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Clubhouse outpaces Facebook's value per DAU by $65.6K - emiliowav
https://www.yac.com/blog/clubhouse-and-the-dawn-of-the-audio-first-revolution
======
bromilio
So this is what happens when you build for VC's? lol
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
DirecTV offers streaming service – end of cable? - Randgalt
https://directvnow.com
======
WhiteOwlLion
What is the TV list you get access to?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Online Free YouTube Video Downloader Websites - ycmember
https://twitter.com/myviralmag/status/1159428518381592577
======
croh
check youtube-dl
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Prolog Story (2010) - peter_d_sherman
http://kylecordes.com/2010/the-prolog-story
======
mark_l_watson
I have used Lisp languages far more often than Prolog, but I do have my own
Prolog success story: I had just used ExperLisp on the Macintosh to write a
little app ExperOPS5 for the company who wrote and marketed ExperLisp and
ExperProlog. After this I was given an internal research grant to write a
complete simulation environment in ExperLisp as part of trying to win a large
contract. Given familiarity with the tools I was using, a good prototype took
about 100 hours to write. I had time left over and talked with my management
about doing a parallel implementation in ExperProlog. Using a declarative
approach, I had a parallel system, with interactive UI and graphics done in
about 40 hours - and I had a learning curve with ExperProlog.
I have also used SwiProlog and occasionally Amzi Prolog also since then.
SwiProlog’s semantic Web library was the basis for all my early work and
experience with semantic Web and linked data. I definitely suggest trying
Prolog on a few small projects and add it to your tool set.
~~~
Eli_P
Have you been feeling dire expressing your code while having only (Subject,
Predicate, Object) first order logic? What kind of requests your app could
manage and how large was DB (how many triplets)?
------
nickdrozd
Summary: They needed to do some complex queries on data in a SQL database,
queries that were clearly better suited for Prolog. So they 1) queried for the
relevant data from SQL, 2) formatted the data into the form of Prolog terms
and dumped it into a file, 3) fired up the Prolog interpreter and loaded the
data along with a small amount of Prolog query code, 4) ran the Prolog
queries, 5) formatted the results into CSV and dumped it into a file, and
finally 6) imported the results back into SQL. While it has some hacky
elements, this approach took just one day to implement, as opposed to the
projected months it would have taken to do it without Prolog.
If I understand it right, Prolog is being used kind of like a more powerful
version of Awk / Perl. _The Power of Prolog_ [1] describes a somewhat similar
use of Prolog: storing server logs as Prolog terms and then running complex
queries directly on the log files.
[1]
[https://www.metalevel.at/prolog/business](https://www.metalevel.at/prolog/business)
~~~
deckar01
> Prolog is being used kind of like a more powerful version of Awk / Perl
I have limited experience with Prolog, but it is not just a quick and dirty
scripting language (how I view Perl). They were able to build the system so
fast, because they only needed to translate the customer's requirements into
Prolog declarations, and the Prolog engine is powerful enough to solve the
constraints. In my experience, imperative code rarely has a 1-to-1
relationship with the requirements like this.
~~~
nickdrozd
Maybe it would be clearer if I said Prolog was being used like a "much" more
powerful version of Awk / Perl. Consider the server log case I mentioned. A
question you might ask of a server log is: _Are there any client requests that
were not served?_ That query is an easy one-liner. You can go a little further
and say: _Give me the IPs of all the client requests that were not served_.
That query is also easy, maybe just another line or two. It would be a lot
harder to get that information with Awk etc, but the spirit is the same: you
have a bunch of data, and you want to extract some particular information, and
you want to do so without a lot of pomp.
------
rurban
I recently used prolog for a complicated binary reverse-engineering task: bit
packing. Likewise prolog is perfect for compilation.
[https://savannah.gnu.org/forum/forum.php?forum_id=9203](https://savannah.gnu.org/forum/forum.php?forum_id=9203)
In fact it's a better prolog, picat, which also allows pretty straightforward
statements, like loops, and has solver support.
[http://picat-lang.org/](http://picat-lang.org/)
~~~
mark_l_watson
I agree with the other commenter’s Wow! Picat also supports satisfiability
apps like MiniZinc does. Thanks for posting that link!
~~~
rurban
Initially I choose MiniZinc, but then was turned off by its baroque syntax.
Straight prolog syntax and picat syntax was much easier in the end.
writing prolog is mostly about writing in the most natural and readable syntax
possible. using haskell-like types put me off.
------
rntz
I would like to know what Prolog implementation the author used. In
particular, the article claims:
1\. > An initial analysis found that we would need to implement a complex
depth/breadth search algorithm either in the client application or in SQL.
2\. The Prolog runtime would efficiently solve this problem given rules that
naively described it.
I am skeptical, as this is emphatically not my experience with Prolog. In my
experience, for any problem requiring a complex search strategy, Prolog is not
your friend. Most Prologs do something approximating a naive depth-first
search with unification, and on complex search problems this approach rapidly
blows up. This can _sometimes_ be fixed by:
1\. Making careful use of cut (`!`) or other non-declarative operators to
change the search order.
2\. Using tabling, essentially an advanced form of memoization. But only some
Prologs support tabling, and it's useful only for some sorts of problem.
However, the author mentions none of these. Are they glossing over something,
or is my (probably more limited) Prolog experience uncharacteristic? Are there
"smart" Prologs out there I'm unaware of?
~~~
kylecordes
(I am the author.)
The implementation I used was SWI-Prolog. I had tinkered with a couple of
others prior to that in school (sorry, I don't remember more details), but
this was free/open, and up to the job at hand without requiring an acquisition
process from the customer of the system.
About the search strategy; yes I had to use a few cuts to get acceptable
efficiency. Still, this was much easier than re-creating the same thing in SQL
or imperative application code. The particular details, I don't remember well;
sadly I've had little occasion since 2010 to use Prolog.
~~~
peter_d_sherman
Hi Kyle, Peter Sherman here. (I posted this HN article). You and I had an
email dialogue around 2012, and of course I remember you from your Delphi days
(BDE Alternatives Guide, etc.) and the old Joel On Software forum. Anyway, the
other day I was reading about CoQ and it's use for formal verification, which
turns out to solve problems in various different diverse domains, and I said
to myself, "Hey, this sounds a whole heck of a lot like Prolog, plus a type
system", and so I was attempting to compare and contrast the two systems when
I thought back to your great video detailing the customer problem you had and
how you used Prolog to solve it. So, that's why the link appears on HN now,
that's why the lag time -- to answer your other question. Hey, if you've got a
spare minute or two, you should shoot me an email, peter.d.sherman AT gmail
DOT com. I might have an interesting business proposition for you...
------
hardwaresofton
Prolog looks like the exact right language for at least some part of Netflix's
OPA[0] -- I wonder why they didn't use it or why it wasn't a good fit (if
someone considered it).
I often want to reach for prolog when I face a problem like this, but I just
don't know enough about how it degrades/breaks and of course don't want to use
it to do any of the rest of the program stuff (web server, DB access), etc.
[0]: [http://www.openpolicyagent.org/](http://www.openpolicyagent.org/)
~~~
tsandall
(OPA co-founder here.)
The semantics of OPA's policy language are based on Datalog, a non-Turing
complete subset of Prolog. This means that all policy queries in OPA are
guaranteed to terminate (which makes it a good fit for problems like
authorization.)
Beyond regular Datalog, OPA adds first-class support for querying
complex/nested data structures like JSON.
As a side note, OPA was not developed at Netflix, but they were one of the
early adopters and continue to use it today.
~~~
hardwaresofton
Thanks so much for the answer -- I thoroughly enjoyed the OPA talks I've
seen[0][1]. I apologize for mistaking OPA as a netflix product, I think one of
the first times I saw it was as it was being used by Netflix so I assumed it
was one of their F/OSS projects or built by someone there.
Did you guys build your own engine? I took a quick look at the repo but don't
see anything that looks like a datalog library in your glide package list.
Last but not least, thanks for making and open sourcing such an awesome tool!
Will definitely be passing the word on about Styra[2], I had no idea there was
a whole company/more efforts behind OPA. I plan on using OPA in a bunch of
upcoming projects -- it looks like a fantastic, stable addition to the toolbox
of people looking to build robust programs/services.
[0]:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEHeexPpgrA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEHeexPpgrA)
[1]:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mBJSIhs2xQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mBJSIhs2xQ)
[2]: [https://www.styra.com/](https://www.styra.com/)
~~~
tsandall
> Did you guys build your own engine? I took a quick look at the repo but
> don't see anything that looks like a datalog library in your glide package
> list.
Yes, the language implementation (parser/compiler/evaluator) is implemented
from scratch.
> Last but not least, thanks for making and open sourcing such an awesome
> tool!
Thanks for the kind words! If you have questions or need help, feel free to
file issues on Github or ask questions on Slack.
------
okket
Previous discussion from 2010:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1363680](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1363680)
(60 comments)
------
xvilka
There is a modern book about Prolog - Power of Prolog [1].
[1] [https://www.metalevel.at/prolog](https://www.metalevel.at/prolog)
------
Subi
Love seeing a good Prolog story surface. I was blown away by how productive it
was to use back in university along with XPCE for UI. Became the first
language I expertised in and it has paid off in terms of opening up a lot of
other avenues like being able to easily learn Erlang and Elixir.
There isn't always a good reason to use it for many situations nowadays but it
the way you deal with graphs and trees and such is fantastic. Though fun fact
Allegrograph has a Prolog rules interface
------
kylecordes
Hey, this is me!
This is some serious latency between recording and writing a thing, and is
appearing on hacker news. I will go through here and try to answer various
questions etc.
------
carapace
I recently went through what I'm calling a "conversion experience" with
Prolog. I was writing a compiler and a link to Warren's 1980 paper "Logic
Programming and Compiler Writing" went by here on HN (
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17674859](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17674859)
.) After a brief learning curve I now have a much more powerful compiler in
about 1/5th of the code.
There are a few problems that _don 't_ fit well with Prolog, but not many. For
everything else, if you're not using Prolog you're probably working too hard.
Consider that achieving feature parity with 1/5th the code means 1/5th the
bugs, right off the top.
But often Prolog code is more useful than some equivalent imperative code, for
example, a Sudoku relation defined in Prolog serves to solve puzzles, but it
can also generate new puzzles and verify partial puzzles (count the solutions
and assert that there's only one.) [https://swish.swi-
prolog.org/p/Boring%20Sudoku.swinb](https://swish.swi-
prolog.org/p/Boring%20Sudoku.swinb)
Prolog is also _old_.
I keep thinking, "What about FOO?", only to find that FOO has been explored
years ago by a group of researchers, and often there is working code off-the-
shelf and ready to go to solve whatever problem.
Anyhow, TL;DR: For goodness' sake please check out Prolog. It's like time-
traveling into the future.
------
gumby
> I used Prolog in a production system a few years ago,
Nice pun!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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iPad Usability: Year One - joshuacc
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/ipad.html
======
apitaru
For those not familiar with Jacob Nielsen, take a look at his article -
"Flash: 99% Bad"
<http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20001029.html>
It was written in 2000 - at the hight of Flash craze. He was right then, and
he is right today .. UI/UX designers should pay close attention to this man's
analysis.
------
kingsidharth
I've seen people reading more, now that they've iPad. Content websites should
consider creating a usable experience for iPad. It's a focus and regular
audience
------
joejohnson
For an article on usability, that page was terribly hard to look at.
~~~
SoftwareMaven
Don't conflate pretty with usable. Useit.com is one of the best sites there is
about usability, and it is backed up with real data. While it may not be
pretty, it is eminently usable.
Edit: fix typo
~~~
efsavage
"real data"
That's a stretch. Look how many people are in some of these studies. Well, you
could look if he bothered to tell you, which he rarely does, because I'm
guessing these aren't actually "studies" but are actually interviews with some
soundbytes extracted to back up preconceived notions.
I'm not saying he's always wrong, that would entail gathering and presenting
actual data, but he's never given me any good reason to think he's right
rather than just a pundit with first-mover advantage.
~~~
ugh
Not many people are needed to identify usability problems. If you want to
quantify the effects you indeed need many, many people but Nielsen doesn’t
actually do that. Three, four, five people are plenty for those kinds of
studies.
~~~
efsavage
Not many people are needed to test _specific_ problems with _specific_
environments/programs/features. 24 of 26 people not being able to figure out
how to sign up for hacker news would be a clearly identified problem. Drawing
overarching conclusions about the entire ipad ecosystem from 16 out of 50
million users on 26 apps out of ~100,000 and providing no methodology, no
data? That's not enough to distill into "ipad usability" for an entire year.
He'd have far more credibility if he simply said "I don't like this feature,
and after asking several people, I know I'm not the only one. Here's why I
don't like it, and here's what I think can be done about it."
~~~
ugh
He sits them in front of computer and looks what they are doing. That would be
a terrible way of finding specific problems. It’s a great way of searching for
problems. I suggest you look into the method Nielsen actually uses.
~~~
efsavage
I know how he does it, that's my point.
Would you be able to make useful, high-level recommendations to the auto
industry after riding in the back seat of 26 drivers for an hour or so? Do you
think it matters what kind of car you're driving? What kind of roads you're
driving on? What time of day it is? What state or country you're in? Of course
it does. If your conclusion is that "driving on the PCH in a convertible is
fun" then, no, you don't need many participants or any scientific rigor. But
if you're say things like "the roads aren't wide enough" or "radios are too
loud" or "signs aren't big enough" then you're going to need to back that up
with some context and some data.
My beef here is that people who don't want to really think about this stuff
but want to seem like they do will read articles like his, which draw
conclusions of the latter type described above, and spout them off as
authoritative science, because that's how it's presented by Jakob Nielsen, Ph.
D. This confuses clients and teams and ends up having people defend their
decisions against a ghost of a misinterpretion of a supposed rule, and
ultimately yields an inferior product. I've seen his articles quoted verbatim
by designers and clients alike, almost always solely to justify their own
opinion, but with the weight of his authority.
~~~
ugh
_Would you be able to make useful, high-level recommendations to the auto
industry after riding in the back seat of 26 drivers for an hour or so?_
I certainly do believe that to be possible, yes.
~~~
efsavage
Interesting, any ideas what those might be? I'm genuinely curious because I
actually can't think of any.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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eBook: Eloquent JavaScript (w/ integrated interface for editing and running example programs) - luccastera
http://eloquentjavascript.net/contents.html
======
watmough
Excellent, and integrates a console for exploring programs.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How do I learn more about China? - 40acres
Over the past few weeks I've been reading more and more about Chinese current events. Usually things related to government actions as most of my readings come from the NYT, Washington Post, or things posted here on HN.<p>I'd like to learn more about Chinese culture but do not know where to start, some of the topics I'm interested in are:<p>- Confuscism
- Mao
- Chinese Communism & Past Political Systems
- Modern Chinese Business Culture
- Modern China (in general)
- The Chinese Economy (past, present & future)<p>Please feel free to suggest books, documentaries, articles, blogs and other types of info that can help!
======
du_bing
Happy to see people from other countries want to know more about China. I am a
Chinese Web Developer, and I recommend one really good book for you to read,
that is the Shiji(史记), it has good English translation. It's about the history
of China before about 100BC.
Here is a good web version: [https://ctext.org/shiji](https://ctext.org/shiji)
The original Chinese version has half a million characters, and the
translation is about 1 million words, I guess.
After reading this classic book, you will know how China forms its political
system and also the Chinese way of thinking.
China has a lot of marvelous history books, all worthy to read. Mao Zedong has
read them all for many times in his life.
------
indescions_2018
My daily reads include the South China Morning Post and TechNode. And the A16Z
and YC blogs feature great in-depth insights. But as you might suspect, apart
from insider knowledge. There is very little real-time coverage and analysis.
[https://a16z.com/2018/01/13/super-apps-china-product-
innovat...](https://a16z.com/2018/01/13/super-apps-china-product-innovation-
wip/)
[https://blog.ycombinator.com/the-hidden-forces-behind-
toutia...](https://blog.ycombinator.com/the-hidden-forces-behind-toutiao-
chinas-content-king/)
------
euvitudo
This book was recommended to me by my step-father, who is mainland Chinese. He
grew up during the cultural revolution and has plenty to say about it. He
thought it was a good overview of the Party, and I enjoyed the read.
[https://www.amazon.com/Party-Secret-Chinas-Communist-
Rulers/...](https://www.amazon.com/Party-Secret-Chinas-Communist-
Rulers/dp/0061708763)
------
billconan
this is one of the famous books
[https://www.amazon.com/My-Country-People-Lin-
Yutang/dp/80878...](https://www.amazon.com/My-Country-People-Lin-
Yutang/dp/8087830881/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1519794567&sr=1-1&keywords=My+Country+and+My+People)
but it was written long time ago. not sure how much is still relevant.
------
CyberFonic
National Geographic put out a book on China and its history a few years ago.
Your local library might have a copy. The one in our family has started
falling apart from all the browsing that it has been subjected to.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Linux IoT Development: Adjusting from a Binary OS to the Yocto Project Workflow - chaknam
https://mender.io/blog/linux-iot-development-adjusting-from-a-binary-os-to-the-yocto-project-workflow
======
Lex-2008
Interesting idea, but I wonder how hard can it be and at what moment pros
overweight the work needed to rebuild your workflow/pipeline
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The most important thing to understand about new products and startups - dfens
http://paulbuchheit.blogspot.com/2008/02/most-import-thing-to-understand-about.html
======
koolmoe
It's interesting to me that Paul lists humility as an (the?) important factor
leading to successful product design. It seems like there would be a natural
tension between the courage it takes to found a startup and the humility it
takes to be successful.
I also wonder if honesty might be another word for the skill in question -
i.e., being honest with yourself about what works, what doesn't, and what's
truly necessary.
~~~
sanj
Strong opinions, held weakly
------
pmjordan
I can see what he's saying: to make a great product, basically consider market
forces your local gradient, then follow the steepest descent. Surely, though,
that suffers from the same problem as the classic version of the gradient
descent algorithm: it's easy to get stuck in a local optimum. So I do think
your starting point matters.
His example, gmail, suffers from this too. There were many webmail and offline
email clients before gmail, the key to its success was its integration with an
excellent search algorithm. Without that starting point, it would have most
likely been pulled towards some local optimum which had already been
discovered. Okay, so Google is full of search experts, so maybe internal
market forces would have been different than those of the worldwide market.
Most startups don't have that kind of micro-market which takes them to some
kind of new optimium though.
Taking the algorithmic analogy further, in practice you would probably not
want to do pure gradient descent if it feels like you're heading for a known
local optimum, and instead stochastically/heuristically "go against the flow"
and experiment with idiosyncratic features.
~~~
koolmoe
I don't think getting stuck in a local optimum is as important as the speed
with which you get there.
Techniques for finding a global optimum of a numerical function are expensive,
time-consuming, and often find worse solutions before they find the best one.
Do this in a startup, and your local-optimum-seeking competition will crush
you.
Seems to me that thinking there is a better solution that your users don't
know about (which led you to the local optimum) is exactly the lack of
humility that Paul was warning against.
~~~
pmjordan
Sorry, I didn't actually mean you should try to go straight for the global
optimum (I'd argue there's probably no such thing) - I'm just wondering about
_known_ local optima. Solutions that already exist. I don't necessarily know
about startups, but in open source software, it seems that a lot of the time,
there's some slick and cool new take on a problem. As it becomes popular, it
eventually just grows in the direction of all the other solutions that are out
there, becoming yet another bloated clone. It seems to me that if you find
yourself going down that road, you should steer against that trend. Or should
you?
------
Alex3917
This doesn't work for web startups, but for people selling real products I
think the best thing to do is apply the baggie test. That is, when Richard
Garriott made his first computer game he put the diskettes in clear plastic
baggies and gave them to the local computer store to sell. Similarly, O'Reilly
started his publishing empire by selling stapled xerox copies of a unix FAQ he
wrote at a trade show.
The idea being that if people would buy your product if they saw it in a
baggie, you probably have a good product/market.
------
edw519
"if people don't want it, then you will fail"
Maybe the best advice you'll ever get here.
So find a customer early. Very early.
~~~
imsteve
My view is that startups aren't easy because there are no natural forces to
guide you. Not customers, not markets, nothing. All can mislead.
And I've become distrustful of one line advice.
~~~
edw519
I guess I'm a little bit different than many here.
I am TOTALLY guided by my customers. I wasn't always this way. I used to think
that something would be so cool, so I would build it, and often, the project
went nowhere. I was fortunate to have a co-founder at one time who insisted
that we sell it first, then develop it. I never completely came around to his
way of thinking, but now I understand where he was coming from.
My customers have never steered me wrong. They don't waste my time. They only
spend energy describing things that they really need, and invariably, others
need the same things.
The downside is that I never spend time working on my own pet projects. I KNOW
I can build a better bridge game, fitness program, or home inventory program.
I'd also love to blog. But all those things fall into the category of "No one
else asked for it", so I simply don't spend time on them. Maybe some other
time.
~~~
electric
“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
\-- Henry Ford.
~~~
paul
That's a great quote. It's important to understand that _listening_ to your
customers isn't the same as having them design the product (which would be a
mistake). In this case, the message that you should get from the customer is
that "my horse is too slow".
------
indiejade
Quote: "MySpace is a great example of this. I'm pretty sure that their custom
profile page layouts were an accident. They didn't know enough to properly
escape the text that people put on their profiles, and that allowed their
users to start including arbitrary html and css in their pages."
Accidental is a good theory. It's always nice to poke fun at MySpace.
<http://www.zentu.net/open-space/myspace.png>
I sometimes wonder how it's possible for something like this to happen on such
a wide or popular scale -- does Microsoft seriously control or influence that
much of the W3 standards for compliance?
(edit -- sorry. I've obviously been writing far too much HTML lately.)
~~~
aston
When you own the browser market, whatever you implement becomes the de facto
standard.
------
vlad
I respect the time PB has taken to write this post, but think this advice is
aimed at beginners. In my opinion, the most important thing about new startups
is to do it in an area with others your age trying to accomplish similar
feats, many of whom are slowly succeeding, and where tech savvy investors and
employees are. Smart people who can accurately assess your abilities as well
as help each other with honest feedback.
I've seen many variations of the same insightful opinions like that one, but
something very important that actually requires more than just product or
language choice is getting up off your ass and moving to Silicon Valley. For
that reason, that should be the most covered topic--at least in my experience.
~~~
jkush
Like a lot of good advice that seems to be obvious or simple: it's the
condensed result of subject mastery.
You're right: it's aimed at beginners. It's also aimed everyone else.
------
stener
Eric Schmidt walk around Google and says:"Dont fight the internet, man" :)
------
michaelneale
"And, the market doesn't care how good the team is, as long as the team can
produce that viable product."
Indeed. Nor to they care what technology you use (assuming it isn't thrown in
their face).
------
jdueck
The most important thing is creating things that people want, with a way to
make money.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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P=NP: A Story - furcyd
https://rjlipton.wordpress.com/2020/02/20/pnp-a-story/
======
schoen
One thing this makes me wonder is whether you can make a mechanical lock that
doesn't leak information this way. It seems likely to me but I don't have the
right intuitions to argue about it.
If you do, is it essentially always because it's a mechanical implementation
of a digital system?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How to understand the large codebase of an open-source project? - maqbool
Hello All!<p>what are techniques you all used to learn and understand a large codebase? what are the tools you use?
======
macromaniac
You can use the debugger on low level api calls to get pretty much anywhere in
the codebase. If you want to find whats changing a label to "foo" you can hook
into every set_Text call and put a conditional breakpoint on all label changes
to break on "foo", then just go up the callstack to find the logic. This
strategy works on network interfaces and file interfaces as well. I abused
this on our 2M+ SLOC legacy codebase and it has saved me many hours.
Also use version control to identify the most commonly edited files in the
project. These are usually the files that are doing all the work (80/20 rule)
and you likely need to know of them.
git log --pretty=format: --name-only | sort | uniq -c | sort -rg | head -10
~~~
to3m
This isn’t abuse... it’s exactly how you’re _supposed_ to use a debugger.
~~~
jstanley
I suppose the difference is you'd normally use a debugger to find out why the
code isn't doing what it's supposed to, rather than using it to find out what
the code is supposed to be doing in the first place.
I don't consider it abuse either, though.
~~~
_dps
Agreed, and riffing on that a bit — I find the name "debugger" is actually
troublesome when teaching newcomers (I work with kids of various ages).
I see the debugger much more like a "REPL for a compiled language" than a "bug
removal tool". I try to teach people to think of it as an interactive
inspection tool, not as (merely) a thing to fix broken programs.
~~~
ZenoArrow
"REPL for a compiled language", or "Binary REPL", I like that.
Besides that, it's times like these when I realise how useful IDEs are.
Instead of needing to use grep (or something similar), I can simply right
click on a variable and choose 'Find all references' (this is in VS, but I'm
sure many of the leading IDEs will have this feature). When I use the command
line it's to save myself time.
~~~
caseymarquis
You can save even more time by pressing Shift + F12. CTRL + - goes really well
with it (step back to previous code location). I'm a bit biased toward hotkeys
as I'm using the fantastic vim extension, VSVim, so I barely ever have to take
my hands off the keyboard. VS really is a great tool. Adding the Docker
integration for dotnet core has really opened up deployment options for what
was once a Windows only product for deploying to Windows only. It's still
essentially a Windows only product (I've heard the Mac version isn't
comparable), but you can deploy and debug in containers. Dotnet core is at v2
now, and seems stable enough to actually use in production (finally!). On a
tangent here, but the point is it's a good time to be working with dotnet.
------
blattimwind
The straightforward way to understand code is to work with it. That is to say,
look at open tickets and try to implement the suggested functionality or fixes
(or some of your own ideas).
The analytic approach is a bit more awkward, since you have no specific goals
and need to make them up yourself. So you could pose questions like how a
specific behaviour of the application comes about ("why does it do _that_ when
_this_ happens?", "how does it do _X_?") and then try to answer those
comprehensively, systematically (a format that works well for me is short
snippets of code interleaved with explanations and arguments).
A bottom-up approach is generally easier, because your questions will give you
information at the bottom (like specific application messages), which are
generally easy to find (ag, grep). A good IDE can be helpful for navigating
the code and finding call sites, especially in projects written in dynamic
languages where such analyses can become kinda annoying. (However, in more
awkward code bases analysers like PyCharm are quickly overwhelmed and are
unable to resolve indirections)
Top-down is in my experience less useful, because there are far too many
choices on each level for most applications, and the first few layers are
generally the least interesting and most arcane/fragile and difficult to
follow along (things like initialization sequences).
The most difficult projects are typically those relying on multiple languages,
code generation and runtime mutation (reflection, on-the-fly UI generation,
overly dynamic Python code are typical examples). Another frequent obstacle is
excessive abstraction and indirection (implementing something that could be
done in a few lines of easy to understand and reason about C using multiple
C++ templates spread out over a bunch of files and a healthy dozen of advanced
language features is an almost archetypal example).
------
Svenstaro
Use `tree | less` just to get an idea of where everything is and how it is
structured and `tokei` to check out what the code actually is written in.
Then I try to go down the main code path of some examples or the primary
binary if available and just check out out how things are called/done around
there.
Then run an example through callgrind and visualize the call graph in
kcachegrind to get an idea of how often things are called and where and where
the heavy lifting happens. That last step is optional and really depends on
the type of project.
Then I use my code editor and lots of searching and call site lookups to get a
better idea of how things are used.
------
georgecalm
This strategy takes time, but it works really well:
1\. If you can, get an overview from a mentor. This will make the next steps a
lot easier. Get: \- history \- philosophy \- design style \- high-level flow
2\. Get a stack of white paper from the printer and put it in front of you
along with a pen. Colored pens and scotch tape are a bonus (There may or may
not have been a shortage of both printer paper and colored pens next to them
when I started at my last job)
3\. Open a debugger with a breakpoint on the first line of code
4\. Pick a request flow and initiate a request. Let the debugger guide you
through the entire request flow
5\. Record the path of the flow as a sequence diagram on your paper
( BONUS ) Record the relationships between the components in the system in a
class diagram
Why does this work?
There's software out there for making these diagram, so why draw them by hand?
For most people, visual memory is the strongest. So, the idea is you use your
strong visual and spacial memory to assist you in recalling random objects,
facts. And hey, why not a codebase? And that’s why this works.
When you look at different files that the debugger guides you through, you are
engaging your visual memory. You remember how the code is organized and what
the files look like.
When you draw the sequence diagram you engage your spatial memory. E.g., the
Router class doesn't interact with the Database class and so they are one
sheet of paper apart. Visually, you can see what clusters of components work
together to make larger structures. This allows you to mentally group the
classes into a single concept.
The point is to get this information into your head, and not to produce a
diagram on a piece of paper. If all you need is the latter, use software, of
course. Seriously, when you're done, throw away the piece of paper; it will be
outdated the next day anyway.
------
whb07
I'd like to point out that if it is truly large, then deep intimate knowledge
of specific parts will never be truly had. Those who do know the entire
project understand the flow and architecture of it but the details are
blurred.
~~~
khedoros1
That's what I was thinking. My first job was dev on a C++ and Java project
that was in the high hundreds of thousands of lines when I started, and grew
from there. Client-side had about 5 core binaries, server side had about a
dozen, and each of those was a sizeable file.
Starting to understand it involved reading our documentation on the data-flow
between different components during operation, to know the purposes of the
important binaries. For the really core components, we had a fair bit of
documentation at the level of classes.
You'd usually end up learning the sections of particular programs that you
worked on in great detail, the programs themselves as a whole in slightly less
detail, getting fuzzier as you moved away from your areas of greatest
experience.
------
gjvc
This is one of the times when an IDE (hat-tip to Jetbrains, but many other are
available) really comes into its own. Fast navigation facilitates
understanding. If you really are a vim die-hard, "exuberant ctags" is an
excellent tool in this area.
------
boyter
This is not open source specific but what I do to any code base I am expected
to understand and be prouductive with.
I usually start by running cloc and sloccount to get an idea of the metrics of
it, languages line of code estimates etc...
I progress to looking at the tests if there are any. They usually give an idea
of how the authors expect things to work.
Once I have browsed some of the tests, in particular integration tests I start
following how they work through the code. Your IDE of choice will help out
here or failing that use ripgrep, ack, the silver searcher, searchcode server
(note I run this so I am biased), sourcegraph.
One thing that I have found especially valuable is running something to
determine the cyclomatic complexity of the code. Knowing which parts are
complex is a good way to determine where you should focus your time.
------
quadcore
Here is what I don't do:
1\. Read some code
2\. Try to understand how it works
3\. Repeat
Here is what I do:
1\. Try to figure out what the code might be in advance using the information
you have. (For example: I know nothing but the fact that it's a spreadsheet.
Then figure out in your mind how the basics of a spreadsheet might work.)
2\. Now read a little bit of the code. Compare with what you were thinking. If
it matches, go to 3. If it doesnt match, figure out why by reading the code
and by thinking more.
3\. Repeat
Note the two processes are relatively similar because step 2 of the former
process is a little bit like step 1 of the later process. Just try to focus on
figuring out first, read second. Figure out first, read second. It's an active
approach which makes you work more, and the more you work, the faster you go -
or some benefits of that sort.
I actually wonder if people do that.
------
nitwit005
You have to be realistic about what you expect here. Suppose it takes you
1/100th of the time it took them to write the code to understand it. Some of
these projects have had hundreds of people working on them for years. It may
take you months to get a basic grasp of things.
At my current company it often takes 6 months for experienced people to become
productive, and that's with a helping hand.
IDEs are nice, but grep remains the best tool. You tend to need to find things
in XML files and config as well.
~~~
jondubois
It depends heavily on code quality.
In general, I think that high quality code attracts high quality pull
requests. That's because high quality code is easy to understand and easy to
change because the core structure of the code is fundamentally sound and well
suited to the problem that it is solving.
------
git_rancher
Run the examples to see what it does, try to build something with it to get a
deeper understanding of the depth of its capability, then finally dive into
the code itself by fixing a bug or adding a feature or even just playing
around and changing stuff. Join the developer channels and ask questions.
People usually love it when you show an interest in what they've built.
------
pavlov
Assuming you know how to use the product: write down a path within the
software that's intuitively familiar to you. Then follow that same path in the
code, starting from main() or equivalent.
When you trace your own usage footsteps like this, it's often amazing how much
goes on behind the scenes that you never realized.
------
ivanhoe
Step by step, part by part, and IMHO it's no different than the onboarding
process on any new project. I usually try first to understan a general idea of
the whole project, where is what (the structure), a bird's eye view of the
business logic and the supporting DB structures. And then with time you dive
deeper in areas where work needs to be done. If the code is structured
properly usually you can start working on a few related parts without a need
to know much about the rest of the system. And tests are there to give you the
confidence to refactor and change things freely...
------
phektus
Find the entry point of the program then go from there. Use grep for function
calls or event listeners. Get some background of the framework used, if
there's any. Skim the issue tracker to add more perspective.
------
NewEntryHN
I use the program, find an idea of some detail to change or improve, and crawl
my way into the code to achieve that.
------
nazri1
Give this book a go:
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_Reading](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_Reading)
I enjoyed reading it many years ago.
------
camhenlin
The biggest things that help me get started with any large codebase are this:
First, use the software. What does it do? Learn it, learn what the buttons do,
read the user docs, try to understand as much as you have time for. You can
never hope to reason about the code behind something, if you don't understand
what the code is trying to accomplish. From there, pick something to
familiarize yourself with just a small portion of the codebase. This can be
something from the issues or bugs list, or it could be some new feature that
you want to or are told to add, or it could be something as simple as trying
to figure out what the "correct" way would be to change the color of a button
or background of a form. Be ready to throw away your work and start over
multiple times as you learn the caveats of the codebase and read the other
developers' code.
------
partycoder
\- git-extras has some nice features... "git summary" and "git effort". These
commands show: most active users, most active files (by active days), etc.
\- gource can be used to visualize the activity in a repository.
\- sloccount and cloc can be used to count lines of code.
\- For C/C++/C#, you can run Doxygen, and ask it to generate documentation for
undocumented entities. This can make give you another perspective on the code
base.
\- In runtime there are various tools you can use to audit what a program
does... On Linux you've got strace, lsof, wireshark and many others... On
Windows you've got Process Monitor from Sysinternals, as well as wireshark.
------
atonalfreerider
Primitive is a VR codebase visualizer tool. We use it to teach architecture
for large open source projects:
[https://youtu.be/x6y14yAJ9rY](https://youtu.be/x6y14yAJ9rY)
------
RBerenguel
First steps for me are building and running the tests. Then I browse the code,
look for what might interest me, explore some classes/etc that are intriguing,
maybe refactor a bit to break the tests and fix them, etc
------
lbotos
I find something in the UI, and then trace it back to the code. Do that a few
times across features and you get a really solid start to _where_ things are,
which then starts to fill in the mental model blanks.
------
rodsenra
[https://pragprog.com/book/atcrime/your-code-as-a-crime-
scene](https://pragprog.com/book/atcrime/your-code-as-a-crime-scene)
------
_greim_
Ideally, you'd be able to:
* Read any developer contribution docs.
* Glean what info you can from the layout and naming of the source tree.
* Peruse the code and any comments and see what does what.
* Read the unit tests to see how things are expected to work.
* Peruse the issues list to see what's breaking.
* Try to get a feel for how the contributor(s) think by reading any public blog posts, etc.
If none of those approaches yield any insight, don't blame yourself; maybe
instead look for a different OSS project to contribute to.
------
ioddly
Check the documentation, if there is any. I've actually tried to add a small
section on "where to start reading the code" to my larger projects. If it's a
web application for example, you'd probably want to start where the routes are
defined and go from there to whatever subsystem you're trying to modify or
understand.
~~~
kthejoker2
And if there's no documentation, write some! Another great way to learn,
rubber duck it in writing.
------
JustSomeNobody
First, make sure you can build and run this code. Open Source is usually good
about this. Next, pick a path and start tracing through the code. Let's say
there's a GUI at the front and DB at the back. Find a simple form and trace
the "save" button all the way back to the DB. Finally, just start making some
small changes.
------
trebligdivad
Pick something simple the program does and follow it through. Feel free to
follow any side branches in the code that you come across as you read through.
If there's one bit you're interested in, look at it with git (or whatever it's
stored in) - see recent changes, and try and understand them.
------
wibr
My personal copy-paste summary of a similar topic on HN some time ago
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9784008](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9784008)):
# Getting familiar with a new codebase
### Use the right tools
\- grep, ack, ag, global search (Visual Assist)
\- doxygen, javadocs
\- sourcegraph, pfff (facebook), open-grok, SourceInsight
\- Proper IDE, REPL
\- chronon (dvr for java)
\- SWAG (Software Architecture Group)
\- Static code analysis
### Use the repository
\- Find most relevant (frequently, recently edited) files
\- Find dependancy graphs
\- Get basic information like which languages are used for what
\- Use good source control so that you don't have to worry about breaking
things
\- Look at commits, in general or for specific issues
\- Browse the directory structure, packages, modules, namespaces etc.
\- Use "blame" to see when things changed
### Ask questions
\- Talk to the customer, find out the purpose of the application
\- Pair up with another developer who is more familiar with the code
### Read the documentation
\- Look at use cases, diagrams describing architecture, call graphs, user docs
\- Understand the problem domain
\- Add more documentation as your knowledge grows
\- Comments and docs might be wrong!
### Browse the code
\- Skim around to get a general idea and a feeling for where things are
\- Look at public interfaces, header files first
\- Find out which libraries are used
\- Take some important public API or function in the UI and follow the code
from there. Find implementations of functions, dive into related functions and
data structures until you understand how the it's done. Then work your way
back out.
\- Use tools to quickly find declarations, definitions, references and calls
of variables/functions/etc., usage patterns
\- Find the entry point of the program
\- Figure out the state machine of the program
\- Focus on your particular issue
\- Use a large, vertical screen with small font size with a pane to show
file/class structure
### Take notes
\- Use pencil and paper to write down summaries, relationships between
classes, record definitions, core functions and methods
\- Write a glossary: Function names, Datatypes, prefixes, filenames
\- Document everything you understand and don't understand
\- Use drawings to create a mental model
### Look at the data
\- Find out how the data is stored in the database
### Build the project
\- First make sure you can build it and run it
### Use the debugger, profiler and logging
\- Set breakpoints, poke around the code, change variables, inspect local
variables, stack traces, ...
\- Watch the initialization process
\- Start from main() and see where it goes
\- Find hotspots with the profiler
\- Set logging level to max/add logging and use the output to go through the
code
### Edit the code
\- Adopt the existing coding style
\- Try to recreate and fix small bugs, make sure you understand the
implications of the fix to the rest of the program first
\- Tidy up the code according to the common standard after talking with the
team
\- Make the code clearer (best with tests)
\- Add TODO comments
\- Add comments describing what you think the code does
\- Hack some feature into the code, then try to not break other stuff, build
up a mental model over time, re-write the feature properly
### Use Tests
\- Run the tests, make sure they are all passing
\- Create new tests
\- Browse the tests as an examples reference
------
irundebian
The keyword here is "software maintenance". Search for software maintenance
tools. There are tools which visualize the code base which should improve your
understanding of the code.
------
westurner
Write the namespace outline out by hand on a whiteboard or a sheet of paper.
Use a static analyzer to build a graph of the codebase.
Build an adjacency list and a graph of the imports; and topologically + (…)
sort.
------
lufte
If the project is not written in a framework with which I am already familiar,
what I usually do is trying to find the application's entry point and start
reading from there.
------
viach
Try read the tests code, then write some. It helps me a lot.
------
chris_wot
In C++ for the LivreOffice project I recently found an operator function I
wanted swapped out to a GetColor() function.
I used =delete on the class function, really helped!
------
chubot
Off the top of my head:
\- Count the lines of code with find | wc, get a sense for what's there, and
what language it's written in. The biggest file in the project is usually
worth a look -- it is often where the "meat" is. Read the function names.
\- Use the program. grep for strings that appear in the UI in the source code.
That's a good place to start reading. Read function names.
\- strace the program. What system calls does it make when? ltrace is also
sometimes useful, although it also gives a ton of output.
\- Look at header files. Understanding data structures is often easier than
understanding code.
\- Look at commit logs. Those are hidden "comments". And reading diffs can be
easier than reading code.
\- Do a "log" or "blame" on the file. How has it evolved?
\- Start reading main(). This often reveals something about the structure of
the program. Even just finding main() in many programs is a good exercise :)
Sometimes it's a little hard to find.
\- Make sure to build it. And if you can, look at the build system. How is it
put together? Most build systems are pretty darn unreadable. I don't really
know how to read autoconf, and GNU make is tough too. Forget about cmake :)
But sometimes this can help.
I haven't gotten that far with this, but I tried uftrace recently and like it:
[https://github.com/namhyung/uftrace](https://github.com/namhyung/uftrace)
You can think of it like a dtrace that knows about every function in a C or
C++ program.
\-----
I want to try some kind of code explorer thing. I saw this in a CppCon video
and on HN:
[https://www.sourcetrail.com/](https://www.sourcetrail.com/)
And older ones like:
[https://www.sourceinsight.com/](https://www.sourceinsight.com/)
But somehow I get by with Unix tools. I think this is because I feel like
building the project in a way to accomodate the source browsers might be a big
pain.
Counterpoint: I think the hardest part of understanding a project is usually
the build system :-) I don't have too much of a problem with reading C, C++,
Python, or (sometimes) JS code. Volume is always a problem, but I can read a
specific function pretty easily. But the build system is where things get
ugly, in my experience.
Also, reading multi-threaded code requires some special consideration.
grepping for every place that threads are started is a good idea.
------
jeremiem
OpenGrok, it's very simple to setup and makes navigating in large codebase
easy.
------
jjirsa
Review open patches
------
kristianov
Go back to the first commit and work from there.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Open source Nextdoor alternative? - unicornporn
https://www.nextdoor.com/ isn't yet available in my country, so I'm looking for another solution. As this isn't a service that will connect the whole world, I think some sort of CMS installed at a shared hosting provider would work great.<p>Anyone know of such a solution?
======
extropic-engine
You might be able to use something like
[http://librarybox.us/](http://librarybox.us/). You could also just host
forums for your neighborhood.
[http://www.discourse.org/](http://www.discourse.org/)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Lots of Animals Learn, but Smarter Isn’t Better - rms
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/06/science/06dumb.html?partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all
======
signa11
in the immortal words of ogden-nash:
here's a good rule of thumb:
too clever is dumb
what's more interesting is that it applies to programming. quite nicely too!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Pure CSS: The "Back to the Future" logo - RiderOfGiraffes
http://code.garron.us/css/BTTF_logo/
======
rue
For clarity's sake I would probably refrain from calling it "pure" as long as
the -webkit- is necessary.
------
silvestrov
The page cheats a bit: the font contains "TO THE" as a single char "&" instead
of composing the words from 5 letters.
~~~
mjgoins
Is that why it requires js, and looks like "Back < & Future" if js is
disabled?
~~~
carussell
NoScript doesn't just block JavaScript. See
[http://hackademix.net/2010/03/24/why-noscript-blocks-web-
fon...](http://hackademix.net/2010/03/24/why-noscript-blocks-web-fonts/)
------
zasz
Holy shit, I know this kid. Lucas is also the #11 speed cuber in the world.
Very cool guy over all.
So the point of this logo, if anyone is curious, is that Stanford regularly
holds an annual social dance (meaning waltz, swing, cha-cha, etc. but with no
particular concern for traditional form) called "Big Dance." Lucas really
wanted the theme to be "Big Dance to the Future," but sadly, "Pride and
PrejuDance" won instead.
~~~
RiderOfGiraffes
I also know Lucas, and at a recent event watched him restore a cube
blindfolded - most impressive.
------
jared314
Why were fonts originally not embedded in websites? Licensing, security,
support?
~~~
tptacek
Licensing. When you use a font in a PDF, the receiver of the PDF doesn't
easily get the ability to re-use the font. When you embed it in a website,
you're giving everyone on the Internet a workable copy of the font. Fonts are
expensive.
------
BoppreH
Well, it's more interesting then the Acid test. But the fact it only runs 100%
in Safari raise some "hack" flags.
~~~
silvestrov
It doesn't hack per see, but uses css features (gradients) which isn't
standarized yet, and therefore uses vendor-prefixes in the css.
It should be somewhat simple to add the Firefox versions of the css directives
to add support for Firefox.
------
callmeed
Strange, it does not render properly on Safari/iPad
------
RyanMcGreal
Looks great in Chrome 5.0.342.9 beta. Not so much in FF 3.6.3. (Both on Ubuntu
9.04)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Apple Event 2020 - yigitdemirag
https://www.apple.com/apple-events/event-stream/
======
slg
It is very Apple to market a cost cutting move of not including power adapters
with their products as an environmental decision. Like it certainly does help
the environment, but does anyone actually believe that is the motivating
factor?
