Show HN: An open-source mobile RPG engine in CoffeeScript - <AUTHOR> http://pents90.github.io/eburp

<comment><USER2> Fabulous acronym.

Also, direct link to the (really quite juicy bits of) the source code: [https://github.com/pents90/eburp/tree/master/src](https://github.com/pents90/eburp/tree/master/src)

</comment><comment><USER3> FYI...you forgot the "s" in Universal.

"The Eight-Bit Univeral Role Playing (EBURP) engine "

Just a heads up.

</comment><comment><USER4> Very nice. What did you use to package it as an app?

<comment><AUTHOR> (Author here) The apps are just really thin native WebView/UIWebView layers, included in the source. No frameworks were used.

<comment><USER5> You may want to consider standard WASD for directions, moving back to Q, select to E and special functions to ZXC. The WASD habit is strong, for me at least.

Not that it will matter as much for the end app, of course.

<comment><USER6> I'm used to HJKL for movement.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I really like the spatial combat mechanics

</comment><comment><USER8> The other half is a good RPG story/interaction design. What are the good mobile-device RPGs? Anything better than playing FF6 _again_?

<comment><USER9> Unfortunately, gameification trumps game design in modern mobile RPGs. (looking at you, Zenonia and Inotia)

<comment><USER10> I keep seeing complaints like this, which indicates an existing and underserved market. That's an opportunity for anyone who can make a decent RPG and sell it for a flat fee.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> awesome game!</comment>


Linux troubleshooting tools cheat sheet - <AUTHOR> http://melitamihaljevic.blogspot.com/2012/12/linux-troubleshooting-tools-cheat-sheet.html

<comment><USER2> actual link:

[https://github.com/mmihaljevic/cheat_sheet/blob/master/linux...](https://github.com/mmihaljevic/cheat_sheet/blob/master/linux_troubleshooting)

is missing:

#ss -la

#ps auwfux

#df -h ## look for 100% file systems

#cat ./STRANGE_BINARY_FILE | strings |less</comment>


A collection of links for streaming algorithms and data structures - <AUTHOR> https://gist.github.com/debasishg/8172796 <comment><USER2> Also available with full-text search over there: [https://www.kifi.com/leo/streaming-algorithms-and-data- struc...](https://www.kifi.com/leo/streaming-algorithms-and-data-structures)

</comment><comment><USER3> I found this set of lectures to be really nice: [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLT_GI2oINs- CRuwMGDa5_...](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLT_GI2oINs- CRuwMGDa5_frB7kC7blf__) Wish I had time to get through them all...

</comment><comment><USER4> Here is another repo of streaming papers: [https://github.com/sorenmacbeth/streaming- papers](https://github.com/sorenmacbeth/streaming-papers)</comment>


Getting to No: The Key to Startup Selling - <AUTHOR> http://www.sequoiacap.com/grove/posts/quuj/getting-to-no-the-key-to-startup-selling <comment><USER2> An alternative approach is to properly qualify prospects up front once you get them on the phone. This helps you identify a non-customer early in the conversation so that you can end it if there is no fit, or aggressively pursue if there is.

Also, a good sales call needs to have some structure. For example, a good portion of the qualifying questions should focus on customer pain.

Does the prospect have the pain you solve?

Does the prospect already solve/address the pain? If so, how? With whom? What is good about the current solution? What's wrong with it?

Does the prospect have budget to solve the pain? How much? How is budget allocated and when? What is the budget process?

Who makes decisions about this pain? Who decides which solution to use? Who approves the budget, and who can influence a purchase decision?

And so on.

With regard to endlessly calling people...if it works then stick with it. I've been amazed over the years at what works for different sales people. There are definitely practices that work for one person's personality that would be horrific with a different sales person.

However, I think the OP's advice is to remember your ABCs of selling (Always Be C/Selling).

<comment><USER3> I thought the "ABC" of selling is "Always Be Closing", from Glengarry Glen Ross.

<comment><USER4> I prefer always be coding.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The guy who the movie the Wolf of Wall Street is based on was on Piers Morgan a few weeks back and he said his approach to sales was basically the same thing. You ask someone if they're interested in buying X right now, if they say "no", you ask "OK when will you be looking to buy X" and just move on to someone who wants to buy "X" now. It all sounds so obvious, but like the OP states, to us engineers, it can feel a bit slimy, pushy etc. Not how we want to be sold things if the roles were reversed.

I've definitely found the transition to salesperson from developer one of the hardest things about running a company.

<comment><USER6> Best advice I ever received when I transitioned into sales 15 years ago was a fast no is 100x better than a slow maybe.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'm a little iffy on the whole "super persistence" thing, but there's a reason the old saw "persistence overcomes resistance" comes up. That said, the part I like about this is the advice about "get to no", regardless of how you get there.

I'm a fan of Jeff Thull's "Diagnostic Business Development" approach, and in his book _Mastering The Complex Sale_ he makes a similar point. And think about it: If this customer is _not_ going to buy your product (because they don't need it, don't like you, or because of your skin color, whatever) the sooner you find out, the better... because now you can divert that energy and attention to a different prospect who may be more likely to buy.

I'm still trying to learn to be a salesman after 20 some odd years of being a coder first and foremost, so a lot of this still feels foreign to me, but at least some of it is starting to make sense. Hopefully salesmen can be "made" and don't have to be "born".

</comment><comment><USER8> This advice may have been based off a long time best selling book that the author fails to mention, either because he doesn't know about the book (ignorance) or because he knows about the book, but he forgot to mention it (forgetfulness).

The name of the book is: Go For No [http://www.amazon.com/Yes-Destination-How- You-There/dp/09663...](http://www.amazon.com/Yes-Destination-How-You- There/dp/0966398130)

It's a great book.

</comment><comment><USER9> I'm wondering if no one says no in the face of this persistence on the simple basis of saying "you're annoying". If someone was to call me every hour I don't think I'd really even care what it is that they're offering me. Maybe I'm wrong about this, but I would think that there are only a few people who will actually then offer you insights into why they don't want your product.

</comment><comment><USER10> Reminds me so much of boiler room: And there is no such thing as a no sale call. A sale is made on every call you make. Either you sell the client some stock or he sells you a reason he can't. Either way a sale is made, the only question is who is gonna close? You or him? Now be relentless, that's it, I'm done.

That said it's a technique that works really well.

<comment><USER11> I always just say 'no' and refuse to give a reason. I don't feel like I'm obliged to give a reason.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I like this advice a lot. We have been wasting way too much time with maybes instead of pressuring them into a yes/no. People are worried that the pressure is harmful to the brand/relationship but its not as harmful as wasting a lot of time on a maybe which ends up as a no. Great post.

<comment><USER13> I worked at a startup where the CEO and CTO burned literally millions of engineers' time running around in circles trying to get to 'yes' with potential leads (I'm an electrical engineer and this was an energy storage company).

Leads would throw out lots of vague reasons why they couldn't say 'yes' (usually because they were too polite / guarded to say the real reason), CEO/CTO would promise to resolve all of them, and then send the engineering team on a wild goose chase of trying to develop new features or new products that didn't make any sense. But really, it was usually a regulatory problem and they couldn't buy the product even if it sprouted golden unicorns from its AC bus because their regulator just wouldn't authorize non-essential equipment.

So I like this advice a lot. If someone is not going to buy the product I want to know as soon as possible. Your product direction shouldn't consist of the last 5 things potential leads told you while giving you a soft 'no', especially when you're building a product that takes months to years of testing and validation and failure analysis and certification before it can go to market.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Can't believe that there are no negative comments yet. So ridiculous. No wonder so many people are sending endless sales emails. No reply after several attempts is a NO. DOH.

