Literally a (generalized) two-line version of FizzBuzz - <AUTHOR> https://pastebin.com/NEAvzhXf <comment><USER2> I like how this solution uses several nice Python features; I found a way to simplify it further while still using the same overall approach:

      screams = {3: 'fizz',5:'buzz',21:'yaow'}
      for i in range(100):
          out = [screams[j] for j in screams if i%j == 0]
          print("".join(out) if out else i)

Edit: here's an even shorter version:

      screams = {3: 'fizz',5:'buzz',21:'yaow'}
      for i in range(100):
          out = "".join(screams[j] for j in screams if i%j == 0)
          print(out or i)

</comment><comment><USER3> Today I learned that 4 lines of code is allowed to be billed as 2 lines of code.

</comment><comment><USER4> Source title is "Untitled", and while _unhelpful_ , is more accurate, as, whatever this is, it is not literally a two line version of _anything_.</comment>


DNA Smoke identifies perpetrators - <AUTHOR> http://www.finanznachrichten.de/nachrichten-2013-05/26845995-applied-dna-sciences-and-smokecloak-a-s-launch-dna-fog-cutting-edge-tech-puts-dna-in-a-security-smoke-distributors-in-40-countries-256.htm

<comment><AUTHOR> Wow, trying to find the root of this story is a pain. But it is going to be an important one I suspect.

These guys have basically taken the DNA that glows when you shine UV light on it, and put it into a fog. Such that if you are at the scene when the fog goes off, you'll glow too.

This is the beginning of a trend that I'm not sure is going to turn out well. For example, everyone knows that your piss smells after you eat asparagus. Now lets say you put an odorless aerosol in the 'target' area which disperses a variant on the asparagus enzyme. Now back at the office you've got a detector in the urinals and free soda. Is this surveillance? Is this a violation of your 5th amendment rights? (spot tests of urine have been tested in court and upheld)

Note that I'm one step past folks who completely change all their clothes and wash their hair to avoid detection. That will be the first step of course.

We've become so facile at collecting DNA and analyzing it at crime scenes, seems like this is a logical next step. Give the crime scene some DNA that it can put on the criminals, you would be hard pressed to contest a search for some "other" DNA on your clothes I expect.</comment>


Show HN: I made a small tool to download photos and videos from social media - <AUTHOR> https://loot.photo/ <comment><USER2> Nice.

Question: why is this a service that needs to be hosted instead of a locally installed cli tool? Is there a technical reason or is it just for the convenience of using a website and not having to install anything?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. Personally, I wanted to use it on different devices without having to install something every time. I also thought it would be easier for non techies.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Is there an API? How are you dealing with rate-limiting?

<comment><USER4> We have something that you might be interested in. Just shot me an email: d at meetcortex.com

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm very grateful for what you did. I'd like to tip you through Brave Browser. What do you think?

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey buddy. You can tip me here [https://www.buymeacoffee.com/wassim](https://www.buymeacoffee.com/wassim) Thank you for your support!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Nice! We do something similar at my company (meetcortex.com). What are you using for the backend?</comment>


Inside GitHub's Super-Lean Management Strategy - <AUTHOR> http://www.fastcolabs.com/3020181/open-company/inside-githubs-super-lean-management-strategy-and-how-it-drives-innovation.html

<comment><USER2> This is great for creating _new_ products, for innovation.

But I've never understood, who then does the grunt work? Who slogs through producing the documentation, and keeping it up-to-date? Once a new product/feature is launched, who sticks around for the bugfixes, support, etc., since presumably everyone will be more excited to allocate themselves to the next new big thing?

In every company, there's a lot of totally boring, unattractive stuff that needs to get done nevertheless. With open allocation, who does that?

<comment><USER3> More often than not, boring work that nobody wants to do at your company is an indication that something went wrong in the process of design & development of your product.

For example, from my experience as an end user, if a product or service relies heavily on documentation, "knowledge bases", forums etc. then it's pretty much fucked up already. Work of any kind at a company behind such a product would be boring: from management and engineering to QA and technical writing.

Github is obviously not among this kind of companies. And I wonder what would be considered "boring job" at GitHub then.

<comment><USER4> You're conflating good product design with good company processes, but those are completely separate concerns. Of course a good product shouldn't require documentation because the whole point as a consumer product company is you are bending time and space to make something that people want to pay for. However in order to accomplish that there will most likely be some shit that needs shoveling along the way. Who does the bookkeeping at Github for instance?

<comment><USER3> My hypothesis is speculative. I think what we call "shit work" is in fact something that is less creative and as such is likely to be subject to automation/algorithmization.

In other words, with the right tools, platforms and algorithms you have less shit work to do.

A few things that can be considered "external bureaucracy", such as accounting, patents, legal stuff etc, that are kind of beyond your control, so they should simply be outsourced. For bookkeeping, hire a company. There will be some amount of interaction with them of course, but that itself shouldn't require full time involvement. I did that for one of my companies, worked OK for us.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> At a certain point a myth got started that management was a valid profession in itself and it was perfectly fine for a non-technical person to make technical decisions. And for most businesses today, growth and innovation is going to come from better use of technology.

"Non-technical" (I love that word) professional managers are thus incapable of either coming up with innovative ideas or recognizing the opportunities when they do come up because they simply don't understand them well enough. For the same reason, they're unlikely to make well informed choices between priorities. Even ex-technical people that moved into management still make bad decisions because they often don't really keep up with new technology and the changing technology landscape. They might go to conferences and surf slashdot but they aren't in a position to actually apply that knowledge so it ends up being practically useless. If they're asked how to approach a problem they often just use the approach they would have went with 10 years ago before they became managers because that is what they truly know and understand (because, unsurprisingly, you have to do something to understand it).

<comment><USER6> You seem to be making the wrong assumption that innovation is technology..? On the other hand you talk about growth and innovation coming from better use of technology. Innovation is a behavioral outcome, it's about behavior and its implications. The problem so far is that decisions of behavioral nature is taken by managers for one reason or the other not qualified to do so...

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Github is fortunate in being one of the few companies that their customers are the same type of people as their employees. This allows them to get a lot of what traditional management is needed for "for free" and allows radical freedom in their management structure.

I'd hesitate to try to apply their example to other companies unless you're in a similar situation.

<comment><USER8> Another example which backs up your hypothesis is Valve; a gaming company filled with people who love games, and thus they are their own customers. They too have a "no management" management approach.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> The current resource allocation models mostly stem from non-software industries, especially in financial planning and budgeting. As the result, the fit is not always perfect.

Working in software for a little over 10 years, I'd say of projects that should not have been undertaking by companies I worked for or should not have been undertaking by core developers, 90% would have had a lot of trouble attracting people within such model. Generally speaking, software engineers within companies know their own capabilities better than management, especially non-tech management, and can differentiate between a good and a bad fit for a given approach.

On the other hand, I have yet to run into a group of engineers that would not want to attack a valid customer problem, whether it's "sexy" or not. The "shit" work some people mentioned, really isn't if it is what is needed to make a difference for a customer. Engineers generally take a lot of pride in their work, so if there is a defect, they want to fix it.

Seems like such a model could be a much more efficient allocation of resources in the long run, but would hurt some egos in the process.

<comment><USER10> Agreed - but I have thought for a few years that management as a career and a well remunerated one is coming to a close - one of the main drivers for me to get "back" to coding

<comment><USER9> Well, facilitators and enablers will be in demand regardless of what methodology you subscribe to. For the last 8 years I've been a product manager (& director). This is one of those jobs that if you do a mediocre job, at best you'll be a nuisance, at worst an impedance. If you do a stellar job, your team's productivity will skyrocket and so will the returns on the investment.

PMs, like many other enablers/facilitators, are there to weed-out noise and make sure the team is always in the know on the relevant context and insights. When things go badly, strong PMs provide cover for the engineers to work through the storm and continuously synthesize all forms of feedback to ensure engineers have proper situational awareness and facts to make sound decisions, but not thrash in response to whatever strife might be out there.

There are other "managerial" type professions that have a place and make things better. All good managers know how to resolve conflict and make sure the team knows about any land mines, but also knows when to get out of the way and let people work. Individual development is also the job of the manager.

<comment><USER10> I'm not disagreeing - except that manager-as-facilitator is an appropriate role only for skilled and usually gelled teams. Manager-as-coach are also often needed, but weirdly most of it seems to be manager-as-supervisor-meddler - it's something to do with a short term view - put people together, do no training, hope they work together.

<comment><USER9> "put people together, do no training, hope they work together" that's usually a sign of an inexperienced manager.

That said, I do agree that much of what I said assumes you are dealing with adults that actually want to be there. If you have a demoralized team that doesn't want to work together, there is a whole other managerial skill set that is needed trying and bring them together. Unfortunately, often times things are too far gone to salvage all team members, especially in such market as we have today in tech - just raise a hand and recruiters beat down your door.

<comment><USER10> BTW have you heard of / had experience with programmer anarchy approaches championed by Fred George?

And I suspect we are in violent agreement. which leads me to wonder what is going wrong

There are a lot of people getting paid in the IT industry, about half of whom write code. They range in skills across the double hump of software ability. And they are apparently all over stretched or on silly short timescales brought on by a poor initial estimate.

To go from just surviving to a team that guides itself takes a lot of training, social norming and individual coaching. None of which will happen with these foolish estimates driven projects.

So I am not sure I see a way forward.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I think the key quote for me is about how effective Githubbers are as communicators. Which isn't at all common in our industry.

