Marissa Mayer Has a Secret Weapon - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/business/2012/07/marissas-secret-weapon-for-recruiting-new-yahoo-talent/ <comment><USER2> _Halfway through the two-year program, Mayer herself would lead the group on a summer trip to visit international Google outposts. (I accompanied the trip in 2007; we went to Tokyo, Beijing, Bangalore, and Tel Aviv. This year, one of the cities included Jakarta.) It would be a bonding experience for each year's group of APMs — bonding with each other and to Mayer._

Why do I get the feeling that the author is referring to newly hatched Velociraptors rather than human beings?

It's not like this "bonding" will mean they recognise Mayer as their den mother for life or something.

<comment><USER3> What happens on the APM trip stays on the APM trip.

<comment><USER4> You an APM now then Jenny? Is that what you are upto over in Googlererland?

<comment><USER3> Yeah--I just finished my 2 years as an APM and I'm now a product manager (same job but without the 'A'). Hope all is going well with you! Love the name change!

<comment><USER4> Come back and tell us about it sometime. Turing Festival is going great guns.

<http://www.turingfestival.com/>

<comment><USER3> Looks fantastic! I will _have_ to make it next year :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> There are _so_ many people leaving comments that entirely miss the point here.

We will have to wait at least 6 months to really start seeing if Mayer is able to grapple with the listless behemoth that is Yahoo. Most of that time will be her getting up to speed and laying her own foundation on where the company should go. So don't expect to see much in the surface for at least that long.

Digging further into the content of the story, in many ways this can be considered a valuable resource she has been building for many years.

People _will_ follow a good mentor if there are special opportunities on offer. There are many people at Google and other places that are not satisfied with their options. To these people, money is not as satisfying as control and advancement. If Mayer is able to offer key people better options, many will be inclined to at least explore the idea.

Don't hang on to this idea that Yahoo is the place to suicide your career and/or company via acquisition. That's the old and current Yahoo. If Mayer is able to overcome that old inertia, then Yahoo could easily become a very hot place to be again. A good analogy is to think of an old, massive forest. It's all old trees that are half dead and centuries of undergrowth. A fire finally comes along and sweeps through. All of the undergrowth and dead trees are burned away. Now many young and vibrant plants can grow again, animals come back in abundance, and the whole forest ecosystem is better than ever. And please, hold off on the fucking criticisms of my version of forest ecology. It's an analogy.

So the point here is that if Mayer can start changing things finally, then there will be all kinds of interesting new things that people close to her could benefit from over the next few years.

<comment> yo-mf I doubt that even 6 months is enough time given the issues at Yahoo. May Yahoo shareholders show some restraint and patience to see this out as the long-term challenge that it is before jettisoning yet another CEO.

<comment><USER6> I doubt it. They've shown questionable judgement merely by hiring Mayer, whose accomplishments at Google are not especially respected among those with inside knowledge, and whose priorities will shift wildly after she gives birth in October. The board will terminate her in 2013 after 7-8 lackluster months. Then they'll start shopping Yahoo to be broken up and sold as parts.

<comment><USER7> "and whose priorities will shift wildly after she gives birth in October."

Are you insinuating that she'll focus more on her family than her job?

<comment><USER6> As a parent myself, I know that the first few months of parenthood are difficult and life-changing, regardless of how many nannies one might afford.

<comment><USER8> And yet I have never seen anyone post their concerns when a Male CEO becomes a father. I wonder why that is...

<comment><USER9> They should. There are indications that becoming a parent lowers testosterone levels in men.

If you want to pretend, for political correctness' sake, that we're not largely slaves to our hormones, have fun with that.

<comment><USER10> I wrote some of the best, most creative code of my life in the first 6 months after my son was born. I was focused, and yet could work on multiple project simultaneously very effectively.

I got hardly any sleep, so if that is "being a slave to my hormones" I'm all for it!

Either way, I think it is fair to say that the effects or parenthood are very unpredictable.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> The APM program is a time limited (2 year) program that is fairly "up or out", in the model of McKinsey-esque programs.

If you're someone that Google has decided is an "up", I highly doubt Google is going to let these people go so easily. These people are already being aggressively retained with bonuses and the like.

If you're an "out", well, by definition Yahoo won't be that interested.

And the "ups" that "became outs", so to speak, are people who are of such strong personal conviction that they turned down gobs of money in 2007 from Google to, say, take a riskier position at Facebook or do their own thing. In those cases, it's unlike more gobs of money from Yahoo in 2012 will convince them to jump ship, unless Marissa can offer things to recruits that she couldn't offer to recruits at Google. (This seems unlikely - there was little Google _couldn't_ offer the APMs it lost.)

<comment><USER12> You can go far in life by following a very successful boss. And there may well be more promotion opportunities / more responsibility available at yahoo under Marissa than staying at Google. Or perhaps they've already made a million or so and own a home; why not take a flyer and see where it goes? I think you massively underestimate personal loyalty to someone who it sounds like went way out of her way to look out for these folks' careers. Because if someone did that for me I'd be loyal.

<comment><USER13> The lower levels of a company are like undergrad... you go there for the reputation of the company/school.

The upper levels are like grad school... you go for the reputation of the boss/professor.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> As a former APM who went with the author and Marissa on the trip mentioned and now running a YC-backed startup (Optimizely) I can't speak highly enough of the APM program. Marissa did a tremendous job building a program that gave me the skills to be successful as an entrepreneur on my own.

APM Program : Big Companies :: YCombinator : Startups

</comment><comment><USER15> I was an APM intern last summer. It really was an amazing experience, and it taught me a lot - most especially that I have no idea what I'm doing.

APMers have a great deal of respect for Marissa, and she invests heavily in the program. There's no doubt Marissa knows how to recruit talent really well. That said, it's not as if current APMs will be clamoring for jobs at Yahoo. For better or worse, most seemed to be motivated by status and learning opportunities. If Marissa can offer both at Yahoo, then it could be enticing.

<comment><USER16> _most especially that I have no idea what I'm doing_

So why not apply to YC instead of learning how to not innovate?

<comment><USER16> Can't reply to him so I'll reply to myself. Where is the evidence of innovation? If Google is doing such a great job of innovating, why do they buy companies instead of spending their hoard of cash to innovate from within?

<comment><USER15> (It takes a few minutes for a reply to be allowed.)

The article lists some of the bigger successes from the APM program. There's also a lot of smaller ones you'll never hear about.

Strategies for innovation don't have to be mutually exclusive. Google has decided talent acquisitions are one way to continue innovation. They've also decided the APM program is another, which is why it continues to this day.

Google's blessing is that it has a naturally large audience for showing new features/products. Its curse is that innovation has to be planned more carefully, both from a technical and a product point of view. That's where APMs do really well.

<comment><USER16> I re-read the article but missed the innovations that occured within Google. What were they?

<comment><USER17> The ones included in the article are Gmail, Toolbar, and Chrome.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> "The ideal applicants must have technical talent, but not be total programming geeks — APMs had to have social finesse and business sense."

I would just like to note I met some of said APMs in a gathering in Tel Aviv and they were all cordial, knowledgeable in their topics of work and helpful. After speaking in passing with one of them I was contacted in less than a week by the VP responsible for the topic in EMEA - I don't know if it's typical for a Google employee, but my casual impression was all that article said and more.

</comment><comment><USER19> This article really lends credence to the idea that Mayer was hated inside Google. She set up her very own Waffen-SS of unskilled, inexperienced credit takers who were undoubtedly at odds with the rest of the company or at least the technical talent.

This article also has a good example of the blatant anti-intellectualism used in tech management:

"The ideal applicants must have technical talent, but not be total programming geeks — APMs had to have social finesse and business sense."

Obviously anybody 'too geeky' couldn't possibly have social finesse or business sense, but these APMs, with less than 18 months experience, were supposedly the uber-elite commandos at everything. The article goes further with the common theme of trying to confuse the source of technical talent. It claims that "Yahoo will be hiring great managers and product people" which will (of course) solve the problem that "the best techies have gone elsewhere."

Business schools espouse the same kind of inner-circle-ism: anoint the inexperienced, give them access, and tell them they are special and they will be under your control. B-Schools do it to get people to pay $100k+ for a degree program while Mayer seems to have done this for power. It's not a bad strategy political-wise, but it only works in the short term.

<comment><USER20> Why is this downvoted? While the tone (especially of the first para) could be improved, the author has a point. It is hard to escape the implication that these youngsters who "must have technical talent, but not be total programming geeks" end up with far more power in the organization than hard core engineers with similar experience ever could. I am not saying that's the way it works at Google, but that is the impression the article gives.

(If the article is true) It looks like the best way to get promoted at Google is to be "not too geeky" and join the APM program than join as an engineer with the same level of experience, where the chances are you'll get assigned to some creaking legacy code bug fixing with not much chance of creating an impact on the organization. Middle Management vs Engineering as the fast track career path in large companies. Not much of a contest.

<comment><USER17> I've worked with a couple of these APMs and they were awesome. I've never experienced or heard of this credit-jealousy around APMs that you're describing (I have seen it with other employees though).

Obviously, I'm just one data point.

<comment><USER20> since I didn't say anything about anyone's feelings (including jealousy, for credit or otherwise), I suspect you maybe reacting to another post(possibly the OP)?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I wonder how Googlers who weren't selected as APMs feel about having to compete with these pre-designated golden boy and -girl elites?

I also wonder whether many APMs display any sense of clubby entitlement? Probably not many of them do, but in any group like that there are usually a few here and there.

<comment><USER22> Cliques and entitlement? At Google? Unspeakable.

