Facebook Doesn't Own My Friends: Chrome extension exports Facebook contacts - <AUTHOR> http://code.google.com/p/fb-exporter/ <comment><USER3> Looks like the project was just deleted from Google Code. I always get a "403 Forbidden" page each time I try to access the project page.

Fortunately, the binary extension is still downloadable at this URL: fb- exporter.googlecode.com/files/fb-exporter.crx

<comment><USER3> Source code has a better value than the binary: I'm sure Facebook will deploy some counter-measures pretty soon, making the binary unusable.

Nobody's got the source code ? I tried to checked it out but I get 403's again...

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I would highly recommend against using this tool, as it is against Facebook's Terms of Service. Robert Scoble was kicked off Facebook in January 2008 for pulling a stunt exactly like this ([http://scobleizer.com/2008/01/03/ive-been- kicked-off-of-face...](http://scobleizer.com/2008/01/03/ive-been-kicked-off- of-facebook/)). While his fame and contacts allowed him to get his account reinstated in short order, many of us might not be so fortunate.

<comment><USER5> Well,

I'd be curious what would happen if thousand of people used the tool rather a lone researcher.

As we saw with Facebook's censorship and uncensorship of lamebook.com, their "terms" seem to be essentially "we'll do what we can get away with and back- off if enough people push back".

<comment><USER6> A couple of thousand does not a revolt make.

<comment><USER7> If things that begin small aren't worth doing, then nothing is worth doing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Or... you can just link up facebook with your old Yahoo mail address.(the one from the 90s you still keep around and check every 6 months or so ;)

This lets you import your facebook contacts in your yahoo address book, so you can export them as csv later.

<comment><USER9> ^^ What he said. I did this, and it exported my 800+ contacts in less than a minute. Then I imported them to Address Book for Mac and used AddressBookSync (<http://danauclair.com/addressbooksync/>) to grab the facebook profile pictures and add them to each contact.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> edit: I mis-spoke. You'd need to request the email address from each user individually. Okay, I admit, that is kindof sucky. That said, I _completely_ understand this move. My guess is that this is to prevent "farmville" from dumping a list of all of my friends' emails, and then spamming them.

Isn't this all available via the Open Graph API?

([http://developers.facebook.com/docs/guides/web#personalizati...](http://developers.facebook.com/docs/guides/web#personalization))

Edit: Yes, it absolutely is:

<http://developers.facebook.com/docs/api>

About halfway down the page, click the link after the word "friends" for a JSON of your friends and their UIDs. Fetch this and iterate through the IDS for basic info.

Fetch this url: <https://graph.facebook.com/$facebook_uid>

here is my info: <https://graph.facebook.com/ryanseamus>

<comment><USER11> Email addresses aren't in there. When I look at my own info, I see a @proxymail.facebook.com email address, which is presumably what an app would use to email me. It's not what you'd want for exporting contact info.

<comment><USER5> yes: _"Getting an access token for a user with no extended permissions allows you to access the information that the user has made available to everyone on Facebook. If you need specific information about a user, like their email address or work history, you must ask for the specific extended permissions. "_

<comment><USER11> You can only get information about one user at a time that way. Exporting the data can't be done. If you disagree, write the code.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I thought you could export all of your Facebook friends email addresses using Yahoo Mail or Hotmail I opened a new Yahoo Mail account last week and did this...did they remove it? I thought that there was a big uproar because Gmail users were not able to do this so Google blocked Facebook from exporting Gmail contacts.

Regardless, this sounds like a great extension and you should not have to open a mail account with Yahoo or MS to export your friends. This is an excellent idea!

<comment><USER5> Yes but that's only because Yahoo and MS have a deal with Facebook and you don't know how long it will last.

Facebook was explicit in their reply to Google that they feel they can block people exporting their friend's emails. Friend emails are exported by the "export tool" - in fact, you get but a list of names from that.

I would be very interested in looking at the code and noting people's experience with this. One writer was kicked off Facebook for exporting his address two years ago.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I'm trying to get all of my friends to use .tel domains. That way they _own_ their data and I can discover all of their URIs dynamically (through DNS) from various apps. It doubles up as a web based "business card", which makes it a slightly easier sell.

<comment><USER14> Why .tel, rather than a more common TLD?

<comment><USER15> I was curious too; from wikipedia:

"In contrast to other top-level domains .tel information is stored directly within the Domain Name System (DNS), within the actual domain name record, as opposed to the DNS simply returning details (such as IP addresses) of the machines on which information can be found."

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

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I wanted to test this, but never found a way to activate it... How do you activate this?

There is no "how to" text on the project page either (or I didn't find it).

<comment><USER17> There should be a red link in the top right corner of your facebook page that says "Export friends!" (right to the left of the "Home" link).

Once you click that, just follow the accompanying instructions and it should work - although be warned it takes a long time, especially if you're doing it for a lot of "Friends".

<comment><USER18> It only works when Facebook is in english

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Apparently the extension made it to the "open sea" of torrents ;) [http://isohunt.com/torrent_details/255130489/fb- exporter?tab...](http://isohunt.com/torrent_details/255130489/fb- exporter?tab=summary)

I have been waiting for this extension for soooo long. I can finally quit!

hashes of file fb-exporter.crx: MD5 d2ae04feae8df535025e572a8030a3ee sha1 ccc0a1213b6427cb019b36dbfacdc7770c6bec23

</comment><comment><USER20> I felt the same way about my Facebook messages. Before they released the archive tool, I wrote this:

<http://fb.quadhome.com/>

I wonder if, since the Chrome extension is Javascript, it could be injected into a bookmarklet and made to run on anyone's browser...

<comment><USER21> The Chrome extension looks like it includes more than just the exporting code, which does look like something that could be fairly trivially made into a bookmarklet. [http://code.google.com/p/fb- exporter/source/browse/trunk/fb-...](http://code.google.com/p/fb- exporter/source/browse/trunk/fb-exporter.js)

But it also has the ability to automagically use OAuth to connect with gmail to upload contact information.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> somebody needs to get the facebook mobile apps and reverse engineer them to figure out how their own apps are able to extract all friend contact info (email, phone #s)

mimicking an official client would be a lot better than this extension which relies on facebook leech detection not noticing the requests and banning you

<comment><USER5> Finding the official mobile seems like a moving target as Facebook's API is constantly changing.

This is latest QT thing I can find:

<http://gitorious.org/qfacebook> (supersedes Google's port of an iphone library).

But access might depend more on permissions than the library. Information on this would be GOOD to have.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Forbidden

Your client does not have permission to get URL /p/fb-exporter/ from this server.

</comment><comment> n-named Why does this need access to my browsing history? :(

<comment><USER24> It's a bit of an alarmist, though accurate, alert: anything which has access to your tabs (ie, anything which can observe / inject into a page) also has access to your "history" as it can see what you're browsing. I'm sure other permissions also trip this, but "tabs" is one of the most common, and I ran across it recently too: <http://code.google.com/chrome/extensions/tabs.html>

edit: I'd assume "history" also trips the history alert: <http://code.google.com/chrome/extensions/history.html>

edit again: the extension has "tabs" permission only. Very little to worry about, unless you're paranoid about your browsing history.

<comment><USER25> If you are paranoid, use incognito. Extensions are disabled in incognito mode by default.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> The recently launched OSS project <https://sourceforge.net/projects/themycubevault/> is looking for plugin developers to do exactly this kind of data export. I will try and port the JS extension to run there instead.

</comment><comment><USER27> Can't you just use the downloader and download all your data?

Edit: go to <https://register.facebook.com/editaccount.php> and then click the "learn more" link, then download. I think they email you when the download is compiled.

<comment><USER28> Doesn't include email addresses, which is what this whole kerfluffle is about.

<comment><USER27> Ah, OK, thanks for the elucidation.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> I wrote a similar tool two years ago:

[http://www.chrisfinke.com/2008/01/03/take-your-facebook- data...](http://www.chrisfinke.com/2008/01/03/take-your-facebook-data-with- you/)

If my experience is any indication, the author will be receiving a takedown notice shortly.

<comment><USER30> They don't, however, seem to mention their names anywhere. If Facebook knows the name of the author, they can threaten to ban them from Facebook if they don't take it down (about the only leverage they have to exploit).

However, to get a real name, they would need to get Google to reveal an IP address, and then the user's ISP to reveal account details - hardly a simple process.

Google isn't going to hand over the IP of the authors, so they would need to file a (probably baseless) lawsuit and try to subpoena the names - <USER2> Google is likely to fight since the software is in their interests too.

<comment><USER29> Looks like it has indeed been taken down. The author should have seeded it on BitTorrent instead.

<comment><USER19> torrent is here <http://isohunt.com/torrent_details/255130489/fb-exporter>

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> why not add the ability to get phone numbers too?

<comment><USER32> There is a Sony Ericsson application in Facebook which retrieves all your friends' phone numbers and upload it to their servers which then can be synced with any Sony Ericsson phone . Then I can download it as CSV by connecting the phone to the PC. A round about way but it works. So I guess there might be other apps which does this.

<comment><USER33> wouldn't this be in violation of the tos and/or technically impossible? If not, why can't I write a fb app that syncs all my friends' data to my server?

<comment><USER34> No, because FB has allowed them access to these data.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> There was a article on this on techcrunch. [Techcrunch blocked at work. Cant post the link now].

tl;dr for the TC post:

1.Create a dummy yahoo email id.

2.Import friends from facebook.

3\. Export contacts as csv.

4\. Import in Gmail.

