Are Apple and Other U.S. Companies Responsible For Foxconn's Crimes? - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/18/foxconn-apple-crime-journalist-attack/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

<comment><USER2> The Techcrunch article describes this as if it happened in downtown Big City, USA. Some guards gave a journalist a hard time for a bit and he easily walked away from the incident, these are the crimes Apple and other US companies are responsible for?

We're talking about a country that runs the largest internet censoring project on the planet, imprisons thousands of political and religious dissenters, now they have to answer for the unspeakable crime of kicking a Reuters reporter in the shin. Sense of perspective is arguably not what techcrunch is about but come on.

<comment><USER3> I don't think Chairman Hu sent a note to the company guard to kick a reporter in the leg. This was a guard who was just trying to keep his job, and did something in the moment. It's not a big chinese conspiracy against shins.

<comment><USER2> I don't think I said or even implied any of these things.

<comment><USER4> I don't think he was arguing against you? I believe he was agreeing with you and adding fuel to your fire.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> First of all, Foxconn is taiwanese company, it's not run by the china that the U.S seems to be on a big PR push against, it's run by the _other_ china.

Secondly, this factory is in the most competitive and cutthroat area of mainland china, and it's producing the most secretive goods that can be produced. If the livelyhood of your entire business depends on the secrecy required (for marketing purposes) by companies from the UNITED STATES, then I think it is reasonable that you will take steps to stop people from standing outside and photographing into your company.

And they did not try to execute the man or put him on a prison in an island for 5 years without trial, they just took steps to make sure he did not have pictures that would compromise their factory.

Tens of thousands of people owe their daily bread to the secrecy. In this idealistic world view promoted by the article, kicking a man in the leg is a worse crime than letting 10 thousand people lose their job.

In the U.S, guards routinely shoot 10.000 volts of current into people. Kicking someone on the leg is nothing compared to that.

<comment><USER5> _If the livelyhood of your entire business depends on the secrecy required (for marketing purposes) by companies from the UNITED STATES, then I think it is reasonable that you will take steps to stop people from standing outside and photographing into your company._

Indeed. I'd build opaque fences and windowless buildings. I might also situate my factory out of sight from the main road. I would not, however, commit assault.

 _In the U.S, guards routinely shoot 10.000 volts of current into people._

And when they do, we criticize them for it rather than make excuses for their bad acts. (Note that the top story on HN right now is criticism of the US government for spying.)

[edit: really curious why I'm being downmodded for suggesting I would not commit assault.]

<comment><USER6> From a semi-recent example, we actually seem to react by making it an internet meme and national joke, and printing up snarky t-shirts.

ex. <http://www.bustedtees.com/donttasemebro>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> It's almost as if these Chinese security guards think the First Amendment doesn't apply to them!

<comment><USER8> It's almost as if paying someone to commit a crime on your behalf is a crime itself! (Apple can't kick reporters in the shins, but apparently they are just fine paying Foxconn to do it.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> "Because next time someone (else) may end up dead after an interaction with Foxconn."

Maybe? Maybe not? Why speculate. Let's just decide that they are guilty now.

And, just to make another point, 1000's of people commit suicide every year - Should we blame their employers as well? It's all a bit too circumstantial for me.

<comment><USER9> They _are_ guilty, at least when it comes to assaulting that journalist. And there's the fact that the police said that Foxconn has "special status". The rest might be speculation, but those two things hold. The question is: should their American customers (Apple and the rest) stop dealing with them over it?

<comment><USER3> Police in china are there to keep the peace. Not to uphold rights.

The U.S mentality is one of justice - if someone slaps my child, I have to have justice, imprison them, take them to court, etc. The U.S police will also encourage you to do so.

The chinese mentality is to try to mediate so that there will be peace and harmony. The cops will try to make you guys agree with each other, not force you to fight each other even more.

<comment><USER9> That's an interesting mentality, but I think it tries to paint a nice picture of a not-so-nice reality.

The flaw in your argument is your assumption that justice is about forcing people to fight each other even more. Ideally, justice should be about more than mere retribution. In practice, justice often falls short of that ideal.

I find it difficult to imagine that there can be harmony in a society where injustice is left alone so as to avoid disturbing the peace. Sooner or later, injustice breeds violence, out of bitterness and resentment.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> If there are sweatshop-like conditions as the article implies there might be, yes Foxconn's clients deserve some kind of action (most likely a boycott).

