasons DRM can be circumvented: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management#Meth...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management#Methods_to_bypass_DRM)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Snapchat, but it lets you publish your pictures? Also, it stole the name of a popular Cydia tweak for Snapchat. [0] Also, they left what seems like a fake review of their own product on Google Play. [1]

[0]: [http://www.cokepokes.com/cydia/depiction/phantom.html](http://www.cokepokes.com/cydia/depiction/phantom.html)

[1]: [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.phantom&re...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.phantom&reviewId=Z3A6QU9xcFRPRlMtOHU2VGRVS2JQMVg0a3A4Zk5uczMtbDJCMjc1NFdxYkk2bFlWc29tb2JaNk9UTmtCaWI1LUlnc3VubjVrVWRVa1REdmlvVW9pNGxXNkNZ)

</comment><comment><USER6> How can you prevent me to take a photo of my screen?

</comment><comment><USER7> Hacker News really needs some feature to down-vote ... ;-)

<comment><USER6> You can, once you reach a certain karma threshold.

<comment><USER8> All this is unofficial, but based on my own observations:

You can never down-vote a submission. When you have enough karma you can:

* Down-vote comments

* Flag comments

* Flag submissions

Flags on submissions affect their ranking in a manner similar to down-voting, except that enough flags can result in a submission being deleted entirely.

<comment><USER6> I'd say that you _might_ not have enough karma to have access to all the features.

<comment><USER8> Are you suggesting that with enough karma one _can_ down-vote a submission? I certainly don't have enough karma yet.

<comment><USER6> Only Paul Graham knows.

<comment><USER8> Or any of the others who work on the code. However, even jacquesm[0] - <USER2> on the leader board[1] - says that to the best of his knowledge one cannot downvote articles:

        http://jacquesmattheij.com/The+Unofficial+HN+FAQ#downvotearticle

[0] [https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=jacquesm](https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=jacquesm)

[1] [https://news.ycombinator.com/leaders](https://news.ycombinator.com/leaders)

<comment><USER9> There are no downvotes on stories, unless you consider flagging a kind of story downvote. That's a legitimate way to look at it, since it answers the complaint upthread [1]: if you think that a story is not appropriate for HN, that's what flagging is for.

1\. [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8124546](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8124546)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Oh, how about "no."

</comment><comment><USER11> Screenshot?

<comment><USER3> Yea. On the Play Store, there is litterelly a screenshot of the app displaying a picture, above the text presentation which claim that the app protect against screenshots… This is so lame.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> maybe you want to reconsider lying in the description?</comment>


Writing a C Compiler, Part 5 - <AUTHOR> https://norasandler.com/2018/01/08/Write-a-Compiler-5.html <comment><USER2> Always good to see more compiler articles, even if a bit "traditional" (for lack of a better term). For example, I don't think I've seen one yet which makes use of the precedence climbing[1] method to dramatically simplify the parser and make it more table-driven/declarative. This is extremely useful in a language like C, with many precedence levels.

 _No global variables._

Global variables are much simpler to implement since they share the same namespace as functions, and always have a fixed address.

 _We could store the variable's offset from ESP, except that the value of ESP changes whenever we push something onto the stack. The solution is to store the variable's offset from a different register, EBP._

You can also keep track of the stack offset, since you're generating the code and know what's been pushed/popped. Using ESP-relative accesses makes the code slightly larger (due to SIB byte) but is often used since it frees up EBP for more useful things. Of course this is a somewhat moot point if you're not going to use it anyway, but speaking as someone who has read a lot of compiler output over the years, ESP-relative accesses seem to be somewhat more common in released code.

 _This is the fifth post in a series. Read part 1 here._

It would be better to also link to the previous part, for those who just want to read what came immediately before and not start again from the beginning.

[1] [https://www.engr.mun.ca/~theo/Misc/exp_parsing.htm#climbing](https://www.engr.mun.ca/~theo/Misc/exp_parsing.htm#climbing)

<comment><USER3> More parsing goodness here.

[https://crockford.com/javascript/tdop/tdop.html](https://crockford.com/javascript/tdop/tdop.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> You mention that main not having a return statement is undefined behaviour. While this would be true for most functions the main function is actually a special case.

If you check section 220.127.116.11.3 - Program termination of the standard doc you linked it says that "reaching the } that terminates the main function returns a value of 0".

This is obviously a super minor nitpick though and I enjoyed the post!

<comment><USER5> Note that this is a change in C99 - in C90 spec just says:

"A return from the initial call to the main function is equivalent to calling the exit function with the value returned by the main function as its argument. If the main function executes a return that specifies no value, the termination status returned to the host environment is undefined."

<comment><USER6> > " the termination status returned to the host environment is undefined."

