The Xinu Page - <AUTHOR> http://www.xinu.cs.purdue.edu/ <comment><USER2> I own volumes 1, 2 and the PC version. I can vouch for the quality and understandability of the code. I've read a number of operating systems books, and I've found volume 1 to be one of the most straightforward - if you can get past the fact it's written with the PDP-11 in mind. I bought the PC version on a whim after reading volume 1, and found it to be lacking in a number of ways, using BIOS for many system services and glossing over memory protection (not surprising as it targeted the 8086).

One of the more interesting things about Xinu is that its security model is ring based, and if I remember right, it takes advantage of rings 0-3, unlike many modern operating systems. I can't actually remember if the PDP-11's hardware supported this, or if it was emulated by the kernel.

One of my rainy day projects has always been to get Xinu up and running on a PDP-11 emulator - too many operating systems, too little time.

<comment><USER3> OS/2 was another one using multiple rings.

Interestingly VirtualBox takes advantage of x86's multiple rings: <http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch10.html#idp12629776> (which contains other interessting details about VirtualBox, like the disassembles and patches code running in the VM in certain cases)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Just to point out another title edit by the mods. The original title was 'Xinu is not Unix'. Considering that's the first line of the body copy it was hardly excessive editorialising in need of fixing and actually did a better job of setting expectations than the pedestrian replacement title.

<comment><USER5> These mods seem too much like bots lately. Maybe they are?

<comment><USER6> If HN wants to force use of the <title> element as the post title, why not just auto fill it from the URL and disable editing? it seems silly to offer an editable field whose contents are auto-discarded.

<comment><AUTHOR> "Xinu Is Not Unix" - also gives more information than "The Xinu Page". Hence, I used it. If you don't feel OS-ey then you may skip the link!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> So while you can download code, the real description is in a book, not online, and you can't see it without paying money. Uninspiring.

<comment><USER8> This is exactly the kind of thing that inspired Linus to make Linux.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Sweet ram o' the rod, a name from the mists emerges.. It has been a long time since I played with Xinu, at least before Linux came to rule the roost .. someone remind me, though, doesn't Xinu have its own compiler onboard, i.e. why do we need two machines, just to bootstrap? Once booted, does a Xinu machine have all it needs to build an image for another Xinu machine?

I guess its a matter of taste, but this dusty beard reckons its not Unix if you're not building another Unix with it. ;P]

</comment><comment><USER10> Fun and completely irrelevant fact: "Xinu" is the name of the God of Pain in a popular Swedish role-playing game (pen and paper). See here: [http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=sv&tl=en&js...](http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=sv&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&eotf=1&u=http://wiki.mundana.org/index.php/Xinu)

</comment><comment><USER11> I was directly involved in one of the "industry" projects mentioned on this page. It's great to see Comer's work still around and kicking. XINU was a pleasure to work with.

Our company's lawyers also loved XINU because of the license. The GPL scared them so much we had to take Linux off the table.

</comment><comment><USER12> X is not UNIX (XNU), GNU is not UNIX (GNU), there are quite a few OSes that aren't Unix.

Heck, even UNIX is not UNIX: <https://encyclopediadramatica.se/UNIX>

<comment><AUTHOR> The cool part is - UNIX not is XINU

<comment><USER12> Don't you mean 'XINU ton si UNIX'?

<comment><USER13> 'XTSU' just doesn't have the same ring to it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I have fond memories of using Xinu in Dr. Comer's OS course back at Purdue. It's a nice little OS! (and he's a great prof!)

</comment><comment><USER7> I was scratching my head where I'd heard that name .... and _it came to me!_ Scientology. _puke_.

<comment><USER15> I thought that was Xenu.

<comment><USER7> Don't they pronounce the same in your head? To me they do.

<comment><USER15> Not in my head, no. Not being a native English speaker may contribute to that.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Standard Flavored Markdown - <AUTHOR> http://blog.codinghorror.com/standard-flavored-markdown/ <comment><USER2> The other post has the discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8264733](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8264733).

</comment><comment><USER3> Is there a live implementation where I can paste or upload files to see how they are rendered?

EDIT: Nevermind I found it [http://jgm.github.io/stmd/js/](http://jgm.github.io/stmd/js/)

</comment><comment><USER4> "a language you can parse without feeling like you just walked through a sewer"

Classy!</comment>


Arrington, Race, and Silicon Valley - <AUTHOR> http://whydoeseverythingsuck.com/2011/10/arrington-race-and-silicon-valley-i.html <comment><USER2> Silicon Valley is chum-tactic, so if you really care about the differential access problem for X, regardless of the value of X, make extra special effort to both tell X that Silicon Valley is chum-tactic and to introduce them to the right people.

Chum-tactic: the first filter applied to you, for press or investment or anything, is "Who sent you to me?" Some people think "Silicon Valley is a meritocracy" implies that the first filter would be merit. Ahem. Be meritorious, but make sure being meritorious makes an impression on someone who routinely has dinner with the people whose cooperation you need. (Hint: this happens spontaneously sometimes but that isn't the way to bet.)

P.S. Lots of the world and lots of situations work like this, with wide variations in local etiquette for what counts as an intro and what warrants one. "Who sent you?" is also the first filter for Chicago government contracting and Nagoya job offers.

<comment><USER3> Why aren't there many over-weight entrepreneurs in the Vally? I mean just look at how many over weight americans in US and they are under-presented in tech. I'm pissed. I'm going to start a OverWeightMe incubator that helps fat people. And any news media or investor who is not paying attention is a a weight-ist. You all should all write about me and fund me because i'm fat and under- presented so I deserve it.

Sarcasm aside, let me tell you why there are so few black tech entrepreneurs. Fact 1: Most successful tech founders in the Valley are themselves technical. Fact 2: Go to your favorite college, how many black people there studying math or computer science ? how many white or asians?

If there are very small percentage of black studying math and computer science, of course, the number of the black tech entrepreneurs would be small.

To all the black people out there, please don't turn venture capitalism into philanthropy. You will destroy Silicon Vally.

The whole sport (e.g basketball) industry is dominated by black people. Do you see asian people crying around shouting 'racism'? If you are really good (like in sports), you gain success. If you are not good, you're not (like making tech companies). It's simple.

<comment><USER4> No it is not so simple. I do not think most people are rascist. That is the wrong term. But there is a problem. The answer is what you get when you turn your "Fact 2" to a question. Let me explain.

I have wondered about this and think the core problem lies with two cognitive short cuts. The availability heuristic and the belief that other groups (predicated on culture) are much less varied in individuals than yours (out- group homogeneity bias). And everyone suffers from it. Black, white and every shade between. That is, even blacks will assign the same stereotype backed attempt at a conditional distribution to various outcomes and the only difference is blacks will not lump it into the its just cause they is black bucket. But even that alone is damaging to the cultural self image.

The effects are subtle. Ignoring socio-economic crippling effects, there is a very strong hostile affect against book learning in black culture. And I do not mean the standard antigeek treatment. I inhabited the intersection and can tell you there is a striking difference in the type of hostility, the other one actually creates feelings of real guilt and self questioning. And the underlying cause is not due to a hatred of knowledge but a chronic unacknowledged buried belief of lesser intelligence due to inferences made against the cultural Zeitgeist peppered with lingering traces of an oppressed past and a lack of many examples to counteract the claim.

This results in a defeatist attitude. See, if you try to study you nudge the insecurities of those around you which leads to a "so you think you are better than the rest of us" effect. There is a pressure to not try too hard and an almost pride in ignorance and keeping it real. And if you do press on you will still have this imposter effect suggesting that you struggle against your genes. I succumbed to this pressure in my school years. The cycle maintains a fixed point for the continued apathy towards knowledge in black culture, resulting in a dearth of intellectual achievement. So we think the only way forward is in sports or entertainment. This is the inward problem, why so little of us study math and computer science.

</comment></comment></comment><comment>====

Personally, I have not met with much overt racism in any culturally diverse setting. Outside diverse settings though and the rapid degradation of the quality of broad-mindedness can be quite cumbersome.

I am much more subjected to the subtle effects of the availability heuristic. I am not offended but sometimes disheartened. Where nice people meaning no offence will cross over to the other sidewalk and back, especially at night (useful when I wish to be left in peace). Or people feel the need to dumb things down and are surprised I am interested in certain subjects cause you know, you people typically don't - well no offence. Or that I am searched more often than my nonblack friends (0 vs twice a year or so) and on days when I say absolutely nothing have to end up being hauled to the station while they look up that my record is as spotless as a cleanroom.

This is the real problem. Well meaning people will say things meaning no offence and which only the most righteously uptight, persecution complex suffering person would take as such. Benign and small indvdually but in aggregate they give away beliefs that end up being real roadblocks when attempting to initiate an interaction. The tragedy is they do it without even being aware that they are doing it. When pointed out the more enlightened will mention some nonsense about statistics and time savings. But this is useless to tell the individual and such beliefs are self perpetuating or confounded by low iodine and magnesium diets - poisoning the well of general knowledge with effects leading to what i mention in my third block of text.

Ah well, I seem to have lost the point of what I was trying to say. but basically the number of dimensions underlying the manifold of this problem is far more vast than the simplistic picture you have painted using only one color.

<comment><USER5> The theory is, if someone acts white, they are going to flee the neighbourhood the minute they finish school, so you shouldn't waste any energy making friends with them.

Interestingly, the prejudice against "acting white" is much lower in black schools, and very high in schools with 20% blacks.