However, should they be held responsible for guards assaulting a reporter who was likely trying to get information he shouldn't have been? I don't think so. It would be _very_ hard to find a contractor if you were held responsible for every crime they committed.

I suppose it would be reasonable to hold Apple responsible somehow if you could prove they ordered something like this, but I don't think that would be likely (occam's razor and all).

<comment><USER11> > trying to get information he shouldn't have been

Reporters' jobs are to get information and disseminate it. He was doing his job, and not doing anything illegal or even unethical, it seems to me.

<comment><USER10> We're talking about a _potential_ new Apple product here, not Watergate. Were the guards justified in assaulting the reporter? Absolutely not. Did the reporter have reason to suspect that the guards might frown on that kind of behavior? Yes.

My point isn't to say that the reporter was necessarily doing anything wrong or the guards were correct. My point is that this is hardly an international incident that has much implication for Apple or any of the other named corporations.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> This is wrong. I don't think their actions are justifiable in any way, but that's my justice-prevails-US-POV. But this line from an officer is crazy: "But this is Foxconn and they have a special status here. Please understand." Just represents their altered state of operations over there. _shrugs_ I'm just happy the reporter didn't suffer major injuries.</comment>


Your iPhone maps and logs where you are and when you're there - <AUTHOR> https://www.codefellows.org/blogs/your-iphone-logs-where-you-are-and-when-you-re-there

<comment><USER2> Not news, and also not news, it's easily disabled. Besides, all this shows is that the phone knows, and there are actual uses for it that make me leave it on, like predicting how long it will take to get home or common places I go. As for it's use in advertising, that can be reset as well as opposed to disabled, so I reset that periodically.

Also, this isn't unique to iPhone, [1] and hasn't been since it was discovered on Android as well.

1\. [http://thenextweb.com/google/2011/04/21/its-not-just-the- iph...](http://thenextweb.com/google/2011/04/21/its-not-just-the-iphone- android-stores-your-location-data-too/#!p7JT9)

<comment><AUTHOR> Everyone that I showed this screen to on their own phone hadn't ever seen that it existed. It's one thing for the phone to log it in some database. It's another that anyone could pick up your phone and see where you live, work, what time you come home, etc.

<comment><USER3> it'd be awfully tough for them to just go to the Contacts app, pull up your card and see your address :(

Use a passcode for goodness sake! Actively protect your data!

<comment><USER4> Passcodes are easily bypassed. Buy an XRY and you can get into any phone.

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

Same way the police do it.

<comment><USER5> Modern iPhones are entirely encrypted while locked. The key resides in a crypto processor and is irreversibly destroyed during a brute-force attempt (provided you have this turned on).

These devices need certain plists from the phone's trusted iTunes library (if it even has one) to "break" into modern iPhones.

(Some) Android phones might be vulnerable to these though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> "Your iPhone maps and logs where you are and when you're there" ... only after asking if you want to enable location services when you get a new phone. That's not exactly "on by default".

</comment><comment><USER7> Hasn't this been known for quite some time? Here's an article from 2011: [http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/04/iphone- tracks/](http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/04/iphone-tracks/)

<comment><AUTHOR> There's a big difference between a data file hiding somewhere and a full on UI with logs and maps that anyone could pick up your phone and see. Everyone I've showed this too was surprised.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> A big difference with this over Google (or NSA for that matter) is the location history stays on your phone and isn't logged on a server.

<comment><AUTHOR> I believe when I first looked at it, the option to store on their server was turned on. But also people are carrying around a subpoena-ble log of everywhere they've been without knowing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Was this ever a secret? I thought this was a relatively prominently advertised feature in iOS 7.

</comment><comment><USER10> This has been "known" for a long time, but not known widely enough that I see it turned off when I ask my friends with iPhones about their data.

Typically the first thing I do is ask them if they want targeted ads pushed to them based on their location and they say "no" and I proceed to borrow their phone and disable everything buried in that menu under Privacy except (perhaps) the compass calibration.

<comment><USER11> How clever of them to "bury" all the privacy settings in a Settings menu called "Privacy".