~~~
DonaldPShimoda
They've spent a lot of money aggressively pursuing environmental concerns
before many of their competitors (like renewable power, carbon neutrality,
recycling programs, etc.).
While I can appreciate the reduction in cost likely was a factor, I wouldn't
doubt that the environmental aspect was also a genuine concern.
Their ideal customer is somebody who upgrades devices frequently and then
participates in the trade-in programs, but the adapters and such are not part
of those trade-ins. So if you get a new phone every year for 4 years, you have
4 adapters. It's not a far stretch to imagine that their own employees said
"You know, this feels wasteful" and management said "Hmmm not only is it an
environmental problem, but we could also reduce costs."
But it's impossible to say for sure from an outside view.
~~~
dkarp
Step 1 of reducing your environmental impact is reducing your consumption. If
Apple really cared about the environment, then they wouldn't encourage a new
phone every year when a phone can last for 4 years.
Reduce, reuse and recycle.
~~~
jasonv
Do they encourage people to buy a new phone every year?
I don't think most people get a new phone every year, hence the "is this worth
the upgrade?" Conventionally speaking, most tech reviewers tend to suggest
that the latest model usually isn't worth the upgrade if you have the last
model, and only in some cases is it a compelling upgrade from two releases
ago.
Release a new phone every year isn't the same thing as encouraging everyone to
upgrade every year.
~~~
mercer
Anecdotally, very few people I know get the newest phone. In fact, most of
them tend to get second-hand phones that are at least a generation or two
behind. That said, these are generally on the middle- to lower-middle-class
individuals.
I'm a geek and I could afford buying the latest phones, but in practice I
almost always get a phone at least 2 generations behind.
That said, looking at people in town, there's a significant number who _do_
get the latest model. I always wonder how they can afford it.
~~~
DonaldPShimoda
If you sell your 1-year-old iPhone as soon as new ones are available, you
maximize the secondhand sale price. After that, the value you can get will
decrease. (The same is true of the value Apple gives for their trade-in
programs.)
So in some sense, if you replace your phone as soon as a new one is available,
you pay about 50% of the new phone's cost every year. So it's not _quite_ as
expensive as you'd think. (And yes, iPhones sell for a little over 50% of
their purchase price after a year.)
------
Traubenfuchs
My screen has never displayed video of a higher quality. With instant load and
zero lags. Stunning! Is this 60 FPS?
------
JaakkoP
They came up with a new Apple Watch (Series 6) that measures blood oxygen
content! If that actually works as advertised, this feels like enough of a
reason to upgrade.
My wife has Series 3 and I have Series 5, but I haven't seen a major
difference between the two. Series 5 is slightly sleeker and smaller, but the
updates didn't feel important enough for her to upgrade.
~~~
reillyse
They've got to fix the battery life. I tried the apple watch earlier this year
and returned it a couple of days later. After using a whoop (where I get 5
days of battery) the less than one day charge makes the product pointless.
~~~
DonaldPShimoda
Huh. I've got a Series 2 that still lasts nearly 2 days on a single charge.
I know sometimes something in the software update can glitch and cause
aggressive battery consumption. I wonder if you were affected by something
like that (which is something they should address to prevent from happening in
the future).
~~~
reillyse
Nope. Apple itself says the watch will last 18 hours so if you've got one that
lasts for 2 days, thats great.
[https://www.apple.com/watch/battery/#:~:text=Apple%20Watch%2...](https://www.apple.com/watch/battery/#:~:text=Apple%20Watch%20is%20so%20capable,doing%20a%2060%2Dminute%20workout).
~~~
DonaldPShimoda
That's assuming a 60-minute workout, using apps throughout the day, and the
GPS model (which is slightly more energy-consuming anyway). The workout is
really what'll get you; those switch the heartrate and other bio-monitoring
from passive to active, which greatly increases battery drain.
If you use your Watch more passively, all-day performance is not out of the
question. It all depends on your individual use case.
Besides, 18 hours should be sufficient since you _ought_ to be getting more
than 6 hours of sleep a night anyway. Somewhere in that offtime is when you
can charge. I do it overnight, but plenty of people charge during their
morning routine (shower, etc.) and say it charges more than enough to last all
day.
------
skunkworker
I'm curious how they can get an accurate blood oxygen reading while not having
a sensor on the bottom of the wrist.
If I recall correctly a finger pulse oximeter requires a sensor below the
finger which records the absorption of infrared light.
~~~
hnburnsy
Some Garmin watches already have this, Garmin says...
>Accuracy of Wrist-based Pulse Ox
Pulse Oximetry (Pulse Ox) readings are available for certain Garmin wearables.
It can provide an estimation of the user’s peripheral blood oxygen saturation
(SpO2%) at any given time the feature is accessed. The feature can also be set
to track in a continuous manner during a period while the user is asleep. For
certain devices, it can also be used to track periodically throughout the day
along with a view of the user’s altitude or elevation.
While every effort is made to ensure a high degree of accuracy, there are
certain limitations that can cause inaccurate measurements. The user’s
physical characteristics, fit of the device, and presence of ambient light may
impact the readings. Garmin may release device software over time to improve
aspects of the measurements. The Pulse Ox data is not intended to be used for
medical purposes, nor is it intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any
disease or condition.
Excessive motion and the position of the device can impact the accuracy of the
readings. It is important to keep your arm/sensor still for approximately one
minute for best accuracy.
------
apazzolini
The real question the lady should have asked about what the watch can do is
play songs from Spotify without your iPhone near you, like when you're
running.
Spoiler alert: You can't.
~~~
cycrutchfield
Pretty sure that's Spotify's fault, not Apple.
~~~
apazzolini
Pretty sure Apple doesn't expose the correct APIs to allow this on the GPS
model of the watch - at least that was the case when I last researched this.
~~~
cycrutchfield
Not true as of Watch OS 6, I believe.
I'm referring to streaming via cellular. Not sure about playing offline via
non-cellular though, I haven't looked into that.
~~~
apazzolini
I searched a bit - I think you're correct, and also offline support looks to
be in beta in the Swedish version of Spotify, so maybe it's actually coming at
some point.
~~~
Izikiel43
I'm in Canada and I got a beta for wifi streaming from the watch, where did
you find about the offline beta?
------
netcraft
Great to see touch id in the button - sure hope that comes to iphone this
year!
~~~
mercer
Why'd they have to put the tech people in the basement though?
------
mercer
Say what you will about the Apple spaceship campus, that was a pretty
photogenic appearance it made.
------
ocdtrekkie
Here's the only thing I'm really waiting for today... the Watch SE pricing.
$279... gets it into "high quality Fitbit territory".
~~~
netcraft
with that, if they would let me hook it up to my ipad (I dont have an iphone)
id buy it in a heartbeat
~~~
mcny
I've been thinking about getting an iPad. However, I can't imagine paying
extra for a cellular model Apple Watch. Would you be able to get emails,
messages, calendar stuff on a Wi-Fi only Apple Watch paired only to an iPad
when you don't have your iPad on you?
~~~
netcraft
hmm I guess thats a good point - I dont leave the house much so hadn't really
considered that.
------
mercer
USB-C. 'bout time!
~~~
WillYouFinish
Agree, but USB-C seems so fragile compared to Lightning.
~~~
ihuman
At least the fragile part is in the cable, so you can replace it if it breaks.
Lightning has the fragile part in the phone.
~~~
shajznnckfke
I thought the fragile part of USB C was the thin part in the port than goes in
between the two sides of the plug.
------
ganoushoreilly
removing power adapter.. to save the environment. Also you have to buy it as
an accessory for $30+ ....
~~~
DonaldPShimoda
If I remember right, Apple Watch is the most popular smart watch on the market
— meaning many people have had one already. Those people don't need a new
adapter. It's like the iPhone: if I already have one, I don't need _another_
adapter (lord knows I have enough of them).
It's definitely not great for new customers though, and it absolutely should
not be $30, but for people like me it's a positive move forward to reduce
waste.
~~~
ericmay
Yea but you'll still have a cable. I'm sure you'll find some sort of USB
device to plug it in to.
------
maxbaines
This link crashes Edge on Windows Arm
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24483910](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24483910)
------
suyash
What are the exact differences between Series 3 vs Series 6 ?
~~~
DonaldPShimoda
Off the top of my head: always-on display, additional sensors (compass, blood
oxygen, ECG, more advanced accelerometer for fall detection), higher
resolution display, different speaker system I think, slightly different form
factor, uhhh... that's all I've got immediately but I think there's a bit
more.
~~~
r00fus
Better processor. Wife has series 3 and I have a 4 - the 4 is 50% faster. I
wouldn't buy a series 3 as it's just a bit too slow.
~~~
DonaldPShimoda
Oh absolutely right, I dunno how I missed that!
------
Thaxll
So will they talk about the feud with Epic and the app store?
~~~
mercer
Sure, why wouldn't they!?
------
dkarp
is there no new iPhone then?
~~~
Axsuul
The rumor is October
------
krrishd
Not to be too cynical, but is this Apple watch "solo loop" coming in a bunch
of fixed sizes a means by which they reduce/minimize the ability to buy/sell
used Apple Watches?
Or at their scale does it not really make a difference?
EDIT: nvm lol, forgot that you can just swap out the loops still
~~~
rhinoceraptor
The silicone material they use tends to get beat up enough after a year or two
that you'd probably want to replace it anyways if you buy a used watch.
~~~
krrishd
good point
------
ilikehurdles
Cool, a blood oxygen sensor. What a revolutionary new sensor that Garmin
watches have had for only 3 years now.
~~~
canadianwriter
Basically none of the technology Apple showed off in the original iPhone
release was 100% brand new that no one else had, they just put it all together
in a way that had never been done before.
Garmin has that, but does it integrate the same way?
~~~
dfischer
Apple rarely introduces breaking tech. They release optimized tech that makes
good products. Rarely first to market - they experiment, learn, adapt, and go
in when confident.
------
GiorgioG
Apple Watch Series 6...totally uninspired update. I was hoping we might get a
glucose monitor/sensor, instead we get a blood oxygen sensor.
Apple's just coasting at this point. I was considering getting the iPhone 12,
but at this point I'm expecting a similar dud launch next month from Apple, so
I'd rather give my money to Nvidia for an RTX 3080.
Stop mailing it in Apple.
~~~
innagadadavida
At this time at least, measuring blood oxygen has more consumer demand and
impact than measuring glucose.
~~~
mrkstu
More than 100 million Americans have diabetes or pre-diabetes. Numbers are
huge and more importantly the feature (glucose monitoring) is much more
critical to their health.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A cron pitfall that will probably snare you at least once in your career - raldi
http://www.reddit.com/r/raldi/comments/i8z20/frustrating_unix_pitfall_of_the_day_esoteric_cron/
======
js2
_Frustrating Unix pitfall of the day: esoteric cron rules_
This isn't a Unix pitfall, it's a Debian pitfall. Further, it's not inherent
to cron, but to the /etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly} concept as
implemented by Debian.
Scripts in these directories are run via /usr/bin/run-parts, which is invoked
via /etc/crontab. It is Debian's run-parts that imposes the naming
restriction. Red Hat's run-parts doesn't have this restriction (go take a
look, it's a shell script).
~~~
hollerith
>This isn't a Unix pitfall, it's a Debian pitfall.
And that is an example of why I do not run Debian any more: (1) it assumes
that I have nothing better to do than learn all of the details of the Debian
system and (2) as soon as some complication like this dots-in-filenames thing
makes it into stable, it is very difficult to remove because most Debian
maintainers consider it-might-break-existing-code a winning argument.
~~~
ramidarigaz
What do you use instead?
~~~
Nick_C
Slackware. As usual, takes the good bits out of both RedHat's and Debian's
run-parts. It allows .{whatever} but ignores obvious, well-known suffixes like
.bak etc.
From man run-parts: run-parts automatically skips files with certain suffixes
that are generally associated with backup or extra files. Any file that ends
in one of these will be silently ignored: ~ ^ , .bak .new .rpmsave, .rpmorig
.rpmnew .swp
------
nbpoole
I found an older bug report for Debian that sheds a little light on why this
behavior is useful: <http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=308911>
I can understand not changing the behaviour wrt historical
precedent: I have been told that people used to rely on the
ignore-dot mechanism to disable things (e.g. mv foo foo.disabled).
At the end of the report, you can see they added the _\--regex_ flag to allow
for user-defined filename validation.
~~~
raldi
They could at least log the skipping, by default.
~~~
jsprinkles
Shhh! Don't make administrators' jobs easier! How else will we justify our
insane salary and benefits?
Look at the bright side: this is a few days of debugging and difficult to
explain to the people signing your check. Aren't you glad it's there now?
~~~
kaerast
A few days debugging? How could this possibly take any more than 5 minutes to
work out on your own? If it takes a few days then maybe you are in the wrong
job.
~~~
tvon
I think "a few days" was an intentional exaggeration.
------
jerf
Asked there, but I'll tack it on here too: What is the purpose of that absurd-
seeming restriction on file names? If you can drop arbitrary executables into
directories on the file system, you've already "won", so I assume it's not
security. I've read the run-parts man page, and that just pushes the problem
back one level. If it's just to avoid running old files, that's an absurdly
large hammer to hit that problem with.
~~~
raldi
My guess is they wanted to avoid running .dotfiles and #emacsbackup~ files and
threw out the baby with the bathwater.
~~~
pyre
Also '.bak' or '.old'
~~~
qntm
Isn't ".bak" a fairly logical file extension for a cron job intended to, e.g.,
perform backups?
------
yock
I think I'm missing something. The comments that appear as if they should
contain the answers contain nothing. Have the answers been removed? Does
Reddit's [spoiler] tag do fun javascript-y things that don't work on IE8? Or
am I so obtuse and unobservant that I'm missing something obvious?
~~~
randombit
They show up as a hovertext in FF
~~~
gcb
useless on android
------
technomancy
Another fun one is that if your file doesn't end in a newline, cron will
silently ignore the last line! Lost a couple days of production data at my
last job due to that "feature".
~~~
oasisbob
IIRC, OpenBSD has some similar issues with PF rules, and perhaps other
configuration files as well.
I can't remember if it refuses to parse the file or ignores the last line, but
it's not a fun thing to bump against.
------
mseebach
run-parts is used in many places on linuxes (anywhere you see a .d directory)
so this is not a cron pitfall.
~~~
jsprinkles
You're right. Upstart does this too (if you rename to .disabled in /etc/init
the job will not be run).
------
res0nat0r
Since everyone should hopefully know /etc/cron* is a nonstandard cron
directory, and an addon from Debian, it would be hopeful that you would also
have discovered the relevant documentation as why this is, ie run-parts(8),
like mentioned.
The manpage states you can pass --test <dir> and it will show you all the
scripts it would have run. This should have been something done before any
assumption was made as to this working off the bat.
On my systems now, or old Solaris machines I used to admin, I would always do
an "at now <script>" to make sure there were not any $PATH issues before
putting the script in production. I've always tested to make sure the generic
skeleton of the script would work before assuming anything...
------
tvon
I'd love to hear the rationale behind the dot restriction.
------
javanix
It is kind of amazing how much this explains.
I thought I was doing well when I finally learned to remember the "no cron
files that don't include an empty newline" rule.
------
jwr
This bit me as well. It is particularly annoying, as it takes forever to
actually find the problem.
In addition to that, the restriction is silly and utterly pointless.
------
ck2
I don't believe CentOS distro has this problem?
I have plenty of scripts and php and such running in crons all over the place.
------
xbryanx
I've been using Jenkins to do every single thing I used to do in cron these
days. Lots easier to visualize execution, and catch potential errors. More
overhead, yes. Saved me tons of time, yes.
------
geuis
Why the devil can't I see certain text? I'm not a user of reddit so is this
some kind of joke? I'm reading this on my iPhone.
~~~
whiskers
Also on an iPhone. The reason is they're using a 'spoiler' tag that hides the
text until it is selected. Unfortunately we can't do that...
~~~
city41
Tap the text and it will become visible, then it navigates to reddit.com/s (no
idea why). Then click back and the text will still be readable (just confirmed
on my iPhone 4)
~~~
X-Istence
It is a hack using links.
It is formatted like this (IIRC):
[spoiler](/s"More goes here")
then in CSS there is a match for url[href=/s] that provides the onmouseover
stuff.
------
chrisjsmith
Been there done that. It's very annoying indeed. I wish things were slightly
less finicky in *NIX platforms as a rule. They need a serious de-crufting
session (plan 9 looks very much less crufty).
~~~
bshep
I've been hit with this problem before and had never found an explanation why
some scripts worked and some didn't.
I eventually just added it to the crontab of a user and that was that, but I'm
so glad to finally know WHY.
This is such an arcane restriction and its really hard to debug since there
are no errors anywhere.
~~~
chrisjsmith
The lack of errors was annoying and counterintuitive. I like the usual UNIX
mantra of blow up noisily if an assumption is made but it just doesn't happen
there.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Iconicomi.com for creative writers - nfioravanti
http://www.iconicomi.com
======
pixellab
Very cool idea! I'd love to see some examples or be able to browse other
people's stories — would be nice to make it more social that way.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Are You a Blue Collar or White Collar Developer? - rob_r0
http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/columns/article.php/3848406/Are-You-a-Blue-Collar-or-White-Collar-Developer.htm
======
thwarted
_With more than a hint of a defensive tone, he said that he didn’t go to
college. ... "Really? So where did you learn to write code?"_
The most interesting thing about this parable is that no one seemed to have
been "writing code" before having gone to school to "learn" it.
I'm not a programmer because of my CS degree, I'm a programmer because I've
been programming, learning to program, and continue to learn to program, for
nearly 75% of my life, only half of that professionally.
------
seldo
I think there is definitely a difference in personality types between
"Computer Science" people and "software engineers", which the author is
characterizing as white and blue collar. However, I think the white/blue
distinction carries overtones of a class difference which isn't necessary.
A good engineering team needs CS people to be the "architecture astronauts"
and pure engineers to keep them grounded and make sure something actually
ships. Too many CS guys and you ship something needlessly complicated far too
late; too many engineers and you ship spaghetti code that doesn't scale,
because they're focused on results rather than architecture.
------
skawaii
Overall, the article was pretty good. I think the conclusion is right on (just
get some enthusiastic developers and get to work).
The article made it seem (IMHO) that the different personalities were
completely distinct. I'd have to disagree with that point, having majored in
CS while at college, but I feel like I'm slightly more "blue collar" than
"white collar". I think you can definitely have bits of both personalities.
Just my 2 cents.
------
gfodor
This dynamic is a perfect example why you have to have unianimous enthusiasm
for new team hires. The lack of respect for one another is astounding: I'd be
shocked if they ever shipped any software together.
------
rwhitman
Well I'm glad to see the raging class / education war raging in the comments
of that post isn't taking place on HN.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Former Apple employees try a different management approach at Pearl Automation - hackuser
http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/02/technology/pearl-automation-apple-alumni.html
======
Animats
The article is all Apple, Apple, Apple. That's not Pearl's problem. Pearl is
in the auto accessory business, selling through all those cheesy stores in the
auto-parts part of town. Their product is not novel. It's so not novel that
there's an Amazon Vehicle Backup Cameras Store.[1] Pearl is in it, at $499,
alongside comparable products starting at $32.99. That's Pearl's problem.
Not only that, the competing products come with a display. Pearl's product
assumes you have a phone on your dashboard, running their app. User comment:
"any time you backup, you need to manually launch the app and wait through a
3-5 second lag as the video feed loads."
Those guys are automotive noobs. Their recommended temperature range is -4°F
(-20°C) to 113°F (45°C). You can easily exceed those on a car body. Automotive
temperature range for components is usually considered to be -40°C to 125°C.
Their device is also battery powered, so it will need a recharge or a new
battery regularly. Everybody else wires into vehicle power, so it's install
and forget.
They say they're going to do self-parking next. As a retrofit. Right. Those
guys need to get out of Scotts Valley, move to Detroit or some place with auto
parts plants, and get their hands dirty.
[1] [https://www.amazon.com/Vehicle-Backup-
Cameras/b?ie=UTF8&node...](https://www.amazon.com/Vehicle-Backup-
Cameras/b?ie=UTF8&node=1253823011)
~~~
ghughes
The article makes a lot more sense if you look at it as an acquihire
solicitation.
~~~
Animats
You may be right. I don't see those guys ten years downstream with hundreds of
RetroDrive installation shops and a factory turning out many models of
steering box adapters. On the other hand, they're not MobilEye, which has
innovative vision processing technology. They're just a camera sales
operation.
------
IBM
Kind of feels like an ad for Pearl they agreed to publish in exchange for
anecdotes about working at Apple.
The Apple PR statement at the end made me laugh for some reason:
“Pearl Auto is a great example of the creativity and innovation driving the
iPhone ecosystem,” said Josh Rosenstock, an Apple spokesman. “We wish them
great success with their new product.”
~~~
Hydraulix989
Yes, this is obviously paid content marketing material.
EDIT: The Pearl team mass downvoted me. :(
~~~
theoh
No, but it may have come to them via a press release.
Paul Graham on PR from 2005:
[http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html)
"PR is not dishonest. Not quite. In fact, the reason the best PR firms are so
effective is precisely that they aren't dishonest. They give reporters
genuinely valuable information. A good PR firm won't bug reporters just
because the client tells them to; they've worked hard to build their
credibility with reporters, and they don't want to destroy it by feeding them
mere propaganda.
If anyone is dishonest, it's the reporters. The main reason PR firms exist is
that reporters are lazy. Or, to put it more nicely, overworked. Really they
ought to be out there digging up stories for themselves. But it's so tempting
to sit in their offices and let PR firms bring the stories to them. After all,
they know good PR firms won't lie to them."
~~~
Hydraulix989
It's not dishonesty; it's just biased, and I wasn't necessarily pointing the
finger at Pearl either.
~~~
theoh
I didn't mean to comment on the honesty or otherwise, those were just the
paragraphs that contained the key info: PR firms feed valid facts to
journalists.
If a news outlet so much as carries an article about a given topic, they are
exercising discretion and leaving themselves open to accusations of bias...
Really it's NPoV that is the unachievable ideal.
~~~
Hydraulix989
I see, you did seem to imply that I implied that NYT/Pearl (pg favors the
former when it comes to possible "bad actors") were being dishonest.
I think it's an important lesson to learn how to discern whether articles are
"paid marketing" or "content marketing" (or biased in other ways). Not many
people know how to do this kind of critical thinking -- look at the "fake
news" debacle (if anything, there is a certain blind trust people place in
authority figures like the NYT).
The transparency (or lack thereof) of this particular article is an important
observation to note.
------
adriand
This is the most interesting part of the article for me:
> Apple, which has about 110,000 employees, breaks big projects down into
> smaller tasks. Those are assigned to small teams, and each subtask is given
> to a specific employee, who must get it done — what Apple calls the
> “directly responsible individual.”
> Pearl has copied this system. “In leading small teams, that’s very
> effective,” Mr. Gardner said.
Apparently this directly responsible individual (DRI) approach is famous, but
it's the first I've heard of it. Is anyone able to comment on how effective
this is?
Say you have a multi-disciplinary team of UX designers, a PM, front-end and
back-end devs - I'd be accustomed to seeing a team lead in charge of the
project who is the DRI for the whole thing, but do subtasks for the project
also get parcelled out in formal, DRI-fashion? E.g. user stories for a web app
like, "As a user I can log in securely", would this get a DRI assigned to it?
What happens when the DRI doesn't have time for that task, are they able to
pass it along to someone else, and would the decision to punt it over to
someone need to be run past someone, typically, or is the DRI empowered to
make decisions on delegation/task transferring?
~~~
gohrt
Isn't this how every organization in the world operates?
How can anything resembling non-hobby work get done without a "directly
responsible individual"?
~~~
lbotos
Implicitly, yes, some person is always doing the work. But in my experience a
"DRI" culture is one where at the end of a meeting it's 100% clear _what_
needs to be done and _who_ is doing it. That doesn't happen in a lot of
companies, because a lot of companies call meetings to brainstorm.
------
pkaye
$500 for the PearlVision product and you have to supply your own phone for the
display. That is some hefty markup. You can get some decent ones that include
a display in the range of $50-$150 on Amazon.
~~~
taco_emoji
Seems to me the main advantage is that you don't have to wire anything up (or
pay someone else to do that).
And personally I already mount my phone for navigation & music, so I wouldn't
WANT to have the extra display.
~~~
pkaye
I paid about $75 for a rear view camera setup on Amazon and another $75 for
someone to install it in an hour hooked into the existing entertainment
display. No worry about wires, charging, etc. Still better than a $500 product
which needs a phone that I need to mount and dismount, charge, etc.
------
azdle
> Apple, for its part, appears to hold no hard feelings toward Pearl, despite
> the steady poaching of employees.
This has made me wonder, why does offering people a better option for
employment than what they currently have get described with the word for
illegally killing/stealing animals? Was there some concerted effort years ago
to associate the two, to make leaving one company for another seem like a bad
thing?
~~~
1123581321
I can't speak to the history of the term, unfortunately, but the term poaching
in a hunting context means more than just killing an animal illegally; it has
a connotation of trespassing to gain something otherwise inaccessible.
Employee poaching has the same connotation because the former employee uses
their familiarity with the old company to hire employees that other companies
can't access as easily.
~~~
will_pseudonym
I see your definition and that of the first definition I saw from the
internet, and coming from a family of hunters/fishers, it surprised me a bit.
I associate poaching almost entirely with killing of animals illegally. I
think that is because in my home state, there were fewer problems with people
trespassing to hunt than with those hunting with no regard for
licenses/hunting laws. The Wikipedia article on poaching in the USA[0] is more
what I associate with poaching.
[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poaching#Poaching_in_the_USA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poaching#Poaching_in_the_USA)
------
Apocryphon
Interesting they're based in Scotts Valley. I have to wonder if California
tech in Santa Cruz and Monterey have dwindled in recent years because of the
emphasis on San Francisco and Palo Alto.
~~~
Fnoord
Don't think ever was much at that side of SV to begin with. People who work in
tech and live in SC just travel to SV. From what I remember its a ~1 hour
drive from SC to SFO airport or SJ. Quite doable if you love living in SC.
------
thanatropism
Sounds like a vanishing market, though.
People don't buy new cars because theirs are "outdated". They buy the new
shiny because they deserve the new shiny godammit. Not unlike computer
hardware geeks who only buy new devices when they need it.
~~~
smpetrey
Are you kidding me? Have you ever worked in/or visited a vehicle dealership?
It's over -run with 1st-movers, and most of the time the owners and salesmen
always have the newest and latest.
~~~
Spooky23
Not like it used to be.
See:
[https://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/pu...](https://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/publications/national_transportation_statistics/html/table_01_26.html_mfd)
I work with a group of well paid engineering types. About 50% have cars < 5
years old. I have the third oldest -- a 2003 model year. My boss drives a 1991
Accord, although this will be its last winter.
------
zump
How do people gain satisfaction from working for a dead on arrival product?
------
thesmallestcat
> More than 50 of the company’s 80 or so employees worked for Apple at some
> point.
I understand how/why this happens, but as an engineer who's not an Apple
"alumnus" (ugh), I would never work at a place like that. A company needs
diversity in more ways than one.
~~~
furyofantares
I don't understand. Would you work at Apple itself?
~~~
thesmallestcat
Maybe. Apple's too large to have 70% of their employees come from the same
company. I've worked at "startups" like this before, and there is a caste
system with the former $BIG_CORP-ers and everybody else. No thanks.
------
sillyrabbit
Sure, plug a mobile app directly into your OBD-II, what could go wrong?
~~~
ams6110
Does OBD-II have any direct control capability? I had thought it was a
diagnostic (read-only) interface.
~~~
casylum
OBD-II diagnostics are mandated by law, but manufactures often connect almost
all microcontrollers to that connector. This allows updating all of your
firmware from one port. That can be a security problem when connected to the
internet.
~~~
nickbauman
I was not aware of this; I assumed it was read-only except for reset flags,
thank you for pointing this out.
~~~
xenadu02
There are numerous holes in various firmware that allow cross-talk between the
various CAN busses anyway. I don't think anyone who set out to research
automotive security has ever had to move on to another vehicle due to lack of
exploitable flaws.
------
rocky1138
I am less concerned with who they are and more concerned with what they're
doing. What does their company do?
~~~
mdonahoe
The sell an aftermarket rear view camera for your car.
[https://pearlauto.com/](https://pearlauto.com/)
------
yalogin
I don't know if there is a huge need for this in the market though. I would
rather spend to upgrade the media and other controls in the car than the rear
view camera if I have to. For someone used to driving without a rear camera
there is no need for one. They need more products.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
OpenBSD – unveil(2) usage in base - aomix
https://marc.info/?l=openbsd-tech&m=153262228632102&w=2
======
aomix
OpenBSD's filesystem restriction utility is starting to be implemented in the
base system. This first large commit from Theo de Raadt is intended to give an
example of the intended usage of unveil(2).
~~~
gigatexal
for the noob like me, how does this compare to setting a permissions or
ownership bit on a folder?
~~~
aomix
Unveil is programmatic so the developer can restrict the software to only
perform expected behaviors. Like the earlier pledge(2) call OpenBSD introduced
a few versions ago. A piece of software may have far more access to the
filesystem than is needed. So it can be restricted to the handful of
directories or files that it actually needs during execution. And it can
progressively relinquish access as it runs and end up in a state where it
can't access the filesystem at all.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Tiller––a minimal and seamless device for tracking your time - adeperio
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/858670600/tillera-minimal-and-seamless-device-for-tracking-y
======
adeperio
Hi, I'm Tony (founder at Tiller)
Just wanted to mention a product we are currently launching on Kickstarter:
Time tracking is a pain, and timesheets are not fun. But having good time
tracking is something that a lot of developers, engineers, coders, freelancers
and digital agencies need. So Tiller was built to address some of the key
problems that we found people have with tracking their time:
\- We would forget to start and stop our timers.
\- When we remembered, it was kind of a pain to do it requiring lots of
interactions.
\- Most products we tried would take us out of our natural work flow.
Tiller is a new hardware device that plugs into your computer to help track
your tasks. Tap it, and it’ll start timing you. Tap again, and it’ll stop.
Spin the wheel on top, and a minimal interface will pop up on screen, letting
you scroll from one task (say “emails”) to the next (maybe “writing” or
“coffee”).
By having a physical device on your desk that you can interact with rather
than interrupting your current workflow, and also as a subtle presence on your
desk, we think Tiller can help alleviate some of the common problems that
people have when they need to track their time.
We are currently launching on Kickstarter, so if Tiller looks like something
useful to you take a look at our KS campaign page!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Facebook could kill Google by 2012 says Analyst - collistaeed
http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-facebook-could-kill-google-analyst-2009-3
======
duskwuff
"Ross Sandler of RBC has done what every good analyst should do, which is say
something interesting." What he has not done well, however, is analyze his
data contextually. Just because Google and Facebook are both popular web sites
does not mean that they're in a competitive relationship.
------
redhex
I do not go facebook to look for coding samples or help with code errors.
Likewise I do not make friends on Google, but I do google for long lost
friends.
And for facebook to kill Google? How do you kill one that have no life?
------
Rod
I never met anyone who said "I want to be an analyst when I go up". Let's face
it: forecasting one quarter ahead is already hard. Predicting where we will be
in 3 years is _voodoo_ magic. This article looks like linkbait to me. Just my
0.02 USD.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
E-Stonia and the Future of the Cyberstate - drapper
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/142825/eric-b-schnurer/e-stonia-and-the-future-of-the-cyberstate
======
Doomguy
Estonian here. A cyberstate does little for an economy when the people can't
afford it.
------
cpursley
From the title I thought this would be about marijuana.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Phun | Great Physics Program for Kids - iamelgringo
http://www.acc.umu.se/~emilk/media.html
======
huherto
Reminds me of "The incredible machine". I've been unable to find this game for
years. Hopefully someone can tell me how to get it or point me to something
similar.
~~~
csmajorfive
Oh god I spent countless hours in that game. There was also something called
"Clik N Play" that let you make your own video games.
------
ken
This looks very similar to a Mac program (whose name I've long since
forgotten) I used in college in the mid-1990's. It's good to see somebody is
finally putting that CPU power to good use: once you got beyond 5-10 separate
objects, a 68k couldn't even manage 1fps.
~~~
mhb
Working Model?
<http://workingmodel.design-simulation.com/WM2D/index.php>
~~~
ken
That's it!
------
SirWart
Just for kids? That looks pretty awesome to me. Reminds me of Garry's Mod for
half-life 2.
~~~
yters
I hope someone makes a "for older person" version. I'd like to play it too.
------
corroded
sadly, avast thinks it has a worm :( (tried downloading the exe file)
*edit: just downloaded the zip file and it works. im not sure how a kid could play with this though, i tried playig around with it and i couldn't even make a car.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Microbes in Your Gut May Be Making You Fat (2013) - DrScump
http://www.livescience.com/41954-gut-microbes-make-you-fat.html
======
louprado
"If you want to stay lean, you'll want bacteria that are not very efficient"
I hope this article isn't suggesting that it is preferable to have less
efficient digestive systems so that we can all eat more. Given the
environmental impact of food production these efficient digestion microbes are
something we should encourage. Maybe they are harmful because of insulin
spikes ? But the article doesn't mention this.
~~~
jobu
That seems to be the suggestion, but I wonder if it's the the wrong
hypothesis.
What if some bacteria have evolved to "hack" the metabolic signals from our
guts (and possibly other mammals)?
They could stimulate ghrelin to make us want more food to feed them. Or slow
down food progress through the gut to give them more time to reproduce.
~~~
CuriouslyC
You're partly right. The primary byproduct of bacterial fermentation is short-
chain fatty acids. These do in fact stimulate the release of peptide YY, which
reduces gastric motility. It is extremely unlikely that the bacteria are the
ones "hacking" us though; short chain fatty acid production is the result of
fairly ubiquitous, low level pathways whereas modulation of hormone release is
a fairly specialized, high level function.
------
daenz
When your calories in is greater than your calories out, you gain fat. The
point that the article is making is that one collection of gut bacteria may be
more efficient at extracting calories from the same food than another
collection, resulting in more "calories in."
What is disconcerting is the idea of engineering your gut bacteria to be less
efficient at absorbing calories and nutrients in order to not require self
control about what you give your body in the first place.
~~~
dragonwriter
> When your calories in is greater than your calories out, you gain fat.
Wrong. Calorie surplus is neither necessary for nor a guarantee of fat gain.
When your calories in are greater than your calories out, you gain net energy
content of body mass. If you have very low body fat already, you aren't going
to be able to gain _lean_ body mass without increasing net energy content,
which means a calorie surplus; and a calorie surplus can sometimes, AFAIK, be
beneficial in building lean body mass even if you _haven 't_ already driven
your body fat %age to a very low level.
Conversely, you can gain body fat while losing lean body mass with a calorie
deficit.
> What is disconcerting is the idea of engineering your gut bacteria to be
> less efficient at absorbing calories and nutrients in order to not require
> self control about what you give your body in the first place.
Why is that disconcerting? If excessive efficiency in this one function is
associated with adverse health outcomes, and people with less efficient (than
the level raising concern) gut microbiomes tend toward healthier weights and
better health outcomes, preference for maximum efficiency in this area is a
harmful microoptimization, like optimizing a firm's software development
operations for maximum lines of code produced per day rather than business
functionality delivered.
~~~
maxerickson
A calorie surplus is pretty necessary for a substantial weight gain. Let's
include some control for water retention when measuring weight in the meaning
of substantial there.
You seem to do this a lot, writing some pedantic elaboration on the wording of
a comment while carefully ignoring the thrust of the meaning. Of course
precision is useful to communication, but yeesh.
~~~
dragonwriter
> A calorie surplus is pretty necessary for a substantial weight gain.
Sure, but that still doesn't justify the upthread claim "When your calories in
is greater than your calories out, you gain fat."
You can maintain a calorie surplus and not gain fat, and if you are intending
to gain a substantial quantity of lean body mass, you will need to. (That you
can gain fat, within a certain range, while losing lean body mass on a calorie
deficit was a less important aspect of my response; the key part was that the
claim "moar calories => moar fat" is significantly wrong.
> You seem to do this a lot, writing some pedantic elaboration on the wording
> of a comment while carefully ignoring the thrust of the meaning.
The thrust of the meaning was that calorie surplus/deficit alone controls body
fat. This is fundamentally and critically wrong, because it ignores the fact
that activity patterns and other factors will control whether a calories
surplus (for example) manifests in fat gain (with constant or decreasing
muscle) or muscle gain (with constant or decreasing fat) or both muscle and
fat gain in some ratio.
------
shiftpgdn
The ads on this page triggered my antivirus (legitimately). A forewarning for
anyone not running noscript/adblocker.
~~~
zurn
Offtopic: anyone know a tool or service to diagnose pages for Windows malware
for those of us who aren't on Windows?
------
MisterBastahrd
"Making you fat."
No, that isn't how obesity works. What you put in your face is directly
responsible for how fat you become. The microbes are just a factor, they
aren't the root cause.
~~~
windexh8er
I'm not sure it's quite that simple. There hasn't been much research around
gut biome, however that's changing. This topic has been coming up much more
recently and I've recently been reading "The Good Gut: Taking Control of Your
Weight, Your Mood, and Your Long-term Health" by two Stanford researchers
(Justin & Erica Sonnenburg). Just the first few chapters expose evidence that
the simple correlation between consumption and static result is simply not
true. The gut biome clearly plays a much more important role that we truly
understand at this point in time.
~~~
MisterBastahrd
It's pretty much that simple. Unless someone has some sort of lymphatic
condition that causes them to retain fluids or an undiagnosed metabolic
syndrome, you aren't gaining weight unless you are consuming more than you are
expending.
That isn't to say that two identical people with two different gut floras
would necessarily gain or lose weight identically while eating the same diet,
but I've yet to see any evidence that an otherwise healthy person eating
maintenance level calories is going to blow up like a balloon simply because
his gut flora is different. A person with a healthy gut flora might be able to
consume more calories without gaining as much weight, and it's important to
understand WHY that is, but the fact remains that if you don't consume any
more than you expend, you aren't going to gain weight (previously mentioned
caveats notwithstanding).
That said, the western diet is horrible for you. Go to any fast food
restaurant and the only fiber you'll get is in the lettuce on your burger.
~~~
dragonwriter
> but I've yet to see any evidence that an otherwise healthy person eating
> maintenance level calories is going to blow up like a balloon simply because
> his gut flora is different.
The whole point of the article here is that there is a line of research which
has established, both in non-human models and human experiments, that
"maintenance level calories" (especially when considering the content of food
that enters the mouth, rather than what gets absorbed) are not a constant
across different gut biomes.
[http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/94/1/58.full](http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/94/1/58.full)
[http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Peter_Turnbaugh/publicat...](http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Peter_Turnbaugh/publication/6617716_An_obesity-
associated_gut_microbiome_with_increased_capacity_for_energy_harvest/links/00b7d51adf064f0dc0000000.pdf)
[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3601187/](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3601187/)
[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3974587/](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3974587/)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Steps for Founders Hiring a Tech Co-Founder - rmason
https://dsdoes.com/3-steps-for-founders-hiring-a-tech-co-founder-5efdaef63d52
======
rmason
Full disclosure I read an early draft of this article. I made a few
suggestions and one of them ended up as a direct quote attributed to me in the
article.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How Pfizer set the cost of its new drug at $9,850 a month - MarlonPro
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/pfizer-set-cost-drug-9-050100023.html
======
hackuser
IMHO this reflects the problem of applying free market principles, where cost
depends on demand, to things like healthcare and education:
1) Demand is absolute: How much would you pay to live rather than die? For
some of these drugs the charge could be 'your life savings' and people would
pay.
2) Free market pricing is efficient because it distributes goods based on who
wants it more (i.e., who will pay more). But for survival, everyone wants it
equally; it's merely distributing goods to who _can_ pay more.
3) It's immoral to have people's lives depend on how much money they happen to
have. That is, I don't think person A's life is more valuable than person B's
because person A has more money.
The free market is a great tool, but like any tool it doesn't solve every
problem.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Scientists "Herd" Cells In New Approach To Tissue Engineering - jcr
http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2014/03/11/herding-cells-new-approach-to-tissue-engineering/
======
jcr
The mentioned paper, "Galvanotactic control of collective cell migration in
epithelial monolayers," published in "Nature Materials" is unfortunately pay-
walled and I haven't found any other copies:
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nmat3891](http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nmat3891)
[http://www.nature.com/nmat/journal/v13/n4/full/nmat3891.html](http://www.nature.com/nmat/journal/v13/n4/full/nmat3891.html)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Optimising Assembly Like an 80's Hacker - hailxenu
http://retrocode.blogspot.com/2008/09/optimising-assembly-like-80s-hacker.html
======
jcl
Heh... That takes me back.
I remember a puzzle in an old demoscene document: Assuming EAX contains all
zeros except for a byte value in AL, what is the shortest number of
instructions needed to copy AL's value to the other three bytes in EAX?
The puzzle was hard not because the task was particularly difficult but
because the audience had spent so long optimizing assembly for speed that the
hopelessly inefficient one-instruction answer would not occur to them.
(Answer: <http://home.sch.bme.hu/~ervin/codegems.html#17>)
~~~
fh
According to the Intel IA-32 Optimization Reference Manual, integer
multiplication has a 3 cycle latency. What's "hopelessly inefficient" about 3
cycles?
( Source:
[http://download.intel.com/design/processor/manuals/248966.pd...](http://download.intel.com/design/processor/manuals/248966.pdf)
)
~~~
jcl
On earlier-model processors, it could be as bad as 40 cycles. You really
didn't want to touch multiplication (or division!) back then. I recall
programmers went as far as calculating memory offsets for a 320x200 screen as
(x + (y << 8) + (y << 6)) instead of (x + y * 320).
<http://home.comcast.net/~fbui/intel_i.html#imul>
------
SwellJoe
I just bought a C64, an Atari 130XE, a TI99/4A, and an original Gameboy on
eBay. I've been tinkering with chiptunes lately, and wanted to use the Real
Thing. My first five or six computers were Commodore 8 bit machines...it's
amusing to go back to that world.
I just read a code analysis for one of Rob Hubbard's music routines, and that
was pretty interesting. The size of software back then is mind-blowing today.
And what's interesting is that I couldn't even use a very high level language
(like Ruby or Perl or Python) to write a music player, plus the music, in the
same number of lines, without resorting to loading libraries that are
comparatively very large. The move away from specialized chips to very
powerful generic processors has interesting repercussions.
I guess a lot of kids of the 80's are reaching the point where they get to
feeling nostalgic, because I've seen a lot of 8-bit retro related activities
of late. Chiptunes are bigger than ever (_why just released a chiptune
library, for instance), someone just made a Haskell library for writing BASIC
programs, and pixel art is also showing up everywhere. Weird how that happens.
I guess the 70s and 80s had their 50s and 60s flashback with Happy Days and
such, so it shouldn't be surprising that our generation is doing the same.
------
iamelgringo
Retro programmers: Respect.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Code Bootcamps Are a Scam and a Costly One - ilyoTheHorrid
https://medium.com/@ilyothehorrid/code-bootcamps-are-a-scam-and-a-costly-one-df45a5ee2977
======
ilyoTheHorrid
Bootcamps promise to make you a programmer, yet they merely help you memorize
code, and even that, under pressure and inadequate expectations
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Twitter interface and golden ratio - sayanee
http://mashable.com/2010/09/29/new-twitter-golden-ratio/
======
extension
I only see one golden ratio in that image, between the left and right columns,
and it's off by a bit. The second division relates to the screen height and
length of the tweet, which are not part of the design. The divisions after
that don't line up with anything.
~~~
fuzzix
I'm sure this has been posted here many times before, but I think it deserves
another airing:
<http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/pseudo/fibonacc.htm> \- Fibonacci Flim-Flam
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Making the Case for Eating Fruit - zzzeek
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/31/making-the-case-for-eating-fruit/?src=me&ref=general&_r=0
======
zzzeek
I find this article interesting as I have a vague recollection of some paleo-
types on here equating eating an apple to eating a candy bar. "It's the same
amount of sugar!" they naively say.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Nearly Half of the Twitter Accounts Discussing ‘Reopening America’ May Be Bots - dev_tty01
https://www.cs.cmu.edu/news/nearly-half-twitter-accounts-discussing-‘reopening-america’-may-be-bots
======
notadog
Previous discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23261815](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23261815)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Transfer Your Google+ Connections To Another Account - nyliferocks
http://www.technewsbest.com/2012/07/transfer-your-google-connections-to.html
======
josteink
It only took Google one year to release this after opening G+ to Google apps
accounts.
In the meantime I lost interest. Oh well.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Amiga Ireland Podcast - JNRowe
http://amigausers.ie/listen/
======
JNRowe
While from the folks at Amiga Ireland, they discuss far more than just their
conference and local scene.