 _I think about it is as being highly networked. [...] you look at the strength of connections between people, the communication channels, and how information travels amongst them, and then you can draw a diagram._

What seems like a higher-than-average percentage of Githubbers are particularly effective communicators publicly, even outside the management team. (Zach Holman in particular comes to mind.)

</comment><comment><USER12> Github is a very special case because they have a relatively simple product and very tech savy audience. I currently work on a very large b2b web platform/application where customers are typically 40+ and still using Internet Explorer. Its also so massively complex that you just cant do it without extensive planning and talking about every last detail of the implementation with all people involved. I wanted to avoid it, but not talking things through in detail usually results in misunderstandings and more work down the line.

Its great that github can do it like this and i envy them for it, but its not a one-size-fits-all solution to project management

</comment><comment><USER13> GitHubber here. There's some great questions in this thread already. I'm AFK this weekend, but if you've got more questions about our structure, or how we use GitHub.com to work like this, ask away and I'll try to answer them in a blog post next week.

<comment><USER14> Does github use Jekyll for it's blog? And what chat/video conference software is used, Skype?

<comment><USER15> Fellow GitHubber here :).

No, we don't use Jekyll for our blog. It's part of the GitHub.com codebase I believe.

For chat, all standard stuff really :). We use Campfire for group chat (dozens of rooms), Gtalk/AIM/etc for individual chats, and Skype or FaceTime for video chats.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I'd be more supportive of GitHub if they open sourced some of their infrastructure code.

</comment><comment><USER17> This approach seems almost magical. There are a couple areas that I'd like to hear more about.

\- How detailed is the strategy coming down from the top? "... [W]hat you work on is up to you, within the bounds of what's important to the company." What is the process of oversight to determine if each project is "important to the company"? Are there often conflicts in this area?

\- How does employee evaluation work? Does each member of a project submit evaluations for the others?

</comment><comment><USER18> "There's Google's now-defunct concept of 20% time"

I wish people would stop saying this, 20% time is not defunct at Google.

<comment> barry-cotter Be more specific. One presumes you are a Googler. If so, when was the last time you did a 20% project, how much dedicated, blocked off time did it have, and how did it effect your relationship with your manager?

Stuff like 20% time being defunct becomes common knowledge through multiple independent repetitions, like Amazon being a shit place to work, Google not doing customer service or Zynga, well, Zynga.

<comment><USER18> I recently left Google (about a month ago) but in my roughly 18 months at Google I was always working on 3 or 4 projects of my own choosing outside of my 'day job'. They each took up between 5-15% of my time so I'm happy lumping them all together and saying that they were my 20% time.

One of my non-day job focus areas was security education, I ran several classes/events to try and teach people about writing secure software. A public example I can give is the Hardcode Secure Coding competition which I was one of the organizers and judges. See [http://googleonlinesecurity.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/the- resu...](http://googleonlinesecurity.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/the-results-are- in-hardcode-secure.html) (I'm one of the guys in the desk photo).

Another example of my 20% projects was a dashboard that compared the number of security reports that had been reported against various parts of Google. It compared them with a lighthearted metaphor and was displayed in a relatively high traffic area in the hopes that it would draw the interest of people who did not track security issues day to day.

A final example is that I worked a little bit on Glass, but only as an interested outsider. I helped out with some security reviews of internally developed Glassware on a volunteer basis as well as wrote my own Glassware to help test the platform.

Blocked off time varied, Hardcode required a lot of blocked off time (including a trip to Singapore). My other projects generally needed a couple of hours at a time. In an average week I'd work two half days on my side projects (not every project every week).

My managers were both very supportive (and all round great guys), it helped that I could explain the potential benefits of all my projects and that they were not completely unrelated to my day job (performing security assessments and code reviews of non-Google code/systems). There are probably limits to what my managers would endorse, but I never got anywhere near those limits.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Where did you pick up the link with .html appended on the end? It resolves back to without it and all the internal links lack it.

<comment><USER20> This post was on the front page last night/this morning and dropped off, this was to avoid the duplicate check methinks

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> ot: i really love all these tech sites that just don't stop loading crap while you're already reading the article. then it just scrolls to the top, bothers you with popups and shit.

extremely off-putting. many times i just quit. really great for retaining readers.</comment>


Three-quarters of women suffer from stress-related anxiety - <AUTHOR> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/work/generation-burnout-three-quarters-of-women-suffer-from-stress-re/ <comment><USER2> Its probably due to all pressure to "lean in", and sacrifice personal happiness to corporate grind.

Though I think the new stress anxiety is not gendered, affecting both men and women, probably due to some extreme competition in the job market.</comment>


Ask HN: Elixir in the Wild - <AUTHOR> I'm trying to figure out how companies are using Elixirlang.
Can you fill this short survey? https://t.co/YoAUjerR5J
Results will be public after 1 month. <comment><USER2> It's a bit odd asking to fill out a survey rather than merely asking if anyone uses Elixir. Anyways, I've been trying to keep tabs of companies that have been using Elixir, here's a small list:

Rosepoint Software Discord Undead Labs (now defunct?) Dockyard Thoughtbot Carbon 5 Whisper (I think) Etsy Bleacher Report

And for Erlang: WhatsApp Facebook Messenger (I think)

If anyone know differently please correct me if I'm wrong :)

</comment><comment><USER3> [http://stackshare.io/elixir/in-stacks](http://stackshare.io/elixir/in-stacks)

</comment><comment><USER4> I have an "Elixir in the Wild" series of blog posts about people and companies using Elixir on my blog: [http://blog.jordan-dimov.com/](http://blog.jordan- dimov.com/)

</comment><comment><USER5> You have to provide some more background, it's a lot of info that we have no reason why it's being asked.

<comment><AUTHOR> There's no mystery. I just want to understand if Elixir is being used in the real world (other than enthusiast programmers doing side projects) and if there's a demand for Elixir services.

Email, Name, etc are optional to fill.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Is this a marketing survey? It starts asking for company name, website, address.

<comment><AUTHOR> It's not a marketing survey, I'm not asking for an address. The email is optional.

I just want to understand if Elixir is being used outside toy projects and if there's a demand for Elixir developers.</comment></comment>


Univac 490 – 1963 Computer – Gallery Talk - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hq7aVCc2GP810 <comment><AUTHOR> The Univac 490 was an early Real Time Computer System. One installation was at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt Maryland.

Our museum is currently closed due to COVID-19, so we are making some videos

System Source Computer Museum [https://museum.syssrc.com](https://museum.syssrc.com)</comment>


Ask HN: why so critical? - <AUTHOR>

Something I've noticed as of late: a good majority of comments on a post are extremely critical or negative.
Example: post on X is on the front page. The top 5 comments are long-form attacks on why "post on X" is completely mistaken.
Now, don't get me wrong, as these are often useful insights, but many of them are unnecessarily hostile, and well, just unnecessary to begin with. It's not-that-difficult to be both insightful and non-critical.
Any particular reason for this? Just a symtom of analytically-minded folk on the Internet? Perhaps it's easier to be negative and critical than positive and constructive?
And, finally, do you see it as a good or bad thing? <comment><USER3> I actually think this is a symptom of something healthy: high density of information per word.

As a recursive example: Let's say I agree with your post - as in, I think "you're right, posts are negative and I would also like to know why" - <USER2> should I post?

I believe the correct answer is nothing. Nobody wants to read the same opinion in two comments - that's bad etiquette on a site with upvote arrows.

On the other hand, let's imagine I disagree with your post. For example, if I think that the ratio of negativity to positivity represents the diversity of ways you can disagree and the paucity of ways to agree. What should I do? Well, I think the right thing is to post saying so, and to justify my disagreement in as much detail as I can. One opinion, one comment.

As a consequence, I comment negatively much more than positively. Generally when I have only nice things to say I upvote and move on. Is that bad? Like you, I'm not sure, but I believe it emerges from good.

</comment><comment><USER4> That's the part about HN that I actually like. For the most part, the top neg posts in threads are thoughtful and provide a different perspective with value.

Not to mention in many occasions, I don't even think the OP has _any_ specific opinion of the issue at debate; he is merely pointing out counterarguments to consider. I find it very helpful to evaluate counterarguments as a means to strengthening or modifying your original arguments.

That is far different from "no, you wrong!" type of comments found elsewhere on the web.

</comment><comment><USER5> Why take everything so hard? If you don't agree with whats being said just skip and read the comments that make you feel happy and warm inside. I have no opinion, but the beauty of anonymity and the internet, is things can be said that probably wouldn't in person. Its just the internet. What you consider negative, I may totally agree with. Its all relative.

<comment><AUTHOR> Well, it's not that I disagree with these comments, or that I'm only looking for ones that "make me feel happy and warm inside." My point was that a large portion of comments are focused on attacking the post, and that just seems unnecessary to me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> There are a couple of things at play.

First, as others have pointed out, criticism is generally more interesting than praise and often a more productive way to extend the content or foster further conversation. Even well researched articles will stake out a position on an open issue and thereby spark debate.

Second, the writing in the the techpress often lacks any depth of analysis (something which often could be said of journalism in general) and is often based on an original communication which was intended to produce buzz or create spin - e.g. press releases, product announcements, etc.

In addition [ok it is more than a couple of things], often the criticism will be of an apparent bias or questionable level of objectivity on the part of the author.