Now thousands of people reading this ridiculous blog post will copycat. FACEPALM.

Please. Stop. this. nonsense.

<comment><USER15>
        > No reply after several attempts is a NO

If that was true, people wouldn't do it. It's not, though.

<comment><USER14> I would be able to give you a long list of people for whom I've said no by ignoring, except their emails are deleted. The only trace left of them are entries in my spam filter.

This entire story is about selfish people spamming prospects with no respect for anyone else's time but their own.

Disgraceful.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Reminds me of something I wrote similar to this, learned it from another founder who went to Stanford and did his MBA there: [http://venturebeat.com/2011/06/16/hacking-the-system-how- to-...](http://venturebeat.com/2011/06/16/hacking-the-system-how-to-land- meetings-with-anyone-you-want/)

Context: I was writing a book and needed it finished before final exams my senior year. I had to get people to say yes or no, but no responses were just wasting time. Not a single person was offended when I used this trick.

</comment><comment><USER17> An important tip missing on the OP is: be persistent, fully knowing that you might be annoying, but never, under any circunstance admit that you are annoying, or act as you knew you were being annoying. You must sound totally naivee, act as all you want is your prospect to better and completely convinced that using your product would make him a better person/professional. Act surprised when the prospect act irritated. And always use the argument that the prospect himself kept that door open with you by not saying he didn't want your product.

This was a great read to me, because now I know that I've been doing it right for the last few years. Before my "2013 startup year" I worked on a philanthropy advisory non-profit. 80% of my job was _selling_ to wealthy individuals our service of being a guide to better donations. So I was basically a salesperson selling a service that almost nobody in Brazil consider a real need or problem - btw that's one difference between cause driven non-profits and market driven startups, you don't pivot if the market doesn't need your service, you persist. Mainly because the people you are solving a problem and the people giving you money are two separate stakeholders usually. That's kind of inevitable, because the social problem wouldn't be there to begin with if the market/society were really bothered by it. I can't imagine Watsi pivoting because people do not want to pay for medical anymore, but they would be willing to pay for a exotic tourism service to where the people they aid are from. They might get more money this way, but social tourism is another cause, solves another problem (maybe). It is not an acceptable pivot for a non-profit.

Back on topic, I learned to be persistent to get to a no. People hate saying no to something that the society consider the right thing to do, even if they have no intention of actually doing it, so this was crutial to my job - get a "no" was always my objective.

But I disagree with a reason to do it is getting feedback. I never got real feedback for why people were saying no - maybe because of what I was selling, there is a stigma in saying _" I won't donate because I earned it by myself and I am antitled to spend on whatever I want, and giving them away to other people's benefit is not my idea of a money well spent"_.

</comment><comment><USER18> The problem with this type of advice is that you're going to end up approaching prospects from a very narrow point of view. For example, enterprise markets typically have excruciatingly long sales cycles with several layers of decision makers. Those types of deals require longterm investments in the prospective relationship.

Persistence is an admirable trait of any good salesperson though I would never recommend irritating an answer out of someone.

</comment><comment><USER19> I remember a sales book once. Cannot remember the title. But it had an interesting diagram.

Most people think: Failure --> Success

It is actually: Failure --> Failure --> Failure --> Success

I think most guys (and possibly girls) eventually learn (sometimes through painful experience) that getting a quick rejection is better than being friend-zoned. Fail faster! Talk to that interesting person who intrigue you!

<comment><USER20> But what if I just want to be friends?

<comment><USER19> In that case, you try to hang out doing something they like (and hopefully you like) as soon as possible. None of this, let's hang out amorphous non-followup

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> The key thing is to make sure you understand why the customer is saying no, or why they are saying yes. If you don't get a firm no you can never actually ask the questions that will let you understand where there is a mismatch between the potential customer and product. After understanding you can better alter the product or customer you go after.

</comment><comment><USER22> They don't show me any content until I give them my email address? Am I missing something?

<comment><USER23> It's broken in Chrome. Use Firefox to view.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Great post, it is high value business stuff like this that I read HN for.

</comment><comment><USER25> Can someone shed some light on what he means by "prospect" "product" and so on? This is all highly abstract, bordering on generic sales advice.

<comment><USER26> From my understanding... > Prospect - A potential customer. Someone who may be interested in your service. > Product - The service you are pitching to said prospect.

Pretty sure I understood what he is getting at but I'm not sure this advice will work or is recommended for all industries.

<comment><USER25> ..but it's written by a VC, no?

<comment><USER27> it's written by entrepreneurs that the VC backed not VCs themselves. cross- branding

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> There's a similar idea in Sandler Selling, where in your voice mail you invite them to say that it's over, and just to let you know that it is.</comment>


Tutorial: Build Your Own Testing Framework - <AUTHOR> http://www.tddfellow.com/blog/2016/07/15/build-your-own-testing-framework/ <comment><AUTHOR> Feedback is warmly welcome!</comment>


All the labor force participation growth since 2000 has been in 65+ demographic - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/RudyHavenstein/status/697175756519010304 <comment><USER2> As per HN guidelines, "please submit the original source".

In this case, the original source is easy to find from the URL in the top corner of the tweeted image:

[http://www.advisorperspectives.com/dshort/updates/Demographi...](http://www.advisorperspectives.com/dshort/updates/Demographic- Trends-in-Employment-Participation)

The chart in the tweet is the third chart on this page.</comment>


Vibease Lets You Please Your Lover With an App - <AUTHOR> http://www.penn-olson.com/2012/02/02/vibease/

<comment><AUTHOR> Is this the 'internet of things'?</comment>


Ask HN: What are you using AppleScript for? - <AUTHOR> Considering how popular MacOS laptops are with developers, it's curious to me that I haven't come across much usage of AppleScript.
I use it to hook up various actions to the TouchBar with BetterTouchTool (https://folivora.ai/) and have done some iTunes related scripts in the past to clean up or improve my library.
Are you doing anything useful / fun with AppleScript? <comment><USER2> I used it (well, Apple events, lower in the AppleScript stack) to generate piles of PDFs for from Quark for clients. Later book automation.

It was super handy for that sort of thing.

Sort of miss it, in a maybe-masochist kind of way.

Open tools to HTML are much nicer. And much less bizarre.

If anyone has some hairy InDesign or Quark or Illustrator thing they need automated, let me know.

...

...personally? lots of useful hotkeys.

But the shit keyboards finally drove me away. Linux on a XPS13 now.

I don't miss AppleScript the language. But I do miss the fact that it was sorta built into everything by default.

<comment><USER3> I use Illustrator lightly for 10 years but never know it support Applescript, will take a look at it.

<comment><USER2> If you're entirely within Illustrator, you're probably better off using Adobe's javascript API. Better cross-platform, better language, faster (less process switching overhead).

It has pretty good AppleScript coverage (from looking at the dictionary) but I've never used most of it.

Mostly used AppleScript to call 'do javascript'.

<comment><USER3> I know JS part for years, but never read anything about Applescript. Thanks for the heads-up, I guess I'll pass it for now

<comment><USER2> Good plan.

The AppleScript support was there maybe even before Illustrator was available for Windows.

Not going to look at either API. And, I don't have a current Illustrator.

...but I can guess with certainty that the javascript API gets more attention within Adobe. And that it has a more solid future.

AppleScript may never disappear from Illustrator or macOS. But it _does not_ have a bright, vibrant future.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Spent the last few years developing my own end-user automation language for rendering templated artworks in Adobe Illustrator. Not written in AppleScript, mind (that language is a junker), but driving AI via the same Apple event interface that AppleScript talks to. Insanely powerful stuff.