Turns out there are plenty of things still happening...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Air Bike Could be a Solution to Pollution - senthil_rajasek
http://online.wsj.com/video/india-air-bike-could-be-a-solution-to-pollution/60527412-D91E-41B3-B53B-3E12139E2821.html
======
ruslan
The overall idea is cool, yet I wonder what is the performance of the
"engine", like its max speed, horsepowers, and bars-per-miles usage :-)
------
spectre
I'd like to know what its total emissions are. I presume they would be using a
petrol or diesel compressor.
~~~
weaksauce
The thing about electrical motors is that it can be fully driven with
renewable resources. Sun, wind, hydroelectric, etc... if the compressors are
driven off of electricity then the carbon footprint, in theory, could be 0.
Whereas a motorbike that is petrol powered is guaranteed to have a finite
amount of carbon emissions.
------
dbul
Please place [video] in the title.
------
carterschonwald
aren't there some HNers working on a more sophisiticated variant of this sort
of idea?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Has Apple found the perfect way of forcing its customers to buy more hardware? - datacharmer
http://literategeek.blogspot.com/2012/06/has-apple-found-perfect-way-of-forcing.html
======
shreyaskulkarni
No soft corner for Apple, but guess this problem is not really apple specific.
Even newer versions of Microsoft softwares are bloated and lower in
performance on older hardware.
Ubuntu suddenly seems so practical for maintaining separate packages
repositories for LTS versions for almost 5 years.
------
bestest
Apple found the perfect way of forcing its customers to buy more hardware 20
years ago and has been on this path since. It seems like you're saying that
'progress is a bad thing'.
~~~
datacharmer
Not a bad thing. It's a good thing, provided that the progress in the new
devices does not affect the owners of the previous generation devices. I love
getting the latest and greatest as any geek does. I just want to do the
upgrade on my terms, not being forced to.
------
realize
If your current setup satisfies your needs then don't update your apps.
~~~
datacharmer
Not so simple. Sometimes you need to update an app, because of bug fixes or
security issues.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Fairphone 3 plus - MrsPeaches
https://shop.fairphone.com/gb_en/fairphone-3-plus?___store=gb_en
======
cb6b70c0-cb4d
They do not support all frequencies for LTE in Europe :(
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Recruiters: Don't say HTML5, you probably don't mean it - grimtrigger
http://brain.codeharmony.net/dont-say-html5.html
======
grimtrigger
Crux of the issue right here:
I’ve thought a lot about why HTML5 became the codeword for CSS3. I think it
stems back to the decision by iOS to ban Flash. iOS friendly web pages needed
to use HTML5 instead of flash, so the term “HTML5” came to represent
everything that came along with mobile friendly websites. That includes
responsive design, and animations that run smoothly without a lot of power.
Both those things are in the domain of CSS3, not HTML5.
------
magentaplacenta
HTML5, to me, is all the wonderful new JavaScript APIs, but I'm an idiot. I've
never considered "HTML5" to be anywhere near synonymous with CSS3, but I'm an
idiot.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Nixery: Transparently build and serve containers using Nix - kimburgess
https://github.com/google/nixery
======
n42
I have to say, this is pretty clever. Dealing with Docker image tags for
dependencies is a real pain and doesn't make much sense. you get things like
`[package semver]-[edition]-[distro][distro version]`.. and this in no way
reflects any guarantee that tag has not been rebuilt since the last time you
pulled it. which has horrible implications for security patches to the image
itself, and so on.
I don't know where the community will land for a solution, but this is a
clever method. I hope it builds traction
~~~
tazjin
Currently when running a private Nixery instance you can actually specify a
full git commit hash for the Nix repository that you're using.
If this repository is the upstream nixpkgs[1], or if your private repository
follows the same rules about not importing anything without fully-pinned
hashes, you can already get those guarantees about the image content with
Nixery today!
The one exception is packages that are not in the binary cache, end up rebuilt
and aren't reproducible (the binaries might differ) - but NixOS is ~98%
reproducible already[2]!
[1]: [https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/)
[2]: [https://r13y.com](https://r13y.com)
------
anaphor
I want to try building something like this, but using Tahoe-LAFS[1] to store
the packages / images, so that you could get de-duplication for free, and
capability based access control. I have no idea if it would be feasible in
practice yet. How hard is it to build a custom docker registry? From a glance
at this code it doesn't look terribly complex to get something simple going.
[https://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs](https://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-
lafs)
~~~
asymmetric
Sorry for the possibly lazy comment, but why TAHOE-LAFS instead of IPFS?
~~~
anaphor
IPFS would be an interesting experiment too. Mainly I want to try it with
Tahoe because of two features: convergent encryption (basically a way of
deduplicating encrypted blobs) and capability based security (a way of doing
access control at the file/blob level, rather than role-based).
------
tazjin
Quick note on the layers:
The current layering strategy of the public instance is not the one linked to
in the README (edit: fixed), it is the one described in this document:
[https://storage.googleapis.com/nixdoc/nixery-
layers.html](https://storage.googleapis.com/nixdoc/nixery-layers.html)
This strategy optimises for reducing the amount of data transferred. I
recommend reading both this and the original post on buildLayeredImage!
------
eridius
When combining multiple packages, does the order matter? Does shell/git/htop
give me the same thing as shell/htop/git?
~~~
n42
since this is using Nix, I don't believe the order matters. each package
installs its own isolated dependencies, there is no sharing between packages.
~~~
eridius
Order doesn't matter to Nix, but images have ordered layers.
After digging into the blog post, it sounds like the layers are sorted in a
particular order, which suggests that the order in which you specify the
packages doesn't matter.
That said, I went ahead and pulled nixery.dev/shell/git/htop, and then pulled
nixery.dev/shell/htop/git, and I actually got different results. I ran `docker
info` on both images and diffed the results, and the layer lists were slightly
different. I filed this as
[https://github.com/google/nixery/issues/38](https://github.com/google/nixery/issues/38).
~~~
tazjin
This is now fixed - the issue was basically that image manifests and config
layers contain the image name, so if the name changes those layers will be
replaced.
The solution is to sort the packages in the name and return identical
manifests. Docker doesn't seem to care about attaching names from registries
that weren't in the config layer.
There's a separate issue where Docker will re-download layers it already has
because it doesn't just use the content hash for caching, but those layers
will be identical. Working on figuring this one out ...
------
amrox
Neat. I like both Nix and containers.
Though I'm curious. Can someone explain
> This is not an officially supported Google project.
"20% time" I guess?
~~~
singron
Google open source policy. Even if you work on something with your own
equipment, on your own time, and it doesn't relate to your work, it probably
still relates to something Google does. Therefore Google asserts ownership
over all work their employees produce and thus they have these disclaimers.
~~~
skybrian
It's possible sometimes to get Google to disclaim ownership of stuff that's
genuinely unrelated. There is a process. (Or was when I left.)
On the other hand, if you _want_ to work on open source on company time or use
the code at work (which may have been part of the point of writing it), being
able to do so is nice.
~~~
Filligree
The process still exists, but it's discouraged for open-source projects. On
the other hand, most open-source projects don't care who owns the copyright.
------
GordonS
A little OT, but is that _broccoli_ in the Nixery logo? Anyone know _why_?
~~~
1_player
Why not? ;-)
------
ingenieroariel
Neat, focusing on containers as a way to replace systems while still doing
most things within Nix is a good take over strategy.
------
tjoff
Neat! Maybe out of place but is there something similar where a virtual
machine is spun up rather than docker?
~~~
tazjin
That's actually something I've been discussing with a colleague - Nix is
capable of building various other image types (netboot, qemu, etc.) and we
could theoretically extend Nixery to provide such images in addition.
~~~
StavrosK
(I know almost nothing about Nix, so take this question loosely)
Do you know if there's an easy way to generate a Docker container from a Nix
script? That could be a very nice alternative to a Dockerfile.
~~~
tazjin
Yes, you can do that using for example `buildLayeredImage`:
{ pkgs ? import <nixpkgs> {} }:
with pkgs; dockerTools.buildLayeredImage {
name = "curl-bash";
contents = [ curl bashInteractive coreutils ];
}
Putting that in a file and calling `nix-build` on that file will give you a
tarball that Docker will happily load using `docker load`.
Doing this has a lot of advantages over Dockerfiles, see this blog post for
some of the others: [https://grahamc.com/blog/nix-and-layered-docker-
images](https://grahamc.com/blog/nix-and-layered-docker-images)
~~~
StavrosK
Fantastic, thanks!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
QUIC Crypto and simple state machines - baby
https://cryptologie.net/article/446/quic-crypto-and-simple-state-machines/
======
dochtman
Some experiments with Noise as the QUIC encryption mechanism have recently
been published:
[https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3284854](https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3284854)
Pluggable encryption has been scoped out of QUIC v1, but will likely make a
return soon after (and Noise seems one of the more likely candidates).
~~~
Zophike1
Unfortunately I know nothing about Cryptography(Theoretical or Practical) but
what benefits does QUIC bring to the table, also will it be subject to some
form of formal verification ?
------
kyrra
It is not clear to me from the article why QUIC Crypto was rejected. The
slides mention that anti-replay didn't work, but was that just an implemention
bug? Why was it rejected?
~~~
tialaramex
Not an implementation bug, a thinko. Adam Langley's strike register is
supposed to prevent replays. In practice this, and other attempts in the same
direction, all work fine for toy systems (e.g. one Apache no load balancer no
failover) where you don't care but don't work for a real system. So the
outcome was don't build any of them into TLS or QUIC and just warn
implementors that Replay is a thing in 0RTT modes.
Unlike QUIC Crypto, TLS 1.3 is a product of a modern approach where you start
by getting the mathematicians to prove the idea works, then you implement the
idea. That article might give you almost the opposite impression, but not so.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
We are Collage: Dada, Instagram, and the future of AI - magda_wang
https://theartofresearch.org/we-are-collage-dada-instagram-and-the-future-of-ai/
======
atian
There’s not that much insight here.
It’s not wrong. It’s just not meaningful. High level abstractions are often
the worst trap for endless thought exercises because it’s difficult to
introduce a wrong statement.
This article is art.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Tunnel Boring Machines (2018) - luu
http://www.cat-bus.com/2018/01/far-from-boringmeet-the-most-interesting-tunnel-boring-machines/
======
spectramax
There is a quality about TBMs which vaguely reminds me of the feeling of
getting a new LEGO set and building stuff. Imagine if we had cheap ways to
build tunnels, no more traffic, no more congestion, roads and parking lots
would only exist underground and cities would have more space for gardens,
parks, buildings, and walkways. We have these things - Subways but its very
expensive to build that system. Elon has an itch to solve this problem and I
want this dream to succeed! While that's going on, please someone make a game
out of building tunnels, it would be super cool!
~~~
bArray
> Imagine if we had cheap ways to build tunnels, no more
> traffic, no more congestion, roads and parking lots would
> only exist underground and cities would have more space
> for gardens, parks, buildings, and walkways.
Or, skip the tunnel building and just ban cars from major cities.
Building more infrastructure to "reduce traffic" only makes using vehicles
more attractive. The amount of congestion is approximately equal to the amount
of congestion the average person using the infrastructure is willing to
accept, so making it less congested just means more people use the
infrastructure until the limit is reached again.
The real answer to the problem is to simply ban all but buses and delivery
vehicles - even then you can incentivize that they are electrically driven.
Space increases and infrastructure maintenance costs are reduced, not
increased.
The real golden use for TBMs is for efficiency - i.e. Go around some mountain
or go straight through it? Go around a city or go under it? I imagine
buildings sharing a service elevator down to the tunnel where delivery
vehicles can offload to and send goods up (rather than Musk's idea of trying
to lift a several tonne vehicle in some personal elevator).
Would likely make sense for all kinds of maintenance this way to, servicing
water/gas pipes or electricity/internet lines for example could be as simple
as removing a service panel from the side of a tunnel, rather than the
terrible solution we have today involving digging up streets over and over.
~~~
rklaehn
Why have technical innovation at all, let's just outlaw stuff...
I really don't get this desire to outlaw cars. I like walkable cities, but I
also like the comfort and privacy of car transport. I live in a place
(Germany) with good public transport. I used to live in cities with very good
public transport. I still don't enjoy being squeezed in with thousands of
other people. Does that mean that people like me have to be reeducated and/or
forced to see the error of their ways?
~~~
enjeyw
Well, maybe actually. It’s reasonable to suggest that your driving is creating
personal gain at the expense of others (pollution, congestion etc), and thus
should be treated like many other things that fall into this category (theft,
speeding) and be outlawed.
Of course it’s also totally reasonable to suggest that the harm to others is
so small that it doesn’t justify the erosion of personal liberty.
Point being, the question warrants reasonable consideration rather than
immediate dismissal.
~~~
thereisnospork
> Point being, the question warrants reasonable consideration rather than
> immediate dismissal.
Sure, but it takes quite a bit of negatives to override the obvious and
glaring benefits of anyone being able to transport oneself, one's family,
one's stuff, at a moments notice, to any destination, in (almost) any weather,
at an average speed of 30-60miles per hour, all at an amortized cost of
approximately 50cents per mile.
The willingness and readiness of some people to disregard the large personal,
societal, and economic benefits of having functioning automotive
infrastructure - in concert with other methods of transit - quite frankly
bewilders me.
~~~
Xylakant
> Sure, but it takes quite a bit of negatives to override the obvious and
> glaring benefits of anyone being able to transport oneself, one's family,
> one's stuff, at a moments notice, to any destination, in (almost) any
> weather, at an average speed of 30-60miles per hour, all at an amortized
> cost of approximately 50cents per mile.
The current discussion mostly centers on banning cars in cities or large
agglomerations. In no city you'll reach average speeds even approaching 30
miles an hour - something around 20km/h is a more reasonable number to expect.
That's btw. easily reachable with an electric bicycle or public transport. I
can call a cab or a transport for larger goods at pretty much a moments
notice, there's even car sharing services that have some parked in the street.
Also, you're disregarding that cars in cities have massive externalities - the
current estimate for Berlin is that infrastructure for cars (roads and parking
spaces) cost about 30% of the cities surface area at substantial cost to
society (increased rent and building costs, maintenance etc) which is paid by
the majority of people _not_ owning a car. Not all of that could be recouped
if private car usage is reduced, but substantial chunks could. Not to speak of
noise and other pollution, risks of accident and injury etc.
So you're overplaying the advantages and disregarding the very real cost that
other people shoulder for a minority driving.
~~~
bluGill
You are correct for the dense part of large cities, once you get outside that
things change fast. Anyone not living in those areas sometimes need to get to
the dense part of the city, and driving their own car overall has the speeds
of the non-dense part they pass through not the slow dense part near their
destination.
~~~
kuschku
That’s what park+ride is for — drive to a subway or train station at the edge
of the city, leave your car there, and use transit in the city.
------
vpribish
"The cost of a TBM doesn’t get much higher as you increase its diameter."
This is the key assertion, and it is unsupported.
\- heat extraction will become a bigger problem
\- debris extraction too
\- cost of parts, cost and speed of logistics like transport and installation
of the machine will be worse
\- small number of exotic large TBMs will scale worse than large number of
small TBMs in manufacturing cost and operating experience
\- I've seen elsewhere (citation missing) that small borers move much faster
than large so any costs that scale with time will be worse.
\- risk-wise: a portfolio of small borers will have less risk than an all-
eggs-in-one-basket gamble. a broken part delaying a big machine incurs more
cost than ona smaller machine.
unless your project requires a single enormous bore I think you would prefer
to use the smallest you can get away with.
The author does not seem to have any relevant experience, so I'm not going to
take this on his authority; he's a programmer who has done scheduling software
on metro projects and is working on an MBA. Interesting summary of types of
machines though!
~~~
astrodust
Key word "much".
------
ksec
I have many questions,
1\. Are any of these TBM considered state of art? I dont see any tech inside
those TBM that could not be done 10 years ago other than the cost of the
machine. We are entering new Space Race era and yet some fundamental stuff
still looks very, should I say "traditional".
2\. Why cant we build even bigger TBM? Like Double the current diameter. Or
Bigger TBM that are Rectangular rather than Circle.
3\. The biggest problem with TBM is that they are slow. Even if we had made
them 10 times faster I would still consider them very slow. Surely there could
be technology that improve on it?
4\. Are there any reason why we dont use TBM for small pipes, ( like for
electricity or fibre optics, )
~~~
bluGill
Is there any improvement that can be made? Every time some engineer comes up
with an improvement that is one more improvement invented. There is only so
much improvement possible.
Slow is not a problem. A few meters a day sounds slow, but if you are going
long distances you can scale by buying more TBNs putting them in a line and
having each meet up to the next. Assuming you have the money. In practice the
cost to build a tunnel is high enough that you probably can't afford to scale
up too much that way.
~~~
jonwachob91
>>> you can scale by buying more TBNs putting them in a line and having each
meet up to the next
What I'm picturing from your statement is two TBM drilling towards each other
like ---> <\----.
Which would require the digging of a third hole where the TBM "drill heads"
meet. After every TBM dig, the drill heads are left at the end of the tunnel
b/c they are bigger than the new tunnel (as the head digs the tunnel, workers
install support structure to prevent a collapse, so the just drilled tunnel is
smaller than the being drilled tunnel). A 3rd dig would be required where the
two TBM drill heads meet to retrieve them and connect the tunnels. That's a
lot of $$$ :/
~~~
Swannie
> Which would require the digging of a third hole where the TBM "drill heads"
> meet.
In most projects it's called a station.
[http://www.crossrail.co.uk/construction/tunnelling/meet-
our-...](http://www.crossrail.co.uk/construction/tunnelling/meet-our-giant-
tunnelling-machines/)
Occasionally you'll have dive sites that are not at/near stations, but not
that often.
[https://www.sydneymetro.info/station/blues-point-
temporary-r...](https://www.sydneymetro.info/station/blues-point-temporary-
retrieval-site)
[https://www.sydneymetro.info/tunnelling](https://www.sydneymetro.info/tunnelling)
------
pugworthy
I'm not out to analyze the clearly knowledgeable content of this article, but
I'd not be surprised if someone wrote something just like it when he (Musk)
started the whole illogical "make a rocket come back and land" stuff.
It's not logical, but I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt. Let him do his
thing. Who knows?
~~~
progfix
The difference is we are building tunnels for many decades and making them
smaller, reusing the ground material are not ground breaking ideas.
~~~
rusticpenn
The ground breaking part is not the tunnel but the vehicles. Its extremely
dangerous to use ICE vehicles in long tunnels without complex ventilation
schemes. Electric vehicles solve this issue.
~~~
progfix
You need complex ventilation anyway. Imagine a fire breaks out.
~~~
rusticpenn
True, however that requirements are more relaxed. The invention of electric
train removed most of the problems with coal based (and other vehicles and
helped in creation of subways).I think the movement to electric will create
the same oppurtunity for cars.
------
dlgeek
Side note: Missed opportunity for the title "Interesting Boring Machines"
~~~
ant6n
Actual title of article: "Far From Boring: Meet the Most Interesting Tunnel
Boring Machines"
------
Animats
Musk could help with the back end of the problem. The TBM up front gets all
the attention. Behind the TBM is usually a temporary two-track narrow gauge
railway line, with muck cars carrying dirt and rock out, segment cars carrying
tunnel wall segments forward, plus tool cars and worker cars now and then.[1]
Hanging off the back of the TBM is all the machinery to move all those heavy
items around.[2] Including the machinery for laying more railroad track behind
the TBM.
Self-driving electric muck cars, segment cars, etc, might replace that
temporary rail infrastructure. That's something Musk's company could address.
The back end of the process seems to get less attention than the front end.
Most of the length of the TBM is devoted to material handling, though, as is
the rest of the tunnel all the way back to the entry. A big fraction of the
cost is in moving all that stuff around.
[1]
[http://www.zslocomotive.com/products](http://www.zslocomotive.com/products)
[2] [https://youtu.be/SY3Q9GqUYro?t=115](https://youtu.be/SY3Q9GqUYro?t=115)
------
LargoLasskhyfv
I'm uninpressed because it lacks _Nuclear Tunnel Boring Machines_ like in [1]
and [2] as envisioned by [3] for [4] and [5] in 1972 and 1978. Which all
Hyperloop afficionados should read, if they haven't done so already :-)
[1]
[https://patents.google.com/patent/US3693731](https://patents.google.com/patent/US3693731)
(I'm wondering about steam explosions when hitting ground water, which is not
unheard of. But... _NUKULAR!_ )
[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subterrene](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subterrene)
[3]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_M._Salter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_M._Salter)
[4]
[https://www.rand.org/pubs/papers/P4874.html](https://www.rand.org/pubs/papers/P4874.html)
[5]
[https://www.rand.org/pubs/papers/P6092.html](https://www.rand.org/pubs/papers/P6092.html)
(Lacking cheaply mass produced super-conductors here)
------
rmason
I'm not sure that I agree with the author on Elon Musk's tunneling ambitions.
Far more people are betting against him on Tesla and SpaceX without much
success.
One thing lost in the debate is if the costs are lowered it will also increase
the number of cities where a subway is possible financially. I see cities
spending huge money on dedicated bus lanes. The bus companies adore it but I'm
pretty certain that the return on investment is abysmal.
They tried to implement it locally and the grass roots groups put up such a
huge fight the politicians withdrew support for it.
As far as the cost of the stations I wonder if anyone has given thought to
using 3D concrete printing? Admittedly it would be easier if you excavated
from the surface as opposed to widening a tunnel but I still think it has the
possibility of losing costs.
[https://all3dp.com/2/concrete-3d-printing-how-to-do-it-
and-a...](https://all3dp.com/2/concrete-3d-printing-how-to-do-it-and-applic)
~~~
walkingolof
"Musk says he can build tunnels cheaper if he just makes them smaller. But in
reality, it’s not small TBMs that are the future, but big ones. The cost of a
TBM doesn’t get much higher as you increase its diameter. Tt is therefore
cheaper to build one very large tunnel, rather than two smaller ones."
If that is true, then Elon is betting on the wrong horse.
~~~
rmason
I can remember articles promoting hydrogen powered cars as the future. They
even said Elon made the wrong bet with electric. Some company's are still
hawking hydrogen as the future, the difference is no one is paying any
attention to them any longer.
Someone else has made the bet for bigger tunnels and they're using a PR agency
to push back. PG called out this tactic a few years back:
[http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html)
~~~
bluGill
The bigger tunnel people have proven success, while the small tunnel people
just have hype.
People shut up about electric cars over hydrogen when electric proved itself.
Note that back when this started there were many hydrogen naysayers who
pointed out all the problems the hydrogen proponents have faced. The electric
car people got lucky that lithium batteries advanced to where they could work
- 20 years ago this wasn't a given to battery experts.
------
baddox
These animations are great, but for some puzzling reason they only advance
while I am scrolling the page. To watch an animation I have to hold my thumb
on the screen and subtly scroll up and down. This is on an iPhone X.
------
asdff
Is there a reason why cut and cover isn't used very much these days, apart
from mild disruption to car traffic?
~~~
KaiserPro
it is ridiculously labour intensive.
First, all utilities have to be mapped out, then any basements shored up.
Then once the cut and cover is in progress, all utilities have to be re-
routed, during, then replaced after the tunnel is cut.
Then, the disruption of having major transit ways shut for _n_ weeks.
Lastly, there isnt a machine to do it. The TBM is pretty efficient labour
wise.
~~~
koheripbal
This is only if you build subway tunnels which are very shallow.
Deeper tunnels for longer distance transport do not have any of these
limitation.
~~~
bluGill
Deeper tunnels cut and cover get expensive fast, bored tunnels are about the
same cost at any depth.
------
topmonk
I know this is probably a very stupid idea, but I was thinking what if we shot
ourselves out of rail guns into the air into a bullet shaped craft with fins?
You could be shot out of one rail gun in San Francisco, glide for awhile, fall
to the earth and caught by a “reverse” railgun in San Jose.
It'd be cheaper and safer than planes since no need to carry fuel or an engine
on board, and could have an emergency parachute incase something went wrong.
Or maybe I've been dreaming about Kerbal Space Program projects too much
lately. (I'm fully expecting to be flamed and jided for this)
~~~
lmm
Humans are comfortable with accelerations of maybe 1 m/s/s. So to accelerate
comfortably to a plane-like speed of say 300 m/s, your railgun would have to
be 600m long - comparable to the tallest skyscraper in the world - and likely
pointing at 45 degrees up.
On the way down the vehicle would be going the same speed it went up at - so
you're talking about plummeting ballistically towards the ground at 300 m/s.
Even assuming you can steer perfectly, what happens if something goes wrong
with the receiving railgun? You've got no way to abort and go around, and no
time to do... well, anything, really.
Parachutes for vehicles the size of a passenger aeroplane are not practical. A
few very small planes have emergency whole-aeroplane parachutes, but they're
not to be relied upon. The German army experimented with parachuting a light
buggy with two soldiers in and gave up after several failures. And even if you
had a working parachute, it still requires a skilled operator and a safe
landing zone - what if you hit power lines, or trees, or buildings?
~~~
ProZsolt
Just gravity is more than 1m/s^2, around 9.8m/s^2
~~~
sean-duffy
Is the implication that most humans are comfortable with freefall?
~~~
zaroth
No, the implication is that humans are perfectly comfortable with way more
than 1m/s^2, particularly if it is linear and you are comfortably seated.
~~~
projektfu
As an example of Fermi estimation, it's pretty reasonable. 10 m/s is too much,
given that most people wouldn't want to spend a lot of time accelerating at
the rate of a Corvette on a drag strip. So the correct number is between 1 and
10.
~~~
zaroth
First, we’re talking about a short burst of acceleration, not a multi-day burn
on the way to Mars. 1g of lateral acceleration is not a big deal for a few
seconds. Most people think it’s fun.
Unfortunately that was actually the least wrong thing about lmm’s comment.
We’re not launching a rock, it will not come down as fast as it goes up. And I
don’t know what the mixup is around a “receiving railgun”.
~~~
projektfu
Perhaps, though not really. Commercial aircraft generally accelerate at
takeoff at around 2-3m/s. For most people, that is quite enough, and that only
gets you to 140kt. By comparison, doing 1g for 5 seconds (being generous) only
gets you to 95kt. So you aren't really going to be able to get much flight out
of that. More realistically, a gun would have to accelerate you to nearly the
speed of sound or more. Mannned rocket ships have a (throttled) peak
acceleration of 3G, so that sets a realistic upper bound and probably way over
what might be considered reasonable. I've read that the Willis tower elevators
accelerate downward at 8m/s and that is uncomfortable and just for a short
time. It's likely the case that such acceleration would feel better if one
were lying down. It's a curious question.
------
newnewpdro
The vertical shaft sinking machine process is basically just an automated form
of the old-school manual method of digging a well with men and shovels.
Laborers excavate at the bottom while new bricks are laid incrementally
forming the casing at the top. The whole column of bricks slides down as a
cylinder whenever progress is made at the bottom.
I've long wanted to dig a well that way, it's gotta be surreal to be at the
bottom digging away with a little shovel and seeing a towering column of
bricks move as one to fill in the progress.
It can't be terribly safe :)
~~~
lstodd
Here's an absolutely insane guy's channel
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCti7FZiCHC5fhvgN_Ns_5ew](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCti7FZiCHC5fhvgN_Ns_5ew)
He digs wells by hand. Very scary videos.
~~~
goatsi
There we go:
[https://youtu.be/5-j-EHXhBh8?t=465](https://youtu.be/5-j-EHXhBh8?t=465)
~~~
mannykannot
Whatever you do, keep your fingers and toes out from under the lip of the
lining - and have a pump running to keep the water level down, in case you do
get snagged.
------
choeger
I _think_ one of the major causes for the high cost of tunneling is that it is
done too seldom. Any major city in the world probably has room for 10 or so
additional tunnels, so why do they not operate a fleet of TBMs constantly for
the next n years?
------
morekozhambu
> Rather than including a facility for assembling the tunnel lining (out of
> multiple segments) inside the TBM, complete rings are inserted at the
> insertion shaft, and the whole tunnel is jacked forward one segment at a
> time.
This seems inefficient.
~~~
bluGill
Looks to me like they are looking at only going a short distance. I doubt you
could get more than 100 meters like that, but if you only need 100 meters of
tunnel it is probably cheaper because it is faster.
------
spullara
Or you could just move the surface streets a couple of stories up like they
did in the early 20th century in Chicago. Trucks (for deliveries, etc) are not
allowed on the surface, only below.
~~~
djsumdog
A lot of early cities jacked up their buildings. Chattanooga did due to
flooding.
I somehow doubt such things could happen today considering the superstructure
foundations under a lot of our modern buildings.
~~~
spullara
Definitely easier to keep the buildings at their current level and just make a
new entrance on the second (or higher) floor.
~~~
lmm
You can't bootstrap having a nice walking environment at above-ground level
that way. Who's going to open the first cafe where there's no foot traffic?
Why will anyone spend a lot of money on entrances that no-one's going to walk
to? What pedestrian is going to want to keep walking up and down stairs while
the network is partially complete. The City of London tried to do what you're
suggesting and it was a total failure, because while it might have worked if
it could have magically all been done in one go, there's no way to get to
there from here.
------
sytelus
Here's interesting tidbit: Vast majority of underground railway network in
Moscow was built in 1950s. Cost of building a mile of interstate highway in US
is about $5M. Interestingly this cost hasn't changed since 1956 in inflation
adjusted dollars when new 41,000 miles of interstate highway in US was laid
out. It seems major cost is not tech but quite possibly regulation and/or
government inefficiency/corruption.
~~~
wongarsu
We have also use highways a lot more and accordingly require better
construction. I'm not saying nothing interesting is going on, but
construction+maintenance over 20 years, adjusted for vehicle miles traveled
(or rather semi-truck-miles traveled) would be a much better indicator.
------
k_sze
Is Elon Musk a Samuel Beckett fan? I can totally picture a city council asking
what's taking a tunnel project so long to complete, and Musk answering, with a
straight face, "Oh, we're just waiting for Godot."
------
tiku
Why can't we just vaporise stone with lasers..
~~~
wongarsu
The boiling point of limestone is around 825°C or 1515°F. Heating up a tube of
multiple meters diameter and multiple kilometer length to that temperature
would require insane amounts of energy. A laser makes it possible to
efficiently heat a small spot to that temperature which helps reduce waste
heat, but you still have to heat every spot at some point.
~~~
polemic
I wonder what you do with a jet of vapourized rock too, once you've got it to
that temperature!
~~~
lstodd
Well I guess one can suck the plasma into a condenser unit and then on to a
conveyor belt for extraction.
Now what you do when those lasers hit a high-water-content sediment and cause
a vapor explosion, loss of integrity of surrounding rock and flooding?
------
lazysheepherd
Article does not seem to understand what Booring Company trying to achieve. It
does not even seem try to understand.
We all know it's very popular to love Elon Musk. But it's generally more
attractive to one-up those who do and hate Elon and his "fans".
As a disclaimer: I am in the wagon of "please leave this guy alone so he can
do his thing, whatever it might turn out to be".
And I do not see any value in this article. Booring Co. is about creating rich
network of very small tunnels _to solve urban traffic,_ whereas article only
talks about creating huge tunnels for longer distance transportation.
Article seem to be making a comparison while things it compares aren't in the
same category nor does they try to solve the same problem to begin with.
Incoherent and poorly thought-out", if not straight clickbait.
~~~
projektfu
The article only briefly mentions the Boring company and Elon Musk, because
it's mainly about how cool these large tunnel are and how the machines are
large enough to allow multimodal transportation in a tunnel. The comparison to
Musk is that his company is making a bet the rest of the industry has
rejected. They are all building large, versatile tunnels. Musk is betting that
small tunnels will be the future. Who knows?
What I got out of the article was definitely not an "anti-Musk" vibe. Not even
super critical of the Boring company approach. It was more of a "modern
marvels" type of article.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Is making one-page websites for apps a pain? - e7mac
Recently, the bottleneck for releasing products for me has been making the website for each of the apps. The best solution out there right now is buying templates but I'm never sure if I like it enough to shell out $15 instantly. I am wondering if others feel similarly.
======
olivierduval
It looks like wordpress has some nice free one page templates... but 1) it
might be overkill for your need 2) I just discovered wordpress so... I may
have false hopes 3) in any case: either you buy a template & customize, hire a
designer, or get your hands dirty
~~~
e7mac
Thanks for the thoughts. I keep using various hybrids of the 3 that you
mentioned and it's been getting annoying. I'm going to try and see if I can
maybe build a tool that could ease this process.
------
enhdless
Depending on what you need, [http://html5up.net/](http://html5up.net/) has
some free templates. I'd also be willing to build you a custom page.
~~~
e7mac
hey! thanks for the link - its definitely got many nice free templates! i have
an idea you might be interested in building together - email me at
[email protected]
~~~
enhdless
alright sent you a message; I'm Heidi
------
alphagenerator
Curious: Where are you buying templates?
~~~
e7mac
creativemarket.com .. do you know any better sources?
~~~
alphagenerator
No, actually. I am learning the ropes like you are.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The myth of the Indian vegetarian nation - sridca
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-43581122
======
belltaco
A thing to note is that "non-vegetarian" for Indians and say, the US is very
different. Being non-vegetarian in the US means eating meat every day, pretty
much every meal. In India, there are a lot of people that only occasionally
eat meat, say about once a week, or a few meals a week. There are a ton of
vegetarian only eating places which are very very popular with the so called
non-vegetarians.
Another difference is that meat based meals in restaurants are more expensive
than their vegetarian counterparts(like it should be), not subsidized like in
the US(through the form of animal meal subsidies like corn).
It would be nice to see per capita consumption of meat products among non-
vegetarians of different countries.
~~~
Mikeb85
> Another difference is that meat based meals in restaurants are more
> expensive than their vegetarian counterparts(like it should be), not
> subsidized like in the US(through the form of animal meal subsidies like
> corn).
It's not just subsidies, it's the fact that in the US, 'vegetarian' (or vegan)
happens to usually overlap other fad diets like gluten-free, low-carb, etc...
Plus different cultural tastes. A typical vegetarian meal in India is made
from some preparation of legumes, rice and wheat, plus a few vegetables. A
typical vegetarian meal in the US is made from quinoa, avocado, cauliflower,
almonds, etc... Not to mention, there's massive differences in the economics
of restaurants between the US and India. In India, a 'restaurant' can be a
stall on the side of the road with a few plastic chairs. Having an open fire
on the side of the street is seemingly acceptable. In the US, you need a
business license, commercial kitchen, the overhead is simply much, much higher
and you need a certain amount of revenue per guest, so even if the vegetarian
meal may cost less, you need to maintain your gross profit.
~~~
belltaco
Outside restaurants, at the grocery stores, meat is often as cheap if not
cheaper than vegetables, fruits etc.
------
diffeomorphism
The article does not include any context or reference at which level it would
include a region to be "vegetarian" and not a "myth" and is quite ...
optimistic... in its conclusions.
For instance, it lists the percentage of vegetarians as
\- Indore: 49% \- Meerut: 36% \- Delhi: 30%
To me this would indicate that the "myth" is true. Similarly, they report that
about 15% of people eat beef instead of the official estimate of about 7%.
While the factor is interesting, this is still very far from high and does not
support their summary that "the extent of beef eating is much higher than
claims and stereotypes suggest".
~~~
sridca
You forgot the cities of South India (which, incidentally, is the more
literate part of the country):
Hyderabad: 11%
Chennai: 6%
Kolkata: 4%
Your comment on beef is not very interesting as we mostly eat goat if not
chicken and seafood.
And of course eggs and dairy are part of daily staple.
------
gwbas1c
Wait... I never thought that India was considered vegetarian? I know
vegetarianism is more popular in India than in other countries, but I've
always just assumed that it's easier to get a vegetarian meal at an Indian
restaurant.
The beef thing, though, came as a surprise. (I always thought beef was so
taboo that no one would ever touch it.) I felt so weird the time I ate a steak
at a steakhouse in India.
~~~
sridca
Some people actually believe it be so. Here's a recent example from HN:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19927745](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19927745)
------
amriksohata
Narendra Modi's ruling Hindu nationalist BJP promotes vegetarianism and
believes that the cow should be protected, because the country's majority
Hindu population considers them holy. More than a dozen states have already
banned the slaughter of cattle. And during Mr Modi's rule, vigilante cow
protection groups, operating with impunity, have killed people transporting
cattle.
\- This is a bit of a weird article, almost like its a point proving/scoring
to prove India isn't vegetarian which a lot of people know that there are meat
eaters in India. Forget politics, for anyone who is half educated about
climate change, stopping cow slaughter for meat is one of the best ways to
reduce our footprint, both in methane output as well as reducing the insane
amount of crops used to fatten cattle.
------
rudiv
This reminds me of how I always associated South Indian food with vegetarian
food growing up in Delhi, where the majority of South Indian restaurants are
run by Brahmins. (As I now know) fish and meat are essential to southern
cuisines, but my less adventurous or less informed friends still persist in
that misconception to some extent.
------
sfifs
I'm actually a bit surprised the number is estimated as high as 20%. I'd have
expected much lower. The stereotype exists because a majority of the people
who have emigrated West in the past have come from historically "upper castes"
which have a much higher proportion of vegetarians.
------
dharmach
Isn't India more vegetarian than any other country in the world?
~~~
seanmcdirmid
Maybe? At 20%, it depends on how accurate Mexico’s numbers are. By absolute
numbers, surely.
------
baybal2
Reminds me of the last time I saw pork sausages in Islamabad
~~~
seanmcdirmid
Beef curry is great in Goa (which, anyways, is more Christian than Hindu).
~~~
rudiv
Maybe in the more tourist-y areas. AFAIK Goa state is 70% Hindu.
~~~
seanmcdirmid
Oh ya, this was a seaside resort that we were sequestered at for a workshop.
------
sridca
I'm surprised that this rather uncontroversial article got flagged. Anyone
have any theories as to why?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
It’s Game Time for the Web – A Comparison Between Web Performance and Games - fagnerbrack
https://medium.com/ben-and-dion/its-game-time-for-the-web-ca8a1ab753e0
======
PaulHoule
He "sciences the shit".
Really?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Why is Google tiptoeing around the Olympics? - ericskiff
Today's Google Doodle is clearly Olympic inspired to go with today's opening ceremonies. Yet, when you mouse over the image, the tooltip which would usually explain the doodle lamely says "hooray for sports"<p>More interesting and worrisome is that when you click on the image, Google has carefully crafted a query that doesn't say the word "Olympics" anywhere - instead opting to search for "opening ceremony london 2012" and let the results explain themselves.<p>Strangely, on the results page, there's a whole information and schedule box dedicated to the Olympics, presumably build in cooperation with them.<p>This seems like overreaching to me - I understand that Google shouldn't be able to use the Olympics brand for free, but they can't even link to search results about the Olympics? Doesn't that set a terrible precedent for whether linking can be construed as trademark and/or copyright infringement?<p>I'd love to hear opinions and thoughts.
======
ig1
It's nothing to with copyright or trademark, the olympic brand has special
protection due to legislation written specifically for it. Unless they're an
officially sponsor they can't associate the Olympics with their brand.
That's different from providing information about the olympics.
------
dholowiski
Isn't "Olympics" a trademark? I think the IOC is pretty litigious.
There's this:
[http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120719/03392819758/olympi...](http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120719/03392819758/olympics-
crack-down-anyone-mentioning-them-without-paying-as-white-house-tells-
everyone-to-set-up-olympics-parties.shtml) and this:
[http://articles.philly.com/2012-07-12/news/32633390_1_usoc-l...](http://articles.philly.com/2012-07-12/news/32633390_1_usoc-
lunch-counter-olympic-sports)
------
deango
You know that google was doing it's best to be in compliance with the strict
Olypic IP rules, law and regulations for every country. According to Techdirt,
the Olympics in over-protecting their intellectual property -- even to the
level of getting host countries to pass special IP laws that only apply to the
Olympics...See another techdirt article:
[http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120713/12025919694/olympi...](http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120713/12025919694/olympic-
level-ridiculousness-you-cant-link-to-olympics-website-if-you-say-something-
mean-about-them.shtml)
------
dglassan
My opinion is that you're overthinking this way too much. Just because a
single employee probably chose to link it to "opening ceremony london 2012"
doesn't mean they're trying to avoid copyright infringement. It probably means
nothing
~~~
Foy
Not at all, even in London, businesses that are NOT official sponsors are
banned from even hinting that they're related to the Olympics in any way.
There was a of this kind of stuff in the news not too long ago. The IOC is
very serious about protecting it's sponsors rights... to the point where even
referencing the "summer games" would get you in trouble if you weren't a
sponsor. Haha.
------
AznHisoka
Opinion? It's Friday afternoon, and I want to go home and have a beer. My
neurons are fried.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Dynamic of Opinions with Social Biases - aylons
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0005109819301955
======
aylons
After posting, I realized there's a pre print at arxiv:
[https://arxiv.org/pdf/1802.01052.pdf](https://arxiv.org/pdf/1802.01052.pdf)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What's the best platform for E-Commerce? - stevofolife
I'm a MEAN stack developer and also knows Wordpress. What's the most cost effective way to start selling things online? Should I just buy a domain and install Wordpress/WooCommerce or is it worth building it in-house and do my payment integration? Anything else?<p>Given that I want to have control over UI/UX.
======
JTxt
It all depends on you, what you're selling, how much time you want to spin
your wheels trying to make it perfect without actually selling anything...
Perhaps do a bit more research then just do it, whatever is most comfortable
to you?
[https://www.google.com/search?q=mean+stack+ecommerce](https://www.google.com/search?q=mean+stack+ecommerce)
[https://www.google.com/search?q=nodejs+ecommerce](https://www.google.com/search?q=nodejs+ecommerce)
[https://www.google.com/search?q=worspress+ecommerce](https://www.google.com/search?q=worspress+ecommerce)
[https://www.google.com/search?q=php+ecommerce](https://www.google.com/search?q=php+ecommerce)
[https://www.google.com/search?q=drupal+ecommerce](https://www.google.com/search?q=drupal+ecommerce)
[https://www.google.com/search?q=odoo+ecommerce](https://www.google.com/search?q=odoo+ecommerce)
Or just start selling somewhere already established... Worry about ui/ux
later?
[https://www.google.com/search?q=Selling+on+amazon](https://www.google.com/search?q=Selling+on+amazon)
[https://www.google.com/search?q=start+selling+on+ebay](https://www.google.com/search?q=start+selling+on+ebay)
------
miniminiyo
Prestashop works fine :
[https://www.prestashop.com/en/](https://www.prestashop.com/en/)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Later Locker: for content that sucks on your mobile phone - bdotdub
http://laterlocker.com/
======
bdotdub
Hey HN,
Just thought I'd show you guys something that I quickly threw together this
weekend.
It's a webapp that for websites that suck on your iPhone/Android/mobile phone.
Later Locker lets you email a link to the webpage to an email address and have
it automatically appear on your computer. Sites like the <http://nytimes.com>
or <http://newegg.com> are kind of annoying to view in your mobile browser.
So, you send a link to the webpage from your phone and automatically appears
on your desktop!
Still really rough, but would love any feedback/suggestions you guys have!
Using mailgun for parsing!
\- Benny
~~~
hedgehog
Have you thought about using a bookmarklet instead of e-mail on the phone?
~~~
bdotdub
I've thought about it, but bookmarklets on the iPhone (not sure about android)
is exceedingly annoying. Marco Arment (Instapaper founder) wrote about his
experience here: [http://www.marco.org/2010/10/10/an-open-enhancement-
request-...](http://www.marco.org/2010/10/10/an-open-enhancement-request-to-
the-mobile-safari-team)
~~~
hedgehog
I built something similar a while back (<http://pagestackandroid.appspot.com/>
if you're curious), for iOS I found that the easiest way to set up
bookmarklets is to add them on the desktop (Safari or IE) and then sync to the
phone. At the time bookmarklets didn't work on Android so we ended up making a
native app (I think you have to register for the "share text" intent, it's
been a while).
~~~
bdotdub
Whoa, that looks awesome (and really good looking). Thanks for the tip :)
------
joebadmo
Open source alternative for Android/Chrome: <http://www.2cloudproject.com/>
The experience is really nice because it uses the native Android 'share link'
dialogue.
------
guynamedloren
I'm a bit confused. By "magically appears on my computer", do you mean "open
email and click link to open webpage in browser"? Or does it actually just
open right away, somehow?
~~~
bdotdub
If you keep the webpage open (extension to come), it'll open the link that you
sent to the service. It'll be there waiting for you when you get back to your
computer
See my reply to derek
~~~
guynamedloren
Gotcha. So what happens if I don't have the webpage open on my desktop, or if
I send multiple links?