Also, Hispanics are much worse off - African Americans are respected for a GPA of 3.5, but start losing friends if they get anything more. Hispanics seem to lose friends once their GPA goes over 2.5.

see [http://www.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/fryer/files/fryer_t...](http://www.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/fryer/files/fryer_torelli.pdf)

<comment><USER4> Some of what you say makes much sense. I went to a school with about 20% blacks. Although I have heard from others in more homogenous schools that its not much better. You are also right it is not limited to blacks but I could not think of a term that succinctly captured a minority but from a less affluent demographic and more likely to be of a culture that has fractured from its roots.

But part of what you say is a symptom of the chronic heuristic I spoke of. To perpetuate ignorance just because those who do not appreciate it will leave? makes no sense. Why, leaving is almost part of the job description of a sports or entertainment job and they don't get ostracized. Plus part of the problem is a lack of availability of models. The more that achieve the more it becomes okay to try an intellectual avenue as a way out and the less and less notable it becomes to be interested in say math. Plus as a matter of numbers some of them will come back to try and better things, the spaces in entertainment are much more limited than in technology.

Finally, "acting white" exactly exemplifies what I mean. Just because I am not fluent in ebonics, like music with guitars in it, like to read scifi by Egan and books on information theory does not mean I am acting white. Nor does my like of chicken, basketball, funk, hiphop and bboying mean I am acting black. It is a cultural and personal lifestyle choice not predicated on color in deciding what I wish to identify with.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> OK. I'll weigh-in on this. I identify as an African American, developer, and aspiring entrepreneur. I'll post here the message that I give to my kids and will continue to hammer as long as they will listen. IT DOESN'T MATTER if it's a meritocracy or not. Go succeed. If there was an envelope that had a provable answer as to whether things are harder/easier for me to succeed with a new venture...I'd rip it up without opening it. What I love about Silicon Valley is the number of people who don't care to be told by other people what's possible.

</comment><comment><USER7> _People, for the most part, want to work with people that are "like them" or that fit a pattern that appeals to them._

I see this argument made a lot. But this argument has a huge hole in it - Chinese and Indians are also not "like them". And yet, Chinese/Indians are not underrepresented. If Hank William's theory were correct, they should be.

Any theory concerning the underrepresentation of blacks which does not distinguish between blacks and Indians is flawed.

<comment><USER8> You only covered the "like them" aspect, what about the "fit a pattern that appeals to them" part?

Chinese and Indians fall into "model minority" stereotypes, which have their own set of evils (you are X so you must be good at Y is it's own kind of dehumanization). So someone making a gut call might have underlying prejudices _for_ Asians and against blacks.

In other words, when is the last time a white person has crossed the street to avoid a Chinese/Indian person walking towards them. Ask a black guy when the last time that happened.

I think there are also many cultural differences at play, as well as people's perceptions of those cultural differences.

Startups take their own kind of crazy, and it really helps to be surrounded by people that tell you its ok to be crazy or are at least as crazy as you. And if you are going to be around crazy people, you will probably want to know that they are the same kind of cazy :) Being from different cultures (or assuming you are) will make it harder to sense this.

<comment><USER7> In that case, why do Indians/Chinese "fit a pattern that appeals to them" and Blacks do not?

I focused on "like them" because that's a lower entropy theory than "fit a pattern" - it's a claim that VC's thought process is x -> cultural_distance(self, x).

"Fit a pattern" is basically just an assertion that VC's have a table of values in their mind, { "asian" : +1, "white" : 0, "black" : -1 } without explaining either where it came from or how we even know it exists. It's certainly very difficult to disprove, but only because it tells us very little.

 _Ask a black guy when the last time that happened._

Well, I'm a white guy, and the last time it happened to me was Tues. This happens to me fairly frequently when I'm in the US.

<comment><USER9> Because the perceptions of African-Americans are still conditioned by the economic devastation inflicted by 242 years of slavery, followed by an additional 103 of legal disenfranchisement and discrimination, followed by only 57 years a criminal justice and militarized police force that continues to inflict disproportionate harm on (yes, even innocent) African-American men living in the areas where until 57 years ago were the only place they could safely live.

History: without it, life is confusing.

On the other hand, other non-European minorities were excluded from the US all together, leaving less time for stereotypes to calcify. The IT industry itself has a strong presence in India and China, so cross-pollination is logical. It has not had a similar expansion into Africa, or we might see similar growth of African entrepreneurs.

<comment><USER10> A bit pedantic, but there are a few African‡ startups wich have garnered attention from the Valley --most form South Africa though (Fundamo, Thawte, etc. A). Google has opened a tech incubator too. [<http://www.google.co.za/intl/en/umbono/index.html>]

‡Maybe you mean black Africans, but blacks are not the only Africans -there are south Asians, whites, Chinese, Arab, etc.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I skimmed through the comments and was surprised to not see anything about Project Implicit being done at Harvard. This is a research project that is being done using actual, real science. We don't need to armchair speculate about this stuff; we have science for a reason.

The researchers have found that our minds make subconscious judgements of people base on their appearance. No shock here, of course. It turns out that they can measure the effects of this with simple experiments, and can thus measure how a person subconsciously response to images of people from all different races. It is absolutely fascinating, rigorously scientific work, and if you are at all interested in race you should read about it:

<https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/research/>

Here is a mainstream article about the project:

[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp- dyn/articles/A27067-2005Jan...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp- dyn/articles/A27067-2005Jan21.html)

<comment><USER12> If you're going to raise science on a pedestal, you should write a comment other than "Oh it's science, we should trust whatever those scientists are doing." (C.f. the Milgram experiment.) We don't need to mindlessly praise research; we have peer review for a reason.

This seems to be the original Implicit Association Test or IAT paper (from 1998). It's quite accessible and should provide a better justification for why this research is rigorous and novel.

[http://faculty.fortlewis.edu/burke_b/Senior/BLINK%20replicat...](http://faculty.fortlewis.edu/burke_b/Senior/BLINK%20replication/IAT.pdf)

<comment><USER13> _C.f. the Milgram experiment._

Are you suggesting Milgram's experiments are somehow unsound?

<comment><USER12> No. Milgram did his experiment to show how the impression of authority, which in his case was scientific authority, could lead to unsound decisions like applying an electric shock to a stranger.

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

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I know Hank and the reason he can't raise money has nothing to do with his race. In fact, he raised $40 million as the CEO of Clickradio in 1998.

His problem is two-fold. First, he sued his previous investors (and lost). A lot of people had their companies fail in 2001, but dragging his investors through a 5-year battle made him a minor legend. Ultimately, he was suing them in retaliation for firing him from Clickradio, which is what they did to try to save the company. Second, he has at least three ex-employees of his current venture whom he's tried to retroactively cut out of the company after they left. One of them is owed over a hundred thousand. If that comes out in due diligence, and it will because half the Valley already knows it, he's a goner.

There are a number of black people in technology I would fund in a heartbeat. Hank is not one of them.

</comment><comment><USER15> Having read many threads on HN about race, gender and other -isms, I can predict what this comment section will look like at around 100 comments. It will be equal parts denial of other peoples' experiences and dogged insistence on the existence of a magical leveling force ensuring that justice has been perfectly delivered. There will be some gems among all that, but it's mostly going to be sweeping, questionable assertions about a wide swath of people.

Before you comment, please read about the Just World fallacy (thanks irahul) and ask yourself whether you may be subject to it. And answer honestly.

[http://youarenotsosmart.com/2010/06/07/the-just-world- fallac...](http://youarenotsosmart.com/2010/06/07/the-just-world-fallacy/)

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-world_hypothesis>

<comment><USER16> I would argue a "the world is INjust" (fallacy?). Humans are and will always be biased in some form or another. Any form of "just" is more or less socially constructed by those who invested their efforts into shaping the accepted perception of "just" and moved the public perception towards what they perceive as what "just" should be.

So the two alternative are that one can either work within the current status quo (e.g. be pragmatic about it) or, if the situation is presumed by many as unbearable, actively work together to change the situation.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Thought this was a very interesting read until getting to the comments section where the author agressively went tit-for-tat with a commenter over, what seemed to me, terminology and minor difference of opinion...then I thought, race has nothing to do with it if you're simply a jerk to people.

<comment><USER18> I felt the same way too. But I still see it as an interesting post that raised valid points. Hank, if you read this, you should try easing off on unnecessary quarrels.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> There are relatively few black startup founders, there are also relatively few female startup founders.

But both of these have the same underlying cause, both of these groups are under-represented in the software development profession as a whole.

Those minorities who are well represented in the software development profession are those that are well represented in the startup community.

Being a successful startup founder means that you're an outlier, and bigger populations have more outliers. It's as simple as that.

</comment><comment><USER20> It's not surprising NewMe didn't get coverage.

Taking part in a race-selected accelerator, instead of a quality-selected accelerator, reflects badly. "If their product is so good, why couldn't they get into YC or TechStars?".

<comment><USER21> > Taking part in a race-selected accelerator, instead of a quality-selected > accelerator

This is very true. I'm half-black and I've avoided such programs and clubs to avoid being labeled.

This is part of a larger issue: "black" is not a culture. What we call "black culture" is more like US-poor-uneducated-black-ghetto-post-slavery-culture.

So, if you happen to be black and aren't poor and aren't living in a ghetto, you don't really identify strongly with what most people call "black culture".

This means that successful, main-stream blacks (speaking of Canada, here) are dis-inclined to live with or be particularly helpful to struggling blacks. Compound this with other cultural divides like high religiosity of uneducated blacks vs. lower religiosity of educated people in general, and there really is a sense of "those losers are embarrassing us."