<comment><USER12> Up until iOS7, the ad-tracking settings were under:

"Settings" -> "General" -> "About" -> "Advertising" and not with the rest under "Privacy".

And then they helpfully used a double-negative when describing the behavior of the function, the default state was: "Limit Ad Tracking -- Off"

Apple are far too good with usability for either of those choices to be accidental.

<comment><USER11> So why change it in iOS 7 if they are out to "bury" it and trick people?

"Apple is far to good to do X" is not a strong argument. They can and do make mistakes all over the place including their strongest areas.

<comment><USER10> I applaud the move to the "Privacy" context menu, however you must also consider that in addition to the "Advertising" menu at the bottom, there is also a "System Services" sub-menu located at the bottom of Location Services which delivers location-based ads, diagnostics and usage, frequent locations, and "popular near me" settings. These were not exactly called out before the iOS7 update, and nobody reads the ToS so I was disappointed to see it buried so deeply given the focus on privacy with the new menu.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Unlike the NSA, I actually see some personal benefit to this.

<comment><USER14> I agree too. I like being able to pull down my notification center and have it know where I usually go to provide relevant traffic alerts.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I know this has been discussed many times since the iOS 7 beta builds first release, but recently there has been a nice interface Google has released to see this data from your google account. Uses anything logged in with your google account (phone, computer, tablet, etc) and puts it in one central area.

[https://maps.google.com/locationhistory/b/0/](https://maps.google.com/locationhistory/b/0/)

<comment><USER16> This interface has actually been in existence (in one form or another) since Latitude first launched.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Isn't this basically one use of the motion co-processor collected data that's a feature in the iPhone 5s?

</comment><comment><USER18> My iPhone doesn't have Preferences, it has Settings. What kind of iPhone is he using?

<comment><USER18> Ok, it's under Settings > Privacy. Odd mistake to make. When you get there, there's a Clear History option, so I guess if you've been to evil places lately, you can clear your tracks. Mine has been on forever and I don't believe an ad has ever been pushed to me, location-aware or not.

<comment><USER19> I seem to make that mistake often when explaining where something is. Perhaps its due to iOS's counterpart, OS X, having 'System Preferences'.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Now if I could only find the switch to stop the NSA from tracking me.

</comment><comment><USER21> Creepy! What kind of evil things could be done with this data?

</comment><comment><USER22> holy sh*t they stole it from android!</comment>


Oracle/Google: the patents and the implications - <AUTHOR> http://carlodaffara.conecta.it/?p=478

<comment><USER2> I don't follow how the author dismisses the security patent by judging one flowchart of an if/then statement, and then in the next sentence claims that the dalvik implementation is substantially different. If the patent is truly so simple, then the implementation can only differ by inverting the condition and swapping the if/then blocks. If the dalvik implementation is substantially different, then there's probably more to the patent than that one diagram.

From that point on, this analysis stopped smelling objective.

<comment><USER3> His point isn't that the patent doesn't cover Anrdoid, but that it's so broad that it should never have been granted.

<comment><USER2> That may be the case, but one can't establish that with a cynical joke about a drawing.

This "analysis" was awful all the way through.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> This guy doesn't seem to know that Android includes Apache Harmony and not OpenJDK.

</comment><comment><USER5> I think his theory of an implicit patent grant by virtue of GPL2 licensing sounds like a stretch and would need to be tested in court. If the FSF thought it were true there would have been no need for GPL3.</comment>


Indian H-1B visa workers have minimal skills: Infosys whistleblower - <AUTHOR> http://www.financialexpress.com/article/industry/companies/indian-h-1b-visa-workers-have-minimal-skills-infosys-whistleblower/54906/

<comment><USER2> Some things mentioned in this article \- living 8 people to a room \- have to give kickbacks to their manager \- working full-time without paying taxes

These are nonsense, definitely not happening.

Infosys pays enough for people to live on their own. They may share apartments like many others in big cities.

Noone gives kickbacks to their managers at infosys, or any other big indian companies. Managers have to sometimes beg the employees to take up unfulfilling assignments.

How can one work in the US without paying income taxes?