~~~
bdotdub
It just queues up on the website, and thus no magic :(
------
gnok
This is awesome! A simple idea, wonderfully executed. Couple of features I'd
like to see: * An RSS/Atom/whatever feed of the articles, so they show up in
my feed reader/Calibre * The exact same thing in reverse; Often, I'd just like
to boil the text off a web page and read it on my phone on the morning/evening
train commute. This possibly changes the scope of your weekend hack to
something a lot more complex..
~~~
bdotdub
Thanks gnok!
Indeed, an RSS feed would be cool. In the queue ;)
The reverse is solved by Instapaper or ReadItLater. This is the reverse of
those apps :)
------
derekdahmer
I'd really like push support to the app, like the Handoff app, but in reverse.
<http://www.handoffapp.com/>
~~~
bdotdub
There is! (if I understand correctly)
It's hacky, but if you keep the webpage open, any links you send from your
mobile will "push" (technically, it pulls) to your browser!
------
Shanewho
The font of the headers looks a bit jagged for me for some reason. Not sure
why but it really stands out. You may want to look into that.
------
talby
Been talking with @handoffapp about this and they say they're working on the
same problem. Nice to have something in the wild though.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Prism is an HTTP and WebSocket API Gateway - jeswin
https://retransmit.io/
======
jeswin
Hello HN,
I've been working on this for the past three months. I started this project
because many clients I work with (as part of my consulting gigs) have switched
to Micro Services and needed an API gateway in front of them (to do response
aggregation, rate limiting etc). There are options out there like Kong, but
some of them prefer a simpler (and free) tool extensible using JS. Hence
Prism.
Aside of regular API gateway features, some capabilities in Prism are unique.
For instance, Prism can receive messages on Redis channels and forward them to
specific WebSocket clients. This allows multiple services to asynchronously
send messages to WebSocket clients.
Prism is in Beta, but good enough to start trialing with. Over the next few
weeks, I plan to add more tests and improve the documentation. In particular,
the documentation around WebSockets needs more attention.
Happy to handhold anyone who wants to try Retransmit. If you run into
problems, please file an issue on github.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Hammercoin – A Bitcoin-fueled game - phaser
http://mego.cl/2016/11/24/hammercoin.html
======
imtringued
It's economy is going to fail like almost every MMORPG economy because they
only cover the supply side but not the demand side. Since every item is a
commodity which is mostly obtained incidentially there are a lot of sellers
that sell low quantities of that item. They don't care a lot about losing a
bit of money they want liquidity. there is usually a limit on simultaneous
sell orders which means you cant sell anything at all if you don't prioritise
liquidity or have high quantities. The easiest way to quickly sell your items
is to just price your item lower than everyone else. When everyone is doing
this the value of the commodity is quickly plummeting far below the price most
buyers are willing to pay. Heck I've seen items that cost less than the money
NPCs would give to you (premium users can access the market place anywhere
outside a city and they dont want to go to the NPC) This gives rise to traders
that buy these cheap commodities and then sell them for the market clearing
price. The simple solution would be to just reflect the demand side as well.
Allow players to issue buy orders like "I want x of item y. I pay z for each."
on the central marketplace. Those who need liquidity get it and those who want
fair prices to sell their items at get them too.
~~~
keypusher
It sounds like you are speaking about the deficiencies of some particular
game, this certainly isn't true of all MMOs. GW2 and Eve both support buy
orders, for instance. Items that drive the economy are also not always
obtained incidentally, often they must be crafted by someone with high enough
skill using rare components.
~~~
micfar
Given that the In-Game currency is purchasable with fiat currency, wouldn't it
be reasonable to surmise that hyperinflation doesn't occur in the same way due
to the fiat anchor for IG currency values?
~~~
keypusher
Only if it goes both ways. The ability to purchase in-game currency with fiat
currency actually makes inflation worse by introducing even more money to the
in-game economy. Most games currently do not allow in-game currency to be
"legally" converted back to real world money directly. Their solution is the
ability to convert large amount of in-game currency to meaningful metagame
items. In Eve, you can use in-game currency to pay for your subscription. In
GW2, you can use in-game currency to pay for "gems", which are used for
microtransactions such as server transfers, rare skins, additional bank
storage, etc. These gold sinks serve as an important valve to control
inflation of the economy by permanently removing that currency from the game.
------
sdrinf
Extra creditz just published an excellent video on why auto-generated vendor-
sellable items lead to hyperinflation under most circumstances, and a few ways
to avoid it:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sumZLwFXJqE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sumZLwFXJqE)
| When buying from a player, the player bot will try to resell the same item
for double the price.
Given this, and assuming auto-buy from vendorbots, I'd predict the second they
open the game for auto-grinders (or puppeteered bots) to appear, kill anything
in sight, sell stuff, pump any bitcoin any vendorbot might hold, until the
game economy holds no more bitcoin. It's probably more CPU-efficient, than
mining bitcoin; and there's a manual workforce readily mobilizable for it.
The game looks really promising, and I'd love to grind a few hours in it as it
stands, but I'm not sure if dropping a bitcoin dependency into it won't sink
it prematurely.
------
ogig
> on why using credit cards for videogames is a bad idea: You trust the game
> owner with your payment credentials, and while this is fine when using
> Google, Facebook and Apple “wallets”, indie developers like us don’t have
> access to the same level of trust.
> For every new player in the game we create a game wallet. This is a standard
> Bitcoin wallet you can deposit funds via QR codes and transfer to any wallet
> service.
This does not check. They refuse to hold cc data on a security promise but are
willing to host bitcoin wallets. Bitcoin laying around on game servers sounds
like a good target to me.
They would be much better using a third party for cc payments, regarding
security at least.
~~~
yuubi
Think of it from the player's point of view. If you send someone not-quite-
trusted or of fallible security $10 worth of btc, then the worst that can
happen is you never see it again. If you give them your cc (or worse, debit
card) number, then there's a chance of unauthorized charges to deal with
later.
~~~
foota
True, but a trusted third party payment processor is the best of both worlds.
------
kriro
I would like to see a game that tests the gold standard approach. Basically a
novel economic simulator. The hard part would be building a fun enough game
around it, I'm currently thinking some sort of sandbox game/MMORPG.
Upon the creation of the game world a fund of X money would be set aside and
correspond to all available in game items etc. For each paying player, new
items would be added that correspond to a percentage of their fees. You could
sell the items directly to the game bank for real money. No inflation so
there's a limited number of items available and only if a new player signs up
will new items be added.
You could probably even test player characters retiring at a certain level.
Say you grind up to level MAX and essentially solved the game...click retire
and you get refunded all the money that your items etc. are worth (and start
the grind again if you want)
~~~
runeks
> I would like to see a game that tests the gold standard approach.
Bitcoin is that experiment, but in the real world. After ~2021, the inflation
rate will be less than 1.8% p.a. [1]. I believe the stock-to-flow ratio of
gold is around 1% (its stock/supply increases around 1% per year). So they
will be pretty similar in that regard in ~5 years, and in addition, we won't
need to worry about whether our experiment actually reflects real-world
conditions, as opposed to with a game.
[1]
[https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Controlled_supply](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Controlled_supply)
------
VermillionAzure
My most favorite video game economy was Habbo Hotel, actually. Because few
people actually bought coins, people were caught in a deflated economy almost
constantly. And since special events or buying furniture from the store was
the only source of supply for the demand, a whole economy formulated around
furniture for coins, etc. I just thought the dynamic was neat.
Additionally, Spiral Knights also had an interesting model -- access to levels
was gated by something called "Energy," and you were given a cap and a given
regeneration rate for energy up to that cat. "Crystal Energy" could be bought
for real money and exchanged for in-game money, so it was an interesting deal
-- the game created an automatic sink for money in energy.
~~~
NTripleOne
Also, falling furni was fun as fuck and nothing anyone can say will change
that.
------
petejodo
So semi-related to this, I've contemplated about the feasibility of a
cryptocurrency/blockchain built specifically for a pseudo-MMO game where
instead of a central server, it's actually a network of servers where anyone
can host a server. Each server would be a "game world" that falls into a few
categories, such as PvE, PvP, and Town, where Town would be a sort of server
browser to find PvE/PvP servers.
The blockchain would store users' character data i.e. level, currency,
inventory, etc.
It would use a hypothetical form of proof of work where either the previous
hash or the nonce would determine what monster and items are available on that
server for some given amount of time. Clients would then be required to sign
with their private keys a "chain of events" that would have to line up with
the server's chain of events somehow.
I wouldn't know how to determine if a client and a server are cheating or not
though.
The game developer would imaginably host some of the larger servers and could
then sell the cryptocurrency they gain from hosting said servers for some
actual fiat as a means to make money.
Clearly this is an incredibly rough idea that I have not actually spent too
much time thinking about.
EDIT
an inspiration for this idea was "The World", a fictional game from the
dotHack series
------
zitterbewegung
Someone is going to figure out how to automate / bot / scam the game . Also,
isnt the game basically pay to win ?
~~~
unixhero
I don't think winning is the point. It would be fun if it was more - explore
to find, trade and gain.
------
Lazare
This doesn't sound like a horrible idea, but...
It's got nothing to do with bitcoins. It's just an RPG with easy conversion to
and from real world currency and a fond hope they can make a dynamic player-
run economy work. Unfortunately...
Other games have tried the real world currency conversion, most famously
Diablo 3. The consensus is that it worked horribly. And as for the dynamic
economy, man, this one has been tried a lot. With mixed success, but okay,
maybe they can make it work. In which case it'll be another RPG/MUD/MMO kinda
thing with strong crafting/econ elements? Yay?
But again, nothing they're doing is about bitcoins. They could easily use
Stripe or whatever to accept credit cards in exchange for in-game
"hammercoins". And given the (sorry) very small scale they're likely to be
operating at, withdrawls are not a huge problem. They could even buy bitcoins
and send them to people, if all else fails. Or Amazon gift cards. Or just
paypal them funds. The bitcoins is just a sprinkle of magic marketing words
that doesn't impact the game. Which brings us to:
> This is a safe measure given the insane amount of stolen cards and other
> frauds, but this might give you a hint on why using credit cards for
> videogames is a bad idea
Please stop. Yes, your use of bitcoins will get you some attention and free
advertising, good job. But if you're going to pretend it's actually a better
solution for accepting online payments than a credit card, you're insulting us
both.
~~~
Pamar
I think that Second Life (still running, and where you can still trade in-game
money for real money see: [https://community.secondlife.com/t5/English-
Knowledge-Base/B...](https://community.secondlife.com/t5/English-Knowledge-
Base/Buying-and-selling-Linden-dollars/ta-p/700107)) is a better example than
Diablo 3
~~~
Lazare
Quite possibly; I'm more familiar with Diablo 3 than Second Life, and had
actually forgotten (if I'd ever known) that Second Life allowed RMT.
I think that supports my overall point though: This isn't new, and you don't
need bitcoins to make it work.
~~~
r2pleasent
Diablo III's downfall was that there were price floors and price ceilings.
They set a minimum price for gold, which would be higher than its true value.
This led to people selling their gold outside of the RMAH, and killed the
liquidity of the in-game currency.
Items also had a maximum price limit. This meant that items worth more than
$250 USD at the time had to be sold for lesser value items, or for gold (which
had the downfalls listed above).
The problems with Diablo III were the restrictions on the marketplace.
Blizzard never allowed prices to hit their true equilibrium, and it created an
off-site black market along with other inefficiencies.
There is no reason that a game economy should be ruined in one way or another
by a real-money exchange rate. There are many games where players buy & sell
in-game currency for real money, where the in-game currency holds a very
steady real money value.
Take Runescape for example. One million Old School Runescape Gold has been
worth roughly $1 USD for the past 6 months. The volume of in-game currency
which has been bought and sold in that time period is in the tens of millions
of USD.
Source: I run [http://r2pleasent.com](http://r2pleasent.com) \- a site that
buys and sells in-game items.
------
jayajay
Don't be fooled by a few utterances of the word "Blockchain". This could still
be exploited by the game owners, who have control of the drop rates and enemy
interactions (i.e. there are still centralized aspects of this environment).
There are several elementary typos in that article -- so it makes me trust the
game creators even less. This reeks of typical MMORPG developer greed.
------
turowicz
I wish GTA Online had their dollars based on this idea.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Windows Phone 7 – Released To Manufacturing - rufflelesl
http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_phone/b/windowsphone/archive/2010/09/01/windows-phone-7-released-to-manufacturing.aspx
======
cryptoz
Competition is good and I hope this forces Google and Apple to continue
innovating...
However, I've seen demos of this phone OS and it looks pretty awful to use.
Maybe you have to be using it in person and physically holding the device to
like it, who knows.
~~~
byoung2
The OS seems to be a love it or hate it thing. I love the way it looks in the
demos, but I don't think I'll buy one. There are a few things that worry me,
such as the lack of a removable microSD card, no true multi-tasking, and no
copy/paste. My last 2 phones were Windows Mobile, but I recently jumped ship
to Android with my HTC Evo, and I'm not going back. Microsoft had their
chance, and they lost me.
------
iamelgringo
I was at Maker's Faire in May. Microsoft was there demoing Sync ( mobile apps
)for Ford automobiles.
They had a guy who had built a aiming mechanism for a t shirt cannon by using
the tilt controls on the Win 7 phone. He was using the .Net api's from the
phone to control the t-shirt cannon via Microsoft's Robotics studio api. I was
rather impressed.
~~~
ratsbane
I saw that same demo booth at Maker Faire - except that I never saw the demo.
The two or three times I stopped by that booth they were waiting for someone
to bring something or out of tshirts. It was a neat-looking contraption,
though, but I'm not ready to fully appreciate it until I see it shooting the
shirts.
------
niyazpk
Meh.
Microsoft have been consistently failing to impresses in the mobile space; I
will wait till the actual product is released before getting excited.
Android devices are doing great, iPhone is doing great and it is not about a
single product anymore. Developers and the ecosystem is very important in
deciding the fate of devices in this space. I have a feeling that Microsoft
may be already out of the game.
~~~
tallanvor
We'll have to see where things are in a year or so. Microsoft does have a few
areas where they may be able to pick up iPhone users:
1) iPhone fatigue. I know a number of people who are tired of their iPhones
for one reason or another and either have switched (generally to Android) or
will be switching when they can. Obviously Android will get a lot of these,
but not necessarily all of them.
2) If gaming works well, and there's integration with XBox Live, they could
start to pick up gamers. --I doubt anyone really expected Microsoft to be able
to rival Nintendo or Sony when the XBox first came out, but it happened.
3) Business users. Granted, many business people love RIM, but if Microsoft is
able to provide a fuller experience around business, they'll be able to
attract users.
I'm not going to try to predict the success or failure of Windows Phone OS,
but I'm certainly not going to write them off before the phones are in the
wild.
~~~
roc
Microsoft has all the pieces to do a really great consumer ecosystem. But
they've been fumbling for so long, there's just no good reason to believe a
product developed within the bureaucracy can pull it together.
The XBox succeeded largely because it was outside the bureaucracy during its
formative stages. And since then, absolutely _nothing_ from inside the
bureaucracy has integrated well with it.
. Media integration into the 360 was not good.
. Media Center integration wasn't any better.
. 360/Zune integration was never really attempted.
. Live for Windows/XBox Live integration was not good.
. Live Marketplace/Zune Marketplace integration is more awkward than
Live/Netflix.
etc.
~~~
nailer
You're right. They can't execute. They get 90% of the way there and fail.
I'm a Mac / Linux / Android guy. Not a Windows person at all. But I have a
Windows media Centre TV and it's awesome.
* I browse upcoming movies on TV by scrolling through a list of movie posters.
* I have Sky pay TV, a DVR, Blu Ray, and Youtube in one interface
* Channels are identified by logos as well as number.
It's a brilliant consumer product. But do you know who sells it in the
consumer space?
Nobody.
If you walk into Best Buy or Currys, you'll find boxes from everyone but MS.
There's no hardware partners, no Sony no Panasonic no Hitachi WMC boxes. I had
to buy a Dell box, a separate remote, and a separate dual tuner. The result is
awesome, but there is no part of MS the company that seems to want to stand
behind this awesome product.
~~~
WiseWeasel
The cable/satellite providers control the DVR set-top box market. Resources
poured into marketing and distributing the WMC boxes would likely be largely
wasted.
~~~
nailer
WMC includes cable providers already.
------
endtime
Congrats to the WPS7 team...it's been a long journey.
I'm stuck with my iPhone contract for another year, and I'm hoping that by
then the WPS7 OS/ecosystem will have matured to the point that I can feel good
about making the switch.
~~~
spoiledtechie
I agree. Congrats to the team. Its been a long process. Im happy to see the
team make a final release. I for one will be buying once they come out.
------
keithwarren
I think what most people fail to understand when it comes to market
significance here is the leverage in the developer community. I know most HN
people are not MSFT fans but Silverlight is a great technology and the phone
dev platform is based on Silverlight. Microsoft has won markets in the past
because of developers and they will be strong in the 3rd party application
market here. Having had a iPhone for years, now and Android and developed for
all three platforms I think that Android is going to be in trouble unless the
quality of user experience quickly rises for apps in their market.
Because of contract cycle lengths on phones I think this is a battle that will
be waged for at least the next 6 years. Going to be fun!
------
gte910h
I was amazed at the ZIP of the phone when I saw a demo model at a iPhone
event.
It's very snappy, app startup and the menus itself.
~~~
commandar
I got to spend about half an hour playing with a hardware reference device not
too long ago. While it was fast (and had the best OSK I've used), the UI was
just a complete mess. Navigation was clumsy, and it's almost shocking that MS
would bring out a platform without multitasking after even Apple has conceded
that point.
The best description I've heard is that it sort of feels like using iPhone
1.5. That was great in 2007, but I don't know how it's going to fly in
2010/2011 given it's going up against a growing iOS and Android, an entrenched
RIM, and potential for HP to breathe new life into the superior WebOS.
------
Hoff
Microsoft continues to long pre-announce their products - the first US widgets
are November? - which implies they're going to continue to under-deliver on
their execution, to detract from the work of all the bright people over there,
to follow the everything-is-named-Windows branding, and to generally
disappoint their customers.
This RTM on the same day where Jobs announced two iOS releases within the same
range when WP7 products are expected.
And what else Apple and Android or HP (with WebOS) might or will deploy before
the Microsoft partners ship products built from this Microsoft RTM
announcement?
Time to start managing their customer expectations down, as is their
inexplicable wont?
~~~
kenjackson
I think in this case they had a tough call to make, and I think they made the
right one. They either keep it under wraps, and not get dev tools and SDK
coverage. Or they announce early and launch with a relatively strong ecosystem
out the gate.
I think they've built up a decent amount of anticipation for their devices.
And on the dev side I only know slightly more iOS devs than WP7 devs right now
(and far more than Android devs). That's kind of crazy since there are 120M
iOS devices and no WP7 devices shipped. I wouldn't be surprised if others were
seeing a similar phenomena.
And remember MS kept Kin underwraps until a month before shipping, and you see
how well that went. :-)
------
prototype56
I am going to get this just for zune integration .
------
tajddin
I think Microsoft has a lot riding on this platform and as such they'll be
pumping a lot of cash into the marketing and promotion of this release. From a
software standpoint, I'm quite excited about the .NET experience I'll be able
to harness in order to create apps -- Microsoft will be able to leverage
existing .NET developers like me to quickly grow the Windows Phone app
catalog.
As far as the interface is concerned, I like it. It's different and data-
centric, unlike most of the alternatives.
------
jsz0
I think WM7 will be at least a modest success for Microsoft. The Android
handset makers are pushing the platform in a weird direction. Larger handsets
& more software complexity. I think there's probably a lot of people out there
who don't want either an iPhone or an Android device for various reasons. Most
of them are probably RIM users today due to the simplicity of BBOS. WM7 will
be a legitimate option for them. I could see WM7 having a 10-20% market share
within a few years.
------
nopal
On a side note, this is one of the most well-formatted blogs that I've seen
from Microsoft. I usually find MS blog posts very hard to read, and usually
end up not doing so.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Lisphp is a Lisp dialect written in PHP. - jperras
http://github.com/lunant/lisphp
======
leftnode
Happy to see PHP be taken more seriously around here. Trust me, we're not all
moronic programmers using register globals, magic quotes, and other
abominations originally available in PHP.
This is a pretty cool project.
~~~
mattew
I think PHP suffers from some of the same issues that VB6 suffered from in
terms of inexperienced programmers. With VB6, someone who was not as much of a
programmer as we all are could write themselves into a massive mess. I have
found when writing PHP code if you are careful, you can build things with
decent design patterns and consistency. Sure, its not as clean as a lot of
languages, but it sure is easier for me to figure out what is going on with
PHP code someone else wrote compared to Perl or Ruby code.
~~~
jacquesm
This single biggest issue I've found when working with PHP for larger projects
is that even if you are a disciplined programmer you get to the point where
the includes will eat up your performance and your memory requirements will
become larger. See drupal as an example of this.
You can get around some of that by using a php accelerator but it would seem
to me that something like that ought to be part of the basic distribution.
~~~
asnyder
That's what autoload is for. It's been around since PHP 5.0.
<http://php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.autoload.php> and allows you to
require the necessary files or classes only when you need them. Seems like
they solved this problem to me.
~~~
gaoshan
I use frameworks (Zend, CodeIgniter) for all PHP projects except protoyping
HTML templates (like, when knocking out a quick page with placeholder data and
functionality to show a client). The hate poured on PHP for functionality that
I have never, ever used (read pretty much any "PHP sucks because..." post and
notice that the majority of the complaints are for things that real PHP
developers are well aware of and effortlessly deal with) gets tiresome to hear
about. Use it following some basic, current, best practices and it is fast,
easy and perfectly fine for developing with.
------
dahlia
I'm the author of this, I made the web REPL also.
<http://dahlia.ruree.net/try-lisphp/>
Well, of course, it uses a sandbox environment.
~~~
mahmud
From a quick look, you managed to get one thing right, even though it baffles
even respected language implementers: a proper stack trace on error. Most
people who write a HLL interpreter in another HLL tend to cheat and implement
a half-baked source to source translator.
[Edit:
Question: Why does it have T, NIL, #T and #F? what roles do these symbols play
in the language; which ones are canonical truth values, which ones signify
list termination, and which ones signify the empty value? This is the
perennial Lisp question.]
~~~
KirinDave
> Most people who write a HLL interpreter in another HLL tend to cheat and
> implement a half-baked source to source translator.
Is this a jab at the Lisp tradition of compiled sublanguages?
~~~
jimbokun
Bad stack traces is certainly one of the major complaints against Clojure.
~~~
KirinDave
They seem fine to me.
Do you want to see “bad” stack traces? Try Erlang. There is a language with
truly obtuse stack traces.
~~~
eru
And the very concept of strack traces does not even make too much sense in
e.g. Haskell. (Though it can be made to work, with some cleverness.)
------
andrewvc
This is analagous to McDonalds serving duck confit (and it actually tasting
kind of good).
------
jacquesm
Minor nitpick, the cdr implementation is (out of need, as far as I can see)
terribly slow for larger datasets, it uses array_slice($this->getArrayCopy(),
1) .
~~~
dahlia
I implemented cdr just to respect a Lisp tradition. Lisphp's Lisphp_List type
isn't a linked list but a subtype of ArrayObject, which supports random
access. So instead of doing:
(car (cdr (cdr (cdr list))))
you should just do:
(at list 3)
~~~
sedachv
Since Lisphp is a new dialect, you don't need to worry about backward-
compatibility. You should get rid of car/cdr entirely. There is no inherent
reason for using linked lists for anything - even s-expressions. For example,
no one has ever complained about the lack of car/cdr in Parenscript (although
to be fair, Parenscript is not homoiconic, just a translator from CL to JS).
Having a good backquote-comma templating syntax is more valuable.
You should even get rid of a custom type for Lisphp sequences and use PHP
arrays directly. Ditto all other datatypes. Then if you use PHP's calling
convention you should be able to call PHP code directly without needing USE
and FROM, and more importantly PHP code can do the same to Lisphp with minimal
pain. That way writing Lisphp libraries for others to use becomes viable.
~~~
jacquesm
I think it's actually quite neat that it tries to stay close to the lisp code
that you see in examples and books about lisp.
~~~
sedachv
What's the point of sacrificing something like platform integration for
car/cdr? Anyone who is going to want to use Lisphp for real work is not going
to have a problem writing their code to use arrays. Anyone who thinks that
car/cdr is more valuable than platform integration is not going to use Lisphp
for real work. And everyone else will come by and say "Lisphp has those weird
car/cdr and it can't even work with PHP libraries without glue code, Lisp is a
toy."
------
shaunxcode
I think I need to change the name of my repository now. I am now the author of
"phlisp" <http://github.com/shaunxcode/phlisp> to avoid confusion. hah. It is
cool to see a different approach to the same problem! I am going more for
source -> source, quasiquote macros, TCO, some arc-esque syntactic sugar etc.
and back to php4 compat. Definitely a kick in the ass to release it now as I
have stalled since april due to "work".
------
arnorhs
This is maybe not so useless but definitely awesome!
At least this would solve the whole "which server should I use for lisp"
problem...
~~~
jacquesm
That was exactly my thought, the lisp deployment problem can be checked off
the list. This also significantly lowers the barrier to entry for people that
want to try lisp.
He seems to have done (much) more than a half baked job of it judging by the
rest of the page.
~~~
jules
There is lisp and there is lisp. The libraries and the speed do matter. While
this is an interesting project it's not comparable to SBCL, Racket or Clojure.
~~~
jimbokun
"The libraries and the speed do matter."
Does PHP lack for good libraries? That was the trick Clojure used with Java to
get bootstrapped.
~~~
jules
> Does PHP lack for libraries?
No.
> Does PHP lack for good libraries?
Yes. PHP's libraries are one of the ugliest and non lispy in existence :(
~~~
jacquesm
Since they were not made with 'lisp' or anything 'lispy' in mind that should
come as no surprise.
PHP is about as declarative as you get, assignments are the norm, not the
exception and side-effects are how just about everything is done. It's not
exactly elegant, but it fills a niche and apparently fills it quite well.
Though python is catching up, and even if it isn't quite as easy to deploy a
large scale python web application as it is to deploy PHP the difference is
getting smaller all the time.
------
mcs
It's kind of funny that people see PHP related to anything other than serving
websites and they cringe.
As of 5.3 (and I won't say prior to that because even I don't believe it), PHP
has become a nice utility language for just more than serving out wordpress.
Closures and the reference sweep GC level the playing field.
~~~
jimbokun
I just finished reading "Javascript the Good Parts" recently. It's probably
also the case for PHP that if you pretend that certain parts of the language
just don't exist, you end up with a pretty good language. (I have never
programmed anything in PHP.)
Building a Lisp on top of PHP strikes me as a vehicle for helping developers
to adhere to the "good parts." I'm not sure whether that was the intent here,
but it could turn out to be a useful side effect.
A note on the language itself:
It appears that you can choose any set of matching braces that you want
anywhere in your program. I think this is the convention Scheme uses. Common
Lisp reserves braces other than () for reader macros.
I personally, however, favor Clojure's approach of defining distinct behavior
for each brace type. There are only three pairs of matched characters on the
keyboard. It seems to me that this makes them too valuable to not leverage
them as a core part of the language. Immediately knowing the meaning of a
specific brace type makes it much easier to read someone else's code.
~~~
gtani
[http://www.amazon.com/PHP-Good-Parts-Delivering-
Best/dp/0596...](http://www.amazon.com/PHP-Good-Parts-Delivering-
Best/dp/0596804377/)
------
jcw
Has anyone tried running code with this yet? This results in errors:
<?php
require_once('Lisphp.php');
$env = Lisphp_Environment::full();
$program = new Lisphp_Program("(echo 1)");
$program->execute($env);
?>
~~~
dahlia
Try this:
$env['echo'] = new Lisphp_Runtime_PHPFunction(create_function('', '
$args = func_get_args();
foreach ($args as $arg) echo $arg;
'));
after:
$env = Lisphp_Environment::full();
~~~
jcw
Thanks! From the 'try lisphp' page, I assumed that echo was built in.
------
oneofamillion
A related project is clpython. I think lisphp can be a funny way for people
using php to learn some dialect of Lisp. But in the end, there is glue with C
code for example FFI to get speed.
------
asimjalis
Similar to Lisp2Perl
<http://www.hhdave.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/>
Which implements Lisp on Perl.
~~~
stcredzero
Counter-intuitively, it's often easier to implement a more powerful, more
elegant language in a less powerful one than the other way around. Often, good
language design is correlated with elegant syntax, which contributes to this.
~~~
eru
Maybe. Though it is relatively easy to implement an ancient BASIC in Haskell.
The other way around is harder.
------
prodigal_erik
I hope he finds workarounds for some of PHP's more serious defects, like "pass
by value or maybe reference" semantics, no user-defined types as indices (even
most primitive types get silently mangled), and == being just blatantly wrong.
Part of what makes a language pleasant to use is that it doesn't keep
surprising you--stuff you'd expect to work, does.
------
dahlia
I made the mailing list (Google Groups) which is the place for discussion
about Lisphp:
[email protected]
<http://groups.google.com/group/lisphp>
Join us if you are interested in this project!
------
c00p3r
Let me guess - _\\(get_global_var "HTTP_SERVER", $MyServer, $ENV\\)_
------
c00p3r
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1467067>
------
c00p3r
Smartguys should write a lisp dialect for erlang VM. ^_^
------
mkramlich
ugly language meets pretty language
have a few drinks
nine months later, baby arrives and uploaded to GitHub! :)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Presumably you are now cloning Pokemon Go “with a twist”? - hoodoof
So of course your big new idea is to do something very much like Pokemon Go but with some difference or twist.<p>What's your clone plan?
======
bobwaycott
Well, a friend and I have been toying with an idea since quite a while before
Pokemon Go released. Now we're looking at that idea with some chagrin,
recognizing it would be seen as a copycat idea.
------
pmtarantino
I have a similar idea that I could easily share in a niche I could be
considered an influencer. The problem is obviously I don't own any rights so I
can't do nothing.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Why does Google not offer an API to its search results? - chatmasta
======
byoung2
Because with an API you could get the results without seeing their ads.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Tool of the Day: Titanpad: Etherpad Reincarnated - greengirl512
http://www.usefultools.com/2010/04/etherpad-reincarnated/
======
biaxident
Are there any new features with this incarnation?
I was really hoping people would take the original Etherpad and run with it,
but instead there have just been numerous sites running the original code
base.
~~~
mortuus
No new features, just a stable Etherpad.
About: _TitanPad was launched to provide an EtherPad setup which is unrelated
to any commercial and political entities. Its goal is to offer a stable
service through proper operating._
------
b-man
Why not just use gobby[1]?
[1] <http://gobby.0x539.de/trac/>
------
ApolloRising
Will it allow private pads?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
LinkedIn Violates CAN-SPAM - suking
Our company has a google apps account and recently terminated an employee and got rid of his email account. Now I get all his old email to our catch-all. LinkedIn will not let me unsubscribe from his updates to this email address without logging in - which I obviously can't do nor is it legal to make someone login to unsubscribe. Anyone from LinkedIn please take care of this - I get 5+ emails/day from his updates and groups he was in. This is a violation of CAN-SPAM.<p>Thanks.
======
paulhauggis
Here is a link to the can spam law:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN-SPAM_Act_of_2003>
"any electronic mail message the primary purpose of which is the commercial
advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service"
I don't think it violates the law because it's sending you updates to his
account (which he has contol over), not adverting for a service or product.
~~~
suking
So I can send emails all day long with an update to people to visit my site.
Since they get money if you go to their site I would consider it commercial.
Also - even if it isn't commercial - they should let you 1 click unsubscribe -
pretty scummy I cannot stop these emails.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What note-taking app you are using? - horizontech-dev
This is like the vim vs emacs of the current generation:
Notion vs Evernote; Onenote vs Google Keep; etc.<p>I have tried different note-taking apps in the last 3 years. I understand there is no one silver bullet for this. I am curious to hear your thoughts about what worked and what didn't.<p>BTW, I am currently using https://joplinapp.org.<p>- FOSS
- You can use your own storage (Dropbox, etc)
- Supports markdown
======
greenyoda
There was a big discussion just yesterday:
Ask HN: What do you use to keep track of bookmarks/notes/snippets?
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22778123](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22778123)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Microsoft Windows 7 is top choice for netbooks - dreemteem
http://news.techworld.com/mobile-wireless/3204069/microsoft-windows-7-is-top-choice-for-netbooks/
======
DanielStraight
It is somewhat misleading to call Windows a "choice." Most Windows users are
probably completely unaware of what an OS is in the first place. They probably
know that a Mac is different, but likely couldn't tell you how. Windows to
most users is as fundamental a part of their computer as the screen.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Future of America's Contest with China - wslh
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/01/13/the-future-of-americas-contest-with-china
======
deogeo
Though trade with China flows both ways, if you look at know-how and
production capacity, it only goes one way - towards China.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Live 10 years longer through playing a game - tinco
http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_the_game_that_can_give_you_10_extra_years_of_life.html
======
tinco
Check out superbetter.com to play the game. It apparently is a scientifically
supported way of extending your life and happiness :) Especially for those
that struggle with depression and motivation issues. Things that entrepreneurs
often seem to suffer from.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Our Backup Strategy - Inexpensive NAS - Anon84
http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2009/02/our-backup-strategy-inexpensive-nas/
======
tdavis
Our backup strategy: Automated iSCSI snapshots made 4 times a day to a
datacenter across the country from the actual servers. And we don't even have
any user data.
When it's this simple, everybody can do it.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Do all startups do SEO? - niico
I've read a couple posts here where they are pretty much against SEO or see SEO as a "bad" or cheating thing.<p>Do you in your startup/website/company do SEO?<p>Maybe I am just too much of a SEO fanboy (?) but I 'm not sure if startups focus on organic search.<p>If so, what are your strategies? Like link building, articles, directories (no need to share your top secrets unless you want to :) )
======
solost
It depends what kind of business it is to be honest. Most start ups focus on
their product and worry about marketing and SEO later on.
SEO is just a single internet marketing tactic and in all honesty until you
have something worth marketing beyond friends and family, I wouldn't worry
about it or any of the other internet marketing tactics you might consider
until the appropriate time.
With that said there is nothing wrong with creating an SEO frinedly site and
blog early on. However I wouldn't get overly concerned about them until you
really have something worth marketing. At that point you need to look at the
marketing plan and I would be sure to include SEO as part of it.
SEO really has three key parts. Good on page optimization, quality content
creation, and high quality link building with solid anchor text. Do those
three things well and you will succeed.
I hope that helps.
------
garrettgillas
Every company that makes a well functioning websites "does SEO". The easier
white-hat practices of the past have come into common practice as part of what
is considered good web development. Things like making sure all you
navigational links are text, using consistent linking, and assigning correct
alt tags to images go along these lines.
The the question that I think you might be trying to ask is "whether all
startups go into the grey and black-hat areas of SEO". The obvious answer to
this is no. Lots do though.
~~~
niico
Yeah, but every company do SEO after having a considerable amount of traffic
or users when I believe it should be the other way. Egg or chicken.
------
ddoonie
I believe you may as well do basic on page SEO when building your site. Maybe
even build in a blog, which will serve two purposes - original content and
updates for your readers.
You can do link building passively (review posts, guest blog posts etc...).
I do agree with some others that it would be unwise not to do a little leg
work from the beginning when building your site.
------
fezzl
I think that it's foolish for any startup to avoid or refuse to do SEO. SEO is
scalable, repeatable marketing. One of the things that I hear over and over
again is to constantly create relevant content that relates to the keywords
for which you are optimizing. SEOMoz and HubSpot have some pretty good
resources on how to get started with SEO.
------
niico
Another question would be. Is is possible to build something without focusing
on SEO nowadays?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Copyright/IP Question - ErrantX
I've been asked this question by another person (so sorry if the details are a bit wrong) but have no real expertise there. Hopefully someone here can shed some light.<p>Hypothetically we have 2 companies competing in an indentical field: basically the 2 leading companies.<p>Now, the problem is company B has products matching company A in features and functionality. Company B waits for an A Product to launch then launches a competing product of this form (I think that is how it has been described to me).<p>How close does the product have to match (assuming no patent infringement, no code theft and no industrial espionage for the time being) before some sort of legal line is crossed?<p>Personally I am of the inclination that even if they directly reproduce a program identical in features there is not a lot comapny A can do? Or am I wrong?
======
pbhjpbhj
I worked as a Patent Examiner for 5 years and have hobbied as a copyright
troll (!) for quite a long time:
AFAIK, and this is not IP legal advice, there's jack all you can do unless you
have something uniquely novel and some sort of IP registration. Are they using
your trademarks to describe the product; Are they using your registered design
as the form of the product; Are they using your patented process; Are they
copying your artistic input?
From your description it doesn't sound like you have anything - you're then
getting into the territory of making something up, eg getting a weak patent to
batter people with [who don't have IP lawyers on staff].
Did you see the original implementations of Star Office (now OpenOffice.org)
versus MS's Word at the time? If MS could've sued they would IMO.
~~~
ErrantX
Yeh that's the way I am leaning at the moment. It really does seem to be a
case of identical featureset and similar language to describe it (for example
some of the acronyms for features are the same though the exact words (that
make up the acronym) are different).
Thanks for your input (you made me confident to go back to the guy and say
"you need an IP lawyer" :))
~~~
pbhjpbhj
Just read the Audion vs SoundJam (which became iTunes) story posted elsewhere
on HN. It seems quite aposit. Audion created a new skinning method, SoundJam
copied that method allowing Audion skins to be used with SoundJam. Some other
company than Panic would have added DRM to prevent the use of the skins in
anything but Audion.
Is there any way you can be more specific about the products? An IP Lawyer is
going to cost you - they will find stuff that you can protect but this is not
necessarily going to be the best way forward. Lawyers tend to see legal
solutions. YMMV.
edit:Typo
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Always start with simple solution - sasa_buklijas
http://buklijas.info/blog/2018/01/01/always-start-with-simple-solution/
======
zzzeek
JSON is not a human friendly config format; it has harsh rules for quoting,
brackets and commas and most importantly has no intuitive facility for
comments. YAML should be preferred to JSON for config. However, ConfigParser
is even better and a list of IPs need only be space separated (eg hosts =
config.get('hosts').split() , quite simple ) or you could even make the
_value_ of the parameter be a JSON list if you really like to type brackets
and quotes. The "simplest" approach is in fact to use the most _idiomatic_
approach that everyone recognizes, and if you're doing config files in python
that means ConfigParser.
Edit: it seems they went with a newly invented language called json-config
that looks like a hybrid of JSON and C-style comments. That's fine, but using
an invented config format that nobody knows isnt the "simplest" approach at
all. It's the most _complicated_ solution. When people use invented idioms in
their projects for things like config and logging that have widely accepted
idiomatic solutions included in Python std lib that's an immediate red flag.
~~~
philipov
I like YAML, but it needs shell-style $ substitution tokens to allow
constructing values from previously-defined values (such as when defining a
PATH variable, or subdirectory).
To that end, I'm going down the path of writing my own extension to YAML. Can
you recommend one that already exists that accomplishes this goal? I don't see
an alternative, because I can't find something standard that actually meets
the requirements.
Shell scripting languages are platform-specific, and not hierarchically
structured, so that's what I'm trying to replace to begin with.
Ansible requires a central server and full commitment to immutable
deployments, so it's too heavy for a package manager that can support
piecemeal adoption or that could be used by researchers doing ad-hoc
development. It doesn't support windows anyway (linux for windows subsystem
doesn't count).
Conda is nice, but even though it uses YAML for defining dependencies, it
nonetheless falls back to shell scripts for environment variables, and doesn't
offer features for environment modularization.
EDIT: Hierarchical structure is needed to be able to both express and
manipulate configs for software that expects input as XML, so ConfigParser
isn't good enough. Setting a value to a blob of JSON or XML denies the ability
to operate on that blob to do things like merge subtrees. Instead, I'm using
ruamel.yaml as my starting point, and adding post-processing after it's
converted to nested dict/lists.
~~~
zzzeek
> Ansible requires a central server and full commitment to immutable
> deployments
i dont know what that means. Ansible is like a much more structured form of
shell scripting, you can run ansible playbooks from anywhere to do anything
and make them do anything. i don't know what an "immutable deployment" is.
also ansible has nothing to do with "config", YAML is used as a declarative
scripting language rather than a config file format.
~~~
philipov
Really, I just want to know how ansible provides for token substitution, so I
could reuse a value defined elsewhere, so I could define all the
subdirectories in a playbook relative to a single base directory.
YAML doesn't offer a syntax for writing "${BASEDIR}/subdir". There's gotta be
something in ansbile that makes this possible, but I can't find it.
~~~
zo1
That "thing" that you're referring to is handled by Ansible, and not by YAML.
It uses the Jinja2 templating engine. And I would assume Ansible uses some
sort of scoping order/rules in order to provide values for the template
generation.
E.g. look here in the Ansible docs:
[http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/playbooks_loops.html#...](http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/playbooks_loops.html#standard-
loops)
It provides a construct that allows you to loop over a sub-list of YAML items,
and then let's you use the looped-variable in a string-substitution via the
templating language. That's the name: "{{ item }}" that you see there.
Edit. Typo
~~~
philipov
Thank you! this is what I've been looking for, but searches for token,
substitution, and "defining subdirectories" have not led to this. Calling it a
loop is confusing.
It seems the values have to be defined in some other file, so I couldn't chain
them, though.
Suppose I want to write something like...
paths:
BASEDIR: /somedir
SUBDIR1: {{ paths:BASEDIR }}/subdir1
SUBDIR2: {{ paths:SUBDIR1 }}/subdir2
Doesn't seem like that would work. I would end up putting all my definitions
into a separate file.
------
userbinator
_For example, here I needed a configuration file that will have a list of IP
addresses, which I will iterate in for loop.
This was the smallest requirement that I needed for my problem._
My instinctive solution would be even simpler --- a text file with one IP per
line, similar to a HOSTS file.
~~~
sasa_buklijas
You are correct, that is the simplest way.
What did I not disclose in the article is that I also wanted somehow to name
data.
I wanted this because I also know that in the configuration file, expect IP
addressed I will also need to store sleep duration.
I just find it more articulated if I also have a name for data.
Now I use [https://github.com/pasztorpisti/json-
cfg](https://github.com/pasztorpisti/json-cfg) for storing configuration as
JSON. json-cfg has the ability to add comments to JSON file.
~~~
t0mbstone
If you want to name your data, then you could have had a couple a different
text files that were named differently
~~~
sasa_buklijas
I meant data inside the text file.
Anyway, this is more question of preference :-)
~~~
beefield
I find plain csv a bit underrated in these kind of applications. As long as
you have flat data, you can read and edit the file with practically anything
without too much trouble.
------
tinymollusk
Related, in today's Farnam Street email, he linked to an article examining the
psychology behind why humans prefer complex things to the simple[0].
It's especially interesting because most other psychological biases appear to
be the result of a mental short-cut. Perhaps we see something complex and
mistakenly infer the preconditions were complex, and that somehow makes it
more valuable.
An especially interesting quotation, relevant to this forum is in that
article, by a sportswriter: "Most geniuses—especially those who lead
others—prosper not by deconstructing intricate complexities but by exploiting
unrecognized simplicities."
[0] [https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2018/01/complexity-
bias/](https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2018/01/complexity-bias/)
~~~
CM30
Wonder if ego has anything to do with it as well? Perhaps for some people,
they feel 'complexity' makes them look better, even if the simple solution
would better in every rational way. Then again, it could just be boredom. The
more complex solution also usually has a bunch of 'novel' issues to solve, and
solving those can be a lot more enjoyable for certain individuals than doing
things the reasonable way.
~~~
tinymollusk
Yeah, this creates some sort of "moat of knowledge" that increases status if
you make something easy look difficult. Also could make someone appear to be
less replaceable ("we would have to think about something that looks hard to
replace person XYZ!").
There's also the danger of overfitting when building the mental model or
process.
------
stuaxo
The first complexity in the ConfigParser example comes from trying to parse
something like a python list.
Just accept ips seperated by spaces, users will be thankful.
The other complexity is using the raw loading and converting from bytes.
ConfigParser can give you back strings and read the file for you.
Here is a full example:
import ConfigParser
import io
import shlex
def main():
config = ConfigParser.ConfigParser(allow_no_value=True)
config.read('config_ini.ini')
testing_1 = shlex.split(config.get('other', 'list_queue1'))
print(testing_1)
if __name__ == '__main__':
main()
This is the same as a comment I made on the website, but for the benefit of
any python devs here.
------
jcoffland
> At that time, I was accessing only one device (only one IP address).
> But could see that in future (in few months to one year), I will need to do
> the same set of command on more devices.
IMHO, this statement represents one of the biggest design smells in
programming. It's usually a bad idea to write software you may need in the
future. Circumstances change. Writing code is expensive and coding in
anticipation of what you might need is often a waste of time.