This is still not the same as "undefined behavior" though.</comment></comment></comment>


The average iOS app released today is 31.3 MB (and other mobile trends) - <AUTHOR> https://blog.mightysignal.com/new-app-report-2915840dd675#.xc3hz8xzc <comment><USER2> good lord that's a lot of megabytes. i hadn't noticed this bloat until i downgraded to a very inexpensive android phone. it functions fundamentally perfectly except for the 8 gigs of storage. 31 megs is a massive amount of storage!

</comment><comment><USER3> More interesting would be an analysis to determine the reason for the trending bloat.

<comment><AUTHOR> In a previous post, we found that apps now have on average 16.4 SDKs, which could have something to do with it.

[https://blog.mightysignal.com/new-app- report-2b2c686da209#.9...](https://blog.mightysignal.com/new-app- report-2b2c686da209#.9zzr61uxm)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Yow, my first hard drive was 40mb. And cost $425 (present dollars, probably $1000)

</comment><comment><USER5> iOS Swift Hello world is basically 20 MB.</comment>


Engineering Blogs of Companies - <AUTHOR> https://www.cybrhome.com/topic/engineering-blogs-of-companies <comment><USER2> This is a more extensive list: [https://github.com/kilimchoi/engineering- blogs#companies-1](https://github.com/kilimchoi/engineering-blogs#companies-1)

</comment><comment><USER3> Related, and probably easier to stay updated from these engineering blogs: [http://engine.red/](http://engine.red/)

</comment><comment><USER4> [http://engineering.opensooq.com/](http://engineering.opensooq.com/)

</comment><comment><USER5> [http://engineering.teacherspayteachers.com](http://engineering.teacherspayteachers.com)

</comment><comment><USER6> [https://engineering.squarespace.com/](https://engineering.squarespace.com/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. Will add it.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Hi all, I've created a list of all the top engineering blogs. Please review it and let me know if I've missed something. I'll add it to the list. Cheers!

<comment><USER7> Shameful plug :) our [https://transloadit.com/blog/](https://transloadit.com/blog/) has product updates as well as on our engineering and open source projects

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi, this list is exclusive for engineering blogs. I will review and add it to appropriate list.</comment></comment></comment>


Successfully Ported Number to Google Voice - <AUTHOR> http://www.mikolayczyk.com/2011/01/successfully-ported-number-to-google.html

<comment><USER2> > The advantage is that I am now not tied to any one mobile provider - if I > decide to switch providers, I just hop online and redirect Voice to a new > phone number, without having to tell anyone that I've made a change all my > calls and texts still find their way to me.

We have that now, without Voice. I'm on my third provider and same number, and I don't believe I was ever charged to port. If you're switching providers anyway, they're happy to get you and they'll port free.

The author's specific scenario (abroad, US number) may be worth it for the author. But the lack of support he also mentions gives me great pause; the Google black monolith of support is well known.

<comment><AUTHOR> I agree, it works well for me. I'm abroad 11 months of the year. This setup permits me to receive calls on a US number without paying international fees - even better it is now the number that all my contacts already have.

Also, the porting option works too. Again, for me, being setup with google voice means I can land in the US and see which provider will give me the cheapest PAYG sim card for the next week, buy it and not have to maintain a relationship (i.e. minimum balance, usage, or monthly bill) with them to keep my number when I leave again.

I don't think it is for everyone, and you need to think if it's right for you. Alot of the upside (voicemail transcription, etc) can be had without moving your number. For those of you who do decide to go ahead with it, it's a fairy easy process from my experience.</comment></comment>


Show HN: The Physical, Manufactured Party Game I Made In Only 12 Weeks - <AUTHOR> http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/deck-around-an-immature-bluffing-party-game/x/5482375

<comment><USER2> This game is to Balderdash as Cards Against Humanity is to Apples to Apples.

There seems to be a trend of taking classic games and putting up dirty clones of them on indiegogo. Not a bad thing, just an observation. I suppose they are filling a niche that the original game manufacturer can't pursue because it would damage their image to put out a game with naughty ideas.

PS. I would like to hear what actually went into making a physical manufactured party game in only 12 weeks.

EDIT: ultramundane828 expressed the same sentiment as me slightly before me. Having played cards Cards Against Humanity, it does innovate a little grammatically over Apples to Apples by replacing adjective cards with Mad Lib cards.

<comment><AUTHOR> OP here. Thanks for the analogy!

To answer your PS: 1) rapidly playtesting over email and remotely with folks I'd never met 2) finding a supplier who could do the whole game quickly in the US -- though I had to pay a premium for that and make some sacrifices 3) having a plan and re-prioritizing it practically daily

(sorry for the delay here-- my darn noprocrast settings locked me out!)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> This sounds like Balderdash. [http://www.amazon.com/Mattel-B9176-Balderdash- Game/dp/B00009...](http://www.amazon.com/Mattel-B9176-Balderdash- Game/dp/B000096RBO)

<comment><USER4> It's exactly the same from reading through, except rather than obscure/old words, it's using slang.

