Super-Strong Graphene Has an Achilles' Heel - <AUTHOR> http://www.livescience.com/45216-graphene-weak-link-discovered.html <comment><USER3> GAHHH. They messed up the units! The stated numbers (4 MPa for imperfect graphene) are wrong! They are meant to be fracture toughness (which is measured in Pa/m^0.5), not just Pa. The paper is at [0]

Table 1 is where you want to look at. It places the fracture stress of pre- cracked graphene in the 1-10 GPa range(which should be compard to the stated 100 GPa for perfect graphene).

I don't have the full materials properties of graphene with me, and I'm not a materials guy, so I may have done something wrong above (so please correct me), but I'm fairly certain that at a minimum, the article messed up the units.

[0] [http://www-old.me.gatech.edu/zhugroup/paper/NC14.pdf](http://www- old.me.gatech.edu/zhugroup/paper/NC14.pdf)

EDIT: replaced the link to a copy of the paper hosted by the author from the original nature (paywalled) link.

EDIT2: some changes after actually reading the paper instead of going off the abstract and supplied figures.

</comment><comment><USER4>
      > Perfect graphene can take ~100 Gigapascals (14 million pounds per square
      > inch) of force before it breaks...imperfect graphene...~4 Megapascals (580
      > pounds per square inch).

Can anyone put these numbers in perspective? I understand that 100 Gigapascals is a lot, AKA more than anything I personally own. What items does the common person interact-with/own that require > 4 megapascals? I have to imagine that my old titanium lacrosse shaft could handle more than 4 megapascals.

CONTEXT ADDENDUM: Graphene hammer handle versus Hickory Handle?

<comment><USER5> I love Google unit conversion. Just enter "100 psi to pascals" as a search phrase and you get an answer. Based on this, it's possible to note some typical things converted into Pascals:

Bike tire pressure 100 psi = 690 kPa

Tensile strength of 6061 aluminum (the most common alloy) = 45000 psi = 310 MPa

<comment><USER4> Whenever people say that they like google's unit conversion I like to mention GNU units. I would be surprised if google does a unit conversion that units can not handle.

After reading the aluminum statistic it seems that graphene is not going to replace my titanium shaft (that replaced the aluminum shaft).

<comment><USER6> Can GNU units or anything like it accept a string such as "100F to C" and understand what I'd like? If so I'd love to use that instead.

<comment><USER4> Temperature conversions are a little goofy because they are nonlinear. Google's 100F to C is:

      dfc@ronin:~$ units
      2866 units, 109 prefixes, 79 nonlinear units

      You have: tempF(100)
      You want: tempC
              37.777778

The full explanation is here: [https://www.gnu.org/software/units/manual/units.html#Tempera...](https://www.gnu.org/software/units/manual/units.html#Temperature- Conversions)

<comment><USER7> I followed the like because I thought maybe i've been doimg temperature conversioms wrong all my life. Temperature conversions are so linear. They need to use a more correct term — e.g. simply proportional.

Having to add or substract a constant before or after scaling does not make a relationship non-linear.

<comment><USER8> This may be getting pedantic, but the relationship is affine not linear - linear would mean k times the original input would yield k times the original output.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> 340 200-pound angels can dance on the head of an uncracked graphene pin (2mm dia). Only about 3 to 35 on cracked graphene.

</comment><comment><USER10> So it is a bit like carbon fibre then? There is a surprise.

Anyone familiar with carbon fibre will know how some people are scared of it breaking in a catastrophic failure, as in it gets a scratch and then, under load, it breaks completely. In reality this is not much of a problem, however, this failure is very different to what you can expect from other materials such as steel and aluminium. I look forward to the 'high graphene content steel', which should be a perfect material for handy things like making tanks.

<comment><USER11> The ductility of metal has been a tremendous boon to fabrication of large machines. If parts don't quite fit, they deform to fit. This caused problems when carbon fiber started to be used to build large airplanes. Those parts don't bend and retained the internal stresses caused by mismatches. I read this happened to Boeing.

Glass and ceramics are harder than steel. The reason that glass is fragile, is that one can use its own strength against itself. The material itself acts as a lever to concentrate enormous stresses at the tips of fractures. This doesn't work nearly as well when materials are ductile.

Disclaimer: not a materials guy.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Phew. I thought the Achilles' Heel was going to be something more along the lines of: its great and everything, but:

        The Grey Goo Will Kill Us All - File Next To "Asbestos".

')

</comment><comment><USER13> "Zhu, working with Jun Lou at Rice, found that graphene with cracks is 10 times more prone to breakage than steel, and closer in fracture toughness to aluminum oxide or silicon carbide-based ceramics."

How does this compare to fracture toughness in silicon wafers? Does this result mean that graphene-based ICs would be more or less difficult to manufacture than silicon-based ICs?

<comment><USER3> I'm not a materials (or IC) guy, but my guess is that fracture toughness isn't going to be huge issue. Once the wafer is made, they're all going to be treated pretty gently. The tricky step is actually making the wafer. My understanding is that silicon wafers are normally manufactured by growing a giant silicon crystal ingot, and then basically slicing them into wafers. My understanding of graphene is that since they more or less have to be grown in sheets, then there isn't much of a subtractive process to put high stress on the material.

<comment><USER14> Most of the stress comes from expansion and contraction of the graphene when it's heating up and cooling back down again, which can be more or less pronounced depending on the substrate (glass, SiO, etc.). With chemical vapor deposition for example, often the substrate needs to be heated and the graphene has to be transferred from one substrate to another so there is still plenty of room for stress during the process. At this point any poor alignments of graphene sheets or individual atoms (I think there's three classifications for the edge of the sheet alone) can cause cracks.

<comment><USER15> How much stress would radiation outside the Van Allen belts add?

(I could probably find this out myself, but it was quite a few years ago. I assume a sheet would be damaged by gamma?)

<comment><USER14> I don't think there is a known material that wouldn't be damaged by gamma rays but it's a statistical process and we just don't have that many gamma rays on our surface.

<comment><USER15> I was wondering about space applications.

A sheet might maybe self heal after gamma radiation, that is why I asked (depending on environment, there might not be much else to happen?). Most other radiation is charged and might be kept away with strong magnetic fields.

But, as I wrote, this was a long time ago.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Slightly off topic, but Professor Sir Andre Geim (the original inventor, I believe) was the very enjoyable guest on Radio 4's Desert Island Discs last month.

[http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island- discs/cas...](http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island- discs/castaway/20e3bf76)

</comment><comment><USER17> [http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/163997-carbyne-a-new- form...](http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/163997-carbyne-a-new-form-of- carbon-thats-stronger-than-graphene)

Use carbyne!

<comment><USER18> Sorry for OT, but.. Jeremy Clarkson has ruined all carby.* names for me - <USER2> can't stop thinking about his joke.</comment></comment>


Suing entrepreneurs for using the word entrepreneur in their company names - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessreviewusa.com/industry-focus/property/entrepreneur-magazine-bullies-their-way-top

<comment><USER2> Wow...</comment>


How to Make Stress Your Friend - <AUTHOR> http://www.ted.com/talks/kelly_mcgonigal_how_to_make_stress_your_friend?language=en

<comment><AUTHOR> TL;DR: Stress is defined in modern society as horrible, detrimental to physical and mental health, and to be avoided at all costs (see "mindfulness", "yoga", etc). However, Kelly uses science to show that simply by changing your mindset towards stress, you can change its long term implications for your health.

This video changed my life, because I live a stressful life, and while I don't endorse stress by itself, coping with it in this way is of huge importance to me.

<comment><USER2> I think this can be generalized to other emotional responses. The implicit, non-verbal parts of your brain do a hell of a lot of processing in order to output emotions. And they do that for a reason - stress to prepare yourself for action, anger to deal with conflict, joy to share good things with others, etc. A hell of a lot of people tend to try to fight the symptoms of negative emotions, rather than sussing out the cause and dissolving the root.

In some sense, "how do I cope with stress" or "how do I deal with my anxiety" is the wrong question. The right question looks more like "what is my anxiety trying to tell me?"

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I read "self-help" book a while back called "Stress for Success". The premise was that we can condition ourselves to psychological stressors in much the same way that a physically fit person can condition themselves to physical demands.

I agree with this. A certain amount of stress is good if you can overcome it and it makes you more resistant to higher stress in the future.</comment>


Mysql Sharding For A Site That Gets 5 Billion Views Per Month - <AUTHOR> http://www.jurriaanpersyn.com/archives/2009/02/12/database-sharding-at-netlog-with-mysql-and-php/

<comment><USER2> Also remember that the 5Bn pageviews is not the reason to shard -- it's the total size and mutation rate ("read/write ratio") of your data. If your DB fits in memory, or if your reads are 10X your writes, don't just shard because it's cool.

</comment><comment><USER3> A wonderful read for anyone looking to learn about sharding. However, the Final Thoughts section is probably the most important: don't do it unless you have to. Sharding is a pain and will severely limit your ability to develop new features quickly and for many sites, sharding will never be needed (since they won't grow that big). Databases are efficient and hardware is fast. Sometimes your user-base is larger than what those great things can handle so it's good to know what sharding is, but it isn't fun to do so avoid it if you don't need it.

</comment><comment><USER4> If you plan to create a popular product that handles tons of data and tons of users, then include sharding as soon as possible. Bolting sharding on after you have lots of data, lots of code, lots of traffic and lots of users is a nightmare and worst-case scenario.

You can postpone it thought if you are unsure how popular your product will become. If you do postpone it, then be sure your joins are "sane" - normally, you don't really do joins in a sharded environment as data is located on different databases, so you will do yourself a major favor in not doing joins that will force you to re-model your data when you switch to sharding.