</comment><comment><USER36> And how much do you want to bet that the developer og this plugin works for Google ;) .... let the mud slinging begin ;)

</comment><comment><USER37> This is gold!

Facebook is gonna get so angry. I wonder what their next move will be.

<comment><USER21> Found this [http://code.google.com/p/fb- exporter/source/browse/trunk/fb-...](http://code.google.com/p/fb- exporter/source/browse/trunk/fb-exporter.js#238)

if (request.pissOffZuckerberg) { startExportFriendData(); }

<comment><USER38> I get a Forbidden when trying to access this!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> Has this tool been taken down?

</comment><comment><USER40> What happened to this tool?

</comment><comment><USER41> Hell Ya!!!!

</comment><comment><USER42> AwwwsOoOoOome!

</comment><comment><USER43> Talk about hacker news... no?</comment>


Report: GM and Waymo lead driverless car race; Tesla lags far behind - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/01/why-analysts-put-gm-and-waymo-far-ahead-of-tesla-in-driverless-car-race/ <comment><USER2> The report that the article cites is behind a paywall.

This piece seems like a hit piece on Tesla.

>Navigant actually ranks Tesla dead last, alongside Apple, out of 19 companies.

>The larger problem, though, is that Tesla just doesn't seem to be making progress as rapidly as others in the industry. Tesla's attention has been consumed by the extremely slow rollout of the Model 3—Tesla delivered a paltry 1,550 Model 3 vehicles in the fourth quarter of 2017. And Tesla's Autopilot division lost a number of key engineers and managers last year.

I am not a Tesla fan but Musk's ability to get people to drink the Koolaid is extremely impressive.

What I mean by this, is that people not only want his product, they are willing to wait for it, even if it is late and or there hiccups along the way. His ability to get people to buy into his vision is outstanding.

[1][Jim Chanos: We think Tesla is worth zero]([https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/14/jim-chanos-we-think-tesla- is...](https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/14/jim-chanos-we-think-tesla-is-worth- zero.html)) [2][Tesla's junk bonds are trading under water — and it could spell trouble for Elon Musk]([https://www.marketwatch.com/story/teslas-junk- bonds-are-trad...](https://www.marketwatch.com/story/teslas-junk-bonds-are- trading-under-water-and-it-could-spell-trouble-for-elon-musk-2017-11-10))</comment>


Net Promoter Score - <AUTHOR> http://blog.geckolyst.com/micro-data-relevance-customer-experience/ <comment><USER2> its very hard to read that blog. when its giving out so little information about nps and micro data, I think the post could have been shorter or to the point.</comment>


The Web only Works Thanks to Reload… (and why the mobile web fails) - <AUTHOR> http://www.belshe.com/2012/06/04/the-web-only-works-thanks-to-reload-and-why-the-mobile-web-fails/

<comment><USER2> What prevents mobile browsers from being designed differently, to scan for connection changes and reload/resubmit automatically?</comment>


Free 5 Billion Page Web Index Now Available from Common Crawl Foundation - <AUTHOR> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/common_crawl_foundation_announces_5_billion_page_w.php

<comment><USER2> I was hoping for Yahoo, Amazon, or Microsoft to throw a lot of resources at this about 5~8 years ago. Since then, Google kind of ran away with the game in crawling. They were far ahead of everyone else back then, but one could conceive of a rag-tag group of companies, institutions, and individuals pooling their resources and getting a crawl about 10% as good. These days, on the externally visible evidence they're probably several orders of magnitude better than _everybody else on the planet combined_.

Take crawl freshness. If I publish a new blog post, it gets crawled and added to the Google index in _seconds_. Other crawling efforts take _weeks_ between refreshes.

<comment><USER3> Hi I work at commoncrawl. We have spent our time (in 2011) improving our algorithms, and hopefully this effort will start to show real results (with respect to crawl frequency and relevancy) in 2012. But you are right, it is pretty unlikely that our crawl will be able to be fully competitive with the likes of Google etc., multi-billion dollar corporations who dedicate huge amounts of engineering and hardware resources to stay competitive in this field.

<comment><USER4> It is not "Google etc., multi-billion dollar corporations" it is just Google.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Is there a sample dataset?

I think all projects should have sample datasets. It simplifies a lot of things, and in this case stops hundreds of geeks burning through bandwidth before they realize they don't have a clue what they are going to do with the data.

<comment><USER3> We hear you. Could you define some criteria as to the type and size of sample data you would like to see? We are working on producing more targeted/limited collections, like perhaps all most recently published blog posts etc.

<comment><USER6> Perhaps two sets, one that's just a few hundred kilobytes that contains a few sample .arc files to test against the format, and then one larger 'training' set that's small enough to test against offline (maybe like 100MB?) but large enough to contain a good sample of the possible content.

<comment><USER7> Concur with this comment -- it might also help the community provide feedback on structure and ways to segment that data so that there are more directed efforts to consume small parts of the crawl for processing

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Although I'm personally all for open distribution of crawl data like this and all of my personal websites are CC-licensed, isn't there something to be said for the copyright status of the pages in the crawl file?

The crawl file presumably contains the contents of websites and so the owners of those websites could assert that Common Crawl Foundation is distributing their work without permission or license.

There are all sorts of republishing/splog 'opportunities' with this crawl data that goes beyond the original expected use.

Surprisingly, I couldn't see anything about this covered in the FAQs

<comment><USER3> Hi, you can view our terms of use at [http://www.commoncrawl.org/about/terms- of-use/full-terms-of-...](http://www.commoncrawl.org/about/terms-of-use/full- terms-of-use/). We adhere to the robots.txt standard, try to do all our crawling above board, and (strictly personal opinion here) we are definitely not in the business of diminishing or subverting peoples rights with regards to the content they produce. There are many other options available to those who are determined to crawl a site's content, whether the site owner wants them to or not. Our goal is to democratize access to our crawl for the betterment of Web ecosystem as a whole and we believe storing the data on S3 and making it accessible to a wide audience is the right way to accomplish this goal.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> > We do not use Nutch for the purposes of crawling, but instead utilize a > custom crawl infrastructure to strictly limit the rate at which we crawl > individual web hosts.

Were there any other reasons to not use Nutch (performance, etc.)?

I'd love to hear more about the stack you're using to perform the crawls. If you don't mind sharing, it would be very interesting to read about the costs involved in gathering this data (how many machines, how long did it take, etc.)

Any plans to open source that as well? In addition to a general lack of open web crawl data freely available, there are precious few open source projects (if any) that produce high quality crawlers able to deal with the modern web.

</comment><comment><USER10> I'd love to see Gabriel weigh in on this. I wonder if Duck Duck Go will be able to take advantage of this resource?

<comment><USER11> Nova Spivack said that the crawls have been going for several years. There's a good chance that many of the pages in the archive are unacceptably outdated for indexing purposes.

<comment><USER3> Hi. I work for commoncrawl. We are about to start an improved recrawl and will be doing this more frequently going forward. In the process we will also consolidate our data on S3 to keep it relevant. But, as with any crawl of the Internet, there is lot of noise in there. We spent most of 2011 tweaking the algorithms to improve the freshness and quality of the crawl, and hopefully this work starts to show results in 2012.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> It is a good news for anyone having an eye for a vertical search engine. With your device, total cost of seed data (Assuming about 40TB) comes below one thousand dollars.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> One interesting discussion from here: <http://www.commoncrawl.org/common- crawl-enters-a-new-phase/> It says the cost of running a hadoop job to scan all 5billon documents is in the order of $100.

Does any one know how does this compare to let say Yahoo BOSS? Is it even comparable?

<comment><USER13> Does BOSS still exist? I was under the impression that it was defunct.

<comment><USER14> Yes. With Google no longer providing search result API (not even paid version, the last I checked) people are turning to BOSS/Bing/(anything else?)

<comment><USER15> custom search API is the search result APi. The cse has a flag for searching the entire internet. [http://www.google.com/support/customsearch/bin/answer.py?hl=...](http://www.google.com/support/customsearch/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1210656)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> New Common Crawl blog post addressing many of the questions raised here last week. [http://www.commoncrawl.org/answers-to-recent-community- quest...](http://www.commoncrawl.org/answers-to-recent-community-questions/)

I work at Common Crawl.Thanks for all the interest and the good questions! Lisa

</comment><comment><USER17> So what is the license for all of this data? It seems murky at best...

</comment><comment><USER18> Oh nice. I've been doing a lot of crawling myself ([http://blog.marc- seeger.de/2010/12/09/my-thesis-building-blo...](http://blog.marc- seeger.de/2010/12/09/my-thesis-building-blocks-of-a-scalable-webcrawler/)) and I'd love to get my hands on this data. I hope they'll segment their data a bit further.

I personally would LOVE to have a simple list of the domainnames themselves without all of the connections and documents.

Also: Why not just use bittorrent to distribute it?

<comment><USER13> I imagine they don't use bittorrent because it is both very large (TBs) and changes frequently.

With S3, you could boot up a bunch of Hadoop processes, pull it (without incurring any bandwidth costs I believe), process it and dump out whatever you want.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> I initially submitted this post, but then deleted it and resubmitted to the original post on Common Crawl blog: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3208853>

I now regret since this one got much more attention. I was under the impression that linking to the original post was more welcomed here HN, but it seems this is not always the case.

</comment><comment><USER20> I wonder if crooks will try to exploit this crawl. As a person who has an index of the web like this it has been interesting to see what they look for. SSN's and credit card numbers are common, as are sites running older versions of PHP software or exploitable shopping carts.