I guess when you are talking on any sensitive topic, you might also talk nonsense to make it sound worse than it is.</comment>


Recreating 3D renderings in real life - <AUTHOR> http://skrekkogle.com/still-file/ <comment><USER2> Some of their other projects are pretty cool too: [http://skrekkogle.com/solitaire.html](http://skrekkogle.com/solitaire.html)

<comment><USER3> Oh wow, I've seen their 50c project before: [http://skrekkogle.com/50c.html](http://skrekkogle.com/50c.html)

Their projects are all so fantastic!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Funny - I woke up this morning and found this majoras mask Zelda tribute [https://youtu.be/vbMQfaG6lo8](https://youtu.be/vbMQfaG6lo8) and then the behind the scenes and was suprised it was cgi on top of on location forest video that ends up looking rendered. Sometimes reality looks so good it looks fake so this was a interesting spin.

<comment><USER5> Yep, my first thought was that all of those "behind-the-scene" photos were 3d-rendered as well. Are we being fooled?

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> No mention of the Cornell box, the OG real life render!

<comment><USER7> I was part of Cornell's Program of Computer Graphics lab for a few years. The lab still has the original physical Cornell Box model sitting around. That thing was wild to look at; even in real life, it doesn't look real because the walls are so close to perfectly diffuse, and it looks exactly like all of the rendered versions.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I find it very upsetting that they even faked the block of wood!

<comment><USER9> The grain doesn't quite line up across the surfaces and the edges are unnatural. Quite a good simulation of someone 2D texture-mapping a block of wood, rather than the more expensive volumetric mapping.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Seems almost like cheating to use a 3D printer to make some of the parts.

</comment><comment><USER11> It's amazing how much effort we need to go to make rendered scenes look realistic and real scenes look rendered.

<comment><USER12> Same with camera shake. In real life we try to reduce it, in CGI we add it.

<comment><USER13> And lens flares and chromatic aberration - lens manufacturers go to great lengths to remove these as much as they can, but games and VFX re-create them.

<comment><USER14> And plent of games and digitally shot movies add film grain.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I've observed hardware design is getting flatter in the last couple of years (thinkpad, MacBook, even IKEA furniture). Guess it has something to do with the change in software UI language.

<comment><USER16> I think it may also be that initially, skeumorphism was used to educated the general public as to the intuitions of the UI, but after that intuition become more and more widespread generally, the UI could turn into a more abstract and minimal form of the previously skeumorphic UI while retaining its properties / placements etc. This abstraction then allows interaction paradigms that cross- cut what is possible physically, or to add more to the now-abstract UI with less noise. Technology is changing of course, but also humans are changing collectively in learning to communicate with it. This is also historically present: at some point typing wasn't a thing, then some jobs did typing, and now typing is a widespread skill and allows interactions at a new level once that is established as assumed on the part of the user.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Where can  I buy background music for my iOS game - <AUTHOR>

Looking for some background music for my tech startup sim Hipster CEO.<p>Free is good but happy to pay for premium too. Any help much appreciated! <comment><USER2> David Carney [http://www.dvgmusic.com/](http://www.dvgmusic.com/)

John Hughes [http://twune.com/](http://twune.com/)

Symphony of Spectres [http://www.symphonyofspecters.com/](http://www.symphonyofspecters.com/)

These guys have all worked on my own and some of my friends' games too.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! Do you have a link to your games by any chance?

<comment><USER2> [http://www.kongregate.com/accounts/5minutesoff](http://www.kongregate.com/accounts/5minutesoff)

From memory David worked on Trickochet and Survivosaur, Symphony of Specters did Kaleid, John worked on Retromash and I think others. I may have details wrong, it's been a while since I made games.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks a bunch, buddy :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Hey, I am a freelance composer and I'd be willing to make you some competitively priced custom music. Check out some of my work here: [https://soundcloud.com/conor- strejcek/sets/portfolio](https://soundcloud.com/conor-strejcek/sets/portfolio)

</comment><comment><USER4> [http://incompetech.com/music/](http://incompetech.com/music/)

I used this music for my iPad game[1] and was very happy with it.

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

</comment><comment><USER5> I used this site for a corporate video I had to put together. The music/loops aren't free but they have a decent selection and I was happy with the result.

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

</comment><comment><USER6> My friend is a composer and has done work for a bunch of movies and games. If you give me your email/Twitter/Skype/whatever, I'll send you his contact info.

