Beyond Ajax: Software Development, Two Years from Now (2007) - <AUTHOR> https://www.cio.com/article/2437557/developer/beyond-ajax--software-development--two-years-from-now.html <comment><USER2> just a few pages in, but there is a mention there would be more _push_ web technologies out there. Did websockets ever get much traction?</comment>


Everykey – The Master Key to Your Phone, Laptop, Website Accounts, and More - <AUTHOR> https://everykey.com/ <comment><USER2> From Hitchikers Guide To The Galaxy:

It was an Ident-i-Eeze, and was a very naughty and silly thing for Harl to have lying around in his wallet, though it was perfectly understandable. There were so many different ways in which you were required to provide absolute proof of your identity these days that life could easily become extremely tiresome just from that factor alone, never mind the deeper existential problems of trying to function as a coherent consciousness in an epistemologically ambiguous physical universe. Just look at cash point machines, for instance. Queues of people standing around waiting to have their fingerprints read, their retinas scanned, bits of skin scraped from the nape of the neck and undergoing instant (or nearly instant --- a good six or seven seconds in tedious reality) genetic analysis, then having to answer trick questions about members of their family they didn't even remember they had, and about their recorded preferences for tablecloth colours. And that was just to get a bit of spare cash for the weekend. If you were trying to raise a loan for a jetcar, sign a missile treaty or pay an entire restaurant bill things could get really trying.

Hence the Ident-i-Eeze. This encoded every single piece of information about you, your body and your life into one all- purpose machine-readable card that you could then carry around in your wallet, and therefore represented technology's greatest triumph to date over both itself and plain common sense.

<comment><USER3> This a 100 times.

And thanks for reminding me to read the Hitchhikers Guide again!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I don't see how this is much different from key generation software running on a phone or any other device. Useful as a 2nd factor for authentication and a little less friction (more convenient, less secure). I've yet to see any technology that can replace an old fashioned master password as the 1st factor. All the hype around biometrics a few years ago seemed especially silly given that it's pretty easy to steal fingerprints and once stolen, of course, they are pretty hard to change. Maybe I'm an outlier here but I think in 20 years we'll still be using password managers with master password type in authentication into a dashboard with varying degrees of additional authentication required to access sites/services within, based on relative sensitivity.

<comment><USER5> > I've yet to see any technology that can replace an old fashioned master > password as the 1st factor.

Since a few weeks I'm using the Windows Hello system on my new Surface Pro 4. Its using facial recognition, and it's pretty awesome: turn on the PC, sit still for a second, it greets you, logs in and you can work. For two factor logins I use the Microsoft Account app on Android, which also works very well (no typing a code, just approve the request on the phone).

Now only if Microsoft would fix the power/sleep issues with Surface 4, it would be perfect.

<comment><USER6> Have you or anybody else tried to crack it? Ease of use isn't the only part of good security. Would a picture work? A recorded video on an iPad? etc.

<comment><USER7> Windows Hello uses an IR emitter and camera to get a 3D map to verify in addition to the ordinary webcam, and I've confirmed that mine doesn't fall prey to the most obvious of exploits.

Of course, it makes the assumption that "<user>'s face in front of the computer means <user> wants to log in", which may not always be the case.

That being said, I'm eagerly looking forward to reading about its pitfalls once people crack it.

<comment><USER8> I wonder if your face would look different enough in the 3D map while under duress to stop it from authenticating. Or what about if you're unconscious? It sounds like it would be real easy to break this security with a $5 wrench.

<comment><USER9> That's the case for a lot of security, though?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> So, since the original Kickstarter, FIDO and U2F came about. I can't find anything that suggests that this has any relation to standards, or more technical detail rather than marketing. That's worrying.

</comment><comment><USER11> The Everykey device holds a decryption key (or key-equivalent) for your keychains, and it has over-the-air _upgradeable_ _firmware_? Even if the firmware is signed, and the upgrade procedure is password-protected, the feature may expose the device to a variety of different attacks.

(Not to mention hardware attacks, since even if the device has a secure element, it has to send key material back to the device with the keychain.)

</comment><comment><USER12> Is this actually really positively available right now? I don't see any link to kickstarter or a preorder link or a video that says "But now, we need your help". If so, it's refreshing.

<comment><USER13> That's because their Kickstarter (linked from the bottom of the website; [1]) ended in _November 2014_. The original shipping date for customers was March 2015; they now claim that they will ship by March 2016, but they also started a second crowdfunding campaign on IndieGogo [2].

[1]: [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/everykey/everykey- the-w...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/everykey/everykey-the- wristband-that-replaces-keys-and-pass/)

[2]: [https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/everykey-your-only- key](https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/everykey-your-only-key)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> One of the more surprising things to me is how few people use password managers. I know some companies buy 1Password for all their employees and less than half of their employees use it.

I really don't understand why that is. I've always thought it was partly a pricing problem (which would be very bad for this $128 gadget), but when you're company is providing it to you for free, that can't be the reason you don't use it.

</comment><comment><USER15> I am about to finish a more limited implementation of this idea for Android Wear smartwatches and Windows. It works by measuring bluetooth signal intensity (rssi).

I already made a prototype for Mac & generic smartwatches [1], but if you have a Pebble you'll have to disconnect the watch from the phone. Questions, criticism & suggestions are welcome.

[1] [https://www.gadgetish.com](https://www.gadgetish.com)

<comment><USER14> Using just signal strength as an authenticator is a bit of a shaky idea for actual security IMO. Car thieves have been using signal amplifiers to break into cars for a while now.

I think you should have some initial prompt on the watch that asks the user if it is OK to unlock the device. It's more friction, but otherwise it's trivially bypassable.

<comment><USER15> > Car thieves have been using signal amplifiers

Very true. But I am using Bluetooth and it has much better security protocols than the plain simple radio-frequency signals for car remote controls. At the very least, the user needs to first pair the watch with the computer. Besides, all communication between the 2 is encrypted. And, to avoid Bluetooth spoofing, there is also an exchange of time-based encrypted tokens, all transparent for the user. There are a few more security details about it (e.g.: the authentication password is not stored in the watch, is AES- encrypted in the computer, etc). I intend to write a detailed risk-assessment about it later.

In truth, my intention is someday to make it FIDO-UAF [1] compatible, if I have get the money to do it.

It is very cool to understand what concerns people have about it. Thank you.

[1] [https://fidoalliance.org/specifications/overview/](https://fidoalliance.org/specifications/overview/)

<comment><USER14> I believe that you can safely pair with the watch and authenticate it reliably and an attacker can neither read nor modify what you send; this is largely a solved problem.

But I am concerned that you cannot measure proximity accurately because an attacker could just replay messages between the two devices and boost the signal without being able to decipher the contents, and none of your comments about crypto or time-based tokens convince me otherwise.

<comment><USER15> > an attacker could just replay messages between the two devices and boost the > signal without being able to decipher the contents

As a simplified version of a MITM attack? That is clever, I admit I didn't think of it.

However, even in case the attacker is able to do so, the watch would still inform the user when the PC is unlocked. And the user can manually force a lock, from the watch, overriding the proximity/signal strength. To intercept this the attacker would need to decipher the messages. That is for the Android Wear-Windows PC version, though. I admit the Mac version is not that sophisticated, yet.

<comment><USER16> _And the user can manually force a lock, from the watch, overriding the proximity /signal strength. To intercept this the attacker would need to decipher the messages._

Not if the attacker stops the relay right after the PC is unlocked.

<comment><USER15> > Not if the attacker stops the relay right after the PC is unlocked.

No, if it happens the program falls back into the "user is away->lock the computer" mode.

<comment><USER16> So what happens if my watch shuts down for some reason while I'm using the computer?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Hah -- in the demo animation, a gmail account comes up for John McAfee, one of the emails was from someone asking 'How do I uninstall McAfee virus?'.

<comment><USER18> Looks like he's involved in the product: [http://fortune.com/2015/12/29/john- mcafee-everykey/](http://fortune.com/2015/12/29/john-mcafee-everykey/)

<comment><USER19> That makes sense now. :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Neat idea but how would it protect against a relaying/signal boost attack?

<comment><USER21> Not sure if they are, but it could be done by having the device measure the round trip time of the signal, and refusing to answer if it's too long.

<comment><USER20> Most likely not because the turn around time in a challenge and response, and clock skews between devices is far greater than the range boost.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> The security group at the University of Cambridge has been working on a similar project for a few years now: [https://mypico.org/](https://mypico.org/)

</comment><comment><USER23> Took me a sec watching the demo to realize that the person logging in is John McAfee.

</comment><comment><USER24> Page took too long to load

</comment><comment><USER25> build yourself a honeypot! Today!

</comment><comment><USER26> Isn't this the same John McAfee who fled Belize in 2012 after some crazy situation that involved drugs, guns, and a murdered neighbor?