Currently reimplementing Carbon AEDescs in pure Swift, to see if a modern high-level IPC framework that works across macOS, iOS, _and_ Marzipan apps is feasible. ([https://twitter.com/hhas02/status/1124763874413174786](https://twitter.com/hhas02/status/1124763874413174786))

Developers generally hate AppleScript because it deliberately misleads them into believing Apple event IPC is OOP, then drives them absolutely nuts by acting in all sorts of very un-OO ways. However, once you realize that it's not OOP at all, but RPC plus simple first-class relational _queries_ … oh the possibilities. Interesting times.

</comment><comment><USER5> I use it to control some Spotify actions assigned to keyboard shortcuts via Alfred.

</comment><comment><USER3> mostly use AppleScript with iTunes, such as rating songs playing with Alfred and various Doug's AppleScript for itunes. Actually I learn AppleScript by tuning Doug's script for my own needs.

</comment><comment><USER6> Mostly just glue type stuff.</comment>


HowTo for exotic birds in the Valley? - <AUTHOR>

Hi,
I am searching for maximum exposure to people of technology/startup background.
The thing is: As a soon to be PhD in Chemistry with experience in biotechnology I am a rather exotic bird in the business. I am a self taught python programmer, and had plenty of different jobs as side projects. Chance got me involved with the startup world and gave me some steep learning curve in the field with two failed projects (gastronomy point of sales system, luxury goods marketing and distribution company) in Berlin, Germany.
Unfortunately, getting in touch with the right people is the biggest problem: It is hard to assemble the right team in Germany, as most graduates with technical skills make a run for the large companies of the well paying industrial sector. Also, the city of Berlin, the so called "Silicon Valley" of Germany, is not the super shiny place it seems. There is a lot going on there in terms of startups, but it is mostly on-line marketing/sales/media/advertisement, a territory discovered long ago.
I am not afraid to get my hands dirty and "wet" - on the contrary, I love science, and love the stuff companies like mc10 inc do. However, I am well aware of the advantages of IT based products over chem/bio/medical products when it comes to development, risk and initial investment.
I can think, work hard, communicate, I love technology. So, where do I have to go to get the maximum exposure and build a good startup raft? Is the Valley something for me? Shall I buy a ticket and just fly there, like I did it with Berlin? Is there any place in Europe that could be compared to it?
I would be grateful for any directions, contacts, hubs etc, that could speed up my search.
Regards,

  piotr

  pioja at gmx dot net
 <comment><USER2> If for no other reason than to get it out of your system -- this idea of The Valley as a promised land for entrepreneurs -- then by all means, go for it, and buy that plane ticket.

Just be prepared for the fact that culturally speaking, The Valley might come off as something of a rude surprise compared to Berlin (or just about any major hub in Europe).

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi,

thanks for your comment. I was by no means speaking about an escape - I would probably go to Myanmar or the Falkslands to achieve that - but to get better exposure to technologically oriented entrepreneurs. Although I must say that probably you are right about the impending culture shock, or whatever you might mean by 'rude surprise'.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> OT, but you'd better change the title of the submission. I thought it was about someone who wanted to bring parrots in the Silicon Valley.</comment>


Using indexes in Rails - <AUTHOR> http://tomafro.net/2009/08/using-indexes-in-rails-index-your-associations <comment><USER2> In the more common cases, you get indexes on foreign keys for free. For example, using MySQL with InnoDB, declaring a FOREIGN KEY constraint will automatically create an index on the referencing table: [http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/innodb-foreign-key- co...](http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/innodb-foreign-key- constraints.html)</comment>


Ask HN: Worried about health - <AUTHOR> Hey guys so I've been spending a lot of time in front of the computer working on my SaaS for the past two years.
Mainly I'm concerned that this sedentary lifestyle is having health impact.
I also have aspergers and what I can explain as avolition. Like I can't even take care of myself, neglecting food while coding or just overall spending too much time working or just playing pc games, reddit & youtube.
So what mind hacks or even work out furnitures did you introduce in your life to be more proactive?
Like this time I want to actually address being healthier, I'm 28 and having some health issues I believe caused by being a shut-in and working on my SaaS for like two years straight before making any money. <comment><USER2> Some things that will help:

 _Nulroute via hosts reddit /youtube/etc._ Maybe setup a cron job to do this automatically at fixed times.

 _Make it a habit to leave the house at least once a day._ I used to approach this and think about it like taking myself out for a walk, just to get some natural sunshine and talk with other people in meatspace.

 _Start exercising_. Get a copy of "Starting Strength" or just start "Couch to 5K" (a great free jogging program) or go on /fit/ and look for a simple workout routine. Do _something_ to get your body moving...it helps with depression, anxiety, and just general relaxation.

 _Stack something on your desk to make it a standing desk_. This can be helpful if you're worried about slouching over too much. You can be a ghetto as you want here; even a bunch of books is better than nothing.

 _Stock basic cooking ingredients_. Make it super trivial to go from "I'm hungry" to "I'm cooking". It's not too hard to, for example, make healthy meals out of eggs and avocados or salads.

<comment><USER3> With regards to the standing desk, I find that for me (5'11"), placing a tabletop on top of 2x IKEA Billy Bookshelves (41.75" H x 31.5" W) does the job perfectly; it easily supports a dual-monitor setup (1x 32inch, 1x 24inch). Add in a anti-fatigue cushioned mat for your feet, and you're good to go!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> If there is one piece of advice I can give you which will solve a disproportionately large amount of your problems, it is this: Get some exercise.

So simple yet so hard (although it really isn't that hard in comparison to the benefits it yields). You probably already know it but don't want to hear it, so you are hoping for other quick fixes like furniture or mental hacks.

Just start small if you've never done it before, run for a minute then go back home, and do the same next day, until you start to improve your form (which will happen surprisingly quickly if you're starting from zero).

Think of it this way, if you can't muster up the discipline to go out and exercise, how are you going to be successful in your project when it comes time to do some of the things you don't enjoy? Use it as a proxy for your project's success.

</comment><comment><USER5> I've read about people who work from home, who get up every morning, dress for "work", and walk around the block to get to "work." That walk in the morning, or two or three blocks, would go a long way to keeping you healthy.

If you've been spending two years in front of your computer working on your SaaS, then you've missed some crucial benefit for your SaaS. You need to spend time not thinking about your project, so your brain can sort through things on its own. You'll get more and better ideas by not constantly thinking about more and better ideas.

</comment><comment><USER6> I suggest exercise first. Even semi-regular exercise will help stimulate your appetite and need for sleep, making both of them harder to ignore or neglect. Then, of course, there are the benefits of exercise.

I believe the means by which you choose to exercise is extremely important here. Based on my interpretation of your post, I'm going to divide exercise into the two categories.

1.'Exercise hacks': intermittent, low-impact physical activity that optimizes for your convenience and proximity, and done well goes almost undetected in your day-to-day. Usually, this type of exercise splits its time with another activity. Examples: use a treadmill desk while working; do five pushups every time you enter your kitchen; choose stairs over the elevator.

I do not recommend this category for you. I believe you would be disappointed and unlikely to improve your overall health, and the things in between, by a meaningful and rewarding degree.

2\. Activity performed as part of a group class that occurs during discrete, recurring periods of time. Exercise, a safe space for person-to-person interaction, accountability, and opportunities to laugh at yourself are all pleasant byproducts. Examples: beginner salsa or swing dancing; rock-climbing; parkour; whatever.

I think you'll find this form of activity to be a lovely surprise and very rewarding. I urge you to give it a try.

</comment><comment><USER7> Solo dev working from home here - my main lifehack is that I don't have a car. That means when I need to do shopping, I have to walk to the shops & carry it back, enforcing a minimal level of exercise each week. Since I can't carry as much as a car could, I have to walk to the shops more often. (When I do need a car, I use Uber or Uber Black.)