<comment><USER23> Ok, that one made me laugh.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> tldr: Marissa Mayer is strongly connected to lots of extremely smart people. Wired needs clicks, so they call this a "Secret Weapon." Hardly.

<comment><USER25> It seems to me that Wired missed a more important aspect of all this. Yes, having started the APM program at Google means she has lots of useful relationships. But more importantly, it means she's _solved this problem before_.

<comment><USER26> It's a lot easier to attract top college tech talent to a company that's already ranked #1 by some as the most desired employer for college grads. It's something else to get them to go to Yahoo, in a market where Google, Apple, Amazon, Facebook and others are all hiring.

This is a different problem altogether.

<comment><USER25> Nope. In both cases the problem is, "this company can't attract the kind of talent it needs." The underlying issues might be different, and the solution might also be different, but the problem is the same.

The Yahoo case looks like a more difficult problem precisely because the APM was so successful. In hindsight it looks obvious. But it wasn't obvious in 2002.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Implementing a rotational leadership program in the mold of GE, Nielsen, Abbot Labs, et al was definitely a great accomplishment for Mayer. I would hesitate, however, to call this a "secret weapon." She would be wise to implement a similar program at Yahoo, but implying that significant APMs would follow her from Google out of 'den mother' loyalty is ridiculous.

<comment><USER28> Every time I've seen a good exec move from a company, over the next 6 months you see people follow them. Every. Single. Time.

To say that it is ridiculous for this to happen to Marissa is in my books the same as saying that she is not a good executive. People will follow her. The only question is who, and what their impact will be.

<comment><USER29> Especially given the currently depressed state of Yahoo stock, and the potentially enormous upside of the stock options that will undoubtedly be available.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> Mayer's secret weapon is knowledge of Google internal product roadmap, esp gmail. Well I guess that's not much of a secret either.

Any turnaround at Yahoo is going to have to build on the backs of user sign up which mean yahoo mail will need to start killing it against gmail. I would be surprised if we didn't see a revamped and rebranded ( _cough_ ymail) email launched at a big press event in the next 5-6 months.

I wonder if the Sparrow acquisition was accelerated when she left because Google decided they needed to accelerate their gmail roadmap too.

<comment><USER31> Sure hope they fix Yahoo Mail. I read my Yahoo inbox through GMail via POP now, which seems silly.

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> People work at Google because it's Google, not because they want to work for Marissa Mayer.

The idea that Google's best and brightest will now jump ship to work at Yahoo seems unlikely.

<comment><USER33> Peons work at Google because it's Google, but the people this article is talking about (and the people Marissa Mayer needs at the moment) will go where the opportunity is.

<comment><USER34> Is Yahoo where the opportunity is?

I know a lot of APMs. Most of them are actually still at Google, but the ones that leave usually do so to found or be the first PM at a startup.

<comment><USER35> Strictly on market cap alone, there is a lot more headway in YHOO. It's much easier to image their stock (and thus stock options) tripling in the next few years than GOOG. Microsoft ran into this problem when Google was still small.

<comment><USER34> Right, but people who are still at Google are usually there for reasons other than the money. They like their coworkers, or they believe in the company's mission, or they feel that they are not in a position to take a big risk in their life right now. If they jump from Google to Yahoo now, they are taking a risk, moving from a company with strong product/market fit in their core businesses to one that's an also-ran in their core businesses, and for - tripling of their stock options? If they're willing to take on that sort of market risk, why not jump to a startup where the stock could potentially go up 3000x in the next few years? Or a fast-grower like Twitter or Facebook where the stock might triple, but the company already has product/market fit and doesn't need to stumble around searching for it?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> So what does this APM program actually consist of? How are people selected for it? What actually happens in those two years? How do people leave it? How is it different from similair programs at other BigCo s?Would any present/former members of this program like to comment?

<comment><USER36> I interviewed for an APM role in 2010, but didn't get the offer. So at least in terms of selecting people, I think the process is pretty standard.

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> A friend of my cousin saw the title of the link, then he said "What do they mean? Do they also talk about gossip in here?"

...

</comment><comment><USER38> APM was just her way of creating a power base in a large organization, in Yahoo, APM is the opposite of what she needs since she is the big cheese now.

Regardless, all the fru-fru management speak is useless unless Yahoo can figure out what their product is, which it seems to have never been clear ever since it gave up on search and being the defacto easy to use web subject directory. They lost on search. Text based subject directories as simply not sexy to management types, who chose to ignore that is what most of their traffic was for when they were more popular. At this point its just a huge product-less enterprise running on fumes and coasting to a stop.

</comment><comment><USER39> Best luck to her and yahoo, but all their and hers assets are meaningless until she, with her team, finds first needed thing for yahoo - vision. Hopefully they succeed.

</comment><comment><USER40> While that is a very interesting point, she'll have to leverage it soon and with some impressive finesse to make it have any practical effect. It's still going to be one hell of an uphill climb.

</comment><comment><USER41> With her product focus, I really hope Yahoo! starts investing in Flickr again...that was a great aquisition/product at the time and could be great again.

</comment><comment><USER42> Yahoo should simply have an incubator. Pay 100 engineers full salaries for a 50% stack.

<comment><USER34> They tried that (with Brickhouse) and then shut it down as soon as the going got tough.

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> you take your best people wherever you go. Especially when they're your friends.

</comment><comment><USER44> What does Yahoo do now?

</comment><comment><USER45> If the secret weapon is a baby, I don't wanna hear about it!</comment>


FreeBSD Jails the hard way - <AUTHOR> https://clinta.github.io/freebsd-jails-the-hard-way/ <comment><USER2> To be fair, ez-jails doesn't really abstract away that much. It just streamlines some of the more monotonous stuff.

My home server did originally run with jails which I'd created by hand and that worked really well for a while. But I started running into issues keeping the jails up-to-date. So I recreated those jails with ez-jails and the whole platform has been faultless ever since.

In fact it's been such an effective set up that I've been considering flattening my Proxmox box and running FreeBSD + Jails on that as well

<comment><USER3> ezjails are not upgradable by design which is a huge problem

<comment><USER4> ezjail-admin update -i has always worked for me, binary upgrades should work as well. What "design" are you thinking of here?

<comment><USER3> It doesn't update files in /etc nor does it remove old files.

There are other problems, but those are the most prominent.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> FreeBSD jails is the same concept as Docker, even it has been around for longer. Can somebody explain why it has never gained more momentum?

<comment><USER2> A more precise comparison on Linux would be OpenVZ and LXC (or Zones if you're a Solaris admin).

As for why it's not gained more momentum, that would likely just be because Linux popularity dwarfs FreeBSD. Much the same reason as why so much effort was made to port ZFS to Linux despite FreeBSD already having excellent support. But for what it's worth, jails have been widely used within the FreeBSD community for quite some years.

It's a great shame FreeBSD doesn't get more love because it really is a fantastic platform. But then it's just one of a long list of very credible operating systems that often get overlooked.

<comment><USER6> Interest in FreeBSD seems to be on the rise, with the advent of systemd. Many Linux users have been able to avoid it thus far, by sticking to 6.x Of RedHat and derivatives, or Debian 7. As these versions become longer in the tooth, it will be interesting to see if more people will switch over to FreeBSD. Popularity may not be a good thing however, with the recent political drama and institution of a code of conduct getting in the way of FreeBSD's meritocratic approach. Thankfully, there's still plenty of choice available in open source operating systems. Thankfully, we can always trust Theo to keep OpenBSD's purist approach to technical correctness :P

<comment><USER7> FreeBSD is going to eventually adopt a systemd-like approach. So people who switch for this reason will be betrayed down the line.

<comment><USER8> Even if they do, I'm pretty confident that FreeBSD will do it better. If for no other reason, they'll be able to take the lessons from systemd and see what worked and what didn't.

<comment><USER9> Yes, and FreeBSD wouldn't allow unbootable systems that you can easily run into with systemd.

<comment><USER9> Or break stuff from one release to another. I fear that the web app approach to release often and break often is getting into Linux userland development. Gtk3 is another example of that. 3.16 was fine and 3.18 started drawing slower and displaying black rectangles anytime while a built-in dialog (color, file, etc.) is opening. Then there's Gtk3's reluctance to support themes. Almost all themes have to be ported again for each Gtk3 release. And you cannot configure your theme once and reuse the config ($HOME) on two different versions of a linux distro. If GNOME wouldn't approach the default theme like everybody uses Gtk3 on a tablet, it wouldn't be problem to have no theming. I've been using a Gtk2 theme I wrote for at least 12 years or even longer and it never glitched on me. This is the same mindset systemd development in general seems to have. But like in all organizations I've seen reasonable developers in the systemd community and those who are not.

<comment><USER10> I don't think this is a new trend: [https://web.archive.org/web/20151126183335/https://www.jwz.o...](https://web.archive.org/web/20151126183335/https://www.jwz.org/doc/cadt.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Interestingly I just went through the same process as I wanted to understand how jails worked without the tools (my preference is iocage if you want something full featured - ez-jail doesn't properly handle the new jail.conf approach) - to be honest this is pretty simple and in some cases the tools just add complexity.

I ended up writing my own very simple jail wrapper [1] (~200 lines of shell) which does most of this in a very simple way - I wouldn't advise this for general use but the code is simple enough to understand what is going on behind the scenes. I chose not to use jail.conf for my use case as I wanted to dynamically create/destroy lots of jails programatically and it was easier to just call jail(8) directly in the case.

[1] [https://gist.github.com/paulchakravarti/9afea9e889bc992dbdd2...](https://gist.github.com/paulchakravarti/9afea9e889bc992dbdd2#file- jail-sh)

</comment><comment><USER12> What the author calls the tedious way still seems 10 times easier than configuring a LXC instance on Linux...