_Write code you need now, not code you may need later._
It makes sense to think ahead but if you're spending a lot of time writing
code you might need, then you're probably doing something wrong.
~~~
sasa_buklijas
> IMHO, this statement represents one of the biggest design smells in
> programming. It's usually a bad idea to write software you may need in the
> future. Circumstances change. Writing code is expensive and coding in
> anticipation of what you might need is often a waste of time.
Completely agree, as you said, "... is often a waste of time."
Unfortunately, I was not so lucky, literally 2 days after I have finished the
first version of the program I needed to add 2 more IP addresses.
I do agree that often is a waste of time.
------
orf
This is a pretty confused article. The author starts with a list of useful
things which he then deems 'too complicated', and ends up with using a JSON
based config file. Ok. But the things he listed are not too complex, and the
solution is a simple line-based config file of IP addresses:
import netaddr, sys
ips_to_connect_to = [*netaddr.IPGlob(ip) for ip in open(sys.argv[1])]
Those two lines handle points 1, 2 and 3 of his 'nice to haves'. You could
easily add 4 and 5 in under 10 lines. You could expand it to read from stdin
rather than a fixed file easily enough as well.
~~~
sasa_buklijas
Thank for mentioning
[http://netaddr.readthedocs.io/en/latest/](http://netaddr.readthedocs.io/en/latest/),
I did not know about it.
~~~
orf
The built in ipaddress module is enough for your current use case, netaddr
just handles globs.
------
sly010
Command line args would have been the simplest solution imho. Works simple for
simple cases and power users will create a bash wrapper anyway.
Hard to be wise without knowing the context, but I avoid config files as much
as possible, because:
\- Where does the config file live on different machines?
\- What if I want to have 2 configurations on one machine?
\- What if I need to change the list dynamically?
`for ip in sys.args` would give you most flexibility.
~~~
sasa_buklijas
I agree but I wanted to avoid this:
... writing 34 IP addresses as CLI parameter, that is around 373 letters, is
not a nice solution.
~~~
jcoffland
A bash script where you call the CLI program once for each IP would be a very
simple solution.
./script 127.0.0.1 5
./script 127.0.0.2 5
. . .
./script 127.0.1.254 10
~~~
sasa_buklijas
I was on windows. But OK, there is batch script also.
I had to call program will all IP addresses, one by one would just not work.
Your idea is fine, but it was just acceptable in my use case.
------
vesak
It's sad that the perfect template for all non-binary data, configuration and
otherwise, has been around for quite some time: S-expressions.
Nobody but lispers use them. Why?
~~~
xaedes
How would the example from the post look with s-expressions?
~~~
vesak
(test_list (test_1 test_2 test_3))
For the JSON configuration file, I suppose?
------
jimnotgym
Is that really simpler than writing the list out in a file called config.py
like
ips=['192.x....',
'192.y',
'192.z']
Then in your main
from config import ips
Or does distributing as an .exe preclude this?
Edit: formatting
~~~
sasa_buklijas
You are correct, that is the simplest way.
What did I not disclose in the article is that I also wanted somehow to name
data.
I wanted this because I also know that in the configuration file, expect IP
addressed I will also need to store sleep duration.
I just find it more articulated if I also have a name for data.
Now I use [https://github.com/pasztorpisti/json-
cfg](https://github.com/pasztorpisti/json-cfg) for storing configuration as
JSON. json-cfg has the ability to add comments to JSON file.
~~~
jimnotgym
Could you not do exactly the same but with a python dictionary rather than a
list?
~~~
sasa_buklijas
I was distributing my Python code as EXE, so use of Python code as
configuration was not possible.
Altho, I think that Python code as the configuration is a good solution if you
are executing source code, and only developer (not average user who does not
know what Notepad is) will edit it.
~~~
UncleEntity
I'm confused...
You're building a custom configuration file format for people who don't know
how to edit configuration files?
And, as they say, "xml is like violence..."
~~~
sasa_buklijas
I had to distribute my Python program as EXE because Windows PC where the
program needs to be executed did not have Python installed.
That is why using Python as configuration file was not possible.
Hope that I have explained it well.
------
yeukhon
YAML - I am not a big fan these days. Perhaps I am have OCD on format, but
with YAML ordering is “up to the user”. At least INI has a somewhat
“header/section” so it looks more organized. The “yes Yes True TRUE true 1 =>
True (python)” is flexible but can be seen as negative if again you are like
me OCD. You can enforce style guideline in your dev team, but for end-user,
probably worth reconsidering your strategy.
The reasons I’d consider JSON for configuration are (1) when the configuration
is really simple and short, and (2) I don’t want an extra dependency. You
don’t want to handcraft for a larger data structure, and context switch
between your terminal and JSON validator.
I like INI-style configuration file. But ConfigParser’s API is horrible, and
everyone seems to like tweak and invent their own “INI” format.
Instead, for those really need a good configuration file, I recommend TOML
[1].
For data file, either YAML or JSON are fine. But each comes with gotcha.
Trailing comma in JSON is invalid (which is probably #1 “wtf what’s wrong with
my json”). For YAML you need to be very careful with “do I want an int or do I
want a string.”
[1]: [https://github.com/toml-lang/toml](https://github.com/toml-lang/toml)
~~~
Kamshak
How does TOML solve the “do I want an int or do I want a string." part? I only
know YAML and this caught me a few times, would love to know how toml does it.
~~~
yeukhon
None of them do, sorry if I was being too casual. The reason I named YAML
because in YAML you can just write
name: bob
where bob is assumed to be a string by the YAML parser. This is bad if you use
Ansible because "bob" could be the name of a variable.
bob: "I am bob"
name: bob
# at runtime Ansible sees 'name: "I am bob"'
But both JSON and TOML need the users to be more explicit. So while users
still need to be mindful of "1" vs 1, JSON and TOML don't assume as much as
YAML does.
Let me show you in Python.
import toml
import yaml
s1 = "name: bob"
yaml.load(s1)
--> {'name': 'bob'}
s2 = "name = bob"
toml.loads(s2)
Traceback (most recent call last):
....
File ".../python2.7/site-packages/toml.py", line 664, in _load_value
v = int(v)
ValueError: invalid literal for int() with base 10: 'bob'
s3 = "name = bob eve"
toml.loads(s3)
Traceback (most recent call last):
raise TomlDecodeError("This float doesn't have a leading digit")
See how a space and without space yield a different exception different? Not
sure if it's an implementation problem, or the spec says so though. But the
point is TOML doesn't assume "bob" without a quote is a string, which is a
good thing.
------
_paulc
Actually this is pretty simple if you use ConfigParser properly:
# test.ini
[host1]
ip = 1.2.3.4
[host2]
ip = 5.6.7.8
[host3]
ip = 9.10.11.12
# config.py
import configparser
c = configparser.ConfigParser()
c.read("test.ini")
ips = [ c[host]['ip'] for host in c.sections() ]
------
bicubicmess
I prefer to state it this way: "Avoid speculative complexity".
~~~
twic
Or "do the simplest thing which could possibly work":
[https://ronjeffries.com/xprog/articles/practices/pracsimples...](https://ronjeffries.com/xprog/articles/practices/pracsimplest/)
------
scarface74
I'm really a fan of JSON config files for simple configuration. In a strongly
typed language you can parse it into a "Settings" object with one line of code
and work with the object.
Creating the settings object at least for C# is just a matter of pasting it
into a website (after removing all of the sensitive bits of course)
------
majewsky
Not directly related to the article, but can someone explain why people from
Eastern Europe and Russia tend to drop most of the articles (like "a", "an",
"the") when speaking/writing English?
~~~
grzm
Likely because Russian doesn’t have articles.
> _”There are no definite or indefinite articles (such as the, a, an in
> English) in the Russian language. The sense of a noun is determined from the
> context in which it appears.”_
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_grammar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_grammar)
~~~
sasa_buklijas
Correct, I (author) am from Croatia, and in the Croatian language, there are
no definite or indefinite articles.
I have noticed that I do not even see that I drop most of the articles. Only
when I use some grammatical spell checker than 90% of errors are missing
articles and that I notice it.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Coroutines in C, revisited - codr4life
http://vicsydev.blogspot.com/2016/11/coroutines-in-c-revisited.html
======
markpapadakis
This is a C++ coroutines framework( [https://github.com/markpapadakis/coros-
fibers](https://github.com/markpapadakis/coros-fibers) ), but its trivial to
“port” it to C.
I ‘ve also written a few things about coroutines and fibers(e.g
[https://medium.com/software-development-2/coroutines-and-
fib...](https://medium.com/software-development-2/coroutines-and-fibers-why-
and-when-5798f08464fd#.qz59082w0) and [https://medium.com/software-
development-2/high-performance-s...](https://medium.com/software-
development-2/high-performance-services-using-coroutines-
ac8e9f54d727#.1s8lfoswb) ).
Coroutines based on stack manipulation(as opposed to simple FSMs) are
extremely powerful and are particularly useful for implementing fair
scheduling across runnable ‘processes’ and concurrent execution contexts. Fair
scheduling in particular can be really important in the domain of distributed
systems that need to process potentially long-running and/or expensive request
which would otherwise stall processing other cheaper requests indefinitely.
Combined with async I/O, this gives near optimal concurrency and resources
utilisation. Coroutines are often associated (literally and figuratively) with
futures/promises. See SeaStar framework for a great implementation of those
ideas.
~~~
marktangotango
>> Coroutines based on stack manipulation(as opposed to simple FSMs) are
extremely powerful and are particularly useful for implementing fair
scheduling across runnable ‘processes’ and concurrent execution contexts.
So, isn't this what threads are for? This is not a snarky comment, genuine
interest: but isn't this what the OS scheduler and thread implementations are
meant to do, and implementing essentially ones own threads and scheduling is
the epitomy of 'reinventing the wheel'? Specifically, when going down the
route of using a coroutine to essentially duplicate functionality provided by
native threads, is there any performance advantage? My understanding is that,
nowadays, OS threads and schedulers are very highly optimize for performance.
Other than being able to write concurrent code with yield() and resume(), is
there really any reason to NOT use OS level primitives?
~~~
markpapadakis
That's a good question, and the answer has to do with, obviously, the cost of
spawning OS threads/processes, context-switching among them, and how all that
affects caches (cache hit/miss ratio dominates most workloads nowadays, more
so than actual CPU instructions execution). Context switching can be cost on
average 30micros of CPU overhead, but can reach as high as 1500micros. (You
can reduce that by pinning threads to core, but the savings will likely get
may be as much as 20% - maybe). Thankfully now, at least on Linux, AFAIK, a
context switch doesn't result in a TLB flush - back in the day that was quite
expensive. Whenever the OS scheduler needs to context switch, it needs to save
old state(including regs), and restore another state and perform some other
kind of book-keeping. This is more expensive and convoluted than doing it
yourself -- you also usually don't need to care for all possible registers, so
you can reducing switching costs by e.g not caring about SSE registers. Apps
that create too many threads are constantly fighting for CPU time - you will
end up wasting a lot of cpu cycles practically cycling between threads.
Another hidden cost that can severely impact server workloads is that, after
your thread has been switched out, even if another process becomes runnable,
it will need to wait in the kernel's run queue until a CPU core is available
for it. Linux kernels are often compiled with HZ=100, which means that
processes are given time slices of 10ms. If your thread has been switched out,
but becomes runnable almost immediately, and there are 2 thread before your
threads before it in the run queue waiting for CPU time, your thread may have
to wait upto 20ms in a worse case scenario to get CPU time. Depending on the
average length of the run queue (reflected in sys.load average), and how
length threads typically run before getting switched out again, this can
considerable affect performance.
Also, kernels don't generally do a good job at respecting CPU affinity -- even
on an idle system. You can control that yourself.
If you are going to represent ‘jobs’ or tasks as threads, and you need
potentially 100s or 1000s of those, it just won’t scale - the overhead is too
high.
If you control context-switching on your application (in practice that’s about
saving and restoring a few registers) -- cooperative multitasking -- you can
have a lot more control on how that works, when its appropriate to switch etc,
and the overhead is far lower.
Oh, and on average its 2.5-3x more expensive to context switch when using
virtualisation.
~~~
marktangotango
>> If you are going to represent ‘jobs’ or tasks as threads, and you need
potentially 100s or 1000s of those, it just won’t scale - the overhead is too
high.
This seems to be an indictment against containerization (ie docker,
kubernetes, etc). How can a single machine, even with containers, scale out if
this is true? Do people advocating docker and similar technologies not
understand or recognize that their containers should only utilize y threads
(where y = (total threads per machine)/(number of containers hosted on that
machine))? I personally have never heard this mentioned as a consideration
when deploying docker, for example.
~~~
ecnahc515
The advantages of containers are multidimensional. The benefit of running
multiple processes on a single node is not solely to increase utilization of a
given machine but to also gain advantages in deployment, etc.
Schedulers can take what's being mentioned here into account. You can say "I
need at least 2 cores but would like up to 8" or "I need guaranteed 8 cores,
evict lower priority containers if necessary" to ensure your containers aren't
fighting over resources . You can also classify machines for certain types of
workloads and then specify certain containers should run on a particular class
of node. Not all container platforms handle this, but Kubernetes does at
least.
~~~
smarterclayton
And as we add improved resource management and tuning to Kubernetes you gain
those improvements without having to change your deployment pipeline - just
like when a compiler gets better you get more performance for "free".
------
btrask
I just created a submission for libco, which I think is the best (fastest and
most portable) library for coroutines in C. It's great, I wish it got more
love.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13199581](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13199581)
~~~
codr4life
I'm curious, how is libco faster or more portable than the approach described
in this post?
~~~
byuu
It's not, they're two separate things. Unfortunately, nobody can agree on
terminology for this stuff. I try not to ever use the word 'coroutine' anymore
because of this.
libco is what I call a cooperative threading library. It allocates a stack for
each thread. This means that thread A can call six functions deep into helper
functions, and suspend in the middle of a helper function, and then resume
right back at that same point.
Thus, you program libco very similarly to how you do preemptive threading,
only you don't ever need any locks, and you have to do your own scheduling
(which can be as simple as "co_call and co_return", or "co_jump" in assembly
terms.)
The CORO #define wrappers in the article is what I would call a very simple
state machine. There is no thread, there is no state machine, there is no
user-space context switching going on. You only get the call/ret style
behavior, and you can't ret from a subroutine called inside of it. It's far,
far less useful.
However, when you can get away with it, CORO will be about ten times faster on
average. libco is optimized as much as possible with pure assembler. On ARM,
it's literally three instructions. On x86, it's ten. The entirety of the
burden is because modern CPUs do not enjoy having their stack pointer changed.
Go to older CPUs and the overhead drops substantially, but few people are
coding on a 68000 anymore. This also means that libco is _not_ ISO C. It
requires an assembly implementation or a platform that lets you poke at jmpbuf
from setjmp/longjmp to work. In practice, it'll work anywhere you'd reasonably
want. x86, amd64, ppc, ppc64, arm, mips, sparc, alpha; Windows, macOS, Linux,
*BSD, Haiku; etc have all been tested. And even if you find something crazy
obscure, you only have to write about twenty lines of code to port it.
The magic of libco is that it's about 100 times faster than preemptive
threading would be for the context switching overhead. So when you actually
need subroutines, and when you don't want to be swamped in
locks/semaphores/critical sections, it can eliminate giant swaths of nested
state machines (switch tables) by keeping all that state inside each local
stack frame, transparently and out of your codebase. Deeply nested state
machines are a serious pain in the ass to reason about and maintain, trust me.
Also ... both of these methods have a serious flaw (as does preemptive
threading): serialization. If you want to save the state of your program in
the middle of working, and restore to that position later (think save states
in an emulator) ... it'll be a bit tricky with libco. But since the state is
hidden by the #define, it'll be absolutely impossible with CORO, unless you
redesigned it to use external state, which would make it even clunkier to use.
In conclusion: both complement each other. I feel C++20 or whatever should add
CORO-style stackless state machine wrappers to the language for convenience.
But it should definitely leave stack-based cooperative threading out, because
that can easily be done as a library. (It can include library functions for
that purpose, but it doesn't need language-level primitives.)
There's a hundred cooperative threading libraries, by the way. My aim with
libco was to make a library that has four functions (co_create, co_delete,
co_active, co_switch) and zero types/structs. As simple and fast as possible,
supplying as many optimized backends as possible. Then let people build on top
of that. The downside is most people still choose to write their own libraries
from scratch, so there's a lot of wheel reinventing going on.
~~~
naasking
> It's not, they're two separate things. Unfortunately, nobody can agree on
> terminology for this stuff.
There is standard terminology though. Coroutines allow arbitrarily nested
calls back and forth. So-called "stackful" coroutines are the only possibility
in C. Other languages perform a program translation into continuation-passing
style to support stackless coroutines with the same semantics.
CORO falls under a class of abstractions known as "generators". You can think
of it like a degenerate coroutine limited to a single call level, but I don't
think conflating the terminology like this is useful.
~~~
codr4life
You got it backwards though; all the name means is the subroutine has multiple
entry points for suspending and resuming execution, which can be used to
implement nonpreemptive threads, generators and other abstractions.
------
clarkmoody
How does this work compare with libdill[1]?
[1] [http://libdill.org/](http://libdill.org/)
~~~
drvdevd
At a glance this just looks like a short, simple coroutine implementation/hack
using C macros, whereas libdill does a lot more to extend C syntax in similar
manner, but in a much more comprehensive way (I believe with the intention of
matching some of Go's concurrency mechanisms). The author compares this to
Duff's device so the comparison seems apt.
I would pick libdill for any serious program and keep this on hand as a C
snippet in Vim or $EDITOR.
[edit] I should say this could be used in a "serious" program too, but it's
nice and short in a way that looks like a great snippet to me
------
zserge
I've recently made a similar protothread/coroutine library for embedded
systems where local continuations can be either setjmp or goto or case labels.
Nothing fancy, but perhaps someone find it useful:
[https://github.com/zserge/pt](https://github.com/zserge/pt)
------
enqk
This is a rediscovery of contiki's protothreads:
[http://contiki.sourceforge.net/docs/2.6/a01802.html](http://contiki.sourceforge.net/docs/2.6/a01802.html)
~~~
drakehutner
Which afaik is based on the publication of Simon Tatham:
[http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/coroutines.html](http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/coroutines.html)
Who directly references good old duffs device. The title seems to acknowledge
the existence of said article, but I didn't find any reference.
~~~
codr4life
I know, I know. Why is it so important that someone else did something
conceptually similar once upon a time? Can't you see the value in standing on
their shoulders and try to reach further in some direction? We're all in the
same boat here, you can't own ideas. In this case I was aiming to simplify API
and usage while keeping the performance, and I feel I managed to take at least
a few steps in that direction.
~~~
scandox
Well it is useful for others to know the history and have other references. I
am sure it is not intended to diminish your work.
~~~
drakehutner
Exactly that!
Sorry if my comment came across like an insult. Wasn't intended as such. Maybe
it was just me hoping to find a direct improvement of Tathams implementation.
Which I would call "quirky" at best.
Your implementation seems to be much more "useable" and understandable in
comparison.
After reading through more of your library I must say, I like it's style.
~~~
codr4life
None of this is personal to me, I have no idea where the inspiration came
from; I'm just trying to share the beauty I see in the concepts. So I get a
bit frustrated with anything that steals focus from my mission, like history
lessons. I don't really care who thought of what first. Sorry if that came
across as hurt feelings, there is no conflict here.
I'm glad you like the humble beginnings of the library I've always been
wishing for :)
~~~
drakehutner
This makes your work even more interesting. I don't know if you read the
original Mail [1] in which Tom Duff shared his Device, but at the end he's
mentioning that he had an idea for something like coroutines:
> It amazes me that after 10 years of writing C there are still little corners
> that I haven't explored fully. (Actually, I have another revolting way to
> use switches to implement interrupt driven state machines but it's too
> horrid to go into.)
He later replied to Simon Tatham, that his coroutines actually where those
"horrid" ideas.
Obviously you must had some thoughts similar to those two. Kudos for that. You
seem to to have a deep understanding of the concepts that make the C language
(and how to twist them) ;).
[1]: [http://www.lysator.liu.se/c/duffs-
device.html](http://www.lysator.liu.se/c/duffs-device.html)
------
c-smile
That appears as a variant of Simon Tatham idea:
[http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/coroutines.html](http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/coroutines.html)
Just in case, I've made C++ variant of it:
[https://www.codeproject.com/Tips/29524/Generators-
in-C](https://www.codeproject.com/Tips/29524/Generators-in-C)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Bloom – Super fast and highly configurable cache for REST APIs - andersonrkton
https://github.com/valeriansaliou/bloom
======
smudgymcscmudge
I read pretty far into the readme before I realized this doesn't somehow use
bloom filters.
------
roadbeats
How does it compare to Varnish ?
~~~
njharman
Vastly simpler, I understand what Bloom is doing after 10min of reading. I had
hard time even understanding all of Varnish's scope in same time.
Written in RUST. Uses Redis. Uses custom headers instead of Cache-Control
Seems more flexible cache invalidation, but maybe varnish can do this after
understanding all of VCL/Varnish.
Seems written for an API developer not wanting to write own/reinvent cache
layer for their REST API. vs written for a sysadmin who is building a system
that is larger/more generic, less tied to one specific app, and who would
reach for Varnish being old, reliable and having every feature ever thought
of.
~~~
nathan-io
> an API developer not wanting to write own/reinvent cache layer for their
> REST API
For Laravel projects at least, a package like spatie/laravel-responsecache
makes it super easy to handle caching for GET API routes. I'm sure there are
similar packers for other frameworks often used in API development.
I really like Bloom, I'd just rather handle it at the application layer, where
I can get the finest level of customization (assuming there's a suitable
package to abstract the most tedious work away).
Seems you could keep the associated code to a minimum, and easily
maintainable, by using model events to trigger cache updates.
Personally, I'd rather have a little more code than a new dependency (and the
resources the Bloom takes from each API worker it's installed on). But in
situations where it's non-trivial or inadvisable to do it at the application
layer, it seems Bloom could be quite useful.
------
nodesocket
Curious, if you already are running NGINX in front, why not just use
proxy_cache?
------
jmartrican
Reminds me of [https://varnish-cache.org/](https://varnish-cache.org/)
------
openbasic
What's the difference between this and varnish or nginx acting like a reverse
proxy?
~~~
nathan-io
Found this at [https://crates.io/crates/bloom-
server](https://crates.io/crates/bloom-server):
> A simpler caching approach could have been to enable caching at the Load
> Balancer level for HTTP read methods (GET, HEAD, OPTIONS). Although simple
> as a solution, it would not work with a REST API. REST API serve dynamic
> content by nature, that rely heavily on Authorization headers. Also, any
> cache needs to be purged at some point, if the content in cache becomes
> stale due to data updates in some database.
> NGINX Lua scripts could do that job just fine, you say! Well, I firmly
> believe Load Balancers should be simple, and be based on configuration only,
> without scripting. As Load Balancers are the entry point to all your HTTP /
> WebSocket services, you'd want to avoid frequent deployments and custom code
> there, and handoff that caching complexity to a dedicated middleware
> component.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 Moving into General Availability - msolujic
https://www.infoq.com/news/2020/04/wsl-2-general-availability/
======
AaronFriel
In WSL1, running "wsl git status" on a moderately sized repo on an NTFS
(Windows side) drive or SMB file share is nearly instantaneous.
In WSL2, running the same command takes over 30 seconds. WSL2 is a _massive_
hit to the seemless experience between the two operating systems with
filesystem performance from Linux to Windows files orders of magnitude worse.
Yes, unzipping tarballs or manipulating and stat syscalls are cheaper now on
the Linux side. The downside performance loss is, however, staggering for the
files I had in C:\
Don't even get me started on how long an npm install took.
One of the truly wonderous things about WSL1 was the ability to do something
like this in a PowerShell window:
C:\some-code-dir\> wsl grep -R "something" | Some-PowerShell | ForEach-Item {
}
Now performance across the OS boundary is so bad, I wouldn't even think of
using "wsl grep" in my C drive. Or "wsl npm install" or "wsl npm run test" or
any of that.
It's very depressing because WSL1 is so, so promising and is so close to
feature parity. WSL2 should definitely stick around and has use cases, for
Docker it's unparalleled. But for daily driver mixed OS use, WSL2 has made me
very unhappy. I think I'll be deconverting my various WSL distributions
because the performance hit was too much, it just was absolutely unbearable to
even run simple commands in my Windows side.
~~~
pjc50
Clearly the best solution is for Microsoft to (a) write a proper ext4 driver
for Windows and (b) find some way of embedding SIDs into ext4, then you could
just format the drive as ext4, boot off it, and have the improved performance.
(This is mostly a joke, but the performance of NTFS for certain operations has
always been abysmal, and having a virus scanner injecting itself into all the
operations only makes it worse.)
~~~
majewsky
AFAIK the main problem is that Unix's file permissions do not cover Windows'
permission model. That would be tolerable on a data partition, but a system
partition is going to use all kinds of very particular permission setups on
system binaries etc.
You might be able to model that stuff as xattr, but then it could be
problematic to mount that ext4 partition into Linux because applications might
be copying files without respecting the xattrs.
~~~
XzAeRosho
>AFAIK the main problem is that Unix's file permissions do not cover Windows'
permission model.
Well, since Microsoft has been borrowing more and more ideas from the Linux
ecosystem, it would not surprise me that a Windows 10 successor would include
some kind of compatibility layers for different file systems.
We can dream...
~~~
shrimp_emoji
Why don't they just replace Windows with their own Linux distro? :D WSL2
cannibalizes Windows from the inside out, and all that's left is Sphere. Seems
like the most efficient solution.
------
chx
I am giving up.
WSL1 was a great invention but Microsoft gave up on it, either because of the
filesystem performance problems or because of the debuggers.
[https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/2028](https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/2028)
(lldb, rr, delve all affected). This looks like a dreaded case of the first
90% is easy, it's the second 90% that is hard. Imagine implementing a
translator for a vast majority of Linux syscalls just to find certain flavors
of ptrace are just not doable. I do not have insider knowledge to ascertain
this happened but this would be my educated guess.
WSL2 is a VM like any other VM with an uncertain promise for better networking
experience and even less certain promise for cross OS file performance which
is much, much worse than WSL1 which was already abominable.
[https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/4197#issuecomment-60...](https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/4197#issuecomment-604592340)
It was a very nice dream, pity it didn't work out.
Because I am using an eGPU Windows 10 needs to stay as the primary OS on the
laptop. I bought a little fanless machine from Aliexpress (with laptop-like
hardware) for <$300 USD it'll be my home Linux server. What can one do?
I guess
[https://www.reddit.com/r/VFIO/comments/am10z3/success_thunde...](https://www.reddit.com/r/VFIO/comments/am10z3/success_thunderbolt_egpu_passthrough_on_dell_9560/)
could be a solution if I wanted to go back to Linux primary but I really badly
don't want to. Constant hardware headaches were par for the course -- I was
solely Linux 2004-2017. I don't want to be again. If there would be a cheap
remote sysadmin service... but it doesn't exist. QuadraNet will sysop a server
for $39 a month, that'd be awesome for a laptop... but I have never seen
anyone doing that.
~~~
juped
WSL was very cool from a pure tech standpoint, but I've never been clear what
the actual use case for it was. WSL2 seems to be more along the lines of
coLinux, which I felt the same way about when it was new.
~~~
chx
Well, if you want to use multimedia and do web development on the same
machine, what are you going to do? Linux support is somewhere between
nonexistent and utterly broken for the first one and the same can be said for
the second on Windows. So your choices are, 1. run Linux primary, put Windows
in a VM 2. run Windows primary and put Linux in a VM 3. Give up and just run a
separate Linux server.
~~~
theevilsharpie
The Linux multimedia story improves significantly if you avoid Nvidia GPU
hardware. My work desktop (AMD Radeon) and laptop (Intel HD Graphics) work
fine, and perform as the hardware should.
~~~
chx
Sound and bluetooth , like , works now? That wasn't my experience back then.
Both of them were entire stacks of spaghetti.
~~~
jmiskovic
This seems like comment from early 2000s. I don't remember last time I head
problems with BT or sound, and I went through dozen of installations in last 3
years (for me and others). I had to give up on Nvidia drivers but Intel
graphics serves me great.
~~~
chx
Bluetooth broke on me:
[https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=204875](https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=204875)
2015 November
[https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=206032](https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=206032)
2015 December
[https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=210685](https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=210685)
2016 March.
And these were times when I needed community help, most of the time I could
get it working by pairing again or some such nonsense. It never worked
reliably, in general.
Note I switched to Windows as my daily driver in 2018 January.
It seems sound is still a gigantic mess of PulseAudio and ALSA
[https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PulseAudio](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PulseAudio)
~~~
dman
If you things to just keep on working Arch might not be the distro for you.
Have you tried something like ubuntu?
~~~
pjmlp
Canonical broke wlan and OpenGL for many of us when they decided to replace
fully working closed source drivers, with work in progress open source
replacements.
So even Ubuntu isn't necessarily a guarantee of stability.
~~~
dman
Sigh - I hear you.
------
saagarjha
> He further mentions that unzipping tarbars could see a 20 times performance
> increase.
Boy, do I love unzipping tarbars! On a more serious note, it’s great that WSL
has gotten much faster, although it’s a little disappointing that they threw
out the older, more interesting architecture to get it and just used a VM.
~~~
jchw
I agree wholeheartedly. I know it was probably a fool’s errand especially in a
world where Docker for Windows was doing the same thing WSL2 does but worse,
but WSL1’s design just satisfied me in a way that Hyper-V will not.
Presumably, this also means you have to have Hyper-V enabled, crippling all
other VM software. Hope the integration is impressive at least, to hopefully
make up for it. I admittedly don’t run Windows these days but WSL is
definitely one of the highlights of modern Windows and it’s hard to not follow
its progress.
I also wonder how integration changes with sockets/networking, hardware
access, Windows Firewall, etc. Last I checked, relations with Windows Firewall
were strained by the lack of proper support for picoprocesses.
~~~
lmz
Stop blaming Hyper-V for "crippling other VM software". You ever tried to run
VBox and KVM together? It's a limitation of the processor's virtualization
extension.
~~~
inyorgroove
Problem is once Hyper-V is installed and enabled, no other VM can even be
started regardless of no Hyper-V VMs actually running. This limitation does
not exist on linux afaik. I have run libvirt based VMs and VirtualBox VMs at
the same time on linux just fine in the past.
~~~
lukevp
That’s not what’s happening. Hyper-v is a type-1 hypervisor. When it’s
running, even your Windows instance is running within hyper-v. Windows 10 has
the hypervisor platform that lets other vm developers hook into the hyper-v
host architecture, that’s how you can get android emulators and virtualbox
running under hyper-v. It all works fine but is a little unintuitive to set
up.
~~~
HelloNurse
If both VirtualBox and VMware give up on Hyper-V coexistence, it must be a bit
worse than "unintuitive".
~~~
garethrowlands
They haven't given up.
------
molticrystal
VMWare [0] will also support the Hypervisor Platform Api [1] allowing it to
run besides WSL2 which uses Hyper-V. VirtualBox is still struggling and runs
slow if at all with WSL2 and Hyper-V [2]
This of course has implications on how you setup Docker on a Windows machine,
each way having pros and cons.
[0] [https://blogs.vmware.com/workstation/2020/01/vmware-
workstat...](https://blogs.vmware.com/workstation/2020/01/vmware-workstation-
tech-preview-20h1.html)
[1] [https://docs.microsoft.com/en-
us/virtualization/api/hypervis...](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-
us/virtualization/api/hypervisor-platform/hypervisor-platform)
[2]
[https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?p=473538](https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?p=473538)
~~~
souprock
This is a worrisome development. We seem to be heading toward a future where
hypervisor drivers can only be provided by Microsoft, and you're out of luck
if they don't do the job.
Hypervisors that need more capability are going to have to do some crazy stuff
to stay compatible. One option is to save and restore the whole hypervisor
state whenever it runs. Another option is to be some sort of boot loader,
seizing the hypervisor capability before Windows can get to it.
That'll be some tough code to debug.
~~~
zamadatix
Type 2 hypervisors are going to be in an interesting state. The Windows
bootloader already has a flag you can easily toggle (without removing the
Hyper-V role or config) but the problem is more features are starting to
depend on Hyper-V being there one layer up (it's a type 1 hypervisor). I'm
surprised nested virtualization can't be used for the type 2 hypervisor since
Hyper-V picked this feature up a few years back and it seems like that would
have solved all of the problems.
~~~
souprock
Nested virtualization only works when the outer hypervisor supports all the
features that the inner hypervisor needs. If the outer hypervisor is Hyper-V,
then that limits the inner hypervisor to the features that Hyper-V bothered to
implement.
In other words, you can't implement a hypervisor more advanced than Hyper-V.
If you instead want to be on the outside, with Hyper-V on the inside, then you
can't just write a driver. You have to implement a boot loader. You also have
to implement nested virtualization, even if you otherwise had no need to do
so.
~~~
zamadatix
Hyper-V is able to nest ESXi and KVM (and Hyper-V of course) and vice versa
ESXi and KVM are able to nest Hyper-V. I'm not sure what would be limited.
Yeah that's the difference between a type 1 and type 2 hypervisor. A type 1
runs on the bare metal, a type 2 runs via drivers underneath an existing OS.
Since Hyper-V is a type 1 (like ESXi) you can't use a type 2 hypervisor on the
root VM to escape being under Hyper-V you either have to do some sort of
nesting or disable Hyper-V from loading and reboot.
~~~
souprock
Heh, it's funny that I'm actually a hypervisor developer and I don't use that
terminology. The whole team doesn't. I actually had to look up "type 1" and
"type 2" to remind myself which was which. Those are terribly non-descriptive.
Our terminology is "bare metal" or "OS" or "boot loader", and "VMX driver".
Anyway...
Our hypervisor is far more demanding than ESXi, KVM, and Hyper-V. It needs to
interact with low-level Intel processor details in a way that is not supported
by any other hypervisor. It won't run correctly if nested inside any other
hypervisor. If we supported running under another hypervisor, we would lose
important functionality.
If it becomes impossible or impractical to disable Hyper-V, we'll need to do
something strange and annoying. Perhaps we could load the driver very early in
boot, before Hyper-V loads. Booting as an OS ("type 1", ugh) is an option too,
but maintaining that and using it is a real pain. Probably we'd drop Windows
host support before we did that.
------
ahupp
I switched to WSL2 a month ago and it's been great. With WSL1 I'd regularly
run into subtle compatibility problems but haven't seen anything like that
with 2. Despite a handful of annoyances, the Win10+WSL2+Visual Studio Code Dev
environment has been a lot more pleasant than OSX.
~~~
nilkn
I never thought I’d say it but because of this exact setup with VS Code I’ve
actually stopped using my MBP at home in favor of my desktop, which was really
only built with gaming in mind. I’ve now gotten used to having all the extra
computing power at hand and would struggle to go back to a laptop as my
primary development machine.
~~~
lostmsu
But why could not you do the same before? Even before WSL there was MSYS,
which IMO is great, unless you need to compile a C program, that directly uses
Linux headers.
~~~
nilkn
It’s possible I could have and I just wasn’t sufficiently in the know about
which tools to use. I hadn’t used MSYS. I’ve taken my current workflow so far
as to even use nix as my primary package manager. Would this have been easily
possible before? I ask in earnest. My setup right now is such that even mildly
arcane things like that just seem to work for the most part.
~~~
lostmsu
Turns out "nix" is hard to search due to engines matching "*nix" to it.
Nix is probably not supported on MSYS, but YMMW. I'd love to have something
like it on Windows.
------
derekp7
Question -- from what I understand, WSL2 is closer to Linux running in a VM,
whereas WSL1 was like a Windows kernel level version of Cygwin. Is that mostly
correct?
Regarding that, remember a number of years ago, prior to VMs there was a patch
set for the Linux kernel porting it to user space -- so you could run Linux as
a user process, which ended up functioning similar to running it in a VM.
Would WSL2 be closer to this model, or is it really running Linux under a
stripped down Hyper V?
~~~
yjftsjthsd-h
> Question -- from what I understand, WSL2 is closer to Linux running in a VM,
> whereas WSL1 was like a Windows kernel level version of Cygwin. Is that
> mostly correct?
Yes, that's essentially correct. You could also think of it as WINE in
reverse; one big difference from cygwin is that it runs unmodified binaries
rather than needing to recompile.
> prior to VMs there was a patch set for the Linux kernel porting it to user
> space -- so you could run Linux as a user process
User Mode Linux (UML; [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User-
mode_Linux](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User-mode_Linux)), which I _think_
is still a thing, although not super popular.
> Would WSL2 be closer to this model, or is it really running Linux under a
> stripped down Hyper V?
Not even stripped down; it's running Hyper V. (This is one of the big problems
with WSL2; if you use it, you can't use non-HyperV virtualization.)
~~~
cpach
Did WSL1 not use the same binaries as a regular distro? IIRC it will download
regular x86-64 .deb packages straight from e.g. Ubuntu’s APT repositories.
~~~
ehsankia
I think you read it backwards. It's cygwin that doesn't. WSL1 did.
~~~
cpach
Ah. My bad :) Should’ve known better than to comment here before I had my
coffee.
~~~
ehsankia
Hah, no worries, it took me 2-3 reads to parse that correctly too.
------
veesahni
On a Win10 host, I want to edit code in sublime and have the runtime
environment in linux. I want fast code search and fast build times.
I've found no way to accomplish the above.
Code in Windows + Windows Sublime means build in WSL will be slow because
cross-os i/o
Code in Linux + Windows Sublime means code search will be slow because cross-
os i/o
Code in Linux + Linux Sublime + Winodws Xserver means interface is laggy
because, well, Xserver
VSCode gets around this by running in a client/server model with client on
Windows and Server in Linux... but then I'm stuck with an Electron based
editor instead of Sublime.
~~~
_bxg1
What Electron-related problems have you had with VSCode? I've been using it as
my primary for a few years now and it's been nothing but stellar. And that
integration sounds incredibly cool.
~~~
mcovalt
Font rendering is a bit blurry.
~~~
_bxg1
I haven't experienced this, but I mostly use it on a Mac. What OS are you on?
~~~
iknowstuff
Technically, on Macs, all font rendering is blurry. :)
[https://pandasauce.org/post/linux-fonts/](https://pandasauce.org/post/linux-
fonts/)
~~~
tsar9x
Technically, there should be more HiDPI monitors on the market. I'm using now
24" monitor with 4k resolution, scaled 200%, and fonts are perfect :)
------
rkagerer
Am I the only one who thinks this was named backwards? Like, it should been:
_Linux Subsystem for Windows_ , or maybe _Windows ' Subsystem for Linux_
~~~
aspaceman
Totally agree. Feels like a “windows has to be first” type of thing.
~~~
simplicio
There was a MS employee on twitter the other day (sorry, I forgot who) saying
it was because there were legal issues with naming something with a title that
has someone else's trademark as the first word.
~~~
mcny
That completely makes sense in my mind just because my favorite reddit app is
called slide for reddit. I think reddit forced everyone to use x for Reddit in
their name as opposed to Reddit X.
~~~
Talanes
Reddit did exactly that, like five or six years ago. A bunch of apps had to
change their names, which is how you end up with apps like "rif is fun for
Reddit," where the first part stands for "Reddit is Fun."
------
kesor
For those of you who will be running Docker Desktop on WSL2 - which allows to
"transparently" use the "docker" command on your other Linux that runs in
WSL2. And allows to use your WSL2 "other Linux" filesystem to share volumes
with Docker containers! ..
Anyway, you need to know that when this stupid Docker and/or WSL2 VM is taking
up all your Windows 10 memory - not all is lost.
Using these two commands, you can force WSL2 to give back the memory it is
holding prisoner!
echo 1 | sudo tee /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches
echo 1 | sudo tee /proc/sys/vm/compact_memory
Especially if the one doing the mess is the "VM" of Docker.
Now that Docker Desktop is using WSL2 instead of its own VM, you can't see the
bastard in Hyper-V console at all... apparently the whole WSL2 VM is not seen
in Hyper-V console, even though it IS a damn VM. But it does appear in Task
Manager as "Vmmem" and taking up gigabytes of your memory.
------
brkattk
While this is generally a large improvement, there is still a glaring issue
with accessing files between the WSL and Windows
[https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/4197](https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/4197)
------
jdsully
I've been running this in the insider branch for the last 3 months and it's
been amazing. You can even recompile your own kernel if you want.
Your essentially getting the "real thing" with pretty seamless integration to
the rest of windows. I'd never want to go back to WSL1.
------
cowmix
WSL2 with Docker Desktop is amazing. I switched over last week and the
performance is amazing. Further, you don't have to reserve CPUs or RAM
anymore.
------
TaylorAlexander
I’m holding out for the Linux subsystem for Windows.
~~~
saagarjha
You mean Wine?
~~~
m0zg
They mean MS replacing the Windows kernel with Linux kernel. Which doesn't
sound as crazy as it did just a couple of years ago. Just put all the Windows
crap in a VM, similar to WSL2.
~~~
FpUser
"Just put all the Windows crap in a VM" \- if Windows such a crap why even
mention it? Just put Linux on your PC and be happy.
~~~
saagarjha
There's a lot of Windows-only software out there that will exist regardless of
how you feel about it.
------
evertheylen
I would really, really love to go back to using Linux natively but sadly the
hardware on this laptop is not supported well enough. So I eventually gave up
and installed Windows while using WSL2 extensively.
Performance is on par with running Linux natively. I compiled my own kernel
with ext4 encryption support, and it works quite well. I use it for 90% of my
files. Combined with the new Windows Terminal and VSCode support for WSL,
there is little friction left. (Also, to address some comments, you _can_ view
Windows files from Linux and Linux files from Windows, with some reduced
performance.)
------
sk5t
Is there a shell+terminal+font combo that folks really like for WSL? I've
tried the new terminal beta with zsh and--for reasons I can't quite articulate
right now--it feels "off" and I invariably proceed to boot up virtualbox for
my debian, i3, kitty, fira code setup to get work done. Maybe it's the break
in filesystems and $HOME?
Edit: learning that WSL2 does away with the syscall-translating tech and
mandates Hyper-V, the question of whether to look into this further becomes
thornier!
~~~
d4mi3n
Windows Terminal is made by the same guys working on WSL and works pretty
well:
[https://github.com/microsoft/terminal](https://github.com/microsoft/terminal)
You can get it via the Microsoft Store and it comes with support for
connecting to WSL, Powershell, and cmd.exe out of the box.
~~~
Gene_Parmesan
Seconding Windows Terminal. I happen to also really like the font that comes
with it -- Cascadia Code. But I'm a sucker for ligatures.
------
_ph_
A great step. but I feel I have to repeat my "ceterum censeo" of saying that
wsl would really benefit, if Microsoft would add a native Wayland support so
that the Windows Deskop would appear as a Wayland server for the Linux VM.
This would allow any Wayland-compatible Linux application to run seamlessly on
the Windows desktop and fully utilizing the native graphics drivers.
------
MAGZine
I recently wanted to run some linux apps on windows (simple stuff like ls,
ssh-keygen, etc) and found that most instructions were actually pointing me to
install a ubuntu VM rather than use the native subsystem stuff touted a couple
years ago.
I was a little disappointed in this. Running a VM is a lot more hassle than
just running the apps natively.
Feels like a step backwards than a step forward.
------
bithavoc
What’s the energy consumption of WSL2, I understand it’s a Virtual Machine
now, isn’t that heavier than what WSL1 is?
------
abol3z
I've been using WSL1 for a long time now and I am very happy with it.
The way I use it is to have all my files and project on windows FS and I code
using windows software (VSCode, Eclipse) but when I build and test, I use
WSL1, and I didn't feel that the performance was that bad since I have an SSD
and I don't mind waiting for few more minutes to rebuild a project.
But the most important thing for me was that I didn't care about managing
another file system. All my files are still on windows where I used to keep
them, file sync and backups are working as expected, and I easily browse and
edit these files on the Windows side.
For docker, I installed docker on Windows and hooked Docker CLI on WSL1 to it
using some configurations. and I was happy with it.
The question is, for the way I use WSL1, will WSL2 be an improvement or a
drawback for me? and should someone like me switch to WSL2?
------
lostmsu
Original announcement: [https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/wsl2-will-
be-gene...](https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/wsl2-will-be-generally-
available-in-windows-10-version-2004/)
------
0x49d1
But how the VM implementation is faster then "native" call translations?
~~~
pjmlp
There is no need to catch up with ongoing implementations.
------
AltruisticGapHN
I would love to use Windows WSL full time, along with docker containers, for
general web development.
There is one thing though that no one talks about.. the fonts!!! The font
smoothing is awful on Windows... will this ever change?