That said, I expect it's pretty fun to play - Balderdash is the only game we constantly come back to, every Christmas, without fail.

Good luck to them!

<comment><USER5> Balderdash is definitely great.

I'm thinking that this is to Balderdash as Cards Against Humanity is to Apples To Apples. (At least from my understanding. I haven't played Cards Against Humanity.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> So this is a combination of "Call my bluff[1]", using terms from the urban dictionary?

Might be fun, but it seems like a game that has a low replay value to me.

1 - [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_My_Bluff](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_My_Bluff)

<comment><USER7> Party games need have no replay value. You buy them, play them at the party, shove them in a drawer.

<comment><USER8> This makes sense only if you only ever go to one party where games are played or don't mind wasting $20-30 every time you want to play a game at a party...

<comment><USER7> Don't be silly. I go to parties with about the same crew most of the time, so replay value is not too desirable. And $20 is too much for a party game? How much does the food/drink cost? $30 is trivial, yes I do spend that on every party thank you.

<comment><USER9> > I go to parties with about the same crew most of the time, so replay value > is not too desirable

I'd say then it's _even more_ desirable.

I lost count on how many parties I've played Munchkin.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Very cool. Was expecting the jump to conclusions mat, but this looks fun.

I have noticed that going old school like this at parties is way fun. Apples to Apples is pretty awesome at a party, I'm gonna give this game a shot.

</comment><comment><USER11> Congratulations! It's Fictionary for slang, as far as I can tell? I would be worried about the size of the dictionary and replayability. A real dictionary never runs out of obscure words.

<comment><USER12> It's the curation that adds the value. Random words from a dictionary, uncurated, is not nearly as much fun.

<comment><AUTHOR> Bingo!</comment></comment></comment>


Land Of Lisp chapter 12 - Using SBCL - <AUTHOR> http://blog.ciaranbradley.com/crossing-the-streams-land-of-lisp-chapter-12-0

<comment><AUTHOR> Apologies for pushing my blog on here, it's my second foray into porting Land of Lisp into something usable in SBCL.</comment>


Red Hat Announces Broad Expansion to Open Source Patent Promise - <AUTHOR> https://www.redhat.com/en/about/press-releases/red-hat-announces-broad-expansion-open-source-patent-promise# <comment><USER2> I understand why Microsoft would issue a "patent promise" rather than a bona fide license (the issuer of a promise can play games with its interpretation, whereas courts get to interpret a license), but why Red Hat?

If the folks at RH are 100% dedicated to Free Software, why not place their patents under something like the Defensive Patent License?

[https://defensivepatentlicense.org](https://defensivepatentlicense.org)

<comment><USER3> They already have, its called the open invention network, which uses similar theories iirc.

<comment><USER4> OIN is a private company, not a 501c3 or even a 501c6 !

Not saying they're a good or a bad company, but they don't _legally_ serve the public interest-- that's what a 501c3 is for.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The Open Source Patent promise is about protecting open source projects from claims of patent infringement.</comment>


Obama administration knew millions could not keep their health insurance - <AUTHOR> http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/10/29/21222195-obama-administration-knew-millions-could-not-keep-their-health-insurance?lite

<comment><USER2> Without the attempted dramatization, this appears to be a case of hair- splitting: people can keep their policies but if the insurance provider chooses to change the policy, they must then bring it up to code because it's no longer the one someone was happy with.</comment>


Ask YC: Has anyone run a website on a home server? - <AUTHOR>

I'm wondering if any hackers here have hosted their own website on their own dedicated server? How was it configured (Linux or Windows server; 4GHz or 8GHz, 1GB ram, etc.)? Did anything disasterous happen, like a /.ing?<p>I've been interested for a while, as a 'just for fun' project, and I'd like to hear how difficult it is to do. Is it actually a possibility if you run a low/medium traffic website? <comment><USER2> I've run my personal site (<http://www.guydavis.ca>) for years over a server at home via a cable modem. However, my ISP will completely clamp down on bandwidth for any real traffic.

For my own "just for fun" project (<http://www.babynamemap.com>), I wanted to be able to handle more than one visitor at time. :) I'm hosting the RoR app on the cheapest Slicehost VPS for $20/month.

So, if you don't care about many concurrent visitors and decent uptime, then save $20 and host from your home. However, if you actually want the general public to come visit, then get yourself some cheap hosting.

</comment><comment><USER3> I don't know where you shop if you get 8GHz processors, but usually your internet connection will be the limiting factor. In my neighborhood LAN we had a 800 Mhz desktop PC with 256MB RAM and 1GB HDD (!). It ran a Half-Life Dedicated Server, email, a small PHP/MySQL website, an IRC bot, Icecast, Squid and a few other things. The only limiting factor was the HDD.