<comment><USER13> I downvoted you by mistake. Please accept my apologies. This is the second time I did it this week. Why are the vote buttons so small and close together?! And why can't you revoke a vote?</comment></comment>


Garmin Develops Autoland System - <AUTHOR> https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2020/january/pilot/hands-off <comment><AUTHOR> >the Garmin panel goes to the next step of beginning an automated sequence of events that results in a safe touchdown on a runway, where it rolls the airplane to a stop, shuts down the engine, broadcasts a message on the local frequency that the airport is closed because of a disabled aircraft on the runway, and plays a video on the multifunction display that instructs the passengers how to open the door and get out.

This is amazing technology. Hats off to the developers at Garmin.</comment>


Show HN: A minimalist blog based on Tufte CSS - <AUTHOR> https://lawler.io <comment><USER3> I have to say it is refreshing to see someone actually thinking about things like line length when it comes to how their content is portrayed. To me, this is not just being persnickety, it's about intention. If you want me to resonate with your idea, the more clearly it is communicated (writing and typography) the easier it is for me to get invested.

Look at the simplicity of articles on The New Yorker, for example, which are very long but very readable because there's very little cruft to distract you and the design is so simple. My experience there is almost interchangeable with a "reader view" of the page, a feature that by its very existence should communicate that the modern web has lost its way in thinking about these things.

It's not that every site needs to be minimalist, but if you're writing essays or text of substance, _caring_ about this kind of stuff goes a long way. "Engagement" is not just how long I stick around but the mental investment I put into what's there, and when it comes to writing, less design is often more.

<comment><USER4> I don't do webdev, so my primary use for the inspectors built into browsers is to right-click-inspect-element and delete offending elements. I find myself doing this especially on Wired articles.

<comment><USER5> Just a tip in case you don't already know: uBlock Origin would allow you to permanently delete elements by a selector.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> > Why doesn't this website fill 100% of your 1080p or 4K monitor's screen with > text? There's a very specific reason, and that is text measure.

>> A block of text or paragraph has a maximum line length that fits a determined design. If the lines are too short then the text becomes disjointed; if they are too long the content loses rhythm as the reader searches for the start of each line.

>> Wikipedia entry on "Measure (typography)", 2019

> The optimal width of a paragraph of text is anywhere from 50–80 characters > per line, depending on which of the many studies you cite. If a paragraph is > too wide, your eye loses its place when tracking back to the beginning of > the next line. This decreases reading comprehension—and increases my > irritation when I realize I'm re-reading the same line.

OK, so have the text flow into multiple columns on wide displays.

<comment><USER7> Columns don't really work well with scrolling, unfortunately. You can do multiple pages of multiple columns or one scrollable column for longer content - personally, I prefer the latter (and it's simpler technically), but either works.

<comment><USER8> Multiple columns don't work well for vertical scrolling. They should work fine if you horizontally scroll to see more columns (for example to the right for writing in English).

This would allow more content to be displayed for users with larger screens without overly penalizing users who could only view one column at a time.

The challenge would be to convert the normal vertical scroll to a horizontal scroll in an intuitive way (ie not too jarring for the user).

<comment><USER7> That's a good point. I might have to try some experiments with side-scrolling columns, see how it works out for longform reading.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Love the Tufte style. One real limitation, however, is the "mobile view" in which the margin notes collapse into clickable superscript numbers. I don't think it's clear to most readers that one is supposed to click on those to expand them, meaning they aren't likely read by perhaps 50% of your readers. One thing I've seen, and adapted for my own site [1], is inserting these margin notes beneath the paragraph in mobile mode; this way, the notes do not go unread.

[1] [http://cachestocaches.com](http://cachestocaches.com)

<comment><AUTHOR> Gregory, your margin notes look great in the mobile view. I'm using mine as "frenetic" textual additions (thanks for the great description, HN commenter!), which would be too messy to inject straight into the content without a click-to-reveal.

It's a nice reminder, however, that search engines suck up the margin notes and inject them in the text where they find them. I noticed my site is indexed in Bing/DDG with the circle-cross icon in the middle of the text. I've been placing them so they line up nicely with the paragraph they're found in, but that doesn't lend to a very mobile-friendly reading experience.

A solution where I use eg cornflowerblue underlined icons, as suggested in the sibling comment, would be a solid solution for my personal use-case.

<comment><USER10> For me it was weird having to tap around (to open and to close) in such a fluid article. It was distracting in a way. I would suggest trying to simply insert them into parentheses on mobile, perhaps heavily grayed out if you want to deemphasize, or if they're not that important drop them altogether.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I love minimalist design, but have never understood the point of Tufte CSS. I find it baroque, without a clear design idea (just look at all those font sizes, combined with their apparent non-relationship to padding, for example at those Hacker News quote notices), and quite hard to read.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm still struggling to get the <blockquotes> to look right. There's not _quite_ enough of an offset from the body text. Do you have any suggestions there?

In regards to font sizes, there are 5: H1s, H2s, H3s, body text, and captions.

Edit: Ahhh, and the paragraph lead ins makes 6 different sizes. That should be adjusted.

<comment><USER12> For blockquotes I personally favor a small 3px border-left thats preferably colored. It provides a clear visual separation from the main content and most people are accustomed to seeing a border-left as a quote from their usage in email reply's (quote level).

Here's a link to one article on my blog as an example:

[https://tardis.digital/article/i-fucked- up](https://tardis.digital/article/i-fucked-up)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I like your site design (and the most recent article), particularly the side/margin notes. I had done a similar thing on a previous incarnation of my own site but eventually decided to keep them in the footnotes section so that the focus would be kept on the essay. But seeing them here makes me rethink that decision.

I am slowly working my way through Web Typography by Richard Rutter ([http://www.book.webtypography.net/](http://www.book.webtypography.net/)) as I redesign my website. You may find it helpful as well. Another inspiration is Craig Mod's ([https://craigmod.com](https://craigmod.com)) site (of which I took more than a few suggestions from).

Looking forward to reading your other articles! Good luck with the writing practice.

Edit: Change 'first article' to 'most recent article'.

</comment><comment><USER14> What's with this trend of blogs putting the full post in the catalog / archive view? It makes it hard to scroll through to find something worth reading - <USER2> just want to see titles and a snippet (a hook). If it's interesting, I'll click in.

</comment><comment><USER15> Nice! I really like Tufte CSS. It makes using side notes really easy, even on mobile. And it gives a very crisp look to the text.

I put together a project to be able to make new Tufte CSS sites with Jekyll:

[https://github.com/jez/tufte-pandoc-css](https://github.com/jez/tufte-pandoc- css)

It makes it easy to use Tufte CSS with markdown (including side notes!)

<comment><AUTHOR> Excellent! I'm positive I saw your plugin while researching the design for my site. It looks like a great package of tools. In the end, I decided to stay away from Rails and use Pelican + Python3. I needed an excuse to brush up on my Python.

Regardless, we've implemented almost identical end-results (I also chose Solarized light, heh) for two different languages' static site generators. All we need is the creator of the Lisp equivalent to chime in...

Edit: Oh, I used Solarized Dark. Thought I swapped that for light at one point, as there's not quite enough contrast across all display qualities.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I like fluid layouts because i like to control the width of every window I open in my computer. I hate those 80-line & fixed designs so much. I enjoy the freedom of setting the content the way I want.

</comment><comment><USER17> Nice article and a very pretty blog :)

I've found [https://outline.com/](https://outline.com/) to be great for reading content on the net regardless of the original layout, as it basically extracts the text and places it in a centered page with really legible line- height, letter-spacing, font-size & family. Evernote used to have a similar extension but it was sunsetted a couple of years ago.

<comment><USER12> I love Outline but it seems to me that more and more websites are being excluded from it.

Does anyone know if there's a preferably open source alternative available that I could host on my own server?

<comment><USER18> Hm, that's weird. They should be able to go around it easy enough.

I would love to know as well if there's an alternative.

<comment><USER12> I'm assuming Outline is blocking domains (nytimes.com comes to mind) when those publications ask to be excluded.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> A similar idea is Athena[1], also based on Tufte CSS. It's a static generator like Jekyll with a minimalist look. Pretty easy to set up and get going, and integrates well with hosting on Github Pages.

[https://github.com/apas/athena](https://github.com/apas/athena)

<comment> q-base Thanks a lot for this! I am really wanting to change my WordPress site to something more simple. Been fascinated for a while about different minimalist static sites, but never found a good way to get started. This looks like an easy way to start, with something that is close to what I am after.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> I really like the Tufte CSS style, so much so that I adapted it for my own blog. In my opinion it suits the longer, more thoughtful posts that I was trying to create.

Tufte-style presentation really shines when trying to convey very complex ideas that require a lot of text. For example, this is my attempt at explaining HTTP from the ground up[0]. The side-notes really help to add additional information without breaking the flow of text.

That said, I don't think it looks that great on mobile devices in portrait mode. I still haven't found a good solution to this.

[0] [https://sheep.horse/2017/10/how_you_are_reading_this_page.ht...](https://sheep.horse/2017/10/how_you_are_reading_this_page.html)

</comment><comment><USER21> I wouldn't have guessed that those circles were clickable annotations on mobile had I not looked at desktop view and wondered where they'd. I like it as a principle but it's badly signposted as it doesn't feed into any existing experiences.

<comment><AUTHOR> This is a solid point, thank you. I'll see if I can think of a better way of delineating the mobile margin notes. Maybe Stratechery or Wikipedia have good examples of this.

<comment><USER22> I would just leave them as superscripts. Everyone knows what a footnote superscript means and that they are hyperlinks you click on.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> What do you all think of the @font-face font? In other threads, many people here normally dislike web fonts (for example, [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19607169](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19607169)).

