text
stringlengths 44
776k
| meta
dict |
|---|---|
Show HN: Cross Platform .NET Desktop Application Framework - AlikhanPeleg
https://www.browseemall.com/Blog/index.php/2017/05/23/creating-a-cross-plattform-net-ui-application/
======
oblio
Eto is very interesting but unfortunately there seems to be just 1 (very
active) developer behind it, from what I can see.
On the other hand, Xamarin.Forms had an announcement recently, an announcement
that Hacker News missed. I submitted the news a few days ago but it didn't
reach the first page:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14383467](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14383467)
->
[https://blog.xamarin.com/glimpse-future-xamarin-
forms-3-0/](https://blog.xamarin.com/glimpse-future-xamarin-forms-3-0/)
TL;DR:
Xamarin.Forms will support desktop environments:
\- Windows (WPF)
\- MacOS (Cocoa)
\- Linux (GTK#)
This is on top of the mobile bits: iOS, Android, UWP.
As an added bonus, they've added Xamarin.Forms embedding into native
interfaces.
It's actually major news since Xamarin.Forms would become the first cross
platform UI toolkit that:
1\. supports both desktop and mobiles
2\. is backed by a major vendor
3\. is truly usable from a memory managed language as part of the core
offering
~~~
maxxxxx
I have never heard anything positive about Xamarin.Forms from people who have
used it. Has this improved?
~~~
kevindqc
I've never used Xamarin, but I'm curious what their complaints are?
~~~
devopsproject
To be clear: "Xamarin.forms" is different than "Xamarin" and the following is
based on my experience with "Xamarin.forms".
Also note that my experience with this is building an extremely simple
business-y app for internal users.
1\. Its moving fast so documentation is lacking and the "right" way to do
something, posted 6 months ago, is wrong\deprecated\wonky
2\. The tooling leaves a lot to be desired. Although this has greatly
improved, there are still tons of steps to publish
([https://developer.xamarin.com/guides/android/deployment,_tes...](https://developer.xamarin.com/guides/android/deployment,_testing,_and_metrics/publishing_an_application/)).
3\. Updates constantly breaking things. To be fair, this is also improving
4\. There may still be instances where you have to drop into native code or
split code based on platform. This means you sometimes will need to know: c#,
xamarin.forms oddities, java\android stuff AND objective c\iOS. This may not
be an issue for simple apps
5\. UI builder is limited. The apps will be native looking but you won't be
winning any design awards. Some things also seem impossible so it helps if the
customer\designer\stakeholder is really flexible. If someone asks for an app
to collect and display data, you will probably be ok. If they give you pixel
dimensions and other minutiae run.
------
j_s
Apparently this is a hot topic.
The options I'm aware of are:
[https://github.com/picoe/Eto](https://github.com/picoe/Eto) (OP - BSD)
[https://github.com/AvaloniaUI/Avalonia](https://github.com/AvaloniaUI/Avalonia)
(MIT)
Currently only with a preview for Mac, Xamarin.Forms is roadmapped for desktop
platforms "Q3 2017": [https://blog.xamarin.com/glimpse-future-xamarin-
forms-3-0/](https://blog.xamarin.com/glimpse-future-xamarin-forms-3-0/)
Licensing for Xamarin Forms was funky for a while (required paying for Xamarin
prior to MS acquisition) but appears to be MIT now.
~~~
johnhattan
And for games, there's MonoGame.
[http://www.monogame.net/](http://www.monogame.net/)
It's based on the old XNA framework. At least one successful commercial game
(Fez) was written with it.
~~~
pjmlp
Quite a few successful games were written in it, before Unity changed their
license model.
Bastion was another one that comes to my mind.
As additional remark, indies have been doing games in C# since the Managed
DirectX days.
~~~
zerr
Also, Unity is more a tool for designers, while MonoGame or LibGDX are more
coding oriented libraries.
~~~
pjmlp
Kind of agree, but if you look at the curriculum of universities teaching game
development degrees, they have all moved into Unity/Unreal, plus the console
SDKs.
Also the love they are getting from MS and Google for VR/AR.
------
denisw
Given the title, it seems that this should rather link to the framework itself
([https://github.com/picoe/Eto](https://github.com/picoe/Eto)).
~~~
jjuel
Or even the blog post about the framework
([https://www.browseemall.com/Blog/index.php/2017/05/23/creati...](https://www.browseemall.com/Blog/index.php/2017/05/23/creating-
a-cross-plattform-net-ui-application/)).
~~~
sctb
Thanks, we've updated the link from
[https://bitbucket.org/positionfixed/crossplatform](https://bitbucket.org/positionfixed/crossplatform).
------
lwansbrough
I'd be wary about investing too much time into something like this. Microsoft
is making a massive push with .NET Core and its availability on both Mac OS
and Linux. Coupled with the expansion of the .NET Standard to encompass more
of the .NET Framework APIs, it won't be long now before Microsoft announces
the ability for the Universal Windows Platform to run on all major operating
systems. Of course they may want to rename it to something more friendly -
like Univeral .NET Platform, or just Universal Platform - but I suspect we'll
see this in the next year or maybe two.
Build apps for Windows, OS X, Linux, Android and iOS with C# and XAML. Sounds
pretty cool to me. So it isn't to say this isn't a great idea by the
BrowseEmAll devs, but I'm just not sure how needed it'll be once Microsoft
steps in.
~~~
lostmsu
Yeah, I felt that trend too with XAML Standard.
------
Sir_Cmpwn
I carry this file around to detect platforms with .NET:
[https://github.com/SirCmpwn/TrueCraft/blob/master/TrueCraft....](https://github.com/SirCmpwn/TrueCraft/blob/master/TrueCraft.Core/RuntimeInfo.cs)
I hereby release it into the public domain.
~~~
louthy
Kudos for releasing to the public domain, but you should also attach a license
to it (MIT is good)
Edit: sorry, I see there's a top level license. Browsing github on my phone
wasn't giving me the info I wanted :)
------
arenaninja
This is exciting news, but in the world of Electron apps I do wonder if it is
not too late already.
Qt has been around for a while and though it gained traction Electron is far
outpacing it. It seems that there is no ASP.NET Core since it was borne out of
an actual use case with ASP.NET.
Again, kudos to the author and it seems like a great technical feat, but to my
knowledge what matters is adoption rate.
~~~
pjmlp
Thankfully no one around me is either using Electron or thinking about even
trying it out.
As for Qt, web devs have C++ allergy, hence why the company behind Qt came up
with QML. exactly to fight against this trend.
~~~
roryisok
I'm feeling an increasing sense of hostility towards "web devs" lately.
~~~
devopsproject
It's frustration, not hostility. The solution is always
HotNewFrameworkStillInBeta.js
------
OldSchoolJohnny
Why not link to something that explains it first, like an overview?
------
slowmotiony
Can I use this in .net core projects?
~~~
insertnickname
No
------
dafrankenstein2
c# for unity, asp and xamarian. wow.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Terraform Plugin to order Dominos Pizza - blacksmythe
https://ndmckinley.github.io/terraform-provider-dominos/
======
Someone
Reminds me of _”What do you get if you send this code to a fully equipped
LaserWriter type such-and-so”_ from _Stump the Experts_
([https://en.everybodywiki.com/Stump_the_Experts#Sample_Questi...](https://en.everybodywiki.com/Stump_the_Experts#Sample_Questions))
------
bovermyer
I had no idea there were public APIs for this.
I have a new challenge for this weekend.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The unexpectedly most successful category on Kickstarter - calebgarling
http://blog.sfgate.com/techchron/2013/10/18/kickstarter-category-dance/
======
mattschmulen
Great reminder ( and stats ) that kickstarter is more than tech; my brother
just raised $40K on kickstarter for a Texas Pecan Liqueur "pecano". When he
said he was going to do it, I told him he was crazy. I was completely wrong.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Cartier “Santos Droit” Wristwatch - ableal
http://www.cartier.com/maison/living-heritage/cartier-collection/2/2
======
2510c39011c5
I feel there are just too much distracting information for all those images on
the page...But I guess this is the most interesting part of the whole page, as
for an average "nerd" in the HN community:
"In 1904, the Brazilian pilot Alberto Santos-Dumont complained to his
friend Louis Cartier that while he was flying with both hands on the
controls, it was impossible to read the time on his pocket watch. Soon
afterwards, Cartier sent him a prototype of a wristwatch. It was sold
from 1911 as the Santos, and was the first watch with the bracelet
attachment horns integrated into the case. These integrated horns made
it the first modern wristwatch for men."
~~~
ableal
I was going for the shape similarities of the "Santos Droit" and another watch
that went on sale this month. (Great artists, etc.)
I think I was pointed that way by an innocent remark in a New Yorker piece
posted here a couple of weeks ago. Doing tab cleaning, saved it here ;-).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Netflix Orders Bill Nye Talk Show - ourmandave
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/netflix-orders-bill-nye-talk-924641
======
haney
Very cool, typically when I hear 'talk show' I think of something that's going
to be released on a regular interval (daily or weekly) is Netflix moving away
from it's bulk release schedule for shows?
~~~
tired_man
You're right! This is a welcome addition.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
3 Questions with iPhone Guru Giuseppe Taibi on Mobile Project Management - kmccarth
http://bostinnovation.com/2011/03/26/3-questions-with-iphone-guru-giuseppe-taibi-on-mobile-project-management/
======
cgarb
Got to love that orange shirt.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Dave Clark, The Man Who Built Amazon’s Delivery Machine - Bostonian
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-12-17/amazon-holiday-shopping-the-man-who-makes-it-happen
======
throwaway773064
As someone who has worked in that man's organization for many years: he's an
idiot who believes himself a genius.
> “He knows every nook and cranny of the company.”
He'll show up at warehouses in the middle of peak (busy, holiday season) and
demand changes to operational configurations that to against the standards set
out by subject matter experts. Because Dave knows better. And Dave gets what
he wants. As soon as he walks out the door, everyone has to put everything
back the way it should be before the site has a high severity incident.
> habit of lurking in the shadows of Amazon warehouses and scoping out
> slackers he could fire
If the article didn't make it clear, he's a sociopath. Worse, he promotes
other sociopaths to higher levels of management.
> The Man Who Built Amazon’s Delivery Machine
His claim to fame really is that he was in the right place at the right time.
Dave Clark built Amazon delivery? No, Dave Clark was at the helm of operations
when Amazon realized that if the company didn't build a delivery network asap,
they'd be in trouble in a few years when demand outstripped (cheap) supply. If
Dave were smart, that's something he'd have figured out years earlier.
~~~
crmrc114
Well you just summed up my Amazon experience in a nutshell.
The only people who stay in Amazon management are sociopaths, megalomaniacs
and the rare case of those who need the insurance. My pals in AWS, Zappos or
Twitch all loved their jobs. Fulfillment is a special kind of hell.
------
anarbadalov
Jesus, i would not want this guy's job, nor would i want to work for him.
"His colleagues describe a demanding manager who is impossible to bluff.
During the holidays, Clark’s team meets daily to review metrics about Amazon
facilities around the world. Clark can zero in on any signs of trouble since
he’s been scanning the same figures for 20 years. A key metric is the
estimated delivery time shoppers see when they view a product on Amazon, which
is broken down by geography. If the number is moving in the wrong direction,
Clark demands an explanation and a solution. The culture is far from pleasant,
but current and former insiders marvel at its effectiveness."
~~~
ismitley
It depends on how much you value money, I guess. Everyone that reports
directly to Dave is probably going to be a VP making 800k/year-several
million.
~~~
codeisawesome
What are the mechanisms in corporations that determine these figures? Always
been super duper curious how the salary of a VP is "set"...
~~~
hogFeast
It is usually some combination of consultants using bogus logic, and other
executives trying to bump their own pay by hiring very expensive colleagues.
I have never been convinced it is worth paying these kind of numbers. I have
looked at all kinds of businesses, I have looked at businesses where
productivity is power-law distributed (i.e. one good employee can be worth
10,000+ bad ones) and it never adds up...again, even if you look at situations
where productivity is very unequal (which it isn't in almost every business,
and very much isn't at Amazon)...it doesn't work.
One particularly toxic part of Amazon is that they pride themselves on only
hiring the "elite". Well, if your market cap is hundreds of billions and you
hire tens of thousands people a year...you aren't hiring the "elite"
(genuinely, there are only three or four CEOs over the past five decades who
are truly proven execs). So you have this awful culture where everyone views
themselves as this unbelievably valuable "alpha dog". Inevitably, this results
in them lighting huge stacks of other people's cash on fire (the real danger
isn't hiring the 80 IQ guy, it is the guy with a 110 IQ who thinks he is a 160
IQ guy).