Not exactly the guy I want safeguarding my entire identity.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McAfee#Legal_issues](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McAfee#Legal_issues)</comment>


FounderSec: New Security Newsletter for Founders - <AUTHOR> Hi all, I just launched a new straight-to-the-point cybersecurity newsletter for startup founders, entrepreneurs, freelancers, and influencers. I provide the important info in the shortest posts I can possible make every week.
You can read more about it here: https://foundersec.substack.com/p/coming-soon
Our first newsletter just went out about why you need password manager to mitigate the damages of services getting breached by having unique and strong passwords for all your accounts. I recommend Bitwarden: https://foundersec.substack.com/p/password-managers
Love to get some feedback and know what y'all think! <comment><USER2> It would be interesting to cover data security in cloud especially sensitive data protection.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm planning to get a good coverage of topics in there. Starting with some low hanging fruit like password managers and 2FA (next week). But then would like to cover anything that would be useful for people who have something to lose but not the security background. Cloud choices and data security definitely would fall under that. If you have anything in particular you'd like to see covered, just let me know :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Bitwarden rocks!

<comment><AUTHOR> Agreed :)</comment></comment>


Next-gen media/streaming player? - <AUTHOR> http://www.inair.tv/superbowl

<comment><USER2> Maybe, but I didn't feel inclined to give it the permissions it was asking for.

<comment><USER3> Hey Jejones, you can still enjoy the experience by playing with NFL and Push app.

Thanks.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Should there be a faster HN? - <AUTHOR> If you are a normally internet addicted person (me), it is natural to go to HN a few times a day - almost as a reflex! For those of you that suffer from this addiction, you will notice that the contents of HN does not change that much on an hourly / bi-hourly basis. Obviously it would be bad for productivity, but should there be a FastHN? <comment><USER2> I... I don't follow.

I think you're saying that you want more engagement (posts, etc.) on HN. Why are you proposing a "FastHN"? Would the name "Fast" encourage more people to use it, more often? Why not put efforts to increasing HN engagement instead of a spin-off which would more than likely spinter the community and decrease engagement even more?

It really just sounds like you want more content to appear on the site. So, go find some interesting content to post!

<comment><USER3> ... Or go create interesting content.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Don't just read the front page; read /new/ and you get to have some influence on what happens on the front page.

</comment><comment><USER5> There already is a "faster HN" \- Reddit. Create an account and curate a list of tech and programming subreddits.</comment>


Ask HN: Review my introduction to SQL for Excel users Tutorial - <AUTHOR> http://www.querycell.com/SQLIntro.html

<comment><USER2> A few thoughts.

1) I like the visualization. Its a key part of understanding SQL.

2) However, I don't see this as taking advantage of a user's excel knowledge. Why not make an analogy they will understand? Join is similar to vlookup! Try to do something in excel first and then do it SQL. That will be tough for advanced SQL, but should be (sort of) doable early on. So far, someone with advanced knowledge of excel wouldn't be much better off than someone just getting started.

3) Someone might ask the question: "Why have the from clause? Why not always do "select person.first_name where....?" I don't know how your will answer this...

4) In your explanation of having the same column name in two places, why not use email address? People have email addresses as well as companies. You mention a customer table but the student can't see one, so it could be confusing.

I think there is the possibility of doing some great stuff with the excel SQL analogy...

As for future topics: Keep in mind what you can do with excel and go from there. Sums, products, etc... can all be done. Inserts are tougher to explain, I'd keep it for later when you have people thinking in SQL and not excel.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the fantastic feedback roundsquare.

I will definitely keep the idea of more Excel parallel examples in mind for future tutorials.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Hi,

I've got an add-in for excel product that allows the use of SQL in Excel, so I have created a basic introduction to SQL tutorial.

I would appreciate any feedback you have.

It aims to be practical and doesn't worry too much about relational theory or the more intricate aspects of databases/sql.

Although I'm planning to get into the more complex uses of SQL in later tutorials.

Cheers Sam H

</comment><comment><USER3> It's good. I would have found this helpful a few years ago.

How about putting the tables into normal form? ie where you currently have the company name as a string in the Person table, instead have an ID which references the Company table. It's not necessary for understanding the example shown, but it can't hurt to start off with good practice.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the feedback.

I considered introducing surrogate keys but thought it was probably not a good idea in the first tutorial. I will have a think about adding them in or covering them in the next tutorial.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I spent a lot of time in a previous life making huge queries in SQL and then dumping the un-normalized data into Excel to use its amazing Pivot functionality. I like the idea of this plugin, wish it worked the other way around!

<comment><AUTHOR> gsiener : Do you mean you wish you could use it to bring data from a SQL database into Excel rather than use SQL on Excel data ?

I have considered adding this functionality, allowing the user to connect to any data source. It become pretty complex pretty quickly though, supporting a query that joins tables in different databases, with their different types, would be a big challenge.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I like the format but I wish to see more.

<comment><AUTHOR> Excellent.

Do you have any particular topics you would like covered ?

I think the next tutorial will cover different kinds of joins and perhaps aggregate functions and inserts. But I will cover what people ask for.

Thanks for the feedback.

<comment><USER6> I would skip inserts - more than likely your users will insert the data the way they're used to, by adding a row to the Excel table they're using.

If I understand what your niche is (power users who are comfortable with Excel), I would focus on things like aggregates and grouping functions - as of now, you've told people how to join a table, but not why they'd want to (or how it's better than what they're currently doing). I'd also integrate how to do this using your specific program.

In short, don't focus on teaching SQL in the abstract. Focus on teaching the SQL you need to use your program, and why it would be useful to do so.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the feedback JimmyL, food for thought.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


The Internet Wants to Kill You... - <AUTHOR> http://gapingvoid.com/2014/02/13/the-internet-wants-to-kill-you/

<comment><USER2> Here's a great slide share that I saw at my University: [http://www.slideshare.net/wearesocialsg/social-digital- mobil...](http://www.slideshare.net/wearesocialsg/social-digital-mobile-in- apac)

</comment><comment><USER3> Here is a classic line: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2LpJAD5AqQ](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2LpJAD5AqQ)

</comment><comment><USER4> The internet may not WANT to kill you, but just like nature, if you don't respect it, it will.</comment>


Amazon outage as much choice as accident - <AUTHOR> http://www.real-user-monitoring.com/little-mystery-in-amazons-outage/

<comment><USER2> Nothing much new here. And site design sucks on contrast -- why grey text?

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm not responsible for the visuals.

There is indeed nothing new; it's surprised me, though, to learn from recent conversations how few people understand Amazon's drive to compete on price, and what a tiny incident this really was. I felt obliged to document the basic background.</comment></comment>


Git for the Cocoa Developer: A Typical Workflow - <AUTHOR> http://christopherroach.com/archives/35 <comment><USER2> Not very much different from the git workflow for all other developers out there. The only difference I can see is the inclusion of additional files in .gitignore.

</comment><comment><USER3> I think both the .gitignore and .gitattributes examples are helpful, actually—especially for those of us not used to developing compiled projects.</comment>


Volcanic sand has been credited with the longevity of Rome's ancient monuments - <AUTHOR> http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/12/16/the-secret-ingredient-behind-romes-lasting-monuments/

<comment><USER2> A big part of why Rome's monuments have lasted is they didn't use reinforced concrete. Reinforcing with steel rebar allows much thinner concrete walls than without, however it also makes them susceptible to rust/expansion/crumbling when water gets into the material.

<comment><USER3> Any idea when/where this changed and reinforcing was used?

<comment><USER4> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinforced_concrete#History](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinforced_concrete#History)

 _François Coignet was a French industrialist of the nineteenth century, a pioneer in the development of structural, prefabricated and reinforced concrete. Coignet was the first to use iron-reinforced concrete as a technique for constructing building structures. In 1853 Coignet built the first iron reinforced concrete structure, a four story house at 72 rue Charles Michels in the suburbs of Paris. Coignet 's descriptions of reinforcing concrete suggests that he did not do it for means of adding strength to the concrete but for keeping walls in monolithic construction from overturning._ [...]

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Joseph Davidovits explains the chemistry behind this and much more in his books and other works over many decades. Once ridiculed, acceptance of his ideas has slowly grown. Certainly the chemistry that he describes is very repeatable, and the Pantheon and other Roman works are very … can't resist … concrete examples and proof of his ideas. Follow the links in this wiki article and do some Google searches. I read the book in 2000, and was very impressed by the time I finished it. I later met with Davidovitz, and found him to be quite reasonable, intelligent and clear thinking. The biggest obstacle was/is that it was in more people's interest to promote the "mystery of the pyramids", and established dogma in academic circles than to just repeat his experiments. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Davidovits](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Davidovits)

<comment><USER6> The WP link includes a link to (after correcting the location) the paper at [http://nebula.wsimg.com/624fc4188a1d8eb2d1ad010ca81ef8c1?Acc...](http://nebula.wsimg.com/624fc4188a1d8eb2d1ad010ca81ef8c1?AccessKeyId=D94D99729EAEC69E9267&disposition=0&alloworigin=1) which says:

> This study conclusively demonstrates that there is absolutely no evidence of > an alkali-aluminosilicate-based composition in the binder phases of the > casing stones, nor is there any evidence of "unusual" constituents in the > pristine, bulk uncontaminated interior of the casing stones to call for a > "man-made" origin. Despite the detection of a man-made "coating" on the > Lauer casing stone, the stone itself is determined to be nothing but a high- > quality natural limestone mineralogically, texturally, and microstructurally > similar to that found in the quarries at Tura-Masara. ...