And in a sharded environment you also copy things around :)

<comment><USER5> I like to abstract data access from the implementation of its storage, so making changes to the storage methodology shouldn't/won't require substantial changes to business or application logic. Keeping the separation clear is more difficult for some people than others. One of the problems with the route you are suggesting is that people don't know the future. Eliminate bottlenecks as they start to come up, and don't tightly couple unrelated concerns.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> 40m+ active users and I'd never even heard of them!

<comment><USER7> Because netlog's audience is pretty different from hacker news.

Search for common names to get an idea: <http://www.google.com/search?q=netlog+profile+for+julia> <http://www.google.com/search?q=netlog+profile+for+john>

<comment><USER8> No need, they have a full people directory:

<http://nl.netlog.com/go/directory/> (Holland & Belgium, change subdomain for diff areas)</comment></comment></comment>


Michelle Obama at WWDC: Bad Math Teachers Drove My Daughters Out of STEM - <AUTHOR> https://slashdot.org/submission/7118947/michelle-obama-at-wwdc-bad-math-teachers-drove-my-daughters-out-of-stem <comment><USER2> Not to trivialize her experience with her two daughters, but if I didn't do something because the person that taught me the basics of it at 10 or 11 was terrible, I would have a very small range of potential jobs.

Nobody I grew up with was taught to code in school. Most teachers were pretty bad - Math and Science particularly; they weren't just bad at the subjects, they were often cruel. Middle school was an awful experience for everyone, I think.

That's not a reason not to improve things - I'd love for things to get better for everyone.

<comment><USER3> Not being taught by school teachers can actually be more beneficial than being taught badly. When nobody taints your experience with a particular subject and you attack the problem yourself, you start neutral. It is curiosity and discipline that drives you forward. If, on the other hand, someone taught you the basics but did this in a terrible way, you associate negative things with the subject. Your curiosity is curbed, you won't pursue the subject further.

<comment><USER4> That's how it was for me. For most of my education, the focus in math was very practical. There were proofs in set theory and geometry, for sure. But math was mostly about calculating.

Then, at university, the focus in math shifted to pure theory. I was lost. Totally lost. And then I discovered engineering math, and was happy again.

So anyway, I wonder if I'd have been better off without so much practical math.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> So Mrs. Obama says that her daughters had bad math teachers and so took themselves out of STEM, and this is "what happens to girls". Hmm...so what happened to the boys who had the same bad teachers?

<comment><USER6> Maybe nothing. Or maybe something. Either way, we won't find out if we approach what she's saying without curiosity. Incredulity toward what she's saying serves to preserve the status quo, not effect change.

[https://arstechnica.com/science/2010/01/female-teachers- math...](https://arstechnica.com/science/2010/01/female-teachers-math-anxiety- influences-female-students/)

[http://www.npr.org/2015/09/01/436525758/how-teachers- unconsc...](http://www.npr.org/2015/09/01/436525758/how-teachers-unconscious- bias-play-into-the-hands-ofgender-disparity)

<comment><USER5> So we need to get women out of early childhood education?

(Both referenced articles talk about female teachers, who are the vast majority of teachers at that grade level, transmitting their anxiety about or dislike of math to female students)

<comment><USER6> So we need to rethink how we teach and how we think. Like approaching a problem of gender bias by assuming that's the only root issue, which it obviously isn't here, since there's also the problem of bad teachers, in general.

Here's one change you may benefit from: exclude solutions that exclude a class of people. Otherwise, we'll need to wait for bad teachers to die out before a solution excluding them can really take hold & that's not a possible outcome because no system is perfect.

Edit: more specifically, we need to immediately start training teachers how to handle their anxiety,which means we probably need to qualitatively study their anxieties. Without shaming them or excluding them or threatening their livelihoods.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> so one of the most powerful people in the US couldn't get their children good math teachers? something doesn't add up here.

<comment><USER6> Weren't their children in public school?

If her children were turned off of STEM and didn't want to stick with it until they saw cultural change, I could see the Obamas as the type of parents who'd respect their childrens' chosen paths here.

<comment><USER8> Obama's kids were in private school. And not just any private school. The "Harvard of private schools".

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

<comment><USER6> Ah. Thanks for the correction. In any case, it's irrelevant as having power only says power is available to be used and not whether it should be or where it can be.

Some things are even out of the Obamas' control, like what fields their children are drawn to or repelled from.

<comment><USER8> I agree with you. However, since Obama kids literally had the best instructors money can buy, I am not sure how their mom can blame the teachers. The kids probably just didn't have an aptitude for STEM.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> For anyone whose skepticism was trickered (tricked into triggering) because of the source of the message, let's think about this briefly:

1\. Teaching is hard.

2\. Teaching abstract concepts (ie. math) is often harder because not everyone thinks the same way. (This is why rote learning in math was the standard for so long.)

3\. Teaching abstract concepts in a gender-biased abstract composition of fields (STEM) in a gender-biased country (USA) is harder to teach equally to both genders.

4\. Teaching in that context to kids is hardest.

There we go...now you can forget it was an Obama making the claim and come at me instead.

<comment><USER4> How is STEM gender-biased?

Are you arguing for innate gender differences in abstract thought?

Or is it just that boys tend to intimidate and shut down girls?

Would gender segregation be better? My wife thinks so.

<comment><USER6> STEM is gender-biased because we live in a world where societies are gender- biased. Systems theory says the bias will be visible in lower levels, so it's safe to assume it's in teaching.

That's how you can logic it out. If you want data, go find it. Failure to do so is work ignorance and that's OK because changing beliefs is scary and hard.

I'm arguing for humans to learn how to observe themselves and be open to seeing the impact they have on others. And for passing special attention where bias is present in order to properly apply whatever the appropriate anti-bias is.

You seem to really like problems with singular problems and solutions. Maybe looking into systems theory will help you recognize complex systems work a bit differently?

Personally, I think the ultimate solution is for humans to learn they can largely abandon judgment. I have some ideas on how to pull it off, so I'm gonna go back to writing about them.

<comment><USER4> That's a rather judgmental response, for someone who talks about learning to "largely abandon judgment".

> STEM is gender-biased because we live in a world where societies are gender- > biased.

Really? STEM _in practice_ is of course gender-biased. Because, as you say, "societies are gender-biased". But what about the subjects themselves? It seems unlikely that science, technology, engineering and mathematics are inherently incomprehensible to women.

<comment><USER5> > STEM in practice is of course gender-biased

Really? Do you really mean _biased_ [1], or do you mean there are gender differences in STEM fields, particularly as to the representation of genders in those fields (as there are in other fields)?

Or are these two the same for you?

[1] [http://www.dictionary.com/browse/bias](http://www.dictionary.com/browse/bias)

<comment><USER4> I mean "biased" in both senses. There are undeniably differences in gender distribution among various STEM and other fields. Those differences may reflect innate gender-based differences in interest, aptitude, etc.

But even if that's the case, it's very likely that gender bias in the culture also drives them. That gender bias affects the behavior of everyone involved in the process (students, parents, teachers, peers, etc).

It may even be that gender bias pervades various STEM fields at a deep structural level. That's another perspective on potential innate gender-based differences in interest, aptitude, etc.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I wrote a math book that helps a lot with math de-fearing. The technology is very old-school: the printed word, but the teaching style is new. The tone is very conversational so it feels like you're reading a really long blog post. It's not free, but there is and extended preview here [https://minireference.com/static/excerpts/noBSguide_v5_previ...](https://minireference.com/static/excerpts/noBSguide_v5_preview.pdf)

Basic Math. People knew some of this shit 2000 years ago. Surely any modern teenager can learn this stuff if we give them the space of a year, good learning resources, and a detailed "spec" of what they must know at the end of each grade. Instead of the `stick` of failing this grade, you offer kids the `carrot` of skipping ahead multiple grades if they pass tests on the "spec"s for these grade levels.

Suppose students spend n years in high school and on average pass the entire math spec in m years, where m < n (maybe m ~ n/2). Math wiz kids won't be held back and can go on an all-you-can-math binge, while artistically inclined youth can choose to skip math for several grades and then "catch up" during later grades.

</comment><comment><USER10> Perhaps the problem is that we continue to start STEM education with MATH. I've never really liked math but I"ve worked as a software developer for over a decade

</comment><comment><USER11> Doesn't surprise me... my fourth grade teacher told me was "bad at math" because I was a girl. Gave me a great excuse to not even try. My mom is still pissed at this teacher as of today. Took stumbling into geometry 6 years later, where I found I had natural spacial awareness allowing me to breeze geometric proofs and a teacher who didn't hold my prior years' bad performance against me, to change a barely C math student into an A math student. After this class, I realized that if I tried I could succeed.

Edit: sort of a PS, the geometry teacher also expressed surprised that I wasn't a terrible math student. My next math teacher would see the grades from the prior year, and I think that had a lot to do with the next successive teacher not investing much time. I was a girl, I was clearly a shit student, so not much reason to bother.

</comment><comment><USER12> /Meta

gawd, been literally years since I've visited /. ...and tho it still is a bit of what it used to be, I don't think I like what it is anymore than when I quit it around ~2009.

I can't even remember now just what the tipping point was anymore but I do remember that the quality of conversation had gone south.

Does anyone else feel the same mix of sadness for what /. has become and a longing for what it once was? (...and for me personally, no, HN doesn't completely fill the gap, hence the longing)

<comment><USER13> 3 words: Slashdot PT Cruiser. That was the point of no return.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> This just in: "women in male-dominated fields are not more likely to switch fields compared to their female peers in other fields"

From "Do They Stay or Do They Go? The Switching Decisions of Individuals Who Enter Gender Atypical College Majors"

[https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11199-016-0583-4](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11199-016-0583-4)

</comment><comment><USER14> Yeah the boys have the same bad math teachers.