~~~
amznthrowaway5
The majority of AMZN's tech employees (ie. average SDE) know they are not
elite and often talk about how they consider themselves failures for not being
getting into better paying companies.
~~~
hogFeast
I didn't say either that employees are elite or that they think themselves to
be elite. I said that is the hiring culture, which is something quite
different.
~~~
amznthrowaway5
You did say
> _So you have this awful culture where everyone views themselves as this
> unbelievably valuable "alpha dog"_
In my experience this may be true of upper management, but it simply isn't
true of most employees.
------
neonate
[http://archive.md/Y3pZT](http://archive.md/Y3pZT)
[https://outline.com/U9mAnr](https://outline.com/U9mAnr)
------
continuations
> banned third-party merchants from using (Fedex)’s ground network for the
> rest of the season
I read elsewhere that this ban is for Prime deliveries only.
So there are 3rd party sellers for Prime? I thought Prime is only for products
fulfilled by Amazon.
Do these 3rd party Prime sellers get a cut of the $119/yr Prime fees?
If they don't get a cut of the Prime fees why would they offer Prime
deliveries? Shouldn't they be offering 2-day free shipping to everyone Prime
member or not?
~~~
Judson
Turns out, Amazon has a program called Seller Fulfilled Prime. Sellers get the
prime badge, and ship from their own warehouse.
If I had to guess, the seller tells Amazon where the product is located +
their shipping cutoff time, and if the customer is in a geographic location
that is serviced by UPS/FedEx/USPS from the seller's warehouse with 2-day
transit time, and it's before the seller's cutoff, the Prime badge is shown.
More information here: [https://services.amazon.com/services/seller-fulfilled-
prime....](https://services.amazon.com/services/seller-fulfilled-prime.html)
~~~
continuations
So the sellers in this case don't even get a cut of the $119/yr Prime fees?
If that's the case why would the sellers even offer Prime shipping? Why not
offer free 2-day shipping to everyone, including those who aren't Prime
members as well?
~~~
Judson
> So the sellers in this case don't even get a cut of the $119/yr Prime fees?
That isn't mentioned in the linked Amazon information so my guess is no.
> [...] why would the sellers even offer Prime shipping? Why not offer free
> 2-day shipping to everyone[...]
FTA: "Your products listed with Seller Fulfilled Prime have increased chances
to win the Buy Box. Winning the Buy Box means that when customers click on
“Add to Basket”, their default option is to buy the product from you."
Also mentions that SFP is really for special case products. The called out
reasons include:
\- High-value items
\- Products with seasonal or unpredictable demand
\- Items with variations
\- Slow-moving goods
\- Inventory that requires special handling or preparation
~~~
blyry
Can confirm, it's all about the buy box. My company offers free 1 and 2 day
shipping to all customers across all channels in as many zips as our fc
network allows. SFP gets us the buy box with a way higher percentage and gives
us a significant boost in our Amazon revenue.
------
DonnyV
This is all done because we as a society can't wait an extra day or week for
something thats non-essential.
~~~
CharlesW
We can and have. This was all done (originally with partners) because it was
necessary to make Amazon competitive with local retail. Amazon is now making
shipping/logistics part of their "stack" because, at their scale, it removes a
risky dependency, can reduce costs, may give them proprietary advantages,
provide another service to sell, etc.
------
ropiwqefjnpoa
Amazon is cutting out the middle man so they can abuse their delivery
contractors and employees directly.
------
hootbootscoot
doh, and here I thought this was about british techno...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Sears reports $748M net loss [pdf] - grizzles
http://searsholdings.com/docs/investor/eap/q3-2016-shc-earnings-release.pdf
======
mmanfrin
They raced to the bottom with their hallowed store brands, cut corners to make
margins and in the end shattered the value of the name of appliances like
Kenmore or tools like Craftsman.
If you've built a brand on the idea of durability and reliability, and then
build shoddy products that coast on the reputation, that reputation goes away
and leaves you with a brand that no one wants to buy.
I've been looking at a new fridge, and I'd consider a Chinese Haier over a
Sears Kenmore, ceteris paribus.
It used to be that Sears was mighty because of the catalog; then they were
mighty because of logistics; then they were mighty because of the iron-clad
house brands. Now Amazon is the new catalog, Walmart beats them on logistics,
and their brands are mud. Sears has nothing. You'll see a Sears bankruptcy
within 5 years.
~~~
roflchoppa
I picked up some craftsman metric/SAE box and open's the other day from the
discount section, the build quality is not bad at all. I would not compare it
to Snap-On, but a whole other tier than that of HF.
~~~
91bananas
Recently I've given up on craftsman all together. Harbor freight owns up to
being Chinese junk, but still gives a life time guarantee on and hand tools
now. So if they're half the cost of craftsman but break and replace the same,
why buy their name brand Chinese junk when I can buy generic stuff from
probably the same factory?
~~~
syshum
My tool buying methodolty is
1\. Buy Harbor Freight Version....
2\. If a break the Harbor Freight tool, then I will look at a SnapOn, Dewalt,
Ridged, or other Contractor/Professional Brand
I have very fews tools in the #2 category...
~~~
mikestew
Though waiting for number 2 might give you frustration in the mean time.
There's more to a tool than whether or not it breaks. When that steel bolt has
cold welded itself to the aluminum engine head, you're going to want the most
precision-machined socket you can find. Because if you bugger it up, your day
is about to get a lot worse while you ponder whether you can burn the bolt out
with an acetelyne torch before you melt the aluminum. Granted, I don't run
into that a lot now that I no longer turn wrenches for a living.
That said, I've got a lot of HF in my toolbox and can't say I've been unhappy
with them. When I'm 100 miles from nowhere and my motorcycle breaks, it'll be
HF sockets and Torx bits that get me back on the road.
~~~
syshum
I am mainly a Woodworker as a hobby and IT has a Profession
My Cars are worked on by Professionals so I do not have alot of Automotive
tools or needs
------
dharmon
The Buffett Curse: Any comparisons to Warren Buffett will immediately result
in disastrous investment performance.
In this case, hedge fund manager Eddie Lampert took control of Sears about 10
years ago, merged it with K-Mart, and 3 years ago installed himself as
chairman and CEO. He's been selling off assets left and right to keep it
afloat (real estate, Lands End, etc.)
Prior to this he had been compared to and called "the new Buffett" due to
similar investment styles (if you squint real hard). Since then Sears has lost
over 90% of its market value. Yikes.
For another example, see Bill Ackman, who has been absolutely slaughtered, and
seems to be asking for more. It started almost immediately after Fortune put
him on the cover with the slug line "Baby Buffett".
~~~
conistonwater
Wasn't this also a case of pretty spectacular mismanagement on CEO's part? I
remember reading stuff like this:
[https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-07-11/at-
sears-...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-07-11/at-sears-eddie-
lamperts-warring-divisions-model-adds-to-the-troubles), it was rather
fascinating. It seems from that that it wasn't just a case of overly rosy
expectations.
~~~
dharmon
Yeah, definitely. Smart investors with no management or operations experience
install capable people as CEO, as Buffett has done on several occasions.
Arrogant investors seem to think, "running a business can't be _that_ hard..."
~~~
huherto
> Arrogant investors seem to think, "running a business can't be that hard..."
Running a country can't be that hard...oh my god.
------
ChuckMcM
disclaimer (both my sister and my mom worked for sears at one time)
I think Sears has lost its way because a new generation of shoppers don't see
Sears as vital. Back in the late 1800' when it was founded the idea that you
could look in a catalog and order something, only to pick it up at the store a
week later was nothing short of a revolution. And as a result Sears because
_exquisitely_ good at logistics. For decades the ability to move product where
it needed to be, when it needed to be there, at scale allowed Sears department
stores to dominate the retail market. It was rare to go to Sear's and discover
what you wanted was out of stock, and even then they could tell you to either
come back in 1 or 2 days to pick it up, or they would deliver it to you. That
service, that experience, was enabled and powered by logistics.
Old companies can get senile though and Sears did. They forgot they were a
logistics company and started trying to compete with Internet retailers as a
retail company. If instead they has offered white label logistics service for
internet merchants Amazon wouldn't be Amazon, instead it would be a buying
consortium that was shipping everything through to consumers through Sear's
logistics infrastructure. Instead you've got Amazon of today re-creating what
Sear's had 20 years ago but using more advanced technology.
~~~
mbesto
> They forgot they were a logistics company
Sears was the Amazon of 80's. Peering through the lens of time, the concept of
a mail order catalog was no different from the convenience of today's Amazon
e-commerce experience. They are both points on an evolutionary timeline of the
retail distribution experience. Sears disrupted retail, just like Amazon has
disrupted Sears.
What's interesting about companies like today's Amazon is that they are scared
shitless they'll end up becoming another Sears and eventually dead in the
water, so they are constantly investing their own profits into re-inventing
themselves (see Amazon Go and drone delivery for example). And hence why the
PE ratios of these companies (Amazon, Google, Apple, etc) are catastrophically
high.
~~~
zimzam
The PE ratio of Amazon is catastrophically high (175.8) but Google & Apple are
not.
The S&P 500's average PE ratio is currently 24.22 [1]. Google/Alphabet is a
little higher than average at 27.9, and Apple is solidly in blue-chip
territory 13.6
[1]
[http://www.wsj.com/mdc/public/page/2_3021-peyield.html](http://www.wsj.com/mdc/public/page/2_3021-peyield.html)
------
kirykl
Anecdote: Recently I had a sears gift card number but not the actual gift
card. Tried to buy vacuum in store with just the number not the card, and they
said no way, even said they should call corporate security to investigate my
scam. I went online to sears.com in the store, paid for my vacuum with the
gift card number and selected in store pickup. Left with the vacuum.
~~~
kevinstubbs
For fun, you could buy a few more cards like that and see what kind of mess
happens. Like what Steve Wozniak's does with his $2 bills
([http://archive.woz.org/letters/general/78.html](http://archive.woz.org/letters/general/78.html)).
~~~
nodesocket
If you showed up to Cheesecake Factory and for the bill wrote your credit card
number, expiration, and CVV on a napkin, do you think they would accept that?
In all seriousness, how was that fun for you?
~~~
kevinstubbs
Straw man argument? Doing that doesn't sound fun at all, and is totally
different than what OP was talking about in Sears. Trying to use the giftcard
number to see how high their staff will escalate to deal with this "scam" is
hilarious, otoh.
------
jbandela1
When I see articles about how sears is now, I always think of this
[http://www.metafilter.com/62394/The-Record-Industrys-
Decline...](http://www.metafilter.com/62394/The-Record-Industrys-
Decline#1742245)
Sears could have been what Amazon is today.
~~~
massysett
20/20 hindsight and all. Amazon still has practically no retail footprint.
Sears' big business was bricks-and-mortar retailing, not catalog retailing.
The catalog was shrinking and dying. Under the circumstances it was perfectly
reasonable for Sears to shut down the catalog and focus on stores.
Also, Amazon did not start out being anything like what it is today. For years
it was just books. I remember as they added departments, they would tack an
extra tab onto the homepage--"CDs", "Video", etc. So what was Sears going to
do? Instantly transport the entirety of a dying catalog business to a non-
existing consumer Internet? That wouldn't parallel Amazon at all. Not to
mention that Sears did not have access to a bunch of giddy investors who were
willing to pump in money despite no sign of profitability.
Only under a superficial analysis could Sears have been what Amazon is today.
~~~
tomhschmidt
Many other large brick-and-mortar retailers have spun up relatively successful
eComm businesses (Target, Walmart, Macy's). While those aren't to the scale of
Amazon, I really don't think this is an excuse.
~~~
massysett
> While those aren't to the scale of Amazon
Since OP's point was
> Sears could have been what Amazon is today
it's quite relevant that Target, Walmart, Macy's are not nearly to the scale
of Amazon.
~~~
mrmirz
Similarly (and probably off topic), Amazon is not nearly to the scale of
Walmart when you look at overall sales. Walmart's overall revenue is about 5x.
It may seem like Walmart is following the footsteps of Sears, but they are not
out of the game yet. They need to face the innovator's dilemma head on and do
it quickly because the broader issue is their e-commerce growth rate is
declining instead of accelerating and the way people shop is fundamentally
changing. They need to be dominant in e-commerce to be a dominant retailer in
the future.