Usually I'm with you, except for a few fonts like Google's EB Garamond ([https://fonts.google.com/specimen/EB+Garamond](https://fonts.google.com/specimen/EB+Garamond)) and the one used here, ET Book. I think these are better than Times New Roman or Georgia, the two serif fonts I have to choose from if I don't go with web- imported fonts.

<comment><USER24> My opinion (not a web designer): don't let fonts define design, let them compliment it later on - I know sometimes I would be choosing fonts even before making the layout or content. For most sites, chances are web safe fonts are perfectly fine. If there is a specific and justified design vision, then choose wisely. Try and pull in one serif and one sans-serif font, at maximum. I've seen sites that slap on a bunch of fonts and quite frankly, it's not ideal. If possible, see if you can serve woff2, from a fast (or popularly cached) CDN.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> Took me a while to find out how to grab the code:

"Pelican static site generator config for Lawler.io": [https://github.com/Eiriksmal/lawler-dot- io](https://github.com/Eiriksmal/lawler-dot-io)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for correcting that omission.

My favorite feature is the one-click deployments. Through the power of SSH keys, the site is deployed with a simple `make rsync_upload`. No Chef scripts, no AWS CodeDeploy pipeline, just plain ol' rsync over SSH.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> I guess I assumed this was a blog engine or SSG of some like kind. After reading the article I guess I gather that I assumed incorrectly. Good article though and nice looking blog actually.

</comment><comment><USER27> The text measure / line length argument probably makes sense for paperback books, and that would likely extend out to mobile/tablet as well.

But perhaps it doesn't make sense when reading on the desktop.

In desktop, you can easily scroll the page to keep track of your spot. You can also use the mouse cursor for to keep your spot in difficult areas. The gains of having long line lengths likely outweigh the occasional difficulty in keeping your spot. The eye reads across faster after all.

</comment><comment><USER28> Reminds me in spirit of [https://thebestmotherfucking.website/](https://thebestmotherfucking.website/)

</comment><comment><USER29> > _The In both typography- and computer-speak, a character is an individual > letter or typographic mark. optimal width of a paragraph of text is anywhere > from 50–80 characters per line,_

So... Why does the blog format the main text body to be around 40 characters per line on my default window size? If you want to put the focus on this range of line lengths, you'll have to be more flexible with font sizes.

</comment><comment><USER30> I saw Tufte CSS and loved it too. I'm glad to see someone putting it into action. I loved it so much I wanted others to be able to use it. So I created this nearly complete project to allow anyone to write Tufte essays, blogs, or articles.

[https://writetufte.com](https://writetufte.com)

</comment><comment><USER31> Kind of excited you like The Goal as much as I do. I had not heard of The Phoenix Project though, so thank for that.

</comment><comment><USER32> If you want to hit the ground running with a Tufte-based blog of your own, I created an open source theme for Jekyll (easy to setup with Github Pages)

[https://et-jekyll.netlify.com/](https://et-jekyll.netlify.com/)

</comment><comment><USER33> Tufte CSS works great for tabular data and print stylesheets too. I used it for Instant Pot Cooking Times ([https://cookingtimes.info](https://cookingtimes.info)).

<comment><AUTHOR> Nice! That does make for an extremely-classy table. My only suggestion is that, at 1080p, there's an eye-water 330px gap between the text in the 1st and 2nd columns in the first table. This makes it a bit difficult to tell if quinoa is 1:1.25 or 1:6-1:7. Perhaps there's an elegant way to clamp the maximum table width that works for all 4 tables?

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> Wow, really love it :) If I'd ever start writing a blog, would it be okay to copy the CSS? :-)

<comment><AUTHOR> Of course! Everything you need is in here: [https://github.com/Eiriksmal/lawler-dot- io/tree/main/theme](https://github.com/Eiriksmal/lawler-dot- io/tree/main/theme)

<comment><USER35> Thanks for myself too! :-)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> You can keep the rhythm and still fill the monitor by using multiple columns. Newspapers do it.

<comment><USER37> How do you flow text from one column to the next, using as many columns as there is room for?

<comment><AUTHOR> kqr, there are a lot of usability problems that come from stretching columns across the screen. There's a thread talking around some of them here on this post: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19621284](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19621284)

My thinking is that most programmers love information-dense displays. But designers have shown that empty space is vital to creating a truly _usable_ design.

If a website used some minor CSS to add a bit more line-height and slightly- larger font than most browsers ship with, then fills 3840 pixels with wall-to- wall-text, you'll successfully achieve the most information-dense possible site, but utterly sacrifice readability.

Again, I don't think it's accidental that books don't use multiple columns of 66 characters in a landscape-style aspect ratio.

In true HN fashion, commenters are searching for a local maximum (use more of my big monitor) that defies how ordinary people interact with the written word. :)

<comment><USER37> Thank you for the kind advice. Don't worry, I won't use it on any sort of content-heavy websites!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> Three cheers to this!

I think you'd love what my best friend and I have been building for the last two years. It's like Hacker News except no commenting on articles you haven't read (and no skimming allowed!)

Check us out: readup.com

<comment><USER12> I liked the idea but have to say I'm not a fan of your design. It just feels a little rough. Also I expected comment chains to be collapsible. I also experienced long load times for articles (>5s, some >15s) which is way to long. The first article I read only showed a completion of 77% although I read the whole thing. Not sure how you determine how much has been read but I assume I'm just reading faster than what you're used to.</comment></comment>


Netherlands ACM launches investigation into abuse by Apple in its App Store - <AUTHOR> https://www.acm.nl/en/publications/acm-launches-investigation-abuse-dominance-apple-its-app-store <comment><USER2> Here is some context. There are two collections of frameworks available for iOS developers. The private frameworks cannot be used by non-apple applications. In some cases, this restriction makes it impossible for an App developer to develop an App that has the same functionality as the corresponding Apple app. Just to pick one example, the Music App has a download-to-device option (a cloud with an arrow) which allows users to move cloud-stored songs from their iTunes library onto their device. This functionality is not available in the iOS SDK.

In my opinion, there is legitimacy to the complaints being investigated.

<comment><USER3> I get reminded of this the most while driving and using Google Maps on an iPhone.

I've definitely had several close calls in traffic, with faceId requiring me to type the password, switch back to the maps app etc, since google maps can't stay open while the phone is locked like apple maps.

I think it's a pretty serious dark pattern when you consciously make an app unsafe for your user.

If their's a setting I'm missing to allow Google maps to stay on the lock screen, I'd love to know.

<comment><USER4> Please dont fiddle with your phone and drive. It is illgeal* , and more importantly you will end up killing an innocent person.

*Perhaps not in your specific country.

<comment><USER5> You are admirably polite in wording that request.

If one absolutely must use a smartphone in traffic the only right moves to make after a navigation app stops working is to either ignore the device and continue on your way without it (seriously, can nobody navigate without these devices any more?) or to ignore the device and find a parking spot someone where you can sort it out.

No matter what that dumb smartphone does, it cannot make you have close calls in traffic unless you are acting like an utter moron. It can't reach out and grab the wheel, it can't slam the brakes, it can't block your field of vision. YOU ARE IN CONTROL OF THE VEHICLE.

This bit bears repeating: fiddle with that damn device and _you will end up killing an innocent person._

<comment><USER6> >...ignore the device and continue on your way without it (seriously, can nobody navigate without these devices any more?)...

I can, and I'm sure most people can reasonably get around without on _if they 're familiar with the area_. Towns and cities with a grid layouts and numbered roads means that most people can probably find an address if they get a cross, but most of the US is not laid out in that manner. It's doubly frustrating when you hit a neighborhood called Winding Oaks, and every road is Winding Oaks Trail, Winding Oaks Lane, Winding Oaks Circle, Winding Oaks Road, etc.

However, no, I probably cannot get to a location if it's in an area without a grid layout that I'm unfamiliar with. I could probably get reasonably close if I reviewed the directions beforehand, but with turn-by-turn navigation, there's a good chance that I will not have done so with detail.

<comment><USER7> Then find a parking spot or don't drive if you have to rely on fiddling with your phone while driving.

<comment><USER6> For the record, I'm not condoning using a phone while driving. I was only addressing the point of people not being able to navigate without modern navigation.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> An exact same issue was raised in the 1910's about railroad companies who owned the rails and started transporting their own good and barring transportation access to other companies.

I invite you to read this (quite old - 1914) book named "Other People's Money" by Louis Brandeis, it's in the public domain now, quick free read:

[https://books.google.com/books/about/Other_People_s_Money.ht...](https://books.google.com/books/about/Other_People_s_Money.html?id=uCpMAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button#v=onepage&q&f=false)

History repeats itself.

PS: you might also read this book to understand how the people owning today's banks are the same group of people that owned railroad companies!

<comment><USER9> I don't think it's the same exact issue since a key feature of railroads is the use of land, which can't be replicated endlessly with very low marginal costs.

<comment><USER8> >> which can't be replicated endlessly with very low marginal costs.

Sure it sounds easier to build an app store, but is it really any simpler than building railroads? One might think of app store as being just software but it's way more than that, it's an entire ecosystem built by a huge company made of the best talent in the world.

Look at big companies like Microsoft and Blackberry who have given up on their smartphone ecosystem (and respective app stores). It's definitely _very_ competitive and cannot be replicated endlessly with very low marginal costs.

<comment><USER10> What app store are you on? The only ones I see have crap search and recommendation systems. Beyond that they're off the shelf shopping carts for file downloads.