</comment><comment><USER7> I enjoy hearing different perspectives and I appreciate when errors or misconceptions are corrected during threads. I don't like the nastiness. The relative anonymity of the Internet is a disinhibitor: some people feel less vulnerable and more empowered here. Others feel that this is a domain where they can tilt the bully-victim playing field in their favor and get a bit of 'payback' (unfortunately, it's rarely directed at the folks who bullied the folks posting on HN).

Being able to be critical in a positive/constructive way is a difficult skill to master. Of course, this begs whether someone wants to actually critique or bully. If you're here to bully, ignore my post (or bully me). If you actually care about respecting others and having others respect you. (A colleague and former editor/moderator of an online media forum shared these with me).

1) First, ask yourself whether the comment is worthy of a response, or if you are just entering an argument. If the latter, think whether arguing with this person in this forum is really the way you want to spend your time. (Think, too, if you'd engage in this conversation in real life) 2) If you want to participate, type what you intend to say. Study it carefully. Did you 'add value? Did contribute an intelligent remark? Did you attack someone in a personal/offensive way? Would you be offended if someone commented in this manner on your post? 3) Read, revise, re-read, and revise again until you've convinced you've expressed yourself in the clearest and least offensive manner.

If you can use humor, be assertive, and enhance the thread by sharing what you know or feel, is there really any need to reach for more (or less)?

</comment><comment><USER8> Can you provide a link to these 'hostile' comments?

I think hostile is too strong a word to describe often 'opposing' viewpoints.

I think it is both difficult, and less effective to have middle of the road opposing views or often tamed language.

People here feel strongly about their convictions, about the way things should be done, etc. etc. That shouldn't be taken as hostile, but just differential.

Unless I am missing the initial hostility in comments, but maybe linking to a few examples could help.

</comment><comment><USER9> They reward you for being negative here. Those comments float towards the top because they are upvoted.

There are some genuinely cool and thoughtful people here on HN but mostly I find the community to be dominated by pedantic one upsmanship types who aren't in the mood for humor or typos. Sad really.

And everyone here hates on Reddit but I love the community there. Usually much friendlier and less pedantic. And a much better sense of humor to boot.

</comment><comment><USER10> I've noticed this too and I usually just chalk it up to immaturity. It makes for an entertaining read so why care?

</comment><comment><USER11> I've not seen this. Could you give some specific examples?

</comment><comment><USER12> It's generally helpful to remember that in face to face communication, a great deal is conveyed by voice tone, body language, facial expression, and context. People who have verbal habits like saying something kind of sarcastically or ironically and conveying by voice tone that they don't really mean it can sound way harsher in a written format than they would in person. Since in their head they still hear their own joking or warm tone, they may not realize or understand how negatively it comes across to others. Learning to communicate effectively via written word without all kinds of avatars, smileys and other "color" is a special challenge. In many cases, just cluing someone that it sounded really harsh without accusing them of anything can help them start figuring out how to do it better.</comment>


This robot serves up 340 hamburgers per hour - <AUTHOR> http://singularityhub.com/2013/01/22/robot-serves-up-340-hamburgers-per-hour/ <comment><USER3> Does anyone here have experience with fast food enterprises? It would be interesting to hear about how this sort of machine could affect companies like McDonalds and whether or not it's _the future_ or just a cute idea that won't scale?

I have the feeling that, if this sort of idea was as value as the article implies, McDonalds (or Burger King, or any other big chain) would have put serious money into developing this sort of thing and it would already be everywhere.

(I wish there was a website or publication that took businesses and profiled how they work, the challenges they face and the costs associated with parts of the business consumers might not understand, so these sort of questions were easy to answer. I would love to read how McDonalds works (as a business))

<comment><USER4> At a McDonald's store in my country that I worked in, the labor costs were only around 15% of the store's costs, whereas the cost of food (excluding wastage) is around 25%. Since the minimum wage in my country is about twice as high as that in the US, I wouldn't be surprised the relative labor costs are even lower there. McDonald's also happen to pay 20% above minimum wage over here.

Burger assembly is only a small part of the labor cost. You have the cashier, the fries person, drinks, management, salad/deli assembly, cleaning (during opening hours as well as final cleanup afterwards), as well as carrying stock from the truck back to the store.

Whether those machines would be profitable would depend on whether it is worth saving 5% of the cost of a burger in exchange for the capital and maintenance cost of the machine.

McDonald's isn't a burger company. It is a real estate company.

[http://seekingalpha.com/article/73533-mcdonalds-is-a-real- es...](http://seekingalpha.com/article/73533-mcdonalds-is-a-real-estate- company)

<comment><USER5> You could make the back room potentially a lot smaller if it was all in a machine.

As for the link - I don't buy his arguments: "First, it buys and sells properties, as one might suspect."

I've never seen a McDonald's close down. I'm sure they do sometimes, but they probably realize really quickly if the place will be profitable or if it needs to be sold asap. So effectively they never cash in on any long term real- estate investments. If the real-estate values goes up, more than likely you're gunna be selling more burgers too.

The second point he makes is kinda semantic. At the end of the day McDonalds needs to extract money from the franchise. They can charge more for using the brand, more for the ingredients or more for rent or whatever. It doesn't really have any significance. At the end they are trying to get as much money as possible out of the franchise without running the owners bankrupt.

His last point about them getting bought and all their real-estate sold.. I dunno maybe he was trying to just be cute - but net worth of assets is taken into account into the stock price. It's the kind of stuff that's on quarterly reports. Kinda scary that this guy is an investor.

<comment><USER4> It's a real estate company because for many franchise stores, it owns the land and collects rent and franchise fee from the franchisees.

"McDonald's real moneymaking engine was its little-known real estate business, Franchise Realty Corporation; envisioned and created by Harry Sonneborn. The obscure McDonald's alter ego company was based on Sonneborn's unique even lesser known financial formula." <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_J._Sonneborn> (First CEO)

<comment><USER5> As I explained the "rent" is just a way of extracting money from the franchise. They are not necessarily charging the local market rate for commercial real estate (if it's a very busy McDonalds they can charge way more). They don't realistically sit down and consider maybe replacing the McDonalds with an American Apparel so they can charge more rent. So it's not the typical landlord<->renter relationship where the landlord considers getting new tenants and the renter considers moving to a new place.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> When I met the Momentum Machine guys here in San Francisco, I was shocked that they were planning to open a restaurant chain instead of licensing the technology out to existing players. Opening restaurants? Making food? Very un- startupy, right?

But it turns out that if anyone can do it, these guys can. The brick-and- mortar restaurant business is massive, bigger than many technology sectors, and prime for disruption with new food and models: there's a $184 billion global fast food market, a $2.1 trillion global market, and just about everybody needs to eat.

This has the potential elements of greatness: serious, hardcore mechanical engineers as founders, with a background in the restaurant industry. More power to John and Alex -- can't wait to try my first one.

<comment><USER7> The first company to produce a Redbox-like burger, fries & shake kiosk will make a mint. I can envision those in breakrooms of small businesses everywhere.

Remember, not every business is in the middle of a city with plenty of restaurant choices nearby. If the company I work for didn't have a cafeteria, I'd be in for at least a 3 mile drive to the closest fast food place if I forgot to bring lunch.

<comment><USER8> They should call it McSwineys!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> The big issue with robot cooks isn't a machine that can cook food...those have been around for some time now. The real question is can the robots cook safe and healthful food _with no human assistance_? Any Board of Health will agree that the real challenge in cooking isn't the mechanical combination of the ingredients, it's inspecting the food and noticing potential problems that will stand out to any person.

Robots that can cook on their own have enormous benefits to society. The preparation of the food is made slightly cheaper and overall quality of the food improves (if a robot can make the perfect burger once, it can do it again and again). There's no need to worry about washed hands or cooks with colds, and for simple or repeat orders it's usually easier to interface with a machine instead of a person. But the real benefit to the world is freeing up the processing power of human minds for something other than flipping meat every X minutes.

These machines take a lot of the human labor out of food preparation, but at least one person will still need to be around to answer certain questions: Did this meat go bad before it was cooked? Were there rat droppings on the grill? Is there any chance that someone could get sick by eating this? Of course these things will take breakthroughs in machine vision technology and herculean data collection efforts. But once we get there, we can really cut costs and fight hunger with food factories.

<comment><USER10> Given that they're grinding meat on the spot, and that ground meat has a significantly higher risk of bacterial contamination than its non-ground equivalent, my guess is that this negates some of the risk. There still has to be a human involved to be sure, but I'd eat a burger from one of these any day of the week over the McDonalds equivalent (assuming I ate beef, of course, which i don't).

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> 8 years ago i remember talking about how i wanted to do a fully automated pizza shop. with a atm like interface. i know nothing about the pizza business, and at the time labor was too cheap for pizzas to warrant building crazy complex machinery. now it could probably work, i think. I do wish there was a video of this hamburger machine in action.

EDIT: Apparently these machines exist for pizzas: [http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jun/13/nation/la-na-nn- pizz...](http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jun/13/nation/la-na-nn-pizza- vending-machines-20120613)

<comment><USER12> Short segment on How It's Made: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k5WVYu5GXY&t=5m35s](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k5WVYu5GXY&t=5m35s)

<comment><USER13> Thanks for the link, that made my day.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> This may seem like a bit of a brazen comment, but... _what about french fries_? A burger is boring, a burger and fries is a very American meal.

They point to elimination of tile floors, aprons, hair nets, and the like, but if the customer cannot get an order of fries from this robot, the restaurant will still have to have traditional kitchen infrastructure to make french fries.