I allow myself to eat fast food / McDonalds whenever I want - but if I want it, I have to walk the 3km / 2 miles each way to get there. That gets me walking & out of the house. I also take my laptop and work from cafes often, or work outside in a park to get sunshine.

Joining a gym is a great idea, and when you have enough cash saved get a personal trainer. You might need to go through a few trainers to find one that you click with. Right now I'm a member of a 24-hour gym & workout at night when I have the gym all to myself, great alternative if you're shy or feel socially anxious at times.

I'm hesitant to recommend hacks, but I do have some URLs permanently blocked on my router and have used Mac apps like Concentrate [1] and Vitamin-R [2] to help me focus on work. Try RescueTime [3] if you need to identify which sites you should block. I love my Herman Miller Aeron [4] chair (helped with back problems), a Bosu [5] is amazing for doing pushups / crunches / plank at home, I use the hotspot on my Nexus 5 so I can work at cafes & parks, and I wear my Bose QC25s at the gym with a Spotify running playlist to get about 10 - 20% extra speed out of myself. (But you don't need toys & hacks, self-discipline & self-motivation is more important.)

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

[2] [http://www.publicspace.net/Vitamin-R/](http://www.publicspace.net/Vitamin-R/)

[3] [https://www.rescuetime.com](https://www.rescuetime.com)

[4] [http://www.hermanmiller.com/products/seating/performance- wor...](http://www.hermanmiller.com/products/seating/performance-work- chairs/aeron-chairs.html)

[5] [http://www.bosu.com](http://www.bosu.com)

</comment><comment><USER8> Neglecting things is a big issue which needs to be addressed first. For your fitness regiment start simple At home When you get up (Look at youtube videos if you do not have a clue what these are) \- Stretch \- calisthenics

In the office Use a timer and every 90 minutes go for a 10 minutes walk. You could also do chair exercises but that would depend on your sitting configuration.

</comment><comment><USER9> Wake up at 6AM every single day. Walk for an hour every single day. It's easy to wake up early if you go to sleep early. And it's easy to take a walk if you have something interesting to listen to.

This seems to be enough to "bootstrap" a more active/healthy lifestyle and stave off the shut-in funk.

</comment><comment><USER10> Pick a healthy hobby that is also as addictive as screen time. For me, it's martial arts. I look forward to my work outs, and it drives me to eat better so I can win. Yes there is winning in the gym! Well, at least there is still losing :)

</comment><comment><USER11> Maybe consider doing comprehensive medical testing? If everything is okay it will help reduce your anxiety about it. If not it will probably help more than any amount of exercise ever will.

<comment><USER12> > it will probably help more than any amount of exercise ever will.

Unless the issue is solely anxiety-based, exercise would in most cases help a considerable amount. Especially for smaller medical concerns (not sleeping well, aches, mild anxiety), doctors usually cannot really help. Medical intervention generally does not make sense until something is really wrong, and a proper exercise habit is a very good way to help prevent many types of conditions. Before I had experience with doctors, I thought they would be able to solve any medical problems, but I learned the hard way that with many problems they often cannot help a significant amount, if at all. Medicine is still a very crude science. Plus, it would be a folly to think a doctor cares as much about your health as you do. If you care about yourself, you need to do your part with diet and exercise.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> start walking/hiking/running. It has one benefit in that you can think about your SaaS with the added circulation helping the mind.</comment>


Intel Announces Movidius Myriad X VPU, Featuring 'Neural Compute Engine' - <AUTHOR> http://www.anandtech.com/show/11771/intel-announces-movidius-myriad-x-vpu <comment><USER2> One interesting thing about these Myriad chips is that they use Leon- an open source SPARC-V8 core for their main and "real time" CPUs. It's odd to me that it's not using ARM...

[http://eyesofthings.eu/wp- content/uploads/deliverables/EoT_D...](http://eyesofthings.eu/wp- content/uploads/deliverables/EoT_D2.3.pdf)

<comment><USER3> Before they were Intel, Movidius was a small silicon company. They probably just didn't want to pay the ARM licensing fee.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> > 4K at 30 Hz (H.264/H.265) and 60 Hz (M/JPEG) supported

I am greatly amused at the thought of 2160p60 MJPEG. That must be extremely efficient…

<comment><USER5> I chuckled at that, too. I struggle to imagine what would be on the receiving end of that. I doubt most desktop machines could decode a 60fps 4k MJPEG stream, let alone a phone. Maybe they sell an SOC the other side too.

<comment><USER6> Any desktop would be able to do so.

I wrote a multi stream mjpeg decoder some years ago and it could run three MJPEG streams at 1920x1080@30 on a 2008 Macbook Pro (Core 2 Duo, 2.5ghz ).

<comment><USER7> That's only ~187MP/s. A single 4k 2160p60 stream needs almost 500MP/s, which might be at the edge of what's possible on a CPU today, but would make far more sense for a GPU to do.

<comment><USER8> It shouldn't be a stretch for a quad-core desktop processor today. Doubling the core count and increasing clock speed by 40% compared to a mobile Core 2 isn't hard. DDR4 instead of DDR2 means memory bandwidth is probably not an issue, and AVX can probably provide further headroom on the compute power.

And, of course, it's much easier to build a desktop with far more than four CPU cores these days.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I couldn't trust it. Not that I know that product specifically, but given previous working with Intel products outside of their X86 line, it will likely be EoL'ed in a year or so.

Ive been bitten by a few of their "Maker things". Faulty firmware, no support, no documentation, faulty I2C.. All sorts of things. And unless I have a timeframe how long they plan to support it and sell it, I just can't justify using it in any product I have or plan to build.

<comment><USER10> I was just going to comment on that. Just recently, Intel quietly killed Edison, Joule, Galileo.

<comment><USER11> These aren't the same crowd though. NN/ML is new, hot, technical .. SBC and embedded on the other hand ..

<comment><USER12> Yet it is the same management board.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Intel making neural compute engines isn't anything new. They've previously had them within the Intel Curie chips, such as those found on the Arduino 101.

<comment><USER14> Yeah, but nobody aver seemed to figure out what to use them for it seems. Probably too limited in its capabilities (128 neurons with 128 bytes each imho).

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> do that really brings power ??

</comment><comment><USER16> If this is anything like the Xeon Phi its Intel trying to push their own Float16 standard. We all saw how well Float80 worked out when will Intel stop with arbitrary custom standards.

<comment><USER17> Not to defend Intel because I think Intel has become a Ship of Fools With a lot of money, but AMD has FP24, Nvidia has FP16 and Google has TPU 2 with an FP16 implementation so proprietary they can't talk about it. I think the valid concern here is that if this doesn't take off immediately they will end-of- life it and not so much the floating point format.

<comment><USER18> I won't defend FP24, but FP16 is a widely supported IEEE standard.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_754](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_754)

<comment><USER19> Not exactly, IEEE 754 defines very specific rules (e.g. what operations can be done, order of operations and how the results are handled), it's basically exists so that if the same calculation is done on different hardware the result will be the same (or within a given margin of error since even IEEE 754 isn't 100% strict).

For the most part when you have hardware that supports one of the binary standards say FP32 you'll have a compliance sheet, more often than not it will not be 100% compliant for example NVIDIA GPUs were not IEEE 754 compliant when Tesla came out, 2nd Generation Tesla cards were FMA compliant, div and sqrt operations were not IEEE 754 compliant until Fermi.