The stores that are popular are so because they're preinstalled. That's it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I worked, briefly, for a mobile app developer that made an app so bad, it regularly bricked phones. There were bugs in the logging that would trash the flash storage. It would also prevent the radios from entering power save, and floor the CPU (bugs). Within months of use, customer phones would either "explode" from excessive battery drain, "lightly smoke," or just become inoperable from dead flash storage.

I sat in a meeting where the execs were all complaining about Apple's unfair business practices re: their inability to do terrible things in background tasks, and their frequent app rejections / review process.

In this case, Apple saved countless phones from being bricked by one of the worst enterprise app developers. Some of the restrictions help to prevent first class assholes, like them, from publishing wholly defective garbage.

<comment><USER12> > Within months of use, customer phones would either "explode" from excessive > battery drain, "lightly smoke," or just become inoperable from dead flash > storage.

Seems more like bad software exposing lightly defective hardware. These are issues that could be prevented by the manufacturer on either hardware or software level in many different ways.

If you have to trust userspace applications to not trash your hardware, you (Apple) are doing something wrong.

They're not even hard problems. You can prevent any of these with a post- release over-the-air update.

There would be a cost to your benchmarking scores, obviously.

But what good is top-tier performance when you can observe your phone self- destructing at a greatly accelerated rate as opposed to the expected amount of wear.

<comment><USER13> It's possible for userspace applications with root privileges to kill most laptops running Linux in a similar way.

<comment><USER12> You don't expect an application running with root privileges on Linux to be sandboxed, quite the opposite in fact. You can brick your hardware in a million ways with root privileges by doing fun stuff like overwriting firmware/efi settings etc.

It's not comparable at all to an application on your phone downloaded from an app store, which you expect to be highly sandboxed and which you _certainly not_ expect to be able to do irreversible damage to your hardware.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> ACM is the Autoriteit Consumer en Markt (literally: Authority for Consumers and Markets), the Dutch equivalent of the FTC, I think.

<comment><USER15> small typo here: De Autoriteit Consument en Markt

<comment><USER14> Oops, sorry about that!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Is this not like complaining that Walmart dominates its suppliers in Walmart stores? They also sell their own brands plus demand suppliers offer and price exactly what Walmart wants.

<comment><USER17> More than likely you can buy the same brand at another store such As Target, etc. If Walmart was the only outlet where one could buy the product and that product was also competing with Walmart products, that is an unfair advantage in Walmart's favor.

In the case with Apple Music vs Spotify, Spotify is not only at a disadvantage of API availability, but also how the rules are not applied for Apple's own apps (marketing push notifications come to mind). On top of that, it is more difficult to complete on price as you are coughing up 30% for any IAP (which you have to use Apple's IAP APIs to begin with). So spotify either charges an extra 30% to cover the fees or eats the 30% to remain price competitive.

<comment><USER18> But there's still an aspect of the same vein, right?

Like, if you have a product, there's the retail price, and there's the wholesale price that Walmart pays you. There's a spread that you pay going through Walmart that they don't have to pay for their own products.

Now, it's definitely not 30%, but its there. I think the numbers change how onerous the splits feel, but the mechanics look similar.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> "Furthermore, they are not always able to use all functionalities of an iPhone"

If Apple is using "secret APIs" in its own apps in the app store then that is unfair and should change. But sandboxing apps and limiting their access to data and to OS internals is a very good thing.

</comment><comment><USER20> I'd be perfectly happy if Apple were forced to allow alternative app stores on the IOS platform, so long as security was guaranteed and backed by legal penalties, if Apple was allowed to heavily curate the collection of apps offered by their own store.

I wouldn't use a third-party app store, nor recommend it, but I'd be fine with their existence.

<comment><USER13> >so long as security was guaranteed and backed by legal penalties

What does this mean? Apple's app store doesn't even guarantee security.

Would something like F-droid be allowed? Because if not I would argue we're still not solving the problem.

<comment><USER20> First, security in the payment process. Apple seems to doing pretty well there, so equivalent or better than that.

Second, offer a guarantee that the software on offer is free of malware and unreasonable tracking. Some degree of inspection and curation would need to be performed by the selling App Store as well as having agreements set up with the developers of the apps.

Third, real penalties to all parties if there was some sort of breach or other malfeasance. In the case of data leaks and other issues from the store, the penalty would fall on them. For malware, etc., the penalty would fall on the developers and/or the store for lax practices.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Coming from Computer Science academia ACM for me is Association for Computing Machinery.

</comment><comment><USER22> Apple could help avoid some these problems if they would just let people side load apps without Appple's blessing or root your device without having to jailbreak it.

<comment><USER23> The trick is how to provide a feature like that which cannot be used as a vector for malicious hacks, and which can't be used by the authorities to compromise citizen's privacy against their wishes.

<comment><USER24> Apple's side-loading ban creates ideal conditions for authorities to compromise citizen's privacy via censorship, VPN bans, etc.

Ultimately, having one all powerful gatekeeper is not secure, because that gatekeeper can get compromised or impose arbitrary restrictions for commercial/ideological reasons (such as Apples anti-sex policies)

<comment><USER23> >Apple's side-loading ban creates ideal conditions for authorities to compromise citizen's privacy via censorship, VPN bans, etc.

I can't really parse that. iOS being locked down and having strong system security prevents censorship because it prevents authorities getting access to your data. How on earth can opening that up and providing backdoors to the system prevent censorship?

The whole reason for the VPN ban is precisely because Apple's system security is so tight that eavesdropping on the wire is the only way the authorities can get at user communications. This criticism makes no sense.

Ultimately, your expectations of how gate keeping should pan out fail to match actual reality. iOS is vastly more secure that it's open competitors, so much so that it isn't even remotely close. I don't know how you can post that with a straight face, but I suppose ideology is a powerful force.

<comment><USER24> _> iOS being locked down and having strong system security prevents censorship because it prevents authorities getting access to your data._

This is completely false. Owning a secure device does not help you get around censorship at all unless you can also install a good VPN (or similar).

 _> I don't know how you can post that with a straight face, but I suppose ideology is a powerful force._

What ideology would that be? I am an iOS user myself and superior security and privacy is one of the reasons for it. But that doesn't make me blind to the negative side-effects of Apple's approach.

Being easily co-opted by governments for censorship purposes is undeniably one of those negative side-effects.

<comment><USER23> You don't really need a good vpn though. Any communications app with end to end encryption such as Signal also works fine. Except if you can't trust the platform, because then your data can be accessed anyway. You have to be able to trust both the system and the application, either one on its own isn't good enough.

As for VPNs, those are banned in China for all phones, not just iOS. If a government bans this or requires that, it's really game over for device or application vendors. They really don't have any choice but to obey the law, or walk away. Having a closed or open architecture doesn't make much difference to that. However it still makes a difference in other aspects of security so it's still a differentiator.

Ok maybe I'm wrong about ideology. But you seem to be arguing that closed systems like iOS lead to worse security, but then say you prefer iOS because of it's superior security? I'm sorry, I really must be missing something.

<comment><USER24> _> You don't really need a good vpn though._

You do need a VPN for access to a lot of things in countries like China, but that's beside the point because governments can order Apple to take down any app, including end-to-end encrypted messaging apps.

 _> As for VPNs, those are banned in China for all phones, not just iOS_

But what makes the ban effective on iOS as opposed to Android is Apple's side- loading ban. That's my point.

 _> But you seem to be arguing that closed systems like iOS lead to worse security, but then say you prefer iOS because of it's superior security? I'm sorry, I really must be missing something_

What you may be missing is that I don't live in a country that blocks wikipedia or porn sites and tells Apple to take down VPNs and end-to-end encrypted messaging apps (yet). That could change though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> The situation currently with both stores is a bit comparible with Microsoft during the internet explorer dominance. The only way to resolve this is by splitting up playstore and iTunes store. Too much self interest from Google and apple is destroying these ecosystems for small businesses.

<comment><USER26> No. If you had to live through things back then you could see IE actively undermining the internet and making it MS specific. It wasn't like you use MS or you use an IBM OS or HP OS or something like that.

It was you use MS or piss off. There was no realistic Mac option for the masses due to horrible mismanagement. Linux just was not there yet to be perfectly frank. (Even though techies were over the moon because the slackware had XWindows! So now you could open multiple bash terminals to get your work done! See how usable it is!)

It ended up not mattering anyway. The courts kind of laughed the government out of the room. I'm pretty sure the best they got was a promise to let other browsers be installed. (Keep in mind, they were _still_ going to pre-install IE, so nothing was going to change.) That was one of the biggest farcical scenes I'd witnessed in my lifetime. Equivalent of a slap on the hand. (Actually, maybe more like a tap.)

<comment><USER15> Microsoft got far more than "a slap on the hand", at least in the EU.

They were fined a total of $1.3bn for anti-competitive behaviour, which would have escalated up to $7.4bn if they hadn't stopped.

The two fines were:

\- in 2004, EUR 497m ($611m) for restricting music player access, server APIs, etc, with remedies allowing competitors access to build interoperating products. That was the EU's largest fine ever against a single company.

\- in 2013, EUR 561m ($731m) for "inadvertently" removing a browser choice screen in 2011 that had been added in 2010 as a condition of the previous remedy following a complaint by Opera in 2007.

That last fine was a firm warning to Microsoft to take anti-competition provisions seriously. If they hadn't changed, EU laws allowed a fine of up to 10% of global revenue, which would have been $7.4bn based on their 2012 turnover.

<comment><USER26> I'm sorry, by "government", I meant the American government's attempt to reign in MS. Not really familiar with the EU governmental structure or how antitrust works over there.

Over here, I stand by my assertion, it was a farce. Nothing happened to them. And they went on with business as usual.