</comment><comment><USER4> For the most of startups you'll be doing fine with some old computer, which you may not consider for desktop station. Once you'll start feeling that it's not enough anymore, it's time to think why your startup makes so much traffic and can't pay a hundred for buying a dedicated server for itself.

<comment><USER5> If you take into account the bathtub curve ( <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathtub_curve> ) then using a trusty old computer is a very good way to start.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> As other posters have said, it's probably a bad idea to run your site from home if there's any chance of seeing a traffic spike. Most ISPs will cut you off at the worst possible moment.

The biggest counter example I know of for a site that started this way and ended up huge is Markus Frind's free dating site, Plenty of Fish.

"I was running the entire site off my home PC and ADSL connection for the first 8 months." (not sure if this is the original site that hosted this interview, but it's the first one Google turned up: [http://www.traffick.com/articles/innovators/01-markus- frind....](http://www.traffick.com/articles/innovators/01-markus-frind.asp) )

</comment><comment><USER7> While back at school, with the 4MB/sec connection:

Ran web app from desktop -> ssh reverse proxied through to cheep $20/month ~unlimited bandwidth server. sshfs on desktop so static files that were uploaded go through the desktop and back up to the shared server so they'd get served quickly to users.

Then I got a faster laptop so I decided to run everything but the database off of that. So it was user->shared host->laptop->desktop with database->laptop and all the way back for every request.

Latency wasn't really that bad as long as the shared host was nearby.

</comment><comment><USER8> "Did anything disasterous happen, like a /.ing?"

I once got on the front page of digg with a home server, but it was before that meant a lot of traffic so I think the server actually survived.

I wouldn't recommend it though. Mine was just a hobby site, and running the server was part of the fun. For anything more than that you are better off with professional hosting.

</comment><comment><USER9> I've done it quite a bit. I don't recommend it generally though. If you're already going to have a machine at home on 24/7 and you have a fast connection and an IP that doesn't change then it's a great way to get started. Just realize that the cost of your electricity will probably not be so much less than a cheap dedicated server (and probably more than a cheap VPS).

If you want to gain some sysadmin knowledge it's probably the single best way to start learning. It's just like having a machine in the shittiest datacenter possible, that just happens to be very conveniently located.

</comment><comment><USER10> I was thinking about this earlier today actually, when weighing the options between a VPS or dedicated box. The problem is finding a connection with a decent uplink. The two big ISPs in my area, Comcast and AT&T limit you to 768kbps, and I think both also block port 80.

And as far as I know, getting SDSL or a T1 is gonna set you back a few hundred a month, at which point you're better off getting a dedicated box.

<comment><USER11> Also, it's against the terms of service for basically all ISPs to let you run a server. They'll probably only enforce it, though, when you start getting a lot of traffic -- this means that you'll be turned off right as you are starting to gain traction. That's a bad time to have 404s. Also, what happens if the power flickers? Internet goes down?

Start with a VPS -- even if 30 bucks a month sounds like a big chunk of change, consider your other overhead (rent, groceries, etc). Not a big price to pay for the benefits.

Good luck!

<comment><AUTHOR> slicehost.com is the best I've seen for a VPS so far, $20 beginner. They also say they're negotiable on bandwidth starting at $0.30/GB, which is a bonus if you're running a popular blog and for some reason need more than 100GB bandwidth.

As for power, you've always got UPS'.

Internet is the tricky one as all private hosts use redundancies, although I don't see why you couldn't sign up for regular internet and a cable connection.

I've seen a handful of ISPs that let you run a server (or more correctly, don't stop you), although I think most ISPs prohibit it to force you onto business packages (which you can get in your home too).

I know in the Toronto region there is Mountain Cable, which doesn't have anything in their Terms of Service preventing you, and have unlimited bandwidth (From speed tests I've seen, they're faster than Cogeco, and get an upload speeds in the 1+MB/s range). I think you've just got to settle with DynDNS, however from what I've read this is reccomended for static IP's too. If you did have two ISPs then this would solve the IP problem when you switch.

I'm actually considering going with Mountain Cable anyway as they're cheaper than Cogeco. Although their lack of information on their website freaks me out; I mean their service area map isn't even online. (Edit: They do have a service area map for their internet, however they apparently provide service outside of the area)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I hosted half a dozen low traffic websites at home with a very old pentium III with 64 mb of RAM, running FreeBSD 5.3 (that was a while ago) and apache. We had a DSL with a fixed IP. FreeBSD did a very nice job at distributing the load. The machine was always responsive. We throw it away when moving out.</comment>


The No Brainer Guide to Contributing to Open Source Projects - <AUTHOR> http://wiseprogrammer.com/2017/07/04/the-no-brainer-guide-to-contributing-to-open-source-projects/ <comment><USER2> Won't f*cking load the text without JS. Enabled JS -> not worth it.</comment>