So the GP was correct, back in the old DX9 days when AMD went with FP24 and NVIDIA with FP16/32 both implementations were proprietary, and this is still the case, they just often offer a 754 compliant mode. You can disable 754 compliance to run faster (sometimes considerably so) e.g. in CUDA you can use the NVCC flag --use_fast_math to do so.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


What Does History Smell Like? - <AUTHOR> https://daily.jstor.org/what-does-history-smell-like/ <comment><USER2> I've been to rural areas in North Africa, India, Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, and Central America. One uniquitous and unexpected smell is that of smoke. The majority of cooking in these rural areas is over fire, and burning garbage is a commonplace activity; people will burn their household garbage in their back yards. That and the smell of food cooking (usually outdoors) are the most prevalent scents. In low- or moderate-population areas, it's actually a pleasant smell, and the lack of other pollution leaves the air fresh, with smoke wafting by occasionally. Notably, there's no sewage smell in most of these places, even when there's no plumbing.

Cities in these places, on the other hand, can have overwhelming scents. In addition to all the smoke from the same activities above, some of the large cities (particularly in Asia) have open sewers in the street, and standing bodies of water with algae overgrowth. I imagine this is roughly what large cities over the millenia have smelled like.

Now there are two major pollutants in the mix as well: cars (with no pollution standards in place) and industrial manufacturing. Of the places I've been, this is most prevalent in large cities in India and Thailand.

</comment><comment><USER3> > medical texts maintained that odors could directly affect those who inhaled > them

That didn't just cause people to be fussy about smells. It caused them, for hundreds of years, to ignore evidence for the actual mechanism of disease transmission. The well-known story about the Broad St cholera outbreak, where someone figured out (in 1854) that cholera was caused by tainted drinking water, didn't have a happy ending as the "miasma" (odors) theory prevailed with public health officials and millions more died.

[0] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1854_Broad_Street_cholera_outb...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1854_Broad_Street_cholera_outbreak)

<comment><USER4> Also quite tellingly, many of the early medical textbooks had areas devoted to cosmetics, perfume, incense, and scented aromatics. The 10th century Al- Tasrif, one of the most important medical textbooks ever written and in use until the 1700s, had an entire chapter devoted to this topic.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> There's an interesting discussion about the variety of smells which the article goes into, but there were also recurring smells across multiple epochs.

I've spent some time thinking about historical smells. My money says a huge hunk of history smelled like the back end of a horse.

<comment><USER6> Only in urban environments.

Farms probably didn't smell as strongly of animal piss as they do now due to less confinement and smaller numbers of animals.

India has probably smelled like burning cow dung for millennia. It's a very characteristic and welcoming smell (though probably horrible if you actually live in a dwelling where this technology is used)

<comment><USER7> Burning cow shit smells welcoming? I'd have thought it'd stink like cow shit and smoke. What does it smell like? Genuinely curious!

<comment><USER6> Mostly like straw. Took me decades before I figured out what that smell was as I don't actually know anyone who has to do it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I remember reading somewhere twenty years ago that the past smelled aweful. People not bathing, poor sanitation, sewage, industrial pollution, fires for cooking or heat, I wish I had even a hint of where to find that article because it was pretty vivid. The closest I think I've ever come to that level of supposed stench would be New York City in the summer time when it's 90-+100 degrees and +70% humidity. You can't walk a block with out being soaked in sweat and everyone is soaked in sweat! Combined with the raw garbage, ands feces and it makes for a great democratizer and some interesting scenes.

<comment><USER9> The linked-to article says:

"But Jenner writes that this kind of stink was by no means ubiquitous in premodern times. It was in moments of high poverty and rapid urbanization that the most awful odors arose—"moments and cultures better understood as experiencing or entering modernity than as immured in some 'primitive' state.""</comment></comment>


The Tragedy of Systemd [video] - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_AIw9bGogo <comment><USER2> The tragedy of systemd is that it's the wrong solution to a real problem. Because most people against systemd will keep saying that the old init system was ok, they don't move forward trying to provide a true alternative. So systemd became a standard despite the issues, because it solves certain real problems that people have, even if not great.

<comment><USER3> systemd became a standard because the guy works at Red Hat so he can make GNOME require it (there is no way to use GNOME without systemd; distros that allow that such as Gentoo do so by patching GNOME, which is costly.)

I agree that a more modern init system is necessary, but the idea of systemd is meh and the implementation is subpar.

<comment><USER4> The intentional and willful breaking of screen and tmux was to fix a GNOME bug of GNOME not closing up as it should when the user logs out, so systemd was changed to mass kill processes. The interplay between GNOME and systemd in backroom dealings is a major pain point.

<comment><USER5> I think that's an oversimplification. There are definitely cases where some thing started as a daemon under a user session, graphical or not, should be killed to be safe. For example, ssh-agent.

There are other things that are meant to be left around, as that's their purpose, such as screen and tmux.

I would say the safe solution would be to kill everything in the user session at _multiple levels_ (GNOME, and user session management demon like logind, etc), and to provide a defined safe way for the very few programs that want to stick around to do so. That seems like what systemd came up with as well.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The tragedy of having to watch a youtube video instead of reading a transcript...

<comment><USER7> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19023232](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19023232)

LWN does a reasonably faithful summary.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Previously:

LWN article:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19023232](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19023232) (1/29/2019)

This talk:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19157293](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19157293) (2/13/2019)

Another youtube version of it:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17778202](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17778202) (8/16/2018)

</comment><comment><USER9> I ask this in every systemd thread but I genuinely would love a real answer. Can anyone give me exact real-world examples of where systemd is objectively better suited than any number of other init systems?

The fact that I still have yet to see any such examples in the last half a decade seems pretty telling. Wouldn't and shouldn't there be tons of such examples given the rhetoric?

<comment><USER10> It makes it a lot easier to set up a service than System V init. Writing a service file is much easier and less error prone than writing shell scripts.

<comment><USER11> syn0byte explicitly said "any number of other init systems", and was clearly trying to avoid people trotting out, as you and several others have, the tired old fallacy, called out by the Uselessd Guy long since, of assuming that only systemd and van Smoorenburg init+rc exist ...

* [http://uselessd.darknedgy.net/ProSystemdAntiSystemd/](http://uselessd.darknedgy.net/ProSystemdAntiSystemd/) ([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8488235](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8488235))

* [https://blog.darknedgy.net/technology/2015/09/05/0/](https://blog.darknedgy.net/technology/2015/09/05/0/)

* [http://jdebp.eu./FGA/run-scripts-and-service-units-side-by-s...](http://jdebp.eu./FGA/run-scripts-and-service-units-side-by-side.html)

... and then calling the latter "System V init", when AT&T System V had actually adopted a new system with separate system and service management several years before Linux was even invented.

* [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18788974](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18788974)

<comment><USER10> I took syn0byte to be asking for an example of an init system that systemd is better than. I can't really see any other interpretation of their comment.

>and then calling the latter "System V init",

This is what everyone calls it in the context of Linux init systems. You may not like that particular piece of terminology, but please don't give me a hard time for following the standard usage.

<comment><USER9> "any other init system..." originally included "...besides an ancient SysV strawman." but I removed it because it seemed overly snarky.

Having written and dealt with both; It's about equal in my time and effort to write either in sh or windows ini/'unit' files.

<comment><USER10> If you claim that System V init is just as good as systemd, then it is a relevant comparison rather than a straw man, no? In many cases there were a substantial number of people who wanted to keep System V init rather than move to systemd (e.g. [https://wiki.debian.org/Debate/initsystem/sysvinit](https://wiki.debian.org/Debate/initsystem/sysvinit)).

System V init wasn't an ancient straw man for Debian users. It was the init system that systemd replaced.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> What problems do people have with systemd? I actually think it's pretty great. They also made some tools like busctl that are really nice for Linux developers.