</comment><comment><USER15> So math is easy for you and you can communicate well - you're worth a lot of money! Do you go teach? In Finland, yes you might well - they'll pay you and respect you to boot. But in the West, they'll starve you and force you to be a part-time cop and social worker in classes that are too large. Bad math teachers? If they knew math inside out and well enough to clearly explain it even to children, they wouldn't be teachers; that would be crazy - saints are rare. So this really boils down to the ancient problem of: "There aren't enough saints!" Well, no... no there aren't, nor will there ever be (future genetic re-engineering aside.)

PS - 100 years ago we spent an incredible amount on children's education and health as a society - we forced nearly all women of genius to either teach or become nurses. That represented a ridiculously large subsidy (on the backs of women) for both endeavors that we've never replaced. Certainly not by dollars. So of course there's a problem, now. Outside Finland where they pay teachers very well, of course.

</comment><comment><USER16> bad math teachers and bad math education approaches also turn away males/boys too. also I suspect some people just have more of an affinity for math, than others, regardless of gender or race. let's be blind to gender and race and just talk about improving math/STEM for everyone

</comment><comment><USER17> It's a farce. The Obama daughters won't go into STEM anyway, rather finance or law/politics. (S)TEM is for Suckers who enrich those I just mentioned, or so says this cynical, middle aged electrical engineer.

Despite both parents being engineers, my 9 YO wants to be an ophthalmologist. The guy who runs the LASIK clinic down the street drives a "Lambo", despite the actual LASIK being performed by a machine built by those (Suckers)TEM.

<comment><USER18> Doesn't being a medical doctor (of whatever specialty) fall under "Science"?

<comment><USER17> Probably yes and no. An MD in NIH or some other research facility, sure. The guy cranking through LASIK procedures, no. I'd call that the service sector. Though it's obvious where the money is.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> What reason would the Obama daughters have for being interested in STEM? They are royalty now, with the gates of power and prestige and celebrity opened to them for the rest of their lives. Why put themselves through the work of a STEM education? Pre-law is much easier.

It's an incredibly rational choice.

<comment><USER20> Your profile says you program as a hobby, so how can it be a mystery to you why someone might be interested in something?

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> US education needs a revamp.

1\. Establish nation-wide professional education colleges(the Normal Universities), students graduate to be teachers, government shall fund the colleges as much as possible, including lower tuition for students as long as they are into teachers profession.

2\. boost pay for teachers, make teacher a proud profession socially and financially.

Both 1 and 2 are popular in Asia countries, it's nothing revolutionary. Our public education system here is so sub-par and good teachers are so hard to find, all the time.</comment>


Ask HN: Building an app to make real-world conversations searchable. Want it? - <AUTHOR>

We're working on Retrospect (http://goretro.co), an app that sits in the background and intelligently records location and audio from your day-to-day interaction with the world. It lets you access your real-world conversations just like you might search your email. Look for things like "conversations with Sarah at Starbucks" or "Baseball games I've gone to with my Dad", then play back the recorded moment.
We're launching sign-ups for our free beta starting today if you'd like to try it out.
What do you think? Would you use something like this? <comment><USER2> It sounds like you are using speech-to-text and NLP algorithms to make audio recordings keyword searchable.

Frankly, the consumer use cases for this are creepy. If this were a thing, and my friend or family member were recording all our conversations, I would ask them to turn it off or leave.

But I think you should market this to law enforcement, law firms, and possibly business executives. It would be very useful in these spaces to have searchable audio transcripts of court hearings, testimonies, depositions, interrogations, confessions, as well as board meetings, keynote presentations, etc. Maybe also useful for journalists and academic researchers who do a lot of recorded interviews.

If your speech-to-text performance is really good, it could also replace stenography in closed-captioning. (Yeah that's still how closed captioning works for live TV--someone listens and pecks away at a stenotype.)

Basically, sell it any place where a stenographer is currently employed, or where people currently use audio recorders. Don't try to get people to record audio of their entire lives for sentimental value, though, that isn't a realistic use case. Most people's lives are mundane and we know it. We don't need a searchable, chronological index of every time we curse or fart.

</comment><comment><USER3> Want it? With extreme emphasis: _oh hell no!_

I'm so annoyed by this project. Imagine the kind of chilling effect this would have on daily interactions if you knew everything you said was being recorded. It has a chilling effect even if it's _you_ that's recording your own interactions! If I found out someone was surreptitiously recording my casual conversations I'd just never talk to them again, except to chew them out for doing such a shitty thing. Also, if someone asked me whether it's ok to hit record in a social setting, I'd look at them sideways and not only decline, but would instantly stop trusting them and cut them out of my life as a consequence.

I rarely want people to fail, but I really, really want this privacy-busting, surveillance project to fail miserably. We're surveilled enough as it is without intelligent people contributing to these garbage projects.

Ted, Will, and George: work on something that benefits humanity rather than chills the frankness of interpersonal interactions. The potential consequences of this project are awful.

<comment><USER4> This summarizes the whole argument quite well. Apparently kintamanimatt and I share the same level of disgust for people who try to create privacy-invading technologies.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'd use it. If it weren't hosted. And if it was Open Source. Otherwise, I just can't bring myself to trust it.

The concept is a goldmine. You need to convince potential users of its security an privacy protection, should there be any. If there isn't any, your product is a ticking time bomb.

<comment><USER6> We're designing this thing so that even we can never access your recordings. Building it with actual security in mind poses some UX challenges (don't lose all your credentials at the same time!) but we'd rather have that problem than any amount of privacy risk.

<comment><USER7> Does this mean that I can store the only copies of the recordings on my machines, or that they are on your machines and there is some step you cannot perform that is required to read them?

<comment><USER6> They're on our machines, but under keys that we don't have. We're also considering a federated model that would give users control over their storage.

<comment><USER8> So, the conversations are on server but the required indexes for searching are on client? Seems a little weird to me.

<comment><USER9> i think he meant keys in the cryptography sense, not database search indexes.

<comment><USER8> No I got that, but somehow the audio must be processed, right? And it has to be done on client or there is no point for encryption. Also, assuming the search indexes are sent to the server, how would the server access them if they are encrypted?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Amazing idea, now imagine this with Google Glass. It would be just like in the third episode of Black Mirror.

</comment><comment><USER11> I was thinking about this a few years back, when I was working on firmware for pre-smart-phones. Probably something to do with getting old and forgetful :)

The trouble with audio - as everyone has pointed out - is the privacy and storage issues. What I would be interested in is some way of producing a condensed "markup" of your day, easily searchable using a voice assistant. It would record the basic facts but not the verbatim conversations.

When I first thought of this in any depth it was still unfeasible, but now I think much of it is already there. Still, a big project. Maybe smaller, niche versions for particular tasks would have to come first?

</comment><comment><USER12> Very interesting idea!

However, while you do address the privacy of the user themselves, what about the privacy of the other unwitting participants who are having their conversations being recorded and stored without their consent?

<comment><AUTHOR> This is definitely a tricky question, but in the end it comes down to the actions our users take, just like if they were using a tape recorder or Google Glass-like-device.

We'll make sure to notify our users of the relevant privacy laws in their current area, and we'll always encourage people to tell those around them when they have Retrospect turned on.

<comment><USER13> I like the idea, but there absolutely has to be some sort of indicator that you're interested in recording this convo (and the less invasive the better). How about linking it to calendar events, and/or locations? Facial rec could be an indicator for recording when you hit Glass integration.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> How do you expect to tackle the amount of battery power this puppy will drain?

</comment><comment><USER15> Sounds compelling, though in Turkey (where I live) recording someone without their consent is a criminal offense. To legally use the app, I would need to open every conversation with a request for their consent to be recorded, and even then I could be prosecuted if the material was made available to a third party without the person's permission. Journalists here run into this problem all the time, so I don't think this is a very good market for trying this.

</comment><comment><USER16> Would love the idea/app/service but I am not sure what exactly your app does. Would it be able to extract enough information from hundreds of business meetings to actually pinpoint not just meetings but also just segments of meetings? => I don't wanna listen to a 60 minute meeting but really only listen to 2 minutes where we discussed feature XYZ

<comment><AUTHOR> Eventually that's the idea, yeah. We're going to be trying out some topic detection algorithms on the recordings so that we can let you search for specific things that you talked about and jump to them in the recording.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Cool. Keep in mind that it's illegal to record people without their permission in many states. (Pennsylvania, for example.)

</comment><comment><USER18> I actually think it would be cool, at first, but I would be painfully quiet if I knew everyone used it. It's the kind of thing that would be neat to try for just a day. Once lots of people use it, there would be a nice little market for Retrospect-jamming hardware.

</comment><comment><USER19> Interesting idea, but it requires quite a major lifestyle change for the user. It is the type of service that takes time for people to adjust to. I wouldn't be surprised if it took you (or a competitor) a couple of years to get a decent amount of regular users.

</comment><comment><USER20> I'm not sure I'd get a lot of utility out of 10,000 hours of "butt calls". Maybe if there was some memory that I was looking to rekindle by listening to it, but I'm not sure if the actual audio would ever beat my "memory" of it.

</comment><comment><USER21> It is not legal or ethical, I think. No one should have my conversation in their phone or something, even though s/he is my closest friend or my parent. So, I think I wouldn't use it, but not sure about others.

</comment><comment><USER22> How have you solved the technical challenges associated with background noise found in real world conversations and recording a high enough signal:noise ratio to index the audio and make it searchable?