All that said though, and not to be too negative on government or anything, but it doesn't sound like too much happened in the EU either. I mean, it took until 2004 for the EU to do anything? And, while I realize it sounds like a hefty fine, a browser choice screen did little to change the tech landscape. And it hurt MS very little to add back in a browser choice screen in 2011, many years into iPhone's Normandy invasion of the tech industry.

In fact, I'd argue that Apple, (along with maybe Amazon), has done more to reign in MS than the US or the EU governments. They're the ones who have changed the computing landscape to give us breathing room away from MS. It's what the government should have insisted on when MS first came under scrutiny. (At the same time of course, you could argue that they were right to do nothing. Because eventually, competition did what it was supposed to do and different sectors and services are now split off from MS.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> What about this idea? If you create a platform (OS/Cloud etc.) then you're not allowed to create applications for that platform, or profit from the sale of 3rd party applications - or compete with your own users more generally.

This would stop everything from the Amazon effect to Novell happening. For the life of me I don't understand why we don't enforce this kind of idea?

<comment><USER24> Because many platforms might not exist under those conditions.

I think Steve Jobs was initially opposed to allowing third party apps at all. Amazon market place might not exist either. Google, Amazon or Microsoft might not be offering AI services to third parties. There might not be extension APIs for MS Office or Google Docs.

Instead we could be seeing a whole lot more vertical integration and a whole lot less opportunity for small vendors to leverage technology that benefits from economies of scale.

I think it's better to let things evolve and then regulate when problems become obvious. Otherwise everything could be as stagnant as many utilities are today.

<comment><USER28> Under those principles, the entire computing industry would never have been created.

If you can't create your own hardware, and then sell your own software to run on that hardware, then you're doomed.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> The title should be changed to reflect that this is a branch of the government of Netherlands and not the Association of Computing Professionals.

<comment><USER30> The .nl tld should tell you it's not a US org.

<comment><USER31> The ACM that the OP mentioned is a global organization and have a presence in many countries.

<comment><USER32> The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets is a global organisation?</comment></comment></comment></comment>


World's space agencies to set up a Space Climate Observatory - <AUTHOR> https://phys.org/news/2017-12-world-space-agencies-climate-observatory.html <comment><USER2> Why NASA do not want to participate?</comment>


Exploration of Generative Art - <AUTHOR> https://generativeartistry.com <comment><USER3> One of the creators here! Always happy to be mentioned and glad to answer any questions.

A true love of mine, and something I'm loving see slowly grow and appear in our tech and programming community is interactive tutorials and blogs, which personally I feel teach and inspire creativity in a way like no others. This site is built with a library I called tutorial markdown [1], and the whole blog is also open source [2], and has a little indie podcast too [3]

I really want to see this type of experience grow, so yeah, if anyone is working on similar things I'd love for them to share it here (or with me otherwise). Here [4] is a great blog post by John Otander showing off some great interactive blog posts on the web, all of which are very HN worthy in my opinion.

[1] [https://github.com/tholman/tutorial- markdown](https://github.com/tholman/tutorial-markdown)

[2] [https://github.com/tholman/generative- artistry](https://github.com/tholman/generative-artistry)

[3] [https://generativeartistry.com/episodes/](https://generativeartistry.com/episodes/)

[4] [https://johno.com/year-of-the-interactive-blog- post/](https://johno.com/year-of-the-interactive-blog-post/)

<comment><USER4> >if anyone is working on similar things I'd love for them to share it here

Sure, I also made a tool to generate interactive blog posts and used it to write a couple of articles on pretty niche topics related to generative art. Whenever I have the time to do so, I would love to write more content like that. The framework is here, articles are linked at the beginning: [https://github.com/pac-dev/dspnote](https://github.com/pac-dev/dspnote)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Along these lines, I work in geophysics/AI right now and trained a GAN on some seismic data, which people usually visualize with ridgeline/joy plots (literally just realized people call them joyplots because of the joy division cover...). It ended up looking pretty cool: [https://brantondemoss.com/seismicdream](https://brantondemoss.com/seismicdream)

<comment><USER6> These are beautiful - well done. Ridgeline plots are very common in EEG and ECoG (electrophysiology). The lead singer of joy division had epilepsy - <USER2> band's logo is a plot of a siezure. If you are interested, this work might be very interesting if you trained on brain waves (different spectrum). There are publicly available datasets: [https://github.com/openlists/ElectrophysiologyData](https://github.com/openlists/ElectrophysiologyData)

<comment><USER5> Sounds interesting, I'll take a look. If you want to email me (grab from my website) so I can ask some questions about the data (if you have expertise here) that would be helpful.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I collected some links on generative of art if anyone is interested

[https://wiki.nikitavoloboev.xyz/art/generative- art#links](https://wiki.nikitavoloboev.xyz/art/generative-art#links)

<comment><USER8> Great! I've also created a list of tools, mostly CLI tools since that's what I was more interested in personally.

[https://github.com/bradydowling/awesome-generated- art](https://github.com/bradydowling/awesome-generated-art)

I'd definitely be open to PRs of other things that are relevant.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Does anyone know of generative art for gothic style [drop caps]? I thought it would be neat to generate the curves from a letter instead of relying on a font. I know Gwern.net uses some neat tricks to load a subset of the drop-caps fonts.

[drop caps]: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initial](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initial)

[gwern]: [https://www.gwern.net/About#implementation- details](https://www.gwern.net/About#implementation-details)

</comment><comment><USER10> I am so confused / mixed on generative art. I've made a bunch. I often enjoy looking at it. I have friends that make a living from it. But I waffle on whether it's good/bad/art/not-art.

I've been told by commenters on HN that my generative art is not art if it was created without intent to express some truth about the world or some such criteria. Not sure I agree.

On the other hand it used to be a rite of passage to make a "draw random lines in random colors" program in like the first few days of learning to code and technically that is generative art.

My friend who makes a living on generative art for installations does lots of flowing cubes and I'm super happy for him and always say positive things. But, in my head sometimes I'm like "seriously, all you did there is write a random line generator" because having made similar pieces I know effort wise it's more like a doodle then a project. In other words most of my generative art took less than an hour to make. I can turn my generative art to make images similar to ones he gets paid for in few minutes. So, sometimes it's hard not to see certain generative art as low effort? I'm not sure how to describe my feeling here.

If some one showed you their program that had 2 numeric fields and an add button and you set the 2 fields, clicked add and the sum of the 2 fields is displayed (in other words the 2nd or 3rd program you ever wrote, [https://jsfiddle.net/greggman/hypv0ugo/](https://jsfiddle.net/greggman/hypv0ugo/)). You'd be happy for them they are making progress on learning to program but if they posted that as "Show HN" you'd likely not give them much praise.

That's the type of thing I often feel about some percent of generative art and I don't know how to stop feeling that any more then I wouldn't feel like "why are you showing this?" about the adding 2 numbers example.

<comment><USER11> Generative art is op art[1] made with math and a computer instead of a paintbrush and a ruler.

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

<comment><USER10> That is not really the point i was trying to make.

Maybe this analogy will help.

We praise chefs for making great meals. Conversely we don't praise people for boiling water. In fact it's a common joke if you ask someone who is has no cooking skills if they can cook they might joke "I'm great at boiling water!"

So my question is where is the line between boiling water and cooking. Similarly where is the link between no-skill required code that puts a pretty picture on the screen and high-skill required to put a pretty picture on the screen. In general we don't praise the first.

random lines in rand colors = 0 skill units

random lines in similar hues += 1 skill unit?

random lines in a similar direction and similar hues += 1 skill unit?

I know rating art on how much skill it takes is not a valid way to rate art but we still make some kind of distinction between stick figure human and the Vitruvian Man and so I'm conflicted about it

For me an large percentage of generative art fits on the stick figure side than the Vitruvian Man side. It might look pretty but it took no more effort or skill than drawing a stick figure.

<comment><USER11> _For me an large percentage of generative art fits on the stick figure side than the Vitruvian Man side._

Sure, most things are a loop and a couple of sin functions. I find it pleasantly surprising when I figure out how people have made seemingly complicated things by building up simple techniques.

If DaVinci walked around the Guggenhiem maybe he'd feel the same way about a lot of the art there. I'm not sure it would detract from the art if he did though. "I could have made that easily" is more a testament to the viewer's skills than a criticism of the artist's work.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> There is a difference between people writing programs to generate art and (classically trained) artist who use programs to investigate art. I guess there are more examples of the first and fewer of the latter. One Dutch artist who in 1969 started using programs (at first with the help of others) to generate art is Peter Struycken. [https://www.pstruycken.nl/index.html#En](https://www.pstruycken.nl/index.html#En)

</comment><comment><USER13> An older generative art project, with some history: [https://win- vector.com/2020/06/11/genetic-art-introduction-v...](https://win- vector.com/2020/06/11/genetic-art-introduction-video/)

</comment><comment><USER14> Here's the biggest generative art forum on the planet : [http://reddit.com/r/generative](http://reddit.com/r/generative)

</comment><comment><USER15> I don't know, I looked at the one with packed circles, and the algorithm was silly: A loop that grow radius by one and check for collision each time, instead of directly setting the radius to the proper value.

Edit: This is what I mean: [https://pastebin.com/r0n19jZa](https://pastebin.com/r0n19jZa) (Well, except that I inlined functions, and that may be considered bad style.)

</comment><comment><USER16> Obligatory inconvergent plug, one of the titans of generative art: [https://inconvergent.net/](https://inconvergent.net/)

</comment><comment><USER17> Nicely done. Question, what type of generative art could one create (as a newbie) if they wanted to embed something personal into the nucleus of it? Say for example birth dates of everyone in their family...