He work is really good, but it's affordable.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the reply. Sure my twitter is @modernprogrammr - would love to check out his stuff.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> AudioJungle[0] probably has what you need. You can find some incredible stuff for less than $20.

[0] [http://audiojungle.net/](http://audiojungle.net/)</comment>


Lemmings came out 25 years ago today - <AUTHOR> http://www.theverge.com/2016/2/14/10953210/lemmings-game-25th-anniversary-ms-dos <comment><USER2>
      Like the suicidal animals

There's typical _theverge.com_ "journalism" for you.</comment>


Reddit's 2015 Transparency Report omits NSL canary present in 2014 - <AUTHOR> https://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/4cqyia/for_your_reading_pleasure_our_2015_transparency/d1knc88 <comment><USER2> Bound to happen eventually. Notably, canarywatch has yet to be updated:

[https://canarywatch.org/reddit/](https://canarywatch.org/reddit/)

[https://web.archive.org/web/20160331185820/https://canarywat...](https://web.archive.org/web/20160331185820/https://canarywatch.org/reddit/)

<comment><USER3> They've acknowledged it on their Twitter account, at least. Should only be a matter of time.</comment></comment>


Form a New Zealand company for USD$110 with no yearly fees - <AUTHOR> https://www.newzealandnow.govt.nz/investing-in-nz/investment-options/starting-a-business <comment><USER2> Where on that page does it say "no yearly fees"? From my own experience, NZ companies are required to file an annual return to the NZ Companies Office, which incurs a fee of about $36 plus GST (sales tax).</comment>


Ask HN: Has anyone here self published a book before? - <AUTHOR>

I'm looking to self publish a cookbook, and was wondering if anyone here had any advice about platforms and methods?  I want to publish the book in a hardcover and also via ebook. <comment><USER2> Depending on your budget, I'm a big fan of a commercial tool called PrinceXML, which consumes [html|xml]+css and produces PDF. All of the big self publishers accept PDF as one of their printing targets.

Of course, this means you're writing a book in HTML, which is either a huge win or an enormous loss, depending on who you are. But, given that it's HN, I figure there's a half decent chance this is right for you.

There's a free version you can try it out with; the commercial version is around five hundred bucks. In my opinion, totally worth it. YMMV.

<comment><AUTHOR> Is there a reason you don't use Word's print to pdf function? Or does it generate kooky layout?

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Lulu. I've self-published twice with Lulu and it was a painless enough experience.

Actually, no. Let me correct myself. It was a lot of work, and quite painful, but Lulu's tools made it a lot easier. I highly recommend them.

EDIT: I used Word (actually, I think it was Open Office) to write and layout the book and not any page design software.

<comment><USER3> One more thought. Cookbooks - the popular ones anyways - are plastered with glossy pics. The typsetting and design are immaculate. You may want a professional designer to design the book for you.

Okay, I'm done.</comment></comment>


Jaquard Loom - <AUTHOR> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacquard_loom <comment> chestnut-tree There's a short (3 min) video of how a Jacquard Loom works on the V&A website (V&A = Victoria & Albert Museum, London). There's no sound in the video but it shows, using animation, how patterns are woven into the fabric.

[http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/videos/j/video-jacquard- weaving...](http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/videos/j/video-jacquard-weaving/)

<comment><USER2> Thank you so much! I've been hoping to see something like that video for months, now I have a much better understanding of how the Jacquard Loom works.

My initial interest was driven by the osloom project (an open-source Jacquard Loom)...

[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mbenitez/osloom-an- open...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mbenitez/osloom-an-open-source- jacquard-loom-diy-electrom)

[http://www.osloom.org/](http://www.osloom.org/)

Sadly the project appears to have stalled, hopefully it'll restart at some point.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I had a chance to visit the Macclesfield Silk Museums[1] a couple of years ago, part of which is the Paradise Mill. Macclesfield was the "end of the silk road", and its silk mills were quite renowned in their day. The mill has rows of large Jacquard Looms that are built into the structure of the building, at least some of which are still operational at demonstration capacities. These were some of the earliest era of Jacquard looms, which accepted massive racked loops of industrial scale punch cards to drive the weaving patterns. The mill includes a look into the tools and processes which started with paper-drafted designs, vetted and turned into punch cards, then woven on the mills. There's a good selection of sample woven works as well, all of which highlight the nigh-photographic level of detail these looms were capable of.