> Despite its many reported ancient routes, and unquestionable potential > future applications of geopolymer technology, the Egyptian pyramids, in > author's opinion, still stand as marvels and mysteries of ancient > engineering technologies exercised by the Old Kingdom (2500 BC) stone > masons.

As a non-geochemist, I can say nothing about it one way or the other, and I know that I can be easily swayed by good sounding but wrong statements.

Perhaps it's like Thor Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki. He showed that it was possible to go by balsa wood raft to Polynesia. That doesn't mean his diffusionist model of cultural development was what happened. That the Egyptians could have used geopolymer technology doesn't mean they did.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I recommend Diana Kleiner's awesome course on Roman Architecture ([https://www.coursera.org/course/romanarchitecture](https://www.coursera.org/course/romanarchitecture) and [http://oyc.yale.edu/history-art/hsar-252](http://oyc.yale.edu/history- art/hsar-252)). It was eye-opening to me just how much they relied on concrete.

Roman concrete was called opus caementicium. The Romans had two main sources of the right kind of volcanic ash in Italy, the main one in Pozzuoli ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pozzolan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pozzolan)) but apparently they mined other places, such as in Eifel where it is known as Trass ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trass](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trass)). For example concrete was used in the very extensive aquaducts serving the Roman city that is now Cologne.

It is very similar to lime plaster (lime and sand) and so it is thought to have been discovered by simple substitution of local pozzolan for sand.

The advantage of Portland cement is that it cures very quickly. Roman cement takes something like a month to cure.

Another apparent advantage of Roman concrete is that they were able to throw up large structures with concrete vaults or domes with a large workforce in relatively short time frames, whereas the Medieval cathedrals (which were based initially on the same Roman basilica) took a smaller, highly skilled workforce long periods to cleverly piece together without concrete.

Pozzolan is used today, generally as an additive. Note that fly ash is similar ([http://www.ctlgroup.com/lab-services/lab- tests/astm-c-618-co...](http://www.ctlgroup.com/lab-services/lab- tests/astm-c-618-coal-fly-ash-raw-calcined-natural-pozzolan-use-mineral- admixture-concrete/)). Again because of the long cure time the original Roman concrete is not in favor, but you may achieve the performance you need through the use of an admixture.

I should add that some of these recent articles may be linked to the general business interest in the increased use of pozzolanic admixtures, since there is a ready source in fly ash and also some parts of the world have vast amounts of pozzolanic ash ready to be exploited.

<comment><USER8> I second the recommendation of Diana Kleiner's video lectures. Absolutely fantastic, thorough, and well explained.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Both recipies call for heating the limestone. So why is the modern process so much more energy-demanding? Is it heated to higher temperatures?

<comment><USER8> Yes, and there's more - Portland cement is made of constituent parts, each presumably extracted from different stones (using energy intensive processes) and then precisely recombined in certain ratios. Roman concrete, lime mortar, and Natural cement are made largely from just moderately heating limestone.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> What volcano produces the best ash? Can it be man made? Strip mining for ash around volcanoes doesn't sound environmentally friendly.

</comment><comment><USER11> I quite enjoyed Professor Stephen Ressler's video course series "Understanding Greek and Roman Technology: From Catapult to the Pantheon"

[http://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/understanding- greek-a...](http://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/understanding-greek-and- roman-technology-from-catapult-to-the-pantheon.html)

If you enjoy history of architecture/engineering, it's worth picking up when it's on sale, the video quality is standard def, but you can either stream the videos or download DRM free copies of each lecture.

</comment><comment><USER12> Roman concrete has been known about for a long time. Why doesn't anyone use it?

<comment><USER13> (Note, not a CE any more, but I did Civil Engineering @ Cornell with Professors that were big into concrete, where many of the people who wrote the paper are from.)

First of all, I bet that the strength of the concrete builds pretty slowly. They're mentioning a 180 day test, where most modern concrete is considered 'fully cured' at 28 days, and generally you're looking at a few days to a week before it's got enough strength to continue construction. (Note that concrete will continue to cure indefinitely as long as it's kept moist and at a good temperature. E.g., I looked at some concrete from a floating bridge that was 40 years old and it was 3x stronger than it was supposed to be based on the original specs. There's some scatter in those, but 40 years in a cool poist environment didn't hurt.) Also note that there are a lot of interesting additives to concrete that can change the behaviour of modern concrete, to make it easier to place, faster to set, slower to set, pumpable, high strength, high stiffness, or whatever.

Second, Concrete tends to be a pretty local thing. You don't tend to ship the raw materials long distances, since they're heavy and low value. In places where there is volcanic ash, it can be used. But then you get to places like the whole US east of the Rockies, and there's none of that.

Third, we lost the recipe for Roman Cement for the better part of 2 millennia, and only recently rediscovered it, well after the discovery of Portland Cement and it's spread through the world.

<comment><USER14> Case in point, Rosendale cement[1] is another natural cement. It was popular in the 19th century because it does not require additives to produce (the limestone already contains the desirable traces) and can set underwater. Being produced along the Hudson River, one of the biggest shipping routes of the day, probably didn't hurt. However, it requires significantly longer to set and was discarded in favor of the faster setting Portland cement.

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

(Bonus factoid: while Rosendale cement is named or the location of the limestone deposits mined to produce it, Portland cement is named for the resemblance of the finished product to Portland stone, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland_stone](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland_stone))

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Longevity of modern building techniques (or rather lack thereof) is a pet peeve of mine. Romans, Greeks, like many other ancient cultures built for millennia with much simpler means than we have available today, while the methods a building contractor is offered these days yield lifespans of 30-100 years maximum (that's in Europe where we don't typically build something that needs only last till the next Hurricane). It's a sad state of affairs, owed to the throwaway mentality we have about pretty much everything today.

Those who find Roman concrete interesting, might want to look into various forms of artificial stone too (used in the 19th century): [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_stone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_stone)

<comment><USER16> Modern builders are operating on a much different set of constraints than the Romans. Simply include 2 additional factors in the equation (cost and harsh climate) and the Romans would not have fared nearly as well. The circumstances under which all of these ancient structures were built were more-or-less ideal for longevity. Is this a coincidence? No, it's survivorship bias[0].

        [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias

<comment><USER15> How is the climate worse nowdays than in the past 2000 years? For a sensible comparison, look at the (many) wars these buildings had to endure as well. It's easy to claim survivor bias, but the durability of these buildings is simply a matter of technical analysis and specification, as with modern construction. I had to choose the material for a building facade (renovation) recently and the best option for longevity was: natural stone, the worst being the most commonly used type.

<comment><USER16> When I mention survivorship bias, I do so in order to highlight that people are being selective when talking about _those buildings which have survived_ and ignoring the vast multitudes of Roman and other buildings which have not.

As for climate? Yes, the climate where I live (Ontario, Canada) is vastly more harsh than Rome (ancient or modern). Why do I bring this up? Because generally the people making these sorts of survivorship biased observations are also neglecting to control for other significant variables such as location.

You also didn't mention cost. Many of the great Roman structures which have survived to this day would have astronomical costs should we attempt to build them in the modern day using ancient building techniques and materials.

<comment><USER15> > _You also didn 't mention cost. Many of the great Roman structures which > have survived to this day would have astronomical costs should we attempt to > build them in the modern day using ancient building techniques and > materials._

I'm not so convinced as far as materials are concerned. Techniques have improved and modern ones could be used (cranes etc.). The main issue I see here is that materials aren't even available anymore, nor are they legal w.r.t. building codes. So even if cost wasn't a factor, I don't see how anyone could build a modern building with Roman concrete, marble etc.

<comment><USER17> Ban on slavery really drives costs up :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Secret?

How is that secret?

Pozzolonic mortar ingredients have been know for a long time.

In fact, ashes have been used for making concrete for a long time too nowadays. Blast furnaces produce ashes that are routinely used for that.

Bad title. In the article then they say that what is secret is the reason why pozzolonic mortar withstand well time.

Sensationalist reporting...

<comment><USER19> It isn't secret, just the usual linkbait. We changed the title to a representative sentence from the article.</comment></comment>


Knuth's Up-Arrow Notation - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knuth%27s_up-arrow_notation <comment><USER2> I've seen this notation in a video [1] on Graham's number [2] by Numberphile. It's a pretty interesting video for seeing how quickly the numbers get unimaginably massive.

[1]: [https://youtu.be/XTeJ64KD5cg](https://youtu.be/XTeJ64KD5cg)

[2]: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham's_number](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham's_number)</comment>


Curious why so many products are crappy? - <AUTHOR> http://open.neurostechnology.com/node/251 <comment><USER2> My sense is that for the last century or more the biggest struggle has been just getting it done anyway you can. Then making lots of it. The next paradigm will be about making the right thing in moderate amounts. I see less mass market, except where the production costs require it, and more medium and small markets.

</comment><comment><USER3> no, most are :)</comment>


US Government Shuts Down - <AUTHOR> http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/30/politics/shutdown-showdown/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

<comment><USER2> I really wish people would call for a vote of no confidence and remove everyone who appears uncooperative.