<comment><USER18> My immediate thought is use the birthdays as seeds for the random number generator, and then whatever you do has the birth dates as the nucleus of the generated art.

You can also generate a shape or a path for every family member modifying a parameter with each member's birthday.

<comment><USER17> Nice idea on random seed. Txs

</comment></comment></comment><comment> GuB-42 Does the demoscene count?

Especially in sizecoding and shaders, if you want any kind of detail, you need procedural generation. Common techniques include fractals and Perlin noise, but there are many others, in 2D and in 3D.

</comment><comment><USER19> Somewhere around 1980 I wrote a Mondrian picture generator for the VIC-20. It was pretty good as I recall. I was going to submit it to a magazine, but never did. I wonder what happened to that cassette?

</comment><comment><USER20> Love this. Every few years I feel I want to get deeper into it, but ... never get enough time commitment behind it.

Recently been wondering if _Mathematica_ would be a good way to do this.

</comment><comment><USER21> Checkout the lolwut command in Redis [http://antirez.com/news/123](http://antirez.com/news/123)

</comment><comment><USER8> This is amazing. I'm very interested and just downloaded every episode to my phone on Spotify.

</comment><comment><USER22> I like things like this, anyone have any similar to share?

<comment><USER23> I really like Dan Shiffman's processing tutorials [0], they cover a lot of stuff you can use in your creative coding. he also wrote a book called "the nature of code" which is alse awesome [1]

[0]: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4066MndcyCk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4066MndcyCk)

[1]: [https://natureofcode.com/book/](https://natureofcode.com/book/)</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Where can I find good writing not about programming? - <AUTHOR> All of the RSS feeds I subscribe to are about programming. I'd like to read other kinds of nonfiction on the internet but I'm not sure where to start. I'd prefer bloggers to publications (e.g. Slate Star Codex to The New York Review of Books), but am open to anything. <comment><USER2> I like

[https://mattstoller.substack.com/](https://mattstoller.substack.com/)

Overall it seems like substack really is what Medium pretends to be.

</comment><comment><USER3> I like Nautilus. It's a magazine not a blog.

[http://nautil.us/rss/all](http://nautil.us/rss/all)</comment>


Ask HN: Gmail alternatives? - <AUTHOR>

I'm looking for an alternative to Gmail that I can use with my own domain, with at least 15GB of space. What are you using? <comment><USER2> Self-hosting. Basic setup (imap over SSL) using Dovecot + Postfix. There are easier ways (Virtualmin etc.) but email's back under control, at least.

</comment><comment><USER3> Maybe a hosting provider which is also offers Zarafa.</comment>


A drop-in Python interface to Filecoin, available on pip - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/pygate/pygate-gRPC <comment><AUTHOR> There is also a Flask webapp and an API using this interface. See [https://pygate.tech](https://pygate.tech) or the github org.

This was created for the HackFS hackathon, and is in preparation for Mainnet launch!</comment>


Ask HN: In a hyper conformist world, will you raise your child as a free thinker? - <AUTHOR> <comment><AUTHOR> If the world you live requires you to be a hyper conformist, to lead a peace full, happy life, will you raise your children as a free thinker?

For example, will you encourage the child to question you and talk back when you ask him/her to do something, if encouraging it might cause them problems/conflicts later in life?</comment>


Barnes and Noble and Microsoft End Nook Partnership - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/05/business/media/barnes-noble-ends-partnership-with-microsoft-over-nook.html?ref=technology

<comment><USER2> I never understood and still don't understand this partnership.

So B&N has retail stores and Nook. Nook pre-Microsoft was Android based. They already had a Nook app coming out for Windows 8/RT. So when Microsoft invested a ton of money what was the ROI? Were they hoping to ship Nook devices with Windows RT on it? Or was there some other end-game?

300m is a lot of money and I don't understand what the pay off was even meant to be here.

<comment><USER3> That's because this was never about Microsoft investing in the Nook.

Microsoft's investment was really just a settlement with Barnes and Noble in everything other than name.

Microsoft sued B&N ([http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12814018](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12814018)) for infringing on the patents it's been collecting royalties from Android manufacturers for. B&N then counter-sued ([http://www.phonearena.com/news/Barnes---Noble-countersues- Mi...](http://www.phonearena.com/news/Barnes---Noble-countersues-Microsoft- over-Nook-Color-patents_id18532)).

Once Microsoft invested in the Nook business, the whole thing got dropped. Makes you wonder if Microsoft were concerned that B&N actually putting up a fight might bring the whole of their lucrative Android licensing business in jeopardy.

<comment><USER4> Also, Microsoft worries about Google, Android, Amazon cutting into their business. Like most large corporations, some investments are defensive. If Nook had gone better, it might have given MS a toehold in that camp.

<comment><USER5> Yeah, I always saw it as a strategic "me too" product investment in response to Amazon Kindle.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This never made sense. It may have been interesting if Microsoft had leveraged the B&N physical real estate to let users play with their new hardware, eg Surfaces, but that never happened. Nook continued to be the oft forgotten Android based ecosystem it always was.

</comment><comment><USER7> So will now MS require B&N to pay for patents again?

<comment><USER8> Well... The patent list they use to extort Android makers is not a secret anymore, so there is no way B&N could threaten Microsoft with that.

But I guess they now enjoy a perpetual license to those patents anyway.

<comment><USER7> While it's public, I didn't see any news about anymeone trying to bust those patents so far.

<comment><USER8> We also don't see many new licensees.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Interesting turn of events. I wonder how this will affect the e-reader industry.

</comment><comment><USER10> Barnes and Noble should ideally end the entire Nook business as well. Every month I spend around $50 buying books at a physical B&N. I am just happy to buy their books on a standard Android App. Not sure what purpose the e-reader serves.

<comment><USER11> > Not sure what purpose the e-reader serves.

Carrying around hundreds of books is the obvious killer feature.

<comment><USER8> > Carrying around hundreds of books is the obvious killer feature.

Better indexing and search would be the killer killer feature.

I carry about a hundred books and about that many magazines (in PDF). Being able to search through that stack would increase my perceived IQ by a hundred points.</comment></comment></comment>


VoiceOver bug lets hackers bypass lockscreen, view and send iPhone photos - <AUTHOR> https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/10/12/voiceover-bug-lets-hackers-view-iphone-photos-send-them-to-another-device <comment><USER2> "allows an attacker with physical access to a locked iPhone to access all of its photos"

So... not everyone, only those with physical access. Can we edit this to have less of a clickbait title

<comment><USER2> * For posterity, the title used to something like "iPhone bug lets everyone access your photos"

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> _This once again proves that there is no absolute security guarantee in today 's technological world._

and then

 _Therefore, everyone should choose very carefully a trustful cybersecurity company._

So, a company which would have 'no absolute security guarantee' :P

Anyway: pretty good find. And 'typical' as well, in the end it's roughly the same principle as on older Windows versions where you'd get Explorer access by opening the OSK or one of the other accessibility tools.

</comment><comment><USER4> Looks like this was first posted at Apple Insider on September 29th. That's a bit more than 3 weeks ago. Is that past the usual embargo period for responsible disclosure?

<comment><USER5> None of the articles mentioned actually contacting Apple (unless I missed it) so they appear to have bypassed responsible disclosure and gone straight for personal publicity.

It could be they did, and the writers choose not to mention it but the media are usually keen to tag on the "Apple were told about this X days ago" data.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Sure, but this is mostly impractical. You'd need to rely on the phone reading attributes of each photo to determine what to take. Sending all photos this way is tedious - and it requires physical access.

So, technically true, but very low risk imho.

</comment><comment><USER7> Original of Oct 12: [https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/10/12/voiceover-bug- let...](https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/10/12/voiceover-bug-lets-hackers- view-iphone-photos-send-them-to-another-device)

</comment><comment><USER8> Better title: iPhone bug gives everyone with physical access to your iPhone access to your private pictures. In other words, the adage "physical access is root access" remains true.

<comment><USER9> Better better title: "iPhone bug gives everyone with physical access to your iPhone [that has a specific combination of settings turned on] access to your private pictures"</comment></comment>


How do you get your engineers to look at pull requests? - <AUTHOR>

I'm working with a team that has around 20 engineers and we're running into a problem getting engineers to look at pull requests. We've got 24 open right now and it's been like that for a week. What kind of things do you do to encourage people to look at pull requests? <comment><USER2> I feel like one contributing factor might be your company's culture or process.

I try my best to review every pull request at work, but ultimately any time I spend reviewing code is essentially time I'm spending on Hacker News as far as management is concerned. Time spent on code review can't be logged against any defects or stories, so when the metrics get printed, it looks like I'm pulling less weight than I should be. Sure, I can game the system a bit by logging time against something that I didn't actually work on, but just the fact that I'd have to be dishonest to do something means I'm less inclined to do it.

See if there are any processes in place which would disincentive developers from doing code review. Are the deadlines too tight? Is performance graded against some metric like tickets closed?

And where's your tech lead in all of this? I feel that part of the job of a good tech lead is to be a technical mentor, and that involves reading the code your team is writing.

</comment><comment><USER3> The process that works for my team (Department of Data. Heroku.) is simple:

If one expects a review with any timeliness, "@mention" the person(s) you think are qualified to review. Include the urgency of integrating the patch. The default assumption is urgency is low.

The reviewee is free to punt (if they're especially busy, or it's a case of mistaken identity as to the correct expert), but he or she is expected to fill-or-kill their intent to review in a day or so.