Walmart is better positioned than anyone to take on Amazon online. Their
massive distribution footprint is a huge asset they are not leveraging. They
need to morph into a logistics company and announce an all-encompassing same-
day delivery service. They also need to completely re-haul their web/mobile
UX.
I would gladly buy from Walmart. Amazon is just a lot easier right now. In the
end, Amazon is not all that differentiated and if Walmart had some strong
technological leadership, they could certainly close the e-commerce gap.
~~~
goldenkek
walmart has a 2 day delivery program similar to prime for 40 dollars a year.
they need to advertise better..no one knows (you didnt did you?)
------
somedudetbh
Every time I read something about Sears troubles, it makes me remember this
metafilter comment from 2007: [http://www.metafilter.com/62394/The-Record-
Industrys-Decline...](http://www.metafilter.com/62394/The-Record-Industrys-
Decline#1742245)
Excerpt:
"...In 1984 [Sears] starts a joint venture with IBM called Prodigy, an online
computer service, sort of a prototype AOL. In 1985, Sears launches a new major
credit card, the Discover card. For the next eight years, the only credit card
you can use at Sears is Discover.
At this time, the early 80's Sears is the largest retailer in the U.S.
By 1993, the 100th anniversary of the Sears Catalog, Sears had built up
considerable goodwill in the mind of consumers. They weren't the lowest price,
but they had what you needed at good prices and the service was second to
none. […]
This is 1993. In quite possibly the greatest example of corporate
shortsightedness, Sears shut down it's mail-order business in a cost cutting
measure. It spins off Allstate that same year, and soon dumps Dean Witter and
Coldwell Banker.
In 1993, Sears had the most extensive and sophisticated mail-order retail
operation on the planet and they closed it.
Two years later, Amazon.com launched, and was soon selling everything that
sears sold through it's catalog. By the late-90's Walmart's push of low-cost
China imports killed Sears retailing. Online banking takes off. Credit card
use surges as mail order and retail purchases are shifted online.
Sears had its own computer network in 1993. They had access to IBM, they
should have understood the power of the internet. All they had to do was shift
the catalog online instead of killing it off, promising in store returns and
the same Sears satisfaction guaranteed. Discover could have been the credit
card of choice for security and protection online. Dean Witter could have been
what Schwab, E-Trade and Ameritrade became. Back in the mid-late 90s when many
people were hesitant to use credit cards online, Sears could have been a
familiar face online."
------
sliken
When sears killed their lifetime guarantee on wrenches, the local competition
put an aquarium in their tool section. Throw in a "useless" sears wrench and
you could pick up a free replacement with a life time guarantee. Seemed pretty
effective, the clerk claimed they had to empty the aquarium every week or so
for the first year.
------
brilliantcode
Recently shopped at Sears in Vancouver. Zero to no customer activity. No good
deals but also virtually no one helping me check the fuck out of there.
Waited hours only to see the fucking cashier or staff chatting it up with each
other with a line queue forming.
Same experience in The Bay. I think these traditional marts are on their way
out. I have zero sympathy, kill this fucking monstrosity.
~~~
twblalock
Shopping at Sears was a depressing experience for years. They really let the
stores fall apart, employees clearly didn't care, the products were crap, etc.
I think they made most of their money off Craftsman tools and Kenmore
appliances.
~~~
GunboatDiplomat
Think Sears is bad, try KMart.
~~~
douche
It's like something out of Mad Max. I had the misfortune of popping into one
on the way to the airport for a vacation, after I realized I hadn't brought a
watch. I swear there were tumbleweeds blowing down the aisles. While I was
waiting to check out, I watched a toothless young lady harangue the cashier
into selling her several sets of Boston Bruins towels that were clearly marked
as $19.99 for $5 apiece. The cashier brought her manager over to doublecheck,
shoulders were shrugged, and zero fucks were given. As I was leaving, a
befuddled elderly lady was trying to return items she'd bought at a TJ Maxx.
There was no TJ Maxx in this strip mall, nor within five miles. I got the hell
out of there with my cheap wristwatch and resolved never to return.
~~~
countingteeth
The most anachronistic part of this comment is the wristwatch.
------
aczerepinski
You know things are bad when this is the type of news that boosts your stock
price by 5%.
------
wnevets
I kinda forgot they were still in business. What does Sears offer that no one
else does?
~~~
madengr
Maybe Craftsman hand tools, but that's it. Those are well made, and the socket
wrenches are lifetime warrantied (they will fail, but they will just give you
a new one). Craftsman power tools are garbage; might as well get them at
Harbor Freight.
We always bought appliances from sears, but recently the refrigerator was from
Lowes, and the microwave and oven from Amazon.
They don't stock appliances (very long waits for refrigerators) and the sales
people can be horrible. The fridge we bought recently sight unseen, online.
The checkout process at Sears is fully fucked up. A convoluted connection of
iPads, credit card swipers, and ancient IBM registers.
Best Buy also sucks, so it's not like they have much local competition.
I swore I'd never buy a large appliance from Amazon, but the in-wall oven was
just fine, and I installed it no problem. If you can do your own appliance
installations, I suppose online is the way to go.
~~~
ssharp
Sears is a jack of all trades store that doesn't have much value these days.
Before Home Depot and Lowes were everywhere, Sears was a good option for
appliances, lawn care, power tools, etc. They were good for fitness equipment
before Dicks. They were good for electronics before Best Buy. I suspect a
place like Kohls took over their clothing audience as well.
Of course the internet didn't help them much either.
I'm sure someone will gladly buy up Craftsmen when it goes up for sale but I
agree with you that it's their only exclusive asset that sets them apart.
~~~
this-dang-guy
Sears died for me when the internet replaced the catalog.
As a kid, we'd spend literally _hours_ pouring over the Sears Catalog to
circle christmas/b-day gifts (each kid with a different color pen), and we'd
actually fight each other to get to it first.
That culture doesn't really exist anymore, and Sears really didn't adapt to
it. Amazon would be the modern version, I guess.
~~~
btgeekboy
The Sears catalog and the JC Penney Christmas catalogs. Such an amazing time
of year.
~~~
this-dang-guy
I still get a bit of a thrill from the Quadratec and Cabelas catalogs, but
nothing on par with that. It was really the best.
My first Nintendo came from that Sears Christmas Catalog :)
------
kevin_thibedeau
They need to streamline the stupid checkout process where you get hammered
with incessant questions and wait for 3-feet of receipts to print out.
~~~
PhantomGremlin
_incessant questions_
You mean like "do you want to apply for a credit card?"?
There's a reason for that. The associate gets $2 for every store credit card
and $4 for every bank credit card sign-up. It's a big deal to a kid making
$10/hr. But it certainly doesn't help the overall experience for those people
who don't want another credit card.
~~~
marktangotango
I'm glad they get a commission on those. Unlike the poor folks at Best Buy who
get nothing for upselling the worthless warranty extensions. I last asked a
few years ago so this may have changed.
------
jimmydddd
And they phased out their catalog. If they had waited a few years, they could
have put it online and been Amazon. Reminds me of a smaller chain called
Service Merchandise. You could order from an electronic kiosk in the store,
and your product would come out on a conveyor belt a few minutes later. If
they had hung in a bit longer, they could have phased the kiosk ordering to
the internet.
~~~
smelendez
Astonishingly:
[https://www.servicemerchandise.com](https://www.servicemerchandise.com)
------
electic
Sears mostly has a big marketing issue. I almost never see them online. No
online advertising. No social media. Nothing to show they are at all connected
to the real world. My guess is they are still doing TV adverts and I think a
lot of people do not watch traditional TV anymore and it is costing them mind
share.
~~~
ChuckMcM
They are waiting for you to come to the mall so they can engage in personal
face to face selling.
------
rbanffy
Isn't this that CEO who actually believes in Ayn Rand?
~~~
seren
He is.
I remember reading that article some times ago :
[https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-07-11/at-
sears-...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-07-11/at-sears-eddie-
lamperts-warring-divisions-model-adds-to-the-troubles)
It has been posted a few time to HN.
------
RijilV
Such a shame really. I get how they were blind to it, but sears ran a
successful mail order business for decades before the Internet was widely
available. What a missed opportunity, usurped by a clever computer tech from
the fincial industry. Even when it was clear books were working, sears sat on
the sidelines with their print catalog oblivious to the online world.
------
desireco42
It breaks my heart what this guy Eddie Lampert did to this company. I used to
work as a consultant for Sears and have fond memories of my time then.
Sears was, for as long as I know them, been mismanaged by their executives.
They would spend insane money to hire consultants and developers, only to
change direction after less then a year and fire everyone.
------
WhitneyLand
I didn't know for sure they were still in business.
Who shops at Sears? For what reason?
------
okonomiyaki3000
This is genius! They won't have to pay taxes for the next 20 years! Brilliant!
------
grizzles
If I had a crystal ball and could look into Amazon and Sears's respective
C-Suites, this is what I imagine I'd see:
Amazon Manager to subordinate: How is the progress going on our new jet and
drone fleets?
Sears Manager to subordinate: Why the HELL aren't our website sales up?!?!
~~~
1_2__3
All you're describing here is how effective Amazon's marketing department is.
~~~
grizzles
I don't think they bought a fleet of jets for marketing. My point is about
their respective cultures. Amazon's culture is just flat out better.
Amazon just entered the retail grocery business. When they did it, they looked
at the process and noticed that in the existing process everyone was double
handling merchandise. Once when they select it, and once when they checkout.
So Amazon decided to make it a single handling process, making life a bunch
easier for consumers. That also decreases purchase friction, which is great
for Amazon.
That thought process illustrates why Amazon is the leader and will continue to
humble it's rivals. It will take a huge culture change, and a probable
industry consolidation before the likes of Sears will become competitive
again.
~~~
JoeAltmaier
Underestimating on the grocery thing. Handle each can of beans
taking from the shelf to the cart
from cart to checkout belt
from belt to bag (ok they help with this one)
from bag to car (several at once)
from car to counter in pantry
from bag to shelf
and later
from pantry shelf to kitchen counter
from kitchen counter to trash/recycle bin
from bin to curb
Taking just one of those out is not much benefit, marginally?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why you shouldn’t trust Google Fonts stylesheets - yzzxy
http://blog.williamgoldie.com/why-you-shouldnt-trust-google-font-stylesheets
======
acconrad
Interesting problem, I've been noticing issues lately with delayed font
rendering of both web fonts and font icon sets that are CDN hosted (outside of
Google Fonts). I wonder if this problem is propagated beyond Google Fonts and
is endemic of hosted font libraries in general.
~~~
yzzxy
I believe it is related to the browser handling of local(fontname) tags in the
@font-face. This would explain why Chrome uses the incorrect local version and
firefox uses the correct remote version
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Apple May Brick Jailbroken iPhones - mcknz
http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/handheld/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=226500146
======
brk
This headline is about as well supported by the article as saying "Apple may
buy every jailbroken iPhone owner a steak dinner".
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Is Your Work Meaningful? - maybeiambatman
======
zeug
It depends on the view.
I currently build a "VPS"-Company based on the uberspace model (PAY-WHAT-YOU-
CAN). Version 2 will have the ability to encrypt the hard drive and the RAM
using AMDs Epic platform (SEV).
The "confidential computing" things gives my work the meaning of giving small
users (1VM) the ability to hide there information. As of current knowledge the
SEV feature is secure.
So hopefully it will help users to get cheap and near bare metal security for
there VPS.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Any drug to increase focus? - xcoding
I am unable to focus on a single thing. I am always running from one task to another, wasting valuable time. I have tried many apps, tactics reading books, advice. None is working. I feel like I am getting dumb day by day, an asshole. What do you do maintain focus, or any drug available to increase focus and use brain?
======
inp
First, block all your notifications and display only one window on your
screen. Then, try to focus only 20 minutes on only one task. After that, give
you a break of 10 minutes, check your email, FB, Twitter, etc. And repeat the
process. It takes time, it is not always easy but with perseverance it is
_possible_. When you will be comfortable with 20 minutes of focus, you will
can go to 30, etc. Force yourself and you will be very satisfied with the
result and it will entice you more.
~~~
dvddgld
I strongly suggest trying this in earnest before turning to chemical
solutions, they ALWAYS come with drawbacks. Concentration and productivity is
definitely dependent on habits, skills, and finding what works for you. Also
take care of yourself, these problems often come in combination with poor diet
and a sedentary lifestyle. It takes time, consult your doctor if you end up
requiring chemical assistance.
Best of luck, I hope you're feeling well soon!