<comment><USER21> It makes it very easy for people to steal vast amounts of your content and republish it on their own sites, with ads all around it.

Many content sites have protections in place to recognize bots by their behavior or use "honeypots" to tell bots apart from human visitors and thus avoid large scale content theft.

<comment><USER22> Presumably those protections would prevent this bot from collecting data as well?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> I don't see any links to download their Hadoop classes..

<comment><USER3> Sorry, our github repository had some accidental check-ins that we needed to remove. I will share the link to the code shortly.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> "Well this has to be a first for a software company"

I'll just leave this here: <http://training.fogcreek.com>

<comment><USER25> You sure you commented on the correct article?</comment></comment>


Noise Protection for Short Term and Vacation Rentals - <AUTHOR> https://www.noiseaware.io/ <comment><USER2> I've been using the Point([https://minut.com/](https://minut.com/)), which is half the price and no annual fee.

I mostly use it for temperature/humidity sensing, but it also has sound level logging/alerts.

<comment><USER3> NetAtmo [0] does the same thing as well -- full weather sensor suite, similar pricepoint to NoiseAware, no annual subscription.

[0] [https://www.netatmo.com/product/weather/weatherstation](https://www.netatmo.com/product/weather/weatherstation)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Considering this is recording (or at lest intercepting and processing in some form) audio in a place where most people have an expectation of privacy, I assume you have to inform the renter that this is on and monitoring....

<comment><USER5> Don't worry, they thought about that:

 _Guests ' privacy is always protected. Our patent pending technology ensures that no content is recorded_

It's patented, so it must be good.

Sarcasm aside, I really wonder what's in that patent... I mean it must (should) exist, otherwise it should be "pending".

<comment><USER6> Given that variable bit-rate VoIP can reveal words spoken from bitrate alone[1], I would be very cautious about their claims.

[1] [https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/06/eavesdropping...](https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/06/eavesdropping_o_2.html)

<comment><USER5> I doubt their "signal processing" involves anything more than a microphone and a peak detector.

A more practical side channel attack would probably be through radiated emissions over the mains power. However if you're willing to go that far, a laser microphone is much more effective and simpler.

<comment><USER6> Depending on how wide is the peak detection window, they might send enough data to detect how long consecutive words are. I have a vague impression that I've read once that this, together with a language model, can be used to guess what's being spoken ~10% of the time or so.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I assume hardware wise this is a cheap microphone, a microcontroller, and a wifi chip? Software wise, they have a data logger and some sort of notification push? What justifies the $150, and the $200/year subscription? I don't see those prices being sustainable.

<comment><USER8> Can't you say the same thing about any piece of software as well? It costs next to $0 in bandwidth to download an app or program. Why should the price be higher than $0?

Hardware costs a lot of money to develop and manufacture. There have been a lot of posts on HN recently about the price of hardware. Niche hardware like this doesn't cost next to nothing when made in small quantities. All the fixed NREs (all the prototype costs, the plastic mold tooling, any upfront factory fees, etc.) have to be amortized over the few units sold. And that is just breaking even. Selling goods at cost is a tricky business model. It makes sense to add in a little profit.

If you don't like the price, then you probably shouldn't buy it. If enough people agree with you, they will either change their price or go out of business.

<comment><USER9> > Niche hardware like this doesn't cost next to nothing when made in small > quantities.

You could use some off the shelf components like an ESP8266 or ESP32 module to dramatically reduce your cost. A hand full a discrete components, an electret microphone, auto gain amplifier, and a voltage regulator aren't going to set you back more than $10. A custom PCB is going to be $5 per unit max. The BOM is easily under $20 for a limited run of 10 to 20 units.

The most expensive things are going to be the enclosure and assembly. If you find an off the self enclosure then your costs drop considerably.

You could have a working prototype cobbled together in a day.

<comment><USER8> Your one day prototype will costs thousands to bring to market. Lets look at just the electronics. Have you priced out FCC certification? The wifi module might be already certified, but the whole product isn't. That is $5k to $10k minimum for US only. It also plugs into mains, which means it might need UL certification to it won't burn down someone's house.

Your $20 BOM just gets you a board and loose components, not a complete product. The cost of a complete product is called "cost of goods sold" or COGS and includes things like assembly, testing, and shipping, etc. Even if $20 was your COGS, how much would you have to charge to make a profit? It all depends on how many you sell. If you only intend to sell 1000 or so (likely the case here), you need to charge accordingly.

<comment><USER9> > The wifi module might be already certified, but the whole product isn't. > That is $5k to $10k minimum for US only.

If you're using Pre-certified modules then you can qualify the remainder of your product as unintentional radiator and the FCC certification cost is $1k-2k.

> It also plugs into mains, which means it might need UL certification to it > won't burn down someone's house.

UL certification isn't mandatory, UL isn't a government organization and there's no legal requirement to have your device certified by them.

> Even if $20 was your COGS, how much would you have to charge to make a > profit? It all depends on how many you sell. If you only intend to sell 1000 > or so (likely the case here), you need to charge accordingly.

My point is that $150 plus an annual subscription fee is steep for such a simple product. Per unit cost on a very limited run (e.g. 1000 units) doesn't justify a $150 price, especially if you're charging a subscription on top of that.

<comment><USER8> I've never seen unintentional radiator testing under $5k. What lab does your testing?

UL isn't mandatory, but do you want your product stocked by retailers? You might need it then.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I think this seems like a terrible product, here is why:

Call 1:

AirBnB host: "Hey I've just got an alert that the noise level has gone above X decibels"

AirBnB guest: "Oh hmm it looks like the city is jack hammering the street in front of the house."

Call 2:

AirBnB host: "Hey I just got another alert about noise!"

AirBnB guest: "A bunch of fire trucks went by, there's a fire down the street"

Call 3:

AirBnB host: "I just got an alert that you unplugged my noise meter!"

AirBnB guest: "No I didn't but it looks like your internet is down."

While three of these happening consecutively is maybe unlikely just one of them occurring makes both parties uncomfortable and presents an awkward situation. And who is to say what reasonable is? A neighbor can complain even if the noise is under the threshold.

This just feels like nanny-nation to me. The real issue is that if you don't know people well enough to trust them to be respectful towards your neighbors then maybe you shouldn't be renting them your place. And yes the same can be said of renting to a longterm renter as both parties enter into the contract with no prior knowledge of the other but the difference is that long term renters generally have a vested interest in being a considerate neighbor since it is now their home.

<comment><USER11> I'd just wrap socks around it.

<comment><USER10> LOL. I didn't see anything in the FAQ bout it being sock-proof? Maybe the second revision with have this feature?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I am suddenly unreasonably angry that this exists. Not because of the product itself, which is clever.

But because this is how normalized the u̶n̶r̶e̶g̶u̶l̶a̶t̶e̶d̶ illegal short term rentals have become, that especially in some tourist-heavy regions are creating long-term housing shortages that displace residents. (See New Orleans, where housing prices have skyrocketed without any commensurate boost in residents' incomes to compensate, and it really is just that homes are being converted into hotels.)

<comment><USER13> > are creating long-term housing shortages that displace residents

This could be avoided, if the cities would be willing to allow building more homes in the areas where demand is high. (Usually it's even the same people opposing building new homes and at the same time complaining about the rising prices. Very illogical.)

<comment><USER14> And suddenly your tourist-y locale is transformed into "just another cityscape."

Not to make light of the need for affordable housing. But, the problem with respect to AirBnB and the like is not simply to "build more."

Zoning, regulations, and such grew up over decades, in response to needs. Not "just because."

AirBnB and the like, as I've commented elsewhere, essentially crowd-source an "end run" around limited resources for enforcement.

Arbitraging short-term rental demand against limited, taxpayer-funded (and often not even supplemented by e.g. hotel taxes that traditional short-term rental establishments have to pay) enforcement.

In my personal experience, I have had an abusive level of disregard for the common welfare exhibited by a few neighbors. Absent effective control, it really can "ruin" a building or a neighborhood.

This has left me with exactly zero sympathy for the AirBnB crowd. Especially after the all-to-frequent horror stories I've read -- thought admittedly, the press and public attention seek the extremes for the sake of sensation. But even just in more level-headed, unpromoted comments here on HN and elsewhere. The "sharing" economy too often takes its advantage by dumping on its surroundings and reducing the quality of life for others.

By all means, build more housing. In a sustainable fashion and enjoyable design. I've advocated for creating regulation and code that requires noise- reducing materials and construction techniques in new construction. Among other things, this could well make shared dwellings more attractive, increasing density and resource efficiency while maintaining aspects of quality of life such as simply having a safely peaceful home.

But don't promote "build more" as a simple sop for the problems AirBnB and unregulated "sharing" bring to the table. Don't turn other people's homes, often against their will, into "the hotel room next door."

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I always figured that the hidden camera that the AirBnB host uses to spy on me already had a microphone so they can monitor my noise level directly....

</comment><comment><USER16> This is ripe for a Chinese rip-off at those prices.

<comment><USER17> I imagine that you could build a functional equivalent with an ESP8266, a power adapater, and a Twilio account - no server required, since you should be able to measure volume directly on the ESP8266 itself. The parts would cost you less than $20 - probably less than $10.

<comment><USER18> NodeMCU (basically ESP8266 + USB-to-serial and power over USB) is ~$3, if you can find a reliable USB charger for less than $7, then this project will definitely cost less than $10 in parts.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> They charge a $200 annual fee

<comment><USER19> That's pricy...