The new terminal looks alright, the default font is nice; but most other
programs I like look awful in Windows: Sublime Text, VSCode, gVIM, ... I just
can't find a monospace font that looks "thick" enough for readability and have
smooth edges -- especially with dark text on light background.
------
pixelbash
> WSL extension allows for the VS Code UI to run on the Windows side with a VS
> Code Server running within the WSL VM
This was why I have finally switched away from developing on windows, there's
something about the VS remote code server setup that will spawn tons of
processes and eventually slow WSL to a crawl. Possibly my fault, I haven't
gone through all my extensions and settings carefully, but also not an issue
when running VS code on unix without the server.
------
comity
Does anyone know if WSL2 supports utf8 characters in filenames, such as ":"
and "<>" etc?
WSL had a limitation that it couldn't display such characters when I accessed
a Linux parition through Samba. I know there is a Samba workaround for name
mangling, but I prefer to access the actual filenames as created by org-mode.
Edit: Samba was running in an Alpine VM that mounted a ZFS partition. The
network folder was mounted through Windows.
------
mikkelam
Slightly off topic but, I've been a mac user for some 6 years now and was
recently forced to switch to either linux or windows for a deep learning
desktop experience. I'm wondering how complete the windows experience will
feel as a long-time unix user? Windows seems to have everything these days
with WSL, great programming, gaming, media/rendering environments as well as
super stable. What's bad?
~~~
RMPR
WSL1 has some unimplemented features, but overall it's not a bad experience.
------
bad_user
I have a MacBook Pro that I wanted to turn into a Windows laptop.
Unfortunately if you install Windows from scratch, without going through
Bootcamp to install it side by side with MacOS, Hyper-V support is disabled.
This means that I cannot use WSL2. Or Windows, since without a working Linux
environment it's useless to me and I don't want to invest in WSL v1. Might as
well go for Ubuntu 20.04.
~~~
hectorchu
I found a way to run Windows from scratch and have Hyper-V enabled. Just
install rEFInd boot manager and use 'enable_and_lock_vmx true' in the config.
~~~
bad_user
Hi, any article on the subject I could read?
This is the first time I hear of rEFInd.
~~~
hectorchu
This is a good article:
[https://dea.nbird.com.au/2017/02/24/enabling-vt-x-on-mac-
boo...](https://dea.nbird.com.au/2017/02/24/enabling-vt-x-on-mac-book-air-in-
bootcamp/)
~~~
bad_user
Thanks ´･ᴗ･`
------
riskyfive
I really hope apple implements something similar, would much prefer to have a
well integrated linux vm than the not-quite-linux of macos
~~~
jchw
This is an interesting take considering Linux is Unix-like and macOS is
technically a BSD derivative. I don’t think macOS will ever have a Linux
syscall translation layer/subsystem (WSL1) nor a lightweight VM with special
integration (WSL2) but you can do sort of similar things in third party
software, I think. Docker for Mac is using the native VM framework and
includes a filesystem integration called osxfs, but despite mentioning the
source code in documentation it does not appear to be open source at this
time?
~~~
riskyfive
doesn't macOS put a BSD translation of some sort in their kernel? Theres a
microkernel, a driver api (device kit) and then 'bsd'
~~~
riskyfive
random wikipedia image that somewhat supports what I was thinking
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_(operating_system)#/med...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_\(operating_system\)#/media/File:Diagram_of_Mac_OS_X_architecture.svg)
~~~
saagarjha
The actual API layers are nowhere near that clean ;)
------
Karupan
So WSL2 is supported on windows 10 Home as well, which is great. Does that
mean Home also gets official Hyper V support?
~~~
francislavoie
I don't see any mention that it'll be on Home, "General Availability" just
means that it's no longer part of the insider preview
~~~
Karupan
According to FAQ [1] it will be.
[1] [https://docs.microsoft.com/en-
us/windows/wsl/wsl2-faq#does-w...](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-
us/windows/wsl/wsl2-faq#does-wsl-2-use-hyper-v-will-it-be-available-on-
windows-10-home)
------
kitotik
Out of curiosity, what do most people use this for?
(I tried rewording this question a few times to not sound snarky, but failed.)
~~~
kyriakos
Web development primarily
~~~
pjmlp
Web development with node and ruby it seems.
Java and .NET Web development has been perfectly fine the last decades.
~~~
kyriakos
Node, PHP, anything Docker all seem to work better under WSL2 than windows
itself.
~~~
pjmlp
Node and PHP has been running in Windows just fine for years everytime I have
to deal with them.
Also node is not going to stop downloading the whole Internet regardless of
the host OS.
------
cable2600
I just used VirtualBox by Oracle with Linux Mint. Seems less buggier and I can
share files with Dropbox, etc.
------
m0zg
Have they figured out how to pass through the GPU yet? Would be cool to use
this for e.g. PyTorch.
~~~
p1esk
Unfortunately no. This would have been a very useful feature to me since
currently I use a Windows laptop to write code to run on a linux gpu server
under my desk.
------
rvz
This is great news. Looks like I neither need a separate Linux VM or dual
booting Ubuntu desktop install anymore for testing my software given it will
also run on WSL2 on general availability.
Another clever move from Microsoft and the Windows Teams.
------
sandGorgon
WSL2 is a fantastic product. The ability to debug python code on ubuntu and
alt-tab to Steam is unparalleled.
However there is a fundamental issue - Microsoft is treating this as a toy
project. The number 1 problem is that the file system inside an Ubuntu
shell/wsl2-container is sitting inside a hidden file system.
It is is not exposed to the rest of windows and neither to backup tools like
Dropbox, etc. So you have a huge chance of losing important documents inside a
WSL2 container. Now, you can "Cd /c/Documents" and do your work - but this
filesystem is unimaginably slow. Not sure if it is because of file mounts,
etc. The performance is incredibly bad.
If there are WSL2 devs here - please make the working container filesystem as
a first class directory inside the rest of windows. I'll live with performance
issues for a while...but this is a blocker.
~~~
ccmcarey
I think this is not correct.
You can go to \\\wsl$\ and it shows each wsl install as a network drive.
~~~
sandGorgon
yes - however those paths are not available to any backup system. if you want
to switch from ubuntu to fedora, there is no easy way to do it. If you
accidentally uninstall ubuntu, you will lose that partition (and all your
work). this has happened to me once already.
In linux, you just have a separate /home partition . You can have a dozen
operating systems, merrily using the same home partition. you can trash your
OS, but your home directory doesnt get trashed.
i have a pending request to offer the concept of a "home directory". the
filesystem on which i work inside wsl2 should not be opaque to the rest of the
operating system.
------
criddell
Back in the 80's wasn't there some issue with Microsoft having to pay AT&T
royalties for Xenix and in order to get out of that agreement, they had to
agree to stop doing anything related to Unix?
------
tyingq
_" unzipping tarbars could see a 20 times performance increase"_
Took me several reads to figure out that "tarbars" was a typo for "tarballs".
Thought I'd missed some new archive format.
------
Gimpei
Would be nice if it had GPU support so I could use it for deep learning
prototyping. I might use Windows instead of Ubuntu then. I can't use macos now
that they dropped Nvidia.
~~~
DeathArrow
I did ML stuff under Windows.
------
executesorder66
I always laugh when I think about this. Microsoft's tools are so bad that they
had to ship an entire other OS in their own OS just so that programmers can be
productive.
------
tasubotadas
I am super excited about this. WSL1 is great. WSL2 will allow me to run docker
images without struggling with vagrantfiles so that's awesome.
------
DeathArrow
Great! Now I can run Tux Racer on Windows properly!
------
mosdl
How does this work with IDEs like IntelliJ? I believe WSL 1 had issues with
having Windows IntelliJ and the source code being in WSL?
~~~
francislavoie
Works just fine, but FS is slow-ish. Your paths look like:
\\\wsl$\Ubuntu-18.04\home\username
------
bayesian_horse
We need a Linux subsystem for Windows...
Though Wine is quite good.
~~~
rossy
While similar in concept, Wine is better than WSL1 in a lot of ways due to
supporting sound, graphics, and GPU acceleration.
I've always been suspicious of WSL because it follows a narrative that
benefits Microsoft - that Linux is primarily a command-line/server
environment, and the graphical and audio applications for Linux are not
worthwhile. It doesn't have to be like this. WSL1 was based on an Android
environment for Windows Phone called Project Astoria, which did support
graphics.
~~~
sullyj3
The graphical and audio applications for linux _aren 't_ worthwhile, or at
least they're not competitive with the top proprietary offerings. It's not
really about the theoretical capacity of of linux to support audio and
graphics. The low market share of desktop linux makes it not economically
worthwhile for top proprietary software companies to port to linux. That's
just an unfortunate fact. I don't really want to edit graphics with Gimp when
Photoshop exists, and I don't really want to produce music in Ardour when
Ableton Live exists.
I think the only real way to fix this is to change the economic incentives by
increasing desktop Linux market share, which is a long and uphill battle.
~~~
bayesian_horse
Blender is competitive in the industry and definitely "worthwhile". Not the
market-leader, but being used increasingly in professional settings.
------
tuananh
the performance on /mnt issue is not yet fixed
[https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/4197](https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/4197)
------
hexagonsun
honestly, i use WSL to ssh into servers in a pinch and get things taken care
of... my experience actually trying to develop things (python/django/node) has
been poor otherwise.
~~~
stinos
If it's just ssh, what's the benefit over using it on WSL compared to using
the native ssh in Windows?
------
miloshadzic
I seem to perhaps be in the minority here, but I got onto the slow ring just
for WSL2 and it has been excellent so far. I am primarily a Ruby developer and
things _just work_.
------
smitty1e
Windows seems to be gradually trending toward an OSX-style desktop experience
riding on top of a Linux kernel.
~~~
pjmlp
Except it isn't, that Linux kernel runs on top of a Hyper-V instance,
alongside the NT kernel which is managing the whole show.
More z/OS and less UNIX.
~~~
smitty1e
For now.
~~~
pjmlp
Even if Microsoft was willing to throw away what makes Windows have the
desktop market that Linux will never have, and go back to its Xenix roots,
Linux would probably get as much back as it has been getting from all those
Android OEM contributions.
So not really a reason to cheer what would be yet another pyrrhic victory in
the desktop/mobile space.
~~~
smitty1e
> Microsoft was willing to throw away what makes Windows have the desktop
> market
I certainly neither said, implied, or agreed with that concept, no.
------
ngcc_hk
As they are different there should be option to do both 1 and 2
~~~
nhumrich
There is.
------
yuz
Back to Cygwin?
------
pojntfx
Y.
------
oxalorg
I've been a happy user of WSL2 since 2 months, and I absolutely love it. After
switching to it, I completely stopped using Mac Mini and Linux.
It has made my life so easier. All the Linux stuff + development work gets
done inside Windows Terminal + WSL2 + NeoVim, and I still get to keep Windows
for Gaming, Designing, Office work, other random programs etc.
~~~
rfoo
I've been a happy user of running a Linux VM (without X) besides Windows since
6 years ago (first VirtualBox, then Hyper-V after switching to Win10) :p
Congrats to WSL2 team, they introduced this pattern to a much wider audience.
~~~
vbezhenar
Yep, using VirtualBox and it works fine for me. I don't use Hyper-V because
it's buggy with my build for some reason (Nvidia driver crashes, BSODs). I
don't really get this WSL 2 hype.
------
chmln
In genuine amazement at a lot of the comments here - why not just dual boot
Linux instead of using it in a VM? Productivity on a Linux machine can be so
far ahead of Windows, especially if you've got a terminal-based workflow an
maybe a tiling WM
~~~
LeonM
My workflow is mostly terminal based, and I used to use tiling WMs, yet I am
now back to Windows + WSL.
Why? Because GPU driver compatibility is still so bad on Linux that I can't
get any of the popular distros to work properly on my setup (laptop with
hybrid Intel/nVidia GPU setup, thunderbolt dock, external display with
different scaling than laptop display).
And yes, if I spend a weekend fiddling with Nouveau drivers I might get it to
run somewhat decently, but really I don't want to spend that time on my work
setup. Window + WSL works out of the box, so I'll use that.
~~~
wayneftw
I have been on Manjaro with XFCE for the past couple of years and it's a
dream. Haven't had one driver problem. Zoom, Slack and Beyond Compare all work
without issue as does VS Code. Installing and updating all software via the
package manager UI is so much better than Windows that I'll never go back.
Furthermore, I think that XFCE provides a better Windows experience for
developers than Windows does - at least I don't have to find, download and
install 7+ taskbar tweaker or hack the system configuration registry to get
the features I want out of it.
Mixing business and gaming on the same machine caused problems for me even
when I was fully on Windows, so I've always kept separate machines for that.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Russia Is Reportedly Banning LinkedIn - r721
https://globalvoices.org/2016/10/25/russia-is-reportedly-banning-linkedin/
======
executesorder66
> A judge found that LinkedIn illegally shares non-users’ personal data
> without their permission. In what could have even more far-reaching
> consequences, the Moscow court also ruled that LinkedIn collects personal
> information from users in Russia without storing the data on servers located
> in Russia — a legal requirement introduced last year that few foreign
> Internet companies respect.
I might move to Russia one day if this sort of thing continues.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Dark Web vendors offer up “thousands” of Uber logins starting at $1 each - cvs268
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/03/dark-web-vendors-offer-up-thousands-of-uber-logins-starting-at-1-each/#p3
======
halviti
Considering they have the plaintext passwords and that Uber can't identify a
breach, it's most likely people who re-use the same password and were a victim
of another hack (adobe et al.)
------
fuzionmonkey
If this was due to a breach at Uber, it stands to reason there would be
millions of accounts for sale, not merely thousands. I'm more inclined to
believe this is a result of shared and/or weak passwords.
------
hyh1048576
Can anyone say something about this AlphaBay market? I don't think they got
any spotlight like Silk Road used to get.
~~~
lsdaccounthn
Never looked at it myself, think is quite small. But there are plenty of dark
net markets that aren't Silk Road.
Since Silk Road 2 was taken down by the feds (sometime last year, around 6-9
months ago I think) the first to look like the biggest was Agora, then
Evolution quickly became the most popular due to its nicer functionality (and
nicer design), and the fact that Agora often has short periods of downtime due
to server load.
Evolution disappeared a few weeks ago, seemingly the owner(s) decided to "exit
scam" \- i.e. shut down with no warning and steal all BTC stored in the site
by vendors/buyers, thought to be worth $8m (plus whatever profit they made
from commission in the previous year).
Since then it has been assumed that Agora will take the top spot, however it
has had very bad availability with long periods of the site going down, I
believe they've publicly said this is due to the influx of Evolution users and
that they are working on improving their site infrastructure. The two biggest
down sides to Agora are that they don't offer Multisig support (see below),
and that their site design/functionality is pretty nasty. Their upside is that
they have the most vendors on there, so the best range of drugs to buy. I
believe (though could be wrong, it's been a while since I've been on there)
they don't allow vendors to sell fraud/etc. related items, so stuff like Uber
accounts wouldn't be allowed on there. Not sure on that, though.
There's plenty of other markets too though, ranging in size and pros/cons - a
basic list can be found at
[https://www.reddit.com/r/DarkNetMarkets/wiki/superlist](https://www.reddit.com/r/DarkNetMarkets/wiki/superlist)
Right now there's a lot of uncertainty around regarding which markets to
trust, how long they'll last, etc.
Side note on multisig: what this is is basically a three-way escrow.
Traditionally dark net markets offered either "finalize early" (vendor gets
your BTC as soon as you order) or "escrow" (website stores the BTC until
customer is happy to release to vendor, or until the site admins have to
decide who to give them to in the case of a dispute). Multisig means that two
out of the three parties (site, vendor, buyer) must agree before the BTC gets
released to anyone. So this would prevent markets from doing what Evolution
did (stealing all the money in escrow), as if they shut down with no warning
then any outstanding deals could still be finalised between buyer and vendor
(2 out of 3). However, Evolution was actually one of (if not the) first
markets to introduce multisig as an option, and nearly everyone was too lazy
to figure out how to use it. Most talk since then is along the lines of "we
should all be using multisig all the time", yet I still haven't seen any signs
of that happening...
Anyway, this reply is way longer than you actually asked about, I just think
the world of dark net markets is pretty interesting :)
------
officialjunk
Is this at all related to the recent news of Uber storing private keys in the
github repo?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Inevitable Death of VMs: A Progress Report [pdf] - ingve
https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/srk21/research/papers/kell18inevitable-preprint.pdf
======
paulddraper
Very interesting. Had to point the irony though
> A key hypothesis of the liballocs design is that existing VMs may be
> retrofitted onto it at fairly modest effort, rather than being thrown away
> or substantially rewritten. A previous partial retrofitting (of V8) exists,
> but is challenging to maintain; therefore, input is sought on alternative
> candidate VMs for use as retrofitting targets.
~~~
kevingadd
In all fairness to the author, casually maintaining any major changes to V8 or
Chrome for more than a month is borderline impossible. The whole codebase
undergoes massive churn on a release-to-release basis. There are projects like
LibCEF that have the rug pulled out from under them every release or two
because some major subsystem got completely overhauled.
So, the difficulty of maintaining the v8 changes is kind of meaningless. The
fact that it's possible at all is the interesting part!
~~~
stephenrkell
Thanks! Indeed I should have said "no more difficult to maintain than V8 in
general... i.e. well beyond a researcher's means".
~~~
paulddraper
Ah, that makes sense.
"V8 changes such that alterations in general are difficult to maintain."
------
Nzen
tl;dr this is a two page description of Stephen Kell's liballocs library [0].
Basically, it's wasteful to install jvm, python interpreter, and electron.
He's advocating that new languages use (u)nix infrastructure (processes,
files, etc) as much as possible. His library is supposed to assist with this
by providing process level gc. It provides a hierarchal view such that a
caller allocates objects, rather than flat memory.
I don't know enough to have an opinion on this. As an alterntative view,
consider listening to Cliff Click describe the challenge the jvm faced when it
had a more permissive ffi [1].
[0]
[https://github.com/stephenrkell/liballocs](https://github.com/stephenrkell/liballocs)
[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoyBTqkSkZk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoyBTqkSkZk)
~~~
imtringued
I personally disagree. The differences between the language specific is high
enough that a fully general VM is impossible without also incurring all the
downsides of a language specific VM. Python and Java each have a distinct
standard library. The end result will be that you have to install 'supervm-
java-std' and 'supervm-python-std' instead of openjdk and cpython. JVMs tend
to be very memory heavy in exchange for higher performance for java code,
whereas the python interpreter is slow but more memory efficient because it
relies on C code to accelerate CPU and memory intensive applications.
~~~
stephenrkell
Not sure whether you're disagreeing with the paper or the commenter's summary
of it. As you could probably guess from the title of the paper, the goal is
_not_ a new "fully general" VM.
An analogy I sometimes use is pre-IP internetworking. If you wanted a new
cross-network application, then of course you could in principle build
application-layer gateways, but the economics simply didn't work. It took a
carefully engineered "hourglass waist" to fix the economics. The goal is to
create the equivalent for language implementations. And the whole point is
that "one super-VM" is not the recipe.
------
mappu
GitHub repository:
[https://github.com/stephenrkell/liballocs](https://github.com/stephenrkell/liballocs)
I read the paper imagining a kind of COM implementation
(apartments/marshalling/...)? But the Github readme makes it seem more like a
kind of tagged malloc wrapper.
~~~
stephenrkell
Ouch. :-) There's a lot more to it than that, though wrapping malloc is
certainly one part of it. (Reminds me I should finish my blog post on why
wrapping malloc reliably is way harder than it should be.)
But the key idea is to avoid introducing new abstractions -- anything that
liballocs formalises should be commonly "lurking" in there already. So types
and allocators are OK, but apartments would not be. It's not a new programming
model... the newness should be at the meta-level only, i.e. ways of
_describing_ what existing code already does.
------
bboreham
Interesting that the author makes no mention of CLR, Microsoft’s attempt at
the same thing which has been around for 20 years.
~~~
stephenrkell
True that the CLR is not mentioned by name, but it is covered. I invite you to
read the text again, and especially the following bit.
"Specifically, we should aspire to package language implementations in a way
that renounces ‘one true VM’, instead allowing first-class interoperability
with the host environment (perhaps at modest drop in performance), the same
interoperability with other VMs past and present, and tool support which ‘sees
across’ these boundaries."
The CLR simply doesn't do these things, as witnessed by the debacle of
"Managed C++" and the usual FFI wrapper tedium of "explicit P/Invoke". It is a
classic "one true VM", albeit more language-inclusive than a single-language
VMs.
~~~
bboreham
Surely it was an _attempt_ at all these things, it just didn’t work out. For
instance, I remember controversy that new Windows APIs would only be
accessible via .Net.
------
dcsommer
I'd love to see the topics of soft-realtime and lightweight threads addressed.
------
mroche
I expected this to be about system virtualization, not language VMs.
Interesting though, but not my area of expertise.
~~~
msla
> I expected this to be about system virtualization, not language VMs.
> Interesting though, but not my area of expertise.
The blatant reuse of abbreviations and terms is one of my pet peeves.
For example, VM can mean Virtual Machine, Virtual Machine, or Virtual Memory.
Yep, three completely distinct things, two of which are helpfully referred to
under the same expanded name as well. Do you know all three? mroche has
helpfully disambiguated between Virtual Machine and Virtual Machine already,
but in case you need help:
Virtual Machine means a computer split up into many different fake systems,
each running a guest OS. Xen is an example of a Virtual Machine hypervisor.
Virtual Machine means a completely fake CPU packaged with libraries and used
to run a high-level language, to facilitate things like garbage collection and
language-level security. Java runs on a Virtual Machine, quite imaginatively
called the Java Virtual Machine. Now, what would we call a Java execution
environment which could run as a Xen guest? (Don't strain yourself... )
Virtual Memory means lying to applications about how memory works, to present
a completely flat address space without such annoyances as caching or other
programs or the operating system disturbing application programmers, who are
quite disturbed enough.
Now, let's take all of those concepts, refer to all three of them with the
same abbreviation and two of them with the same name entirely. I suppose I
should feel lucky to live in this time: Soon, we'll be calling them all Bruce,
to cut down on confusion.
~~~
theamk
Your first two "virtual machines" are actually not that different.
Sure, xen simulates the same CPU type as host, and talks to host via block
devices and raw sockets, and each guest includes the full OS and filesystem;
while Java VM simulates a completely different CPU, and uses host's OS for
filesystem and TCP/IP access. They seem pretty distinct.
But you are just looking at the sides of the spectrum, and there are plenty of
things in the middle.
\- With Xen, you can boot directly into user app, without any OS, filesystems
or separate libraries. Is it still "fake system" if the thing you are booting
has no chance of running on a real hardware?
\- Qemu/kvm, which is normally used to emulate processors, supports "virt", "a
platform which doesn't correspond to any real hardware and is designed for use
in virtual machines." Does this start to sound like JVM for you?
\- There are an actual, physical chips which execute Java bytecode directly
(like picoJava). Does this put Java VM into "hardware emulation" category?
\- On, and there is UML (user mode linux) project -- it emulates a virtual
machine with its own fixed memory pool (like xen), and can use host's block
device (like xen), and raw networking (like xen); but it can also use host's
filesystem (like JVM), and it uses host's kernel for thread scheduling (like
JVM). Where does it go?
\- Oh, and there is a Smalltalk. The older versions had garbage-collecting VM
(like JVM), but it had its own device drivers (like xen) and filesystem (like
xen).
There is a reason we call of them "virtual machines" \-- they have lots of
things in common.
~~~
zamfi
I'd also add that I believe the usage in the title here is a little obscure --
I think almost any generalist programmer (i.e., not someone who exclusively
works in program language VMs or in system VMs) would assume "VM" refers to a
system-level virtual machine.
At one point I interacted with the JVM and its quirks on a daily basis, and I
never started referring to it as "the VM", it was always "the JVM".
I suspect in large part _because_ they're not that different from a systems
perspective, I assume "VM" to mean the more generic of the two!
~~~
atq2119
The usage has changed over time. Go back 15 years, and I'd expect people would
more commonly associated "VM" with the language VM. Of course, that historical
development fits well with the high-level claims made in the paper.
~~~
zamfi
Agreed. There was a time where the system-level virtualizer was "the
hypervisor", but I was still in school then. ;)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
What Was the Scotch Whisky Boom? Part 1: Value vs. Volume - omnibrain
http://thekrav.blogspot.com/2015/01/what-was-scotch-whisky-boom-part-1.html
======
zedpm
Very nice analysis of the "boom." Anyone who regularly buys single malt Scotch
has observed the strong upward movement of bottle prices in the last few
years. With the growing visibility of world whisk(e)y, I'll be interested to
see if the Japanese and other producers help moderate the price of Scotch or
if they join in the upward trend.
On a somewhat related note, it's interesting to see how small and simple some
of these world-famous distilleries are. I visited Islay last summer and toured
Ardbeg, Laphroaig, Lagavulin, Kilchoman, Bowmore, Bruichladdich, and a few
others. Bowmore is definitely the Walmart of the bunch, while Kilchoman was
more like a mom-and-pop operation.
~~~
tptacek
We were in the Highlands and Speyside this summer and did some tours as well.
It's worth knowing that most of the famous distilleries roll up to one of a
couple mega-corps --- Diageo, Ricard, Suntory. Lots of those distilleries are
small operations. It's the same in the US: the best known, best regarded
bourbons are almost uniformly owned by giant companies.
There's an interesting comparison between the tours at, say, Aberlour (a mega-
corp-owned large-scale distillery) and Benromach (an independent small-scale
distillery). I'd rather tour the small operations. But honestly, I'd (mostly)
rather drink the products of the larger ones.
_(A warning: I 'm more inclined to nerd out and even less qualified to hold
forth on this topic than I am on criminal law or cryptography. Sorry!)_
~~~
drsim
Busloads of tourists rolled into Talisker (Diageo) on the August day we
visited. We sat in the Talisker 'experience' while waiting for our time slot.
After an hour we were ready and got taken around by a suited guide with gilded
lapel badge. She took us through the usual history, distillation process and
then to the tasting: a nice range of their ages and brands.
A slick, well-packaged distillery.
A few days later we arrived on Mull and toured the Tobermory Distillery. Small
and cute just like the town. The tweeded master distiller had so many stories,
transporting us back through its varied history.
That history sure made the dram taste great.
Looking forward to making it onto Islay next time.
Slàinte!
~~~
zedpm
Islay is amazing. If you make it there, consider staying at The Bowmore
House[0]. Andrew and Alison are wonderful hosts, the breakfasts are marvelous,
and the rooms are great too.
[0] [http://www.thebowmorehouse.co.uk/](http://www.thebowmorehouse.co.uk/)
~~~
arethuza
If you go to Islay, it might be worth going to Jura that has it's own
distillery, interesting scenery (if you like fantastically rough coastlines
and raised beaches), the house where Orwell wrote 1984 and at the north end
between Jura and Scarba the infamous Gulf of Corryvreckan with its whirlpool:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Corryvreckan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Corryvreckan)
------
peterwwillis
Several distilleries have hit points where supply exceeded demand, so they
closed for years to let the market stabilize, only to start producing just shy
of too late to have enough product to continue selling. The end result was you
couldn't find label X or Y for a few years because they ran out and couldn't
churn out the old label in time, so they would issue a _new_ label using
younger whiskey as an intermediate gimmick.
Aside from consumer demand, other production issues come up, like the fact
that white oak casks/barrels are actually in such high demand that America is
having a hard time keeping up the supply (basically everyone gets their high
quality barrels from us).
And in general, the global market continues to increase due to new markets
[developing countries], which is going to at least marginally drive the price
up (because there aren't a flurry of new distilleries popping up).
------
Exuma
I recently read an interesting article about 'whisky' vs 'whiskey'
[http://www.thekitchn.com/whiskey-vs-whisky-whats-the-
di-1004...](http://www.thekitchn.com/whiskey-vs-whisky-whats-the-di-100476)
~~~
frobozz
Penderyn distillery in WalEs produces whisky thereby breaking the mnemonic.
------
JasonCEC
For anyone interested in a startup working in the craft beverage industry, my
company builds quality control and flavor profiling tools using machines
learning. We focus on the craft beer, artisan coffee, and premium spirit
industries.
www.gastrograph.com JasonCEC [at] the above url
------
s_dev
Irish whiskey is going through it's own boom - it would be interesting to
compare the two. They have different histories and tastes.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Negative Rates: How One Danish Couple Gets Paid Interest on Their Mortgage - apsec112
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-upside-down-world-of-negative-interest-rates-1460643111
======
metasean
Paywalled
Potentially friendly alternatives:
[http://www.australianetworknews.com/mortgage-interest-
negati...](http://www.australianetworknews.com/mortgage-interest-negative-
denmak/)
[http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/04/18/negative-mortgage-
ra...](http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/04/18/negative-mortgage-
rates_n_9722138.html)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The 9 Flavors Of Windows 8 Show The Key Difference Between Microsoft And Apple - justjimmy
http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/02/the-nine-different-flavors-of-windows-8-shows-the-key-difference-between-microsoft-and-apple/
======
untog
TechCrunch is overstating their case a little, here. Certainly, that
screenshot shows "PrereleaseARMEdition","EnterpriseEvalEdition", and so on.
Obviously these aren't relevant.
The different flavours of Windows are disliked by consumers, and liked by
corporate customers. The answer is clear: just have one 'consumer' edition and
stop selling both Home and Home Premium. The rest- Professional, Ultimate,
Enterprise, etc. are all fine.
Pet gripe: I wish people would stop saying that OS X costs $29.99 and that
Windows costs considerably more. They both operate on considerably different
models- OS X is released once per year, Windows much less frequently (and with
service packs).
~~~
aneesh
OS X doesn't cost $29.99. It costs $29.99 _plus_ the cost of Apple hardware
(the cheapest of which is the $600 Mini). Unless you go the Hackintosh route,
you can't install OS X on non-Apple hardware.
Whereas you can install your $100 Windows license on your choice of hardware
devices that support it.
~~~
tvon
You could just say "Windows runs on a wide variety of hardware, OSX does not"
to more simply get your point across.
edit:
Okay, the point being made is "Apple hardware is not cheap, and you need Apple
hardware to properly run OS X".
It's made in a very hand-wavy way, though, which I find a bit annoying.
~~~
kiloaper
That's not the same point.
Edit: At least the poster now acknowledges this. Anonymous downvotes? And
people claim we're not edging closer to Reddit more and more each day.
~~~
xiaoma
> _Anonymous downvotes?_
All votes on HN are anonymous, whether they're upvotes or downvotes. Showing
who voted which way on what just isn't one of the features of the site, and
that's a good thing.
------
currywurst
Where do they find these mythical "confused" consumers ? This trope is really
getting overused IMHO.
As far as I can tell, most consumers use the version of windows installed on
their desktops/laptops/tablets. Enterprise users have their decisions made for
them anyway by corporate IT. So that leaves a minority group who i) plan to
upgrade ii) assemble their own boxes. The latter are sufficiently educated and
the former usually consider a simple one-to-one mapping for their upgrade path
("I have windows 7 home, i upgrade to windows 8 home").
So, did I miss anything ?
~~~
flomo
I purchased a netbook, and the only OS available was Windows 7 "starter
edition" -- and you can't even change the wallpaper! So, I am confused why
this product even exists. (But I guess if Microsoft wants to put their
brandname on something which is intentionally defective, that's up to them.)
------
yread
Their article is missing the source link
[http://windows8beta.com/2012/03/exclusive-windows-8-sku-
reve...](http://windows8beta.com/2012/03/exclusive-windows-8-sku-revealed-in-
consumer-preview)
A week back there was this rumour of only 3 editions:
[http://www.zdnet.com/blog/seo/windows-8-skus-mentioned-on-
hp...](http://www.zdnet.com/blog/seo/windows-8-skus-mentioned-on-hpcom/4739)
------
kbob
Absolutely correct. The key difference between MS and Apple is that MS is a
software company and Apple is a hardware company.
As a software company, MS tries to maximize SW revenue by differentiating
their basic product into various flavors at various price points.
As a hardware company, Apple does the same thing with Macs and iWhatevers.
Then they throw in the software for a nominal fee (nominal for the affluent
people who can afford Apple's hardware, that is).
Nothing to see here. Move along.
------
hammock
Apple follows this model too, just on a hardware level, not a software level.
All of their products come in different flavors intended to add a little price
discrimination to their product lines. E.g. the 5+ different types of macbook
pros.
------
sj4nz
Nine different products = massive confusion for users. Apple certainly made
more money when they simplified their computer offerings so that users didn't
have to do extreme mental exercises to compare features and buy.
~~~
jiggy2011
Is it going to be that confusing? Most people have their choice made for them
by their PC manufacturer which is usually the home version unless their IT
department specifies something else.
Most of these editions won't be widely available on the shops either I bet,
there will be specific versions for enterprise users or for ARM etc. The real
choice will come down to 2 versions (or so) as it has with win7.
If you are buying the OS itself as an upgrade then it is probably because you
want specific features and your going to want to be able to choose the edition
you have.
~~~
pbhjpbhj
> _Most people have their choice made for them by their PC manufacturer_ //
It's a up-sell opportunity for PC sales staff too - people see the bottom
price based on the MS Windows with all the decent functions removed. The sales
staff will tell them they need to have MS Windows 8 Super-non-breaking-hacker-
resistant-anti-mildew Edition instead ... oh and by the way now you've settled
on that you'll need extra RAM otherwise it will run slow as anything.
The lack of knowledge about the different editions basically cripples a
regular buyer's ability to decide for themselves.
~~~
jiggy2011
I've never seen sales staff try and upsell a Windows edition to someone who
didn't need it (in the UK at least), not saying it doesn't happen of course
and if your running a non server version are the hardware requirements any
different?
AFAIK the only reason you'd need something other than Win7 Home is if you want
to connect to an AD network or have legacy software you need to run.
You get features like encrypted folders etc in other versions but this can
easily be replicated for free with software like truecrypt.
------
lionhearted
Not a bad article, but it misses the key two words of the whole thing:
_Price discrimination._
Price discrimination is attempting to get the maximum price a person or
organization would be willing to pay.
Apple doesn't do that -- they just go 100% upmarket. Microsoft has the
challenge of trying to get top dollar from wealthy people using top-notch
machines while also preserving all their market share at the low end of the
market.
It's hard to say which model is better. Apple's is sexier and wins more
spectacularly, for sure, and I love Apple. I'm all-in on Apple. But the Apple
model is also immensely more prone to catastrophe. Two bad product cycles in a
row, or missing an emerging trend and it might be curtains for Apple again.
Well, they have the huge cash position. But it could get pretty ugly if they
miss the boat, whereas Microsoft can even endure a mess like the huge delay
post-XP followed by the heavily-panned Vista, and still be okay.
~~~
justjimmy
My short time with Apple's OS (4 years), I noticed Apple doesn't make drastic
changes but rather alot of tweaks and gradual improvements. (From a UI/UX
perspective)
Windows on the other hand makes erratic leaps and breaks users' expectation
(from previous versions) alot, and have to relearn alot of new flow. (Not just
the OS but its Office Suite as well. The Tabbed categorization of Toolbars
really frustrated me). Now that with 8, they're shifting their focus, again.
Will it work? Who knows – I just know I have to learn everything again, and
it's daunting.
~~~
MatthewPhillips
I would categorize Lion's scrolling change to be drastic.
~~~
justjimmy
Not when the underlying experience exists on iPhone and with the prominence of
the touchpad (from MacBooks), it's not a blindsided change.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
WhatsApp Encryption Is a Good Start, but Businesses Need More Security - SofiaNuro
http://nuro.im/whatsapp-encryption-businesses-need-security/
======
weddpros
1- serve your content over HTTPS ...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What's the best welcome you've ever had when you first started your job? - andrewoons
Since we're in the process of hiring our first employees, we want to give them the best welcome possible to our current team of 3.<p>What's the best way you've ever been welcomed at a new job? Think about activities, swag you've received, the general process or anything else.<p>I'm curious what the best stories are and hope to incorporate some elements into our own company culture!
======
oaf357
I actually just started a new job and my first day was amazing. First, my boss
gave me a tour of the office. Followed by showing me to my desk. On the desk
was a working phone, monitors, folders, pens, paper, sticky notes, a tape
dispenser, and two documents. The first document was essentially everything I
needed to answer my spouse's questions about the new job (holidays, vacation
accruals, pay dates, where to sign up for benefits, etc.). The second document
was an org chart with everyone's name and title which was nice for reference
when meeting new people. Shortly after wiping down the desk a person dedicated
to getting my new laptop setup came in and made sure I had access to
everything I would ever need. She literally brought everything new in box and
started laying it all out for me. Next my immediate co-workers set about
getting me access to systems and internal applications. By mid-afternoon on my
first day I felt like I could start diving in and solving problems. It was a
truly refreshing experience especially when you consider it was December 28th.
------
pedalpete
Not sure if you can take anything from this as I work for a large gov't
research org.
My day started with meeting the members of my team I hadn't met in the
interview process and we all had a coffee together. Then I got my workstation
set-up.
After about an hour, I was told to join a tour that was being given of the
different research projects in the company. The idea being that I would get a
good feel for what else was happening outside my team.
The tour was 3 hours long! Incredibly interesting all the way and I tried to
absorb as much as I could about these projects (the tour was actually for two
very important and smart people from outside the org and I was just tagging
along).
When I got back to my desk, my boss was like "where have you been? we thought
you might have quit!" When I told her I went on the tour like she had said she
mentioned the tours only usually last about 40 minutes, and that apparently
when we switched locations, that was supposed to be the end of my tour, but
instead I had stayed on and seen things that even she had never seen!
So, with that sorted, we went to lunch as a team. On my return, I finished
getting the project set-up and running, which is normally quite challenging
but went fairly smoothly thanks to good documentation <\- THIS IS SO
IMPORTANT!!
At 4, the design team had invited us around for :"daily afternoon tea", which
included cake. I thought "this is the best place to work ever!"
It wasn't until the next day at 4 o'clock when I was getting ready for cake
with the design team that I was informed that it was just a coincidence that
they had cake on my first day and that it wasn't a daily occurence...unless I
was going to supply the cake.
Either way, a very memorable and interesting day.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Lottery – Can you beat the odds? - solson
http://pizzascripters.com/lottery/game/
======
montbonnot
290,000,000 possible combinations at $2 a combination. That's $580,000,000
total. You make $650,000,000 after tax if you win. You're positive of about
70k. You have to be the only winner though :)
------
solson
My 13 YO son made this. The current Powerball jackpot got his attention and he
wanted to simulate just how hard it is to hit 1 in 290,000,000.
~~~
o_nate
It's pretty funny. So if I understand correctly, in the first stage 7 out of 8
squares are red? Edit: I played it a bit more and I think I understand the
first stage, but I haven't made it past it yet. If all 7 stages were
identical, then you'd need a 1/16 chance of winning each stage to make the
odds come out correctly. So I'm guessing the stages get progressively harder.
~~~
solson
The stages do get progressively harder. Stage 2 is 1 in 10 and I think stage 7
is 1 in 36.
~~~
nautical
Yes ... stages variable : [8, 10, 12, 15, 20, 28, 36]
------
eecks
Needs to be faster to keep my attention
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Valley Forged: How One Man Made the Indie Video Game Sensation Stardew Valley - benbreen
https://www.gq.com/story/stardew-valley-eric-barone-profile
======
adriand
I really love stories about people who become totally, utterly absorbed in
something, to the point where they obsessively spend time on it, in a kind of
natural sense that does not require checklists, reminders, etc. It's just
always their top priority, like an addiction, except with meaning and depth.
I envy the absorption in a creative activity and also the growth they
experience in terms of their skills. Think about it - at this point this guy
isn't just a great programmer, he is also an accomplished designer, artist,
writer and musician. A true renaissance person.
I'm quite focused compared to many people and I don't waste a lot of time with
social media, television, etc., but I'm nowhere near like this guy.
About four years ago I decided I wanted to learn a second language and I
poured a lot of effort into learning Spanish over a three year period. I got
to the point where I could carry on a conversation with a Spanish-speaking
person quite naturally, read the news in Spanish, etc., but I never felt
entirely _fluent_. Then things got busy and my attention shifted and now, a
year after I was last really actively learning, I know my skills have
deteriorated.
I want to get back into it but I'm struggling to find the motivation. It feels
like work and I already work hard. And truthfully, it _always_ felt like work,
it's just that I really wanted the experience of understanding and being able
to speak another language. I got to that point, but I don't feel like I took
it far enough - and this seems true of so many things in my life. Pretty good
programmer (at one point), decent enough entrepreneur, not a bad father, solid
writer, crappy musician but having fun with it, kind of fit but not terribly
so, etc. In short, jack of all trades, master of none.
I realize I'm rambling a bit, but to tie it back to where I began, obsession
seems like a bit of a cognitive shortcut to me, a path to excellence that
feels less like work and more like addiction. Is that true or am I just
intellectually lazy? I want to dive into something, to find something that
holds my attention raptly for the long term and generates true personal growth
along the way, but I don't know what that would be, and in four decades of
living on this planet I don't think I've ever come across anything that fits
that bill.
~~~
dboon
Wow. I understand what you mean completely, in my gut. The feeling of throwing
yourself into something completely, not to better yourself or to prove
anything, but simply because you must, is probably the greatest feeling in the
world for me.
~~~
random_kris
I used to be like this when I was younger. I remember spending my summer break
in my room learning a 3d modeling software just to make some stupid
animations... It was this internal drive that I want to accomplish this that
waned through the years I think
------
driverdan
Eric is not only a genius who made a fantastic game but he's a nice, down-to-
earth person. I met him once. He had a table at one of the PAX cons and was
hanging out with fans, many whom had him sign stuff. This was after it had
sold enough copies to make him a millionaire. He didn't have to be there, he
choose to do it.
~~~
foobarbazetc
I think I met him at the same PAX. Really nice guy. Happy for his success.
------
sireat
While it is great to admire the care and dedication that went into this game
let's not draw conclusions that Eric's approach is a widely applicable recipe
to long term wealth and healthy relationships.
This is classic survivorship bias.
There are countless stories of one person obsessing over some project, making
progress, sometimes even shipping the project yet not getting the
recognition/fame/money.
Meanwhile they are losing relationships and health in the process.
The great novel is a common culprit, but the great app is a fast rising
contender.
The main thing to remember is "building/shipping is not enough".
In fact the one intriguing thing glossed over in the article is how he managed
to get a distributorship deal.
~~~
baud147258
See that story: Did I just waste 3 years? [0] on a failed indie game.
[0]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18092108](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18092108)
------
stevenwoo
Wow, this is amazing and old school - doing the art, sound, music,
programming. I think the only advantage he had was he could look up anything
on the internet and _possibly_ find an answer to technical road blocks, he
still had to polish and rework for five years (and not feel pressure to get or
work a regular 9-5 and keep his relationship going, though it sounds like it
may have been a close call there towards the end with the three playtesters
helping immensely).
~~~
romwell
On that note, I highly recommend Papers, Please[1].
It's a one-person project as well, and a truly amazing work of art.
Played it with my partner to get _all_ the endings and achievements; it's been
an amazing experience.
[1][http://papersplea.se/](http://papersplea.se/)
~~~
mercer
What I loved about Papers, Please is that it was actually a proper, fun game.
Depressing too, but fun. I rarely come across 'art project' style games that
pull their weight game-wise.
~~~
romwell
It really does have excellent gameplay.
Although I wouldn't call the game depressing - I found the satire funny as
hell.
------
l33tbro
Good read. But kind of underwhelmed how the author glosses over how the steps
of how developer finally connected with the real world and got his creation
out there.
I think many of us can relate to the obsession with detail, but hearing how
the publisher discovered him and their impressions of his work would have been
a nice pay-off.
~~~
koonsolo
This piece is mostly about the emotional side of it, and kind of romances the
whole thing. I don't think you can take away much practical advice with such
articles.
For example, when I read "working 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 4 years",
that's just impossible.
And a Kotaku interview confirms this ([http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2016/03/21/the-
past-present-and-futu...](http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2016/03/21/the-past-present-
and-future-of-stardew-valley)):
>> Kotaku: How did you avoid burning out? How did you avoid coming to hate
Stardew Valley?
Eric Barone: There were periods where I had an idea or something that I was
really passionate about, and in that moment I would work like crazy. I
actually just literally wanted to see that thing come to life as quick as
possible because it was fresh in my mind. I had this fire to create that.
Then there would be other periods where I just kind of didn’t feel like
working, so while I would sit there and attempt to work I probably did a lot
of alt tabbing and just browsing Reddit and stuff like that. I would waste
time, and I would be a lot less productive. <<
So he's human like all of us, but it's still really impressive what he was
able to pull of, no question about that. He's an inspiration for all lone game
developers.
I'm just saying, take all these articles with a grain of salt. It's
journalists doing their journalist thing.