</comment><comment><USER23> Recording people without their knowledge is unethical, and letting people know they're being recorded all the time is also not feasible, so, I wouldn't use this. Good luck.

</comment><comment><USER24> Might be a good one, say you are on vacation, and would like to be able to relive the experience at a later point.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Clickable link: <http://goretro.co/>

</comment><comment><USER25> Sorts of reminds me of the Livescribe pen (see their 'pencast' tools).

</comment><comment><USER26> Sounds interesting (pun intended..)

<comment><AUTHOR> +1 for awful pun

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Most conversations are far worse than any written communication about umming and repeating things, etc. To me, this sounds like just so much baggage, assuming that every conversation is significant. I am also reminded of some quotes or lines about words getting in the way of communication. I think that problem is bad enough in the world without BigBrothering our lives.

Having said that, I do think there are some potential niche uses for this. In addition to law enforcement and court, it makes me think of the South American tribe that used video recordings of meetings with whites to hold them to their word. They did not read and write English but they found a means to avoid the fate of so many indigent peoples who have been lied to, taken advantage of, and screwed over by people from more "advanced" cultures.

</comment><comment><USER28> sounds quite invasive...</comment>


Living a car-free life - <AUTHOR> http://zenhabits.net/car-free/

<comment><USER2> I would be all over it, if the public transportation system was there. It isn't, so I'm not. I looked into how long it would take me to commute via public transportation to work and it was hysterically beyond feasible: <http://publictransportation.org/></comment>


New look to the RSS reader - <AUTHOR> http://reefeed.com/about/ <comment><AUTHOR> Feedback please

<comment><USER2> Sorry for harshness, but:

Don't show me machine translated text in what you guess is my language, it hurts to read it. Especially if you seem to do text analysis on posts as a mayor feature, which I'm going to assume will fail spectacularly in non- english posts as well.

Also, I'm not going to log in with a social media account just to test it. Allow users to register username/password and preferably give a preview without registering.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: How to set up a landing page to collect email from a niche group? - <AUTHOR> I would like to start an Appsumo like web portal which will provide ridiculously cheap deals on instruments and lab kits to a bunch of people in a particular niche group. Say for the people who are in universities and Govt. organizations doing physics and astronomy. However, I have no technical background(coding) for launching a good landing page which can collect email address from a niche group. Also I have little business experience on how to collect enough numbers of email addresses to start with.
So here are my questions.
Q1. How should I set up a landing page to collect required information.Should I go with any landing page template off the shelf to test the idea or hire a freelance developer to do it?
Q2. 1. How do I go out and collect large number of email addresses from a particular niche group?
Thanks <comment><USER2> So, from your point of view, you have a problem (lack of business) and something that would help you out (people giving you their email address). Let's reframe this: your audience has a problem (fill this in for me), and you have something which would help them out (fill this in for me), which _as a consequence_ results in you getting their email address and permission to contact them.

You're presumably the expert on this subject, so just take this as an example: let's say your target audience spends a lot of time grant-writing. Aha! You, being the expert on their needs, might _also_ know a lot about grant-writing, maybe specific with grant-writing-for-physical-goods-purchases. Why don't you collect your expertise about that subject in, say, a 15-page report?

Then, instead of "Please give me your email address because that would help me a lot", you'd say "Do you have a problem grant-writing? Of course you do. I'll send you a free copy of my 15-page report on grant writing, including these 3 tips which will save you time/stress and make it more likely that your grant is successful. Where should I send your report? [email address] [Get My Free Report]"

You make it clear on this page that, in addition to the report, you'll be sending them other stuff that they'll find valuable, and if they don't, they can stop receiving it at any time.

Other stuff:

1) AppSumo will tell you that, for your first 1000 customers, your issue is less "How do I collect a large number of email addresses?" and more "How do I bang down the door of 1,000 people in this niche to have meaningful conversations with them?" You can _literally_ justify putting your email signup on an iPad and going door-to-door or conference-to-conference getting signups at this point, just to have a better understanding of where your target customer is at.

2) In specific response to Q1, at this stage, any landing page template off the shelf is better than what you have now, and paying a developer is a poor use of your limited resources. You can hook together e.g. Unbounce or e.g. any landing page template on ThemeForest.net to e.g. Mailchimp in under 15 minutes, even with no special development skill.

3) In direct response to your Q2, this question is "How do I do marketing?", and that is outside the scope of an HN comment. Don't worry about that right now. Get the incentive written, get the landing page up, and get things to the point where you can take someone out to coffee and browbeat them into signing up on the spot. _If you cannot convince someone to sign up for your mailing list while you're looking them in the eye you will never convince 10,000 people to sign up for your mailing list just from looking at your landing page._

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi patio11, Thanks for the comment. Really makes sense. Collecting email is not the only hard part. Once you have sufficient number of people who want a specific product, the next hard part is to do the deal with the companies to push them to sell you the same product at a lower price. I believe if I have sufficient number of customers I can do the negotiation with the company to bring down the price to a certain level. But that is now in assumption phase.

<comment><USER2> If the core source of risk to the business is not "Can I get 1,000 buyers of X" but rather "Can I get a discounted supply of X if I buy 1,000 of it at a time", that should be investigated with a phone call prior to building an audience.

<comment><AUTHOR> That is a great pointer which needs to be taken care of first. Though getting 1000 buyers for product X is as equally important as getting a discounted supply, inquiring the supplier(or it's competitor) will save a bunch of time and give an idea whether the business idea is good to start with or not.

<comment><USER3> patio11 just:

        a)made you lots of money
        b) saved you lots of money and time

His response was just spot on. You should follow his advice. Really.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'm assuming you want to MVP this sucker, get it up and test it as quick as possible. I'll also approach this from a "tools you need" to build it as I'll assume you've thought through the marketing aspect.

If that's the case, there is no reason you need to hire a developer to build this. If you want to MVP this and just test something, you can throw up a landing page with Premise 2.0 software from copyblogger. I've written a tutorial on this here - <http://socialmouths.com/blog/2012/04/17/premise-2-0/> . It's almost offensively simple to do and you should be able to have a decent opt-in page up and running in 20 minutes.

If you're looking to collect emails, I would integrate it with MailChimp (Aweber is better, but MailChimp is free for your first 2000 contacts).

As for marketing, we'd have to know more about what you're interested in selling eventually to these customers as your incentives for getting them to sign up will vary based on wherever their interest should be targeted.

Hope that helps.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks Joel for your suggestion. I was debating between unbounce.com and using mediatemple (I have a plan with them). But after reading about premise 2.0, I think it is worth to look for. Can you please describe the difference between unbounce and premise 2.0?

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> You can register yourdomain.com, and register an account with tinyletter and redirect it to <http://tinyletter.com/yourdomain> \- then tell people to go to yourdomain.com

At least with Tiny Letter you're ready to go to send emails once the emails are collected.

Or you can create a basic page using Google Sites and embed the tinyletter code on it to collect the email addresses. I've done something similar here: <http://goo.gl/OyAXK> (you can also embed a twitter widget on the page too as I've done to publish updates to the page from twitter)

\- just find organizations, and specifically people in those organizations who can push out your message. Also go to online forums and post there. In your postings, have your webpage as your signature. Try yahoo and google groups.

</comment><comment><USER6> Q1: You should find developer to do the landing page and many different versions of it for testing which gives most traffic and email addresses. After a while just keep those that actually work with your marketing campaign.

Q2: Simple google hack gives you easily email addresses from forums and other websites where this niche group shares their email address publicly. Query something like this "@gmail.com site:mmorpg.com" the email address domain works so that it will search for email addresses from that email provider and the site keyword specifies the website where you want to find the email addresses.

Anyway with a landing page you should use google adwords for advertising campaign instead of trying to spam users to get their email address which you already have.

</comment><comment><USER7> A) Use something off the shelf. Simple and cheap is best when starting out so that you can focus on finding business.

B) Explain exactly why the customer should fill in the email. I don't like bribing the customer with some other unrelated thing, like a white paper because people who want the whitepaper just want the white paper. They might not be your actual customers. Instead I would honestly say (example) "Do you want awesome deals on physics and astronomy instruments? Well we're going to find deals for you and send an email every month."

C - Niche products need niche sales strategy. Find out where your customers spend time and figure out how you can get in to meet people. Explain what you can do for them and ask for an email on the spot.

<comment><AUTHOR> You are right. The landing page should be clear and has a clean call to action describing only one goal. That is, how the customers/users will be benefited by providing their contact information such as email and which products or kits do they want at a ridiculous price.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> You should look at <http://launchrock.com/>

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks Jabo, Looks like a great launching platform for landing page. Will have to dig deeper to find out more about it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Unbounce.com

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, I am debating between Unbounce and hosting plan with a landing page option where I will have more control.</comment></comment>


A short history of Raspberry Pi by Eben Upton - PopTech Talk - <AUTHOR> http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/1898

<comment><USER2> I'm quite turned off the Raspberry Pi right now. I ordered one the day after they went on sale. Got an email in July that it would be coming to me with 12 week shipping. Last week I got an email that the shipping was delayed 8 weeks.</comment>


Occam's Forgotten Razor - <AUTHOR> http://jonchu.posterous.com/occams-forgotten-razor

<comment><USER2> Cuddling up with a warm cup of coffee and starting that article... then so suddenly it ends! I continued to look for content everywhere, believing that perhaps it was hidden in the source as <!-- comments --> and then I thought if I sent it random user agents I would get it. Then I tried to reload it a few hundred times. Still no content... where is it hidden?</comment>


Show HN: Word Curve – an iOS/Android game based on gesture typing - <AUTHOR> http://singlemethodgames.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> I released the app in April last year. It's been a side project for a while, and after a few updates I'm pretty keen to share it around :)

<comment><USER2> Very interesting concept for a game, enjoying it.</comment></comment>


We are community of experts and enthusiasts about tech products - <AUTHOR> http://www.landesy.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> Join us, and We will complete your training. With our combined strength, we can end this destructive conflict and bring order to the galaxy.</comment>


Apple Said to Be in Talks to Buy Beats for $3.2 Billion - <AUTHOR> http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/dealbook/2014/05/08/apple-said-to-be-in-talks-to-buy-beats-for-3-2-billion/ <comment><USER2> This makes even less sense than the Square acquisition rumor.