<comment><USER20> It's insanely cheap if you're one of the many "landlords" that have turned their properties into AirBnB-only money printing machines. In NYC/SF a 1-2 night stay covers the cost for this easy.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> What does it mean to be a "HomeAway Official Partner"?

</comment><comment><USER22> I find it hilarious that this product exists. For so many reasons. A noise meter for your (most likely illegaly) rented apartment so your neighbors aren't bothered. I wonder how else that could be fixed... Oh right, regulations on noise and distance to housing, which every hotel has to follow, but AirBnb's litlle grey area abuse scheme miraculously gets to avoid it.

<comment><USER23> Regulations don't make things not be noisy. They mandate that things not be noisy. Then someone has to go make sure that when things are getting noisy, it stops. In a hotel, that'll be the hotel manager when the other guests or the neighbours complain. This is a proactive means to avoid that.

I mean, it's not like saying "Don't make a huge amount of noise in my apartment" enforces that you can't. You can still do it.

<comment><USER22> Except you're going to have a terrible time building a new hotel complex in the middle of already existing apartments. The bill for sound insulation is going to be massive. And if you get inspected and it turns your you are not within the regulations, the fine is going to be a fun one too. Therefore, new hotels are built somewhat isolated from existing housing, or take up an entire building.

As opposed to a random person just renting his apartment and getting a tap on the wrist eventually.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> This feels like it can just be implemented by an Alexa skill? Would anyone be interested?

<comment><USER25> How? Don't you need to wake Alexa for the skill to work? What happens if they unplug the Alexa?

<comment><USER26> What happens if they unplug this thing? "Sorry I needed the outlet and this thing looked kinda useless."

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Put a towel over it.

<comment><USER28> haha, why is the best comment at the bottom of the page?

<comment><USER27> My comments have been forever anchored to the botttom by the mods/admins. :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Is there a hand held gadget I can use when I first enter my rental to determine and locate listening devices and/or video?

I'll buy or gift one.

</comment><comment><USER30> Well, that's creepy as fuck. If you're going to do this, why not also go ahead and don't rent your space out.

</comment><comment><USER31> Example of something nobody needs.</comment>


My Friend, Steve Fossett  - b-man http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1670216,00.html

<comment><AUTHOR> Warm expression of friendship and respect from Branson. Title should say (2007).</comment>


Jim Rogers calls most big U.S. banks bankrupt - <AUTHOR> http://www.reuters.com/article/InvestmentOutlook09/idUSTRE4BA5CO20081211 <comment><USER2> I don't keep a penny in the bank more than I have to. I understand the FDIC exists, but I trust my mattress more.</comment>


18,000 Microsoft Jobs Gone Eventually? - <AUTHOR> http://minimsft.blogspot.com/2014/07/18000-microsoft-jobs-gone-eventually.html

<comment><USER2> Cutting quickly - this is a really good point.

I remember when the last layoffs were implemented at Yahoo, they let half the people who were laid off stay as contractors for upto 1 year! These guys killed the already dying culture - all they did was interviewed in other companies, mentioned what kind of salaries they are getting and to rub salt in our wounds, kept on telling us the severance packages (which was pretty sizable) which Yahoo will be giving them at the end of their contract period - by which time they will have another job nicely teed up!

Scott Thompson really wasn't very smart.

<comment><USER3> Unfortunately, they won't be. According to this internal memo, they're supposed to lay everyone off over the next 6 months:

"The first step to building the right organization for our ambitions is to realign our workforce. With this in mind, we will begin to reduce the size of our overall workforce by up to 18,000 jobs in the next year. Of that total, our work toward synergies and strategic alignment on Nokia Devices and Services is expected to account for about 12,500 jobs, comprising both professional and factory workers. __We are moving now to start reducing the first 13,000 positions, and the vast majority of employees whose jobs will be eliminated will be notified over the next six months. __It 's important to note that while we are eliminating roles in some areas, we are adding roles in certain other strategic areas. My promise to you is that we will go through this process in the most thoughtful and transparent way possible. We will offer severance to all employees impacted by these changes, as well as job transition help in many locations, and everyone can expect to be treated with the respect they deserve for their contributions to this company."[1]

It makes absolutely no sense. Exactly what you describe is going to happen, except that by not telling everyone, it'll also cause people who _won 't_ be fired to look around at competing jobs with the impending possibility that they'll be fired. I bet some of them will take some of those jobs regardless and leave.

It seems to me like the whole thing was rushed for before earnings come out. They weren't ready for the full layoff (i.e. managers hadn't decided all of who would be laid off), but they wanted to get some momentum going on the stock. /conspiracy

[1][http://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/2014/07/17/memo- from-m...](http://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/2014/07/17/memo-from- microsoft-ceo-satya-nadella-announcing-up-to-18000-job-cuts-over- next/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+foxbusiness%2Ftechnology+\(Internal+-+Technology+-+Mixed\))

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Some of the cuts have already come. Unfortunately, two of my friends at MSFT have already been given notice. They're bright, talented people and they'll be fine long run, but it's devastating in the short term since they've worked very hard, gotten good reviews, and essentially just rolled poorly on their saving throw vs disaster.

</comment><comment><USER5> For those interested, the WARN page now shows that 1351 employees will be laid off in Redmont.

<comment><USER6> Interesting, if you sort by the "# of Workers" column [1], it looks like this is the 2nd-largest layoff in the state in the past 10 years. The largest was 3400 workers being laid off by Washington Mutual following its bankruptcy (2009). Third-largest was another Microsoft layoff round, of 1200 (also in 2009). Although in 2009, Microsoft had two layoff rounds only a few months apart, and those would add up to ~2100 workers if you combine them.

[1] [http://www.esd.wa.gov/newsandinformation/warn/](http://www.esd.wa.gov/newsandinformation/warn/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> predominately from hardware division across india and china(nokia), sad :(</comment>


Grindr: a new sexual revolution - <AUTHOR> http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jul/04/grindr-the-new-sexual-revolution

<comment><USER2> This is only peripherally a sex app. Basically it is a local mash-up that selects nearby objects of interest based on some matching property--sexual orientation, gender, availability, specialized interests, hair color, etc. A simple but effective idea for our increasingly depersonalized society. It turns everyone into a sex object.

</comment><comment><USER3> Fascinating. I can't imagine Grindr is wholly unique in its functionality, but its attaining a critical mass of users (especially among a very specific demographic) is likely its real revolution (much in the same way that Apple's FaceTime will be a game changer despite being unoriginal).

What puzzles me is that this is seen only as a system for sexual networking. Imagine all the other uses for something like this with a wide enough user base:

\- Meeting interesting people while out by yourself

\- Finding potential dates if you're not into hookups

\- Finding ride sharing

\- Getting an off-the-cuff opinion of a restaurant

\- Asking someone what's clogging traffic two miles ahead

<comment><USER4> Right. Now imagine all the possibilities for murderers: We've had the Craigslist Killer, now we'll have the Grindr Killer, the Hitchhikr Killer, etc.

Heck, someone could write an app called Killr, take an aggregate feed for all of these and sort the results by helplessness and other desirable traits in a victim.</comment></comment>


Let's just use Emacs - <AUTHOR> http://beastwithin.org/users/wwwwolf/fantasy/avarthrel/blog/2011/05/lets-just-use-emacs.html <comment><USER2> Articles about why anything you can do in a "simpler" text editor can and should be done in emacs strongly resemble articles about why anything you can do in a less powerful programming language can and should be done in Lisp.

I don't think it's a coïncidence.

<comment><USER3>
      Simple text editor = simple + powerful
      Emacs = complex + powerful
      Lisp = simple + powerful
      Blub = complex + powerful

Given this your association doesn't make much sense.

I think most people prefer simple + powerful. And this isn't black and white - Blub can often be simpler for X simple task. However the real yard stick is whether as your problem domain gets more complex does Blub suddenly lose its _veneer_ of simplicity?

I always bring up Alan Kay in these kind of threads but his observations are always so damn salient - agglutinative PLs (features) vs style PLs (simple principles).

<comment><USER4> Most of my emacs customizations are pretty simple. M-x [ and M-x ] start and end macros. f5 runs a macro instead of C-M-x e. f6 copies the entire current line. f7 is line-goto. f9 is replace-string, f10 is replace-regexp. M-x g is whole-buffer-copy. I have a bunch of functions that insert standard shebangs and other script boilerplate, which are easily mapped to function keys if I need them.

I've got some other more complex customizations that I don't use very often, for example a set of functions that let me cycle through various background/text color schemes. For awhile I had that mapped to f8. I've also effectively used hotkeys that generate documentation/comment templates. But those tend to come and go, and when I'm not using them they don't interfere at all.

Beyond a few fundamental things, emacs is only as complex as it needs to be. Yes, it's a fairly large base install compared to vi, or a simple text editor, but so far it's never been big enough to get in my way.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I use Emacs for coding, wanderlust mail, rcirc and jabber-el. All which are provided as packages in the distros I run.

I've been trying to get into clojure which entails installing clojure-mode, swank-clojure, leiningen (which brings the pain of maven) and slime. This is where emacs has always broken down for me. Once I step outside the distro provided packages I find broken tutorials, unspecific versions, and instructions written like:

        First install package.el.
        Add to your .emacs: (add-to-list 'package-archives '("marmalade" . "http://marmalade-repo.org/packages/"))
        C-x C-e to evaluate it, and you're good to go!