Bonus points: Clean slate.</comment>


Ask HN: what projects are you working on? - <AUTHOR>

Hi HN,
I thought it was nice to open a tread in which people can post their projects and get feedback on it as a better way to gain attention than solely submitting a HN post.
Unthough HN is the best way to get feedback in an honest way, it's hard to gain traction due to their populairity.
Tell me what projects you are working on and don't forget to vote up so, more feedback will be given! <comment><USER2> I'm working on a modal, console-based, email-client. It's developed in C++ and has fully integrated scripting provided via lua.

<http://lumail.org/>

<https://github.com/skx/lumail/>

It is pretty different from the existing mail clients for the console (pine, alpine, mutt, sup, notmuch), partly for being modal, and partly because it only handles Maildirs. No IMAP or POP3 support at all.

In terms of functionality it is usable for sending, processing, and receiving emails. But there is still missing support for attachments.

<comment><USER3> If I wanted to pair this with an imap or pop3 mail account, what other command would I need to run?

<comment><USER2> I think you have a lot of choices, so it comes down to personal preferences.

Basically this tool will only work against a local set of Maildirs, so your job is to get the mail from the remote host onto your local system in Maildir form.

Off the top of my head that means one of:

* imapsync

* fetchmail

* offlineimap

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I am working on a survey programming and cross tabulation engine. It's open source hosted here: <http://sourceforge.net/projects/xtcc>

There are 2 versions of the Survey compiler, one in production use and a newer version in advanced prototype targeted at tablets etc. The production use compiler is targeted at India and the Middle East and anywhere else where you do Market Research using Pen and Paper format. It can generate outputs for IBM SPSS-Quantum (a specialised software for data processing) and SPSS and and my own cross tabulation engine, described below. Our current offering to clients is a potential 70% speedup in data processing using our system for Pen and Paper data entry.

The cross tabulation engine is on similar lines to IBM SPSS-Quantum but removes many limitations and is potentially much faster. I tested it on 1 million records - each record had about 64000 conditions, it was able to process the data in 20 seconds (I tried this after seeing Evan Miller's post on HN and someone asked about how fast his software was on 10 million records). I compile the input programs to simple C++ fixed size arrays and data is stored on disk as a flat file, fixed length per record. I have been experimenting with sse instructions - there is a lot of potential for further speed improvement.

This is a git repository, active branches are: nc - this is a stable version of the compiler, but uses ncurses and

web-questionnaire-2: this is the new survey compiler

       Active GUIs/Framewors we can compile to are :
       1. gtk
       2. wxWidgets
       3. webtoolkit

       I have also separated out the runtime environment so that we can compile with emscripten
       Using this, we can compile with

        1. Dojo, ExtJs
        2. DojoMobile - I could not get Sench Touch to work.

web-randomizer: this is a branch for a randomization grammar

rdg: this is a branch for a Random Data generator. This was used to generate the 1 million records for my testing. I was able to get it to go at a speed of about 170 records a second.

If anyone is interested in playing with it, please write to me - my email should be all over the source code. We are also looking to make a business out of this (I have 2 friends and family investors).

</comment><comment><USER5> I've been working on <http://www.postalcandy.co.uk> \- it was an MVP test for two weeks. It has been an idea I kept coming back to for a while now. I really want to sell a fun product.

While it's just basic technically, I've learned a lot about A/B testing & driving traffic.

Have taken the first few orders which is proof of concept! Currently working on the next version, integrating more product images & branding too.

Also I work on <http://foundcamera.com> \- it gets quite a bit of natural traffic & submissions are backing up. Could do with some php help if anyone needs a weekend gig!

<comment><AUTHOR> That looks very cool! Could you share some intel with me about gross margins and how you calculated the prices for postalcand.co.uk? Foundcamera is awesome too :D I'll check for a lost camera tomorrow in Amsterdam, you might just want to add the feature of sharing your lost camera but maybe I overlooked it (says already enough) and a reward program would probably finish it up. Good luck!

<comment><USER5> Thanks! I've been putting the candy packs together for quite a while, for family & as gifts for friends in the US.

Offering flat pricing including shipping seemed to make sense for this type of purchase. I checked the prices of similar food subscription packages and kept that in mind - they seem to range from $17 to $33 typically.

I put together several candy packs at different weights and settled on 250g, 500g and 1kg - I priced them up and worked out a per gram price point so when I'm looking at new products I can work out if it's good value. Eg. x pence per gram of candy.

I put together a chart of shipping prices. Listing 3 different world zones (EU, US/CAN, AUS/NZ) and delivery speeds (surface/airmail/48hour). That enabled me to put a flat price on shipping. So for example I use the AUS/NZ price as standard, if people order from other locations then I save on postage.

I'll probably make some pricing adjustments over time, as orders grow I should be able to improve margin by buying larger packs, once I get around 10 orders per day that brings down shipping costs too, I can pass that value on to the customers. I'm looking forward to getting the new site launched! Thanks for your feedback!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I've built a tool to create arbitrary rigid 3D surfaces and support structures from laser-cut-and-perforated folded tyvek panels. It's probably never going to be commercialized, but it is fun to tinker with.

The use case is 3d shapes where the volume makes 3d printing cost-prohibitive, for example this 4 foot long tyvek dolphin: [https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/102064314320177820526/alb...](https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/102064314320177820526/albums/5870981854584352017)

If you're in boston, stop by the collision19 show for a look: <http://collisioncollective.org/show/collision19>

</comment><comment><USER7> I'm working on a revision control system for spreadsheets (<http://www.spreadgit.com>) so people can sort out their Excel mess, ie. track changes, diff and eventually merge versions like you'd do with code.

<comment><USER8> A while back I tried brainstorming a bunch of revision control for <x>'s. I figured there were plenty of industries outside of programming that could use a tailor-made versioning system. Later on, I ran across one of them at <https://layervault.com/> which is for graphic designers, which seemed (to me at least) to prove that the more general concept has legs.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I am working on a SCRUM project management solution: [http://scrumptious.io/](http://scrumptious.io/)

Why? Well, in my current company where I am doing my internship, we wanted to use SCRUM, but couldnt find a resource that was light weight, integrated with 3rd party tools like google cal, github, etc, and was cheap at the same time. As a coder, I decided to work on my own solution for this problem. I know that it may not be very monetizable, but in the long run, I can be proud of it as something I built.

</comment><comment><USER10> I'm working on a very simple and inane tool that block diagrams my code with cables so I can write programs visually. It doesn't compile or run any of it, it's just a visual tool. It's a mashup of two JQuery libraries: JsPlumb and Jquery TE. I also have an idea for a very large meteor.js/Web Audio API project that I am gradually piecing my way towards with small one-off do-dads like this: <http://helpknow.com/portfolio/drumapp/>

</comment><comment><USER11> I made a tool (<http://complex-area-calculator.appspot.com>) for calculating areas of polygons. Initially, it was really just cobbled together and there are a lot of problems with the code. I'm currently in the process of a re- write, but by blog (<http://foodconstrued.com>) also takes up a lot of my time.

<comment><USER12> The area calculator is really interesting, good job!

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Just launched subtleshade.com to help my learn about all this cool new HTML/CSS stuff I keep hearing about! Design and cross-browser support is sketchy at the moment, but it's a v1.0.

EDIT: Should probably provide some more information. It's a easy way to add colors to the patterns provided on subtlepatterns.com without having to dive into Photoshop.

</comment><comment><USER14> Nice idea for a thread!

I'm working on a new project management tool called Matterhorn.io its for companies who are design led and follow agile for development.

There are a million and one project management apps but none of them are a fit for us, we like basecamp but need a scrumboard, we like jira but find its too complicated. We are building a happy medium

<comment><USER15> Used Pivotal Tracker?

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I'm working on a few things:

A 32 channel data logger, driver communication and information aid for motorsport and automotive testing

A kids education app with a Scottish 'teacher' character - this will hopefully be uploaded for App Store approval this weekend

and I have a few client projects on the go

</comment><comment><USER17> I am working on a P2P network based around Kademlia. I have not got very far mostly due to lack of time and knowledge, but I keep going with it when I can.

[https://github.com/zwerfvogel/Mimosa](https://github.com/zwerfvogel/Mimosa)

</comment><comment><USER18> I'm currently writing Ruby For System Administrators at [http://ruby.elevatedintel.com](http://ruby.elevatedintel.com) A book that helps SysAdmins become more productive and repeat themselves less using Ruby.

</comment><comment><USER19> <https://github.com/huseyinyilmaz/talkybee> . I haven't work on it lately due to a class I am taking on coursera. But I will finish is as soon as I am done with the class I am taking.

</comment><comment><USER20> three projects: Homenet a closed source home networking system, multimedia, it's own TV stack. Currently re-writing as i thought the networking was a bit weak, and the android remote control/EPG was UGLY!

Also playing with some vimscripts [https://github.com/PAntoine/vimgitlog](https://github.com/PAntoine/vimgitlog), and [https://github.com/PAntoine/timekeeper](https://github.com/PAntoine/timekeeper).

also, just starting a project planner vimscript, ms project style, with project diagramming.