------
rcfox
You should consult a psychiatrist about ADD (attention deficit disorder)
diagnostics. Self-medicating is not a good idea.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why Version Control isn’t Package Management – use npm for the frontend - wbinnssmith
https://medium.com/@wbinnssmith/why-version-control-isnt-package-management-a-brief-history-5d40c524ba3e
======
jessaustin
This sounds great...
_...in the next release of npm, npm 3, deduping will be the default during
the install process: modules will be lifted as far up the filesystem as
possible without creating issues between conflicting modules._
To me, what's missing (and maybe this is more of a browserify transform than
an npm thing) is a module that steps through all the _require()_ s and
replaces as many as it can with code to pull resources from cdnjs (or
wherever). Many people wouldn't want to use that, but it would be a good
option for others.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Go Out and Do Nothing - jarederondu
http://blog.jarederondu.com/go-outside-and-do-nothing/
======
jarederondu
thoughts?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Is Artificial Intelligence a Threat? - Thevet
http://chronicle.com/article/Is-Artificial-Intelligence-a/148763/
======
eruditely
I encourage every one to give a close reading to MIRI & Bostrom, and to avoid
any merely shallow critique. They deserve a close reading, and likely have
given it consideration.
For a different perspective from Bostrom's see Land's
[http://www.xenosystems.net/stupid-
monsters/](http://www.xenosystems.net/stupid-monsters/)
------
opless
Of course it is. Though it could be said the same of natural intelligence too.
------
thrill
What Artificial Intelligence?
------
garysvpa
Yes. It is a threat.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Pmarca Guide to Startups, part 2: When the VCs say "no" - staunch
http://blog.pmarca.com/2007/06/the_pmarca_guid_2.html
======
mynameishere
Almost every comment on that guy's blog features somebody kissing his ass.
"Great post, blah, blah". Why do people do that? If you have something
intelligent to add, that's compliment enough.
~~~
gyro_robo
That's a great observation, and I think more people should upmod your comment.
~~~
mynameishere
Hey, who's downmodding this guy? No one has ever said a truer thing!
~~~
joshwa
this isn't reddit. we value signal/noise here, not cleverness.
~~~
gyro_robo
I suggest you re-read the OP.
And it's a pretty ironic thing in a start-up community to say "we don't value
cleverness"!
~~~
joshwa
s/cleverness/jokiness
and I read the OP.
~~~
gyro_robo
The OP _was_ noise. That's the point of my original response.
~~~
joshwa
Sorry, too many levels of meta for me.
~~~
mynameishere
And I was doubling down his irony with my second comment.
------
create_account
Great point about since VCs don't give you an outright "no", you should take
that opportunity to go back to them with a revised idea.
Too many people (me included) tend to never go back.
~~~
donna
Really good point about redefining the pitch and returning based on what they
critiqued.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Sending images through HTML5 websockets in real time - zackify
http://nodehackchat.herokuapp.com
======
DigitalSea
"Authorize NodeHackChat to use your account?"
No. I don't give authorisation to apps that are ambiguous in intent and
purpose. Maybe a little warning instead of straight-up asking for details
would be nice.
~~~
zackify
sorry, it's to prevent spamming but you can just do
[http://www.hacking.technology/?username=test](http://www.hacking.technology/?username=test)
~~~
DigitalSea
Oh, that's fine and understandable. You should just give people a little
warning as I didn't even know what I was clicking on when viewed the site and
it popped up immediately asking for my details is all.
------
peteforde
Maybe give us some basic context before requesting access to my online
identity.
~~~
zackify
sorry, I made a workaround for you guys that don't want to, just do
[http://www.hacking.technology/?username=test](http://www.hacking.technology/?username=test)
------
manish_gill
What is this crap? I'm not giving Twitter authorisation for a random app I
don't even know about.
~~~
zackify
do
[http://www.hacking.technology/?username=test](http://www.hacking.technology/?username=test)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Posmetrics (YC W13) launches to help businesses collect better customer feedback - mlutsky1231
http://blog.ycombinator.com/posmetrics-yc-w13-launches-ipad-based-customer-feedback-solution-for-brick-and-mortar-businesses
======
kapilkale
This looks cool. Is it meant to on a dedicated iPad or in a Square-type POS
flow?
Side note: NPS questions should be on a 10 point scale, and the actual NPS
should be the % of promoters - % of detractors instead of a straight average.
~~~
eschluntz
It's meant to run on a dedicated iPad in a business. Yes, we calculate NPS
from those questions as well as the average response, and use the NPS as the
primary metric to compare between locations and track satisfaction over time.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Apply HN: Webminal – Practise Linux from Your Windows Machine - giis
www.webminal.org<p>We help new Linux users to practice and learn Linux without using any additional software's on their machine.<p>Non-adventurous Windows users want to switch to Linux without leaving their
comfort zone. They like to learn and most importantly practice Linux commands
before deciding to install Virtual machine or real Linux distribution.<p>We served/helped more than 25,000 users to Learn Linux command-line,MySQL and
Sed, Awk using only their browsers.<p>For advanced users, we provide cloud-based platform for very small fee to master
their administration skills.
======
langitbiru
Hi there. You must extend your service beyond practising Linux CLI because
Windows 10 got Ubuntu already built-in. There is no value proposition anymore.
All hope is not lost though.
I see that you already offer learning other stuff like MySQL via browser. But
it needs to have more varieties. Maybe something like practising editing Nginx
config file via browser and seeing the result straight away.
~~~
giis
Thanks for the feedback. Yes, we are also wondering about "Bash on Ubuntu on
Windows" news.
We have provide "Apache Vhosts" configuration via browser along with open-
stack and others ([http://webminal.org/flexi/](http://webminal.org/flexi/)).
We will include Nginx pretty soon. thanks again for valuable comments.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Xorg-free Wayland Live CD that starts directly to Wayland - rohshall
http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/wayland-devel/2013-May/009475.html
======
AlexanderDhoore
I like how the free software community is very loose. Lots of jokes in the
documentation. Python and Norwegian Blue parrots, for example. But naming your
distro Rebecca Black Linux, might undermine credibility just a tiny bit. (But
obviously you aren't hurting anyone, so: nice job on the wayland live cd!)
~~~
anonymous
Isn't her name also copyrighted? I mean, isn't it illegal to call your distro
"Rebecca Black"?
~~~
rcxdude
Not copyright, but possibly trademarked. Even in that case, it only applies to
use in areas in which the mark is already being used. So while it would be
trademark infringement to sell albums under that name, releasing an OS would
be fine unless someone else is also planning on doing the same thing and
applied for a trademark in that area.
------
lvillani
It's interesting to see how Canonical's announcement of Mir seemed to spur new
interest around Wayland and an acceleration of its development, generating a
new wave of announcements (i.e.: Gnome deciding to go "all wayland" by 3.12,
etc).
~~~
Zigurd
That sure seems to have been a kick in the pants. More specifically, it
spurred interest in using the Android HAL in the underpinnings of a Weston
compositor.
Having gotten that kick in the pants, I hope they can all just get along and
resolve resource and schedule issues between two projects that look
functionally identical now.
------
rplacd
> I wrote a new login manager with Bash and Zenity and Expect (and Script)
> that fully runs on a Wayland server (weston).
(!)
------
yeasayer
Downloading 1.7GB from sourceforge is hard. Any chance of torrent?
~~~
PommeDeTerre
I'm curious why it's 1.7 GB in the first place.
It initially sounded like a convenient way to quickly try out Wayland, but
there must be a lot of unnecessary software included with it, thus making it
quite inconvenient to try out.
~~~
n3rdopolis
I do have lots of dev packages and lots of Wayland related software is
installed, like the Wayland version of mplayer and gstreamer, and GTK, and Qt
and SDL.
Lots of people are asking about the 1.7GB, so I brought back my smaller ISO in
my buildscript for the next version, which attempts to remove all dev packages
and some other stuff:
[http://rebeccablackos.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/rebeccablac...](http://rebeccablackos.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/rebeccablackos?view=revision&revision=1266)
------
lifeisstillgood
What is waylands security like cf xorg?
------
phoboslab
So, what exactly is Wayland?
~~~
asperous
_Wayland is intended as a simpler replacement for X, easier to develop and
maintain._ \- <http://wayland.freedesktop.org/>
Currently it's
Display <\- Compositor <\- X11 Client <\- X11 Server <\- App
Wayland:
Display <\- Compositor (Wayland) <\- App
~~~
kawsper
So no more X11 apps over the internet (or network?)
~~~
ihsw
> No, that is outside the scope of Wayland. To support remote rendering you
> need to define a rendering API, which is something I've been very careful to
> avoid doing. The reason Wayland is so simple and feasible at all is that I'm
> sidestepping this big task and pushing it to the clients. It's an
> interesting challenge, a very big task and it's hard to get right, but
> essentially orthogonal to what Wayland tries to achieve.
Source: <http://wayland.freedesktop.org/faq.html#heading_toc_j_8>
~~~
colanderman
_To support remote rendering you need to define a rendering API_
See, this makes no sense to me. The truth of this statement holds if I
substitute s/remote/local/.
The fact is, Wayland manages a shared resource via a well-known API. This is
the very definition of client/server architecture. There's no additional
technical hurdle to be crossed to support network transparency.
~~~
rcxdude
Yes, but the resources it passes around are handles to buffers in memory (as
little copying as possible). Not so trivial to pass around the network (well,
most networks). I suspect a VNC-like approach would work easiest and most
generally, but performance would suffer (though I've found situations where
VNC beats remote X11, even over very low latency connections).
~~~
colanderman
My understanding of OpenGL (which could be wrong) is that buffers are only
transferred when loading textures onto the graphics card, which generally only
happens at startup, and is time-consuming anyway (since they must find their
way from disk to graphics memory).
So memory buffer handles can _still_ be passed around, since clients rarely
touch the raw data. (Indeed, this is exactly how X11 works.)
~~~
wmf
You can send OpenGL over the network, but I suspect sending the rendered
window contents will use less bandwidth. So that's what Wayland is going to
do.
------
mahrain
Works pretty well in VMware Fusion, Kudos!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Apple Is Really Bad at Design - VelNZ
https://theoutline.com/post/2352/apple-is-really-bad-at-design
======
sbuk
Is it meant to be ironic that the website is really badly designed?
------
kanishkdudeja
Can't agree more. Really!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Amazon Is Gobbling Up Failed Malls [video] - NN88
https://www.wsj.com/video/why-amazon-is-gobbling-up-failed-malls/FC3559FE-945E-447C-8837-151C31D69127.html
======
michaelbuckbee
The WSJ video doesn't get into it, but the fall of US Malls has more to do
with changing tax code [1] than with Amazon (though that's still a part). They
were on the way out before Amazon + eCommerce got big.
FWIW - I'm actually from that region of Ohio and think this is a positive
step. There's a lot of other factors that go into this of course (shifting
demographics, overall population drain), but on the whole, this seems
positive.
1 [https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/death-and-
rebirt...](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/death-and-rebirth-
american-mall-180953444/)
~~~
xadhominemx
I've spoken to a number of retail execs and mail owners about this (the
latter, like all real estate investors, are tax experts), and they definitely
think it's mostly about e-commerce
~~~
bobthepanda
Malls are failing largely because anchor tenants are dying.
Sears, JCPenny, and Macy's all had horrible management over the past decade.
And the department stores have faced huge competition for decades, whether
it's Walmart offering cheaper goods or stores like H&M or Sephora that
specialize in a specific category. My experience of department stores have
been of unorganized, more expensive stores with a confusing, mediocre
selection; why would I want to shop there?
On top of all that, America is over-retailed compared to other developed
countries:
[https://amp.businessinsider.com/images/5bb37815ac0a631473519...](https://amp.businessinsider.com/images/5bb37815ac0a6314735194e8-960-758.jpg)
~~~
xadhominemx
Yes as one RE exec likes to say, American retail is under-demolished
------
romwell
Good. As far as I'm concerned, all malls should (and will) die.
They are a scourge. Some hold nostalgic feeling for them because they were the
only thing close to a social hub at the time (whereas malls are one of the
reasons social hubs aren't there in the first place).
Go malls, go. I ain't shedding tears for thee.
After all, I'm in good company. The guy who invented the malls hates them
too[1].
[1][https://qz.com/454214/the-father-of-the-american-shopping-
ma...](https://qz.com/454214/the-father-of-the-american-shopping-mall-hated-
cars-and-suburban-sprawl/)
------
rmason
Sadly this came too late for Detroit's Northland, the first shopping mall in
the country. Because it was built first they guessed at how a mall should
look. They thought it would be important to resupply stores without getting in
the way. So they built this huge basement that allowed dozens of semis to pull
up to loading docks below the stores.