<comment><USER15> The technology exists: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Znch-RfhRI>

<comment><USER16> Now we have proof of concept of automated burger flippers, fry cooks, and, elsewhere, ordering from a kiosk instead of a person (I've seen this in the wild). What does that leave, someone to clean up and to stock the machines?

<comment><USER17> I see no reason clean up and stocking (for the most part) couldn't be automated as well!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> No doubt this is the future of fast food. Been wondering for years why a big player like McDonalds wouldn't come out with such an automated process and came to the conclusion it must have something to do with the economic consequences this would bring along. The amount of minimum wage jobs this would destroy, would have a very devastating impact on the U.S. economy.

<comment><USER19> "Destroying jobs" with technology is not a bad thing. The world benefits from cheaper products, and we shouldn't keep people working in jobs where they are no longer needed just for the sake of letting them work. They should learn new skills, find other jobs, and contribute to society in other ways.

No company would hesitate to fire every one of their employees if they could get machines to do better work for cheaper. The _only_ reason McDonald's hasn't done it yet is because they haven't found a cost-effective way to do it.

<comment> loup-vaillant There's only so much work to do. Machines seems to be eating more jobs than innovation can create. Eventually, we will face massive (over 50%) unemployment, unless of course we change a thing or two in our way of life (such as 20 hours work weeks or such).

Machines are great, but we do need to mind the way we use them.

<comment><USER20> Sorta...

In the short term the less intelligent half will be massively unemployed until we get something like Gattaca going and then everyone can basically be researchers (or writers, etc).

The real question is what happens after the singularity.

<comment> loup-vaillant > _The real question is what happens after the singularity._

Probably more true than you realize. The most likely scenario for a technological singularity is an AI that writes a slightly more efficient AI, and so on until world domination if it's quick enough (which is likely).

So we better know _exactly_ ¹ what we want the AI to do, or it might for instance tile the solar system with molecular smileys to maximize a badly programmed notion of "happiness".

[1] With mathematical precision, no less.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Here's what they need to do to create an automated restaurant...

Combine:

\- Their invention, the robot burger maker

\- iPads at every table to order (payment via stripe or similar service) : [http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-05-01/may-the- tabl...](http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-05-01/may-the-tablet-take- your-order)

\- Robot waiter : [http://www.sfgate.com/business/tech/slideshow/Robots-work- re...](http://www.sfgate.com/business/tech/slideshow/Robots-work-restaurant- in-China-55341.php)

But you'd still need people for cleaning, maintenance & troubleshooting.

<comment><USER22> My long bet says that we'll see the "Totally Automated" restaurant (exception being original construction, and periodic "high level" engineering) - I.E. A restaurant that can do basic maintenance, self repair, cleaning, food cooking (the trivial portion), receiving) - in about 25 years.

The cleaning/cooking/receiving part will be up and operating in about 15 years.

<comment><USER23> Welcome to the kitchen of the future. By the year 2000, all of mom's cooking and cleaning duties will be performed by Rosie the maid.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> One question I have is this: if we let robots produce our fast food, what guarantees of food hygiene do we have? I imagine it can be pretty difficult to get a robot to self-clean all of the relevant parts, and it's not hard to imagine critters getting inside and making a nice home for themselves.

The picture in the article does nothing to convince me that a burger produced by this machine will not give me food poisoning.

<comment><USER25> I think removing the teenager sneezing in the food and coming to work the day after having mono and not washing his hands will more than make up for it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> I worked in fast food growing up and it seems hard to imagine a machine would be a huge cost saver because the actual burger production was rarely a problem.

Most of the work is in the pre-prep, cleaning, stocking in preparation for the lunch rush. The machine would be nice during a rush but I have a hard time seeing it actually replacing an employee unless the robot also knows how to use a mop.

</comment><comment><USER27> This thing sounds almost purpose-built to enable a gourmet burger food truck business -- a restaurant niche where revenue is largely tied to how quickly a _fixed_ number of staff can churn out food.

There's also plenty of inherent down time for that same small staff, technical entrepreneur or centralized maintenance crew, to clean/maintain the machines.

One could set up a 'fleet' of such trucks and a centralized 'headquarters' with cleaning, stocking, and technical staff to handle any necessary maintenance and repair, as well as centralized and scalable data-driven inventory management and routing.

</comment><comment><USER28> So long as the first restaurant is called Cafe Alpha and is staffed by an overenthusiastic female android, I'm happy.

(Go read Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou to get the joke ;)

</comment><comment><USER29> I saw this machine in action at an event at the hardware accelerator they're part of. The guys behind it are cool and they have solved a number of problems so far.

But I do not think they have solved all of them. When I saw it the rate of production was far below 340/hr, and the machine wasn't doing all of the assembly. So I think the headline's use of the present tense is very misleading.

</comment><comment><USER30> The machine may automate the slicing, cooking, and stacking, but cleaning seems like a major concern. The chutes with vegetables, cooking surfaces, and especially the meat grinders would all need close attention on an daily (or even hourly) basis.

</comment><comment><USER31> What Americans really need right now is the ability to eat burgers faster and cheaper...

[http://singularityhub.com/2011/07/19/fat-america-keeps- getti...](http://singularityhub.com/2011/07/19/fat-america-keeps-getting- fatter/)

Duh.

</comment><comment><USER32> I have always wanted one of these sushi robots: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Q...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QPPwXRZCqew)

</comment><comment><USER33> The technology here could easily have been done 50-70 years ago (And it probably was)

I think it's not about robots but the spread of ideas and commerce is now much easier with the internet.

</comment><comment><USER34> Am I the only one looking at the image and imagining chain grease flicking onto the burgers... Yuck.

Afterthought: I suppose that might be better than humans handling my food.

<comment><USER35> They could lubricate the chain with lard.

<comment><USER36> Yum!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> I almost feel bad for all the people without education. Robots are killing their jobs, one niche at a time.

<comment><USER38> I can't wait till robot can do every job so that we can all just kick back and let the robots serve us beers on the beach. Your framing it all wrong by saying "robots are killing their jobs" in reality their jobs are still getting done, just more efficiently. This lowers the cost of the product and frees up individual to do more rewarding jobs.

<comment><USER39> It should free up individuals to do more rewarding jobs, but unfortunately we still live in a capitalist society. The only individuals that benefit from increased automation are the capitalists that own the robots, not the members of the working class that are losing their jobs.

<comment><USER38> Good point

looking at it from the perspective of the working class automation is scary in the short term, just like the invention of automated farming equipment was scary in 1870, 70-80 percent of the US population was employed in agriculture

Now approximately 2-3 percent of the population is directly employed in agriculture, is flipping burgers really that different?

I know the perfect way to gain 100% employment outlaw all farming machines, but you can see the flaws in that solution. Everyone is hurt by higher cost food and the opportunity cost of all the work that is more complex

True the people that put up the money and took the risk of engineering innovative ways of doing things better see the largest benefits, but the person that gets the innovation wrong many times goes broke.

The "working class" needs to realize that the nature of work is changing and the assembly line education we were all feed is not going to cut it in a fast pace economy we are living in today.

<comment><USER39> > _I know the perfect way to gain 100% employment outlaw all farming machines, > but you can see the flaws in that solution._

The capitalist system requires a reserve army of labor so 100% employment cannot coexist with the capitalist mode of production. The only reason outlawing farming machines could allow for 100% unemployment is that it would replace the capitalist mode of production with the foraging mode of production.

> _True the people that put up the money and took the risk of engineering > innovative ways of doing things better see the largest benefits._

The people that receive the most benefits are the capitalists who control the means of production. Our most talented engineers are being exploited by the capitalists, so they aren't the ones receiving the benefits of production. Some capitalists might just so happen to be engineers but that is not the basis of their social relationship to the means of production.

> _The "working class" needs to realize that the nature of work is changing > and the assembly line education we were all feed is not going to cut it in a > fast pace economy we are living in today._

With this statement you are taking the elitist position that us workers need to be told what we need to "realize" and that we deserve to suffer because what we are doing "is not going to cut it." Workers are in this precarious position entirely because the capitalist class has undeserved control over the means of production. The workers should take control of the means of production and use it to satisfy human needs rather then profit. With communal ownership of the means of production, automation technology will benefit the entire race rather then a minority of greedy capitalists.

<comment><USER38> It seems like you listen to a lot of the propaganda used to separate people into classes that keep them believing that they shouldn't even try. We're living in an age where anyone with an Idea and a little bit of savings can bring a project to fruition.

Stop watching Americana Idol, learn from all the free resources online and lift yourself up from the bootstraps. Stop feeling sorry for yourself and do something about it!

Stop listening to the self-defeating prophecy feed to you by people trying to separate society for political gain. It's easy to write yourself off, give up, and take the drone job.

Solution: Open Source Everything - Pure Free Market Competition - <USER2> Government Interference.

Cheers

<comment><USER39> > _It seems like you listen to a lot of the propaganda used to separate people > into classes that keep them believing that they shouldn't even try._

In the earliest human societies nobody was more entitled to the worlds natural resources then anybody else. According to Heckewelder in Iroquios society "whatever liveth on the land, whatever groweth out of the earth, and all that is in the rivers and waters, was given jointly to all".

Classes emerged when one group of people decided that they were more entitled to the Earth's natural resources then everyone else. These people made these natural resources into their private property and in order to get wealth out of those natural resources they made human workers into their private property as well. These owners became the ruling class and their subjects became the slave class.