Contrast this to other minority groups that have strong cultural ties. If Jews are shunned in a country, they tend to set up their own parallel social structures. Chinese help Chinese, etc.

Kenyans help Kenyans, and Somalis help Somalis, but blacks (in general) don't really help blacks, because "black" is not a well-defined cultural group. It's only a well-defined cultural _stereotype_.

<comment><USER22> _there really is a sense of "those losers are embarrassing us."_

Chris Rock has a famous rant about this: " _There are black people and there are n!!!ers, and the n!!!ers have got to go_ "

<comment><USER21> Hilarious rant, but there's still the problem of the word "nigger".

There's a recent tendency to equate "nigger" with "white trash". White people don't call white trash niggers.

Innocent whites weren't hung from trees in living memory with crowds of blacks shouting "white trash!". The word "nigger" is more offensive (for now) because of the history of its use. It's an ugly word.

By analogy, ask an Irish Catholic which is more offensive: "white trash" or "dogan". Actually, don't ask, unless you know the person really well.

<comment><USER22> Hence my unusual spelling.

I'm not sure the white trash equivalency is really gaining momentum, though.

Whites never _deeply_ disliked their poorer and less-educated brethren despite looking down on them, and there has been a spate of "white trash is cool" with the popularity of the Cable Guy and Redneck comedy tours.

<comment><USER21> >Hence my unusual spelling.

Oh, I wasn't intending to criticize you. Yeah, I agree.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> wh-uws I really hate getting into these discussions because can quickly devolve into either:

a) a stale conversation because people get afraid of coming off racist

b) ad hominem and actually racist ignorantly spouting stereotypes of different races without any factual basis

but I feel like at times its good for me to add my perspective for people who really wouldn't have any idea without it

I am a black ( african-american whatever you like) person who works for a, albeit later stage, startup. With aspirations of one day starting my own.

I grew up in a predominately black neighborhood of the city in the US with the highest percentage black population...

Those things said this issue is both an educational and more importantly a multi generational wealth problem.

I previously discussed at this article here: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2438411>

Most black kids don't learn much about computers or computing at an early age and secondly don't have family who can afford for them to have one at home to learn on. They don't have friends who are curious about these things to take from and share with either.

In many of my favorite stories about the most successful tech companies in their infancy you hear about this basically band of brothers with (Steve and Woz, Bill and Paul, Zuckerburg and his roomates) alot of under represented in tech minorites don't have this.

I was fortunate that my family could afford for me to have a computer to learn on. But I didn't start learning to program until midway through high school and many times without any help of anyone knowledgeable in my own area town.

Not to mention the things they chose to do were what many people would consider very risky (all of them dropped out of school at one point or another)

I'll close with this part of my comment from that earlier thread

" _Even if its not that risk taking is discouraged, risk averse or more conservative routes are certainly encouraged more. There is also the pressure of not having multi generational wealth to fall back on. Not having previously successful family to lean on in times of need or if things don't go right is a strong precursor to risk aversion_ "

To do that instead of something with much more strongly defined career path (ie doctor, lawyer, dentist, etc.) is tough for many minorities when they have to worry about whether or not their family will be financially sound

 _Edit:_ \- Another important reason I generally avoid these conversations is because I too strongly believe that Silicon Valley and the Tech Industry as a whole are meritocracies.

But that is why I chose to comment. To help explain that the issues aren't that blacks and other under represented minorities aren't excluded for racism reasons but for circumstances that leave them uninformed, underprepared, or completely without the ability to compete.

<comment><USER23> I'd argue what you're saying and what he's saying are different arguments.

Your arguments almost all apply to poor people in general (and I believe them to be absolutely true). In fact I'd argue it's more true than people know. When hearing the legend of Microsoft rarely do people include the fact that his Mom was on the United Way Board with the CEO of IBM and it was she who pointed IBM in Microsoft's direction.

But that's different from the argument he's making. You're making the point that it's hard to get to the startup level he's arguing that once you get there you're at a disadvantage because the Valley has a subconscious racism in it. That I honestly don't believe.

He says...

"To be clear, I am not saying any VC says at a partner meeting, "you know I really like this company's product but did you notice he's a negro?" Never Happens"

The problem with that logic is I've been in meetings where the exact opposite is true. Where people have said "I'm not completely sold on the company but I'd really like to see more minorities in our investment portfolio". So in my experience I've seen the color of someone's skin actually help people a lot.

So while there's certainly some subconscious discrimination there's also some very conscious actions being taken to seek out minorities and I don't think anyone can say how frequently either of these phenomenons are happening.

<comment><USER24> _> You're making the point that it's hard to get to the startup level he's arguing that once you get there you're at a disadvantage because the Valley has a subconscious racism in it._

These points may be more related than you think. "Getting to the startup level" is not so simple a concept as "either you get there or you don't." People arrive at this destination with widely varying amounts of skill, preparation, connections, and credentials. Not all entrepreneurs are equally attractive.

So wh-uws' point makes a lot of sense. If it seems that disadvantaged-group-X is having more trouble securing funding than other groups, it doesn't necessarily mean investors are to blame. It could very easily be the case that X is running into issues earlier in life that, generally, make it much harder for its members to become great entrepreneurs. When trying to answer the question, "Why do so few females run funded tech companies?", it might make sense to take a few steps back and ask, "Why do so few females study computer science", or hell, "Why do girls play with dolls while boys play with legos?"

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Of cause a socio political minefield. Maybe I am too pragmatic about that -

BUT: If I were a founder that would feel being discriminated against in any form (sex, gender, color, your name it) why should I not pare up with a co- founder whom I regard as being not discriminated? If I have no biases within my own friend circle this should be not problem at all. Or would it?

<comment><USER25> This is, unfortunately, VERY good advice. If I were a young, black guy trying to start a company...I don't care how smart I am...I would go get a front man. Don't let idealism advise your financial dealings. IDEALLY...it would be great if there was no bias. PRAGMATICALLY...there is bias, those kids will need to deal with it.

One way is to come across an Arrington, but as not all guys are like Arrington...you would be well advised to have a front man.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> _my Arnold-Schwartenzegger-in-Terminator like determination has made my successes possible_

I would like to read more about these experiences of his.

</comment><comment><USER27> Excellent read. I specially liked this part:

"In fact some people get far more support than others. For example, I'm not going to name any names, but when a top tier VC writes a five million dollar check to a 19 year-old with a barely-beyond-napkin-stage _idea_ , no customers and a fragile technology because they "present well" then clearly something else is at work."

<comment><USER28> Is there a link to this specific anecdote?

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> I wonder if any of that holds for those of us who are outside Silicon Valley. The technology world has treated me like an absolute meritocracy until now.

</comment><comment><USER30> I believe Silicon Valley is meritocratic for the most part. I don't buy the minority argument since there are many asian minority presence in the valley. If you look at music industry or sports (such as basketball), you will see many black people. You rarely see any asian people doing sports or music. And we don't blame it on race. If black people are not discriminated in music or sports, I don't know why they would be discriminated in other industries. They succeed in music and sports because they are really good. If black people are really good in tech as they are in sports or music, I can't imagine how the tech industry would turn them away just because of their color.

<comment><USER31> > _If black people are not discriminated in music or sports, I don't know why > they would be discriminated in other industries._

And yet there is plenty of evidence to show that they are. This <http://www.princeton.edu/~pager/ASR_pager_etal09.pdf> for example

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> Rural America operates this way. People want to know who your last name is and you can get a lot of social capital as a newcomer by working at the "right" places and being introduced by the stakeholders. No big shock here. I learned very quickly pitching that this was a relationship-based business and if you lack those critical relationships or a network that can fuel what you're trying to do, then there's no point in wasting time if you have access to other things.

In other words, why look for a lottery ticket when there are a bevy of other ways to make money conventionally? I get the arguments lodged here, but it just comes off as whining because the people involved don't give a shit and the people watching on TV will perceive it as whining. The problems go back to education, there is pervasive and systemic bias that gets demonstrated throughout our society for a bevy of reasons. Problem is, the tide has turned and people aren't as sympathetic to these causes when you compare them with state sponsored discrimination. In the absence of that, there's just not a whole lot people can expect other than to look for their wormhorm towards what they want.

Math and science are a good place to start.

</comment><comment><USER33> Arrington's response > this post. He may or may not be wrong for saying he bends over backwards for black entrepreneurs. You're saying he's wrong because of one instance, I'm sure he can point out times he has lived up to that statement. You should be mad at Soledad, not Arrington. And what was the point of this post? If you're going to raise an issue, do it in a constructive way and talk about how to fix it, don't focus on someone whom you believe is contributing to the problem, and then give a weak argument. As a black entrepreneur, I'm mad I wasted my time reading your post. And it doesn't help that Angela doesn't agree with you: [http://www.blackweb20.com/2011/10/28/drama-why-arrington- is-...](http://www.blackweb20.com/2011/10/28/drama-why-arrington-is-not-a- racist-and-dont-believe-the-hype/)

<comment><USER34> You may want to read Angela Benton's post again:

"I wholeheartedly agree with what Hank Williams, a participant in NewME this summer recently wrote (Note: Hank has seen the doc)[...] Please read Hank's full commentary, it's a great read."

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> NewMe is one of hundreds of new accelerators, you can't expect them all to get the same coverage as YC and Techstars (who have been around for years and have produced great companies), and it isn't racism if one of the accelerators you don't cover just happens to be race focused.

</comment><comment><USER36> Let me offend some people.

When I see a white rapper I usually am already biased against them. Sorry, I have associated rap with black people. However the color test doesn't go past 10 seconds into listening to a record. Life isn't easier for a black rapper who sucks. Being shot 10 times won't help either.