The basement was huge and had Amazon not wanted to use it to unload trucks
they could have had a second warehouse as large as the one above. I remember
thinking at the time this would make an incredible supply depot but Amazon
didn't immediately come to mind.
The mall was torn down and in a twist of fate the land was offered to Amazon
as a possible property for their HQ2 headquarters. My guess is it will end up
as an apartment complex.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northland_Center](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northland_Center)
~~~
ergothus
> the first shopping mall in the country
Northgate Mall in Seattle would dispute that:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northgate_Mall_(Seattle)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northgate_Mall_\(Seattle\))
. Northgate itself is older than Northland, but the claim "Northgate was the
first regional shopping center in the United States to be described as a mall"
is "[citation needed]"
~~~
btgeekboy
It’s also not going to be around much longer in its current form.
------
olivermarks
Great business logic for centralizing and automating retail distribution
centers around existing infrastructure and transportation. The issue is only a
small number of huge malls will be converted and competing small business shop
fronts are being rendered non viable which is creating significant economic
repercussions
~~~
burnte
> The issue is only a small number of huge malls will be converted and
> competing small business shop fronts are being rendered non viable which is
> creating significant economic repercussions
How is turning malls into warehouses affecting small stores?
~~~
olivermarks
centralizing delivery. It's no longer cost effective to go to a store, look
for a product, pay for it and return home when it is cheaper to have it
delivered at a specific time and day in both time and money. Small specialized
businesses can't compete with this to charge the margin they need for rent and
overheads. This is putting lot of shops out of business, redundancies etc
~~~
rossenberg79
Why should we care if they go out of business? If they shutdown and bow out
won’t newer, useful businesses pop up in their place? I see no reason to treat
a small shop like an endangered species that must be preserved. Preserved for
what? Most people won’t go there anymore.
Example: There was a fairly large Mom and a Pop retail store here that
shutdown once Walmart moved in. What opened in its place? A massive rock
climbing facility with 40 foot walls. It has enriched the community and given
people something to do other than just roaming aisles looking for crap to buy
and not talk to each other.
~~~
bognition
The general sentiment is that small businesses are owned and operated by our
neighbors. Part of a healthy society is having a group of people with diverse
backgrounds, interests, and jobs all living together.
Amazon's march towards a global monopoly is partially responsible for
homogenizing our society.
~~~
olivermarks
The essential economic problem is that currently running small retail
businesses isn't viable unless you sell through Amazon's distribution (also
less centralized ebay). This means far fewer retail jobs, empty storefronts
and malls, taxes levied on businesses, gasoline/petrol etc The centralizing of
everything through Amazon is classic monopoly practice. I have a ladder being
delivered by them today I ordered on Friday evening. No one can compete on
price or efficiencies both on their side and from my perspective. I don't want
to drive my truck to buy a ladder. Nothing is stopping this trend form rapidly
increasing across the western world
------
ethagknight
TLDW: Old mall sites are very large, close to population centers, are
typically located on interstates, and have existing large utility connections
and so can be fast-tracked to converted distribution center.
------
chriselles
I remember popping into three Vallco Mall in Cupertino a few times between
2016-2018.
Low occupancy and eventual death.
It was like watching an elephant die in National Geographic documentary, in
slow motion.
The “wrap” fake imagery on walls covering empty stores to make them look
generically occupied were surreal.
Like something out of a North Korean Potemkin Village.
------
mimixco
Fascinating. Amazon is not only eating retail, it's eating logistics like UPS,
cargo airlines, and trucking.
------
Wheaties466
This sounds like a Wendover productions video. Does he work for WSJ now?
------
Maximus9000
That all seems very happy-go-lucky. However, how many malls has amazon put out
of business? How many malls has amazon bought for distribution centers? My
guess is that ratio is not good.
~~~
rapsey
So what? They have become redundant so they are going extinct. Whats the
problem with progress?
~~~
chroem-
I wonder what the post-Bezos future will look like after we have a single
source remaining for all our daily necessities, and Amazon enters a later
stage of its corporate lifecycle and begins to go the way of IBM or GE. If we
replace all other stores with just Amazon, that seems like an enormous risk to
human life if Amazon starts to become mismanaged in the future.
~~~
adventured
We're not replacing all other stores with Amazon. The Amazon-takes-over-retail
fantasy is not going to happen. Their online retail business is now a very
slow growth business. For them to actually take over retail, they'd need to be
seeing high rates of growth year after year for decades yet. At their rate of
deceleration, they'll be at a mid single digits rate of growth within a couple
of years. Their whole business - AWS, devices, online retail, physical retail
- is going to struggle to stay above 10% sales growth in that same timeline as
a matter of fact. The far bigger, more likely risk is that their traditional
online retail business sees a near contraction stall four to five years out.
Walmart is still doing $500 billion in sales by comparison. Unless Amazon
finds a magic way to turbocharge their online growth (1 day shipping isn't
going to cut it), it'll still take 20 to 30 years to just match the size of
Walmart in retail, and that's if everything goes well for Amazon.
What Amazon figured out, is that they can't kill Walmart via online retail
(which is the sole segment that Amazon has any retail dominance). So they're
increasingly exploring physical retail as their only way to grow. Wholefoods
was Amazon being forced to buy their growth, it was a classic sign of a
business that has lost much of its organic growth. Their days of serious
retail growth online are dead.
~~~
olivermarks
Matured rather than 'dead' \- that cycle is now mostly complete
~~~
adventured
Dead was the right term. It refers to the high rate of former growth in their
online retail business. That high rate of growth is dead.
The business is mature. I didn't say the business was dead.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Interactive Vim Tutorial - praveenscience
https://www.openvim.com/
======
MattConfluence
A bit off topic, but I find it amusing that the two top posts on the HN front
page right now are "Open Vim" and "How to Exit Vim".
~~~
mannykannot
And this tutorial follows the convention of not mentioning how to quit vim in
one of its early lessons.
~~~
deanstag
Drug dealers never tell their clients how to wean off their vices. Is that a
crime? :P
------
jasode
The approach this interactive tutorial uses is how I my instructor taught me
vi but I don't think it's the best way because just telling you which keys do
what feels _random_. I learn much more effectively if I understand some of the
"why". My previous comments about learning vi/vim being easier if one gets a
little philosophical background:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21343686](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21343686)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20605840](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20605840)
------
tr1coder
I find vimtutor to be the best source for beginners, at least it was for me.
------
randall
I started learning vim from [https://vim-adventures.com/](https://vim-
adventures.com/) and it has been invaluable.
~~~
simias
I can recommend "Practical Vim" which is a great book.
Regarding vim-adventures, I just gave it a try for the first time and while it
does seem quite fun it puts a massive amount of emphasis on h and l to move
left and right (that's all you start with, and even though you unlock w, e and
b soon enough you can't use them outside of text tiles).
I hardly ever use h and l. There's almost always a better and faster way to
move around, be it w, e, b (and their uppercase variants) or f/t/F/T. I think
the only time I ever use h and l is when I need to move inside a word (fairly
rare), or when I want to do something like "remove the next 4 letters and
insert something instead" in which case I'd do something like c4l. Also
commands that operate on words or look for specific anchor characters compose
much better for . or macros.
~~~
narimiran
> _I can recommend "Practical Vim" which is a great book._
I've read it only recently, after I was already familiar with Vim, and I
cannot recommend it enough!
I had lots of "oh, I had no idea this was possible" moments and it took my Vim
knowledge to the next level where I'm now (even) more productive than before.
Having said that, I'm not sure it is a good introductory resource for somebody
making their first steps in Vim.
------
dreary_dugong
A great concept but frustratingly quick-paced. With each lesson I feel like I
need at extra 5-10 minutes of practice before I move on but it forces me to
after only a few seconds.
~~~
RodgerTheGreat
I agree. I'd vastly prefer having a chance to continue experimenting with each
new command until I choose to advance to the next step.
By just being a text document, _vimtutor_ avoids this problem.
------
Cyph0n
It took me a while, but I finally learned Vim by forcing myself to use it at
work.
A year and a half later, it has taken over my life.
------
bachmeier
I made the decision to start learning Vim yesterday when I found Mastering Vim
and a full Vim course on packtpub.com for $5 each. I've been using Emacs for
years, but it's always helpful to learn a new way to approach problems. Given
how much I do in text editors, the investment is worth it.
Of course the bigger investment by far is the time. It's nonetheless nice to
have access to cheap yet comprehensive learning materials so that it takes
less time to learn.
------
dang
A thread from 2017:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15400037](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15400037)
2013:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5235817](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5235817)
2011:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3190380](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3190380)
------
noobdood
Related:
A vi editor quick-start tutorial:
[https://gumroad.com/l/vi_quick](https://gumroad.com/l/vi_quick) .
I am the author (user vram22 on HN), posting from another phone, with a
throwaway user name.
I first wrote this tutorial for two Windows sysadmin friends who had to handle
some Unix servers. They told me it helped them to learn vi basics and so use
Unix more easily.
------
eoikonomou
These interactive tutorials are the only relatively painless way to learn the
basics of vim.
------
eddhead
I thought I was just kidding when I noticed Vim related articles coming up
over and over, and here's another one.
------
passthejoe
This is a nice way to learn Vim.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Will Google dominate the future? - Tabrd
======
RollAHardSix
Maybe. I actually feel like Google may be losing steam in some areas. They
pushed themselves too wide and it feels like things are suffering. I know they
want everyone to use G+ with their Google Drives and their Gmail accounts but
I personally have never caught on to G+, and only used my Google Drive as last
minute fix. Once I used my Drive I think I may like it more then Dropbox, but
it's really not a large deal to me, especially when so many of my files are
already on Dropbox. Gmail remains something which I use to send a quick email
from, I don't know of anyone who really uses any of the other features (not
that I could tell what they were anyway).
It's hard to say, I am excited for the self-driving car, though I really hope
they would use it as a full-system and transfer it into the various car
manufacturers, similar to an add-on.
It's also important to point out Google always has search too fall back on and
as long as they don't change their webpage too drastically, they are a portal
to the internet.
------
joeldidit
It's not that they are spreading themselves too thin, it's that their products
aren't that great. They keep missing the mark, even when what the product
should be (and what the user wants) is obvious.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Google will soon display your Google+ photo when you call an Android phone - ge0rg
http://www.engadget.com/2013/11/06/google-profile-photos-android-calls/
======
ge0rg
What bothers me most about this is not the caller's privacy (he chose to
upload his photo into a public profile after all), but the called person's.
The called Android phone has to obtain the "correct" photo in some way. The
least horrible implementation I can see for this is a local query to the G+
app installed on the phone, to check if the caller is in your circles.
However, any online photo check, as implied by the article, will send a
caller's phone number to Google, allowing them to collect data about all the
people you receive calls from.
__Update: __the original source [0] writes that G+ is queried both for
incoming _and_ for outgoing calls! Time to call your data protection
commissioner!
[0]
[https://plus.google.com/+AttilaBodis/posts/E6Z77tkr78r](https://plus.google.com/+AttilaBodis/posts/E6Z77tkr78r)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Kitsune: Efficient, General-Purpose Dynamic Software Updating for C [pdf] - georgeorwell
http://www.cs.umd.edu/~jfoster/papers/oopsla12.pdf
======
brooksbp
Seems like more overhead than fork & execv technique.
~~~
ybaumes
I've thought such DSU system for a while, and it came to me that using a
simple fork/exec technique require you to save (or dump) you data somewhere,
before the exec() call. If you do it with a file and your data is huge, your
update is no longer "seamless". :-/
Some research (a while ago) showed me that exec() on Linux call may be
parameterized in order to prevent it to cover data segment (while I am not
100% sure), but then I think it exist only for Linux and is not portable.
------
kevingadd
Seems like a ton of work to get this implemented into an application, and it
also seems error prone (the amount of work they described to get memcached
moved over, for example, sounds like it had lots of room for mistakes). And if
there's anything I don't want to have room for subtle mistakes, it's live-
updating a server or other critical piece of infrastructure.
The approach seems interesting, though, and it's cool to see them demonstrate
that the performance impact is negligible (updates seem to apply very quickly
based on their tests, too). Maybe there's a use case for this where the risk
of mistakes causing failed updates/corruption is low?
~~~
saucetenuto
It'd be incredibly interesting for MUD development, if anyone still did that.