</comment><comment><USER21> I am currently working on a simple way to share spotify tracks so that anyone can listen to them (and not only spotify users). The core is finished for a while, but I struggle with the design! Man it's hard to make something look nice

</comment><comment><USER22> I've been working on a console Pomodoro timer: <http://thymerb.com>

There were already a few around, this was for fun and I wanted one with easy pre/post hooks.

<comment><USER3> This looks cool. All the fun terminal programs are all over the place, but I love it when I come across another one!

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Just launched [http://www.babelmatch.com](http://www.babelmatch.com). It's a crowd-sourced alternative to language-learning programs like Rosetta Stone.

</comment><comment><USER24> My pet project at the moment is programmatic battleships. Write your own client - play against other users running automatic games and see how we'll your client fairs up in the leaderboard

<comment><USER25> Similar to mine. I'm working on an online ant colony sandbox where people can write AIs to compete for resources, etc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Working on Zoomforth, helping companies collect, manage and display video from their employees and partners.

<https://zoomforth.com>

</comment><comment><USER27> I'm reimplementing Go-style channels in Python, including multiplexing:

<https://github.com/stuglaser/pychan>

</comment><comment><USER28> [http://phdtree.org](http://phdtree.org) is a Wiki site that allows users to create & edit their academic family tree.

</comment><comment><USER29> I'm currently trying to teach myself web development by building a simple wedding organizing app. Still in its early stages though, nothing to show for it yet.

</comment><comment><USER30> Hotel Comparison Website.

[http://www.cutpricedhotels.com](http://www.cutpricedhotels.com)

</comment><comment><USER31> I am currently working on creating a p0rn site ( there are some money there, but it is hard to implement ) as well as a photographer site

</comment><comment><USER32> I am working on my own help authoring tool "with blackjack and hookers" :) It has a cool name: Helpinator.

<comment><USER33> I upvoted this because everything is better with blackjack and hookers.

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> p2p file transfer tool w/ some cool features like auto-accept rules, tag-based (semantic fs) syncing

<http://deployanything.com> (win,mac,lin + pi)

Tech: C++11, Qt, node.js

:)

<comment><USER3> Wow, that's cool. Very cool. Do you guys have any competitors? Does this even need a server to use? If it's p2p, it's already decentralized, right?

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> personally i work on making a little java ide using javafx</comment>


Tracking Planes with RTL-SDR, Apache Kafka, KSQL, Kibana and a Raspberry Pi - <AUTHOR> https://www.rtl-sdr.com/tracking-planes-with-rtl-sdr-apache-kafka-ksql-kibana-and-a-raspberry-pi/ <comment><USER2> Tracking planes with cheap RTL-SDR dongles is very satisfying. I made a brief writeup here:

[https://blog.steve.fi/tracking_aircraft_in_real_time__via_so...](https://blog.steve.fi/tracking_aircraft_in_real_time__via_software_defined_radio.html)

</comment><comment><USER3> Direct URL: [https://email@example.com/using-ksql-apache-kafka- a-r...](https://email@example.com/using-ksql-apache-kafka-a-raspberry- pi-and-a-software-defined-radio-to-find-the-plane-that-wakes-14f6f9e74584)

<comment><USER4> Thanks.

What the heck was the submission link? The most technical it got was "using some clever database coding"...</comment></comment>


Top tech CEOs reportedly join Republicans for secret meeting on private island - <AUTHOR> http://www.theverge.com/2016/3/8/11177154/apple-google-tesla-ceos-join-republicans-secret-meeting <comment><USER2> Blogspam. Source is [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/aei-world-forum- donald-t...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/aei-world-forum-donald- trump_us_56ddbd38e4b0ffe6f8ea125d?tn50o1or)

</comment><comment><USER3> I just think that the more you give importance and oppose him the more he might win. People knows that corporate guys are only behind profit, so they will vote him as a result.I don't like the guy 1% but, the topics he brought up are some real issues in the country. He is totally fake but people are buying into those problems as they are real. Its real testing times ahead.</comment>


Red Gate Woods: The final resting place of the world's first nuclear reactor - <AUTHOR> http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/red-gate-woods <comment><USER2> That sign is a bit weakly designed compared to this: [http://www.wipp.energy.gov/picsprog/articles/wipp%20exhibit%...](http://www.wipp.energy.gov/picsprog/articles/wipp%20exhibit%20message%20to%2012,000%20a_d.htm)

<comment><USER3> Exactly my thoughts. Also, despite the message being carved in stone, after only 70 years it has deteriorated already. "There is XXX danger to visitors". Irony?

<comment><USER4> Looks like vandalism.

<comment><USER5> I'm guessing it originally said "no danger". That gouge looks like the right size for 2 letters.

<comment><USER6> Yes, I had the same though that there was vandalism taking away the "no" so that it intentionally says it is dangerous

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Technically, the world's first _artificial_ nuclear reactor. Some eyebrows were raised (and some alarms—was someone stealing enriched uranium?) when they found the resting place of a natural nuclear reactor in 1972.

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

<comment> gene-h And we could have used them to answer some important questions in physics, however, they got mined away:

[https://medium.com/the-physics-arxiv-blog/in- the-1970s-scien...](https://medium.com/the-physics-arxiv-blog/in- the-1970s-scientists-discovered-a-2-billion-year-old-nuclear-reactor-in-west- africa-4472460b82c2#.u3tvy8ars)

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Back in high school, we took a tour of the Savannah River Site (this was allowed in the late 70's). We saw things mostly by driving by in a tour bus, but we did get to go into a few buildings, and try out a remote manipulator system (harder than it looks to get good with it).

The relevant part was the waste processing area, which had a smokestack (presumably for power). Painted eighty or a hundred feet up was a large stripe. The guide said that that was how deep they were going to bury the building once it had reached end of life.

Having just watched "Beneath the Planet of the Apes" I could imagine a future where explorers go down the stack because they were attracted by the 50+ feet that would remain above ground. Curiosity is hard to fight.

<comment><USER9> You might be surprised, but you can _probably_ still get a tour of the Savannah River Site (as long as you're a citizen). I know this because I took a tour of it's sister site in Hanford, WA a year or so ago, and would totally recommend it.

<comment><USER10> I've heard that many tours of facilities are less in-depth than they would have been pre... recent notable historic events in the US.

I am thankful that I got to see the depths of major hydro-electric facilities in my home state as a child. They inspired awe and wonder in our ability to engineer massive things; though such words were not at all within my vocabulary at that age.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Thanks to this, we have some great, legal mountain bike trails in the Chicagoland area. If it wasn't for these reactors being buried there, it would be full of McMansions and strip malls.

</comment><comment><USER12> Here's the remains of the SL-1 nuclear reactor, an experimental unit which had a steam explosion and meltdown in 1961, with its marker.[1] It was at the National Reactor Testing Station in Idaho, located in the middle of nowhere, miles from the nearest other building, just in case. The SL-1 story is in Wikipedia.

The marker is probably from 2000, when large rocks were placed over the entire site. It already looks dated.

[1] [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/SL-1Buri...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/SL-1Burial.jpg)

</comment><comment><USER13> If anyone wants to visit, you can find Site A pretty easily via Google Maps, as someone has added a Historical Place marker for it (41.702199, -87.912165). It's about a 15 minute walk from the nearest parking lot (41.709995, -87.914131).

Plot M is about half a mile away from Site A, and is easily missed. If you look on Google Maps for a small clearing just northeast of Site A, that is where Plot M is. (41.707279, -87.910550)

The Forest Preserves of Cook County website has some good information about the history of the site: [http://fpdcc.com/site-a/](http://fpdcc.com/site-a/)

</comment><comment><USER14> Nuclear history buffs should definitely check out the Manhatten Project B Reactor if ever heading to Washington. Great tour.

<comment><USER15> Darn! I just returned from a trip to Washington. I wish I had known about the reactor. I guess I have something to look forward to during my next trip!

Link for the curious: [http://manhattanprojectbreactor.hanford.gov/](http://manhattanprojectbreactor.hanford.gov/)

<comment><USER9> Don't feel too bad about missing it; you generally have to book tours many months in advance.

<comment> gene-h It is now part of a national park: [https://www.nps.gov/mapr/index.htm](https://www.nps.gov/mapr/index.htm)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> This is not far from where I grew up, and I've been there a few times. It's an interesting site that's easy to miss if you're not looking for it.

Also, the trails around that part of the FPDCC system are amazing. They might be the one thing I miss about suburban life.

<comment><USER17> My parents live not that far from there, and I used to work at Argonne National Labs. I thought the Chicago Pile waste was stored on site on the lab, not in a forest preserve nearby

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Used to take my dogs there to run around. Nice natural area.</comment>


Modular Framework for vision and language multimodal research from Facebook AI - <AUTHOR> https://mmf.sh/ <comment><AUTHOR> Github : [https://github.com/facebookresearch/mmf](https://github.com/facebookresearch/mmf)</comment>


Markov's and Chebyshev's Inequalities Explained - <AUTHOR> https://intoli.com/blog/chebyshevs-inequality/ <comment><USER2> This Chebychev's inequality (there are several) is a simple extension of Markov (by setting phi(x) = |x|^2 - see the Wikipedia article on Markov's inequality).