~~~
kumarvvr
This is a great point.
The moment I read "12 hrs a day, 7 days a week" I felt very disappointed with
my own style of working. I usually work at max around 1/2 to 1 hour a day,
even though I spend 3 - 4 hours on the PC. But during binges of feverish
thoughts, I lose track of time in work, and can easily not notice 4 - 5 hours
consumed.
~~~
l33tbro
Don't be too hard on yourself. 12 hours a day is likely an overstatement. If
not, going over 5 hours of intense "flow state" each day would bring
diminishing returns.
You can be disciplined at staring at the screen, but you still need that
genetative tide. That comes from what's yielded by not being obsessed by the
immrdiate. So, again, in my experiencr, spending time present in the real
world is beneficial for your ventures.
------
eindiran
This was a really nice read. In the past, I've read or seen pieces detailing
the personal story of a particular indie game developer, and often I walk away
feeling kind of grated by their personalities (See "Indie Game: The Movie" for
a particularly high octane example). But after reading it I felt warmed by how
much you could see the artist in his art.
------
keithnz
I recently started playing it multiplayer with my son ( 7 ). I had watched him
play it solo before but didn't think it was my type of game. But boy, the
amount of detail in the game is fantastic.
------
fhood
Wow, I didn't even like Stardew Valley very much, but there is a level of
polish to that game that is unbelievable for a single person to have
accomplished.
------
ansible
It'll be interesting to see if switching to Rust will enhance the already
remarkable productivity of this game studio.
[https://www.rust-lang.org/pdfs/Rust-Chucklefish-
Whitepaper.p...](https://www.rust-lang.org/pdfs/Rust-Chucklefish-
Whitepaper.pdf)
~~~
thrower123
Stardew Valley is built on Monogame. Also Chucklefish is the publisher, not
the developer...
~~~
steveklabnik
Their new game is in Rust, not Stardew Valley. And you’re right that they were
only the publishers for it.
~~~
thrower123
Is there anything approaching the XNA/Monogame content pipeline in the Rust
world? Something like Stardew Valley is hugely data-driven, and being able to
leverage that tooling, not to mention solid cross-platform support, looks like
a huge force multiplier.
~~~
steveklabnik
I don’t _think_ so, but it’s not an area I’m always the most up to date with.
I’m guessing if it existed I’d have heard of it, though.
“Amethyst” and “piston” are the two engine projects. I’m not sure if studios
are using them or I’d they're building something in-house.
------
almostdeadguy
I wish nothing but the best for this guy, but I think it's kind of sick how we
romanticize and valorize people who do nothing but obsessively work and
neglect their relationship with their partners and magically pull off their
project in the end to become rich. It's a gross fantasy. At least this doesn't
have the "vindictive and abusive" genius aspect of these stories you typically
hear like in the Steve Jobs archetypes or whatever. He seems like a nice
person and I really like his game. I just think its incredibly sad that this
is perceived to be something to aspire to.
~~~
peteforde
I don't think that the developer could have possibly imagined that he would
get rich. I'm sure that he was scared that he wouldn't break even with a
living wage until it already in the market.
While I agree that it's uncool to ignore your partner to an abusive degree, it
sounds to me like they communicated about it and she was consciously and
proactively supportive. (I would support her owning a significant cut of the
profits, even if they ever split up. She sounds incredible to me.)
The main reason that I hit reply, however, is that when it comes to having a
passion project that consumes you, it doesn't feel like work. Some of the
happiest moments of my life have been when I've been able to shut out the
world and focus 100% of my energy on something I am deeply committed to. I
think that it is pure, noble and for people like me, the way in which we are
most fulfilled. It's not a job but a calling. I 100% get it. I also appreciate
that it's not for everyone.
However, just because you don't understand it does not mean that it's somehow
less than the ways you choose to spend your time. What you see as sick, I see
as privileged.
------
stuxnet79
I found out about this from reading Blood, Sweat and Pixels [1]. What really
struck me about this whole story is the fact that his partner was able to
support him for the entire duration he was working on the game (close to half
a decade). That's a tough sell for any relationship, and if you ask me the
real hero of this story is his partner who believed in him enough to support
him all the way to the end. I would love to be in that kind of relationship.
[1] [https://kotaku.com/i-wrote-a-book-about-the-making-of-
unchar...](https://kotaku.com/i-wrote-a-book-about-the-making-of-
uncharted-4-star-wa-1792635169)
~~~
mattigames
Well, let's be honest here; it really depends on the job she has, for example
if she is an anesthesiologist is exponentially easier to support her partner
than if she has a low-paying job like barista or something alike.
~~~
kayoone
it's not only about the money young fella. A long and uncertain project
without any income like that is a tough sell for any relationship.
~~~
dEnigma
You say it's not about the money, but then you mention income again. What is
it about then?
~~~
romwell
>it's not _only_ about the money
~~~
dEnigma
Yes, I saw that. But saying something like that and then mentioning nothing
but money (income) is a little confusing.
------
NegativeLatency
I dont think it’s accurate to describe Auburn Washington as “semi-rural”
~~~
ksenzee
Yeah, Auburn itself within the city limits is Seattle/Tacoma suburbs, so that
sounded weird. There are definitely semi-rural areas with an Auburn address,
east of Highway 18, and maybe that's where he lived.
------
kumarvvr
What is the software he is using to create pixel art?
~~~
thrower123
In the photo in the article, about halfway down with the tree, it looks like
Paint.net
[https://www.getpaint.net/](https://www.getpaint.net/)
------
forkLding
I love the game and loved Harvest Moon, I thank Eric for his work and his
dedication.
------
forgot-my-pw
It's pretty impressive that he worked on it alone, including art and music.
------
cheunste
Man, I really wish there were some more detail on Eric's workflow. After all,
one man creating all these assets and managing all this sounds like a
nightmare without some sort of organizational system
------
rootw0rm
my ex loved this game. i'm a sucker for gamer chicks.
------
subjectHarold
I know it isn't the point of the article but...damn, this guy couldn't get a
job. Like the easiest thing was to spend thousands of hours developing this
game? Hm, kind of sad.
~~~
peteforde
I feel like you are, indeed, missing the point: this guy wasn't successful
despite his passion project. He was successful because of his passion project.
For those of us who know exactly what they would do with the opportunity to
spend thousands of hours on a calling, this guy is an inspiration.
~~~
subjectHarold
It wasn't a calling, it was something he did when nothing else worked. I am
sure he enjoyed it, he wouldn't have done it otherwise...but that isn't my
point. My point is that it isn't inspiring...at all.
It would be interesting to know what he actually thinks but I know because I
have actually been in that situation (unf, more than once). It isn't fun, it
is soul-destroying to pour your being into something you love with no reward.
Even if you are "successful", that initial experience of feeling trapped
taints it (indeed, the whole point is that you are immune to notions of
success/failure and the experience changes your notion of success...if you
come into thinking about success then you will get washed out in a few
months).
And he was successful despite it. He would have done okay whatever he did. It
is just a little unfortunate that he had go down that path, imo.
~~~
peteforde
Is it possible that we read a completely different article?
He was a huge fan of Harvest Moon and he wanted to make a spiritual successor.
Paragraph 3: “I think it makes sense that I worked entirely alone,” Eric says.
“I wanted to do all the music, the art.”
The article does talk about how he was not getting hired for the jobs he
wanted, and he knew he'd have to level up his skillset. However, it's also
self-evident that within a year he'd secured a publisher and taken an
advance... so his job search became an educational pursuit which became an
opportunity to build something that by any sane definition is a labour of
love.
I'm not weirded out that you're not inspired, because it doesn't sound like
you're the sort of person that would become inspired to create something like
what's described. And that is fine, right?
Many of us, however, are inspired by stories like this. It's not just video
games, either... but Braid comes to mind as an example of something that could
never have come from Electronic Arts. It's also the only game that Roger Ebert
conceded constitutes art.
For what it's worth, I'm sorry that your projects didn't work out. Arguably,
if doing something you love isn't its own reward, then you might be doing the
wrong thing.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How to Send Email Like a Startup: Chapter 1 - alexophile
https://www.sendwithus.com/resources/guide/#chapter-1-welcome-emails
======
sogen
Useful article (y)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
James Golick has died - waffle_ss
https://twitter.com/jill380/status/548978785404874753
======
mcarrano
James was in a car accident in Mexico:
[https://twitter.com/jill380/status/549016126035095552](https://twitter.com/jill380/status/549016126035095552)
I briefly did work for Normal this past summer, where James was the CTO. He
was a great guy and I'll never forget the standup we did while standing on our
chairs at the Quirky office... That was James' idea to do that.
------
milesf
I remember interviewing James for a podcast I used to produce. It was
hilarious in that many of my friends are strong Christians, and many of James'
friends are part of the BDSM community. We could not have been more polar
opposites on many aspects of our worldviews, but we both loved the Ruby
programming language and surrounding community.
Both of us had "fallout" from that interview, me for interviewing a "heathen"
and James for associating with someone so "vanilla". We both laughed, and we
both remained friends.
I'm really going to miss James.
~~~
gaustin
I met you and James at my first Ruby conference. I didn't ever get to know
James well but that was the start of a sea change in my career.
I never heard that interview but I'm smiling imagining the interaction.
~~~
milesf
It was a typical podcast talk between typical Rubyists. There's a copy of it
up on archive.org:
[https://archive.org/details/Coderpath10-JamesGolick](https://archive.org/details/Coderpath10-JamesGolick)
I think the only people who would really have been offended by it are those
who hadn't listen to it :) It's the same sort of banter you hear at clubs,
conferences, and other podcasts, except that I'm not very smart and James is
(or was... ugh, still having a hard time believing he's gone).
~~~
Argorak
I just listened to it and it is full of good quotes, my favourite:
"Discussions without good definitions are doomed to fail." (about the upcoming
NoSQL dabate). I feel that's still ringing true in that sector.
------
Croaky
If you're a Rails developer, you probably have a
config/initializers/backtrace_silencers.rb file in your app. Think of James
the next time you see that file. He wrote the initial implementation:
[http://jamesgolick.com/2007/12/1/noisy-backtraces-got-you-
do...](http://jamesgolick.com/2007/12/1/noisy-backtraces-got-you-down.html)
DHH later ported the work to Rails:
[https://github.com/rails/rails/commit/f42c77f927eb49b00e84d3...](https://github.com/rails/rails/commit/f42c77f927eb49b00e84d355e07de48723d03fcb.patch)
I knew James mostly online and a little in person from various programming
conferences. He was smart, funny, and kind. He made a difference. He will be
missed.
------
rhgraysonii
Just a note (and please tell me if its OT/inappropriate), but with these types
of events, people often concentrate on the 'what' that made it happen.
However, the way a man dies does not define him. It is his work and
contribution, which James had a ton of. I personally think celebrating James'
contributions to open source, and his talks, and writing does him much more
justice than speculating at a cause of death.
RIP
~~~
51Cards
This is very true, however many people also achieve understanding and closure
through details. It allows them to absorb what at first blush seems
incomprehensible. Is there something they could have done, should they have
known if he was ill, etc. We want to understand how this could have happened.
You're right, it doesn't define the person though, but it helps frame the
reality of the shock.
~~~
rhgraysonii
This is true. Personally, I have always dealt with death in a strange way
(compared to peers). Thank you for the insight.
------
arach
I met James a few times in Montreal when we both lived there and quickly
decided he was incredibly smart and awesome. From a distance, I admired his
work and taste and I was thrilled to learn about his move to NY. I'm sure he
had a lot of enthusiasm for his relatively new life here (NY) and lots of
things he wanted to do. I can't understand deaths like this, and it's very
difficult to accept. It's a really tough loss.
------
YuriNiyazov
Who was he?
~~~
rhgraysonii
He did a lot of great talks, as well as blog writing. He also was the main
developer of resource_controller (a rails library)[0]
0\.
[https://github.com/jamesgolick/resource_controller](https://github.com/jamesgolick/resource_controller)
~~~
simonrand
Totally unknown fact that resource_controller was initially extracted from a
project James was working on with me (he was doing the coding) 7 odd years
ago, we never fully discussed it as the project never saw the light of day (it
was for a client) but I'm pretty sure the crazy client requirements drove the
thinking behind it in some part.. I still have the half finished project
somewhere, must dig it out..
Pretty shocked about his death, an inspirational guy.
------
apalmblad
I'm shocked; I saw a talk or two he did in Vancouver, and really enjoyed that
he tackled deeper technical topics. He's too young to have passed away.
------
boonez123
I saw one of his talks and he definitely had a knack for taking extremely
technical issues and making them easy to understand!
Below is more information surrounding the accident.
[http://jpupdates.com/2014/12/28/puerto-vallarta-mexico-
two-j...](http://jpupdates.com/2014/12/28/puerto-vallarta-mexico-two-jewish-
tourists-killed-car-accident-saturday/)
------
thejspr
James' talk on how to debug anything was one of the best tech talks I saw this
year [http://www.confreaks.com/videos/3451-goruco-how-to-debug-
any...](http://www.confreaks.com/videos/3451-goruco-how-to-debug-anything)
------
fn
Wow. I worked with James a few years back. This hits home hard.
------
foxhill
does anyone have any information relating to what happened? recent activity
suggests it was a sudden/unexpected event, but i don't really like to guess.
~~~
abreu_alexandre
[https://twitter.com/jill380/status/549016126035095552](https://twitter.com/jill380/status/549016126035095552)
------
rubyfan
So sad to hear this. Too many rubyists gone this year. I knew him only loosely
from conferences and twitter but the guy was interesting and inspiring.
------
ChrisAntaki
Sad to see a great person like him leave us.
I recommend everyone check out defensive driving. You just never know what
state of mind other drivers are in.
~~~
fubarred
Not sure of the circumstances beyond a car accident in MX, but it's awful and
painful.
For those still living, a few simple best practices for ground transport that
cut the risk:
0\. Always hire a driver foreign countries.
1\. Make sure the driver isn't high, drunk or insane.
2\. Assess yourself the vehicle is in safe, working order and has enough mass
and safety features to "win" an accident.
3\. Wear a seatbelt, even if it's hidden or nobody else does.
Being reasonably careful isn't about being a p$ssy, "worrying too much" or
eliminating all unforeseeable risks, it's about not letting other people down
by dying and causing a loss that really could have been prevented by making
other choices. There are plenty of difficult/nearly impossible unpreventable
ways to shuffle off the mortal coil, no reason to volunteer. I'd venture this
wasn't one of those, because JG sounded like a sensible fellow.
Condolences, again.
~~~
lectrick
I would not be typing this were it not for wearing a seatbelt.
People, wear your seatbelts. Especially when you normally might not (like in a
cab).
~~~
fubarred
Bump. Thanks for this. Taxis, microbuses and shuttle buses... if they have
'em, use 'em. If they don't, opt for the next one.
------
jdefarge
A big loss to computing, a terrible loss to family and friends. My sincere
condolences. :'-(
------
samgranieri
Oh no .. It's so sad when people leave us too soon... :(
------
pusewicz
Unbelievable. RIP James!
------
nso95
Fuck.
------
xer0x
sad.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
IBM Announces Magic Bullet to Zap All Kinds of Killer Viruses - mfoy_
http://www.fastcompany.com/3059782/ibm-announces-magic-bullet-to-zap-all-kinds-of-killer-viruses
======
hendler
I'm very optimistic and excited. But I'm also afraid. Fear isn't science and
this isn't my area, but I can't think of something more dangerous for cell
biology. "Whoops, it also blocks all cell reproduction when...."
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Playstation Network and how to ruin your brand and make users hate you - montogeek
https://medium.com/@ignacioricci/playstation-network-how-to-ruin-your-brand-and-make-users-hate-you-e83f02d9bac9
======
mschuster91
Oh, the days where games shipped their own servers and one was able to setup
an entire LAN party without any internet connection at all... and sometimes
even with everyone having the same serial number.
These days, everything is messed up with DRM, and even if everyone has bought
a legal copy of the game it is more often than not that there's some fuck-up
somewhere which makes playing together impossible.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: “Freelancer” Specialties in Tech for the 2020s - third_I
Which specialties in tech do you think will rise or remain in high demand in the next years?
======
third_I
(putting this in comment, I think it's more idiomatic to HN).
I think we'll see a revival of MSPs (Managed Service Providers) with a touch
of custom-devops. Teams just want to work, but selecting services among a
myriad offers and possibilities, then setting it all up to operate seamlessly
and flawlessly is _very_ valuable time and maintenance. Nowadays it's just
companies hiring MSPs, tomorrow it might be something you integrate as a
transformation of your "home" into a dual "workplace", albeit more digitally
so because it's the 21st century.
Ideally you just want to be able to claim compliance to <some standard> and
hand over a public key to your employer-of-the-month to patch your system to
theirs (auth etc.)
Welcome to the Matrix, I guess. The nice part :)
I think ML will keep on rolling but remain mostly a business-thing for the
next decade (I don't see how consumers would directly pay for ML, short of
revolution in open-source social networks and big data but I don't see that
happening this soon in history).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What could be the next technology boom like bitcoin? - PetoU
Bitcoin is here around 4 years. Would you expect it to explode in value 3 years ago ? Potentially.
I assume, that next technologies which will boom in next years are already here, in its infancy. What do you suggest it might be ?
======
mckee1
I'm going to have to say wearable tech, even if it is becoming a bit cliche.
Not necessarily products like Google Glass, but there are plenty of
applications that can massively improve the users life, or help save it. In
hospitals and old people's homes for example, watches that monitor heart
rates, necklaces to check vital signs etc. I'm no Doctor but I imagine a way
to constantly monitor the condition of a potentially at risk person without
them having to lie in bed hooked up to a huge machine will be pretty useful.
~~~
malandrew
I've been looking forward to this. I can't wait until many lab tests are
unnecessary because we have our own continuous medical monitoring occurring
all the time.
------
rdl
Genuinely trustworthy computers (servers and clients). Still probably 5 years
away. Bitcoin, NSA, etc. shows why they're needed, and we sort of know how to
build them, but it's seriously difficult, and involves lots of moving parts up
and down the whole stack from supply chains and designs to silicon fabs to
physical packaging to firmware to OS to apps to network protocols to user
interfaces.
------
soneca
Peer-to-peer education. People learning directly from others (any others). Not
MOOC, but more like a <Khan> Academy where anyone can be Khan.
Teenagers teaching on Youtube how to do make up became a relevant niche for
some years now. I think soon we will have a peer-to-peer education marketplace
billion-dollar company.
~~~
laglad
Agreed. Do you think this boom will happen in developed or developing markets?
~~~
soneca
I would say developed. Innovation demands people having some time, some money
and some ambition to create new things.
Hard to know, but i think the next big thing always come from USA, Europe or
Japan. The only exception is China that create their own big things.
------
adventured
Virtual reality is going to boom over the rest of this decade. The gaming
industry will drive it into the consumer space over the next few years, to
wide adoption. That'll dramatically increase the money being put toward the
industry, leading to an ever faster cycle of improvement.
Hollywood will follow the gaming industry on this technology wise. I'd predict
that within 10 to 15 years, we'll see movies attempting to build out virtual
reality experiences in theaters. For $30, they'll put you into an immersive VR
version of the Avengers sequel that exists at the time.
------
kushti
-drone industry -p2p investments/brokerages/knowledge bases/etc. p2p is still not much developed area with many promising things it could provide -fighting with corporations/governments spying
------
chatmasta
From my "big ideas" evernote:
\- drones - They will be like servers for the physical world. Business
opportunity is "ec2 for drones" \-- drones as a service, rent by the hour,
remote controlled from a web interface, programmable with API. \- bitcoin \-
privacy \- transparency \- online household (IoT) \- brain-computer interfaces
------
adrianwaj
bitmessage as a complimentary product to cryptocurrency (cryptomessaging).
------
yread
ubiquitous 3D printing with Bret-Victor-esque 3D designing software?
------
crisnoble
Renewable energy storage and electric vehicles. If enough people adopt
electric only vehicles that could provide a mechanism to store and send energy
to the existing grid.
------
phektus
A 3d printer for food. Now that would be disruptive.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How To Win As Second Mover - eladgil
http://blog.eladgil.com/2012/10/how-to-win-as-second-mover.html
======
lazyjones
Is Google really "winning" with Android (example in the article)? Sure, they
have more smartphone deployments, but are they even earning any money with it?
Most likely nowhere near what Apple makes in that market.
~~~
lquist
Exactly. It's kind of embarrassing how much of the profit pool Apple has.
This article ([http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/05/03/with-8-8-market-
share...](http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/05/03/with-8-8-market-share-apple-
has-73-of-cell-phone-profits/)), though a bit outdated, show how insanely
lopsided this market is: Apple has 8.8% of the market of worldwide mobile
phones, yet makes 73% of the profit pool.
(An interesting note: Apple + Samsung combined make 99% of the profit pool)!
------
aidenn0
Does the first mover ever win, absent a government sanctioned monopoly?
~~~
eladgil
eBay, Yahoo!, Amazon, Craigs List, are all examples of first movers in their
particular markets.
In general, I mean "second mover" more generically. I.e. what do you do if
someone already has a strong or growing market position? How can you beat
them?
~~~
wtvanhest
eBay - maybe this one, but there was other eCommerce before them. Yahoo! -
Definitely not the first search engine, also not a "winner". See Wandex.
Craig's List - It may have been first, but it is unlikely it was the first
"online classifieds" since it wasn't started unti l998. (I believe 1995 he
started an email distribution though).
The point is, for every company that is a first mover that we know of, there
were usually lots of others started before it that failed. There are a number
of academic papers on the subject, one was called something like "First mover
disadvantage".
~~~
acgourley
I think you guys only disagree on what constitutes a first mover. You consider
a company who has simply launched as a mover. Although he doesn't explicitly
say it, I believe Elad only does so if the company has real traction.
Actually your definition of a first mover isn't useful, as very few companies
would fit it.
~~~
eladgil
Agreed. I am implicitly implying a lack of strong incumbents and a degree of
real traction rather then "has anyone ever tried anything remotely similar".
~~~
wtvanhest
You guys make good points and you changed my mind. I think you guys took the
more logical route on this than I.
------
sopooneo
I listened to an interesting podcast (Under the Influence?) a while back about
first movers that lost out to their copycats. One famous example? Hydrox
cookies. They were the original.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrox>
------
hcarvalhoalves
The comparison between iPhone and Android doesn't make sense. iPhone is a
particular product, Android is just software licensed to 3rd parties. It
doesn't amaze me there are more _deployments_ of phones with Android than
iPhones, it's pretty obvious in fact.
Android is a second mover maybe if compared to Windows Mobile or other systems
licensed to manufacturers.
------
jongs
International markets makes sense only if there is a clear path to
monetization or the potential acquirer has interests oversees
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: A modern web development workflow? - tierone
Hi HN,<p>I'm embarrassed when looking at my web development work flow, that basically hasn't changed ever since I started programming as a hobby ten years ago. I have never moved beyond writing my code, testing it locally with a standard version of WAMP and then dragging my files into an FTP client, uploading them to some unspectacular web hosting service, as if it was just another folder on my computer.<p>[Web development was never priority for me (I studied design and I work as a designer now), but I both enjoy working on small project on the side and also believe that it is my duty as a good designer to understand what it means to implement the things that I come up with.]<p>If I ever wanted to develop something that is more than just a little personal experiment on the side, I would miserably fail, because my knowledge of a serious workflow is just non existent.<p>So this is where I'm asking for your help: It's hard to learn about something that you hardly know anything about. I don't even know where to start. I would greatly appreciate to get your opinions on a good, not too complex (keep in mind that I'm not exactly trying to build the next big thing here), modern and professional workflow that shows me a more serious side of web development than Notepad and Filezilla.
What are the keywords I can use to start learning about this? What are the programs and technologies that you use yourself and that you would recommend? What are the absolute nonos, that expose an absolute amateur?<p>Thanks!
======
sdrinf
> What are the keywords I can use to start learning about this?
It's really comes down to personal choices (see the discussions about vi vs
emacs), and for this reason, it's hard to track down quality advice -esp.
keywords. Instead, try Googling what you'd like to achieve (eg. "use ftp as
local drive"), and be amazed by the variety of tools available :)
> What are the programs and technologies that you use yourself and that you
> would recommend?
Taking care of the whole webdev site of our web-based startup, here's what my
current configuration looks like.
Assuming: Windows as the dev machine, Debian/ubuntu, or shared web hosting on
the server side
* Total commander: is my file navigator of choice -shows 2 tabs of filelist side-by-side, can bookmark any number of directories, many awesomeness included.
* Webdrive: mounts a remote FTP / SFTP / SSH account as a local drive. Check the "support for FTP" requirement off of your texteditor of choice.
* Putty: if you've got shell access to the remote machine, running two of these parallel: tail -f ./access.log tail -f ./errors.log will give you a realtime view of what's happening of your web server, and what error messages did you generated -the later isn't always readily available, esp. if you start getting into ajax
* Notepad++ : has a nice syntax highlighting, an awful lot of shortcuts, support for unix-encoding (on windows), amongst many features.
* Git: you will need to do version control.
Here's how this works together:
* Have 2 machines, 1 for dev, 1 for live, both using a dedicated machine, and a database of it's own. (quick intro how to set up a staging server: [1] )
* Webdrive mounts dev machine's web directory via SSH. All changes are securly transmitted to the server.
* REPL[2] cycle: navigate to the target of interest in Total commander, hit F4 (opens it in Notepad++), do some changes, hit CTRL+S (Webdrive automagically uploads the file), ALT+TAB (chrome), F5 (page refresh), observe changes / errors, ALT+TAB (back to notepad++), bang away. Added bonus: you'll see what you'll get while being deployed on a linux server (the differences between a WAMP, and a LAMP server can be quite a pain)
This allows for a REPL-cycles clocking <2sec, which I found hard to beat for
remote-based REPLs :)
* Once the features are tested, and pre-deploy checklist is done, git add ./ , and git commit will push this into local git repo. Then, on the live-server's side, do a git pull ssh://[staging-server] ,and it's live. If you're having "a learning experience", you can always git reset to a previous version.
> What are the absolute nonos, that expose an absolute amateur?
Standard FTP-based transfer is malleable to Man-in-the-middle attacks[3].
Notepad usually does \r\n instead of \n, which caused me some headaches with
older versions of readline/writelines. Putting together design in notepad is
possible, but massively sub-optimal: try sketching it with photoshop, generate
some skeletons, and use this as a starting point. Local development
(requesting from 127.0.0.1) allows using several javascript capabilities,
which aren't available for public deployed sites.
I think this should you a good headstart, comment below if you have any
questions :)
[1] [http://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/12/12/staging-servers-
source-c...](http://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/12/12/staging-servers-source-
control-deploy-workflows-and-other-stuff-nobody-teaches-you/)
[2] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REPL>
[3] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man-in-the-middle_attack>
------
larsen
Version control. You can observe the benefits even working alone on relatively
small projects. And it's one of the pillars to experiment with more reliable
ways of deploying software
~~~
HackrNwsDesignr
whats a good one to use for single devs/small teams?
~~~
larsen
I use git at work and for personal stuff. The learning path is maybe a bit
steep if you come from things like Subversion, on the other hand I instructed
a developer new to VCSs and so far he didn't complain, shoot his foot, or
shoot mine :)
git is only my personal preference, generally speaking I recommend to go for a
distributed version control system: it's modern, it's mainstream, and it's
more versatile in terms of workflows you can implement.
------
imperialWicket
If a lot of your projects end up on shared hosting solutions, it's difficult
to streamline effectively. Depending on the provider and the hosting tier
(single domain, unlimited, whatever), SSH access may be available or not. For
a lot of those hosting arrangements, a process centered around FTP is the
safest.
Given that limitation, I would definitely echo the importance of version
control, and then highlight that a text editor capable of edits over an FTP
connection can save a lot of trouble. I like UltraEdit, although it's
commercial - it does have a full use trial period though. On Windows, I
believe Notepad++ and Crimson Editor will also support edits over FTP. Be
careful with an FTP capable text editor though, it's easy to make changes
outside of your vcs this way.
------
vladd
If you're bold enough to switch to server-side JavaScript and move your coding
inside the browser, there's a step-by-step tutorial for Erbix at
<http://www.erbix.com/documentation/tutorial/> that describes how to get
started. (disclaimer: I'm affiliated with the project)
~~~
clyfe
If Heroku taught us something, it's developing apps inside the browser is not
lucrative. Learn from them and provide git push deploy. Bonus points: better
Web DB interface, DB import-export.
PS. It's nice to see such Romanian projects.
------
tortilla
I think rails tutorial is great even if you aren't interested in Rails. It
covers git, heroku, and testing.
<http://ruby.railstutorial.org/ruby-on-rails-tutorial-book>
------
tierone
Thanks everyone for your suggestions. Looking forward to check all this out
over the weekend.
------
dave1619
You might want to check out Coda by the guys at Panic (Transmit). They're
basically putting tools together for hand coders who do html, css, etc.
------
HackrNwsDesignr
would love to see an answer to this as well.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
My Y Combinator S12 Story - argumentum
http://argumentum.posterous.com/blog-hn-my-ycombinator-s12-story
======
roryreiff
I wonder - do you think the great experiment for 'no idea' applications is
going to be abandoned after the upcoming class?
There is such a consensus of thought in the startup world that "ideas are
useless, it's all about execution." But, I think this is flimsy thinking.
Amazing execution with a shoddy idea doesn't benefit anyone. This account
seems further validation of that thought.
I think a great idea has the opportunity to build consensus among founders and
aid in forming a team. It seems nearly impossible to find other people to join
existing ideas and be as passionate about their promise and future.
~~~
argumentum
I'm mixed.. I think there are some teams that could thrive even without an
idea, as long as they are committed to working with eachother when things go
rough (which they will).
~~~
moegdaog
idea's are a dime a dozen right? with the right team/talent within that team,
execution on whatever idea you choose is what's going to matter in the end to
your business and to potential investors. Great idea's have still failed and i
can guarantee the multiple factors that brought that on happened because of
the wrong team and incorrect assessment of product market fit
~~~
roryreiff
I think I would disagree. I think there are plenty of really bad ideas that
people are pursuing in one way or another. I think there is at least some
value to the idea to start with. It is, after all, the building block upon
which a startup gets going.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ebay Fees take 80% of Seller Profits - ecb29
http://elliottback.com/wp/selling-on-ebay-sucks/
======
zachster
Is it fair to say that eBay is taking the profits? Or have they just created
an efficient marketplace with such a low barrier to entry for both the seller
and the buyer that profit margins are getting pushed smaller and smaller.
If eBay cut their fees in half, wouldn't sellers lower their prices to compete
against each other?
I think this is the natural consequence of efficient consumerism where the
sellers offer no valuable differentiation of service. I appreciate it when I
get fast shipment, and maybe some free candy included with my purchase, but
that hasn't yet inspired any 'brand-loyalty'.
On the plus side, I think this helps build a market for sites like Etsy where
there's a clear scarcity of merchandise.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Chrome Extension Manifest V3 (draft) may end uBlock Origin - nocture
https://www.ghacks.net/2019/01/22/chrome-extension-manifest-v3-could-end-ublock-origin-for-chrome/
======
totallyashill
He actually brings up a good point later in the article, that this sounds like
Microsoft's old mantra:
Embrace, Extend, Extinguish
------
type0
Google is the biggest advertising company, is it so strange that they want you
to see their non-disturbing ads. ABP want's this as well and now Chrome wants
to enforce their syntax.
------
type0
discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18973477](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18973477)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Good sleep, good learning, good life - JesseAldridge
http://www.supermemo.com/articles/sleep.htm
======
sivers
I love this guy.
Great article about him here:
[http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/magazine/16-05/ff_woznia...](http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/magazine/16-05/ff_wozniak?currentPage=all)
See his apology at the bottom of
<http://www.supermemo.com/english/company/wozniak.htm>
~~~
michael_nielsen
The apology is strange. It seems predicated on a false notion of efficiency,
assuming that somehow one's interactions with other people can be "efficient"
in the same sense as one's interactions with a book. But that's not at all
true. I am reminded of Freeman Dyson's comment soon after he met Feynman:
"Feynman is a man whose ideas are as difficult to make contact with as Bethe's
are easy; for this reason I have so far learnt much more from Bethe, but I
think if stayed here much longer I should begin to find it was Feynman with
whom I was working more."
More generally, working with and learning from other people requires dealing
with all sorts of "inefficiencies"; they're not optional. But if you're
working with the right people, those inefficiencies are more than compensated
for in other ways.
~~~
Luc
> working with and learning from other people requires dealing with all sorts
> of "inefficiencies"; they're not optional.
I don't think he's all that interested in working with other people. In other
words, he's not seeking to optimize his relationship with other people so much
as he is finding a convenient excuse for not seeing other people at all.
~~~
jamesbritt
"In other words, he's not seeking to optimize his relationship with other
people so much as he is finding a convenient excuse for not seeing other
people at all."
Which is sort of foolish. A big problem with being hyper efficient and
blocking out assorted noise and distraction is that you end up filtering out
serendipity. You become very efficient at some local maxima. If nothing else
you risk missing out on learning about some new, better way to be efficient,
but mostly you miss out on the weird random stuff that comes from the odd
conversation with people.
It's like people who only listen to [right|left]-wing radio or follow
[right|left]-wing Web sites. You get really good at reinforcing the same
beliefs and attitudes. (Same is true for people who stop paying attention to
new other programming languages and paradigms.)
I've reduced the number of local gatherings and general conferences I attend
because of, overall, a poor return on the time invested vs tasks I want to
complete, but don't want to become a hermit altogether because at the better
gatherings there's a reasonable chance I'll learn about something interesting
out of the blue.
~~~
Luc
> Which is sort of foolish. A big problem with being hyper efficient
I think you're defining a metric by which your life is a success, but I'm sure
you'll agree other people can be aware of this and still have other goals.
This person probably doesn't need to work for a living (passive income from
his software), so he can afford not following your otherwise quite sensible
rules about serendipity. He can dig deep into a narrow subject, which may end
up bringing him more satisfaction than aspiring to be something of a
Renaissance man. He doesn't have to be all HackerNewsy, entrepreneurial etc.
Besides, let him be a hermit if he wants to. It's kind of comforting to know
that there is no high score or awards ceremony at the end of our lives. Local
maxima don't sound so bad.
------
lunchbox
Summary (from the bottom of the page):
_Sleep is important for learning! Sleep deprivation results in intellectual
deprivation!
Sleep as much as you feel you need
Avoid alarm clocks
Forget about trying to fall asleep at pre-planned time! Let your body decide!
Forget about trying to fall asleep quickly! If your body decides it is the
right time, it will come naturally!
Do not try to make yourself sleepy! It is enough you stay awake and keep on
working/learning long enough!
It is much better to eliminate the source of stress rather than to try to
forget stressful situations right before the bedtime!
Learn the details of your sleep timing (how many hours you sleep, how many
hours before you need to take a nap or go to sleep again, etc.). Use this
knowledge to optimize your schedule.
Adjust the timing of intellectual work to your circadian cycle (see Fig. 5)
Stick with good people! The bad lot will often ruin your slumber
Be careful with caffeine. Drink coffee only upon awakening (or after a nap if
you take one)
Do not go beyond a single drink of alcohol per day. Drink it at siesta time
Quit smoking!
Use siesta time for a nap if you find it helpful
If you cannot fall asleep in 30 minutes, get up! You are not yet ready for
sleep!
If you experience racing thoughts at the time when your body calls for sleep,
the best method is: get up and use ... SuperMemo for 30 minutes! Few other
activities can be equally taxing to your tired brain (do not expect this to
work before your circadian timing though)
If you sleep it out and still not feel refreshed, be sure you do not sleep
against your circadian rhythm. Try free running sleep. Remember that you may
need 1-2 weeks to synchronize all bodily functions before this starts working!
If you cannot get refreshing sleep even in free-running conditions after at
least a month of trying, consult a sleep specialist (see: Sleep Disorders).
Remember, however, that a bad night is a factor of life. Few can avoid it. Do
not get alarmed even if it happens weekly_
I'd be interested if a qualified person could corroborate these
recommendations.
------
goodside
Disclaimer: I'm not a doctor, a neurologist, or an endocrinologist. I'm in no
way qualified to be talking about this.
I have a fairly severe form of delayed sleep-phase syndrome: left to my own
devices, as when I was on summer vacation back in school, I would gladly stay
awake for 24 hours and sleep for 12. I've long noticed anecdotally this
pattern is associated with geeks. Ask yourself: if a 6:00 AM Twitter update
says your geekiest friend is waiting for his code to compile, is it because he
woke up early or because he hasn't been to bed yet?
It turns out there's a reason for this. There's a gene called the ASMT gene,
which codes for enzymes responsible (in part) for the synthesis of melatonin
from serotonin in the pineal gland. This gene is often deleted in individuals
with autism or Aspergers syndrome, which results in _extremely_ low levels of
serum melatonin. The effect is so strong that even family members of autistic
children, even those not themselves diagnosed with autism or Aspergers, have
been shown to have abnormally depressed melatonin levels. More information:
<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2199264/>
Melatonin is one of the biggest chemical regulators of the sleep cycle in
humans, and increased melatonin at night has been shown experimentally to
reduce the time of sleep onset. I'm not aware of any studies comparing the
effect size between autistic/Aspergers patients and healthy controls, but it
stands to reason that the former group might stand more to gain.
I've personally experienced _tremendous_ benefit in my sleep patterns from
taking melatonin. I spent my entire teenage life showing up to classes in a
sleep-deprived haze because I wasn't aware of this. Hopefully I can save
someone else from that.
Now, for the catch: We have no idea why Aspergers symptoms are associated with
reduced melatonin synthesis. Melatonin is a regulator of neural plasticity
during fetal and early childhood brain development. Melatonin is synthesized
from serotonin, and serotonin levels at various stages of development are
drastically different in autistics/Aspergers compared to healthy children. We
don't know to what extent these are causes or effects of autistic symptoms,
and what effect there might be on development from long-term melatonin
supplementation during early childhood. However, in healthy adults, the safety
of long-term melatonin use, even at doses many _dozens_ of times higher than
the maximum clinically effective dose, has been shown to be completely safe.
How you generalize from that is up to you.
~~~
Mz
_I've personally experienced tremendous benefit in my sleep patterns from
taking melatonin._
I did better with taking co-q-10 in the morning. For a long time, I couldn't
tolerate melatonin. I would feel like I wasn't fully awake for up to three
days after taking it. When my health improved enough that I could tolerate it,
I still needed co-q-10 in the morning to feel fully awake.
Co-q-10 is the co-enzyme of melatonin and wakes your brain up in the morning.
It is made in the body in a complex (17 step?) process. A bottleneck at any
stage can leave you deficient, so many people are deficient. If you take
co-q-10 in the morning, your body will produce a small melatonin spike about
12 or so hours later. If you take melatonin, it does not increase production
of co-q-10. So taking co-q-10 can do a lot more in terms of healing both sides
of waking/sleeping cycle of the brain chemistry. It is also gentler/subtler
than melatonin.
Lots of people use melatonin to good effect, so I'm not trying to knock it.
Just trying to expand on the topic of nutritional supplements and brain
chemistry wrt the waking/sleeping cycle. Thanks for bringing this up. :-)
~~~
nazgulnarsil
I'm betting on a placebo effect of the melatonin. taken in pill form it is
only effective for a few hours.
~~~
kowen
It's hardly a placebo effect if it has an effect for a few hours.
I've struggled with insomnia my whole life. If I'm able to fall asleep in the
first place, I'm usually able to stay asleep long enough to get rested.
I only need the effect for about an hour, maybe 90 minutes. Long enough to
fall asleep.
~~~
angusgr
I think the comment refers to the placebo affect for "I would feel like I
wasn't fully awake for up to three days after taking it."
~~~
kowen
Ah, right! Rereading the thread, that seems the more likely interpretation.
------
kiba
High school students like me, unfortunately do not have means to get the
necessary good sleep that everyone needs.
The school system will continue to impose this miserable condition on us.
~~~
encoderer
While some studies have indicated that adolecents would benefit from starting
classes later in the day, I don't believe it's the silver bullet that you
believe it is.
I'm 27, and I quoted that when I was in High School. But the truth is, I
seldom was wound-down and in bed by 9 or 10 PM. I was irresponsible with my
bed time. All my friends were the same.
I think you would be surprised at how much of the "misery" you and your peers
are self-imposing. Do your homework when you get home, skip the Daily Show,
shut off the computer by 9PM, and in bed by 10. I understand you'll think
"easier said than done" but if you're truly miserable, take some
responsibility for it!
~~~
mechanical_fish
_I think you would be surprised at how much of the "misery" you and your peers
are self-imposing._
It's a pity the article is so long, because otherwise you might have
encountered this sentence before composing a reply:
_It won't be enough to demand an early hour for going to bed. If you ban the
late evening Internet surfing, you will just swap a dose of evening education
for an idle tossing and turning in bed._
You can't necessarily change your biological clock by an effort of will, even
if you know exactly what you are doing -- which few people do. Your biological
clock has a "mind" of its own. No matter how much "responsibility" you take
for your schedule, and how much intelligence and full-spectrum lighting you
apply to the problem, you may find yourself unable to be optimally awake at
7am. Especially if you are a teenager.
Meanwhile, I'm afraid that everything about this reply rubs me the wrong way.
It is a textbook example of its kind [1], and it illustrates why broken
designs persist for decade upon decade. School day starts too early for the
typical young person's biological clock? We survived it, so should you! Third-
shift workers causing accidents at 3am? Your grandpa worked third shift and
survived with 80% of his fingers intact; so should you! Medical interns forced
to work continuous shifts of 24 hours or more, even though studies have shown
that they therefore make avoidable errors that harm patients? We survived it,
so should you!
It's so much easier to instruct the victim on coping techniques than it is to
contemplate changing the system that it becomes a reflex: You poke an adult,
and out pops a sanctimonious lecture.
\---
[1] The world would be a better place if every text editor came with an alarm
that rang every time someone typed the word _peers_. ("Hi! Microsoft Word has
noticed that you sound just like your mom! Can Clippy help you with that?")
~~~
encoderer
The trouble I see here is you're equating a propensity for high school kids to
push the envelope on _everything_ with medical residents and shift workers.
Sanctimonious lecturing? I think you need more time in the field. Stop by any
house with kids on a Friday night about 2300 and you'll see kids and
adolescents alike dozing off, barely able to keep their heads up. When bed is
suggested they sit up a little straighter and protest "I'm not tired."
What you missed in my original post (somehow, it was only a paragraph) is that
I spent 4 years in high school quoting these sleep studies. Just like I spent
4 years quoting the Tinker decision, and debating Hazelwood.
But the truth is that staying out past curfew and putting my homework off
until the last possible second and staying up to watch Conan and the Daily
Show had absolutely NOTHING to do with my "biological clock." It was me,
dozing off, and snapping to, my backbone stiff, saying "I'm ok, i'm not
tired."
~~~
jacobolus
> _... I spent 4 years in high school quoting these sleep studies. Just like I
> spent 4 years quoting the Tinker decision, and debating Hazelwood._
What do Tinker/Hazelwood have to do with sleep? Or are you suggesting that
siding with the Warren court decision was some kind of youthful indiscretion
that thankfully the Rehnquist court backed off on? Though I was never a writer
for a high school newspaper, I’m damn glad in CA we have some legitimate
protection for student journalists and other student speech.
> _But the truth is that staying out past curfew and putting my homework off
> [...] had absolutely NOTHING to do with my "biological clock."_
How can you possibly assert this? First, your suggestion that you personally
would have been fine if you’d just been less stubborn is counter-factual
speculation. But second, your assertion is flat out contradicted by careful
scientific research on the subject.
The whole “personal individual willpower is the only causal mechanism in the
world” fallacy so pervasive in our society is really distressing to me.
It leads to terrible policy aimed at blaming the suffering rather than trying
to help them achieve better outcomes. It’s great that poor diets; low-paying
menial jobs; living in physically dangerous gang neighborhoods; getting
stiffed out of insurance, pensions, etc. by unscrupulous businesses; deaths
from “reckless driving” on poorly planned streets; getting imprisoned for
decades for drug possession; getting straight-up scammed by not carefully
reading through all the fine print on contracts intentionally designed such
that their real implications differ substantially from the signatories’ mutual
understanding; becoming pregnant as a teenager; catching a venereal disease;
etc. etc. are subject to free will, and can be avoided by the smart and
careful. But while that’s good advice for individuals trying to navigate the
society – “do your work”, “get enough sleep and exercise”, “eat right”, “read
the fine print” – it’s atrocious policy, because it ignores cognitive biases
and intuitions and focuses only on narrowly construed technical
responsibility. The result is inefficiency, poor health, unnecessary death,
&c. &c. And we “teach” people to be “personally responsible” by condemning
large numbers of them to bad outcomes, with nearly no evidence that any
learning actually occurs as a result.