Slavery existed in human society for several millennia until it was partially replaced by feudalism. In feudal societies, there was still a ruling class that controlled the natural resources and violently suppressed anyone who opposed them, except that their serfs had a little bit more autonomy and they were tied to the land rather then their masters.

The industrial revolution changed everything. In industrial societies people were able to work in other sectors of the economy besides the primary sector, which allowed some people to live free of the tyranny of the landlords. However, new forms of private property emerged corresponding to the new sectors of the economy. In the manufacturing sector, there was private property in the means of production and the instruments of labor, and in the knowledge sector there was intellectual private property.

The private ownership of our natural resources also still exists. As an example, Gina Rinehart, the world's richest woman, is a mining tycoon who inherited her control of Australia's natural mining resources. Classes have existed throughout written history and with people like Gina Rinehart they apply today as much as ever before.

> _Open Source Everything_

You want to eliminate the form of private property that exists in your sector of the economy: intellectual property. This is good, but what are you going to do for people working in the primary and secondary sectors of the economy? Do you want farmers to continue to subjected to the tyranny of the landlords and do you want for manufacturing workers to continue to be completely alienated from their workplace?

> _Stop watching Americana Idol, learn from all the free resources online and > lift yourself up from the bootstraps._

What is with this ad hominem attack? I don't even know what "Americana Idol" is. I spend most of my time studying mathematics and writing computer programs.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


The True Size Of - <AUTHOR> http://thetruesize.com/ <comment><USER2> Great site. Two points of feedback:

1\. It blows up browser history. Every movement of the countries shouldn't make a new browser history entry.

2\. It'd be nice to have continents too!

Other than that, very well done.</comment>


HN Search updated again - <AUTHOR> We have just updated HN Search (http://hn.algolia.com) with major improvements:<p>- Mobile version: it now works just like your desktop version. You can select what you want to search (all, story, comment, poll) and refine/sort your queries by date (last 24h, past week, past month, forever).<p>- Phrase queries: they are now supported in the parser using "" syntax. This syntax also disables prefix search and typo tolerance for the terms of the phrase query.<p>- Not: we have added support of negative terms in your query (using -term syntax).<p>As usual, your feedback is more than welcome. We also appreciate pull requests & feature requests on our GitHub repository: https://github.com/algolia/hn-search <comment><USER2> I spent probably 20 a few days ago trying to find the HN discussion for the ElasticSearch 1.0 release (as I'd remembered there being some useful comments there about using ES as a document store, but not their exact contents), and ended up with nothing. Ultimately, I ended up spending another 45 minutes on the general internet trying to piece together the bits of the comment I remembered.

With the new update, I tried the same query as I had, and it was immediately the very first result.

BRILLIANT.

<comment><USER3> Care to link to that comment? :)

<comment><USER2> Gladly:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7225589](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7225589)

It was more the thread in total than any single comment, but literally, that whole page was all but invisible to search just a few days ago.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Please switch the default option from "story" to "all".

The legacy style screen has a minor rendering error in Firefox 31:

[http://imgur.com/tkqCRGh](http://imgur.com/tkqCRGh)

My comment from a previous story is still relevant:

The search results for stories show both the long (and useless) news.ycombinator URL and a link to the comments. Both links lead to the same location. The news.ycombinator URL displayed is redundant and adds visual noise. I've highlighted both links in the image linked to below.

I'd like it if the results showed "link", "parent", and "on $News_Story", like the old site did.

[http://imgur.com/asHzSb1](http://imgur.com/asHzSb1)

<comment><AUTHOR> Make sense, I removed the useless link on stories and polls (keep it on comments, in order to jump on the associated comment in the HN thread using an anchor). I also deployed a CSS enhancement regarding the rendering error, is it better?

<comment><USER4> The rendering error appears to have been fixed. Thank you.

Just out of curiosity, why is the default for search "story" instead of "all"? I believe that hnsearch.com's default was "all".

<comment><AUTHOR> We think most users are searching for stories, but maybe we're wrong. Btw, we're currently working on an analytics feature that process all queries performed on an Algolia account. I'll use it to count the number of queries performed on comments/stories/all. Data-driven isn't it? ;)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Sorry for hijacking this, but can anyone that know someone at DuckDuckGo ask them to change !hn from [http://hnsearch.com/](http://hnsearch.com/) to [http://hn.algolia.com/](http://hn.algolia.com/) ?

I've already contacted them with the form on their site a week or so ago, but it's still using the old search, which is not working anymore now.

Again, sorry for the hijack, but posting requests over here seems to be the fastest way to have something done.

<comment><AUTHOR> I asked for the update submitting the newbang form ([https://duckduckgo.com/newbang](https://duckduckgo.com/newbang)), no reply so far. Help is really welcome :/

<comment><AUTHOR> Seems !hn bang command has been updated \o/ Thank you guys

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> It looks great on my iphone.

The only other thing I would request is perhaps the screenshots that appear on the desktop version?

Could you also possibly try to get somone to make the main HN site responsive on mobile? I'm surprised why this has not been done yet. It shouldn't take more than 5 minutes.

<comment><AUTHOR> Actually the screenshots are currently hidden on small screens in order to give more space to the worthy content. Maybe we could have an option to display them smaller.

<comment><USER6> Probably a good call.

What about the main HN site? Do you guys have any plans to make it responsive? It's just really hard to comment from your mobile device.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Imo the default search shouldn't return hidden comments and stories. While it might sometimes be useful to do so, I'm finding it mostly results in spam showing up. As much as I do appreciate the opportunity to buy [https://hn.algolia.com/?q=cheap+nike+shoes](https://hn.algolia.com/?q=cheap+nike+shoes) ...

<comment><USER8> I wonder why HN is a target for spam links like this? All URLs have nofollow so it's not for SEO. And most accounts that submit them are usually dead on arrival (or shortly after). So what's the upside here? People like you? Will you buy Nike shoes now?

<comment><USER9> I don't think spammers think much before they act. Or they're just bots.

<comment><USER8> Sure, but even bots and spammers costs money. Seems like spamming HN is throwing money away.

<comment><USER10> The cost of running the bot ($0, since it's just desktop software you can run overnight while you sleep) is the same whether it automatically posts to 1,000 sites or 999. The bot itself [1] is also often free because, who'd've guessed it, people who spam links around the web indiscriminately have no problem with pirating software too.

1: [http://www.botmasterlabs.net/](http://www.botmasterlabs.net/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Could you please put a summary of all the available search options right on the search page?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yep, will be easier :) Just opened a feature-request about it. ([https://github.com/algolia/hn- search/issues/25](https://github.com/algolia/hn-search/issues/25))

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Love the work you've done with this. The feature I'm always wishing you had was the ability to filter by number of comments in post as it's a pretty fair marker of relevance on alot of queries.

<comment><AUTHOR> Right, and actually I've opened a feature-request about that a few days ago ([https://github.com/algolia/hn- search/issues/24](https://github.com/algolia/hn-search/issues/24)). Gonna work on it in the next few days.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> _Feature Request:_ Use `by:` as a synonym for `author:`

<comment><AUTHOR> Done & deployed!</comment></comment>


Stretch – A flexbox implementation in Rust - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/visly/stretch-a-flexbox-implementation-in-rust-60762b5a3331 <comment><USER2> > We have over 250 tests passing, most of which are autogenerated from running > the same layout in Chrome. This ensures web-compatibility and overall > correctness.

So if it outputs like Chrome, then it is web-compatible? While I understand this from a practical point of view, this is also clearly a result of render engine mono-culture.

Let's see how innovation goes within a 5-10 year time frame if everything is bound to Google Chrome.

<comment><USER3> Author of stretch here! I would love to add tests for other browsers as well, and it should be pretty easy as we are just relying on webdriver. Targeting chrome was done as a first step as I had previously set up webdriver tests with it so that was just easiest :) The goal is for general web compatibility and not just chrome-compatibility though.

<comment><USER2> thanks. Didn't know the author is reading here :)

on an unrelated note there's some discussion at [https://www.reddit.com/r/rust/comments/agja9z/stretch_a_flex...](https://www.reddit.com/r/rust/comments/agja9z/stretch_a_flexbox_implementation_in_rust/) you might be interested in.</comment></comment></comment>


So You Want to Be a Programmer? - <AUTHOR> http://www.worthlessgenius.com/2009/04/22/so-you-want-to-be-a-programmer/

<comment><USER2> This is very similar to the rants I've given and heard from plenty fellow students back when I was still studying a few years ago. I can see exactly where it's coming from, and yet I can't agree. Partly it's the blatant snobbery of it, which I know from my own experience. It's frustrating to see folk with no interest in the discipline do better because they're more focussed on getting a first than actually learning anything.

The thing is, the industry is a lot bigger than it seems when you're at university. Developers/programmers are actually a pretty small part of it. For example, software testing/validation is a job in itself which can involve very little coding. Professional documenters are paid to write about software and do very little coding, but an understanding of the field is still useful to them. And lets not forget the good old ranks of management, forever considered to be a complete waste of time that gets in the way of "just hacking shit out". Except it turns out people don't want shit.

So basically, just because somebody is on your course and doesn't want to spend all night fiddling with their ubuntu installation, reading HN and learning the stuff you know that you'll need for the job you want, doesn't mean they wont be able to hack it in industry. If anything the industry could do with more normal people. Preferably ones with boobs.

<comment><AUTHOR> Ha, the boob point is well taken.

I'm certainly not/not going to be the world's most stellar programmer, but I have to look at the other people in my class who are obviously holding up the rest of the students through their complete misunderstanding of the material.