1\. Apple has the tech and library to do their own subscription service if they want to. You think they can't do their own licensing deal? They surely don't need to pay $3B to acquire someone else's.

2\. Apple wouldn't want to operate a cross-platform service. They'd pay a huge premium to acquire a bunch of Android customers than they'd promptly purge. Plus, it'd probably invite anti-trust scrutiny.

3\. The argument about Beats headphone quality is moot. Even if it's more than just marketing / bass-heavy EQ, Apple would not pay $3B to acquire headphone technology.

None of that makes any sense at all. I have to believe someone thinks Beats and Square are interesting to Apple because their products have a certain superficial Apple design aesthetic. But it makes no sense from a business model standpoint.

Or maybe Apple's doing some kind of next-level mole hunt here to level-up on secrecy.

<comment><USER3> > You think they can't do their own licensing deal?

When you are the richest guy in town it is hard to negotiate a good deal. It is probably much smarter to just buy Beats. If they bought Spotify, they would be stuck supporting Android and Windows customers.

The $3B price probably reflects the current profitability of the headphone line. For what it is worth, audio brands seem to have staying power. I am not sure if the quality criticisms are a positive or negative value signal personally.

<comment><USER4> Other services (like spotify) have tended to have clauses in their licenses saying something like "If you get acquired, the deal is cancelled and you have to renegotiate it" so that the record companies can prevent exactly this from happening. I would be surprised if Beats doesn't as well.

That means that it doesn't matter if Apple (or anyone else) buys someone who already has a deal - the previous terms go away and the record companies get to start the negotiations all over again.

<comment> k-mcgrady Don't forget Beats is run by a record label boss. He is extremely well positioned to make those deals.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I cannot figure out any way to reconcile the incredibly poor quality of Beats products with a hopeful future for Apple. Can someone make the argument for why this is a good idea?

<comment><USER6> They are over marketed a bit and over priced, sure, but just as much as Bose, B&O and a lot of other premium sound brands.

How do they objectively have "incredibly poor quality"? Do you have a link that support they have really poor sound quality or bad build quality or horrible customer satisfaction rate?

<comment><USER7> Bose is a damn bad example as a premium brand to compare Beats to. Their consumer headphones are widely considered to be way overpriced and gimmicky. The brands Beats should really be compared to are Sennheiser, Shure, A-T, Denon, Beyerdynamic and the like. Any offerings from these brands at a price point from $100 and up offer at least as good sound quality as Beats' cans and for a much lower price, and many of their phones look pretty good as well.

<comment><USER8> And yet... Bose QC15 are simple, light, comfortable and sound fine. The real point, however, is that they are amazing at tuning out the outside world, and thus are fantastic for coding. Their lack of audiophile cred means absolutely nothing compared to all the above, and if you are in an environment with noisy children or coworkers you won't want open headphones anyway. So for the actual use cases of many of us here, QC15 are actually a good choice. Regarding Beats, I actually have no opinion since I've never tried them, but people who like them enjoy them...

<comment><USER9> I'll go one further and assert that in a noisy environment, the Bose QC15 have the absolute best overall sound quality of any headphone I'm aware of. By a very, very long mark.

I had a few very sophisticated sets of expensive headphones (plus a headphone amplifier) and I just don't use them any more. When I don't need to wear headphones, I'll sit down in my theatre room. When I _need_ to wear headphones, it's because I'm in an environment with other noises (office, travel, etc) and the noise cancellation trumps any other cans' refinement.

<comment><USER10> Even Beyerdynamic 770 Pro? I tried active noise canceling in the past, but found the sound ultimately fatiguing. I prefer passive cancellation now, and 10db is a significant amount of isolation.

<comment><USER9> Absolutely; the 770 Pro are one of the cans I own (the 80 ohms model). They're exactly the set I reach for when I want to listen at home with privacy.

In a noisy environment though, they just can't compete. Yes, the 770 Pro have excellent passive isolation characteristics, but they do absolutely nothing for low frequencies [0] whereas the QC15 achieves 20db [1]. This makes all the difference in the world when you're trying to escape into music while flying.

I know what you mean about active noise cancelling being fatiguing. I've been lured into noise cancellation before, only to be repelled by the strange feeling of pressure within the ear. I wouldn't have given a moment's consideration to the QC15 had I not been loaned a pair by a friend. I'm not going to say the QC15 are perfect for everyone, but to _my ears_ the pressure phenomenon is pretty much nonexistent. I've worn them for an entire 13 hour flight without a moment's discomfort.

[0] [http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/BeyerdynamicDT770.pdf](http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/BeyerdynamicDT770.pdf)

[1] [http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/BoseQuietComfort15.pdf](http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/BoseQuietComfort15.pdf)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> This seems like a strange thing to acquire. It's not like Apple couldn't make headphones of that sort if they wanted to, and if they wanted cachet, they'd probably scoop up Bose or Sennheiser, a name with some actual weight behind it.

It's amazing that HP's series "With Beats Audio" actually cheapens their product.

<comment><USER12> I read a thread on Reddit where someone discovered that disabling the "enhanced audio" feature just screwed up the driver EQ system (setting "treble" all the way up and "bass" all the way down).

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> So much for Apple's appearance of being a premium brand. Beats products are junk. Until 2012, they were basically white-labeled Monster Cable products.

<comment><USER14> Yes, it's precisely about appearance. Beats head/earphones are very popular. They were also in some sort of partnership with HP (and perhaps others?) previously --- you can find many HP laptops with Beats Audio. This appears to be a selling point, so combined with the fashionable image of Beats, it makes sense that Apple would want to absorb this brand.

Also, most people aren't aware that Beats are junk. Many consumers mistake a strong bass for good audio quality (or even more shockingly, they don't care about quality, and bass is _what they want_).

<comment><USER15> Not only HP, but HTC phones, until several months ago.

<comment><USER13> Interestingly, HTC bought a majority share (50.1%) in Beats, and slowly sold it back in pieces. Based on the timing, I wonder if Beats may have had to buy it back in order to sell to Apple.

 _In August 2013, reports surfaced that Beats ' founders planned to buy back HTC's remaining minority stake in the company, and pursue a new, unspecified partner for a future investment.[11][12] On September 27, 2013, HTC confirmed its plan to sell its remaining 24.84% stake in Beats back to the company for $265 million, with the deal expected to close by the end of the year. Concurrently, Beats announced that the Carlyle Group would make a minority investment in the company"_

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> $3.2B? I don't get this at all. What exactly does Apple get out of the deal? (1) Their brand is much stronger than Beats. (2) They could design and build high quality headphones if they wanted, the design is quite simple. And (3) if they wanted a music subscription service, they could easily create one of their own.

<comment><USER17> > if they wanted a music subscription service, they could easily create one of > their own.

Actually, they have one. (iTunes Radio)

Of course, the fact that this has to be pointed out to someone arguing how strong Apple's brand is relative to Beats _might_ illustrate the value they get from buying Beats better than anything else.

<comment><USER16> My understanding is iTunes radio is Pandora, not Spotify. Big difference. One is Internet radio, the other a true music subscription service.

<comment><USER18> They've got iTunes Match and iTunes radio, which are both similar to but just slightly to either side of Spotify.

<comment><USER19> I use iTunes Match and iTunes radio, and still use Spotify to be able to search and play any song I want without having to buy it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I'm puzzled by this. If it's about a streaming service, why not acquire Spotify?

Could it be about patents? Beats got custody of all the intellectual property when they divorced Monster. [https://www.google.com/?tbm=pts&hl=en#aq=f&aqi=&aql=&hl=en&q...](https://www.google.com/?tbm=pts&hl=en#aq=f&aqi=&aql=&hl=en&q=%22Beats+Electronics+LLC%22&tbm=pts)

</comment><comment><USER21> I think this is pretty damaging to the Apple brand.

I'm afraid this will end up costing Apple more billions down the road as it creates uncertainty about their growth strategy.

</comment><comment> k-mcgrady The comments in this thread are similar to the comments in any Facebook related post on HN. Arrogant. People who likely haven't used the product for more than a few minutes have a concrete opinion on it. You may think Beats suck but they sell $500m of headphones per year. People clearly like the sound they produce even if you think it's shit and overpriced.

<comment><USER22> Beats was made popular by the Monster Cable marketing machine, who is specifically known for selling well-marketed overpriced crap. Claiming that they're good because they sell is silly.

<comment> k-mcgrady It depends on how you define 'good'. They may not be good for listening to certain genres and they may not have a very balanced sound which a lot of audiophiles desire, but the sound they produce is clearly a sound people want and that is proven by how well they sell. They are not an impulse purchase, they are ridiculously expensive. If people really hated the sound most of them wouldn't buy Beats even with the marketing and fashion aspect.

<comment><USER23> > the sound they produce is clearly a sound people want

Most people are easily fooled when it comes to audio quality and have no idea what sound they "want", so they have to judge the quality of the product on the basis of marketing/branding and design instead. That's exactly what's happening with Beats.