There is another simple extension[0], much less known, of setting phi(x) = exp(-s*x), and taking the infimum over all s; it is often tractable and yields much, much sharper bounds.

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

<comment><USER3> My favorite contribution of Chernoff, however, is the Chernoff face:

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

<comment><USER4> Today I was one of the 10,000. This is great, amazing, hilarious, and awesome. I can't think of a great use at the moment, but I will find one.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> If you have a hard time remembering exactly how Markov inequality goes (like I do), there's a great mnemonic from which you can construct the general version:

\- if the average person is 6' tall, than at most 10% of the people are taller than 60'.

<comment><USER6> Is that right?

<comment><USER7> Yes! Think about it this way--the smallest height someone could be is zero. So imagine that 90% of the people are zero height, and 10% are exactly 60ft tall. What's the average height?</comment></comment></comment>


Elon Musk allegedly silences one of his shortselling critics by calling his boss - <AUTHOR> https://www.marketwatch.com/story/elon-musk-allegedly-silences-one-of-his-short-selling-critics-by-calling-his-boss-2018-07-25 <comment><USER2> The critic was behaving dishonestly, therefore it was good there was a discussion with the boss.</comment>


Comprehensive Chromebook developer setup guide - <AUTHOR> http://afaqurk.github.io/chromeos-developer-setup/

<comment><USER2> I've been using an HP Chromebook 14 for about a week as a development (and personal) machine, and so far I'm pretty happy with it. I keep meaning to write something up, but this post is a good starting point. I went with crouton (option 3) and for someone like me who uses a browser and a terminal, this is a great way to go for the price.

You might add a 3.5: crouton without running a full X/Ubuntu setup and just using 'enter-chroot' (instead of startunity/startxfce) paired with the Crosh Window Chrome app gives you the ability to have terminals open without running a full separate X instance to switch between. This is what I've been doing for the most part. The Chromebook's full screen toggle button and alt-tabbing makes switching between terminals and the browser really fast as well.</comment>


George W. Bush is smarter than you - <AUTHOR> http://keithhennessey.com/2013/04/24/smarter/ <comment><USER3> _"President Bush intentionally aimed his public image at average Americans rather than at Cambridge or Upper East Side elites."_

I suspect the experiences, and attendant political lessons, of George Bush Sr. had a direct influence on the way George Bush Jr. presented himself.

Bush I was often criticized as intellectual, elitist, nerdy, aloof, and "Ivy League." He was trounced in his reelection campaign by Bill Clinton, the ultimate charismatic -- a brilliant guy who was adept at hiding his formidable intellect behind a folksy manner and a slow, Southern drawl.

Bush II took great pains to present himself as a man of the people, a Texan (he was born in Connecticut), and a guy's guy. Whether this was a reflection of his true character, or a political affectation, doesn't really matter; the distinction has been lost to the sands of time. It's probably some combination of the two. (Affectations, carried out over the long haul, have a tendency to shape actual character).

<comment><USER4> "Bush I was often criticized as intellectual, elitist, nerdy, aloof, and "Ivy League.""

Boogie Man really was an incredible documentary.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I appreciate this because it's a bit of a challenge to a narrative. I think in startup landia, we see the same thing. Everyone knows company x is next to ipo, everyone knows company y doesn't have a shot.

And while sometimes those public projections are correct, other times they're carefully orchestrated pr masterpieces.

Without giving too much away, our company has chosen to go quietly along, trying to attract the right attention that'll get us noticed by our customers, without alerting our (actual) competitors[0].

GW Bush connected more effectively with the middle class than Romney, and that might have been his best weapon in a fight against another likable candidate.

Whether you'd like to admit it or not, public narrative effects business / presidential / fundraising / customer acquisition outcomes. If you're the one in control, everyone else can be a pawn in your game.

[0]: I'm sure our current close competitors are acutely aware of us, but they're not the ones I fear. Our game is much longer than the current space we occupy (getting social media on tv) and so keeping our head down and just impressing customers is the best way to get us to the goal. Raising money, especially from places like YC or the kind of investors everyone wants, would put a target on our back. So instead we just lay low, and get all the flexibility we need to try out a bunch of different business models.

</comment><comment><USER6> In 2010, the Sienna Presidential poll — which is very well respected — ranked George W. Bush as the 42 most intelligent president (only Harding ranked lower). [1, pdf file]. 14 of the 19 categories have W. in the bottom 5. These categories are: Communication ability, Court Appointments, Handling of U.S Economy, Ability to Compromise, Executive Appointments, Overall Ability, Imagination, Domestic Accomplishments, Integrity, Executive Ability, Foreign Policy Accomplishments, Leadership Ability, Intelligence, and Avoid Crucial Mistakes. The 4 categories that he is not in the bottom 5 of are: Background (he is the 7th worst), Party Leadership, Luck, and "Willing to Take Risks". Luck is the only category in which he is in the second quartile.

The article states:

"And while my job involved juggling a lot of balls, I only had to worry about economic issues. In addition to all of those, at any given point in time he was making enormous decisions on Iraq and Afghanistan, on hunting al Qaeda and keeping America safe. He was making choices not just on taxes and spending and trade and energy and climate and health care and agriculture and Social Security and Medicare, but also on education and immigration, on crime and justice issues, on environmental policy and social policy and politics. Being able to handle such substantive breadth and depth, on such huge decisions, in parallel, requires not just enormous strength of character but tremendous intellectual power. President Bush has both."

Important criticisms of his presidency are not about his lambdacisms or rhotacisms. The criticisms of his presidency are not that he couldn't make decisions but that the decisions that he made were wrong, harmful, or showed a stubbornness to consider the fact that he was wrong. His presidency was marked by decisions to ignore _nonpartisan_ reports contrary to the party line: when a international terrorism report that had been published annually for 19 years said that terror was increasing, not decreasing, his administration cancelled the reports. [2]

[1] [http://siena.edu/uploadedfiles/home/parents_and_community/co...](http://siena.edu/uploadedfiles/home/parents_and_community/community_page/sri/independent_research/Presidents%202010%20Rank%20by%20Category.pdf)

[2] [http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2002243262_terror16...](http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2002243262_terror16.html)

<comment><USER7> I feel like this would be a really interesting point to get Mr Hennessey's response to, but since he has comments disabled on his blog, I guess that's unlikely.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> It's a huge error to assume that people who disagree with you are dumb. Bush is like 4th generation Yale, and his father is extremely smart. It makes more sense to pin e.g. his record at Yale to being a slacker than the apple falling so far from the tree.

<comment><USER9> George W Bush did abuse alcohol for most of his adult life. That can impact you cognitively. Not saying he "drank himself stupid" or anything like that, but It wouldn't surprise me if his drinking accelerated his cognitive decline as he aged.

<comment><USER10> It's awesome that you have such insight into his private life, it would be even more awesome if you could source this type of defamation.

<comment><USER9> It's pretty well documented: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush_substance_abuse_...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush_substance_abuse_controversy)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> If any of this resonates with you, I'd also highly recommend _Angler_, Barton Gellman's account of the vice presidency of Dick Cheney. It's hard to overstate how far-reaching and insidious Cheney's efforts were during the first Bush term; he more or less co-opted intelligence efforts, and ran what at times amounted to a shadow presidency with his staff and Donald Rumsfeld.

On the other hand, it's hard to get around the Harriet Miers and Alberto Gonzales debacles, both of which involved comically bad judgement calls.

</comment><comment><USER12> When George W. Bush was governor, he spoke at my sister's high school graduation (<http://www.texasmonthly.com/story/president-bush>). His public persona changed significantly from Governor to President, and he definitely played up the everyman persona during his presidency.

While this may have polled well, these type of false personas should have no place in politics. The President is not an actor playing a role -- we should demand candidates whom are genuine and present their true self so we know who we're voting for.

<comment><USER13> But these types of personas _always_ have a place in politics - that's a large part of what makes it politics. If you didn't play a role you wouldn't get elected.

I highly doubt that Obama is the same in private as his public persona - <USER2> everything I've heard, he's very much the intellectual, introverted college- professor type in private, and the gregarious "audacity of hope" person is a mask he puts on for public events.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> The narrative that Bush was/is dumb because he stumbled on his words occasionally was always ridiculous and it amazed me how many people piled in on it - people who would normally never call someone dumb for that. (And who knew plenty of extremely smart people with public speaking skills far worse than Bush's).

</comment><comment><USER15> While the author seems to blame his political opponents for the perception of GWB as unintelligent, a more balanced analysis should probably also consider what Bush and the Republicans did to further that idea. When you use words like "elite" and "intellectual" (and "windsurfing" for some reason...) as pejoratives and go to great lengths to avoid publicly highlighting your intelligence and playing up how average you are...you probably shouldn't be surprised if people don't consider you a great thinker.