No need to kick everybody out for bug fixes, just post a new build. Actually,
I could see it for any game with a lot of built-in state that's hard to set up
between test runs: Dwarf Fortress, physics engine tuning, that sort of thing.
Make it work on the PS3 and XBox 360 (and with C++!), and you've got the start
of a legitimate middleware company.
Saved in my "in case I ever go back to hacking on Nethack" folder.
~~~
kevingadd
Console vendors will probably never allow this kind of live-patching. Updates
have to go through certification.
For most games I know of that do live updates, they just do it by booting up a
new version of the server and 'switching' people over when they cross
boundaries (most MMOs still have loading screens and server transitions, so
it's not that hard). Client updates are certainly more difficult, but I'm not
sure you'd ever do it - there's no way you're going to get NVIDIA or AMD to
apply this technique to their video drivers, etc.
~~~
saucetenuto
I was thinking of it as a tool for shortening dev cycle time, more than for
patching: a more general, cross-platform version of Edit and Continue. My
mistake; I shouldn't have started with the MUD example, I was just writing out
my thoughts in real time.
------
ybaumes
Where can we find the tool suite (xfgen etc) in order to test it?
~~~
georgeorwell
Send the authors an email.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Timeline of the far future - jonathansizz
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140105-timeline-of-the-far-future
======
mooreds
Was very interesting. Would have been nice to have links for everything--I
didn't understand why the various types of photosynthesis would cease working,
for example.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Facebook’s $3B offer for Snapchat explained in one image - ianthiel
https://medium.com/design-startups/26617f68f215
======
frostmatthew
_When a user shares a photo, or video, with several people, Snapchat counts
each recipient as an upload._
[http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2013/11/19/snapchat-users-
upload...](http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2013/11/19/snapchat-users-upload-more-
photos-than-facebook-not-so-fast/)
~~~
ajiang
Yep, that chart is intentionally misleading. If you counted for Facebook /
Instagram every individual viewer of each photo, I would imagine the scale
dwarfs that of Snapchat.
~~~
ianthiel
As noted in the article linked: "...88% of snaps sent to one recipient."
If the KPCB chart were adjusted such that one send = one upload (certainly a
better measure) I doubt the delta between Snapchat and Instagram changes much.
~~~
ajiang
I disagree. The distribution is likely heavily weighted on the high end. If
the last 5% is on average sent to 20-30 people, that would be 1-2x the amount
of uploads as the 88% sent to a single recipient.
~~~
ianthiel
Fair point. Let's say it's 2x, in which case Snapchat still exceeds Instagram.
I think we're splitting hairs here, I certainly agree that the chart is
misleading in a very real way (primarily due to how Snapchat is reporting
uploads/shares), but the point it asserts is still valid re: Facebook's offer.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Careers for people not going to college, built with Meteor - sdybskiy
https://raiseyourflag.com/
======
zig
For people nearing the end of high-school, please go to college.
I don't have a degree and have been extremely lucky; I managed to get into
middle-management and have been successful.
The problem is that I'm not as "portable" as I would be with a degree - in
other words, a layoff or termination could put my lifestyle in jeopardy. As
such, I am going back to school at 29.
Get it over with :)
~~~
antidamage
I'm 37. At my age a degree is completely irrelevant if you have the skill set.
In fact, ten years ago I was approached by a university to start my Master's
degree, with the missing Bachelor's degree being credited through time spent
working in my industry at the time.
The reality of education in America is that it's an expensive tickbox. It
verges on being a racket. While you don't want to be the lone rebel being
crushed under the wheels of the machine, if you can avoid becoming indentured
to the government with a student loan then do yourself a favour and choose not
to waste money on education you can just teach yourself.
~~~
dtparr
> At my age a degree is completely irrelevant if you have the skill set.
This is a dangerous thing to say without any qualifiers. It depends on the
industry, economic conditions in your area, type/size of company you want to
work for, etc.
I've known a couple individuals who had the skills and 20+ years of experience
who lost jobs at floundering companies and weren't able to find anything
relevant due to a lack of a degree. In both cases, they had a few interviews
that were basically "Wow, you're a great fit experience-wise and it like
you've worked with the same technologies/processes we use here and some we're
hoping to go to. Oh, except we can't hire you for an engineering role unless
you have at least a BS. Would you be interested in an hourly maintenance job?"
~~~
nsxwolf
But that's madness! You'd be great for this job but we can't hire you because
you don't have a piece of paper? How long can these self inflicted meaningless
restrictions continue?
~~~
IkmoIkmo
I agree.
Although sometimes there are legal requirements. Like a lawyer in a law firm,
don't know how it is in the US (probably the same) but here there's no way you
can practice law and represent someone in a court without a master's legal
degree. And starting your own firm requires a degree above that. Although you
can start a legal advisory firm without it.
I appreciate you may still think that legal requirement is madness but I can
imagine there are some jobs where you want a government to accredit a
university's degree, as a form of consumer protection and regulation. For
example say a doctor, or a financial advisor, you may want to have 'audited'
and given some level of quality assurance, which is essentially what
government-accredited degrees aim to prove.
What would be madness is if that same government did not try to accommodate
for people with degree-equivalent experience to get their experiences
accredited with a formal degree at no-cost or low-cost. For example if you're
a self-taught engineer who, due to work experience, could actually finish
engineering courses without going to any classes because of self-education,
then you ought to be able to (after demonstrating said experience) pay for the
mere administrative cost of examination (i.e. $50 per exam) and take all
examinations in a year for less than $1k and get your degree. Without spending
years, going to classes, and paying tens of thousands for teaching you don't
need and won't make use of.
This isn't always easy but separating examination from teaching in schools is
something I think we haven't explored enough. You can do a GED or GMAT without
enrolling in any classes, and just taking exams, and if self-taught or skilled
by experience somehow, then the test is just an accreditation of your skills.
Yet we don't have equivalents for advanced degrees. It's not easy to set this
up of course, but I think we ought to try more. Although for legal professions
it exist, the bar exam afaik doesn't require you to ever have gone to law
school, if you happen to be able to take it due to e.g. working in a legal
office and somehow picking up everything in an assistant role.
------
joshmn
I went to school and dropped out twice — Caltech and Georgetown. I think I
maybe have 20 credit hours under my belt? I don't even know.
I'm now 24. I've done quite okay for myself. On paper, I'm not that appealing
— non-violent/non-drug related felonies, dropped out of two very highly-
regarded schools ("there must be something wrong here"), and some baggage from
when I was a child ("mommy/daddy issues") that still sneak up on me every now
and then, which have just as occasionally impacted my professional life.
But I made it. I'm a rare breed and I'm thankful. If I would have added a
college degree to my life's work, it would be one less strike against me. A
strike that I wouldn't have to prove myself for or against.
My advice: Anyone who is at or nearing the end of their high school career,
please go to college. Two years at a community college, and then two years
wherever you want to go. ~$70k and you're done.
While you're on HN, you're in a social circle of where it's not abnormal for
people to be successful without a college degree. In the real world, however,
this number is much slimmer than it's made out to be here.
That said, don't think that all you need is education either. A diploma is a
piece of paper that shows you followed a curriculum, bought someone a new
Mercedes, and slaved away for countless hours on end. Your battle doesn't end
there — experience in the real world goes a lot further than you think it
does.
~~~
lsc
If you have an opportunity to go to a really top-end school, sure, take it.
That's really valuable. But remember, that's not an opportunity most people
have.
Don't pretend that a degree from the school you see advertised on daytime TV
is the same sort of product.
This, I think, is the "big lie" about college. The idea that a poor person
with a degree from a shitty college is going to have even just the
opportunities that I had[1]... is a lie. There's really no other way to put
it. Sure, if you can get into a really good college and make sure you work
your way into a peer group of successful people? It can be a great leg up.
Hell, if I thought I could get into Stanford, I'd take four years off right
now[2]. But going to the sort of college your average poor person is going to
go to, and being around other people in that same situation isn't going to get
you the opportunities I got for just being born.
[1]to be clear, My parents were pretty solidly middle class, not rich. So am
I. I'm a competent but not great sysadmin/programmer; I didn't go to college,
but I had all of the advantages that your average kid who goes to a mid-level
college would have.
[2]But the sort of mid-level school that would accept a mid-level middle-class
mid-achieving guy like me? Maybe a nice UC? Yeah, four years at your average
mid-level school isn't going to increase my salary any more than four years of
changing my job to focus on the more in-demand bits of my industry. Probably a
lot less, in fact. I mean, it sounds like a lot of fun, but I don't know if
it's half a million bucks in fun.
~~~
joshmn
Incredibly well said.
My parents — probably like yours — are very traditional. And in so, they are
convinced that having that piece of paper means you're +$30k a year from the
start <at least AND no matter what other circumstances _> (_ except outliers).
I STILL hear this all the time... "when I was your age..."
I reply, "yeah well when Barack Obama was your age, he was the first black
President of the United States of America."
When my parents were my age, they could go to school full-time at the
University of Minnesota, have a minimum wage job, and at 16 hours a week they
would be able to afford their education and living expenses.
Those were the days where it made sense to have an education because it was
such a great value at a very affordable price.
BUT. Now, because it's so much easier to get <nearly free money> (a la student
loans), Universities saw this as money in their pocket: Since students are
getting money easier, that means it's easier for them to get an education; now
that there's more money available, let's make more money for ourselves!
It's a terrible fucking system.
------
grardb
I really like this. It reminds me of Mr. Money Mustache's "50 Jobs over
$50,000 - Without a Degree":
[Part 1] [http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/07/25/50-jobs-
over-50000...](http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/07/25/50-jobs-
over-50000-without-a-degree-part-1/)
[Part 2] [http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/08/05/50-jobs-
over-50000...](http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/08/05/50-jobs-
over-50000-without-a-degree-part-2/)
Quick question: How did you get pagination working? I haven't built anything
big in Meteor, but I did go through the Discover Meteor book, and it said that
Meteor doesn't lend itself well to pagination, so that you should use infinite
scrolling. Does pagination break if the database is updated, or is it not
reactive, or am I missing something?
~~~
sdybskiy
I am using Flow Router [https://github.com/kadirahq/flow-
router](https://github.com/kadirahq/flow-router) to route the app. And this is
the package I'm using for pagination
[https://atmospherejs.com/miguelalarcos/flow-router-
paginatio...](https://atmospherejs.com/miguelalarcos/flow-router-pagination).
So far it hasn't let me down (there are a few bugs with the subscriptions on
each individual page) but if you play around with the work style filter you'll
see the collection reactivity and how it's reflected on the subscription and
pagination. Thanks for your feedback! Waiting for Meteor to support pagination
natively.
~~~
grardb
Thanks for the tip! I actually wanted to build something in Meteor a while
ago, but couldn't figure out how to set up pagination (and infinite scrolling
just seemed awkward in that specific case). It's nice to see that there are
ways to get it working.
~~~
sdybskiy
Yeah the speed that Meteor is accelerating at as a framework is amazing to
see, soon enough it will be playing with the big dogs no problem :)
------
ErikRogneby
My quick 2 minute clicking around critique:
1\. No search? A plumber is one one the best paid impossible-to-outsource-
overseas jobs you can get without a college degree. Coming to the site I
immediately wanted to search for it and have that be my point of entry to
discovering how the site works. A known reference point. I had no desire to
fiddle with those sliders.
2\. Union jobs, a.k.a. "the trades". Not college but they have a clear
progression and pay is fairly well documented. (a filter for union?)
3\. pay is regional. Union jobs for example pay different depending on
location. (see #2)
4\. on the career path view make the breadcrumb dots clickable.
[https://raiseyourflag.com/career-path/virtual-
assistant/virt...](https://raiseyourflag.com/career-path/virtual-
assistant/virtual-assistant) \- text is clickable, so should be the dots on
the line above.
~~~
chinpunkanpun
Founder or Raise Your Flag here. Thanks for the feedback. (#1-3) Completely
agree. Trades are missing from the site and are much needed. One reason we
started with the paths that we started with is simply because there was no
blueprint for those paths. Trades are understood and (at least here in Canada)
get a ton of support from the government and push within the school system. We
will be adding them very soon.
#4. Agreed. This will be fixed ASAP. Thanks!
------
multiplegeorges
Nice looking site.
What did doing this in Meteor get you? Why did you go with a framework that
focuses primarily on real-time interactions/data streaming?
It seems to me this could easily be a Rails app with some simple Angular
components for the Filter Career Paths bit. But, perhaps this betrays my
ignorance of the versatility of Meteor...