And it is entirely sustainable because (in the mainstream) headphones are first and foremost a fashion accessory, and neither Beats wearers nor the observers are know a thing about what good audio quality is. As long as they look hip wearing Beats in the eyes of mainstream observers (a phenomenon that doesn't show any signs of abating), it'll continue to fly off the shelves.

As someone else commented above, the job of quality headphones is to reproduce the recorded signal as faithfully as possible - a flat frequency response. If you want enhanced base (for example), that should be done in the software equalizer, _before_ the signal gets fed to the hardware. On an objective level, the audio quality of Beats blows. There's simply no other way to put it. Of course, this is all irrelevant to the unwash^H^H^H^H^H^Huneducated masses.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> The history of Beats is itself fascinating: [http://gizmodo.com/5981823/beat- by-dre-the-inside-story-of-h...](http://gizmodo.com/5981823/beat-by-dre-the- inside-story-of-how-monster-lost-the-world)

</comment><comment><USER25> Fun fact: Beats' industrial design lead is Robert Brunner, Jony Ive's predecessor as Director of Industrial Design at Apple.

<comment><USER26> Interesting. Brunner tried to hire him several times apparently.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqJVHe6LN4E](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqJVHe6LN4E)

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

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> If this comes to pass, I will have to agree with those who have been saying that Cook should be canned.

</comment><comment><USER28> The article mentions only Beats Electronics. I think this acquisition becomes a lot more interesting if Beats Music is part of the deal.

<comment><USER29> Supposedly (according to Recode.net) Beats music only has around 200,000 subscribers and most of them are free trial users from a AT&T deal. Doesn't sound a like a service Apple would want.

<comment><USER30> Perhaps they have favourable licensing deals for music content that would survive the acquisition....

<comment><USER31> Its doubtful that the deals would automatically transfer over to the acquirer. Would have to be re-negotiated

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> I really think people are underestimating the streaming service they could be acquiring here.

Currently even as an iTunes Match subscriber, if I hear a song on iTunes radio I still need to go and purchase the song if I like it.

Potentially the deals Beats currently have mean I could just tag that song as one I like, and each time I listen to it some amount of revenue is split between the label and Apple.

Acquiring beats would undoubtedly mean they also acquire their licencing contracts, which seem to have been traditionally difficult for Apple in the past.

<comment><USER33> Even if they're not interested in the subscription service model, there may be something here that can improve iTunes Radio's song selections:

 _" The service uses a personalization system combining recommendations based on listening habits and algorithms with human curation and playlists from music professionals, including other "guest" curators, such as Rolling Stone, Rap Radar, and Pitchfork. Song searches prioritize the original, master recordings of songs over other versions (such as covers). A feature known as "The Sentence" allows users to generate playlists by filling four blanks in a sentence with words describing various activities, moods, and genres."_

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

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> _" Apple is in talks to acquire Beats Electronics for about $3.2 billion, according to a person briefed on the matter."_

I guess there is some disagreement about whether or not Beats is "worth" $3.2B. Such stories, on the eve of an acquisition, are always about trying to get the price raised it seems. Would be interesting if Apple walks away from the deal at this point.

</comment><comment><USER35> The major labels have a love/hate relationship with iTunes. It brings in loads of cash, but it's a monopoly and the majors have little to no control (on price and promo, compared to retail).

So I wouldn't be surprised if the labels are being somewhat difficult to Apple about streaming rights - they'll dominate, and once again the labels lack control.

This deal could get round that somehow?

Add to that that I think the labels have vested interests in Spotify and very favourable deals, (while cautious of the streaming model) and it makes sense to not let another player in just yet, especially one like Apple.

Apples service is one that'll ride roughshod over everything, installed instantly on 100's of millions of devices with an iOS update - Sounds like a good use of their money to get that sooner rather than later.

I haven't used Beats headphones but if their tech could be used to perceivably improve idevice's and laptops built in speaker audio it's a win there too.

I'll believe it when I see it though.

</comment><comment><USER36> If true, seems like a submarine into wearable technologies.

Apple building mood sensing tech for personalized streaming service is a bit creepy. Apple adding mood sensing tech to a huge, young, existing, user base is broadly exciting.

H/T: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7718083](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7718083)

</comment><comment><USER37> In my eyes, this paints Apple as just another "big company" making acquisitions that don't make sense. Maybe they are going to bundle all ipods with beats...? Not sure where they are going with this unless it's for the music service licensing agreements.

<comment><USER38> Which would be great if the iPod wasn't a decline market.

They can put them in with iPhones (adapted to include hands free) but I'm not sure how much that would influence people to buy an iPhone over something else.

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> ...because music is the next big thing on the horizon?

Does Apple have an answer to Nest? To Tesla? To Comcast?

I understand Beats is a powerful brand, with a youthful and enthusiastic customer base, and they've entered the streaming space with some panache. Apple already knows how to do music. Is this what they're focusing on? It seems like a distraction and not a terribly advantageous one.

</comment><comment><USER40> It's weird how this April Fools article about Apple buying Beats [1] doesn't seem ridiculous right now.

[http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2014/04/01/a...](http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2014/04/01/apple- buys-beats/)

</comment><comment><USER41> As I see it it's not for the hardware, but for the streaming service and for Jimmy Iovine and his connections/knowledge in the music industry. I don't know how he could fit with Eddy Cue but I think Jimmy Iovine would bring a lot if he was in charge of the music services in iTunes.

<comment><USER19> Apple saved the music business with iTunes. Why do they need Jimmy Iovine's connections? I don't see why they need Jimmy Iovine for anything.

<comment><USER41> Because he _is_ the music industry, because maybe the now _mighty_ Apple has lot of difficulties securing licensing music rights, especially in the streaming area. Now I don't say it's worth 3.2bn$ (I don't think it's even worth 1bn$) but at least I think there is more value there than with the headsets. Anyway spending so much on such a shallow thing would send a wrong signal in my opinion, for the same amount I would have bought AMD or something more significant hardware related.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> For all the people that think its worth it.

HTC bought it for 300 million, they sold it as they had no use. Their in the same market as Apple (and with Sense / HTC, they also could use a music broadcast service).

They sold it. Now Apple wants to buy it at a much higher level... Doesn't make any sense.

</comment><comment><USER43> Apple make very smart acquisitions and have a track record in creating markets where others have failed to do so. They are also good at spotting opportunities in existing markets.

That said, I think this is a deception to get Samsung to do something costly and stupid.

</comment><comment><USER44> So where does that leave HTC? They own 50.1% stake. They need cash pretty quickly. And I think they would continue to want implementing Beats audio in their phones.

Btw, HTC One audio sound quality is emotionally exhilarating. (Tears)

<comment><USER16> HTC sold their shares in Beats a while ago. They don't own any now.

</comment></comment><comment><USER45> Looks like this thread has been downmodded. Why?

</comment><comment><USER46> I could see one way that would make sense: To fix the iPhone 5C debacle. You want to reach lower level customers without tarnishing your main brand...

Beats could fit that profile. Just make the colors a bit brighter and the successor to the 5c cheaper.

Or sicking with the beats brand (style over quality): Why not use 4s internals ;)?

<comment><USER46> Now, what works better? iPhone 5c [http://www.extremetech.com/wp- content/uploads/2013/08/iphone...](http://www.extremetech.com/wp- content/uploads/2013/08/iphone-5c-color-options.jpg)

\- or -

Beats 5c [http://i60.tinypic.com/103hnjb.jpg](http://i60.tinypic.com/103hnjb.jpg)

</comment></comment><comment><USER47> Does this mean we're about to get a new iPod classic? 1,702 days and counting ... [1]

[1] [http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#iPod_Classic](http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#iPod_Classic)

<comment><USER48> A great opportunity to revive the iPod Classic.

iPod with Beats Audio

</comment></comment><comment><USER49> Beats Music has the worst mobile apps.

</comment><comment><USER50> i just got some beats earbuds. they are very clear, i like them

</comment><comment><USER51> Roughly about 17% of WhatsApp price tag.

Should make us ponder...

</comment><comment><USER52> 12 hours after being posted:

      Ctrl-F: user acquisition

Zero results.

Look at the last couple of massive acquisitions e.g. Facebook buying companies that made little revenue which made even less sense. Most of the big ones I can think of were for user acquisition and _not_ product/technology. This seems like the same type of play.

<comment><USER53> Apple was recently boasting of having nearly 800mn credit cards-enabled iTunes accounts. Doesn't seem to me they are short of users.

Also, Apple is primarily a hardware + associated services company. They're not interested in getting users that aren't Apple hardware owners.</comment></comment>


The web needs a new textarea - <AUTHOR> http://pothibo.com/2015/1/the-web-needs-a-new-textarea

<comment><USER2> I was taught that it is a bad idea to override native controls. That being said, in the "modern web" it is getting harder and harder not to modify at least some aspect of native form controls.</comment>


Show HN: ProTABS – A Chrome extension for better tab management - <AUTHOR> https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/protabs-tab-management-fo/hagccgdaknhhkbmchgnmeapckfipacfi <comment><AUTHOR> The author here, with a bit of background: As someone who doesn't compulsively clean up their tabs and likes to keep a lot of research lines open, I was really dissatisfied with the native Chrome tab management capabilities. None of the existing extension worked quite how I liked either. So I brainstormed some ideas and built this out. It worked pretty well for myself and some of my colleagues, so I spent a lot more time polishing it up for a wider audience.

Plenty of more ideas for improvement in the pipeline, but I think it's pretty useful already. Let me know what you think! The demo video explains most of the features pretty well.

Fun bit of trivia as well; the UI is written mainly in elm - which became a real pleasure to work with once I got the hang of it.