<http://marmalade-repo.org/>

Except that didn't work in two of the three emacs installs I have. Any time I need to download an elisp file I dread reading the instructions. Too often the author forgot that he loads some other required package in his 1000 line .emacs/init.el file. Then you end up with half a set of instructions.

I think the only solution to the problem would be package maintainers providing instructions for how to install their package in a specific vanilla version of emacs from scratch with no other changes. But if they have to give up their custom emacs configs they won't be able to write up an explanation.

<comment><USER6> Whenever installing software for Emacs, it's usually worth checking ELPA <http://tromey.com/elpa/> (which comes installed on Emacs by default now,) to see if the package is there already. The ELPA provide both slime and clojure- mode and they work out of the box with swank-clojure. You'll still need to install Leiningen/Cake with swank-clojure separately, but there isn't much Emacs can do to help there.

<comment><USER5> Ah, but now you're not following the instructions provided by swank clojure which says to use marmalade (which is an elpa extension/replacement/clone/additional repository?)

The clojure-mode available through elpa ( clojure-mode 1.7.x) is not new enough to deal with swank-clojure which needs 1.9.x (specifically I was after M-x clojure-jack-in)

Plus, the elpa instructions don't include emacs23 because it allegedly comes with 23 (even though the elpa website does not say this). But elpa is not included in emacs 23 on Gentoo.

And thus an evening of mine is lost to trying to get the same emacs environment running on my Gentoo desktop and Ubuntu laptop.

Obviously my problems could be from a lack of experience with Emacs, but I hate that using a text editor is so hard.

And another example is the pain of trying to build wanderlust from scratch which requires apel, flim and semi. Some of which were ONLY hosted on abandoned FTP servers. Luckily Dave Abrahams recently moved those scattered and abandoned packages to a single place <https://github.com/wanderlust>

<comment><USER7> I can't say that I've run into this exact issue, or even exactly what the issues have been that I've run into with Emacs, but I know I've spent many hours reading instructions, following tutorials and generally just trying to get a basic emacs/lisp setup running. It's really difficult to do. I think I had a partially working Clojure setup, but then I tried to make it support Common Lisp in addition, and things completely broke down.

I'm not claiming to be a genius level programmer here, but I don't think I have to make that claim either. There's something seriously wrong with Emacs when an experienced programmer has serious issues setting up a basic development environment.

For comparison's sake, I hit "comfort-level" with Vim within two weeks, including a fully customized .vimrc, colour files and keyboard navigation. After a month of using Emacs I was somewhat comfortable with the keyboard shortcuts for basic navigation, but didn't know how to do several things that I could do in Vim. I also had no idea how to add syntax highlighting for language X - managing only to get it working for one dialect of Lisp and nothing else. Ah, and installing from ELPA had a nice tendency to show me error messages instead of actuall installing anything.

Bah, sorry for the rant. It just frustrates me when I hear about Emacs and how great it is, and I totally get on-board with it, but then it's just this fustercluck of configuration hell that never ends well.

<comment><USER8> > I think I had a partially working Clojure setup, but then I tried to make it > support Common Lisp in addition, and things completely broke down.

This is due to the SLIME developers' insistence on making everyone run from CVS trunk. I wish I were joking, but they really seem to have no interest in creating stable release packages, so I have to go in and try to make it work without their cooperation.

<comment><USER7> Interesting. For what it's worth, I plan to give Emacs another go pretty soon here, but I'll be sticking with Common Lisp. I'm kind of done my courting period with Clojure.

<comment><USER9> Emacs + Slime for CL should be a piece of cake as long as you don't insist on using your distribution's packages. Mail me (see profile) when you run into any problems and I'll help you out.

<comment><USER7> Thanks! I'll give it a good, honest go and if I run into issues, I'll take you up on your word. :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I deeply love emacs, but its crustier elements really bite on a regular basis. The amount of effort required to make it non-ugly is just... unpleasant (a problem I've noticed with a lot of gnu ui stuff, both with applications and websites - appearance matters guys), the lack of namespaces in elisp is quite horrid (though it's very nice to have a lisp as the language of choice), the weird annoying regex conventions, and just lots of little things (I'd have to sit down and record them as I go to be able to list 'em) which degrade the experience.

By the way, take that as intended - I love emacs very much, but as with people so with software - the little things a beloved gets wrong can be unbelievably annoying... :)

<comment><USER11> I'm with you. Making Vim look pretty involves adding ":color <whatever>" to your .vimrc. Making Emacs look pretty involves installing color-theme, hopefully compiling it so it doesn't take forever to load, editing your .emacs.d/init.el since you can't customize that via customize-apropos (AFAIK), and so on. Likewise, I'm with you that the default regex implementation is...surreal, at best. Having reb-re-syntax be 'string should be the default.

On the bright side, look at what we're discussing here: the default regex syntax and pretty colors. Compare that to about five years ago, when we'd be instead discussing how to compile Emacs in a way that had fricking TrueType font support. Emacs _has_ come a long way.

<comment><USER10> Yeah, both 21 -> 22 and especially 22 -> 23 were vast improvements. Appearance issues aside however, emacs is starting to feel a little like windows in a way (uh oh downvotes ahoy), in that it's lumbered by backwards compatibility considerations. Emacs with namespaces + a nicer lisp would be... something very special.

<comment><USER11> They've added lexical scoping in trunk in a fully backwards-compatible way; it wouldn't be hard to do namespaces and a "nicer Lisp" (by which I'm assuming you mean Guile?) in a similar manner.

That said, the number of people who hate on Elisp is surprising to me. No, a hacked-up version of Maclisp is not the best Lisp in existence. But, seriously, you're competing against _vimscript_. Will even the most diehard Vim addict actually argue that vimscript is even _comparable_ to Elisp?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> "org-mode developers, in turn, just ask a relevant big question: 'why use separate files when you can conveniently stick the stuff in one file, dammit?'"

It surprises me that you could come away from org-mode thinking that the developers thought you should stick everything in one file. One of the main strengths of org-mode is the way it frees you to put stuff into separate files, wherever you want, and then use the agenda to consolidate them into a single view.

Having said that, yes, org-mode is freaking awesome.

</comment><comment><USER13> You think 20 years from now people will still be voting up articles about Emacs and Vim? just curious

<comment><USER14> Yes. They are bound to be discovered and re-discovered by every generation. They are the kind of tools that get the job done. There's also still a lot to be discovered about those editors themselves.

Besides, to quote Wikipedia:

EMACS: initial release: 1976, 34–35 years ago

Vim: initial release 1991, 19–20 years ago

vi: was written by Bill Joy in 1976 (as extension of `ex' editor)

The debacle's been raging for way longer than 20 years.

\----

On the other hand, if you want something more modern: <http://man.cat-v.org/plan_9/1/acme>

<comment><USER15> The EMACS package for TECO on ITS isn't an ancestor of modern GNU emacs, which began as a rewrite (based on Gosling's Unix emacs) in 1984. They are both "emacs" in the sense that they are modeless screen editors that share the same default keystrokes.

Really GNU emacs is related to ITS emacs in the same way that vim is to BSD vi: it's a cleaner and much more powerful reimagining of the original that shares some interface details but no implementation.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> A few years ago I switched to emacs because I needed a cross-platform editor that worked with multiple languages _and_ was available on command-line Linux. vi(m) was (and is) unintuitive.

As you work with emacs and customize it to work with your flow, your hands, and your keyboard, it starts to feel as comfortable as old shoes. Over time, the incremental efficiencies add up, and it becomes clear that a non- customizable editor just isn't as useful.

Contrary to parfe's experience, I've had good experience with Emacs packages, but then again, I don't use very intrusive addons, and keep my emacs pretty up-to-date.

<comment><USER17> Happened to me, on vim – i used to work with TextMate, and I really wanted a text editor that I could easily use on my servers as well as on my local computer.

I started using vim, and at first, it was kind of hard to get used to all the commands and remember everything... but after a while (1~2 weeks) it felt so fluid and easy – everything makes kind of sense, it's easy to install new plugins (pathogen ftw!), it's easy to hack those plugins, themes (most of the time) just works.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> For the fun factor -- emacs page from Section 1 of the plan 9 manual: <http://man.cat-v.org/plan_9/1/emacs>

<comment><USER18> Strangely, the vi(1) linked from that page is not for the editor, but for a MIPS emulator <http://man.cat-v.org/plan_9/1/vi>

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> I resonate somewhat with the gripes about Emacs' crustiness. But on the other hand, I don't understand the complaints about it being ugly. I haven't heard that for a while. I'd like to think that my Emacs is quite pretty:

<http://jlongster.com/s/emacs.png>

There are things Emacs can do which VIM will never do. And vice-versa. They are separate editors embracing separate philosophies.

Lastly, keep in mind that this is 40 year old software, and considering that it's done a great job keeping up with the times.

<comment><USER8> I think most of the "ugly" gripes come from people who either don't know how to change the font or haven't bothered to turn the tool bar off.

<comment><USER20> I'm not trying to be snarky here, but if you change the font and turn the toolbar off what's left of the design?

<comment><USER21> If only you could configure Eclipse until nothing was left of its design!

<comment><USER22> I've actually gotten Eclipse into a fairly clean state: <http://i.imgur.com/ln2N8.png>

Most of the clutter is gone, but all of the nice IDE features (refactoring, immediate error detection, etc.) are still there. It's a nice way to work.

<comment><USER23> I run VS2010 in a similar way, though it is much easier to strip off the widgets.

Most of my co-workers don't understand how I can work that way. I tell them it's all about learning (or modifying) keybindings.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Lots of professional authors use "advanced" text editors for their stuff. And sadly, that often means old editors, because they often tend to have features that modern word processors lack (or make it easier to accept then). And of course once you get used to something...