Some advantages:

* Not overbearing nor complicated

* Leaves room for non-urgent work

* Targeted (avoiding tragedy of the commons)

* Dynamic and nuanced (not slavish to a strict taxonomy of assignment and priority)

<comment><USER4> +1 for the @mention idea. The biggest obstacle I usually see at work is no one taking ownership of an issue. If my boss says " _someone_ need to do this before Friday" then I know it will never happen because _no one_ is responsible for it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Give two to get one. That is, if you want your code reviewed (not stuck in limbo) and there are other requests in the queue, you have to review at least two others before submitting. Should clear up your backlog right quick!</comment>


Google Plans to Introduce a PC Operating System (for netbooks) - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/08/technology/companies/08operate.html?hp <comment><USER2> _Web browsers will evolve until they are operating systems. Those that can't will be replaced by those that can._

Their aim seems to be instant web-access, which benefits google. Linux compatibility would seem secondary - and perhaps even deliberately omitted, as Google wants you to use web-apps, not desktop-apps. And if Google Chrome is fast enough, and offline operation is seamless enough, that might not be a problem at all.

This is the thing that Microsoft feared from Netscape and Java. It got away that time. Round 2: the game has changed, but the outcome, even if preordained, remains as yet unknown.

<comment><USER3> "Round 2: the game has changed,"

I guess spending 10 years building infrastructure to support web apps had to happen first.

<comment><USER2> What are you thinking of as infrastructure? I suppose broadband is more widely available now (10 years ago I was on dialup at home, now my max is over 2MB/sec); PC hardware has become fast enough for Javascript/Flash/Java (and much improvement on their software implementation performance).

From the developer point of view, AJAX-style dynamic webapps have become easier, with browser-support, dev tools, and a trained workforce; ditto for the server (esp. ruby on rails, but it's across the language-board, and DB, OR mapping, XML, JSON); and cheaper servers (which are also much more powerful). OK, OK! You've convinced me.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Announcement of Google Chrome OS: [http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-google- ch...](http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-google-chrome- os.html)

<comment><USER5> the name is pretty crappy, Chrome means browser to everyone, what's the point of doubling it's meaning? Couldn't they come up with something unique like Google Doorway or Google Vents or Google Tunnel

if we use the Windows example, it'd go like:

Damn my windows just crashed.

The OS or the browser?

<comment><USER6> I don't think Chrome has had enough penetration among the average consumer to mean anything yet. How many people use Chrome? It's just a word; apparently they are branding their consumer desktop platform as Chrome.

Chrome is a much better name than Doorway or Vents or Tunnel. It's different than Windows. It's fast and shiny.

<comment><USER6> In addition to fast and shiny, Chrome is elemental. It's really a great brand name for their attempt to make the dominant web operating system, where web operating system means the underlying software infrastructure from bottom up required to run advanced web services perfectly.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> The time to do this was 2 years ago, when netbooks were desperately looking for an operating system.

Now they have adapted themselves (slightly higher cost/specs) to Windows XP, and people are fairly comfortable with that. The market is established & shaving an extra $50 off the price is not as much of an issue.

The near future will have Windows 7 netbooks & Ubuntu for netbook to provide some theoretical competition.

That doesn't mean this definitely won't take off, but a Google backed operating system made for small screens & cheap hardware could have been the default choice 2 years ago.

<comment><USER8> I have to disagree -- $50 is 20% of the price of the cheapest netbooks, and it's 10% of the price of relatively expensive $500 netbooks. The cheaper netbooks get, the more of an issue $50 is. The Eee PC was supposed to be the $200 laptop and we're still not there.

<comment><USER7> That is my point. For the theoretical $200 impulse buy EeePc, that $50 would have been a deal breaker. Armchair strategising would have led you to that conclusion. An OS that lowered costs by that much would have been an obvious choice. That's why they originally launched on Linux.

But over time, the specs drifted up. Consumers preferred XP. They were willing to pay for it. I don't know what the median price is, but I'm guessing around $400-$500. In other words, the market has moved towards Windows. Windows has also moved towards netbooks.

Google OS could have been the default choice for netbook manufacturers at the time when there were petitions going to keep XP alive. When this launches (2010?), Windows 7 netbooks will be the default choice.

That doesn't mean this won't work. maybe people will prefer Chrome OS to Windows 7 for netbooks. Maybe it will enable $200 netbooks, almost a distinct class. If that's the case, they still need to go through the market test. Do a lot of people really want a $200 netbook?

<comment><USER8> Netbook acceptability checklist: 1) Runs a web browser 2) Has k hours of battery life 3) Has "big enough" screen and keyboard

These things don't compete on features, they compete on binary "good enough" and price. They're practically commodities, which is why the industry doesn't like them -- ECON 101 rules about efficiency apply.

Of course, you can still decorate the case to differentiate on fashion.

<comment><USER9> Add on:

\+ I don't have to maintain it. (Anti-malware, etc.)

\+ Comes with the applications I want. (Wherever they are hosted -- local or on the net.)

Chrome might make the netbook into an (true) appliance. A lot of people would like that.

I think the killer feature for Google may be manipulable audio-visual. The ability to insert and control advertising in A/V media. There's a reason they continue to pour money into YouTube.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I feel like this was Schmidt's dream with Sun in the 80s.

<comment><USER11> You're not the only one: [http://deals.venturebeat.com/2009/07/08/how-googles- chrome-o...](http://deals.venturebeat.com/2009/07/08/how-googles-chrome-os- has-deep-roots-in-eric-schimdts-past/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> One thing I don't understand: why pre-announce so early?

<comment><USER13> They are probably bringing hardware partners into the fold. They need some lead time to do that. Partners are notoriously bad at keeping secrets. Just ask anyone who worked on a big secret project at a large company: leaks come from 3rd parties almost exclusively.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> x86 Android Live CDs and Chrome OS on the same day? Wow.

</comment><comment><USER15> ""Chrome is basically a modern operating system," Mr. Andreessen said."

This is an odd comment to make coming from an ex coder.

<comment><USER16> It's consistent with his statement 15 years ago that "Netscape will soon reduce Windows to a poorly debugged set of device drivers."

(Except this time Chrome has reduced Linux to a well-debugged set of device drivers.)

<comment><USER17> It's not like they have a whole lot of devices to drive. They know up-front what small set of hardware platforms it will have to support. Handy, I'm sure, if they want things like hardware-accelerated H.264 decoding.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> so basically it'll be a custom version of linux, with Google tools like Chrome etc thrown into the mix

<comment><USER18> I feel that Linux can really work for the average user, it just needs some good branding and marketing.

Canonical has performed fairly well with Ubuntu but it'll be interesting to see if Google can "bring it to the masses".

<comment><USER5> I don't think your average user really knows anything about the OSes. For most people, the only OS they know, is the one that came pre-installed by the computer manufacturer.

Instead of good branding/marketing, Linux needs a good sales team to pitch to manufacturers. Linux will continue losing, until the manufacturers add to their custom builds: Linux (-$100) or Microsoft Windows(+$100)

<comment><USER19> All Google has to do is strip down Linux, provide excellent driver support, and make things look pretty. They've got the infrastructure in place with Gears, they control the browsing environment. Users don't need to know anything about Linux. All they need to know is that it's made by Google and works.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> This article is chock full of bad grammar. I've generally found NYTimes to be reputable, but this makes me question how hastily this was pushed out. Can anyone find another source corroborating this news?

<comment><USER21> Yeah - I noticed this too. It seems like they wanted to 'scoop' the story before Google announced it on their own blog perhaps? I'm not one to criticize another person's grammar or writing style, but it was unusually bad with this NY Times article.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Why would that fare better on netbooks than Linux?

</comment><comment><USER23> please don't repeat linux's mistake by allowing fsf to attach gnu/; gnu/chrome? yikes!

<comment><USER24> How could you stop them? Unless this OS is not built on the GNU toolchain.

<comment><USER17> _If_ it uses the GNU userland, it still wouldn't be fit for a GNU/ name in the eyes of the FSF. Saying "GNU/Linux" means you're talking about a GNU system running on the Linux kernel. By that logic, this could be called Chrome/Linux. GNU doesn't figure into it significantly.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> <http://2ze.us/Y9>

<comment><USER2> Interesting that the link text is fully black, and not faded out as normal text would be for "-7" worth of downvotes.

<comment><USER26> HN fades only non-link text. Example: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=401885></comment></comment></comment>


Agile Web Development with Rails: 3rd Edition available as PDF - <AUTHOR> http://weblog.rubyonrails.com/2008/4/23/agile-web-development-with-rails-3rd-edition <comment><USER2> Are there any online printing services where you can send a PDF like that and they send you a nicely printed soft-cover? I realize that it may be expensive, but still.

</comment><comment><USER3> What's the best Rails book out there? A couple years ago I was told this was it, but I've heard otherwise.

<comment><USER4> My stock answer :)

[http://toohardtopronounce.com/2008/2/7/the-three-must- have-r...](http://toohardtopronounce.com/2008/2/7/the-three-must-have-rails- books-for-beginners)

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Sam Ruby is now a co-author.

<comment><USER4> That's good news . . . he's a great writer.</comment></comment>


Show HN: Tetris clone built with React Redux and Typescript with 7part blog series - <AUTHOR> http://reacttetris.azurewebsites.net/ <comment><USER2> Direct link to the tutorials: [http://reacttetris.azurewebsites.net/#about](http://reacttetris.azurewebsites.net/#about)

The web page for the tutorials is visually appealing. However, the design with photographs instead of text indicating that these are links to the tutorials seems like an area where less subtlety might be better for users.

For what it's worth, the tutorials are more interesting to me than the game.

</comment><comment><USER3> Does anyone have a mirror? I'm seeing an Azure message that the "app is stopped".

<comment><AUTHOR> Back up now. Looks like I hit some sort of Azure limit.</comment></comment>