~~~
sdybskiy
Thanks for the feedback! Me being a 21 year old developer who didn't have his
hands in the mud when all the big guys were in play (Rails, Django, etc), I
went for a new framework like Meteor to see where my self-learning abilities
can benefit me. So far it's been great in terms of the speed we can develop at
and the transparency between front end and back-end (no missed import calls
anywhere to crash the app). Meteor, to early adopters, and people who haven't
played around with it too much, who also have a rich background in other
frameworks, might seem like not the go-to but for us it's been great so far.
~~~
multiplegeorges
Cool, thanks for the background. Good luck with the site.
------
valgaze
Sidestepping the merits of the go/no-go college discussion-- there are a lot
of nice touches.
Check out the translate button: English -> French:
[http://imgur.com/a/N4U9t](http://imgur.com/a/N4U9t)
At first I wondered why there was French but then I saw Toronto =)
------
neovive
Very nice! Coincidently, I've been researching Meteor this past week for a new
website as an alternative to my current Laravel stack. Meteor is very exciting
and I'm drawn to the Isomorphic JS concept. However, I decided to hold off for
now after learning more about the issues with search engine crawling, large
initial downloads and difficulty in deployment. Most of these concerns are on
the Meteor roadmap, so I am eagerly awaiting future updates.
Meteor is definitely enticing, with it's upcoming Galaxy deployment tool and
React/Angular support. It's a very exciting, albeit, fast-faced time for
webdev.
------
hitekker
One of those ideas, which if not executed well, could be misleading and/or
condescending. I was pleasantly surprised.
Also very happy to see that it was not filled with Software based jobs.
------
markdown
I had to close the tab as i couldn't scroll. Fuck new tech that doesn't work.
------
trymas
TL;DR: university gave to me (and to my friends who have degrees) wider
interest field, with skills to absorb information about new topics. In my own
experience usually drop-outs and people who've did not attend college, have
shallower and narrower interest fields.
IMHO, college/university degree is worth it (coming from Europe where
education is way cheaper than in US), in regards you will also broaden your
skill-set while attending school. Though, if you seek academical career 'real
life' skill-set is somewhat less important.
Maybe it's just me and my social circles, but usually I can find out if
someone has attended college or not (or just skimmed through classes), just by
talking with them.
For reference, I had few colleagues who did their job well, though where
completely clueless out of their job requirements range. They have not
attended college, or dropped out very early. They had narrower and way
shallower interest fields than people I know with degrees.
I want to stress that it's experience from my own social circles and I am not
talking about exceptional cases (there are geniuses drop outs and geniuses
with PhDs)
~~~
joshmn
> For reference, I had few colleagues who did their job well, though where
> completely clueless out of their job requirements range. They have not
> attended college, or dropped out very early. They had narrower and way
> shallower interest fields than people I know with degrees.
Were they engineers? :)
------
thegreatpeter
It's not working right now but I think it's a fantastic idea. I don't think a
college education will matter as much as it used to in the computing world. I
know several successful people without a CS degree (myself included) or a
degree period and they are doing fine.
------
animefan
My undergraduate degree was math. Looking back, I find it really hard to
imagine how I could have learnt all that without going to college. I just
don't think it's possible to recreate that combination of extrinsic motivation
and interactive learning. _maybe_ moocs can do this but I suspect they fall
short on both accounts.
Now I'm able to learn more independently (e.g. type theory and HoTT) but it's
still very difficult and I don't think I could do it without my undergraduate
and higher degrees.
I see a lot of posts on hn asking the lines of "how can I learn X on my own".
Without at least some formal education in college math or cs, I suspect the
answer may be "it's not possible "
------
Pharaoh2
Is the scrolling lag because of MeteorJS or is that the dev's fault?
~~~
skylark
The scroll lag is primarily caused by the top navigation bar's fade-on-scroll
effect and the large background image. Remove both of those and the scroll lag
disappears.
~~~
sdybskiy
Thanks for the feedback. Background image is now at ~300kb. is it still
occurring if you refresh?
------
YogeeKnows
I'm working on my meteor app too. Where are you hosting it? Can you provide
more details on the deployment and how much monthly this costs you to keep it
running?
~~~
sdybskiy
We are hosting on Modulus. When you sign up, you get a $15 credit which can
last you the first month but it all depends on how many servos you need to
scale your app. Other great places to host is Heroku. Modulus was a lot easier
to set up since it supports Meteor apps out of the box.
------
luisivan
Amazing, I love these kind of initiatives. It was the missing step to fix some
insecurities when taking your own way and not getting a diploma
------
midniteslayr
As a self-taught developer who has had serious success without a college
degree, I'm curious. But, why are there only Canadian companies?
~~~
cryptojuice
Also a self-taught developer here. I'm not sure how old you are, but do you
worry about how not having a degree might affect your chances of finding work
later in your career?
~~~
profinger
I always assumed that experience outweighed degrees at a certain point. At
say, 40, what would a degree from 15 years ago matter?
~~~
hueving
Checkbox matching in HR processes.
------
colemorrison
Aside from the usual flame of whether or not to go to college, this is HIGHLY
impressive in design and function. It's also an amazing idea.
Good job OP!
------
stephen-mw
From time to time I think about university apart from academics. I went to a
state school and left w/ around $15k in student loan debt, but made some of
the best memories of my life.
Those are the kinds of experiences money can never buy you again. No sports
car later in life will ever bring you that kind of fulfillment.
------
TYPE_FASTER
One of the careers listed is Boat Captain. I used to have my captain's
license. You can totally do it, and travel the world driving wealthy people
around, without a degree.
Another way to get into that profession is to go to a university with a top
ranked racing team, and be a professional skipper after you graduate.
------
gregjwild
IMO, just do whatever is right for you. Nobody should be held back from
pursuing academic interests. Just like nobody should be held back from
learning on the job.
The only thing that we should warn people away from is doing _nothing_. You've
got one life, just live it!
------
alex_g
Why limit it to careers for people not going to college? What is the benefit
of that over, say, having all type of careers whether a degree is necessary or
not? It seems like a really well organized product you have, but you are
limiting its potential.
------
ghughes
This is excellent. I'd love to see something like this for college degrees
too.
------
srehnborg
Great interface! Very clean and I like the career path aspect to it.
------
Asparagirl
Beautiful design. Clean, friendly colors, easy to read. Nice job!
------
sebkomianos
I like the filtering approach - quite unique criteria, compared to what
"similar" job-catalogue websites are offering.
Well done, overall! :)
------
mkoryak
why is "lead android developer" the only software related career path?
what happened to just "software engineer" ?
~~~
imslavko
I think a lot of career paths on the site are showing the ultimate goal, and
then a "path" to it, the career ladder.
------
obblekk
where do people get that kind of styling for buttons? i certainly can't find
it in bootstrap
~~~
sdybskiy
I used some custom css for those
~~~
obblekk
well done. looks really slick.
------
_djhrtmn
I clicked through a few careers, tried to get back to HN, back button didn't
work.
------
superuser2
If ever there was a headline designed for HN, this is it.
------
vehementi
App borken?
~~~
sdybskiy
Nope, might have been pushing updates. Check now!
------
sbuttgereit
I'm seeing huge amounts of commentary about going to college or not. Here's my
take and experience for what it's worth, as well as a general response to some
of the comments I'm seeing.
1) There is no one size fits all answer to the question is college worth it.
Depending on what career you intend to pursue it could be required (i.e. try
being a medical doctor without a degree) or silly (music composition degree
for a non-academic role).
2) Most HR recruiters and certain 'this-is-what-all-the-other-managers-do'
hiring manager types do care about the degree. Without it you will not be
likely to get in the door. However, consider if these are the kinds of people
you want to work for/with. The other type of hiring professional where the
degree matters is the manager that wants 'only people from Stanford (Columbia,
Harvard, etc)' or 'only Ivy League'... then the degree only matters if it's
from one of those (obviously).
3) Be honest with yourself. We are not equal all equal and facing reality will
help you better make choices. If you are brighter, more intelligent, better
skilled, more highly productive, and better with self-promotion than the
majority of people you know/encounter the college degree (and expense thereof)
will often times not be worth it. There are other more effective ways to prove
your worth. If you are much more average compared to your competitors, or less
interested in proving your worth in terms of career, then the degree will open
options that aren't readily open to your more marketable peers; however you
will also be competing with a greater number of people in the same boat. Being
average or not career driven doesn't make you bad, it's just a consideration.
4) Any job you get you will be competing with others. That competition will be
more important than the degree once you're inside. A degree can get you in
some doors, but once you're in it will be all about performance. If it's not,
you may want to question organizational effectiveness in the business. As your
career progresses, the degree will matter less and less and
experience/achievement more and more.
5) A good job is one that you enjoy doing and that pays for your desired
lifestyle. It's not what your parents wanted you to do or society for that
matter. And not all of them require degrees. Not all of them are behind a
keyboard or a suitable for telecommuting. raiseyourflag.com looks young, but
has some interesting ideas in regard to careers. But there are others touting
([http://profoundlydisconnected.com/](http://profoundlydisconnected.com/))
that there are good jobs with good pay that society (stupidly) tends to look
down on. Don't let the opinion of others determine your course of action.
As for me... I have no degree. Despite that, I've managed to be in fairly
senior information technology management positions throughout much of my
career. I've been a consultant in the professional services group of business
systems company and for the past several years I've run my own tiny boutique
consultancy with clients ranging from M&A/Finance to frozen meat distribution
to mobile app start-ups. More recently I've been doing much more hands-on
software development work and enjoying the change. I tend to make as much or
more money than the majority of my fully credentialed peers. I'm mid-40s and,
true, I do have some college (music composition focused), but the lack of a
degree has not stopped me from achieving what I want in career. Anyway, my two
bits.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Warning Signs in Experimental Design and Interpretation - wamatt
http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html
======
tokenadult
As anyone who reads my comments regularly knows, this is by far my favorite
link to share in a Hacker News comment. Yes,
<http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html>
is good stuff, very helpful for evaluating hundreds of other submissions to
Hacker News, and it's written by a LISP hacker (now director of research at
Google), so what's not to like?
~~~
wamatt
Yeah, can't remember but I might have browsed from one of your comments
earlier. (lost in a sea of open browser tabs now) :)
_Useful_ info (assuming one's utility function relates to acquiring more
accurate beliefs), I had hoped other hackers might enjoy. Pity, as it seems to
have missed the main page.
Many of us have probably made one or two similar arguments against "new paper
_proves_ xyz" overstated claims. But a large collection of these red flags,
with historical examples to boot, in one document, is simply fantastic.
Thanks for sharing
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Weekly Spotify playlists to discover new music from different labels - vierj
http://lbld.it
======
vierj
Discover new music from a different independent label every week. Delivered to
your inbox and updated on Spotify every Wednesday at 8am (BST). Perfect music
to listen to while coding!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What are the manual tasks that you do daily in AWS - mani-smhack
Scheduled EC2 Start and Stop , S3 Analyzing<p>Suggest some of the devops tool that will also reduce the manual task .
======
mattbillenstein
Almost nothing -- if you're doing daily tasks, you're leaving a lot of
automation on the table.
I would cleanup old backups and whatnot every month or three, but for the most
part, I had a very set it and forget it setup.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Can you deliver value faster using Ruby or .NET? - Donmario
I have two different teams in my organization, one works with Ruby and the other with .NET. We need to switch one of them to Ruby or to .NET. How can we compare which technology is a better, faster choice for delivering value in the long term?
======
gtsteve
Is this a SaaS company, a company that delivers applications for clients, a
development team in a non-software company?
Both languages have a rich development ecosystem, but I would vote for .NET on
the basis that C#, the most common .NET language is statically typed. This is
a significant productivity boost for developers, as the integrity of your
program is checked at compile-time as opposed to run-time.
Source:
[http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/10032/dynamic...](http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/10032/dynamically-
vs-statically-typed-languages-studies)
You can also theoretically reuse any existing Ruby libraries with IronRuby but
I don't know how good that is because I've never done it.
There are licensing costs with .NET but these are usually not significant if
the company is well-established. Considering your company can apparently
afford two teams that would appear to be the case.
Note: I have been a .NET developer for the last 6 years, and while I have used
Ruby on Rails and Chef a fair bit, I may have missed some important features
of Ruby. I'd love to know if there are any killer features that I have
overlooked.
~~~
Donmario
Thanks gtsteve.
It's a company that delivers applications for clients.
------
tboyd47
Just curious -- why is it not possible to use both?