There was a Salon article about people still using XyWrite[1]. As mentioned in the post, GRRM is one of the people[2] still using WordStar. I know that Steven Brust is using Emacs[3].

[1]: <http://www.salon.com/21st/feature/1998/08/25feature.html/>

[2]: <http://www.sfwriter.com/wordstar.htm>

[3]: from the front matter of <http://dreamcafe.com/firefly.html>

<comment><USER25> Another example: Vernor Vinge (sci fi author, and a former math and CS professor at San Diego State) uses emacs [[http://www.norwescon.org/archives/norwescon33/vingeinterview...](http://www.norwescon.org/archives/norwescon33/vingeinterview.htm)]

<comment><USER26> Yet another example would be Neal Stephenson:

"I use emacs, which might be thought of as a thermonuclear word processor."

\- In the Beginning was the Command Line <http://www.cryptonomicon.com/beginning.html>

<comment><USER27> That was written before his conversion to Mac OS X.

We don't know if it still applies.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> There's something fishy about an emacs article that doesn't mention vim at all.

<comment><USER29> He mentioned being affected by cognitive dissonance when referencing other editors - he was probably thinking of vim :)

<comment><USER30> A lot of modern IDEs provide features that are pretty close to magic, compared to what emacs sports. The emacs user response to this generally seems to be something like, "Code navigation can't be as good as M-x rgrep", and "How can refactoring ever be as good as C-M-%?"

This reminds me of various people I have worked with in the past who have wondered why I ever bothered with the complexity of searching and replacing with regular expressions, when you can just do a normal search and replace, watch for matches that match the more complicated thing you're actually looking for, then replace them by hand...

<comment><USER31> I use Visual Studio to wrangle giant enterprisey C# applications, but I still use find+grep/Emacs for browsing code quickly. Visual Studio is a long way off from matching the simple blazing speed of grep and file buffers in Emacs.

P.S. I'm not sure why I'm being downvoted. It's what I do. There's really no debate about whether grep is faster than VS search.

<comment><USER32> VS mimics both to an extent by allowing you to search with regular expressions and to choose to search from a file system context instead of project context. My favorite thing about this is I also use viemu, and I can search VS's search results using vi commands.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> tl;dr

Use Emacs 23 to create a distraction-free writing environment using org-mode, darkroom-mode & markdown-mode.

<comment><USER34> I'm not directing this at you personally, even though I am responding to your comment, but do we really need "tl;dr" type comments here on Hacker News?

<comment><USER35> > do we really need "tl;dr" type comments here on Hacker News

Yes we do. They serve to save people time.

<comment><USER36> They would save more time by simply not coming here. They can save lots and lots of time by not reading anything. Additional knowledge takes time to read and then adds time to your decision making process. Too many choices. These people should just write out a schedule and keep to it perfectly. No distractions, no extras, no discovery. No need for people to read things to understand them. Simply let someone else read them for you and tell you what to think.

<comment><USER37> I think your criticism would carry more weight if this news site wasn't a firehose linkdump format.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> I'm pretty excited about this post. I first began using vi in 1983 and Emacs in 1986, and have switched back and forth between the vi/emacs families of editors as my needs have changed and their capabilities have changed. I've been on gvim for the last few years because of it's superior GUI integration, but it is not good for writing prose, which I do more and more of these days. I have not found something I really like for writing, and end up using MS Word by default, which does not make me happy. I had not heard of visual-line-mode, so I'm ready to give emacs a try again. I just installed Aquamacs, and I'm using it to write this comment in full-screen mode. I will also give org-mode a try because I'm always looking for better ways to organize my writing.

<comment><USER25> Keep in mind that while Aquamacs is better visually integrated in MacOs, some features may not work as well as in the standard (gnu) emacs.

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> Haven't peeked under the covers in years---this is enough to make me go take a look. Now if someone would write a mode for time-lines then that would pretty much finish up the usual writer (fiction) shopping list.

<comment><AUTHOR> Org Mode's agenda has something like that: <http://orgmode.org/manual/Timeline.html>

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> He's talking about Emacs 23.

</comment><comment><USER41> I've spent the last month or so head first learning VIM - I forgot about org- mode before deciding on VIM. There are a number of clones but nothing seems complete. Any recommendations?

<comment><USER42> Well the orgmode.org homepage calls out one[1] in particular:

"2010-11-25 Thu: Maybe the times where Org mode could change hard-core vi users into honorable Emacs users are coming to an end? A Vim clone of Org mode is be written by Herbert Sitz, and judging by the videos it looks promising."

Haven't used it, though.

[1]<https://github.com/hsitz/VimOrganizer>

<comment><USER12> I'm the author of that clone. I'm making progress, and it's building up to a fairly nice subset of org-mode, but it's not something that would satisfy any truly hardcore org-mode power user. At least not any time in the near future.

The previous poster complained that none of the Vim plugins that try to mimic or clone org-mode "seem complete". That is definitely the wrong way to look at things. Org-mode is a huge app that's been heavily developed for six or seven years now. In some ways org-mode is probably like Microsoft Word: probably 75% of its users access only about 25% of its features, although many of them access a different 25%.

Why try to develop an org-mode clone in Vim, then? Mostly as a personal project I started for fun. I tried switching to Emacs just so I could use org- mode. Even with Viper and Vimpulse add-ons Emacs felt too clunky to me. I had previously worked on a Vim outliner and I knew that part wouldn't be too hard to replicate in Vim. I decided not to stop there and I've gone on to a lot of other features, although it's a fledgling project. In particular, I need to get some decent documentation done. There are a ton of features in my clone that users have no idea are even there. I think so far most of them (like most org-mode users?) use it mostly for simple outlining.

The Vim clone uses a file format compatible with org-mode and actually calls out to an Emacs server to have org-mode do exports to LaTeX/PDF, HTML, etc. So pure document authoring (as opposed to PIM/task management stuff), is one task that the Vim clone probably can do a decent job of now. Adding footnote support is on the list (there's already a Vim footnote plugin that I plan to modify to work with the org-clone).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER43> For those who prefer a language with namespaces (python) sublime editor is a good modern alternative.

<comment><USER44> I've been using emacs for a few months now (it's surprisingly good), and am starting to run into wanting to do little modifications. Speaking as a non- lisper, I really wish a rewrite existed in a more modern language. I don't wanna start an argument about lisp here but there is a reason people don't use it for major developments, and it's not the performance. But it would be unfair not to point out that you can extend emacs in a variety of languages including python. Its just a bit messier.

<comment><USER9> First of all, various members of the Lisp family are used for major developments.

Secondly, rewriting Emacs would be a major undertaking and which modern language would it be? My choice would be Common Lisp, for other developers it would be Clojure, Haskell, Python, Ruby, etc. Whatever choice it would be, you'd lose developers who would rather see Emacs rewritten in one of the other languages. Even worse they might spawn forks in their own favourite languages.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> I'm a beginner at programming, and am wondering which text editor to use. Emacs or TextMate?

</comment><comment><USER46> Try out xiki (<http://xiki.org>) its a wrapper on top of emacs that adds a bunch of shortcuts, and its built using el4r so all the extensions are ruby based.

</comment><comment><USER47> basically

</comment><comment><USER48> Emacs beats every other editor. Yes, including Vim both because you have a Vim clone inside Emacs and because once you start pushing the limits of Vim, just like the developer of Slim-Vim, you'll find yourself implementing Emacs. Vim's editing model is great - and that's what I use - but it ain't Emacs.

Emacs has its warts, but it's your best choice if you want a serious editor.

Bashing an editor because its support for programming languages whose programmers have chosen other platforms, is not fair. Comparing Emacs to Eclipse or Netbeans when it comes to Java development is not fair, just like comparing Eclipse or Netbeans to Emacs when it comes to Common Lisp development is not fair either.

Using a general-purpose editor instead of a specialized tools means that everything you learn will serve you in every other editing task.

If you are not serious about editing text, then you will be

But, truth to be told, Emacs isn't even an editor: it is an Emacs Lisp interpreter which by default runs a program to edit text.

<comment><USER48> Continued:

If you are not serious about editing text, then you will be served by many other editors.

<comment><USER48> Downvoting without explanation? Fine, I love my competitors using lesser tools.

<comment><USER49>
        * Being needlessly argumentative
        * Borderline trolling. You _know_ how these arguments go.
        * Fallaciously arguing that tools cannot be compared based on how well they get the job done
            (IDEs vs 'editors') rather than their implementation
        * Getting pissy about downvotes and posting multiple times instead of editing

You've been here a year. You should know better.

<comment><USER48> Thank you for your clarification. I don't understand why I have been perceived as argumentative.

I've been using Emacs for quite some time now, and before immersing myself into it, and even after, I've compared it to other major editors. Eventually, I realized that no other editor can stack against it, if you are _really_ serious about getting the most out of your editor, and reaping the highest return of investment out of the time you spent learning it.

Maybe some people don't like the idea, but just like there are superior languages, as PG as neatly demonstrated, there are superior tools. Things you can accomplish with Emacs, you really can't with other Blub editors.

Oh, and when I talk about Emacs, I'm not talking about its editing model, which I agree, is somewhat cumbersome. Vim's editing model is way superior, and it's my editing model of choice, but Emacs' implementation is better. Vim enthusiasts are aware of the limits of their editor. For a story, read here: [http://bradbeveridge.wordpress.com/2007/06/21/how-a-vim- user...](http://bradbeveridge.wordpress.com/2007/06/21/how-a-vim-user- converts-to-emacs/)</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Effect of Neck Retraction Taping on Forward Head Posture in Computer Work (2013) - <AUTHOR> http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3804981/ <comment><USER2> I wish there were photos to show the tape placement.