Sure there is potential in everyone, and most likely a career path for any number of variables involved in producing a quality software product. But when a person is taking their second class in a programming language, and you ask them to show you their switch statement, and all you get is blank stares, is it your place to think that they need to find something else?

Obviously this is all from my personal experience, and I don't profess to know all the answers. But, as a general question, how do you handle a fellow student who is obviously not getting the coursework, and if they achieve the same degree will lessen the effectiveness of said degree from the same institution?

<comment><USER2> To a certain extent, it doesn't matter that much. This is a problem that affects most universities and most courses. Ultimately I became resigned to focusing on what _I_ wanted from my course, which was to learn some knowledge and skills I found interesting. Also a degree seems to act as a sign that you're capable of getting a degree, and putting up with the bullshit that entails these days. It doesn't say anything about how good a developer you are or will become, or what kind of "Computer Scientist" you are. That's part of the reason why companies have interview processes, because you can only glean so much from a CV.

So, my advice is to give the guy a hand if you have time, you'll probably find he has skills that compliment your own which could come in useful someday. Also, try to stop caring so much about how your peers are performing, and focus on exploiting the access to people and resources available to you so you can get what you want out of the course. Ultimately there's very little you can do to change the behaviour of people your only mildly acquianted with.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> I'm not sure this essay has much value. There are some fairly obvious observations, like "learning takes work", "not everyone is good for every career", "learn from your mistakes", and "programming involves typing". That's fine, but not particularly insightful.

Perhaps less useful is the author extrapolating from his community college classmates to the general programmer population.

But the part I disagree with is the reductionist description of programmers as people who only type and solve problems. This is only true if you expand the definition of "problem" to be so broad that it's meaningless. As a good software developer, you have to make aesthetic choices, exhibit empathy with customers and coworkers, do boring paperwork, be personable, and many other things. I'm not sure all of these things are problem solving.

I also don't think any of his 8 pithy statements of advice are very helpful. Just one example: "Take everything very seriously." Really? Is this tongue-in- cheek? How about, "Don't take yourself so seriously. Have fun and be curious about your world." That sounds like better advice to potential programmers to me.

<comment><AUTHOR> You do make very good points, and I can't disagree with you. The article wasn't meant to be a blanket statement involving all programmers. It was rather meant to be a rant about how a lot of people who begin to go down that path either don't know what they're getting themselves into, or just simply don't care what kind of burden they are putting on others.

As for the statements of advice, you are correct. They are indeed broad, and would do with a good bit of expansion. This wasn't meant to be the alpha and omega of posts about what it means to be a programmer.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This should be required reading for those entering CS programs and, more importantly, for those that want to be developers that have a non-CS degree. There are way too many 'I got a B.A. in Art History but now I need to eat, so I'll program' people in this industry, and it shows.

<comment><USER5> Well I think it should rather be required reading for those responsible for all those young people not knowing how to study after 12 years of schooling.

<comment><AUTHOR> There are many layers involved which lead up to this point. The teachers, parents, peers and selves all play a large part in how a person learns. A good combination of the involvement of each is needed to produce an upstanding member of society.

<comment><USER5> Yes. I fully agree. I didn't mean to imply that you could pinpoint some one responsible. But it is sad, that you are lured into college on false premises. If one is not generally prepared to study can we expect one to "Take a day or two and research what is involved in learning to program." ?

<comment><AUTHOR> That's a very good point, one that I hadn't considered. Although I don't think that being able to study and doing a little research are mutually exclusive.

But, as you say, most likely a person who doesn't have the ability/desire to study and learn about a certain subject probably wouldn't take the time to consider the time and effort involved.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Site isn't responding for me.

Google cache: [http://22.214.171.124/search?q=cache:jnMtyv9i7LUJ:www.worthle...](http://22.214.171.124/search?q=cache:jnMtyv9i7LUJ:www.worthlessgenius.com/2009/04/22/so- you-want-to-be-a-programmer/+http://www.worthlessgenius.com/2009/04/22/so-you- want-to-be-a-programmer/&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a)

<comment><AUTHOR> Apparently something went haywire with the database. Should be back up and running now.</comment></comment>


Why Some Civil War Soldiers Glowed in the Dark - <AUTHOR> http://mentalfloss.com/article/30380/why-some-civil-war-soldiers-glowed-dark

<comment><USER2> Mostly-harmless (to humans) bacteria that release crude antibiotics in order to kill competing bacteria ... Now that's impressive. The glowing part is an amazing add-on, helping the symbiotic relationship with the parasitic micro- worms the bacteria live in/with.

</comment><comment><USER3> I wonder if the chemicals produced by the bacteria could be synthesized and made into a useful medicine. Perhaps useful for immunocompromised patients?

<comment><USER4> That's where a lot of antibiotics come from.

Antibiotics that have names ending in -mycin often come from bacteria.

<comment><USER5> I wonder if human-caused antibiotic resistance turns around and harms the critters who were originally using that antibiotic as self defense?</comment></comment></comment>


Apollo: An iOS Reddit app built for power and speed - <AUTHOR> https://apolloapp.io/ <comment><USER2> In my opinion Apollo retains the biggest flaw of the reddit redesign, which is sad:

By making the post body, and especially pictures, the first class citizen you incentivize all the wrong things:

* It is inviting to mindlessly scroll

* Attracting karma is paramount: The game is "upvote this in the 2 seconds I am spending scrolling past it or not"

* This in turn incentivizes shallow posts, strong, polarizing messages with no depth

At the same time, the mechanisms why I use(d) reddit over all the other escapism-in-a-bottle platforms are all discouraged:

* Reading comments, engaging in discussion. You don't even have to open the comment section anymore, so why would you? And if, you will only ever read one or two top comments, inviting the same lowest common denominator battle as with posts themselves.

* Building community, in-depth analysis, being exposed to alternating view points. Well, no place for that in the framework of rapid swiping and shouting in the void.

Good job on the Apollo team to at least include what they call "compact mode" (showcased about a second in the promo video), but the problem with these effects is that they are negatively affecting quality overall, whether or not you as a individual choose to sidestep them.

I hope a new community aggregator like the old reddit will arise soon...

<comment><USER3> Yo, Apollo dev here. FWIW there's no team, just me.

To answer some of these, Apollo was created well before the Reddit redesign, I started working on it back in 2014.

I'm not sure I 100% understand the criticism though. Inviting you to scroll through an app is a pretty normal thing, isn't it? What's the alternative?

I'm gathering you'd prefer more of a comments-focused experience rather than one focused around the posts themselves specifically? I've been on Reddit for over a decade, as far as I remember the posts have always been paramount and what attract people to the site, even though the discussions are great too. They're just a tap away. As you mentioned you can go into compact mode, then disable the thumbnails and you've basically got Hacker News, haha.

Your criticism seems like more of a comment on Reddit as a platform/community rather than a specific app (though I'm not sure what you mean by "old Reddit", Alien Blue?), but if I'm wrong about that I'm happy to hear any criticism.

<comment><USER4> Incredible work really oozes polish and intuitive design.

Have you been chipping away at this since 2014 or did something change in your motivation recently where you decided to complete it?

What would your reaction be to someone suggesting a rewrite in Electron so you could achieve crossplatform support?

<comment><USER5> I think what makes Apollo great is how closely it integrates with the iOS interface and design language. Its value proposition is that it matches expectations of iOS users and is fast and intuitive on that platform. If you re-wrote it in Electron I think it would become "just another reddit client."

<comment><USER6> Apollo actually ditches native components in certain places and tries to reimplement their behavior, getting it wrong in some places. It drives me insane enough to use an entirely different app :(

<comment><USER3> Apollo dev here, like what?

<comment><USER6> Off the top of my head, Apollo's recreations of the action sheet, search bar, and navigation controller have subtle bugs. The action sheet is missing vibrancy and does not respond correctly to touch in/out events, nor does it give any sort of indication of being scrollable (it also does the "oreo" thing if you switch between appearances). The search bar does not animate correctly when navigating between view controllers and while collapsing has incorrect rounding and shading. It also fails to take user input or respond to touches at all during animations. Your custom navigation controller does not animate titles correctly, and its swipe handling is frustratingly divergent from the system's: it accepts swipes starting almost a centimeter from the edge and is far too sensitive to accidental flicks. Plus, stylistically, it should be using large titles in certain places but does not.

These might seem like minor things, and they probably are for most people, but as an heavy iOS user I have a very good sense for how system components look and function, and it drives me up a wall when people reimplement them but break or fail to support some of their behaviors (specifically: if your custom component is supposed to look like a system control, it better act exactly like one!). As an iOS engineer I also know that these parts of UIKit are the somewhat problematic to deal with, but I appreciate apps that take the time to get it right and I would have hoped that an app that prides itself on looking at home on iOS would have put in the effort to care about this as I do. Hope this helps.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Apollo is honestly the only way to tolerate reddit on iOS (despite all the shortcoming everyone has pointed out). But the most interesting thing about Apollo is the dev's tight feedback loop with his users. Apollo's subreddit has activity that most indie developers can only dream of, and it's well deserved too; Christian goes the extra mile to interact with his users and constantly takes their input into account.