<comment><USER13> Something that annoyed me 10 minutes ago

Old fashioned way, when I restart apache having made a typo:

      Output of config test was:
      AH00526: Syntax error on line 2 of /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/mysite.conf:
      Invalid command 'blah', perhaps misspelled or defined by a module not included in the server configuration
      Action 'configtest' failed.

Now

       [....] Restarting apache2 (via systemctl): apache2.serviceJob for apache2.service failed because the control process exited with error code.
       See "systemctl status apache2.service" and "journalctl -xe" for details.
        failed!

The former is far more informative

<comment><USER14> I mean I agree that it should just show you the output of "systemctl status" in the error message, but your comparison isn't entirely fair. The commands systemd error message give will show you the same thing as the generic sysv output.

<comment><USER13> But it's that type of unhelpful behaviour that leads to dislike and accusations of arrogance (how dare you type a command that doesn't have the word "systemd" in it)

<comment><USER5> Is it unhelpful, or just different? In the case of systemd, isn't it logging all the errors in the journal so you can see prior occasions it had a problem and errored? What is the error output in the jouirnal? Is it better, worse, or the same?

Systemd makes the process two steps, which you think is worse, but you've failed to address whether the possible benefits of those two steps (error retention, possibly more or different levels of error reporting) have been taken advantage of, and how that looks.

There's a difference between something being worse and just different. So far all I've seen is different, and _possibly_ worse, but you've left out the information that would be required to determine that.

<comment><USER13> When you're using an interactive shell to restart a process, and it fails, why wouldn't you want it to tell you _why_ it failed.

      sudo systemctl restart apache2.service || systemctl status apache2.service

does the job, it's just ridiculous to seperate a system that used to be helpful.

Of course if you run sudo systemctl restart apache2.service You get no visual indication it's worked

      sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
      [ ok ] Restarting apache2 (via systemctl): apache2.service.

tells you it worked, at least on this ubuntu 1804 machine.

This regressive change in behaviour (taking away pertinent information for no obvious benefit) leads to assumptions being made that things are getting worse for normal people. This view is then backed up by the volume of "defending systemd" statements that seem to stem from "scripting is hard".

People get turned off before they even begin to understand what systemd is trying to do, not because of core reasons, but because of one of the first interactions the average person has with systemd is to make their life harder.

<comment><USER5> > This regressive change in behaviour (taking away pertinent information for > no obvious benefit)

There is a benefit. The benefit is that it's logged, always, and through a mechanism that is the same for every process. It's a trade off. We can argue whether it's a worthwhile trade off, or one that even really needs to exist (is there a reason they don't immediately show an error? I don't know), but to say there is no obvious benefit even after I pointed out this specific benefit in my prior comment is odd.

> People get turned off before they even begin to understand what systemd is > trying to do, not because of core reasons, but because of one of the first > interactions the average person has with systemd is to make their life > harder.

Any change from what existed previously that requires a different way of doing something, whether ultimately better or worse, makes the user's life harder in the short run since they need to learn something new.

That's not to say that's all that's happening here. There appears to be a regression in usability in at least one aspect. That said, I sort of understand why they didn't make it output that info. There have been plenty of times in the past for where sysV has reported a service started, but it actually failed very shortly after start. Generally, figuring out why can be painful, because STDOUT/STDERR have been redirected (or likely sent to /dev/null). Keeping a log of the stdout so you can see what happened on that last service action (and not hope it was logged to a log file, which it sometimes isn't...) is very useful. Outputting that the service started successfully is _nice_. Outputting that it started successfully when it didn't is misleading and more of a problem. Again, that's a trade-off, where it appears they've decided to favor accuracy over convenience in this case.

<comment><USER7> > The benefit is that it's logged, always, and through a mechanism that is the > same for every process. It's a trade off. We can argue whether it's a > worthwhile trade off, or one that even really needs to exist (is there a > reason they don't immediately show an error? I don't know)

Yeah, it seems feasible (and maybe a good default) for systemctl to dump out the same last few lines it would for 'status' if an administrative request fails. I don't know why this has to be a tradeoff; systemctl actions could easily both log and print (some limited subset of) the log on error.

<comment><USER13> Logging it is great, it's the fact the interface says "look in the log" rather than doing it for you.

It's tiny annoying things like that which leave a bad first impression. Rather than going "hey this system is great, it logs what it tells me", instead I'm left thinking "this system isn't for people like me, it doesn't think I need to know why it's broken"

First impressions are so important.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> What I have come to believe is the "Tragedy of Systemd" \- and if I am wrong on this, please let me know - is that it was a virtually unilateral decision to make the change, by one person, without any input from others.

It was like all at one shot - here's this huge and largely non-transparent init system created by seemingly one person who it felt like was shoving it down everyone's throat. My way or the highway style.

That, on top of what felt/feels like a lack of transparency about how it works (I could look at init scripts and understand them fairly easily and how they worked together - systemd seems almost a mystery to me; I just have to trust it works - so far so good I guess).

Maybe I am wrong on all of this - again, if I am (and there's a good chance I am I feel) - please let me know.

<comment><USER11> You are wrong. Read [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14735100](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14735100) .

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I just must let this one thing out.

> 34:02 binary logs are not a bad thing as long > 34:06 as you have the tools > to pull them apart

Really? Did he just "as long as" the biggest downside of binary log compared to text log, that is way fewer tools work on a binary log due to its special encoding?

With the same logic, flu viruses are not a bad thing as long as you are immune to them.

</comment><comment><USER17> Great talk imo, my TLDR would be : > systemd is not the best it could be, but it's there. > distros patting themselves on the back because they don't use it means they haven't listened to actual needs and stayed behind. > death threats over software that nobody else tried doing are ridiculous

<comment><USER18> Don't forget the gaslighting with "software has bugs" and "you just dont like change", while glossing over legit complaints about the outright narrow minded design of the system that is actively harmful in some cases (systemd- timesyncd, I'm looking at you).

Personally, the video made me rather angry because all he does is set up straw men and knock them down using the same terrible pro-systemd arguments that get trotted out every time someone has a legit problem with its design.Some of the distros that use systems like runit and openrc are using those sustems because systemd doesn't fit their technicals needs, and likely won't ever because of designs that are made without community input.

Oh, sure, he mentioned the Debian developer resignations, but outright failed to point out the _reason why_ they resigned: systemd was being railroaded into the system as a political move rather than being judged on its technical merits.

<comment><USER19> > Oh, sure, he mentioned the Debian developer resignations, but outright > failed to point out the reason why they resigned: systemd was being > railroaded into the system as a political move rather than being judged on > its technical merits.

No. Ian resigned because he tried to ignore systemd's technical merits and tried to used political moves (GR process) to to kill it. As a result, most of Debian's _community_ told him to top messing around with politics. Ian's resignation letter [1] explicitly says that:

> I should step aside to try to reduce the extent to which conversations about > the project's governance are personalised. [...]

> The majority of the project have voted to say that it was wrong of me to > bring this GR at this time.

[1] [https://lwn.net/Articles/621895/](https://lwn.net/Articles/621895/)

Please stop saying systemd was being railroaded. I have no idea what was going on in Redhat (I do not follow their mailing lists), but at least in Debian, it got on its own technical merits, and Poettering had no special influence there.

(That is not to say it is without problems; there are plenty of them. Still, the lesser of evils...)

<comment><USER7> > Please stop saying systemd was being railroaded. I have no idea what was > going on in Redhat (I do not follow their mailing lists), but at least in > Debian, it got on its own technical merits, and Poettering had no special > influence there.