I'd certainly believe that Bush is smart, but is the author really complaining that people judged him based on what they saw of his public persona rather than how he behaved in private meetings in the Oval Office that they had no way of knowing about? Had Bush's public face been more like what the author claims he saw in private, I doubt there would be any such stereotype about Bush.

Basically, is anyone surprised or appalled that it turns out that perception matters at least as much as substance?

</comment><comment><USER16> Politics aside, this is a good reminder on the importance of when confronted with an opposing viewpoint to consider "Why would a smart person think that?". They may in point of fact not be smart but it's too easy to use that as an excuse to stop thinking. Ever notice how hard it is to hear someone you respect say something you disagree with?

</comment><comment><USER17> I have never met George W Bush so I can't say how smart he is. But you can look at his SAT scores (<http://www.insidepolitics.org/heard/heard32300.html>) before Yale, and his resume before he went to Harvard Business School.

Then ask: Could I have gotten in into Yale with that SAT? Could I have gotten into HBS with that resume?

<comment><USER18> And what about Obama's SAT scores and other academic history... oh that's right, he's never released them.

<comment><USER17> I didn't mean this as a political argument for one party or another.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> There are similar accounts on quora citing that bush is extremely intelligent.

The challenging things about all these accounts is that not only in public did he seem like an idiot but the decisions that he made in office were similarly inept.

To cite a few: \- Spending increases while incurring tax cuts \- The Iraq War + the willful deceiving of the public \- The lack of remorse of any decision made in office

Malcolm Gladwell cites that (in life) the people who really excel aren't just the ones who are the most intelligent but the ones who posses other factors as well which make them a success. Perhaps this provides some of the explanation for the discrepancy between the personal accounts and the actions of his administration.

<comment><USER20> Actually there are reasonable explanations for these:

> \- Spending increases while incurring tax cuts

Regardless of whether you agree politically, this was intentional. The strategy is called "starve the beast" and the goal is to strategically force austerity cuts. As a bonus, you force it to happen when a democrat is in office. And guess what? It appears to have worked (somewhat).

> \- The Iraq War + the willful deceiving of the public

It wasn't willful. There _were_ intelligence reports of WMDs. Colin powell got quite pissed about it really. Truth of the matter is that some messed up stuff happened in the intelligence community and Colin was lead to believe there was a real threat in Iraq. How much Bush was involved in the whole deal is unclear. Also, Hussain did try to kill his dad, so it may have been slightly personal.

> \- The lack of remorse of any decision made in office

Remorse for what? Politics is politics. There's blood on everyone's hands. For example, policy changes made during the Bush Sr and Clinton administrations appear to have contributed significantly to the housing crash in 2009. Regardless, even if he isn't remorseful, that doesn't make him dumb. Heartless maybe, but not dumb.

Disclaimer: I'm not a republican. I think democrats and republicans alike spend too much time playing politics these days and not enough actually trying to fix things. I also think the worlds problems can be solved without war. The one thing I did like about Bush is that he appears to have really wanted to reduce the size of government, which appeals to my (mostly) libertarian beliefs.

<comment><USER19> Thanks for breaking these things down. I don't really agree with them but I appreciate how a different reading on things could conclude that an intelligent person could have made those decisions.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I've heard similar things about President Bush's ability to memorize information, I think its even mentioned in W by Oliver Stone. President Clinton has a "photographic" memory. What interests me is how they are able to use that memory to supplement their charisma. People are certainly enthused when you can remember their name, now what about where they are from and what they do and what they contributed in the last meeting and you are able to weave that into a conversation next time you see them. Suddenly you have something to discuss with someone you've only met once.

As liberal who grew up in New York and has lived in Boston since, I completely ate up the Bush as dunce narrative a few years ago. Ironically because it doesn't necessarily paint him as a genius, W by Oliver Stone framed arguments that changed some of my opinions about President Bush. His father's actions, his being born again which helped end his drinking and his staff in the white house very much influenced him, and probably contributed to some of the biases.

</comment><comment><USER22> My opinion is that George W. Bush intentionally cultivated a slow, bumbling Texan everyman image when he ran for political office on the national stage. Compare his debate performance as gubernatorial challenger in 1994 versus the presidential incumbent in 2004:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvknGT8W5jA>

</comment><comment><USER23> Who ever said he wasn't smart? This fad was created by comedians such as Letterman and bares absolutely no truth.

<comment><USER24> 1) Unless you have data to back you up, you're speculating, just like anyone who speculated that his intelligence was lacking.

2) It's "bears," not "bares".

<comment><USER23> Good point.

I've been spelling that wrong forever. Thanks.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Anecdotally, having been born and raised in Orange County, CA (11yr), then Arkansas (5yr) and finally Texas for High School and College (7yr), followed by Denver (liberal) and now Silicon Valley, I can confirm this liberal bias toward both Texas and The South, and also by self-appointed intellectuals toward individuals like myself who tend to not take themselves too seriously.

I regularly find myself catching others off-guard professionally when I exert my intellect, because they tend to have me pegged as an easy-going So-Cal / Southerner. However, from my experience, liberals and self-appointed intellectuals share all the same personality and reasoning flaws as their counterparts.

People are people and differ mostly in the person they choose to project, not in their inherent abilities. Both are honest about different portions of themselves.

<comment><USER15> Initial perceptions shape the views people have of each other...it's not just about how people view southerners. I'd guess from your post that you have certain preconceptions about "liberals" and "intellectuals" that aren't always accurate ;)

You can't judge a book by its cover, but that's where first impressions tend to come from.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> 1\. I don't judge his intelligence by how he spoke at speeches or how he presented himself. I don't usually watch Obama's speeches either. But I judge him based on his record, which was flat out abysmal.

I actually supported the Iraq War, believe it or not, no matter whether there were WMD's (I'm of a slightly interventionist bent when it comes to foreign policy) - but Bush's handling of that war and the War in Afghanistan was absolutely dreadful.

Don't get me started on economic policy or Katrina.

2\. As someone pointed out, this judgment of intelligence based on speech doesn't just apply to southerners, it applies to foreigners as well.

<comment><USER27> I agree about Obama's abysmal record, and yet he gives every impression of being highly intelligent. Maybe Obama and Bush, therefore, are in the same category, probably along with many others: smart and capable, but somehow, as presidents, producing lousy outcomes because of a process of political compromise that leads to bad decisions.

<comment><USER26> Uh, I was talking about Bush's record. I actually think Obama has a fine record, speaking as someone who is economically liberal but somewhat neoconservative on foreign policy,

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> The more relevant question, especially in the context of startup success, is whether George W. Bush is wiser, more forward-thinking, or oriented toward better goals than you. Intelligence is only useful when you're directing it toward the right tasks and your end goals are genuinely beneficial.

<comment><USER29> what is a "better" goal. The whole point of the article is that things are not black or white - and what you consider right and beneficial may not be the same for someone else :)

<comment><USER30> In a president specifically, I imagine a "better" goal is one more aligned with the will of the people (even if not specifically in the long-term interest of the people.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> In that case we can finally settle the question after all - it was always malice, not stupidity.

</comment><comment><USER30> As someone from outside the US, I had a fairly bad impression of George W. from the general media that reached us. You know what changed my mind? Listening back through the early NPR Planet Money episodes quoting Bush's reactions to, and speeches during, the 2007/08 financial crisis. Before that, all I had really heard were statements from him concerning the war in Iraq et al--but on economic issues, he seemed incredibly erudite and with a better picture of the issues than even the people working for him.

Of course, it was all an image manufactured by his staff... but so was his "character" during his speeches on other topics. I wish you all had gotten a bit more of the former.

</comment><comment><USER32> Its worth noting that the Keith Hennessey's entire blog is anti-democratic party's economic policy. He has only worked under republican congressmen and presidents. This is hardly an unbiased source.

<comment><USER10> But, It is a source, of a first hand account of who P. Bush was. Regardless of Mr. Hennessey's Political associations he did deal directly with Bush on a near daily basis.

Also stop for a moment and think about your former and present bosses, how smart do you think they are, do you like or hate them, do you often defend them? I think it says a lot that Hennessey felt compelled to defend Bush.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> I never thought he was dumb. I just thought he was wrong.

</comment><comment><USER27> I never thought G.W. Bush was particularly bright, but I also never agreed with the popularly held image, which I was sure was grossly underestimating him. This image seemed to animate the kind of people who tended to consider Al Gore to be some kind of colossal intellectual: Al Gore, who, at about the time that Bush was earning a Harvard MBA, was flunking out of divinity school. _Divinity school._

</comment><comment><USER34> Here's what happens when you try to share on Facebook: <http://d.pr/i/lZCI>

<comment><USER35> Same here.

Edit: on further inspection, a request for the file 404s. Reading the docs, there doesn't appear to be any recourse.

<comment><USER34> I inspected the source and didn't see that file in there? When I removed the "preview" that Facebook tries to generate, it worked, however. There goes my conspiracy theory :\

<comment><USER35> Odd. But I think the sabotage theory (no conspiracy required, I think) is still a go, it just required the preview to work.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> I've grown to distrust all but first-hand assessments when it comes to this.

I find that people are often quite at ease with judging, if not pre-judging a person's intelligence on the most minimal impressions, appearance, accent, a single opinion or remark.