So is it hard to be a white rapper? Maybe. But remember, Eminem is one of the greatest rapper to ever touch the mic, and Mac Miller, though a bit childish, is going to be great.

<comment><USER37> _Eminem is one of the greatest rapper_

Yup, I'm offended now :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> Almost anything has 'Arrington' seems to beg for a debate. I stopped reading TechCrunch (and Arrington) a bit back since their tabloid-style Twitter memos.

</comment><comment><USER39> I am more interested in who that 19 year old guy with the millions is

<comment><USER40> Not sure about him, but I see klout, just raised 30 million on top of a previous 10 million. And there was that social phone app that also raised 40 million... ;-)</comment></comment>


Is Type 2 Diabetes Reversible at Scale? - <AUTHOR> https://peterattiamd.com/type-2-diabetes-reversible-scale/ <comment><USER2> > The entire intervention is managed by physicians and the nutritional > approach is based on highly individualized carbohydrate restriction and > nutritional ketosis (which I've written about extensively in the past and > throughout this blog).

People like to hate on low-carb approach. They say things like "It causes liver problems" which don't have a basis in reality. Human beings survived for thousands of years on way fewer sugars and starches than we have today.

It's particularly bad in the US due to the availability of high fructose corn syrup, which means America products tend to contain more sugar than their overseas counterparts.

A few years ago I started going strong on a keto die, cutting out soda, pasta, bread, etc. and eating a lot more vegetables, meats, cheeses, etc. There an initial shock about two weeks in which some people can't get past, because your body has to get use to using fat as a primary fuel source instead of sugars/starches. Once I got past that though, I could cycling farther, my weight training sessions lasted longer with less fatigue, and I dropped from 72kg down to 63kg over the course of several months.

My lowest was 60kg for nearly two years! Moving back to America has been difficult. It's hard to find the same quality of ingredients and I just got burnt out on cooking my own food all the time. There is very little healthy stuff off the shelf here. In the past two years I've slowly rose back up to 67kg and it's upsetting.

I wish there were more low carb options when eating out. Salads at pubs are often loaded with croutons and fruits, there are lots of hidden carbs in salad dressing and there's just a lack of healthier options here.

The food industry pushed hard against the Adkins movement in the early 2000s. Imagine if we had kept going down the route. Would obesity have dropped significantly in the US? We'll never know. But this article goes with a lot of the current research: fat doesn't make you fat. Sugars and starch do. They have a much higher energy density and sugar is huge contributor to heart disease.

<comment><USER3> how does sugar contribute to heart disease?

<comment><USER4> It's a factor in inflammatory response, and heart disease is an inflammatory disease which creates conditions where cholesterols can then bind and cause plaques.

Here's one good talk by Dr. Robert Lustig. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM)

Here's an overview in a pop-sci article: [https://www.kqed.org/bayareabites/85169/sweet-revenge-dr- rob...](https://www.kqed.org/bayareabites/85169/sweet-revenge-dr-robert- lustig-explains-how-to-cut-sugar-lose-weight-and-turn-the-tables-on-processed- foods)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> _"...based on highly individualized carbohydrate restriction and nutritional ketosis"_

That's really the key to what is fixing the diabetes. And it's just a brief mention in the article. Nothing else about the nutritional aspects. This was extremely light on actual, real information.

That being said, I'm also not sure why this stuff is still considered news. Many people, myself included, have been saying for some years now that low- carb is the way to go. I'm glad this stuff is getting press, but I'm just surprised that people seem to be acting like this hasn't already been known for quite a while.

The real problem is that people can easily fix this themselves, but they either 1) don't know this information or 2) don't have the willpower. It's more of #2 though, because people generally know when they are eating garbage. There might be some foods that surprise people as having extremely high glycemic responses, but most of the time they know what they should be avoiding. The problem, I think, is that they don't quite know exactly how horrible what they are consuming really is for their metabolic processes. The one that seems to surprise people is potatoes. They know french fries are bad, but think it's because they are deep fried. When I tell them that a regular baked potato or red potatoes have glycemic index values of around 85-89 and that potato chips are around 50-55 they are stunned. I don't know why, but they are. If you are consuming the same mass of food for comparative purposes, the potato chips are loaded with fats where the regular potatoes are not so that makes sense to me that it would be lower. This tells me there is a serious lack of education on this topic and it is quite literally costing people their lives.

<comment><USER6> I have a dumb question. Can diabetes actually be "fixed" with a keto diet? What if a T2 diabetic does carb restriction and keto for a year and "reverses" their diabetes. If they eat cakes and cookies for a week at Christmas, does the T2D come crashing back?

<comment><USER7> I'm a T2D that has successfully dropped my a1c from 8.9% to 5.5%. I've "reversed" my diabetes. I put "reversed" in quotes because the underlying problem is still there. If I drop my low carb, intermittent fasting routine, my blood sugars shoot right back up. I'm not fixed, I'm just not making myself any worse.

There is hope that my pancreas will recover somewhat, since there is a theory out there that fat stored in the pancreas is part of the problem with how well beta cells function and intermittent fasting and low carb has decreased the amount of fat stored in my liver so it's possible it will work on the pancreas over time as well. That would really be a reversal of T2D if it happens.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Based on the length of this article, I was hoping it would actually, you know, _describe the method used_ to reverse T2D, but I didn't see any such description other than vague references to "nutrition." Frustrating.

Also, I'm skeptical of the claim that obesity does not cause T2D. Is this backed up by good studies?

<comment><USER9> Roughly, the method used is the ketogenic diet. Very low carb, very high fat.

<comment><USER10> It might not necessarily be high in fat - it's probably the calorie restriction that works, as in this trial:

[https://www.nhs.uk/news/diabetes/radical-low-calorie-diet- ma...](https://www.nhs.uk/news/diabetes/radical-low-calorie-diet-may-help- reverse-type-2-diabetes/)

<comment><USER9> I mean the method used by Virta in this particular link. I am not suggesting that there are not other methods that work.

Personally, and anecdotally, I have tried calorie restriction dozens of times since childhood and it has never brought down my A1C.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Does this read like an ad to anyone else?

I can't help but notice their average BMI was 40. That's in the "extremely obese" category - pretty sure we're out of the "massively muscled" category (exception - monsters like Ronnie Coleman, but let's be honest here, his blood serum reading come back "minotaur" and the muscle is probably doing damage). I'd always assumed that for the majority of the population going from an obese BMI to a normal/overweight one largely does the trick.

<comment><USER12> Reads like an ad to me. I was diagnosed with T2D last November (Tuesday before Thanksgiving...bummer). At the time of my diagnosis I was certainly not obese and have lost weight since as I have become aware of sugar/carb intake whereas before I didn't pay any notice. My situation is due to genetics which may be outside the scope of the article, but there is no mention of that fact.

I came in with high hopes reading this but lost interest at "To date, the only clinically proven way to reverse T2D has been bariatric surgery". Nope.

<comment><USER11> Yeah, that's the unfortunate bit if you're regular weight already, you make the usual lifestyle adjustments and hope for the best. It's much easier to solve the T2D problem when it's co-morbid with obesity than someone with bad luck.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> There are credible reports of reversal of type 2 diabetes using a whole food plant based diet - [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2677007/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2677007/)

Meaning the symptoms get better and in some cases diabetes disappears.

</comment><comment><USER14> Remission is more accurate term.

Remission is the state of absence of disease activity in patients with a chronic illness, with the possibility of return of disease activity.

I'm relatively sure that if patients quit their new lifestyle, they get to back to diabetes symptoms faster than those who didn't develop diabetes. It's also possible that they just delay the progress and after 5-10 years changes of nutrition is not enough anymore. Even then the results would be huge improvement.

<comment><USER7> I dropped my a1c to non-diabetic levels using low carb and intermittent fasting. If I drop the diet and eat badly, I'm right back where I was with regards to blood sugar levels. Getting back on the diet drops me back quickly, though. So, yes, it's remission and not a reversal. I'm hoping that keeping my blood sugars low for long enough will help my pancreas heal so that this isn't so much the case. Time will tell, I guess.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> The article is incredibly light on details except advertising the startup he's working for.

The only link with some facts was this paper: [https://asset.jmir.pub/assets/a2c0047f60bd77156d22029b8bdd5c...](https://asset.jmir.pub/assets/a2c0047f60bd77156d22029b8bdd5ca3.pdf)

<comment><USER16> I don't think Peter works for Virta.

<comment><USER15> Depends how you define "works for":

        Disclosure: I am an advisor to Virta Health and I have invested
        in the company, because I believe their approach is the best one
        to solve this problem—not the other way around.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Don't trust this guy: [https://www.wired.com/story/how-a-dollar40-million- nutrition...](https://www.wired.com/story/how-a-dollar40-million-nutrition- science-crusade-fell-apart/)

<comment><USER18> > At the end of December, Attia quietly resigned from the organization. > Sources close to him say he was unhappy being a full-time fund-raiser; he > wanted to get back to research.

What exactly makes him untrustworthy?

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> This is just a native ad for Virta, a company operating in the diabetes technology space.

<comment><USER18> Someone writing about something they're involved with or excited about on their personal blog is a "native ad" now? The article even contains a disclaimer.

<comment><USER19> I do get what you are saying. I was at a startup operating in this space, so I want to counter your defense of _this_ particular post.

You can read Virta's press releases and find all of this information. You can read many of Virta's competitor's press releases and also find similar information.

There isn't much he is adding here except his personal perspective on already well-promoted information.