Has anyone had luck with this or other techniques for correcting their forward head posture?

<comment><USER3> [https://www.google.com/search?site=&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1...](https://www.google.com/search?site=&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1424&bih=1153&q=neck+retraction+taping&oq=neck+retraction+taping&gs_l=img.3..0i24.269.6429.0.65188.8.131.52.18.104.22.1689.1698.7j6j4-1.14.0....0...1ac.1.64.img..1.18.1551.3k1BS- tqWoA)

Basically- taping your back so that you know when you're leaning fwd.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is pretty relevant for me, given that in the last two days my hands/arms have gone completely numb. Does anyone have any other links/tips for keeping or correcting good posture?

</comment><comment><USER5> What was the effect on eye strain?

<comment><USER6> I would like to know this as well. I stopped having eye strain after I started using f.lux and turning down the brightness on all screens.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Procedure to fly a coffin from US to India - <AUTHOR> A cousin's son who was a CS student at Virginia Tech suddenly passed away a few hours ago.
EMS declared him deceased at his place of residence; the police have now taken over and said they can't divulge any information until their investigations are completed.
My cousin is inconsolable and she just wants to see her son one last time; she is not fit to travel to the US anytime soon. Under the circumstances, our only option is to try and fly the coffin to India.
We have family in the US who are all standing by for the police procedure to be completed and in the meanwhile, we are all trying to find out how to bring the coffin to India ASAP.
Any specific info and/or relevant links would be highly appreciated. <comment><USER2> I don't know what his custom is? Are they Hindu and get cremated or are they Christian and are buried? Because I am pretty sure for the body to travel it will need to be embalmed. You should be able to contact an Airline (Air India?) and arrange transport once the remains have gone through the process. This isn't cheap and can cost quite a bit.

[http://www.airindia.in/cargo-type.htm](http://www.airindia.in/cargo-type.htm)

Sentimental Shipments

We understand how traumatic it is to lose a dear one. That's why we make sure the mortal remains of the deceased are always carried with utmost care and concern.

Besides passport of the deceased, the following documents are required for carriage of sentimental cargo:

        Death Certificate from a competent medical authority

Embalming and Packaging Certificate, Certificate issued by Embassy (Nationality of deceased) with the deceased's full name, age at the time of death, place of death and photocopy of passport details. Photocopy of cancelled passport,Police certificate.

It is necessary that the above documents are made in English, otherwise the same should be translated in English.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the info and the link. We are more in need of guidance with the US government/medical/police procedures at this point (i.e. pre airline/cargo).

<comment><USER2> This is typically the way it goes.

Since the deceased is so young the police will need to have a small investigation to rule out foul play. The body will be transferred to a hospital morgue where an autopsy will be preformed to determine cause of death. Once everything clears someone will need to claim the body (family or someone acting on the families behalf). You will need to contact a funeral home for embalming and preparing the deceased for travel (if the family wants him back in India).

There is really nothing for you to do until the Police/autopsy is finished and the cause of death is determined. You may want to let the Police know and Morgue know who the contact for the deceased should be.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks again. Any idea (even an approximate one) how long is it likely to take before we get possession of the body?

<comment><USER2> I would think a few days 3-5 days if his death was due to natural causes (aneurysm, heart failure, etc.)</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Different CSS techniques and their performance - <AUTHOR> http://screwlewse.com/2010/08/different-css-techniques-and-their-performance/

<comment><USER2> I don't understand CSS optimization. Who actually notices a page being slowed down by CSS? I've never once had this problem, is there a certain audience that frequently would?

Anyone here actually using SASS etc specifically for performance?

<comment><USER3> It's easy to slow a page to a crawl using complex CSS selectors.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> My take on this: the game is not worth the candle. Usually there are lower hanging fruits to be gathered regarding client-side performance, and I am not even sure it is worth to bother with CSS performance: 100ms on huge page is not that much. Also there are other factors to consider: adding classes to your markup will increase it's size, and it will be downloaded every time (with millions of hits it adds up). CSS on the other hand can be cached and have zero impact on load time (expires set into future). Non-semantic class names are ugly. My ideal page would use as little IDs and classes as possible (preferably none, doable with HTML5 where you can use semantic elements instead of trying to give some semantic meaning to the DIV via some class name). Yes descendent selectors and friends are slower than direct targeting with id or class, but the difference is negligible. Spend your time reducing the number of http requests, minimizing js, taking care of parallel loading, setting proper expires and cache control headers, don't sweat about CSS selectors speed.

<comment><AUTHOR> RE: low hanging fruit. It's assumed that you have already done that. Just one more piece of the puzzle. As the test suggests.. it would be good to code in a way that's less bloated, however it's not always going to make a huge difference.

re: zero-impact if cached: I assume you mean visitors that have already downloaded your css from a previous visit? That's been shown to be inaccurate. I also would assume that you have css with far future expires and is zipped, (possibly URI'zed), and on a fast CDN. (not all CDN's are fast). Yet there is no such thing as zero impact. The css still has to be painted on the page and even when cached. If your CSS is 500kb, that could take a long time for a browser to parse CSS.

re: non-semantic class names.. it's a test.. nuf said

re: your ideal site: There't lots I could say here.. besides the fact that IE is still to simpleton to understand most selectors I assume you are speaking of. Also, if you are talking about decendent selectors like I am thinking.. check the Link to Steve Souder's site.. they talk on that. (hint: they're faster)

again, this is assuming you have done all of the other things.. and then some. There is much more you can do before optimizing your css.. but some are at that point. Just because it doesn't apply to you, doesn't mean it isn't an issue to others.. Nor does it mean we should assume there is no issue, without testing and measuring (in order to make sure.)

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Yikes! You are right.. what was I thinking adding the @font-face.

However, the rest of the css is used in all the tests as a base. I don't see how that would affect the test considering it's on all scenarios (except the no css scenario)

I use the javascript-based date as I found it to be quite accurate at in giving me the time difference from the time css is loaded until it's done. Thanks for the reminder.. I need to credit the testing JS to Steve Souders.. found in his article here: [http://www.stevesouders.com/blog/2009/03/10/performance- impa...](http://www.stevesouders.com/blog/2009/03/10/performance-impact-of- css-selectors/)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Yes, I do. I come from large corporations, where studies have shown that when a site is slower, even by 50-100 milliseconds, your traffic WILL decrease. When your site gets a million views a day, 2 percent is large. Thats when you start to nitpick each and every part of your site that slows things down. I use SASS/Compass because it's an awesome tool to maintain your CSS, however it's very easy to add alot of extra CSS (mixins and whatnot). The reason I created this, was to find out if using @extend would perform similarly to the OOCSS methods, which are proven to perform fast. I think it accomplishes exactly that.

</comment><comment><USER5> The test page contains extraneous CSS that will affect the outcome of the tests, including a @font-face declaration (yikes).

Also, given the extremely low times in question here and the lack of iterations, JS-based profiling using Date objects may give an inaccurate picture of the differences between techniques.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I removed the external font file and some other css that may skew the results. Next, I'll re-test and the charts automatically update.</comment>


Show HN: Kubernetes cluster manager for localhost - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/bcrusu/kcm <comment><USER2> "kcm create mykube" so much behind the scenes going on with that simple command. Cool project!</comment>


Ask HN: How terrible is technical writing? - <AUTHOR> I have a background in linguistics/literature and been to a few job interviews for a position in technical writing. My impression is that<p>- a not insignificant part of the job consists of running after the developers and letting them explain to you how their software works or at least to furnish you with further information or explanations. Also, you have to cultivate a sense of when to ask them, when to interrupt their work, and who to ask for what.<p>- developers don't care too much about the technical documentation and view it rather as a nuisance.<p>- in the general hierarchy you are quite low, which is probably understandable given the nature of the task. But you are also somewhat of an outsider among a majority of people who have studied computer science.<p>- only a fraction of the work consists of autonomous tasks. A large part of the time you operate at the intersection of variable often quickly changing circumstances which you have to structure by almost constant interaction.<p>- in the world of standardization, established stylesheets, translation-friendly texts there is not much room for creative solutions.<p>How accurate are these vague generalizations? <comment><USER2> From a literary perspective, technical writing is like any other genre. Good technical writers are deeply read of the canon, it's structures, and idioms. They understand its audiences and their reasons for reading. Their work is ruthlessly edited. Their approach is serious. [1]

The hard part for a person without a technical background is the first. It's hard to empathize with a reader in an area of which the author has no experience. It's hard to know what to research without having a meaningful problem at hand. This can lead to the "designer problem." Absent an interest in the constraints of an important problem, designers will invent interesting problems by adding orthogonal constraints and elevate them to importance.[2]

Creative solutions to technical problems (or technical documentations problems) are only solutions if they solve important problems _for other people_.

Good luck.

[1] For CS, this suggests grappling with the likes of Knuth, Ableson and Sussman, McConnel, etc.

[2] This suggests research might include trying to learn to program for the same reasons anthropologists might try to learn the craft of an indigenous culture.</comment>


It pays well to be a (failed) CEO - <AUTHOR> http://www.itworld.com/software/208619/it-pays-well-be-failed-ceo

<comment><USER2> Contrariwise, I'm actually in favor of CEO severance packages. A CEO can do enormous damage to a company and if the board thinks that they're doing something wrong it's very difficult to oust them on any kind of reasonable time period. Getting failures out now can easily be worth tens or even hundreds of millions to a company, so handing Mr. Apotheker a few million bucks to go away is probably well worth it.