Personally, I'm so used to facing certain assumptions that they no longer bother me.

</comment><comment><USER37> Bush seems pretty smart, after all he got away with warcrimes [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/16/us-torture- priso...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/16/us-torture-prisoners- indisputable-report)

</comment><comment><USER38> Has the OP considered that the perceived lack of intelligence of George W. Bush may be based on the outcome of the decisions made by his administration, rather than his southern drawl or verbal miscues?

</comment><comment><USER39> Caricaturization is a defense mechanism, we much rather assume someone is stupid or don't understand than having malicious intent. Also intelligence doesn't necessarily imply rationality.

</comment><comment><USER40> Even if this were true, pretending to be stupid with the goal of getting elected is far worse than actually being stupid.

<comment><USER35> De-emphasizing intellect is a far cry from pretending to be stupid. In fact, character matters at least as much as intelligence in real life. What use is intelligence if you don't have the character to execute when you have to do something hard? And of course, ethics provide the end goals to which intelligence is applied.

<comment><USER40> So your contention is that character and ethics are exclusive of intelligence? If not, why would one need to feign stupidity in order to project character?

<comment><USER35> No, that's a preposterous straw man I'm not going to dignify with a serious reply. Read what I actually said.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER41> Was posted and killed a few hours ago

<comment><USER42> Why was it killed?

<comment><USER41> degrades to political debate. The content doesn't really lend itself to much interesting startup commentary.

<comment><USER43> On the contrary, I think randall, commenting previously, highlighted perfectly well how it relates to startup commentary. HN is very much about accelerated startups and investor attraction I think, but there are those who also want to work differently.

I've had debates with friends and associates on exactly that topic in the past, about whether or not it's smarter to inject money, or just run your business.

There was definitely the intellectual argument that came up. Equating a difference of values to a difference of intelligence or wisdom is a hallmark of the inexperienced. In my opinion, those who do so invite themselves to peril.

Edit (<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5605014>) for context

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER44> Actually, you can look up what George Bush's IQ is. Depending on the specific test mentioned, he comes in at about 120. So he may or may not be smarter than you...

<comment><USER45> You know that number is pulled out of thin air, right?

<comment><USER46> "Unlike John F. Kennedy, who obtained an IQ score of 119, or Al Gore, who achieved scores of 133 and 134 on intelligence tests taken at the beginning of his high school freshman and senior years, no IQ data are available for George W. Bush. But we do know that the young Bush registered a score of 1206 on the SAT, the most widely used test of college aptitude. (The more cerebral Al Gore obtained 1355.)"

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Presidential_IQ_hoax#IQ_es...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Presidential_IQ_hoax#IQ_estimations_by_academics)

<http://www1.csbsju.edu/uspp/Election/bush011401.htm>

<http://www.insidepolitics.org/heard/heard32300.html>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER47> My dog is still smarter, though.

</comment><comment><USER48> > _There is a bias in much of the mainstream press and commentariat that > people from outside of NY-BOS-WAS-CHI-SEA-SF-LA are less intelligent, or at > least well educated. Many public commenters harbor an anti-Texas (and anti- > Southern, and anti-Midwestern) intellectual bias. They mistakenly treat John > Kerry as smarter than George Bush because John Kerry talks like an Ivy > League professor while George Bush talks like a Texan._

As a southerner living in New York City, this rang especially true. I grew up around brilliant people who the "intelligent elite" discounted simply because they weren't born in the proper region. It's such an arrogant and sad stance to take.

<comment><USER49> Bush was born and raised in CT an hour outside of NYC. The image of him being a Texan was cultivated in the same way as much of his persona.

<comment><USER50> ...just as every politician learns to create a persona.

"The caricature of President Bush is that of a good ol' boy from Texas who is principled and tough, but just not that bright."

Whether genuine or not, that was the caricature he cultivated and embraced, further distancing himself from the "elite" in the minds of most Americans. Whether a voter found this to be charming or not went a long way to how those voters cast their ballot.

<comment><USER51> Yeah but you've got to appreciate the irony in America. America has a very selective elite who have a very narrow definition of what that elite is (ivy- league, "entrepreneurial", rich, democrat, ...) and is regularly accused of having -very- little tolerance for anyone outside of their core group ... I wouldn't say that's true for the whole group, but there's a significant portion of them that certainly do this.

And this elite is blasting everyone else for not having an equal system. Seriously. Of course the French aristocrats did the same. I'm sure many elites, present and past, liked to claim their superior status was due to "inherent" but ill-defined characteristics : nobility, chivalry, scientific accomplishment (like the Roman elites did) ... are all words that come to mind. None of them held up their own ideals. The majority of French noblemen were cruel drunks. So were most Roman elites if Cicero's anything to go by. I'm not saying America's Ivy-league elite is a bunch of drunks, but they certainly don't satisfy their own rules : they are not social (in the political sense), they do not advance equality (quite the opposite), and most importantly : it is not the case that they're the self-selected best and brightest. Like all other elites, the reason they get in power is that they are in power and get pulled in by their buddies (which, granted, beats why French noblemen were elite : because great-great-great-great-great-granddad managed to get a command position in the king's army. The first generation of French noblemen were probably very capable people who genuinely meant well).

The only distinguishing characteristic that matters in members of America's elite is friendships and other associations with other members of the elite. As for "best and brightest", you could say that there's a (low) lower bar that they need to hit. That's it.

<comment><USER52> "The majority of French noblemen were cruel drunks."

The feodal system held together for about a thousand years in France. Give them a tiny bit of credit.

Also, insulting generalisations about a vast group of people doesn't do the rest of your arguments any credit.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER53> I understand that even a "dumb" president is probably smarter than the average person but on the other hand starting the Iraq war and ignoring the housing bubble are pretty convincing evidence that he was an idiot in all the ways that count.

Also impressive how fast these guys appear from under their rocks when they're called upon.

<comment><USER41> " starting the Iraq war and ignoring the housing bubble are pretty convincing evidence that he was an idiot in all the ways that count."

Not necessarily. Dick Cheney had financial interests in Halliburton, which benefited greatly thanks to the Iraq War. I imagine Bush had much the same (or if not him directly, then family), which would make the Iraq war a brilliant move for his pocketbook.

</comment></comment><comment><USER54> He is certainly smarter now...No Child Left Behind, right?</comment>


Lisp Web Server From Scratch using Hunchentoot and Nginx - <AUTHOR> http://zaries.wordpress.com/2010/11/09/lisp-web-server-from-scratch-using-hunchentoot-and-nginx/ <comment><USER2> Common Lisp may be worth another look. I've been loving Clojure for the past few months but this looks promising.

Quicklisp looks especially nice, hopefully solving the packaging and dependency situation.

</comment><comment><USER3> A tutorial using Quicklisp :) its so nice to see a flurry of activity around it. It seems it was the shot in the arm much needed for CL.

<comment><USER4> A hot new book didn't hurt, either...

<comment><USER5> I got this mail from No Starch Press:

 _Hey There Lisp Lover, We're sending you this email because you ordered Conrad Barski's Land of Lisp. We just wanted to let you know that because we received so many orders from so many awesome people in such a short amount of time, we ran out of our supply of books here in the office. [...]_

Congrats, drcode!

<comment><USER3> Good for them and Conrad. No Starch press always impresses me with their general geekiness and awesomeness. I've never actually read a bad book from them. If someone is interested in Linux I heartily recommend their 'How Linux Works' title for an internals tutorial.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6>
      hunchentoot_stop ()
      {
          echo -n "Stopping Lisp Hunchentoot Server process..."
          echo ""

          # 6200 is the port to signal end of lisp process
          (telnet 127.0.0.1 6200 &) > /dev/null
          (sleep 7)
      }

Surely, there must be a better alternative for shutting down the process. Telnet? Really?

<comment><USER7> Any number of triggers would work. :) You can always modify his code with an approach that is more to your liking.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Looks cool. May give it a spin.

Somewhat related... I've been reading HN long enough to know that HN itself is run on some kind of Lisp (or is it Arc?). Is there an old post to HN that outlines the configuration of the software used?

</comment><comment><USER9> Can you really saying that this is from "scratch" when using substantial prebuilt components? Isn't that like saying, "cookies from scratch using Betty Crocker cookie dough"?

<comment><USER10> So you start building it with nano-machines? or FPGA at least?

<comment><USER9> Note, I said "substantial prebuilt". If you're using eggs and butter, sure. If you're using a Lisp compiler and a standard library, sure.

But Hunchentoot is a friggin web server.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> This is way too much work just to get a web server set up.</comment>


It's All Glue: Building a Desktop Application with Lua - <AUTHOR> http://www.lua.org/wshop05/Hamburg.pdf

<comment><USER2> I've been tempted to learn Lua for quite a while now. I think I'll start tonight.

<comment><AUTHOR> I just started learning it myself a couple of weeks ago, and I'm now half-way through the online "Programming in Lua" book.

I'm quite impressed with the core language, which is quite elegant. And it's amazing what they've been able to do using just associative arrays (called "tables" in Lua) as their sole data structure.</comment></comment>