This comes across a bit as using your own employees for some light "influencer marketing."

I have no problem with the author, the article, the writing, anything, other than to put out that its inclusion here in Hacker News is a bit off, considering the points I made above.

<comment><USER18> Within the confines of his own blog, the author should have every right to make this kind of post. Promoting any company to your audience means putting your reputation on the line. Any recommendation you make yourself is within this social contract, which is why it's non-controversial.

"Native Ads" OTOH present themselves as something they are not. They are controversial precisely because they break the contract the author or editor have with their audience.

As to the inclusion on HN I suppose it is a little weird, but I think it can be explained by name recognition, for example from a recent Joe Rogan's podcast, which I think is quite popular here.

I suppose your point is that the article doesn't quite deliver on the title. I would agree, but my contention is with the pejorative connotation of calling something a "native ad", which I think is undeserved.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Dr. Eric Berg has a great Youtube channel where he explains his take on how a ketogenic diet and also intermittent fasting (and the two together) can help to reduce insulin resistance (and type 2 diabetes) and improve metabolism. I personally find his explanations very helpful:

His channel: [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3w193M5tYPJqF0Hi-7U-2g](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3w193M5tYPJqF0Hi-7U-2g)

One video: "Can Diabetes be reversed?" [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdpnAkYlWwo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdpnAkYlWwo)

</comment><comment><USER21> Gary Taubes and Peter Attia where championing Ketogenic diets at a time when people where violently opposed to it. In fact, they are a big reason why my doctor now tells everyone working with weight loss to start there. There have been reports for years on /r/keto and other places of people "accidentally" forcing diabetes into remission. So none of this is surprising. Yes, there is a lot of marketing here, but Taubes and Attia have earned the right to try and change people's minds about things.

</comment><comment><USER22> As I understand it, the story here is DM2 has recently been shown to be "put in remission"[1] by lifestyle changes and Virta Health pairs type 2 diabetics with doctors and a system to help patients make those changes. Primarily that involves a low-carbohydrate diet from what I read about the startup online. In my opinion, Virta can help people who (1) can afford it, and (2) are motivated to implement the changes long-term. This system could scale, for sure-- there are enough people with DM2 and enough of them will be motivated and affluent. Reaching the non-affluent would be harder, but not impossible with say, charity care or medicaid reimbursement. In my mind, seeing all the sequelae of diabetes in my patients, even moving the needle a little bit can do a great good. [1] [https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6...](https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736\(17\)33102-1/fulltext?elsca1=tlpr)

</comment><comment><USER23> This seems like an ad for "virta health." Which itself seems to be a pile of supplements, a scale, and a Keto Diet plan.

Keto Diets (and intermittent fasting) have been shown to help "reverse" type-2 diabetes, since it moves people out of the medical criteria for the disease. But if the original lifestyle returned that individual may become classified as a type-2 diabetic again.

<comment><USER6> The article-writer states he is an investor in Virta Health because he actually believes their approach will work to reduce T2D at scale.

<comment><USER23> He has to believe that because he is financially vested on the outcome.

<comment><USER24> On the other hand, why would he financially invest in something that he didn't think would work; why would he put his reputation as a researcher on the line to back it?

<comment><USER23> Depends what the rate of return is.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> My friend is a doctor. He works with patients to reverse T2D every day of the week. He's amazed that there's any debate whatsoever.

So, pro-tip from me: find a doctor who answers "yes" to the question and work with them, if you have T2D and want to reverse it.

(ignoring the "at scale" part of the OP question... for various reasons)

</comment><comment><USER26> I'm starting to believe that calorie restriction is the key, with carbohydrate restriction playing a role as well.

For context, I'm a T2 diabetic, whose diabetes has "progressed" to the point that I take insulin. I'd recently had to adjust my dose to 100U / day (I only use a once a day, long-acting insulin at the moment).

Then a buddy of mine mentioned a book on fasting[1] and said that some diabetics had had great results from fasting. I ordered the book, but haven't read it yet. But I did start a sort of psuedo-fasting routine of my own design. Basically, I allow myself a normal sized meal, and then for the next 48 hours I an aggregate total of maybe 1000 calories. A typical meal during that time is a thin soup made of chicken broth, jalapeno peppers, banana peppers, cherry peppers, cactus and onion, with some spices thrown in for flavor. Note that jalapeno peppers, banana peppers, and cherry peppers, and cactus share a common trait: extremely low calorie content, and low carbohydrate content.

Anyway, after doing this for about 2 weeks, I can already see a pronounced difference (for the better) in my blood sugar numbers. And that's even after lowering my insulin dose a bit.

I don't know that the protocol I'm using is anything close to what the experts recommend or not. But it definitely seems to be having a positive impact. I'm really looking forward to seeing how this works out long-term. Especially once I can start lifting weights again (I hurt my arm a few weeks ago doing some bench presses and haven't been able to lift for a while). Resistance training has been shown to help with insulin resistance, so I'm hoping the combination of regular lifting and this dietary approach will yield some good results.

[1]: [https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide-Fasting- Intermittent-A...](https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide-Fasting-Intermittent- Alternate-Day/dp/1628600012)

</comment><comment><USER27> this is a thinly disguised ad for virta health! why is it on HN first page?</comment>


India tops traffic on Quora. Displaces US. - <AUTHOR> http://www.nextbigwhat.com/quora-india-traffic-297/

<comment><USER2> In quora it is like you can ask any dumbest of the dumb question and people will compete to answer them instead of downvoting the question. If you are asking the same in stack exchange you will get kicked out of there. :p

</comment><comment><USER3> I am not sure if India is topping in content creation too. India displaced US in traffic, which shows content consumption side.

</comment><comment><USER4> Remember that dating site? news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2239955

<comment><USER5> Brazil next, right?</comment></comment>


Vim3D – A new 3D vi clone [video] - <AUTHOR> http://www.vim3d.com/ <comment><USER2> The tagline should be:

Vim3d: Because 3d modeling software wasn't already hard enough to use.

Honestly if you want something in the spirit of vim for editing models, Blender already has a very confusing-but-efficient interface. (IE, pretty much everything is done via keyboard shortcuts that are optimized for using your left hand so you can keep your right hand on the mouse).

<comment><USER3> [http://www.wings3d.com/](http://www.wings3d.com/)

Super simple interface, and it's even written in Erlang.

<comment><USER4> Not really comparable to Blender: Wings3D cannot animate. Part of Blender's draw (pardon the pun) is its physics engine and animation suite. I cannot say for certain, but I suspect Blender's Cycles Rendering Engine is vastly superior to Wings' renderer.

<comment><USER3> Wings has a barely functional GL renderer.

However, for making static meshes quickly, and for doing UV mapping without wanting to stab yourself in the face, you can't beat it.

Blender:GIMP::Wings::Paint.NET

It doesn't do everything, but what it does do it is great at. Blender is just too baroque--much like the GIMP.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Super stoked to see this on here (very surprised).

The main idea is to have scripting language and/or scripting interface hybrid with graphical modeling, animation, and even raytracing. Parameters can even be controlled by other parameters or channels making this super extensible, for example, controlling color or position of objects with the envelope of a music file. Objects are infinitely composable with groups, much like illustrator or photoshop, allowing you to do interesting transformations as well.

It's really useful because it becomes a sort of assembly language for working with files, textures, etc., and saving them as a scene file which aggregates all of this.

There is more information here: [http://www.vim3d.com/](http://www.vim3d.com/)

Any feedback, thoughts, ideas appreciated. Thanks!

<comment><USER6> I've been thinking about building a 3d livecoding environment centered around emacs, so this very cool to see!

PS. To build the current source on linux, you have to fix the comment in the Makefile that starts with '//' and lowercase the 'Primitives' directory.

<comment><USER7> Could you share your ideas ? I'm thinking about 2d/3d 'modeling' on a keyboard centric user interface too; except for the part where analog input is the only sane way (even though I had some ideas about how to try this keyboard-only too).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Really cool, but reading the title I was hoping that someone hacked up a (console based) vim clone that allows you to have multiple popup/floating windows (that aren't "buffers")...

</comment><comment><USER9> 100% of this is already common place. i doubt any Maya pilot even has the tool bar on the screen.

im not even a frequent user and i only move stuff around with hjkl and qwe. not to mention the backtick (or space bar?) to open up the one liner prompt to revolve, extrude, etc...

<comment><USER7> Reminds me that Maya is a headless MVC `server` program that can be fed .mel statements. And now I wonder if there's an Emacs mode for .mel/maya.

</smiles>

<comment><USER10> ;;; Rule34.el -- "If it exists, there's an Emacs mode for it. If there isn't, someone will make one."

[http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs-en/etom.el](http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs- en/etom.el)

<comment><USER11> [http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs-en/Rule34.el](http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs- en/Rule34.el)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> To me vim means 'text editor.' This is a really awesome command-driven 3d Modeller. It's great but is it really a vim clone?

It offers a big improvement over the GUI of 3d modellers. 3d modellers interfaces are way, way, way, too complex because they are trying to stuff wayyyyy too many parameters into standard UI controls (i've used mostly blender, but way back in the days of 3d studio, infini-d, and ray dream the interfaces were also very complex, to the point of having a very steep learning curve). It makes more sense and is much more expressive to interact with the modeller via commands

<comment><USER5> You are right about the vim clone being the wrong description. That was a mistake on my part. A vim-like command interface to creating 3D scenes is more appropriate.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> If you like the concept of scripted 3D modelling check out OpenSCAD. Instead of entering commands you create a script that build your model for you, including the option to use variables, loops and conditions to adapt your model to certain parameters. I use this for creating customisable 3D printable models and it works great if you know the basics.