Systemd got in on its merits in Fedora as well. (It had to — no amount of railroading is going to overcome something totally dysfunctional, and Fedora was the first adopter.) As I recall, the transition was fairly smooth.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> The real tragedy is that so many complain about systemd and insist it's awful, yet nobody ever bothers to actually make a _better_ init system. It's either 1980s crap that's totally unsuited to modern environments, or systemd with all its bugs and design flaws.

<comment><USER21> No, the tragedy is that you didn't watch the video, because the author isn't complaining or insisting that it's awful. Instead, he (a well-known FreeBSD developer) goes through the history of init systems and offers some justifications for why systemd is the way that it is, and what challenges might need to be overcome to make a "better" init.</comment></comment>


2020 Porsche Taycan Electric Car Review: Should Tesla Be Worried? - <AUTHOR> https://www.motortrend.com/news/2020-porsche-taycan-review-electric-car-tesla-fighter <comment><USER2> Everything I've seen on the Taycan compares it to the Model S, but I think the Model 3 Performance is the better comparison. It looks like Porsche will win on handling and Telsa on price with acceleration and range about even. If you want a track car (or a Porsche), you'll buy the Taycan. If you want supercar acceleration on a budget but keep it to the streets, you'll buy the Model 3.

As for the headline, I think Betteridge's Law applies here: no. The Taycan is a niche car that doesn't directly compete with the S or the 3 but increases interest in battery electric vehicles overall. That's a win for Tesla, in my opinion.

<comment><USER3> > If you want a track car (or a Porsche), you'll buy the Taycan.

If you want a track car, you will not choose a 4400lb, full size, electric vehicle.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I feel like every journalist has picked a side... Either "Traditional cars are better than Tesla in every way" or the opposite.

<comment><USER5> I thought that it was understood that Tesla has so far been better at innovating electric vehicles; while traditional car makers are better at mass production at high quality, and each is racing to get better at the other.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Very sensationalist... too focused on the comparison against Tesla.</comment>


Tesla close to level 5 autonomous driving technology, Musk says - <AUTHOR> https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-autonomous-idUSKBN24A0HE <comment><USER2> It's so strange to think that people used to hold Elon Musk in such high regard. This a bold-faced lie and anyone with a passing knowledge of what "level 5 autonomy" means can tell it isn't true. I don't know what the worse violation is here, the lie or his belief that it will convince anyone.

<comment><USER3> > used to

A very large number of people still do, even here.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> As a Model S and now Model 3 owner, Tesla is at least decades away from anything close to Level 5. Car still does phantom braking on freeways after what 6 years of Autopilot?

</comment><comment><USER5> "I remain confident that we will have the basic functionality for level 5 autonomy complete this year."

This type of quote frustrates me to no end because it's obviously meant to stir up attention in the media, yet the vagueness of the language Musk uses removes any accountability to deliver. What is basic functionality for level 5 autonomy? I would define it as automated lateral and longitudinal control and a navigation system, and I would argue that quite a few auto companies have this 'basic functionality' for level 5. I would love to hear other thoughts on this!

</comment><comment><USER6> Note that it is not mentioned under what conditions, just that "[...] will have basic functionality".

So probably something akin to Waymo's experiment in Phoenix, rather than cross-country level 5.

<comment><USER2> Then it isn't level 5.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Need to hype up the Tesla stock again.</comment>


Lee Kuan Yew, Founding Father and First Premier of Singapore, Dies at 91 - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/23/world/asia/lee-kuan-yew-founding-father-and-first-premier-of-singapore-dies-at-91.html <comment><USER2> Singapore is in for some seriously _interesting_ times. Lee Kuan Yew did a masterful job of getting Singapore up to speed after independence, but like so many leaders over-identified with their nation, he overstayed his welcome. The Lee family's tentacles are firmly entrenched in the politics and businesses of Singapore, and while I hope they will have the common sense to tolerate the inevitable rise of the opposition -- which is already occurring, despite the steep odds stacked against them -- I'm afraid they're much more likely to lurch into outright dictatorship and fulfill Lee's own prediction:

"if there is a freak result [and the opposition wins], within two or three years, the army would have to come in and stop it" [http://leewatch.info/quotes/](http://leewatch.info/quotes/)

That date is not far off: Singapore's next general election must be held by January 2017, and the opposition is all but guaranteed to take a sizable portion of seats. Thanks to Singapore's first-past-the-post politics, if they grow from the current 40% to tip over 50%, they'll suddenly have an unassailable majority... and what then?

I'll give the final word to Lee's last standing arch-enemy, Chee Soon Juan:

 _"Why is he still so afraid? I honestly think that through the years he has accumulated enough skeletons in his closet that he knows that when he is gone, his son_ [Lee Hsien Loong, the current Prime Minister] _and the generations after him will have a price to pay. If we had parliamentary debates where the opposition could pry and ask questions, I think he is actually afraid of something like that. ..._

 _Mr Lee Kuan Yew fights all his demons within himself to try to shore up his reputation. In the process, however, he destroys the very legacy that he so desperately desires to establish."_

– Chee Soon Juan, Secretary-General of the Singapore Democratic Party

<comment><USER2> The opinion above was formed by living in Singapore for ~8 years and continuing to take an active interest in its affairs for the next 5. You're welcome to disagree, but please tell me why then instead of just downvoting...

<comment><USER3> I'm a Singaporean. I've worked in opposition politics. I'm going to be voting this year.

Here are a few thoughts:

\- your understanding of the Lees in Singapore have no historical context. You cannot view his leadership in a vacuum. You cannot look at Singapore politics and say it needs a dash of 'Western liberalism & democracy' and proclaim Chee Soon Juan one of its administrators. LKY, and the Singapore of his time, was a product of the times. There is no other place like it.

\- No other place like it: that at the point of independence, we could have become "either a Palestine or a Switzerland". He was prescient on that. Few other small states are sandwiched between two giants (India and China), few other small states are at the best spot of an important shipping route, and in that sense he — and Singapore — had a leg up

\- The most successful opposition party in Singapore is the Worker's Party, a party which is nearly as old as the ruling party. They are just as organized, if not more, and they are gaining momentum and strength. Like Lee's party, they have no overwhelming 'ideology', it is about 'what works for Singapore'. Voters like that. Voters don't like SDP, and they don't like Chee. Singapore voters don't trust loose cannons, and I as someone who has been in the 'opposition' most of my life would rather vote for the PAP if it presented a better candidate than the opposition, which is usually the case.

\- Odds are stacked against the opposition, that is true; but the odds are lowered now, Lee Hsien Loong is not his father and the media is not nearly as powerful now. I would say that other than the Worker's Party, every single opposition candidate and party is unelectable. God help us if they do. Personality cults and horrible politics. No ability to execute. Voters will not give them the benefit of the doubt; we do not see the 'ability to govern' in them, and that counts more than 'what party one is from'

\- Throughout the land there is a profound sense of mourning. Even among the ones who have spent their lives on the fringes of Lee's Singapore. He was a lion, and Singapore will not be the same without him.

\- It will not descend into chaos, it will not swing the popular vote for the opposition. My read is that the PAP will still be in majority power for then next two elections.

\- In the meantime, the work that has to be done is about how we ensure that we are ready for a post-PAP future. The reality of post-LKY is upon us today, and that changes things. Rapid destruction of our institutions isn't the answer. The building of our capacity with our people, institutions and processes may be.

\- In many ways, we are more ready than the world thinks for that future

\- You'd think that well-educated well-travelled Singaporeans who have the world at their feet (can live and travel and work anywhere, pretty much) would immediately switch allegiances and vote in 'democratic figureheads'. We will not.