[https://www.reddit.com/r/apolloapp](https://www.reddit.com/r/apolloapp)

<comment><USER8> I'm still using Alien Blue. The reader mode for external websites and the multireddit categories is what I'm missing most in other Reddit apps

<comment><USER3> Yo, Apollo dev here. Could you clarify a bit? There's a setting to make Apollo always use reader mode for websites, and you can create/edit/view multireddits in Apollo as well, I don't think Alien Blue even had multireddit support? ([https://www.reddit.com/r/AlienBlue/comments/2kd9yz/does_alie...](https://www.reddit.com/r/AlienBlue/comments/2kd9yz/does_alien_blue_support_multireddits/))

<comment><USER9> Alien Blue works better than Apollo in reader mode in several very significant ways:

\- In AB dark mode there is no white flash! The screen stays black while the page is loading. In Apollo the screen goes white until the page is finished loading.

\- In AB the reader mode forces all sites into reader / minimal HTML mode whether or not the website wants to allow reader mode

\- In AB the reader mode seems to get more images and other content which is left out of reader mode by websites. It also seems to be less confused by some websites that display something other than the main content when reader mode is selected.

<comment><USER10> Disappointed that there was no reply to this from the developer. Apparently he either doesn't care about these issues or finds them too difficult to correct!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Not only is Apollo the best Reddit app for iOS, it might be one of the best 3rd-party iOS apps out there, period.

It's incredibly well-designed, very fast, and it's updated very consistently. Christian, the developer, is a former Apple guy, and it shows — the level of attention and care he puts in is unparalleled.

I'd love a hand-curated (by someone with good taste) list of apps of this quality. Anyone know of one?

<comment><USER12> Bear app for notes, and also see recommendations on thesweetsetup.com... my only grip with bear is it's iOS only, no web access even. I didn't care until my iOS and mac both died during travel and i couldn't use bear from droid or linux

<comment><USER13> If you want true cross platform, theres always a cloud service + plain text files.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> This is possibly my most-uninstalled app because it makes reddit too addicting for me to handle.

Its popularity is certainly a comment on the problems with overly JavaScript heavy web apps.

Apollo's biggest weakness is notifications. They don't appear as quickly as they should and, for me, chat notifications don't come through at all. I don't prefer chat, but I've noticed an increasing number of users will open a chat with you instead of messaging you now.

It also doesn't support having multiple "tabs" open at once, although you can sort of hack it by using the main tab and the search tab. Hoping multiple tabs come to the eventual iPad-optimized release.

But again, great app. Possibly too great for people with limited self-control!

<comment><USER3> Thanks, apologies for your loss in productivity. :P Great criticism too, re: notifications being a bit slow, that's something I'm working to improve; being an iOS dev the backend web stuff isn't my strongest programming suit, so I'm working to improve that or at least get someone who knows more to be able to help me there.

Chat's a little trickier, I've talked to Reddit about that and they don't seem particularly interested in granting access to third party devs for whatever reason, even though they have an open API for basically everything else, and they said a few years back they were looking into it.

<comment><USER15> Is there or could there be a way to disable the Home and All buttons? I find Reddit to be much less of a time suck if I'm going to specific subreddits and reading interesting content, but I often just mindlessly browse All without thinking. I had to remove Apollo from my phone (even though I paid for it!) because I often find myself spending too much time doing nothing. My current solution is bookmarking a bunch of i.reddit.com URLs in Safari, but the experience is really poor.

Thanks for making an app that I used for far too many hours.

<comment><USER16> I think it would be interesting to disable the infinite scroll and either having a button to load the next page or disable loading the next page entirely.

<comment><USER17> Never thought about it before, but that makes a lot of sense. The act of choosing to load another page might be enough for me to realise I should have gone to sleep about 2 hours prior.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Hey, I made this! Cool to be on HN. :D Thanks for all the kind words.

<comment><USER18> Heya Christian - huge fan of the app. I was wondering if you could share some of your journey / early designs for the app? It's one of the most well designed mobile apps I've used and I'd be curious to see how it evolved in your mind.

<comment><USER6> You might find some interesting stuff on the subreddit ([https://old.reddit.com/r/apolloapp/);](https://old.reddit.com/r/apolloapp/\);) it was in TestFlight for quite a while even before being released.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I've been using it for (if memory serves) and I can confirm it's by far the best Reddit client I've ever used. The only (microscopic) downside is that when one navigates to a Reddit link it isn't offered as an option to open in. But that'a Reddit's doing and not theirs. Thumbs up.

<comment><USER14> Do you use the Opener app? It is a quick two taps to share reddit links with it, and then it automatically kicks reddit links over to Apollo.

<comment><USER19> Never heard of _Opener_ before. Just purchased it on the App Store. Thanks!

<comment><USER20> You could've always copied the URL and just opened Apollo. The app detects the Reddit-Link ask you if you want to open the URL inside Apollo. But I'm using Opener too, it's a great app not only for Reddit links.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Apollo is cool, but I found myself going back to Narwhal after trying out both for a while. I love the comments on top of the media view for Narwhal, and Apollo hasn't matched that experience. The app looks awesome though, either way they are both amazing apps.

<comment><USER22> Creator of narwhal here! Thanks for the kind words. We are working on an all new version and hope to share something soon :)

<comment><USER23> Amazing to hear! Narwhal is my favourite reddit client as well. Any chance of getting in on beta testing when it's ready?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> I don't use reddit any other way right now, honestly.

I miss the side-pane view that AlienBlue had for iPad, but everything else is great.

<comment><USER3> I'm working on an iPad app that takes better advantage of what it can offer, for sure. As it stands it's basically a blown up version of the iPhone app with an extra day's work tacked on top, the new version I'm working on is a ton better. :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> I have completely fazed out reddit from my daily browsing. Unless it is an obscere sub on a niche topic, the posts on there are gamed and manipulated to the front page.

That site has essentially turned into mainstream media with links curated by big companies and special interest groups, with the illusion of community curated content.

It's going to be a shit show this coming election with groups spending tens of millions of dollars on gaming that site

</comment><comment><USER26> I was back on the /r/apolloapp sub before the app was released, and was in an early public beta.

I had so many major gripes with all the other reddit apps for iOS, and I tried all the major ones.

I remember using it and dealing with all the bugs, and seeing all the deadline delays etc, never expecting to see it come to light.

Left for a while, and then it was actually released.

And I LOVE it.

Thank you so much iamthatis :)

</comment><comment><USER27> The biggest advantage for me over the official app is that it doesn't automatically open why I try to load Reddit links in Safari.

Afaik, ios doesn't provide anyway to forcibly disable that behavior system- wide.

That behavior is a deal breaker for me, so I can't have any official apps installed.

<comment><USER6> I believe you can disable that behavior by long pressing on a link in Safari and choosing "open in Safari" or whatever. After that it will continue to open links in the browser. (Yeah, they got rid of the more convenient way to do this…)

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> One of the best Reddit apps I've ever used, makes it far too easy to browse Reddit! Plus updates usually come with pretty decent changes

</comment><comment><USER29> I rate Apollo highly. Very well-designed, very fast and honestly I won't use reddit in a web browser anymore, specifically because the experience doesn't come close to Apollo. So my hats off to the developer.

That said, one really annoying bug that seems to have shown up since iOS 13, is that on the odd occasion after being on another app and swiping back to Apollo the swipe down to refresh feature just doesn't seem to appear or it freezes when it does appear and forces me to restart the app.

Just curious if anyone else has had this issue?

</comment><comment><USER30> Apollo is really well done, but there's certain bugs that have been in it since day 1 that are still not fixed (despite reporting them) that kill it for me — namely that "load more" does not fetch the next set of comments in chronological order when sorting by new.

I resorted to trying the official Reddit app and was pleasantly surprised. I assumed it would be way worse, but it's actually excellent. If you haven't tried it in a while, I'd recommend it.

</comment><comment><USER31> Apollo had my favourite feature from any Reddit browsing experience, which was displaying the parent comment of the comment you are viewing if you used 3D Touch. I found this incredibly useful while browsing through long discussions, and it made the experience of reading through comments, which are often my favourite part of using Reddit, so much more convenient than anywhere else.

After Apple removed 3D Touch from their new devices, I assumed that some kind of workaround would be introduced into the app, even if it wouldn't be as convenient as the old method. But despite seeing it mentioned a bunch of times on the Apollo subreddit, the usually very responsive developer has ignored people asking about it, and no workaround has appeared. It's still probably the best Reddit app out there, but it's a real shame to see such a useful feature removed and users ignored.

</comment><comment><USER32> People who want an app on Android with similar features can try Sync for Reddit, which is my go-to app.

[https://www.reddit.com/r/redditsync/](https://www.reddit.com/r/redditsync/)

</comment><comment><USER33> By far the best Reddit experience I've used

</comment><comment><USER34> Installed the app, removed it pretty much right away.

It makes the same poor design choices as the "new reddit" redesign.

For what it's worth, I still exclusively use the old reddit desktop mode on desktop and mobile. There's an option towards the bottom of your account settings to make this permanent.

<comment><USER35> Have you tried changing the view to Compact Mode?

<comment><USER34> Yep. Still not a fan.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> I wish someone would re-make i.reddit.com a bit better. They stopped supporting it and bugs are slowly creeping in. Most notably the infinite scrolling doesn't work very well (for me at least) and my position gets reset when I go back after clicking a link.

<comment><USER37> Try this [https://reddit.premii.com/](https://reddit.premii.com/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> Apollo might be awful, but it can't be worse than reddit on the iOS browser, which they deliberately hobble by constantly asking you to switch to app, and logging you out.

Now, if this app removed duplicates of stories and pics that I had seen, that would be great.