<comment><USER14> The concept of OpenSCAD is great, but I think it is in need of some modernization. The last time I modeled something with it I discovered how inconvenient it is to do things like create threaded bolts/nuts... it may just be my inexperience with it, but there don't seem to be straightforward ways of creating basic shapes like helixes.

<comment><USER15> I think so, too. I was just browsing and came along this: [http://www.pythonocc.org/](http://www.pythonocc.org/)

But it would be great to have a concept where you create a model of a table by creating a cylinder, copy and translate it three times, add a flat cube, connect these 5 pieces, and name them table. Then you would have another (non-)primitive that you can instanciate and maybe have some parameters to change it.

<comment><USER16> Isn't that what SketchUp does?

<comment><USER15> Which is cool, and that's why I like SketchUp. But AFAIK you can't switch to 'text' mode in SketchUp where you can edit the history and rebuild the scene.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Given that e.g. Blender has modal editing and single key operations ('s' to enter scale mode, then 'x' to scale along that axis) I imagine more commands along the path of Vim/Ex would be beneficial for fast mouseless input. And of course macros and such.

<comment><USER18> yeah my first thought this was was a reconfigured blender3d

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> This is kind of neat.

Here's what I'd like to see: libvim. Vim has already been ported to iOS, so it's obviously embeddable. I'd like to have an instance of vim running inside my program, and to be able to scrape the tty/screen.

That way, if I want to make a fancy Oculus VR editor, or any other IDE experiment, I don't need to re-code basic editor functionality. Yes, I know about Scintilla.

<comment><USER20> Vim will need a lot of code rewritten to support being embedded. This is a problem that has been worked on by many, and all have pretty much failed.

[http://www.freehackers.org/VimIntegration](http://www.freehackers.org/VimIntegration)

The best we have is vim as separate process in a client/server type environment, using sockets or some other non-ideal mechanism.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> I find it hard to see who this tool is for? 3d artists seem to prefer more graphical ways of interaction as opposed to scripting/entering commands.

Perhaps developers/statisticians/scientists looking to visualise their data?

<comment><USER22> I'm thinking storyboard artists for 3D animated movies would love this.

<comment><USER19> I doubt it. Think of the difference between someone who's unfamiliar with vim, versus an expert. I'm the former, so it ends up feeling too meta. I.e. I'm thinking about how to enter commands to do my work, instead of just having the work flow with no perception of tooling between me and the work.

Consider that artists have already become experts at sketching, at visual design, etc. For them, a pen or stylus or 3d program doesn't feel like tooling, but give them an unfamiliar tool and it will totally get in the way of creative expression.

<comment><USER23> On the other hand, even designers who are adamantly non-technical and refuse to get into any code ala HTML/CSS often still learn keyboard shortcuts very deeply in programs like Photoshop / Illustrator / InDesign.

The question to me is whether Vim3D is actually bringing significant improvement over whatever shortcuts exist in current 3d modeling software.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> "use j and k to select between objects in a scene" reminds me of this:

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BnLbv6QYcA](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BnLbv6QYcA)

</comment><comment><USER5> In case anyone is interested, I just put the project on github: [https://github.com/pyramation/vim3d](https://github.com/pyramation/vim3d)

It was originally in svn on google code since I wrote the code 3 years ago :)

</comment><comment><USER25> Very cool. I'm not sure I would call vim a "bare bones" text editor though.

<comment><USER24> It is compared to emacs.

<comment><USER9> so are most OSes...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Site has been successfully Hacker News'd.

<comment><USER27> A 3$/month server can serve hacker news traffic fine (~100 realtime visitors). They usually sell with unlimited bandwidth..

<comment><USER28> more like ~250 online visitors at any one time from what I have seen

<comment><USER29> It probably depends on timezone. Friends posting here told me it's no use to post anything when US are asleep.

(edit : and btw, I've noted myself it's no use to post comments when I wake up from France, since it's already old news for US and they are asleep as well ;) )

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> I think Wings3D[1] is a better fit for 3d editor with Vim-like semantics, with a much more intuitive UI/UX for 3d modeling.

[1] [http://wings3d.com](http://wings3d.com)

</comment><comment><USER31> I do find this one a cool way to show usage analysis of system, such as commands like top, free, mtop, etc. which are currently giving reports in terms of numbers.

<comment><USER32> That sounds awesome. Can you post some example scripts? It outputs pngs or just loads up vim3d reading commands from stdin or something?

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> For additional I/O [http://assimp.sourceforge.net/](http://assimp.sourceforge.net/) is a nice option.

<comment><USER5> I added the .obj limitation as an issue, [https://github.com/pyramation/vim3d/issues/2](https://github.com/pyramation/vim3d/issues/2)

Thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> Even though I am amazed by this, I am still not sure how usable this would be. don't get me wrong, its probably my lack of experience with 3d modeling in general. But good to see a somewhat off the track use case for vim

</comment><comment><USER35> [https://plus.google.com/107658132793132845562/posts/ANMCqxcB...](https://plus.google.com/107658132793132845562/posts/ANMCqxcBNYj)

<comment><USER5> Hi, I'm the creator of vim3d. Let me know how I can help collaborate in anyway shape or form. I just posted on your google plus page.

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> The tool looks really cool. But I don't know if it is awesome enough to earn the name of my favorite text editor.

<comment><USER35> Not yet. Why don't you work on it?

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> I thought we would see perspective text editing and cube transitions for changing buffers.

</comment><comment><USER38> I wish there was something like this for Minecraft world building.

</comment><comment><USER39> How is this more like vim than any other 3d modeling software?

</comment><comment><USER40> I'd like to see it do CSG before I download it.

</comment><comment><USER41> Instant checkout.

</comment><comment><USER42> A thousand times: yes!

(This makes me incredibly happy. _Now_ I can enjoy scripting models. Just imagining Web Service API to Vim3D, or dare I say DjangoGraphviz to Vim3D.)</comment>


Taylor Swift and Katie Perry Attempt to Reform the DMCA - <AUTHOR> http://www.eonline.com/news/774216/taylor-swift-and-katy-perry-fight-for-the-same-cause-all-the-details-on-their-hopes-for-digital-copyright-reform <comment><USER2> They want the safe harbor provision repealed so that they can make Google et al bear the brunt of the effort of figuring out who owns what.

Long term basically they want to shut down businesses like YouTube

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Not clear on what they want changed.

<comment><USER3> More money of course, well at least more money for the label, which would eventually trickle down to the artist/performer

<comment><USER4> They probably have their own labels. No one will benefit more than people who already have multi-millions, there will be a small marginal benefit to artists who don't have the means.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metamorphosis_Music](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metamorphosis_Music)</comment></comment></comment>


How sign-language interpreters handle Lady Gaga - <AUTHOR> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/01/AR2011030106229.html

<comment><USER2> I found it weird that they're also contemplating sign-language translation of the artists' _gestures_. Why is that needed? Are generic gestures made by hearing people in a different "language" from what deaf people would use?

Or is it the other way around, that since deaf people have a full language available using (intricate) gestures, they don't "need" (and therefore never learn) the more generic gestures used by hearing?

<comment><USER3> Interpretation usually isn't as fast as speech. If you watch an interpreter you'll notice that when the speaker pauses the interpreter is often still going. Often it can lag by a few seconds or more, depending on what's being said.

If they didn't interpret the gestures, they'd fall out of the stream and be harder to understand. For example, if a professor says "You can see here [points at figure A on the board] that ABC and here [points at figure B] that XYZ..." you need to have those "points" in the right places to understand them.

Certainly not all gestures a musician makes are significant, but some probably are.

<comment><USER2> D'oh, I didn't think of the utterly obvious fact that to interpret the sign language, you're of course _looking at the translator_ , and thus not seeing the gestures as they're made by the artist. Thanks!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> One-page article: [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp- dyn/content/article/2011/03...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp- dyn/content/article/2011/03/01/AR2011030106229_pf.html)</comment>


Choosing a First Programming Language for Kids and Beginners - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/young-coder/choosing-a-first-programming-language-for-kids-and-beginners-faf7059bbd93 <comment><USER2> I think the best way to teach kids about programming is giving them a Micro- Bit and letting them build whatever they want with it. Maybe they want to make games on it, maybe they want to setup a mini weather station, all that's viable with it and the national program we've had running in Denmark for a while now, has likely been the most successful of its kind. I think the Micro- bit has something similar to scratch as well as Python and JavaScript, but I think language is a lot less important than the fact that you can build something useful/fun relatively quick. This way programming becomes a "hobby" class like astronomy was to most of us before it turned out to be all math. ;)

For CS students I've seen a lot of approaches. I'm an external examiner and as such I get to go through the "intro" courses two times a year, often with different languages and philosophies. The one I liked the best, was a school that copier Harvard's approach. They start by giving students a basic understanding of how the computer works, as well as the aching basic computation with scratch. Then they move on to C, using what they've just learned about computers and computation in a manner that has the students building things like cyphers and crackers, and then they go into C# (could be python/java/ruby/jot lib/go/whatever but C# is big in Denmark so it makes sense here because it'll help students get jobs). I'm a big fan of JavaScript because of how universal it is, and how easy it is to get a development setup running, but I think using C and computation together quickly teaches students how computers and programming languages works, which will be very valuable to them when they move on to building things in whatever they do. The students coming from that particular school are almost always better at first year CS than their competition who started out with JAVA/C#/Python, at least in my opinion.