Of course, CEO's shouldn't be paid that much in the first place (I do tend to think in almost all cases that the bad a poor CEO can do outweighs by several times the good a good CEO can), which would tend to lessen the value of severance packages overall. But if any Fortune 500 CEO deserves anything close to their current compensation package, spending only $10mm to fire one sooner rather than later is an excellent deal.</comment>


Vimdb - a new way to search vim's keys, options and commands - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/cldwalker/vimdb#readme

<comment><USER2> Good work, but I feel obligated to mention that, of course, this is all already built in to emacs.</comment>


This is a Website - <AUTHOR> http://www.zeldman.com/2013/12/11/this-is-a-website/

<comment><USER2> Am in complete agreement; there's nothing as empowering as the act of creating, from brain to paper/pixel/your-chosen-medium.</comment>


Getting Started with the Arduino Yun (2015) - <AUTHOR> https://www.twilio.com/blog/2015/02/arduino-wifi-getting-started-arduino-yun.html <comment><USER2> If you want to do classic Arduino projects with wifi, check out the ESP8266 based boards. You can get wifi, a processor that's five times faster than a standard Arduino, and run Arduino code, all for $6.50.

(The Arduino Yum in the article is $75, for comparison.)</comment>


Tbox: A GLib-like cross-platform C library - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/tboox/tbox <comment><USER2> I see " _Micro: compiling micro library (~64K) for the embed system_ ", now that caught my attention!

Should I then assume that the compatible platforms are actually more than the listed Windows, Linux, Mac, and mobile OSes?

I'm on the front of AVR development, and cool new things always arrive late (understandably, if they arrive at all...) to our little corner of the world :(

But I assume that "embedded" here will mean mainly ARM.

(similarly, I'm still excitedly waiting for more progress on the Rust front :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Your source files contain the following in the commented header:

"Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more contributor license agreements."

Did you in fact specifically license it to the ASF? Or are you just licensing it under the Apache license?

<comment><AUTHOR> I just used the Apache license.

<comment><USER4> Apache committer here - you've got the wrong header there. That one's for source which has been committed to ASF repos under a CLA.

You want the header for non-ASF code which can be found here:

[http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0.html#apply](http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0.html#apply)

<comment><AUTHOR> Oh, got it, I will modify headers.

Thanks.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> They've got a bunch of other cool projects, too: [https://tboox.org/project/](https://tboox.org/project/)

I wouldn't have thought to look, but I saw something about xmake the other day (by the same people). I still am probably going to stick with cmake (inertia), but cool stuff.

</comment><comment><USER6> I think that if you're going to compare your library to GLib, then at least a basic comparison of features, side by side, should be available

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Provides stream, container, iterator, algorithm, coroutine, database .. modules.

And we use xmake to build it.

</comment><comment><USER7> I'm working on a compiler right now that generates C. Should I use this for the generated code? (Or should I use glib, musl, or uclib?)

A comparison chart would be helpful! Similar to: [http://www.etalabs.net/compare_libcs.html](http://www.etalabs.net/compare_libcs.html)

<comment><USER8> > Should I use this? (Or should I use glib, musl, or uclib?)

I agree that a comparison would be good, but musl and glibc are low level fundamental API's for things like printf and opening files.

Glib and this are higher level libraries to build applications with. If you're building a compiler you probably want one of these, for the generated code it would depend a lot on the specifics.

Edit - I'll also add that a lot of people's experience with C seems to com from college or beginner material where they're learning in a very bare bones environment. Combine C and libraries like this and it's not just good for app development but can be great for scripting where python or bash would typically be used.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Congratulations on an absolutely massive achievement! I love seeing high- quality C libraries appear. What version of C does it target?

<comment><AUTHOR> c99

<comment><USER10> Not supporting obsolete versions of C is utterly awesome.

<comment><AUTHOR> C89 is too old, too many grammar restrictions. And now the mainstream compiler basically supports c99.

<comment><USER11> What grammar restrictions? I've converted a few C99 libraries to C89 (since i prefer that one and i often work with older compilers because they are faster) and 99% of the time the reason a library uses C99 is inline variable declaration (which IMO is a bad style, but that is subjective) and // comments (which most C89 compilers support as an extension anyway).

The versions do have other differences, of course, but they're rarely used (the next most common one is designated initializers, which for me are the most annoying to convert).

I mean, it is your code, i just found the grammar restrictions part weird since really there isn't that much of a practical difference between C99 and C89 to the point i personally never felt the need to use C99.

(note that i focus on the language bits, C99 provides some extra library functionality but even then the most useful part is stdint.h which can be implemented in almost any C89 compiler anyway)

<comment><AUTHOR> C89 cannot mix variable declarations and code.

        printf("Hello World!\n");
        int x = 7;
        printf("%d!\n", x);
        return 0;

This is a very serious restriction for me.

<comment><USER11> Yes, that is what i meant with "inline variables". IMO this is usually a sign of code that is too long to be readable and if you really need that you should either split the function to make it more readable or, if that cannot be done, enclose the affected code in their own brackets (with a comment that makes it easy to distinguish). Brackets also make sure that the variable wont "outlive" its context (although again that is a sign of code that is too long).

Of course that is my opinion (and i'm generalizing of course), but that comes from my experience with working with others' code.

<comment><AUTHOR> Even if the function code is very short, I still like to define and declare variables nearby.

Unless a function has only two lines of code.

<comment><USER11> Right, that is your style, but i wouldn't call that "too many grammar restrictions" :-).

<comment><USER12> It's too many grammar restrictions _for this person_. That's obviously what's implied by the person's original comment.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> how does it handle u_128 (IPv6 comparison/sorting/hashing)

two u_64 is .. sad (sometimes unavoidable)

no bzip2 but other good modern compressors which I guess is about what you _need_ for jar and zip files.

openssl compatible crypto .. oy vey the chain of "who audits the code is now a mile long at the microphone"

<comment><AUTHOR> There is no support for u_128 yet, but I can consider it.

<comment><USER13> If you think about radix tries and other data structures (AVL) it would be useful to be able to code good x>y tests against the binary state of IPv6. If you have to segment into two u_64 then shift-and-mask stuff becomes harder. So, purely for IPv6 (and I work with internet addresses a lot so my bias is showing) I think this makes sense.

But I totally get it may not be in your use case or first pass. Tiny home router builds? they'd want this. Anything doing IPv6 packet work testing or finding IPs in a structure will want this unless people code to the /64 model.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, I agree.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> What does "modern" mean in this context?

<comment><AUTHOR> Ok, Now the title has been modified, maybe the previous title is not reasonable.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I'm not seeing tests anywhere. Am I blind or are they hidden away or non- existent? Thx in advance.

<comment><USER16> > _I 'm seeing tests anywhere. Am I blind or are they hidden away or non- > existent? Thx in advance._

While this might be a valid point, I really don't like the manner in which it is expressed. Feigned surprise, pretend humility and, most importantly, lack of basic respect towards fellow developer(s).

<comment><USER15> Wait, you cited my text and changed it from the original dropping a key word and then attacked me for it. Not cool. There is no feigned surprise or lack of respect either implied or actually present in my inquiry about the lack of tests.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Congrats on shipping! This is really good advertisment for Xmake btw :)

</comment><comment><USER18> why didn't you build off musl?

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't want to have any third-party library dependencies.

<comment><USER18> oh no I thought you were talking about a glibc replacement (making your own libc) while this is about glib as in gnome, sorry

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Why was it written in C instead of Rust/C++?

Additionally why are there a bunch of generic sounding Chinese names in the comments with dead comments? Bot comments/SEO?

<comment><USER20> It's a C library. If it were a Rust or C++ library it would be written in those languages.

<comment><USER21> That does not always _necessarily_ follow. The VC runtime, for the C portion of the library, is now written in C++ internally.</comment></comment></comment>


Some problems with SQRL - <AUTHOR> http://grymoire.wordpress.com/2013/10/09/the-problem-with-sqrl/

<comment><USER2> I don't agree with his point "SQRL:// is a bad idea" because custom scheme is only for launching the SQRL app nothing else and the data that is passed through URL will be a random value

</comment><comment><USER3> I think that basically all concerns that are raised are invalid, because the person who posted them doesn't understand how SQRL works.

See [https://www.grc.com/sqrl/sqrl.htm](https://www.grc.com/sqrl/sqrl.htm) for an explanation, which differs drastically from everything that is described in the post.

</comment><comment><USER4> There's a bit where he implies that if an encryption process doesn't take very long to execute on a smartphone, then it must be easy to crack the resulting file on a powerful server. Am I making a mistake here?

<comment><USER5> Yes, its confused.

Scrypt can be held up as a very good choice for key stretching.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I hope these concerns were contributed to GRC's newsgroups.</comment>


Old, generic drug for rare disease gets new price tag: $89,000 per year - happy-go-lucky https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/02/old-generic-drug-for-rare-disease-gets-new-price-tag-89000-per-year/ <comment><AUTHOR> , or: Why the FDA and US Drug Regulation is Broken.

Seriously, if they want drug manufacturers to do research on a generic drug for a rare disease, give them a research grant.

</comment><comment><USER2> FDA creates another monopoly.. drug company doing something completely LEGAL receives all the heat.</comment>