Also apologies for the double post - I posted this earlier but didn't get any feedback. I probably did something wrong!</comment>


Effective Web Experimentation as a Homo Narrans - <AUTHOR> http://mcfunley.com/effective-web-experimentation-as-a-homo-narrans

<comment><USER2> Great post.

One of the advantages of the bandit algorithms we favour is that you have to be explicit about your quality metric up-front. This can also be a disadvantage as it can be difficult to tradeoff different metrics, but on balance we find it helpful for our clients.

I think one of the main issues with A/B testing, which was also present in the article, is the over-reliance on p-values without considering effect size. The changes show were significant, but none of them had a large effect. The largest was a 9% increase ("Registered") but here we're talking about going from 0.46% to 0.42%, which is pretty much nothing to nothing.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, that's a great point. Although that test runs on our search pages, so 0.46% of that traffic is about 4,000 registrations. And the difference between 0.46% and 0.42% is about 300 registrations.</comment></comment>


CoffeeScript 1.6.0 released with support for source maps - <AUTHOR> http://coffeescript.org/#source-maps

<comment><USER2> I hope some of you find 'em useful ;)

Please direct all thanks for this over to <http://github.com/jwalton>. He's been toiling away on these for a couple of months now, originally as a bit of a skunkworks. Managing to get them merged in cleanly to an oft-changing code generation codebase was no small feat.

 _Edit_ : If you're having any trouble getting these to work, `npm cache clean` and reinstall. I screwed up the initial publish.

<comment><USER2> Can't edit anymore, so I'll just reply to myself.

 _Important Update_ : Just pushed out a 1.6.1 release which patches some bugs that snuck in this morning. Give it a spin.

It also makes it possible to generate source maps _in_ the browser itself -- so if you're doing anything fancy with eval-ing CoffeeScript on the client side, you're in luck...

... now, time to hit the road.

<comment><USER3> Thank you very much for this! Coffeescript has certainly come a long way since I started using it on version 0.9.4, 2 years ago. Congratulations!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> > _CoffeeScript includes a (very) simple build system similar to Make and > Rake._

Arrrrrrrrrrrgggggghhhh.....

Why do people insist on doing this feature creep nonsense? Just stop! The world doesn't need another build system. The fact that you personally don't understand make (or cmake, or autotools, or rake, or scons, or ant, or...) is not a good excuse for inflicting another one of these things on the rest of us.

Yes, I'm sure it meets the needs of the coffeescript project nicely. But what introducing it has _actually_ done in build a brand new barrier to those who want to work on coffeescript. You're ghettoizing your project with this nonsense.

Also: just for the record, those "cakefile" examples look awful to me; modulo language syntax, it looks just like scons. Everyone who has ever tried to use it for something serious hates scons.

<comment><USER5> This isn't new, CoffeeScript has included this for a while.

One thing to keep in mind is that Cake is _tiny_ , the complete source shouldn't take more than a minute or 2 to read and understand[1] and is a nice example of CoffeeScript style.

[1]: <http://coffeescript.org/documentation/docs/cake.html>

<comment><USER4> You're right that it's not new in 1.6; I misread the page. It was new to me, however. And you're right that it's quite small, and easy to read.

Which allows me to pronounce that It's tiny because it's limited. What happens when the project bumps up against those limitations (parallel builds would be nice, or maybe default rules, or the ability to invoke and export environment variables to subprocesses, or...)? Will they abandon cake and move to a build system that already meets their more advanced needs?

Hell no. They'll add features. So the cake of 2019 will, assuming a still- robust coffeescript community, look a lot more like rake or ant or scons or cmake. It won't be tiny. It won't be easy to read. It will be yet another ridiculous build system.

<comment><USER6> It appears that running `cake` doesn't check to see if there have been changes since the previous build. I wouldn't use a build system that didn't at least have this essential feature.

<comment><USER7> Compiling a CoffeeScript project is so quick that it would only add complexity without benefit.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> To: JAshkenas, JWalton

From: The interwebs

Thank you for this! One of the biggest justifications for avoiding Coffee- Script has been the difficulty in debugging the translated code since there is (no longer) a 1-1 line mapping. This is now a thing of the past!

It took me all of 5 minutes to understand the new API for sourcemapping add support to Plunker. For those who are curious: [https://github.com/filearts/plunker_run/commit/33eb3c5049b3e...](https://github.com/filearts/plunker_run/commit/33eb3c5049b3ee5d497f80dea406deac328de8ba)

To me, this is the sign of a simple, but powerful API addition. Well done guys.

If you want an example of stepping through a sourcemapped coffee-script file, try adding a breakpoint to `app.coffee` on: <http://beta.plnkr.co/edit/e5iLyQ?p=preview>

<comment><USER9> where/how do we add the breakpoint? plunker looks awesome btw.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> For anyone wondering (since it's such a new thing that not a lot of people know much about it): Source maps are currently only supported in Chrome, but it's also implemented in recent WebKit nightlies and Firefox is actively working on support. In order to use source maps in Chrome, open the options panel on the dev tools and make sure the "Source maps" option is enabled.

<comment><USER2> Right. As far as I know, they currently work in Chrome, in Node.js (with a library), in Webkit nightlies, and are getting close-ish in Firefox nightlies: <http://fitzgeraldnick.com/weblog/45/>

<comment><USER11> If you have Visual Studio, they have source map debugging for TypeScript working. You can do CoffeeScript dev in Visual Studio [1], but I have no idea if source maps work with that.

[1] [http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/2b96d16a-c986-...](http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/2b96d16a-c986-4501-8f97-8008f9db141a)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Watch out when updating to this. There are still some issues being resolved.

See:

<https://github.com/jashkenas/coffee-script/pull/2751>

<https://github.com/jashkenas/coffee-script/issues/2765>

<https://github.com/jashkenas/coffee-script/issues/>

If you've downloaded a prior version of _version_ 1.6, you'll have to remove it from your `node_modules` folder and do an `npm cache clean` before reinstalling, as the version number is the same.

<comment><USER2> I've just pushed out a 1.6.1 update, trying to address these. If you're having any trouble with it, give 1.6.1 a try -- and if you're still having trouble, let me know.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> For someone who is new to Javascript (and programming in general), how do you know when it'a ok to move on to coffeescript? (I started with ruby and I like how coffeescript has similar syntax)

<comment><USER14> Probably right now. But that's a good question. As you've already seen, the documentation on <http://coffeescript.org> is phenomenal.

As a dev with maybe 1.5 years of JS experience, I've learned coffeescript in a week. I still don't have the coding style that my code reviewers want, but I'm writing functional code.

The biggest hurdle I've found is getting an auto-compiler for coffeescript. You don't want to do it manually:

        coffee -c media/js/page.js media/js/page.coffee

everytime you want to recompile your code. But there are tools for that! <https://github.com/gruntjs/grunt-contrib-coffee>

<comment><USER2> Was:

        coffee --watch

... not working well enough for you? For fancier build processes, you certainly might want to use a fancier build tool.

<comment><USER15> I have not had great luck mixing coffee --watch and gvfs for either FTP or WebDAV. An ugly, but effective solution is to configure your editor to compile on save. The most annoying part of that is when you switch to a project with a different build process, and you have to either reconfigure your editor, or deal with extraneous .js files being output.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> @jashkenas: with the release of this surprise, 'skunkworks' feature, what do you see as the future for Coffee-Script-Redux? Does the project remain relevant despite the recent activity in the original Coffee-Script project?

<comment><USER2> See my reply elsewhere in this thread: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5320849>

<comment><USER8> Thanks.

Good to know!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> IIRC, this is one of the big reasons behind CoffeeScriptRedux. In fact, I have been following development of it closely and he's been working hard. I know he's contributed lots to the standard CoffeeScript codebase.

Does this deter him from completing that project? If not, what big features does Redux plan to offer that regular CoffeeScript does not? Using pegjs instead of jison?

<comment><USER2> You'll have to get Michael to answer that question, but to clear the air a bit -- it's very nice to have two versions of the compiler that don't share a common ancestry (Redux is a complete rewrite).

We may merge the Redux version in and bless it as the "official" compiler some day, when it matches feature parity, and if the codebase ends up cleaner than the original (both very likely things to happen). Even in the worst case scenario, where no merge happens, we all benefit, both for learning, new features, and shared fixes for bugs, from having two independent compatible implementations of the language.

<comment><USER17> Everything Jeremy said. And my compiler isn't far away from being polished enough for me to consider it ready to be labelled 2.0. Check out the 2.0 roadmap: [https://github.com/michaelficarra/CoffeeScriptRedux/wiki/Roa...](https://github.com/michaelficarra/CoffeeScriptRedux/wiki/Roadmap)

95% of the language features were supported during my funding period. Since then, it's nearly reached 100% feature parity, and the tooling/interfaces have been much improved. The code is a lot cleaner, a lot smaller, more modular, more extensible, and uses standard IRs.

If you want to try it out, see the online editor here: <http://michaelficarra.github.com/CoffeeScriptRedux/> (shameless plug: it was built using my new browser bundler with full minified-JS to CoffeeScipt source map support: <https://github.com/michaelficarra/commonjs-everywhere>)

For anyone curious about the compiler implementation process, see this recent slide deck from my MLOC.js talk: [https://speakerdeck.com/michaelficarra/an- analysis-of-the-re...](https://speakerdeck.com/michaelficarra/an-analysis-of- the-redesign-of-the-coffeescript-compiler)

<comment><USER16> I will say I very much like Redux and have used it for dumping AST nodes. I recently became interested in a project where I wanted to hack on and extend the grammar. I found this difficult in Redux, Coco (and friends), and couldn't use CoffeeScript because of lack of source map support previously.