<comment><AUTHOR> We have a micro:bit and I agree that it's lots of fun. The ability to see your code have an effect in the real world is especially compelling for 8-11 year olds. There are many more possibilities available if you use the Raspberry Pi, as well.</comment></comment>


Unlocking Trapped Engineers - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2016/01/12/unlocking-trapped-engineers/ <comment><USER2> > Given that it can collectively take well over 30 days to hire a single > engineer, the obsession with computer science degrees makes sense.

It takes months to find a proper senior engineer in Europe.

> Driven by an ingrained fear of slowing progress, engineering managers' use > of blunt instruments to save time in finding talent is perpetuating the > facade of a talent shortage.

I haven't seen that at all. Since there are not many engineers can also take time to read the C.V.s.</comment>


Why This Storm May Stay Away From Apple  - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/19/business/19digi.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin <comment><USER2> "Andy Hargreaves, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities, describes the iPhone as 'the hottest consumer electronics product in the world'"

That would be the Nintendo Wii. It's been putting up iPhone-like sales numbers for 2 years, and only that low because it can't produce them fast enough. It's profitable out of the gate, and immensely so when factoring in game royalties, virtual console game sales, etc.

<comment><USER3> Yeah. And yet, for some reason, the Wii still has awful third-party support. The games library is nothing compared to the 360 and the PS3 has better non- Sony games than the Wii has non-Nintendo games. I've never understood that.

<comment><USER4> Game companies did not bet on the Wii.

And it takes a long time to develop a modern game.

So, it's a lack of foresight, more than anything else.

<comment><USER2> Right. Making a game for both the Xbox 360 and the PS 3 isn't a big deal. You probably have to code a lot of the same things twice, but you don't have to fundamentally rethink much of the game's mechanics. The game is pretty much the same to the user.

The Wii's controller makes it very good at different types of games. It's kinda sucky for the old FPS or fighting games. Plus for anyone who has both a Wii and an Xbox or PS3, you're going to buy games like Madden on the one that offers it in high-def.

So the gaming companies went with what they knew. And they certainly couldn't have guessed that the Wii would have sold more units than the other two combined. I think now that they know that, they'll get a little more creative.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I am typing this on the new Macbook.

I completely agree with the conclusion of this article, after using this Macbook for a week, the changes from the previous generation are phenomenal. The whole case is made out of one piece of aluminum which means that there are no screws anywhere, and that provides for a much more durable and robust case. The integrated GPU is AMAZING, I am getting 40-60 FPS in World of Warcraft, that is better than my previous Macbook Pro. The keys are awesome, the screen is brilliant, battery life is stellar, this notebook is 3-4 years ahead of its competition in almost every way.

If you just look at Apple's history, the iPhone is the best smart phone on the market, no other smart phone even comes close (look at the multiples of user engagement on the iPhone vs any other phone). OS X is so much better than Windows, look to any review or any user of OS X. And now, even the Macbook is leaps and bounds beyond its competition.

Like I said in a previous comment, surviving the recession is easy: make good (or for Apple, the best) products, charge for them, you'll do very well, recession or not.

<comment><USER6> Regarding the iPhone, I agree completely (no one else comes close). However, not so sure on laptops. I think when your "big change" is that the body of the laptop is built out of one piece of aluminium (as Ive prounouces it), then you might be in trouble. The average consumer does not care about that.

The competition has figured out that design and weight matter and as a result has produced some pretty nice looking, very portable machines... for a lot less.

I personally am sticking with my iMac/Macbook, however as price becomes more of a factor, I think that negatively impacts apple.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Lets face it, he was probably thinking about his Apple shares when writing this article.

<comment><USER2> That's the only logical explanation. As he himself points out, people shy away from expensive products in bad times. When your liquid net worth drops by 25% in one week, you switch from buying the products you believe to be the best to the ones that provide the most value. I know multiple people who are now considering postponing their retirement. A $500 Dell is going to be their laptop of choice.

Apple as a company is in great shape, especially with that balance sheet, but I wouldn't look for their stock to soar any time soon.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> This article isn't so much content-free, as conclusion-free. It's like the key word in the headline is "may." It says "at the helm of the good ship Apple, all seems well", then 2 paragraphs later says the stock has fallen 51% so far this year. It goes on to talk about how big a deal the new macbook pro cases are, only to compare to to the Next cube ("Metallurgists were impressed; prospective buyers were not).

Personally I think the new MBP is a misstep, and my 17" is still the best MBP available.

</comment><comment><USER9> I think they might still be pretty durable in terms of market share. But not against deferred purchases. Apple's stuff tends to be discretionary. People buy when they want. That can be delayed.</comment>


Leading AI researchers boycott killer robot university - <AUTHOR> https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/4/17196818/ai-boycot-killer-robots-kaist-university-hanwha <comment><USER2> Maybe the wars between the robots will see with less casualties, but then again the only use of the atomic bomb on civilians is hearlded as saving lives, so I doubt it.</comment>


How to draw a straight line - <AUTHOR> http://kmoddl.library.cornell.edu/tutorials/04/

<comment><AUTHOR> Here is a website with videos of straight line linkages:

[http://web.mat.bham.ac.uk/C.J.Sangwin/howroundcom/straightli...](http://web.mat.bham.ac.uk/C.J.Sangwin/howroundcom/straightline/exact.html)</comment>


Ask HN: Choosing paid review and pitching bloggers - <AUTHOR>

I have tried pitching bloggers and its currently not very successful. What do you think about using paid review on payperpost? <comment><USER2> Not at all a good idea if you can't control what blogs review you.

How exactly are you pitching them? Can you share the pitch. Usually people end up sounding too spamy.

(I am a blogger)

<comment><AUTHOR> You have the ability to control who reviews your product and what they say about you before it is released. I am currently pitching by writing emails to them and i take time to personalize it. Here is the pitch..

Hello Dan,

Really enjoying your blog. I see you're running adsense at the moment. I'd really appreciate some comments from you on my advertising system. If you're interested I'll set you up with a free beta account. You don't have to commit to putting our ads on your blog, I really just want some feedback from quality bloggers who understand advertising. Let me know if that sounds like something you'd be interested in. Thanks, Samuel, founder of Adclays.

<comment><USER2> Dude! This is not gonna work

90% chances - I will not write back.

First thing I wanna know - _Who are you? Do you read my blog or came across?_ (1 Sentence

Second _What is it for me?_ (2-3 Sentences)

Third _Prove that you are not a spammer_ (2-3 Sentences) As in talk about blog? How did you find me? Prove that you are a person not a bot. Am I receiving this mail or is it a mass mail?

TALK to me dude. Write as if I am in front of you.

Yes say Hi! "Sup dude?" Whatever makes you human.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. Advice noted..</comment></comment></comment></comment>


What happened to Chrome's popup confinement feature? - <AUTHOR> http://www.google.com/googlebooks/chrome/med_22.html

<comment><USER2> (I used to work on Chrome.)

When we sent the very first Chrome out to reviewers, one reviewer sent back a draft of a review that said Chrome seemed like a nice browser but it had the strange additional feature of popping up ads inside the pages as you browsed.

The reviewer was so accustomed to their existing browser simply blocking pop- ups that it didn't occur to them that the pop-ups were caused by the pages they were visiting, and instead thought it was some Chrome monetization strategy!

Because of this, the feature was scrapped at the last second. There is still some "constrained window" code left over in Chrome that is still used for e.g. HTTP auth prompts. Because the ports came later, I seem to recall we didn't bother with implementing all the draggy window management stuff on Linux and instead centered a dialog over the page content without the window manager controls.

You can search on <http://cs.chromium.org> for [constrained_window] to see some of the remaining code.

<comment><AUTHOR> This makes me sad... I can remember being excited about this feature from the comics. It seems that case would have been handled by adding popup blocking for automatic popups like chrome has now, and keeping containment for ones which are triggered by clicking a link.

Maybe Chrome should just have a (hidden) option to apply the current blocking policy for automatically triggered popups to all popups instead, i.e. they show up in the address bar and you have to click the message to show them. How hard do you think it would be to write a patch for that do you think it'd have a chance of being accepted?

<comment><USER2> With the caveat that I am an engineer and don't make UI decisions, I can guess for you some probabilities.

Patches that add hidden options are always rejected. Chrome has hidden options in about:flags but in principle they're all just hiding works in progress that will eventually be permanently on.

Patches that add options are rejected 99% of the time. Chrome has a general "no options" policy. (Here is where someone will want to comment about how that policy is dumb and is why they use Opera instead; I don't care, I'm just telling you the facts.)

Patches that permanently change the UI in the way you describe might be applied, if they're seen as strictly superior to the way things currently behave. I'm not exactly sure what you're proposing (your description seems to be describing how Chrome currently behaves? not exactly sure how constrained windows relate to that?) but your best bet is to write the patch first and then bring up a discussion of it on the development mailing list. (Writing the patch first prevents your discussion from being a discussion about vaporware.)

Sorry if I sound grumpy, I've just seen many feature proposals in my time and I'm hoping to help you not waste your time. :)

<comment><USER3> That policy is dumb and that is why I use Opera instead!

<comment><USER4> He doesn't care, he's just telling you the facts.

<comment><USER5> In all seriousness though: Google does things their own way, and that's fine. But design policies (policies in general) tend to migrate between business domains.

Pointing out that you're personally not a fan of some particular policy (provided you do so politely and don't belabor the point) can be informative for incidental third parties as well as for the people currently writing the rules.