Most importantly, it eliminates empathy for those in rough situations. After
all, if all outcomes are based mostly on personal merit, the down-on-their-
luck must just deserve what they get.
------
Mz
I actually like his apology. It resonates with how I have been living of late.
I don't expect to do things exactly like I this "forever", but if you have a
serious goal, it can be extremely effective (and even necessary) to cut out
distractions and refuse to participate in social expectations that you have
realized add little or nothing of value but take away a lot from you in terms
of time, energy, mental distraction and so forth.
I also like this bit from the article and very much identify with the
sentiment he expresses:
_Bundled up in parkas with fur-trimmed hoods, strolling hand in mittened hand
along the edge of the Baltic Sea, off-season tourists from Germany stop
openmouthed when they see a tall, well-built, nearly naked man running up and
down the sand. "Kalt? Kalt?" one of them calls out. The man gives a polite but
vague answer, then turns and dives into the waves. After swimming back and
forth in the 40-degree water for a few minutes, he emerges from the surf and
jogs briefly along the shore. The wind is strong, but the man makes no move to
get dressed. Passersby continue to comment and stare. "This is one of the
reasons I prefer anonymity," he tells me in English. "You do something even
slightly out of the ordinary and it causes a sensation."_
------
oldgregg
I've wasted way too much time due to sleep issues.
My Miracle Mix:
\- Morning: _100m Provigil_ (ordered from an Indian pharmacy, naturally!)
\- Night: _Melatonin_
I don't take provigil on the weekends and sometimes skip a weekday so I don't
build up tolerance to it. Some people say it's like adderall without any nasty
side effects. Just do it and thank me later.
~~~
maneesh
any side effects? Stay up too late?
~~~
oldgregg
Nadda. Just don't take it in the afternoon or evening.
------
vijaydev
Is it not ironical if at 0130 hrs in the morning, i could not sleep and start
browsing hn and i get to see an article that tells me to get a good sleep and
life ?
~~~
vijaydev
0130 hrs IST it is ..
------
cool-RR
I hope someone will post a summary of this here.
~~~
epochwolf
It's hard to summarize. There is a lot of data and a lot of stuff to cover.
I'll grab a couple of parts for you and I hope others can summarize others for
you. :)
Why we need sleep:
Your brain needs sleep because your brain uses it to organized and optimized
the experiences of the day. Without sleep your brain is unable to support new
learning.
------
mroman
I have Asperger's and DSPS, and have noticed that taking Piracetam helps me
regulate my sleep cycle. On days when I take it, I begin to feel sleepy right
around my 16th hour of being awake. I have also noticed that when I have not
had decent sleep for a few days, taking Piracetam puts me to sleep within a
couple of hours of taking it.
~~~
jamii
I found exactly the same thing. I've had problems for years with roving sleep
cycles to the point that it seriously interfered with my life. After I started
taking piracetam it settled down within a week or two. I also wake up feeling
completely refreshed and ready to go. I haven't seen this effect documented
anywhere - it was completely unexpected.
~~~
mroman
It is good to know that you experienced this effect as well. I also have not
seen it documented anywhere. The stuff is simply great. I am in a third world
country (Colombia) and in a backwater town to boot, and Piracetam is both
readily available and inexpensive. What's more, it's a local generic brand,
and the quality is very decent.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A conversational word-based bot game to kill your weekend (hint:not hangman) - sucoder
http://m.me/www.prashantparashar
======
DrScump
(requires Facebook)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Spain to become first country in Europe to roll out universal basic income - tosh
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/coronavirus-spain-universal-basic-income-europe-a9449336.html
======
fallingfrog
I’m excited for Spain, to see how this pans out, but I’m also very afraid for
them since this kind of thing tends to attract attacks from international
capital and finance (they might withhold credit and demand that the policy be
rescinded, or simply refuse to invest in Spanish businesses, etc). Or they
might simply pour funding into the political enemies of whoever was most in
favor of this policy. But there will definitely be some form of recrimination.
They’ve nationalized their health industry too. At least they’re not seizing
natural resources, that would probably prompt some kind of right wing coup.
------
withinboredom
Its going to be interesting when family’s bank accounts run dry... what’s
money worth if no one has it?
------
IXxXI
Spain rolls out social security 2.0.
Fools.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What's your hiring process like? - dfischer
Hiring people can be a risky thing. You're bringing someone in the family and hoping they can deliver. What are some things you do to minimize that risk? Do you contract first? Coding challenge? I'm curious what others do to minimize the risk when you haven't worked with someone before.
======
alexpotato
For questions like these, I like to quote a story I once read about dating in
New York City:
"I have a female friend. She asks every guy she meets at a bar two questions:
1\. Do you have a passport?
2\. Do you have a Kindle/Nook/library card?
Why does she ask these questions? If the answer to 1 is no then he doesn't
like to travel abroad and if the answer to 2 is no then he doesn't like to
read."
In essence, she determined two quick filters that were the most important to
her.
I had a manager who had a similar test for candidates. He would give them a 5
question tech test where the first question had a "trick" item. Specifically,
sort multiple 5GB+ files on a box with 1GB of RAM but 100GB of disk space. If
the candidate got the first question wrong, that was the end of the line for
the candidate. Why? It showed that they:
a. Didn't have attention to detail
b. Didn't fully understand basic technical constraints e.g. in this case RAM
is limited but disk is not.
One other point I always like to make is to screen candidates in parallel. For
example, if your process is to bring someone in to the office and then give
them a tech test, that's a serial process.
On the other hand, if you give the tech test to recruiters and say "Have
candidates fill this out and then send it in", you just created a parallel
process to screen candidates.
I've also heard people say "What if they look up the answers?" to which I
reply: if you give someone a test with google-able answers and they still get
it wrong, you just filtered out a pretty bad candidate. Win for you.
~~~
dataminer
Parallelization is a very good advice, I am going through a hiring process
right now where the company employs this method and according to them it has
made their lives alot easier.
The take home code test they use is totally googlable, however there are
multiple ways to solve the problem and they ask candidates to provide tests
for their solutions. If they are happy with the solution and find it
distinctive the candidate gets to explain the solution during the onsite
interview.
I found the whole process very relaxed and enjoyable.
~~~
notlikejohn
It also forces the candidates to invest their own time and brainpower before
you expend resources to screen/interview them. Helps cut down on individuals
who are interviewing only to test the market and may not be really serious
about the position.
------
itaifrenkel
At Forter (www.Forter.com) a big part is the screening of CVs. HR and RnD work
closely to contact only relevant candidates, and when we a CV could be
relevant the RnD manager or the lead developer calls the candidate for 15
minutes focusing on a key strength that makes the candidate relevant and why
working at Forter is so great. The first interview is about the candidate's
comfort zone. You would be amazed how many people don't know what they were
working on about the past few years... plus a hands on algorithmic coding task
that does not require experience (we hire also coders before college). The
rest of the process (usually three more interviews) are mixed. Include
technical, personal discussion. We try to fit all interviews into one day.
Even though Israel is small and travel is non issue , there is a strong
psychological effect if the candidate gets an offer after one visit. This
might require in some cases talking with the candidates recommenders while she
is interviewed in the next room.
------
hga
Here are some general principles and tests I accumulated over a long career,
mostly gotten from managers a lot better at hiring that I was ^_^:
If you have doubt over a certain low threshold about the candidate, don't
hire. A bad hire, especially in a startup, is terribly expensive.
Testing coding is mandatory. Back in the '90s when C/C++ were the game, we
used two tests, write code to create a doubly linked list, and look at a small
function we'd put up on the white board and find problems with it. Both were
graded generously, it was pretty clear if the candidate had a clue or not.
Then general problem solving, i.e. some design problems, perhaps including a
big/relatively difficult one, and have the candidate describe some design
solutions they were proud of.
Code samples were very welcome if available, of course.
In all of this, you'd get a pretty good sense of whether you'd like to work
with this person. You'd also use the whole process to sell the company/project
to the candidate, and see how they responded to that, they had to show either
some interest in it, or for the more professionally oriented, something like
an attitude that it would be no problem in due course and they would like the
work.
Ah, especially for startups, get across the concept that "you can't be too
proud to not sweep floors" if needed, but that each engineer would be
allocated both some of the less interesting work that just has to be done, and
the interesting work.
------
alir
When we started hiring about 6 months ago at our startup (groopic.com), here's
what my thought process was: We need great people that we want to work with -
Incubators and Accelerators invest in people - They know how to judge them -
World's best accelerator (YC) asks the founders a few questions and short
lists companies on the basis of the answers - There must be something in those
questions - Adapt them for you hiring to screen the pool of applicants. In our
case, it has worked like magic. We are able to filter about 65% of the
applicants. For the rest, we call them for first interview, only 10% left
after that. They are the ones we spend a lot of time on, and we hired 5% of
the applicants in the last 6 months.
------
sighype
I prefer the contract-to-hire model, but I say this as an employee. It's hard
to know whether I'll like a place, but if the place is open to 3-6 month
contracts, I can find out and can make it work. Unfortunately, this isn't the
way things seem to work.
Also, the duration of 6 month is short enough that, even if I don't like the
place, the incentive is there to put the best foot forward to get the best
recommendation possible to go somewhere else.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The frustrating journey of learning C++ in 2014 - coppolaemilio
https://medium.com/@coppolaemilio/episode-1-public-humiliation-c-86f9ac5efc7c
======
high5
> someone suggested that I might be using the wrong command to build the
> program and, instead of cpp, I should use g++ (Gnu C++ compiler).
I suspect the OP was using GCC to compile the C++ code so not the wrong build
command the wrong compiler.
GCC is the GNU C Compiler and g++ is the GNU C++ compiler, two totally
compilers for two totally different languages.
I see this as nothing more than an example of how well modern day IDEs hide
the command line from the developer, so much so that when they actually try to
do something from the command line it feels like a foreign and strange place.
------
ekm2
For C++,I would prefer to just read good textbooks and stay away from
tutorials.
~~~
coppolaemilio
Could you please recommend one? Thanks!
~~~
ekm2
C++ Primer followed by Effective C++
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Forbes Tests New Tactics to Combat Ad Blocking - T-A
http://www.wsj.com/articles/forbes-tests-new-tactics-to-combat-ad-blocking-1463133628
======
philiphodgen
I now completely ignore any forbes.com link. The pain to get to the articles
outweighed the extremely modest value of the articles.
One wonders (he said) whether Forbes might want to pursue success by
publishing irresistable articles -- not by seeking new ways to attach ticks to
passers-by.
~~~
Silhouette
The thing is, if you also block ads and aren't going to pay them money (or
give them something else of value, as discussed here), Forbes are probably
_happy_ that you don't go to their site. A visitor that generates no revenue
is just a drain on resources.
~~~
nihonde
Maybe...just maybe...ads aren't a good business model for journalism any more.
~~~
antisthenes
I would be happy if 90% of the "journalism" died out, and the rest remained as
quality investigative content behind paywalls (which I would gladly pay for
and already do for 2 sites) and government subsidized strictly informational
reporting (sort of like we already have from NOAA, Orange alerts, emergencies,
closures, etc.)
~~~
javajosh
I'm sure that most everyone would be fine if 90% of X died out - but it's
usually a wildly different 90%. This is a corollary to Sturgeons Law (90% of
everything is crap).
Interestingly, we sort of know what this conflict is: it's yellow journalists
vs muckrackers.
* There are, in the body politic, economic and social, many and grave evils, and there is urgent necessity for the sternest war upon them. There should be relentless exposure of and attack upon every evil man whether politician or business man, every evil practice, whether in politics, in business, or in social life. I hail as a benefactor every writer or speaker, every man who, on the platform, or in book, magazine, or newspaper, with merciless severity makes such attack, provided always that he in his turn remembers that the attack is of use only if it is absolutely truthful.*
— Theodore Roosevelt
------
kinkdr
I guess it hurt quite a bit to find out that their content was not important
enough to make users turn off their Adblocker.
I wonder if they fired the arrogant prick who suggested to block all users who
have Adblock.
Maybe I am a bad person but I love seeing big corporations, used to bullying
their way around, finding out that their old dirty tricks don't work in the
new world.
~~~
mahranch
>> but I love seeing big corporations, used to bullying their way around,
finding out that their old dirty tricks don't work in the new world.
The problem with that mindset is that people tend to think it's also OK to
block the little guys who self-publish, or even places that have amazing or
great content who deserve the ad impressions. People always say "Yeah, I
unblock my favorite sites". Unfortunately, they're just 1 guy (and who knows
if they actually do it). The other 99.999% of people do not unblock their
favorite sites. They just don't give a shit.
Even the rare few who may give a shit due to stronger empathy or morality will
usually justify it away in their heads "Oh, I'm afraid of malware" or some
other BS excuse which works to trick themselves into feeling better about
blocking every ad.
~~~
sspiff
Calling ad blocking to prevent malware infection a BS excuse is ridiculous.
Ads are being used to distribute malware through reputable sites, and as an
average Joe user you have no feasible way to identify which sites pose a
threat.
I agree that the current ad driven free content model vs no ads ever stance of
the numerous ad blocking users are a problem for content creators big and
small, but I feel it is up to them to develop a sustainable business model to
defeat this stand-off without alienating or antagonizing their user base.
~~~
mahranch
> Calling ad blocking to prevent malware infection a BS excuse is ridiculous.
There are other (quite simple) plugins to stop any malware from running (like
noscript, etc) while _at the same time_ , not having an adblocker even
installed. The two are not mutually inclusive. Thus, it isn't ridiculous in
the least. It's actually ridiculous to imply that if you have one, you must
have the other.
More importantly, these days, you only find malware ads (consistently) on real
shady sites. When it makes it to big reputable sites, it actually makes the
news because of how rare it has been. There are dozens of other ways to get
malware (software downloads, etc) but you don't see people ceasing to download
anything off the entire internet, they take a risk because they want the
product. The risk is virtually identical -- it depends on where you go and
what you do.
> Ads are being used to distribute malware through reputable sites
Sure, that has happened. But it's rare and again, it makes the news when it
happens because of how rare it is. You make it sound like reddit.com,
facebook.com or news.google.com serves up malware every other day. That just
isn't the case. Not even close.
~~~
diffraction
Ok. Forget malware. How about malicious behavior? Stop Taboola and Outbrain
from serving pornographic ads and I will gladly disable Adblock.
Sorry, until your industry sets professional standards I will continue to
block ads and not feel bad.
~~~
mahranch
> Sorry, until your industry sets professional standards your crying has zero
> emotional pull for me.
Oh, sorry if I mislead you. I'm actually not in the industry at all. I used to
be a publisher though, had my own website until I sold it. My comments were me
empathizing and seeing things from the point of view of a content creator.
That's for whom I argue.
------
charonn0
> they can still access Forbes.com so long as they register for a Forbes
> account, providing personal information, or log in via Facebook or Google.
> [...] users agree to share information with Forbes including their email
> address, name, profile picture, age range, gender and other information
> [...] Forbes is also granted permission to manage users’ Google contacts.
This is an improvement? Stop conflating advertising with data mining and maybe
people wouldn't block your ads so much.
> “Email address is always very valuable and, with proper terms of service,
> figuring out a way to monetize these things in the right way could be
> interesting,” Mr. DVorkin said.
"Interesting", perhaps, but almost certainly not worth it for readers.
> Meanwhile, the company is focusing more effort on “native” advertising
> products such as its BrandVoice program, which allows marketers to publish
> content to its site. That content is not as susceptible to ad blocking
> because it is published directly to Forbes’s content-management system,
> instead of through “ad-serving” systems.
Native ads destroy the publisher's journalistic credibility. Is that not
plainly obvious to everyone?
~~~
3327
Forbes has turned from a respectable publication to a click-bait blog.
~~~
Spivak
They're riding on their old reputation as long as it lasts, then they'll cash
out before it goes under. Not necessarily bad business but bad for their
readers.
------
shostack
Looks like Forbes is at least testing things, whether people might like these
approaches or not. Native content is a very fine editorial line to walk in
terms of how it is identified. But if people are clicking the link from a
share on social, odds are that any sort of story label on the actual Forbes
site is not going to show up in the share, and thus they can pass it off as
real content even though it is paid for. Once they get the click or share on a
native story, they don't care.
The registration piece is also interesting. From a monetization standpoint,
they can then email the crap out of those people (including pushing native
email ads that they likely bill on a CPM rate for).
Logged-in users also give Forbes another interesting monetization option in
the form of cookie onboarding services like LiveRamp[1] and such. You can get
a CPM rate for simply linking logged-in users to the cookie onboarder's
platform which they then match against cookies from advertisers to help them
"retag" people for retargeting purposes that may have deleted past cookies, or
jumped across devices.
Cookie onboarding gets interesting because from a user standpoint, the impact
is perhaps a very slightly increased load time (loading the onboarding tag),
and ads that have more accurate targeting. But in theory this allows
publishers to offer content that is "ad free" because the user is paying for
it in the form of data. A lot of mobile providers include this as well which
is annoying because it is harder to detect and block, and they sure as crap
don't disclose it.
Not making a statement on whether these developments are good or bad, rather
just commenting on the interesting nature of them.
[1] [http://liveramp.com/blog/a-primer-on-data-
onboarding/](http://liveramp.com/blog/a-primer-on-data-onboarding/)
~~~
Silhouette
_But in theory this allows publishers to offer content that is "ad free"
because the user is paying for it in the form of data._
I agree this is an interesting idea, though not necessarily one I would
personally choose to use. It might be a short-lived one, though, if the
tracking shows that someone who isn't willing to view ads immediately also has
a low chance of conversion for any later ads targeted based on the data given
initially.
------
Animats
_" Meanwhile, the company is focusing more effort on “native” advertising
products such as its BrandVoice program, which allows marketers to publish
content to its site."_
Sponsored stories. Now that's hitting the bottom. It's an insult to the memory
of Malcolm Forbes Sr.
~~~
fucking_tragedy
Sponsored content and PR pieces being paraded around as actual news along side
real content has been occurring for years.
I would honestly doubt that this is an entirely new thing for Forbes and most
publishers or outlets.
~~~
gtufano
It's definitely not a new thing... The article says: "About 35% of our digital
advertising dollars are associated with native". I think it takes time to ramp
it up to this amount.
------
mikro2nd
Logging in via Google allows Forbes to "manage users’ Google contacts".
What possible good could come of that?
------
mirimir
> We noticed you still have your ad blocker on, please log in to continue to
> the site.
> Login with Forbes
But they don't actually say how to signup. For that, you need to hit the
"Terms of Service" link. So I created a blog account, but I still can't login
to the front page.
They're wedged.
And then there's this gem:
> We will never post on your behalf without first obtaining your explicit
> permission.
Just exactly WTF does that mean? How would any sane person want a site to post
on their behalf?
~~~
soared
> Just exactly WTF does that mean? How would any sane person want a site to
> post on their behalf?
Many justifiable uses. Every time I go skiing snow.com posts a fb update for
me, then my friends know I'm skiing and call me. Not for forbes though.
~~~
mirimir
I guess. Not for me, though.
------
koolba
> “We’ve had a lot of people converting. Around 40% of users were turning off
> their ad-blockers,” said Lewis DVorkin, Forbes Media chief product officer.
Those numbers are bogus. There's no way 40% of people will disable ad blocking
just to read Forbes.
~~~
lordnacho
Could it be incognito browsing? Or you just use an alternative browser, eg I
use Chrome normally but Safari when trying to view Apple WWDC videos.
~~~
aexaey
Do you mean - just open websites that are displeased with your ad-blocker in
your secondary browser? Nice idea.
Or, instead of two different browsers, you can use xraru [1] to ad-hoc launch
as many independent ephemeral "incognito" sessions with the same browser as
you like. This way, next to enhanced privacy, you also get as a bonus some
protection from malicious websites stealing your cookies/local files/etc...
[1] [https://github.com/teran-mckinney/raru](https://github.com/teran-
mckinney/raru)
------
mtkd
If a primary player, like Google, created a micropayments mechanism for
content - that worked like Google Voice - where users can make a $10 payment
and automatically topup - it would solve a lot of the issues
This would allow Forbes etc. to use Google Micropayments for payment and
visitors would pay 0.5¢ or something for every page viewed
A popup would show the first time you visit the domain to ask if you're okay
with paying for content in future
I wouldn't have to pay specific subscriptions then, I could choose not to view
sites I don't think are worth the value, sites I only ever visit infrequently
could get something back for my visit
~~~
ianlevesque
There's Google Contributor but it sucks. They replace all banner ads
with...placeholder banners that say "Thanks for using Google Contributor".
What a waste.
------
Tobold
So in exchange for not distributing malware they want my email address.
What could possibly go wrong?
~~~
bogomipz
Nice.
------
abhi3
None these media companies will innovate on micro payments but instead try
fancy/annoying tactics.
Well atleast they didn't start a food delivery service like NYT:
[http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-05/new-
york-t...](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-05/new-york-times-
to-start-delivering-meal-kits-to-your-home)
~~~
Silhouette
_None these media companies will innovate on micro payments but instead try
fancy /annoying tactics._
It seems the big problem with micropayments is that it looks like a single
content provider _can 't_ do much in the area on their own. I suspect that to
become an established and useful payment method, micropayments will need a
safe, reliable, standardised, and trivially easy to use mechanism, something
that several big players can get behind and create some momentum.
------
estefan
Newspapers are suffering the same fate as the music industry. Everyone can now
be a journalist and get widespread visibility. Pre-internet, there was a
massive barrier to entry in terms of distribution.
Musicians can at least still monetise gigs since not every kid who records a
song in his bedroom can fill a stadium. But for newspapers there doesn't seem
to be much of a defensible position left beyond brand, and the pressure to
keep producing new content is obviously impacting their ability to keep
producing high-quality, investigative stories, etc. Instead, lots just seem to
fill their web sites with a continuous stream of not particularly
differentiated articles. So I think newspapers do have a big problem on their
hands, and the solution isn't obvious (beyond diversification perhaps)...
------
Overtonwindow
At first I would use other tactics to get around the anti-ad blocking
measures, but I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that it's not worth it
anymore, and I would rather keep my ad blocking and go somewhere else.
------
eva1984
“We’ve had a lot of people converting. Around 40% of users were turning off
their ad-blockers,” said Lewis DVorkin, Forbes Media chief product officer.
Well, for Forbes, it works.
~~~
nissehulth
It also means that 60% (whatever metric used) left the site and didn't come
back.
~~~
x0x0
Since they earned Forbes $0, I'm really unclear on why you think Forbes should
care.
~~~
ffumarola
Because sharing articles has no earned media value?
~~~
x0x0
Pretty much, except at enormous scale. Also, adblock users tend to share with
adblock users.
------
fulldecent
Can we talk about YouTube Red for a second? This is basically a micropayments
system for YouTube and it pays people whose videos you watch. Unfortunately,
Google markets it as a "remove ads" service. Does anyone see this as a
valuable micropayments platform?
~~~
izacus
"Not available in your country" model of monetization is not helping me give
them euros or disable adblock.
------
bikamonki
IMO, to combat ad-blockers is a silly effort. This is my reasoning: people
that install ad-blockers do so for two reasons: privacy concerned and/or
annoyed by ads. If these people would not install the ad-blocker, they would
most likely 'still' ignore the ads (the brain is a brilliant ever-adapting ad-
blocker!!!). On a pay-per-click model, they'd be wasting prints on a segment
very unlikely to click. On a pay-per-print model, it is an opportunity to turn
the argument on their favor and tell their advertizers: hey, we are going to
charge more per print b/c we now target a narrower segment 'most likely' to
see and click your ads.
~~~
cstavish
While I largely agree with you, not all ads need to be clicked in order to be
considered effective by the advertiser. Look at a Coca-Cola billboard, for
instance. There's no action item to call this number TODAY, etc. Just brand
reinforcement... And that's valuable to many companies.
~~~
bikamonki
Good point. I do read that lately this 'brand building' is the key value
offered by ad vendors. Although I am not so sure of its effectiveness (ROI),
maybe its just a sales tactic in response to a dying business model (PPP &
PPC). Yet, this is another subject.
------
screwforbes
I've been testing my own tactic, not going to forbes.com.
------
jordigh
I find the tactic of guilting me into watching ads to be so damn weird. Why is
it my duty to watch ads? Why must I allow myself to be open to the
manipulation to purchase something irrelevant (the _real_ purpose of ads) how
I must contribute to your website, blog, TV series?
I am not explaining this very clearly, but it's so, so bizarre that somehow it
becomes my capitalist duty to watch ads, because you're not some monster who
wants newspapers to crumble, are you? Watch your ads like a good boy.
~~~
soared
Because they are producing content for you, and it costs them money to make
it? They chose to monetize with ads, so view them or leave. Do you think
you're entitled to free content?
~~~
jordigh
"View them or leave", that's the kind of attitude that's very weird. "View ads
or the newspaper industry DIES!" Very Clockwork Orange, eyes forcibly peeled
open. Very antagonistic.
When I look at a physical newspaper, nobody is telling me either you look at
this ad-filled page or you must not open any page. Nobody is telling me, you
can't cover ads with your hands or a book. You must look at ads in order to
look at this magazine. If you don't carefully read all of the ads in this
magazine, you are not allowed to read this magazine.
It just so happens that with a computer I can more conveniently hide ads, but
that's somehow more wrong than covering them with my hand?
I also just find it fundamentally strange that by me viewing ads someone gets
money. Why? Well, because the person who made the ad is hoping that I will buy
something off them or entice others to buy something off them. This is also
strange, I don't want to buy anything or tell anyone else to buy anything. Why
is me being indoctrinated by a third party the way that the website gets
money? It's a bizarre situation. This is a very strange world we have built.
There's gotta be a better economic model that doesn't require guilting me into
viewing ads.
~~~
soared
I see your point. I think the phrasing would be "View ads or the newspaper
industry will KILL ITSELF!" because they aren't adapting. That analogy does
make sense, but the difference lies in that a physical newspaper presells ads,
so if you never see them they don't care. But in digital, they don't get paid
until you see them, so they do care.
Really blocking ads in the physical newspaper hurts whoever bought the ads,
blocking them online hurts the actual newspaper. Maybe newspapers should adapt
and presell ad space on their pages!
(My university online paper does this because pageviews are so low that they
wouldn't earn a dime on adsense. The local businesses who prebuy ads
effectively sponsor the website).
------
em3rgent0rdr
I close the tab when I get the message to disable ad-blocker.
To reach people like me, they will have to serve the ad from their own site.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How to Explain Open Source to Your Mom - hbadgery
https://medium.com/openteams/how-to-explain-open-source-to-your-mom-6c352a7d78dc
======
hbadgery
I can't explain the number of times my mom has asked me to explain what open
source is.
I wrote this fun, short article so that you can easily explain what open
source is to anyone by using this analogy.
I'd love feedback!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
This man built a VR app to cure his fear of spiders - GraffitiTim
http://money.cnn.com/2016/10/16/technology/fearless-vr-spiders/
======
graffitishark
Really impressive use of vr. It definitely helped me get over my fear. This is
one of the "must try" vr experiences.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Facebook Wants You To Snitch On Friends Not Using Their Real Name - mindstab
http://paulbernal.wordpress.com/2012/09/21/facebook-snitchgate/
======
FellowTraveler
In Mexico, bloggers are disemboweled and strung up from bridges as a warning
to others, by cartels.
In Syria, government snipers murdered bloggers to silence them.
In China, bloggers are imprisoned at hard labor.
In the United States, the Federalist Papers were released anonymously in order
to protect the lives of their authors.
It is only the spoiled, rich and free countries who make such naive and
irresponsible statements such as, "I am in support of people using their real
names online."
A better question is, what actions are Google, Apple, and Facebook taking to
protect our vital ability to remain anonymous online?
~~~
minikites
Wouldn't an even better question be: how do we build the kind of society where
people can express their thoughts attached to their names without fear of
reprisal?
~~~
kstenerud
A noble sentiment, but until it can be proven with solid evidence that such a
thing is possible, it would be dangerous and irresponsible to force such an
experiment upon people.
History is rife with examples of people imposing what they just KNEW was right
upon others, with disastrous consequences.
~~~
minikites
That's an interesting point, perhaps the goal I described is impossible. It
just seems like aiming for anonymity is aiming low and solving the wrong
problem.
~~~
kstenerud
Or perhaps it is aiming high and solving the right problem. Unless one can
back up their claims with good evidence, they're merely engaging in
conjecture. Thus far, the only evidence we have points in favor of preserving
the right to privacy and anonymity.
------
Smudge
Enforcing real names has pros and cons. For Facebook as a business, the pros
certainly outweigh the value lost when accounts can't be mapped directly to
real people. Names are a key part of that mapping.
In general, I prefer an option for pseudonymity, because it is much more
inclusive (allowing certain people at the fringes to feel more comfortable
joining in -- victims of abuse, political dissidents, etc), and is much less
messy than total anonymity (which wouldn't really work for something like
Facebook, not that there isn't a place for it elsewhere on the web). That
said, pseudonymity can still get messy, so I see why Facebook might want to
keep it in check.
One can also make the argument that the level of discourse is much higher on
services where people are more personally accountable for what they say, and
where confusing or offensive usernames don't get in the way of conversations.
But I would say that the actual level of discourse sometimes found on Facebook
throws that argument into question.
~~~
prodigal_erik
What Facebook and Google+ gain in politesse, they lose in depth and honesty. I
can't assume I'll be held "accountable" in a just way by every prospective
employer, apartment manager, or lover I'll ever meet, so these venues get
empty pleasantries from me, certainly nothing controversial in any way.
~~~
psbp
Now imagine a whole generation socializing under these artificial
restrictions. Can you imagine how stifling being raised under an umbrella of
constant surveillance by your peer group, family, future employers and
advertisers would be to your personality and relationships? We're developing a
society of sociopatic egotists.
~~~
jodrellblank
We are basically under constant surveillance by our peer group and family,
just not in an Orwellian sense.
It's incredibly common for people to grow up afraid to say many things, having
massive restrictions on some parts of their personalities due to those kinds
of pressures.
We see it most obviously with the single big things such as "I can't tell my
religious family I'm an atheist" or "I got ostracised for dating someone from
another culture" or whatever, but it's almost certainly going on for a huge
range of smaller personality facets - or ones which were blanked out before
they developed.
Who would you be if you'd never had any restrictions on what you could say
other than moral ones? If any interest you had, you would have been supported
in following up, any comment you made would have been taken seriously and
never laughed at, any attempt to better yourself was encouraged not mocked.
Maybe more and more surveillance such as you imagine will actually make it
_more_ obvious that others opinions are their largely their own problem and
don't affect you all that much, and you should develop more confidence sooner.
~~~
ionwake
sorry I dont understand your last point - can you please rephrase it for me?
thank you
~~~
jodrellblank
I was trying to say that maybe total surveillance would feel less bad than
occasional surveillance, since you would be forced to "get used to it" from an
early age, and for things where there are no particular consequences other
than embarassment, maybe that would be an improvement.
(Yet, that only applies if you assume the oversight is only for spotting
criminals and the guides for criminal activity exactly agree with your own,
and the system is fair).
------
jrtashjian
The only problem with forcing real names that I've recently encountered are
family members who work in prisons. They use a modified name as to make it
difficult for an inmate to gain knowledge of them and where they live.
Personal and family protection in a way with the ability to still use Facebook
to connect with distant friends and family members.
Anyone else run into this instance?
~~~
maxerickson
It seems like it would be more sensible for them to use modified names inside
the prison.
Of course, they probably don't get to choose what name to use in the prison.
~~~
qq66
I think that both guards and inmates should be assigned fake names in prison,
or addressed simply by number, to avoid prison interactions spilling out of
the prison and affecting prisoners' families etc. Of course, the danger with
this is that abuses within prison would become harder to track and account
for.
~~~
fl3tch
I going to guess that referring to inmates by numbers would be widely
criticized as inhumane by many human rights groups. It would be an uphill
battle to keep something like that going.
~~~
imroot
Inmates are commonly referred to by their number in prison -- as far as the
prison system is concerned, they're not 'Leland Highsmith,' they're A319445 --
it's tied to their phone calls, commissary purchases, meal records, medicine
records, and health records.
------
tokenadult
I have been on online networks of one kind or another since 1992. I am 100
percent behind the idea that people using their real names (the rule of some
networks I have been on) promotes better online community and people taking
more responsibility for their personal behavior in the community. That said, I
do have some friends who have long established pseudonyms that have most of
the good effects of real names, because those friends still try to build up
reputation for those pseudonyms. (You'll have to be the judge of how well I'm
doing here building up the reputation of "tokenadult," a screen name I brought
here from two other online communities where pseudonyms rather than real names
are mandatory but changing names is difficult so that reputation still
accumulates for each name.)
That said, I refuse to "out" my niece's dog, who has a Facebook profile. It's
important to have amusing counterexamples out there so that people don't
invest too much trust in Facebook. In the last week or so a Hacker News
participant (I don't know his real name [smile]) suggested that Facebook could
monetize by being an online payments platform. For consumer-to-business
transactions, I don't trust Facebook as a payment platform because its
engineers have the attitude "Don't be afraid to break things," which just
doesn't appeal to me for a network that handles my financial data. For user-
to-user transactions, I also don't trust Facebook because I don't trust the
users unless I know them in person--my Facebook community is enjoyable because
it really consists of people whose real identity I know, and who know me. If I
want to do business with strangers, I occasionally do that through Amazon
Marketplace, but that is because Amazon has built up its own reputation for
standing behind transactions there.
AFTER EDIT: Several comments in this thread are along the lines of
_It's not hard to imagine a near future, if not a present, in which a
person's identity is entirely evaluated, shaped, and determined by a monolith
such as facebook._
But most people in the world still are largely stuck with the reputations
distorted for them, before they can develop their reputations for themselves,
by their family or their classmates in some small community. Facebook is LESS
of a "monolith," because it is made up of hundreds of millions of users, than
any small town anywhere. A lot of people find it liberating to find online
communities based on shared intellectual interests (Hacker News works for this
too, of course) rather than just being stuck with their current group of in-
person acquaintances.
~~~
quesera
> Facebook is LESS of a "monolith," because it is made up of hundreds of
> millions of users, than any small town anywhere.
You inadvertently bring up a strong counter argument.
Suppose, in your small town, you are outed (rightly or wrongly) as <insert
marginalized subgroup here>, and ostracized. Normally, after much
introspection and reflection, you or your family could decide to move away, if
the social effects were severe enough and unfixable.
With a real name policy and a permanent archive of the psychodrama, you cannot
start over elsewhere without all of it following along with you, ripe for the
next group of maladjusted simpletons to harrass you with. Not everyone can
move to tolerant cultures, not all marginalized groups can find reliably-safe
new places.
~~~
drbawb
I think this also speaks volumes about the "dangers" of using large general-
purpose social networks.
Think about it for a second: if I'm ostracized (using my name or a pseudonym,
it doesn't matter) from a `Club 3.14: Raspberry Pi Hackers` message board; I
can find other message boards with a surplus of R-Pi hackers.
If I say something stupid on Facebook... where am I supposed to go in order to
replace Facebook?
The issue with Google+ is (<\-- replace with your favorite defunct social
network) that it's a graveyard. (I say that facetiously; I actually use G+ and
quite like the service. That being said, I can't deny that it is missing 95%
or so of my Facebook friends.)
So the issue here isn't so much the ability to have pseudonyms, IMHO.
The issue is that Facebook is quickly becoming a "monolith", and that fact
_combined_ with an inability to escape your ostracism via "moving" your online
presence to a new identity is where the problem lies.
I feel the real problem is that Facebook is all-encompassing. They want to be
_the_ platform for online community.
Therein lies the problem, if you're only allowed _one true identity_ on their
platform, your baggage follows you to every sub-community _on that platform._
------
mkjones
Hey folks - I work on the Site Integrity team at Facebook. We work to keep
people safe from scams, spam, fake accounts, and having their account taken
over.
We're always looking for ways to better understand how people represent
themselves online and improve the design of our service. We look at the
results of this kind of experiment in aggregate - the responses doesn't have
any impact on the user account or that of their friends.
~~~
steve8918
The best way people, especially kids, have to protect their future selves from
things they write or post today, is by assuming a fake identity.
Kids are quickly learning that everything on the Internet is forever. Take the
option of hiding their identity away from them, and I think they will move to
a service that will allow this.
~~~
genwin
My kids are sick of me harping on this. But now they use different pseudonyms
for every site, including Facebook, and I'm proud of them for it.
They rarely use Facebook anymore; it seems it's becoming boring.
------
jedbrown
If the responses are actually anonymous (as they claim, but I don't believe
it's actually anonymous in their database), it would be easy to generate
enough false positives to spoil the system.
~~~
quesera
There is a 0% chance that Facebook does not record your response to every
request.
~~~
latimer
If it turns out it isn't anonymous and they are shutting down accounts over
it, can there be any repercussions for them lying like that or is it just
"unethical"?
~~~
chris_wot
Funny - it says they won't take any action over it. Do I trust that?
~~~
petitmiam
makes you wonder why they are asking then.
------
ivany
Every time fb does something scummy, and people act surprised, _I_ am
surprised. They've proven themselves to have the morals of a used car dealer.
Why would you trust them, or be surprised when they act untrustworthy?
"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." No?
~~~
vidarh
Used car dealers presumably have that reputation because they still manage to
fool people, otherwise the immoral ones would quickly go out of business. Part
of the skill is to manage to convince people that things are different with
you and them.
------
ari_elle
I don't really think the connection that he tries to make between Facebook's
real name policy and the need for anonymity for whistleblowers/oppressed
regimes is really fair. Facebook wants to be a social portal were you feed
your desire to be seen and make stupid updates about your life and contact
your friends when you go out with them. I don't really think that Facebooks
policies are crucial for whistleblowers :D
What should be done? Stop using Facebook. Everybody has e-mail, it's quick
enough, it's fun and people tend to think before they send off an e-mail
(something i miss with instant messaging).
The niveau on facebook has been hiding under the table since i don't know when
and that is true for their policies and for how people use facebook, so
instead of trying to force the niveau to come out, how about giving up
already?
If Facebook is such an important part of one's life that even while being
unhappy with their policies you can't give up on the service, then that's just
sad....
~~~
brador
Rumors on Reddit that employers are asking for a Facebook presence pre-
interview. What then?
~~~
gaius
I do not believe that for one second. As someone who has interviewed hundreds
of candidates, there are many things a prospective employer really, really
does not want to know. Religion, sexual orientation, veteran status, the list
goes on... A company that finds out these things and rejects a candidate for
any reason, even a legitimate technical one, is begging to be sued.
That is what LinkedIn is for...
~~~
vidarh
The laws about these things are there because at least some employers _do_
want to find out these things. Some of those employers would love a more
innocent-sounding way of finding out those details exactly to reduce the
chance that the candidate will think they have grounds to sue.
------
w1ntermute
This could be a good way to hasten the departure of users from Facebook. If
you get the accounts of all your friends using fake names suspended, they
might be more willing to move to Google Plus.
~~~
notatoad
It might hasten the departure of users from Facebook, but if they're leaving
because of facebook's real name policy, I doubt they're going to find G+ more
attractive.
------
Karunamon
FTA: _Indeed, under the terms of the Snoopers Charter, it wouldn’t just be
Facebook who could access this kind of information: the authorities could
potentially set up a filter to gather data on people who don’t confirm the
names of their friends_
Yes, and I _could potentially_ sprout wings from my ass and become a travel
carrier. The rest of this article is nothing more than a ton of thinly veiled
fallacies, slippery slope and appeal to emotion the least of the two.
Is the feature dodgy? Perhaps.
Did you agree to the rules of the party before joining? Yup. One of which is:
"Use your real name".
Should you be surprised if you get called out on it? Nope.
You're more than welcome to protest unfair policies (whether saying you'll put
truthful info on a form is "unfair" is left as an exercise to the reader), but
much like civil disobedience, you have no right to complain once you are found
to be breaking the law/policy and are punished for it.
This is a website. Let's try to keep perspective here.
~~~
fleitz
What is a "real" name vs. one that is not "real"?
Did you mean legal name? And if so does that exclude legal aliases?
What about Madonna, is that her 'real' name?
~~~
Karunamon
Are you called "fleitz" in real life? No? That is not your real name then. It
is a pseudonym.
This isn't rocket science.
~~~
jlgreco
What if people call me "T-Bone"?
The divide between "real name" and "pseudonym" is very fuzzy as soon as you
step outside the "engineer box" and look at real world data. Many people in
this world go by names that you would never expect to see on their driver
license or passport, both of which seem to be things Facebook asks users
provide to "prove" their "real names".
And lets not even get started on the fact that facebook _is in fact part of
real life_. If people call you a certain name on facebook, they are calling
you that _in real life_. Different names for different social situation is
_far_ from unheard of. Which is "real"?
------
brackin
They'd love a database full of confirmed names, which advertisers could buy
into. With Facebook the '900m users' are all real people not just accounts
created.
------
mikiem
Oh excellent. I can help those poor neutered friends stuck as half of user
like "Susan N Steve Smith" because their significant other created that
account.
------
propercoil
Where is the X button? "leave me alone" ? i'm deleting my account right at
this moment i had enough
------
tyrmored
If nothing else this might help put the kibosh on the intensely annoying way
Facebook users tend to use cutesy fake names so that you don't know who the
hell they are when they comment on your posts.
~~~
Evbn
Or you could unfriend people you don't like to hang out with on Facebook.
~~~
michaelhoffman
I'd rather have Facebook fix the problem.
------
denzil_correa
There's a reason why people do not want to use their real names. Currently
Facebook does not keep up with such promises. What has changed to make me have
a leap of faith on Facebook?
------
idunno246
I always wondered why google+ got all that bad press and facebook didn't for
real names
~~~
fl3tch
I'm guessing it's because a culture and expectation of using real names had
already been established on Facebook by the time the masses arrived, while
privacy-conscious techies were the first G+ users.
------
pasbesoin
Time to call it: Jumped the shark.
Is there anything more "anti-social" they could have done? Betrayal. Or...
maybe they're just trying to make it more _realistically_ social?
Seriously, it's another instance of not listening to your users. Strong-arming
only works as long as you are strong...
------
VeejayRampay
Everyone has people they don't like and vice versa. People that know your real
name. I suspect it wouldn't too hard to crowdsource "identification" to the
audience of Facebook so that they can monetize their idiotic platform better.
------
rsync
I was going to say that I can't believe Salman Rushdie stooped so low as to
mail a copy of his passport to some website.
But it's harder to believe that he had a facebook account in the first place.
~~~
unabridged
why? the man loves attention, haven't you seen his twitter account:
<http://twitter.com/SalmanRushdie>
------
at-fates-hands
Wrot wrow, the gig might be up for myself. Hopefully none of my HS friends
will out me. If so, I'm going to have to close my account.
Not that I use a lot anyways. . .
------
fauigerzigerk
Maybe it's a kind of Milgram experiment.
------
fudged71
This is really bad.
A lot of educators aren't allowed using their real names on social networks.
------
clobber
We're setting a really bad precedent for the future here and these sorts of
things need to stop now. Unfortunately, people don't seem to want to fight
this.
Now we have people getting turned down for jobs because they DON'T have a
facebook account[1]. What's next?
1\.
[http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/109ipi/no_faceboo...](http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/109ipi/no_facebook_no_job_interview_is_this_seriously_a/)
~~~
Smudge
No social media presence? Clearly you are a psychopathic recluse unfit for
_normal_ work.
We only want employees who do _normal_ things, like obsessively refreshing a
particular website all day long.
~~~
eyevariety
Brilliant!
------
Meist
I work with Matt at Facebook and wanted to reaffirm his comment below. This
survey was a small anonymous test designed to improve the systems we use to
keep the site safe for everyone. And, we have already confirmed that the
responses collected will have _zero_ impact on people's accounts.
We believe a real name culture is core to our mission of making the world more
connected and helps us to provide the best possible experience for our users.
PS One thing I did want to note is that we offer Pages where the individual
admins are not listed and have been effectively used in the past by a wide
variety of groups, movements, brands, and individuals.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Neural Network Design (eBook) [pdf] - vonnik
http://hagan.okstate.edu/NNDesign.pdf
======
arimorcos
For a book published in late 2014, it's very strange that this book doesn't
seem to mention any of the state of the art components in neural networks,
including:
- Convolutional neural networks
- LSTMs
- GRUs
- Autoencoders
- Attentional mechanisms
- Variations on SGD (Adagrad, Adadelta, RMSProp, ADAM)
~~~
wrong_variable
Baby Steps -
You will be surprised how little knowledge people have about neural nets (
speaking as someone who did Applied Maths in school ).
------
nickpsecurity
Outside reading deep learning news, I've been away from neural nets for
something like ten years. The table of contents looks like it presents some of
the older approaches. Does it similarly cover what you need to learn the
newest stuff? Or do we read stuff like this plus other resources for that?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
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