\- That doesn't come from conservatism. It comes from a practical belief that these figureheads, like Chee, will be the end of Singapore as we know it — and that's not from believing the propaganda of the state. It comes from knowing that the Singapore model works, but needs tweaking; and that the situation you have described above isn't going to end well.

\- After working on the ground for the opposition in the last elections, I believe Singapore voters are rational and no longer afraid.

\- The odds are good, but the goods are odd. That's the Singaporean opposition right now.

<comment><USER2> Oh, I actually agree with most (but not all) of what you say. The Workers Party is the only viable opposition at the moment, but this is largely because they are very careful to "play by the rules" and not antagonize the Government too much.

What worries me, though, is that they are allowed to exist at the Government's forbearance. If they start to pose a _real_ threat to the PAP's dominance, everything I've seen leads me to believe that the PAP _will_ play dirty and strike them down as hard as is necessary. As said, I hope I'm wrong, but...

I'm also not sure I share your belief in Singapore voters being "no longer afraid". I've had Singaporeans tell me, entirely seriously, that they can't vote for the opposition because their votes are recorded and then they won't get government jobs.

<comment><USER4> You must have met ignorant ones amongst the population who have no inkling of how the system works here . I'm an opposition party campaigner in my 50s .. votes are secret... nobody will know. We have observers party from both sides throughout the whole process of balloting and counting till the results are announced and we can protest if there's peeking at particulars or foul play

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> For all his shortcomings, LKY has shown the world how well a tiny city-state can do economically with geopolitical leverage and strategic thinking. Especially when it comes to diplomacy vis-a-vis the West, most Asian political leaders are confused (and confusing) at best and belittled (and bewildering) at worst, but no leader of the West fucked with LKY in his prime.

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

Once in awhile, I watch that footage of Meet the Press to remind myself what a sharp political leader he was. RIP the benevolent dictator.

<comment><USER6> That was impressive, thank you. Is there a way to search YouTube for other _Meet the Press_ videos from the 1960s?

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I've lived in Singapore for almost 5 years already and have recently switched citizenships (my son would have to serve in Singapore's military service once he reaches the appropriate age). I have come to appreciate Singapore's style of governance. The sheer efficiency and reliability of government service still surprises me to this day. Having come from the Philippines where bribing somebody in the government to get things done is part of normal life. I am all too willing to sacrifice a bit of freedom to gain stability, reliability, and peace. Not worrying about the safety of my wife and child when they come home late is a huge thing for me.

Yes Singapore has it's own set of societal problems, but I'd rather have that than the numerous problems that is deeply entrenched in Philippine society nowadays.

Rest in peace Mr LKY. Your accomplishments are legendary.

<comment><USER4> Thank you for coming and being part of our singapore family

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> One of the greatest leaders of modern times.

Singapore was a backwater country with no natural resources when he came to power. It's since evolved into one of the primary economic hubs in Asia, with a higher per-capita GDP than her former colonizers, Great Britain.

To transform a country in such short a time is nothing short of remarkable.

<comment><USER9> You might want to look deeper into that. Economically Singapore has been well run, every other way is up for debate.

<comment><USER3> Every other way is up for debate?

We have a good education system, and I would not trade our healthcare system for what you're likely used to; as a gay Singaporean, I have no curtailing of my social freedoms. I cannot marry or adopt legally yet, but that's the conversation that we're soon going to have (and which the "West" has only just recently gotten). The civil service is good. More can be done for the low income, and that's happening at the moment. The roads are clean and everything gets fixed. I walk around the city at any time of day and night with no fear, in any neighbourhood. Which ways are up for debate?

<comment><USER10> Most people here are ideologically committed to western concepts of freedom. It doesn't matter how good the results are as long as things aren't done their way.

<comment><USER9> What is your version of freedom?

<comment><USER10> A comfortable enough life that you can actually choose what to do rather than having your hand forced by circumstances.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Singapore is an incredible state and I enjoy every stay there, but the principle where "the good of society [takes] precedence over individual rights" has its scary downsides: [http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/07/29/the- social-laboratory/](http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/07/29/the-social- laboratory/)

<comment><USER12> Lee did good and bad: he successfully set up a stable productive state, but to get there economized certain liberties that seem fundamental. The problem is that Singapore remains stable and successful, becoming the role model for developing autocratic countries like China.

<comment><USER13> Why is that a problem?

<comment><USER14> Go to Singapore and see how the immigrant laborers from South Asia live, how the native Malays live, and then how the ethnic Chinese and Western expats live. It's a highly stratified society where money makes the rules.

<comment><USER15> You could say the same thing for the UK.

Yes, i do realize there are vast differences between immigration in the UK (or the west overall) and Singapore, but find that blaming class differences and/or the mistreatment of poor immigrants to policies is to simplify the issue.

<comment><USER16> >You could say the same thing for the UK.

You really can't. There's no comparison to be made between the way Singapore treats Bangladeshis and the UK treats Poles.

<comment><USER14> Or the way the UK treats Bangladeshis for that matter.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I haven't been in Singapore and have read very little on why Singapore is so successful.

Three of Four Asian Tigers (Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea) are more democratic/free and equal in prosperity comparing with Singapore.

IMHO, a great strategic port and super effective government are probably key reasons that power the its great achievements. I hope people don't consider quasi-dictatorship style of governing the cause of economic miracle.

<comment><USER16> One trade policy that they followed that was identical to that of Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea was the suppression of the value of their currency by purchasing US treasuries. That gave a much needed boost to their exports and allowed them space to create an industrial ecosystem.

China did this too, later.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Lets not forget that Singapore executes a higher percentage of its population than any other country on earth and canes people slicing into flesh.

<comment><USER12> I thought they mostly executed foreigners getting caught running drugs through the airport?

<comment><USER18> Singapore will also execute anyone for simply possessing a firearm.

<comment><USER19> Not quite, Wikipedia: "Trafficking in arms (Section 6) is a capital offence in Singapore. Under the Arms Offences Act, trafficking is defined as being in unlawful possession of more than two firearms."

<comment><USER18> That is still shocking to anyone in the US where the ratio of guns to people is 1:1.

<comment><USER19> Yes, but note that the offense is for _unlawful_ possession of firearms, not lawful possession (though I imagine the conditions for lawful possession in Singapore are extremely restrictive).

Where I live (Finland) the ratio is 2:5 (2 million legal guns, 5 million people). That's the highest in EU. We also have among the highest homicide rate in EU, but these two rates are not really connected (i.e. very few of the homicides done with a gun.).

<comment><USER20> I think Sweden and Germany have you matched or beat on guns per capita in the EU

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

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Asshole's dead. Good riddance. Stole power on a platform of communism, moved to totalitarianism / familial nepotism, set up his 'wealthy, modern' state by money laundering for Burmese junta, struck up a cheap friendship with US (easy sale: naval positioning for the straits, cable taps on comms, aggressively purchasing regional comms providers in places like .au), did a PR job on .sg's great 'democracy'. His biography - _Hard Truths to Keep Singapore Going_ \- is a disgusting exercise in narcissism attempting to rewrite history. Dirty man, dirty state, dirty legacy.

<comment><USER22> > set up his 'wealthy, modern' state by money laundering for Burmese junta

D'oh! I've been wondering how Singapore's low-taxing government accumulated all the capital that it invested, and that answer is so obvious: they took it from people _somewhere else_. Would you mind pointing me to a book that fills in the details?

<comment><USER22> I found the real answer: the low taxes were all lies, and Mr Lee actually took half of everyone's salary for his family to invest.

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


Company bird-view as a service, what do you think? - <AUTHOR> https://simpleboard.io <comment><USER2> Seems like you will need to adopt SAML and 2FA to sell to larger enterprises. Good luck!</comment>