</comment><comment><USER39> Dark mode is still incompatible with monospace code regions, as reported several times in the ApolloApp subreddit; I tried using Apollo yesterday but couldn't get past this bug (as I read a lot of code on reddit). Please fix this and I'll buy the app!

</comment><comment><USER40> Loved Apollo. Great app. Lately, it's gotten stuck re-loading the app on every re-launch for me, after upgrading to premium, making it near unusable (or at least incredibly frustrating) on the iPhone.

</comment><comment><USER41> Does it show ads?

<comment><USER42> It shows it's own ads, not Reddit's. you can pay a one-time fee to remove them as well.

<comment><USER43> I've always thought that kind of business model was a bit questionable. You build a client and show ads on top of someone else's content?

We consider it pretty ridiculous if a browser were to inject its own ads. Yet if you build a client that pulls free content from [https://librivox.org/](https://librivox.org/) or podcast RSS and serve it from their servers, nobody bats an eye if you inject ads into it.

Though I'm pretty sure I haven't noticed ads on Apollo off the top of my head. I thought their biz model was to just paywall pro features.

<comment><USER3> Apollo doesn't have any ads or do this, not sure what that person is talking about. (Apollo dev)

<comment><USER44> I'm guessing he means the upgrade call to action or release notes (lots of updates to the app so some might consider it an annoyance who knows). BTW, thanks for the app. After Alien Blue died a slow painful death I was lost for a decent client.

Please change the swipe sensitivity for collapsing comments or sending replies or maybe change single tap to collapse. I always trigger replies when I want to collapse.

Edit: found the setting and changed both to collapse (I'm pretty sure it wasn't there before. This app's constantly being polished up)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> Incredibly well design and executed Reddit app.

If Reddit had any sense, they'd throw a pile of money at this guy to get him on-board.

</comment><comment><USER46> antenna is still my favorite reddit client.

the ui is simple and fast. gestures are intuitive.

[https://apps.apple.com/us/app/antenna-client-for- reddit/id57...](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/antenna-client-for- reddit/id572391252)

</comment><comment><USER47> I wish this app had basic notification support. I don't care for push notifications.

</comment><comment><USER48> Does this use any third party analytics libraries, facebook sdk, etc?

</comment><comment><USER49> Reading the comments, I thought I'd jump in to try Apollo again. I recalled it being stifling and yep sure enough, it hasn't changed:

Basic navigational functionality such as swiping through content from one post to another is not available by default, instead it is behind a paywall.

Look, I totally get if there's premium functionality such as notifications, better posting functions that you need to charge for it.

But as it exists it has less functionality than the default reddit app in which you can navigate. If you've already broken user trust by degrading a basic service I will not trust to pay you for the rest.</comment>


The US Army's algorithm tells you how much caffeine will hit your body's peak - <AUTHOR> https://qz.com/1296394/the-us-armys-new-algorithm-will-tell-you-exactly-how-much-caffeine-to-put-in-your-body-for-peak-performance/ <comment><USER2> I envision the practice of performance psychiatry as part of a broader 'neurochemical infrastructure,' to use the phrase of an old hippie, who saw psychedelics as another part of the same.</comment>


Ask HN: What are some of the gripes you have with IPFS? - <AUTHOR> I've seen a lot of posts come up where IPFS is mentioned and someone chimes in and says they don't like the choices they made or how the network is run, but I haven't seen many people go into great detail. I'm curious what these problems are and why they're important.<p>I'm really interested in using IPFS for one of my projects and all I really know about it are the good things. <comment><USER2> IPFS person here. I can relate some frustrations / concerns that people sometimes have with IPFS - and happy to also chat about your specific use case and whether IPFS is a good fit!

1\. network performance / reliability / scalability The IPFS network grew 30x in 2019, and because of that we've had some performance challenges - especially around resolving niche content via the DHT / handling NATs. We're working on fixes and improvements here, but for applications that require _extremely fast_ response times there are some work-arounds (like directly connecting to known relay nodes / swarm connecting your peers) to get around these issues.

2\. access controls / reader-writer privacy Right now access controls live a layer above IPFS - and IPFS doesn't support any out of the box encryption / privacy preservation (coming from it's origins helping replicate public datasets like wikipedia and scientific data). There are some groups like Peergos, Textile, and OpenBazaar which have invested in building these controls and privacy preserving approaches (like a tor transport for IPFS) - but we'd still recommend folks to be very careful when using IPFS (especially the public DHT) for highly sensitive tasks.

3\. extremely large data One of our foci with our "package manager" goal for this year is to make it fast to add TBs of data to IPFS. Right now, depending on folder structure that can take a long time (hours) =/

4\. "out of the box" website support While there are lots of simple tutorials for putting a static site on IPFS, many website-building frameworks don't write relative links in a way that meshes with "anyone can provide this content" (aka relative urls get wonky). Hugo is a notable exception, and we're working on creating tooling to support other frameworks like vuepress too. IPNS being too slow to resolve is also a complaint for sites that want to regularly update to a newer hash. We have dual track improvements on this - both a new version of IPNS over pubsub that is less reliant on slow DHT lookups, and making DHT lookups faster in general for all requests - but the other workaround is to update dns directly using dnslink - which seems to work for most folks.

Check out [https://awesome.ipfs.io/](https://awesome.ipfs.io/) for the sorts of projects that people are building on IPFS today!

<comment><USER3> Thanks for the great recap on the state of IPFS. I wasn't aware of continued progress on these fronts and it seems much closer to being generally useful than I would have guessed. In particular (2) & (4) getting better but not realizing that adoption was creating it's own issue (1).</comment></comment>


Tell HN: First sale (I hope it was the hardest) - <AUTHOR>

I quietly launched Swappa, a marketplace for used Android devices, about a month ago. A buyer and seller connected for the very first sale this afternoon... a used Motorola Droid now has a new home thanks to Swappa.<p>(I really hope the first sale was the hardest.)<p>Thanks, HN. I've learned a lot here. <comment><USER2> After reading about your successful Reddit ad campaign, I feel a little attached to the project--congrats on your first sale! I hope it's the first of many, many more to come.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, me too!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Great site -- my G1 just sold on your site. The selling process was very easy. I am impressed. Hope the sells continue for you.

</comment><comment><USER4> I know how you feel: I'm still waiting for that first sale. Congratulations!</comment>


Attributes – a.k.a. Annotations – In PHP 8 - <AUTHOR> https://stitcher.io/blog/attributes-in-php-8 <comment><USER2> That seems quite ugly compared to current annotations. Oh well.</comment>


The end of management - <AUTHOR> http://michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2012/11/12/the-end-of-management

<comment><USER3> Hm. Open source has desirable attributes, but saleable and scalable are not always among them. Put money into a hard problem and it may get better - <USER2> commercial products that solve hard problems are generally better.

Some point is being made about stellar performers being able to solve problems that can be solved (reliably) no other way. This means as the economic pressure on developers goes up, the ante goes up, everybody has to solve harder problems on tighter schedules and budgets, it will take crews of stellar performers to get anything done at all.

I don't see how this means management will wither and fall away. Those crews will have to be handled with kid gloves, fed pure, hard problems and have their output harvested and deployed by other teams of capable IT specialists. How does that happen without management?

If you focus only on the tiger team, then yes self-managed teams of smart people may sometimes be able to produce rapidly, if they are comfortable with one another, have compatible work habits, and so on.

Heck even building that team requires careful management.</comment>


Core Memory Upgrade for Arduino - <AUTHOR> https://hackaday.com/2018/04/28/core-memory-upgrade-for-arduino/ <comment><USER2> Core eventually miniaturised into [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferroelectric_RAM](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferroelectric_RAM) , which remains in limited use (TI has a series of MCUs with FRAM instead of EEPROM) --- and one curious application is in the toner cartridge DRM chip of a Lexmark laser printer, for which there is this ongoing reverse-engineering effort:

[https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/lexmark-toner-chip- ti...](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/lexmark-toner-chip-ti046b1/)

(Normally those use EEPROMs, so the choice of FRAM is a bit odd.)

<comment><USER3> You make it sound as tho FRAM is old technology... its actually just starting to be used in volume (in microcontroller based systems). FRAM has some very desirable properties compared to current technology uC that use both SRAM & FLASH. Its still slightly expensive at this point in time but that will solve itself in time.

<comment><USER4> > FRAM has some very desirable properties compared to current technology uC > that use both SRAM & FLASH.

Could you please elaborate?

<comment><USER5> it's as fast as sram but persists like flash

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> If you want to spend a while learning more about how magnetic cores work check out these videos made by the US Army in the 60s:

[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HPT7Wtp3yoo](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HPT7Wtp3yoo) [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=An-GIhx0z4c](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=An- GIhx0z4c)

</comment><comment><USER7> I wonder if there is anything unique about this that might make it interesting to use in a sampler or a synthesizer or something .. maybe some random noises that could be generated by stroking the core, or some such things ..

<comment><USER8> I doubt that storing digital representations of sounds on the cores and then stroking the cores would result in any modification of the data. You could run a wire with current next to the cores to induce bit flips, but what happens to the sound would depend on the format of the data stored on them.

You could put an inductor in or around the array, which could pick up magnetic impulses from currents used to program the cores. If you amplify the voltage coming out of the inductor and sample that, it could result in interesting random sounds.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> > Of course, the Arduino can't directly run programs out of the memory...

Use the Atmel ATmega2650's external memory bus on the mega and you could. Or at the very least, a few variables.</comment>