On a more modern take, I'll plug the OSLOOM project[2], which aims to create "an open source electromechanical thread-controlled floor loom that will be computer controlled." It's been slowly ticking along for some time now; hopefully it'll eventually achieve its goals of enabling much cheaper access to a modern Jacquard loom.

[1] [http://www.silkmacclesfield.org.uk/museums/silk- museums](http://www.silkmacclesfield.org.uk/museums/silk-museums)

[2] [http://osloom.org/](http://osloom.org/)

</comment><comment><USER4> I taught a raspberry pi intro to computing class last year and was hunting around for some jacquard loom demos for the students when I found something that blew my mind:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78opvFR- VsU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78opvFR-VsU)

These are antique looking jacquard looms in current use in Hanoi. I bet they are still there right now, operating. I know that some crafters use them and there are still specialty mills that make use of modern jacquards, but this is a factory and these look like they are straight out of the 1800s. Amazing.

I wonder still how old some of those looms are...

<comment><USER5> I took some shots of Jaquard looms in operation outside Beijing in 1984. Everybody was supposed to marvel at the silk fabric but I was fascinated by the belts of cards. Everybody treated me like a loon (not loom) for appreciating the ancient hardware. The looms had clearly been shipped from Europe by the French labeling on the metal parts.

I wonder if the equipment you saw in Hanoi passed through China on its way.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Of course I'm curious why this is on the front page of HN today - but to speed things along, a simulation of the loom using Jacquard floppies (loaded from disk) and patterns : [http://www.arahne.si/how-to-make-a- fabric.html](http://www.arahne.si/how-to-make-a-fabric.html)

<comment><USER7> > Of course I'm curious why this is on the front page of HN today

The Jacquard loom contains a distant forerunner of the punchcard used in large numbers to emulate a ROM with a program, making it the first programmable piece of industrial machinery.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> There was a best paper at CHI 2012 about this subject, wish I could find pdf but here's ACM link: [http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2208280&dl=ACM&coll=DL&CFI...](http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2208280&dl=ACM&coll=DL&CFID=444339793&CFTOKEN=65648187)

Here's a review by Stuart Reeves: [http://notesonresearch.tumblr.com/post/26870630666/confusing...](http://notesonresearch.tumblr.com/post/26870630666/confusing- computations)

<comment><USER9> Looms and the history of looms were featured on 'How do they do that' (or a similarly titled) TV Programme that is shown here on channel Dave. Looms are pretty well known in the history of computing and we learned about them during our A Level and Degree (UK) ... but I love to see rather odd historical 'computers' or programmable devices.

It'd be neat to see a loom take either punch card or textile as input. So you could write to the textile, use it as memory and instructions. Then when the program is finished just cut it up and make a rather fetching cardigan from it (the textile, not the punch cards - silly!)

<comment><USER10> Also featured on Connections (BBC James Burke). A particularly memorable episode.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itd-4lMoXgI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itd-4lMoXgI)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Not sure why this is suddenly trending on HN... Perhaps many people have never heard of it.

If you're in the UK and want to see a real Jaquard Loom, there's currently one on display at the Science Museum in London.

<comment><USER12> Old tech is certainly tech too, and this definitely manages to impress and fascinate even me, 200 years later.</comment></comment>


Mostly missless memory in the Mill CPU (talk 3) - <AUTHOR> http://ootbcomp.com/docs/memory/index.html

<comment><AUTHOR> And you can find the talk over here: [http://ee380.stanford.edu/cgi- bin/videologger.php?target=131...](http://ee380.stanford.edu/cgi- bin/videologger.php?target=131016-ee380-300.asx)</comment>


Why You Might Enjoy Using DNSimple - <AUTHOR> http://rdegges.com/why-you-might-enjoy-using-dnsimple

<comment><USER2> I use it for all the reasons described in the article. My favorite part is the support. I've only had one hiccup in my experience and was contacted by Anthony right away.

He even indulged me when I wanted to talk shop a little bit replying to my question about their stack with the following:

"Regarding what we develop in, we have a mixture of languages. Most of what we have is in Ruby, but we also have some Erlang, some Clojure and some Python. It all depends on what is the best tool for the job."</comment>