I know I for one appreciate it, for the same reason I appreciate Google's public programming style guides.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> BTW you can see the remnants of the code that supported this feature for popups still in use for things like HTTP Basic Auth dialogs: [http://www.pagetutor.com/keeper/http_authentication/index.ht...](http://www.pagetutor.com/keeper/http_authentication/index.html)

The feature went through several iterations. Originally, popups were just shown with their requested size anywhere within the browser window. The idea was that a page could only damage itself by opening popups and not interfere with your window manager state.

This was deemed ineffective (sites knowingly do stuff to themselves like this all the time - e.g. overlay divs), so we auto-positioned them at the bottom right and hoped you figure out that their titlebars were stacked down there and would drag them up.

Then we made them detach immediately when you clicked them.

Then we got the feedback evmar mentions and we just did the boring thing. Personally I find it less discoverable now (and am constantly missing popups) but non-user-gesture generated popups seem relatively rare on the web these days compared to more annoying stuff.

<comment><AUTHOR> My main annoyance is that a lot of sites now (knowing that if they create a popup the old way it'll be blocked), now just wait till you click or mouse over something and create the popup then, which chrome then allows (it's not blocked at all). So this means the majority of advertising pop ups on the web are actually not blocked by chrome.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> So my real gripe is with javascript popups triggered on click - they aren't blocked (which is reasonable since that can break apps), which is why the idea of displaying it only within the tab and not interrupting the user was brilliant. Except chrome doesn't do that anymore! (or maybe it never actually did, I can't remember).

"There's no concept of a drive-by pop-up in Chrome. JavaScript has no way to force a pop-up into your world. Pop-ups are scoped to the tab they came from -- and confined there. If it's something you want, though -- just drag it out and it'll be promoted to its own window."

<comment><USER7> Triggered on click is fine if it is attached to a link element. Triggered on click attached to the document or a container div is the problem.

<comment><USER8> You can just style an anchor to be said container div.

As long as it doesn't contain any anchors.

<comment><USER7> I guess there would need to be some heuristics as to what is and isn't allowed.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I'd rather block them.

I, for one, _detest_ the new trend of every website trying to invent its own windowing manager. "New Compose" is the perfect example of this. I don't want every website creating its own internal windows that I can't move, resize, or control with the same power that my windowing manager (whether via X11, Aqua, or whatever Windows uses) gives me.

For me, if a popup is at all useful, I'd rather have it pop up in a separate window (and then I can move it back into a tab easily if I like it.

And if it's not useful, just kill it from the onset. (One of my extensions - probably AdBlock - seems to do a good job of determining this, for me).

<comment><USER10> MDI is an abomination on the desktop, and it's no less so in the browser.

<comment><USER11> What you're referring to is not just MDI. TDI is usually considered a subset of MDI, so tabbed browsers are MDI. Ditto for emacs/vim are MDI, even though they're text, and screen/tmux are MDI wrappers for other programs. Do you have a problem with those too?

The problem at hand is not MDI but _broken_ MDI that implements a different interface or context than the top-level desktop. That's a problem regardless of whether the model is SDI, TDI, or other MDI. You seem to hate the overlapping-window "other MDI" model in any context, which is fine but slightly orthogonal.

<comment><USER10> _Do you have a problem with those too?_

I'm not a big fan, no.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Can someone explain why some websites I visit still manage to make popups appear ?

<comment><USER13> popups triggered _directly_ by a click are allowed, because otherwise you'd break e.g. Facebook login, to pick a major example. Basically every browser does this. Quite a few are probably undesirable still, but otherwise people simply claim the browser is broken for their normal site X and abandon it entirely for a browser that doesn't break site X.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> You don't have it? It works for me. I'll get a "Pop-up notification blocked" message right next to the star in the address bar. I can click on it and continue to ignore pop-ups, or choose to open them if I need to see them.

Pretty much exactly the feature described in the comic. Maybe you have it turned off somehow.

<comment><USER15> The comic describes allowing popups, but confining them to within the tab, then allowing you to drag them out to their own window.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> This seems like a great feature, and sadly missing from Chrome.

I have thought of two types of insidious activities on sites today, the onclick popup and the confirm on close.

The onclick popup can be managed (to a small extent) in Chrome by holding the CTRL key and clicking when you have a sense a popup is coming. It doesn't cover all of them, but if you're familiar with a site's actions, you might catch 70% or more of them.

I'm not sure what creates the confirm on close, but I see it on sites that auto play video advertisements (among others). Once you try and close the window/tab - Chrome displays a prompt - requiring you to close the prompt, and then close the tab. Annoying.

I thought of one simple idea in Chrome - have a key combination (perhaps CTRL+SHIFT) that we can hold down while clicking on a link or possible popup, that will (a) open the link in a new tab and (b) NOT load the page or any elements. It simply presents an empty page with the url that we could copy or a tab we can close.

This would add a measure of control and hopefully doesn't break anything.

<comment><USER16> Just to add to this - the javascript event used to capture leaving the open page seems to be: window.onbeforeunload - it would be great if Chrome was able to disable that function entirely, but it doesn't seems possible.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> It's there on android and i absolutely hate it!

each tab can have one popup overlaying it. as annoying for advertising, and useless for sites that depends on popups as they usually require more than one, or require one to stay open when you keep working on the tab (which is inaccessible until you close the popup)

why not allow me to open as a new tab, i will never understand.

<comment><USER18> Perhaps it's 2-fold:

1\. if the site requires pop-ups to function, then wouldn't it be handy to have it in front of you? Few apps run this model anymore, but it used to be very prevalent.

2\. to highlight the sites that use pop-ups in an underhanded way; by forcing them onto the tab that caused them, hopefully you'd realize the source of the problem. then, complain or quit using that site, indirectly discouraging the use of pop-ups. (although according to a guy above, users actually blamed the ads on Chrome instead).

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> This is obviously lies. I don't recall it existing.

<comment><AUTHOR> It's such a good idea though, I wish they would implement it!</comment></comment>


LIDAR-Lite: A New Benchmark for Optical Distance Measurement Sensors - <AUTHOR> http://www.dragoninnovation.com/projects/32-pulsedlight-single-board-range-finder-minimodule

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm very interested in this technology (and somewhat skeptical about it). The website is very opaque on how it actually works, and "signature correlation" doesn't appear to be a well-known term ([http://scholar.google.ru/scholar?q=signature+correlation+lid...](http://scholar.google.ru/scholar?q=signature+correlation+lidar)). It also appears to not be based on time-of-flight measurement.

It's also not clear for me how are they going to make a production run within 2 months (funding ends with Feb, shipping in May), much less so for a project which includes an ASIC.

<comment><AUTHOR> How it works: [http://www.google.com/patents/US8125620](http://www.google.com/patents/US8125620)</comment></comment>


Why I'm Always Late - <AUTHOR> http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/07/why-im-always-late.html

<comment><USER2> A "Late guy pays" rule seems to help habitually late people get to restaurants on time in my limited experience.</comment>


How to Break into a Crowded Market and Win - <AUTHOR> https://tanyaprive.com/how-to-break-into-a-crowded-market-and-win/ <comment><USER2> It's interesting to contrast Vivino's strategy of breaking into crowded markets by doing "a competitive landscape analysis" versus Inkdrop's advise of getting their first 500 paid users by "Ignoring All Competitors" as discussed in a previous HN post here:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18216783](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18216783)

<comment><USER3> We really have no idea what makes a business successful in such a way that we can turn that knowledge into a repeatable process.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> > Quickly Zachariassen learned that Vivino didn't have to be the best wine > app. It just had to be better than his competitors.

Okay cool, words mean things, and doesn't "best" mean "better than the rest"? I just feel like the article is full of phrases like this that rub off as motivational speaker styling, and that makes me inherently skeptical.

</comment><comment><USER5> I have the problem of primarily being interested in a few already crowded markets with gargantuan incumbents. I dream about starting in an adjacent, undiscovered niche, growing to scale, then nimbly pushing my way back in and catching them off guard.

The problem is that I love the space they operate in, but I feel they're delivering mostly generic tripe. I can't just go work for them. I don't have the clout to become a leader in their orgs, and I wouldn't be happy at the bottom.

I'm talking about Netflix and Disney.

<comment><USER6> That is one of the recommendations of the book Crossing the Chasm

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Google is a classic example. Although all my friends were using Google when it was hosted at Stanford, when they got some money I still wondered, "but who thinks the world needs another search engine?"

<comment><USER8> I remember exactly when Google was released.

The reason it became popular was pretty simple. It was fast, clean, single purpose and had no advertising. It was the complete opposite of Altavista and Yahoo at the time. And as we've seen countless times there is always room in a market for simple, focused products.

<comment><USER9> Also - the results were atleast an order of magnitude more relevant.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> As a VC friend put it to me a few years ago: "I only get to invest in fools. Either they go into a crowded market where they will be crushed by the incumbent before getting airborne or they will go into a new market where they will run out of cash before getting airborne."

(if you're offended by his use of "fools" don't be -- he was being sarcastic: people can always find a reason to say "no").

</comment><comment><USER10> In a way, aren't crowded markets lower risk? You already have a lot of validation that it's a thing people will pay for, and you have a lot of examples to show you how (and how not to!) do things.

</comment><comment><USER11> > Zachariassen... noticed that the top players on the market failed to tell > him one basic thing: should he buy this wine?

Good article. I long for a return to this kind of old-school capitalism, where people study the competition instead of fearing it, and try to get their money by being better.

</comment><comment><USER12> But why vivino was better than competition? I mean we get the score and read reviews - but what else do they have??? Sorry I didn't check the mobile app but even last month I had to carefully craft my wine names to find them on the website</comment>