I think a huge benefit for Redux will be making the grammar very clean and extensible. I know it's on your roadmap to CS-ify it.

Edit: Oh, and if you're curious, I wanted to play around w/ translating the CS AST to TypeScript AST, but I'd obviously need to add more typing/declaration syntax to the grammar.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I know I speak for many others when I say I have been waiting for this for a _long_ time.

This is fantastic, thanks so much for the hard work :)

</comment><comment><USER19> Congratulations on all this hard work. Source maps will CS an even more appealing alternative to plain Javascript and make my life as a developer better.

Thanks to all parties involved in producing this release.

</comment><comment><USER20> So is there a way to use the source maps with node.js stacktraces?

Specifically, I tried this test.coffee:

      throw new Error("Test")

Now running it with

      coffee test.coffee

still reports the wrong line number in the stack trace.

There's supposedly node-source-map-support (<https://github.com/evanw/node- source-map-support>), but even installing that and adding "require 'source- map-support'" won't help.

<comment><USER20> Ok, you'll have to run it through the compiler first with the -m option:

test.coffee:

      require 'source-map-support'
      throw new Error("Test")

Now do:

      npm install source-map-support
      coffee -c -m test.coffee
      node test.js

This gets you the correct line numbers.

<comment><USER21> The hard part for me to understand is that I've got way more than just a single file. I've got hundreds of coffee script files for a rather complex nodejs/express app.

I start it up with something like this:

      nodemon -w . lib/start/web.coffee

      or in production:

      coffee lib/start/web.coffee

That web.coffee file then require's a chain of files.

If I try to compile the source maps for all of my files first, using something like this:

      mkdir .compile
      coffee -m --output .compile --compile ./

In the .compile folder, there is a few oddly named subdirectories (d, b, rands, sc) with the compiled .js files in there and the respective .map files. This seems to totally break my require chain.

Since I don't normally pre-compile all my coffee script files, I just run them directly using nodemon or coffee, how can I work the maps into my dev process?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Does it somehow require running the code to generate the maps? I'm asking because when I add the "-m" to my coffee compile line I get:

        TypeError: In test.coffee, Cannot call method 'indexOf' of undefined

The line in question calling _.indexOf() from the underscore library... It compiles just fine without the -m option.

<comment><USER2> No.

        coffee --compile --map file.coffee

Should produce a "file.js" and a "file.map".

<comment><USER22> Hmmm:

        $ coffee --version
        CoffeeScript version 1.6.1
        $ coffee --compile static/test.coffee
        $ coffee --compile --map static/test.coffee
        TypeError: In static/test.coffee, Cannot call method 'indexOf' of undefined
            at Object.count (~/.npm/lib/node_modules/coffee-script/lib/coffee-script/helpers.js:33:29)
            at Object.compile (~/.npm/lib/node_modules/coffee-script/lib/coffee-script/coffee-script.js:72:30)
            at ~/.npm/lib/node_modules/coffee-script/lib/coffee-script/command.js:171:33
            at ~/.npm/lib/node_modules/coffee-script/lib/coffee-script/command.js:141:18
            at [object Object].<anonymous> (fs.js:123:5)
            at [object Object].emit (events.js:64:17)
            at Object.oncomplete (fs.js:1181:12)

(Paths were full path names, I replaced my $HOME with ~ in the output for clarity and some security through obscurity)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Not being able to use getters, setters and yield[1] is a big turnoff for me. I want to move towards ES6 as quickly as possible.

[1] <https://github.com/jashkenas/coffee-script/wiki/FAQ>

</comment><comment><USER24> What happened to CoffeeScript 2 that was funded over Kickstarter. Wasn't this supposed to bring source maps etc to CoffeeScript?

</comment><comment><USER25> Absolutely awesome! Am working on support for Errbit, so we can finally have usable JavaScript exception reporting.

</comment><comment><USER26> Anyone have a good example of using --map with --join?

</comment><comment><USER27> In TypeScript it works out-of-the-box, plus TypeScript compiles to idiomatic JavaScript and what you write is much closer to what you get, and the transition is much easier understandable.

<comment><USER15> How is any of this relevant?

<comment><USER27> I am just pointing out at an alternative.</comment></comment></comment>


Ginzametrics (YC S10) Adds 12 New Global Markets - <AUTHOR> http://ginzametrics.com/ginzametrics-adds-12-new-global_markets.html

<comment><USER2> I'm a bit new to the SEO software market. What does Ginza offer that is different / unique versus something like SeoMOZ?</comment>


Usability and Key Management (2009) [pdf] - <AUTHOR> https://csrc.nist.gov/CSRC/media/Presentations/Usability-and-Key-Management/images-media/Usability_and_Key_Mgmt.pdf <comment><USER2> As WebAuthn has been evolving we have been able to see four vendors try to users to use keys for authentication. Google and Mozilla went ahead and used the existing USB FIDO keys which was relatively easy to support, and shipped solutions first. Then Microsoft integrated their existing Hello authentication system which took more time but is probably more user friendly (and is not available on all Windows systems). Finally Apple is dragging their feet, but are spending more time making things work across all their devices using the biometric systems that users already know.

Certificate based authentication never worked in the browser because it was too complicated for most users to understand. This time around, if WebAuthn can be used by a majority of users we may actually see some progress. On the other hand, if the browser implementations still feel too complicated then users will try to avoid it and we will be back at square one.

<comment><USER3> > Finally Apple is dragging their feet

Do you know something I don't here? My impression was that Apple hopes to just ignore WebAuthn completely, since it suits Apple to have a proprietary Apple- only system that requires everybody to buy lots of Apple branded gear if they want any security. Only if WebAuthn is overwhelmingly successful would they be forced to actually do anything.

As well as the complexity, Certificate auth has a privacy problem. If I have one cert for "Nick Lamb" do I want to use that for PornHub, my Hacker News comments _and_ for my bank account ? If I need separate certificates for each service it's quickly unmanageable, on the other hand if I don't do that I'm tracked everywhere seamlessly. FIDO / U2F / WebAuthn fixes all this in a way better cert UI could not.

<comment><USER4> [https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=181943](https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=181943) is the WebKit metabug, and the various parts of it have started to be worked on by an Apple engineer, which is a good sign they aren't ignoring it.

<comment><USER3> Thanks for that link - very informative.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> [2009]

<comment><USER6> Added. Thanks!</comment></comment>


Ask HN: How do you monitor your automated jobs? - <AUTHOR>

I'm researching how startups/solo operators are keeping track of automated/cron/batch jobs on an hourly/daily/weekly basis.
I'd love to know if you use a "email me on success" approach or more of a Dead Man's Switch approach, and how you've implemented it in your company or stack.
We've all got those data munging jobs that are more critical and less reliable than we like to admit! <comment><USER2> They call an internal message broker to report their start details and report their current state or termination depending on the job type, these details are then batched and pumped into [cloud analytics platform of your choice] which runs triggers for notification of employees for routine processes, exception emails to admins and exposes the whole shebang for monthly reporting.

</comment><comment><USER3> [http://www.deadmansswitch.net/](http://www.deadmansswitch.net/)</comment>


Ask HN: Alternative to ffmpeg for PHP? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> I used avconv, but its a ffmpeg fork. Any reason you're looking for an alternative, is there something specific you are needing?</comment>


New kind of "tandem" solar cell developed - <AUTHOR> http://newsoffice.mit.edu/2015/tandem-solar-cell-0324

<comment><USER2> I seem to recall that there was a Silicon Valley startup that did this a couple of decades ago, probably with the two circuit version. A neighbor of mine at the time was one of the principals. IIRC they failed to get traction because of manufacturing costs in spite of the improved efficiency. But it was quite a while ago and the details have faded into the mist.</comment>


Beating Google With CouchDB, Celery and Whoosh (Part 1) - <AUTHOR> http://andrewwilkinson.wordpress.com/2011/09/27/beating-google-with-couchdb-celery-and-whoosh-part-1/

<comment><USER2> [http://andrewwilkinson.wordpress.com/2011/09/29/beating- goog...](http://andrewwilkinson.wordpress.com/2011/09/29/beating-google-with- couchdb-celery-and-whoosh-part-2/) \- part two actually contains the interesting content.

</comment><comment><USER3> Nice post.

For those considering something like this, you might want to consider using scrapy, a Python web crawler, instead of rolling your own crawler.

I remember when I was looking for something like this a year ago and found that project. I've used it for a few things and it does a nice job abstracting away most of the core scraping architecture, but leaving room to be extended as necessary. After playing with it for a few weeks, makes you realize just how easy it is to grab a bunch of data from the web if you need it.

<comment><USER4> I would recommend haystack also for someone wanting to take this to the next step. Since django is already being used and he can swap Whoosh for solr if needed to.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Whoosh is fast enough for small amounts of data, or when the searches do not need to be performed in realtime. But, I agree, something like Lucene/Solr or Sphinx might be a bit better for indexing large amounts of content (i.e., the provided example of a webcrawler indexing web pages).

<comment><USER6> Seems like using Cloudant's BigCouch fork, with its built-in Lucene indexing, might be a better choice for this.

<comment><USER7> Thanks - I was reading the article thinking "what I'd really want was CouchDB with built in Lucene indexing and searching" - and there it is! :-)

<comment><USER8> To be clear, our (Cloudant's) integrated Search product is only available in our paid product or on hosted accounts at <https://cloudant.com> Open-Source BigCouch does not have Search built in, but you can still use it in conjunction with Lucene or ElasticSearch (integration is straightforward).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Unfortunately, whoosh is too slow for any nontrivial amount of content. You're much better off using solr or ElasticSearch.</comment>