~~~
Donmario
Actually both team are not split into technology stacks, but rather
interdisciplinary teams like one for Marketing and the other one for Sales.
Each of them building some different functionality in Ruby and .NET. In each
team there is like 1 .NET developer and Ruby dev, and this causes an issue
when someone wants to go on holiday, as the team practically stops
development.
Unifying technology eliminates or reduces that risk.
~~~
brudgers
Mitigating risks is more a matter of reducing costs than delivering value. I
mean customers don't care when your employees take vacation and in many cases
might not care whether your app uses Ruby or .NET or Cobol.
If the goal is to determine which delivers more value, then the place to start
is by measuring value...and that means deciding what constitutes value and
building systems to measure it. But really, this seems like a cultural
decision and while cultural decisions can create and destroy value within a
company they don't deliver it to customers. Even worse, they are hard and
don't have a right answer and if you get it wrong good people leave and if you
get it really wrong it's hard to hire good people to replace them. Even
getting it right means that good people might leave.
And people might not leave for the first order reasons. A Rubyist might leave
because a .NET developer left because the choice was Ruby and that didn't sit
right with the Ruby developer.
Anyway, if people going on holiday is a staffing problem then the problem is
not enough staff or adequate management planning. It is not Ruby versus .NET:
it is a management problem.
Good luck.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Wt, C++ Web Toolkit - jacquesm
http://www.webtoolkit.eu/wt
======
z8000
I tried the WSound demo at the exact same time my UPS lost power and started
beeping. I nearly spit my drink out! How did they do that?! Then reality
settled back in and I thought myself an idiot.
------
dasil003
Only one vote after an hour? Is it the C++ devs that don't like web
development or the web devs that don't like C++?
~~~
amock
Maybe there just isn't anything particularly interesting about this framework.
I looked at it and it doesn't seem to offer anything that other frameworks
don't except possibly ease of deployment on embedded systems, but on an
embedded system it might be better to just not use a framework at all.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Front-end or Python back-end jobs in Berlin - dw0rm
Dear fellows. I'm 27 years old having a good experience in either Python or front-end development (there is a link to my resume in profile). I mostly do contract/freelance work and run two local websites in Veliky Novgorod, Russia: http://cafe.nov.ru/ and http://gradoskop.ru/ but suddenly it started feeling kinda tough here, so I'm considering an attempt to relocate my family to a different place of the World. Berlin seems very nice to me, I was there last year and I'm going there in the end of September.<p>Can you suggest any job boards or perhaps recently opened vacancies worth being considered?
======
Vilvaram1
<http://berlinstartupjobs.com/>
~~~
dw0rm
Great link. Thanks for the info.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Java 7 Features Backported to Android - yareally
https://github.com/yareally/Java7-on-Android
======
luke_s
Since you have to read a long way through the FAQ to find out, here are the
answers to the two most important questions I had:
Q) So what works from Java 7?
A) All the syntatic sugar stuff and also "try with resources." (see below)
1) String Switches
2) Try with resources (a.k.a "using/with", auto close)
3) Multiple exception caught in one catch block
4) Integer (and binary) literals for readability (e.g. 100_000_000 or 20_000 or 0b0111_0000)
5) Type inference on collections (a.k.a. "diamonds")
Q) What doesn't work?
1) java.nio.*
2) threading and multiple processor enhancements (fork/join)
3) File change notifications (watch/notify file api stuff)
4) invokedynamic
Its unfortunate that google haven't worked to bring more modern java language
features to Android, although I imagine that the Android group has been kept
rather busy with other things. Still, Google io is coming, with what is sure
to be a slew of new product and feature announcements, so one can hope ...
~~~
yareally
Sorry about burying the most important questions. I moved them to the top of
the FAQ now :)
I really wish Google would just make amends with the Apache Foundation and
work with them on improving OpenJDK. It would be so much better for both (and
us developers) if they did.
All the unimplemented stuff falls under more than a weekend project and not
sure how nice some of it would play with Android's APIs and Dalvik. The only
thing I would really love to see outside of what was able to easily get
working is Lambdas.
~~~
luke_s
I was following the goings on between the ASF and Sun/Oracle a while back, but
I was un-aware that ASF and google also had problems! What was the nature of
their disagreement?
I think lambdas is the one killer feature I would love to see in Android/Java
- particularly for a framework such as Androids which is so callback heavy,
lambdas would be an immense help.
~~~
yareally
I tried once more to get lambdas working, but at this point, I'm not sure if
it's a bug in the JDK as it's still in beta or if it's Android.
Log though for anyone who's less tired and curious:
<https://gist.github.com/b0d095fbd1ccd4b28fe8>
~~~
spullara
Lambdas are in JDK 8 while Android supports JDK 6. This adds support for some
of the features of JDK 7. That said, you could backport Lambda to JDK 6...
~~~
yareally
I'm sure they can be. I'm just at a dead end for the evening and way past the
time I should be programming (I was the submitter/author of the OP), thanks
though for the encouragement :)
I was just going off the educated guess (without digging through the jdk8
source) that lambdas, like most other syntax features on Java, are just
syntactical sugar that does not modify the underlying bytecode since jdk6 and
so does not require significant code changes to get it working. Though of
course I could be wrong, but I'll deal with that later on in the week.
~~~
spullara
JDK 8 implements lambda using features in JDK 7 like Invokedynamic. However,
they could be implemented as syntactic sugar on top of anonymous inner classes
— they just wouldn't be as efficient.
------
pjmlp
Nice work.
I am starting to think Google will leave Java language support at Java 6
level, or eventually offer full native support, instead of the half solution
that the NDK currently offers.
Looking forward to this year's Google IO to see if there will be any change at
that level.
~~~
koko775
It's not impossible for Google to work out a licensing deal with Oracle, but
I'd just as soon expect them to come up with their own LLVM-based language
implementation or announce LLVM support for one they've already developed,
given that they added Clang (and thus, LLVM) support to NDKv8 in November
2012.
~~~
neeee
I'd love seeing decent support for Go on Android.
~~~
pjmlp
<http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=39482>
------
drorweiss
Well done!
On a related note - is using Scala also a viable option for android? Anybody
tried?
~~~
koko775
Sort of. It has issues with ProGuard, but the Scala standard library is a
couple of megabytes, so you'll be adding some size to your application, or
you'll have to _very_ carefully test and configure.
Additionally, Dalvik didn't have JIT until late in its maturity, so besides
the normal slowdown from Java->Scala, expect it to slow down further by the
less-efficient VM.
It might be viable on newer devices, but it'll definitely have problems on
older ones. Other than that, it does seem very feasible to write and deploy a
Scala Android app.
~~~
happy_dino
There are pretty much no issues using Scala on Android. After running
ProGuard, the Scala library takes up a few dozen kilobytes.
Execution is as fast as Java. I remember running my Scala app on one of the
first tablets (Android 2.x) without issues.
The build system support is impressive and there is a whole community which
focuses on Scala running on Android.
~~~
mhaymo
Have you built a substantial application using Scala on Android? Bump uses
Scala, and they had to do a lot of messing with build processes, and they
ended up using Java for performance in places as well. I can't find the talk
right now, but here's the slides:
[http://www.slideshare.net/michael.galpin/scala-on-android-
ex...](http://www.slideshare.net/michael.galpin/scala-on-android-experiences-
at-bump-technologies)
~~~
happy_dino
Facebook didn't use Scala and they managed do hit a lot of same issues, too,
like this one: <http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=22586>
Anyway, the presentation is almost two years old now.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Cars Uber Shows You Before You Hail a Ride Are Bogus - edward
http://sfist.com/2015/07/29/the_cars_uber_shows_you_before_you.php
======
sctb
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9958852](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9958852)
------
akash_m
Uber clarified: [http://money.cnn.com/2015/07/29/technology/uber-phantom-
driv...](http://money.cnn.com/2015/07/29/technology/uber-phantom-
drivers/index.html)
------
kubiiii
Theres a flying toaster every corner!
------
x0x0
Huh, that makes a lot of sense. I get an uber at the same corner in soma every
week, and it always seems like an uber is _right there_ but it isn't the one
that I get. I always assumed they were caught up in traffic and couldn't get
to the corner in time or there was lag from the drivers' phones to uber's
servers to my phone.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Music and Machine Learning - zappau
http://ai.sensilab.monash.edu/2018/08/23/Neural-Music/
======
fenomas
> The music generated by wavenet clearly sounds like a piano, but lacks
> compositional structure that most people might be able to follow. I suspect
> a significant architectural change will be needed for music for reasons
> discussed in this article.
As someone who's worked a lot on procedural music, I think this is definitely
true. I'm always surprised to see ML-based approaches where someone has just
trained a system on a bunch of songs, and then hopes the system will produce
music with a recognizable structure - even though all the training songs will
have had (in general) different chord progressions, different numbers of
voices or melodic lines at any given time, etc. Such approaches strike me as
akin to training a system on a bunch of short stories and then hoping it will
produce a new story with a recognizable plot.
It seems like it would make a lot more sense to remove these hidden
dimensionalities, e.g. by annotating the source data with chord or structural
information, or by training on lots of different melodies that all share the
same chord progression, etc. But it's hard to imagine that with enough layers
the network will eventually grok all these hidden details.
~~~
lwansbrough
I believe the first company to create a very successful cloud based DAW will
have the greatest opportunity to vacuum up this data. If producers were
pushing real original music source data into your neural network, you
basically eliminate the need to do any sort of waveform analysis. Everything
turns into discrete numbers, which neural networks are really good at managing
vs. the destructive noise of common music files. (120BPM music could
conceivably be 2 inputs per second vs. 44100)
Edit: As a matter of fact, you don't even need a whole DAW, really. You just
need to be able to read existing DAW files and give users a reason to upload
them.
~~~
jerrre
I think a lot of DAW work is still done with wave-data not note data...
~~~
igotsideas
Are you talking about the creation of Music or gathering the data of the Music
for ML purposes?
------
8bitsrule
This is a set of valuable, experienced reflections on the task anyone faces
who wants to make music (let alone get a machine to do it).
Much to digest here, but I especially like this thought: "There are no words
in music." A whole lot of people think that music is nothing more than a
carrier they have to modulate with some important message.
------
bhrgunatha
Enjoyed the article very much, especially the part about music not being a
language and the dive into syntax and semantics, but this...
> The only way to recognise which pop song (from one popular training set)
> this score comes from is the lyrics. The melodic line has little similarity
> to the original recording.
...strikes me as plain nonsense. I can play that line on my guitar or keyboard
and know immediately which tune it is even without the lyrics.
Am I misunderstanding something?
~~~
tommymachine
The notes / rhythm in the particular score aren't accurate to the recording,
except for the lyrics. Supposing if you played it as written there, it
wouldn't be so recognizable. Personally, I don't much fancy calling something
so inaccurate a 'score'. More like, a 'rough suggestion' or something. A score
is supposed to be like a thing that someone like Hans Zimmer would write for
an orchestra. Pop songs typically don't have scores involved in their
production anyways, which may be partially responsible for the inaccuracy. But
the real responsible party is the person who transcribed it wrong!
~~~
sacado2
Well, take any jazz standard. As you say, scores in jazz are at most a rough
guide, not transcription of how the music should be played. Yet, if you take a
score and make a MIDI player play it as it is written, any jazz fan will
recognize the tune instantly.
For instance, take
[http://i17.tinypic.com/4uneoft.jpg](http://i17.tinypic.com/4uneoft.jpg)
Remove the title, add a mistake or two in the score, and give it to some jazz
fan who can read music, he'll recognize the tune instantly, yet nobody ever
played it this way, so blandly.
~~~
tommymachine
They'll recognize the chords instantly, without even having to glance at the
printed notes. In practice, these things are usually called "charts" or lead
sheets (if they have a melody) because they chart out the changes, which you
solo over. They usually are found in "fake books", where it's assumed that the
melody transcription is relatively awful, but it's close enough that a decent
musician can quickly figure out the actual tune from it (assuming they've
heard it before).
You'll almost never hear any seasoned jazz players refer to a chart like this
as a "score", unless they have a very very classical background, or are sort
of making a joke about the quality of a particular lead sheet. Scores are for
orchestras and films and things like that. It's strange to see people keep
referring to these sh*tty transcriptions as 'scores'.
It's like calling Kraft Mac 'n' cheese "pasta". Like, ok maybe technically it
could qualify as a pasta, but you don't really refer to it as that in
practice.
------
montalbano
> Music is not a language
I think almost anyone who's spent significant time jamming/improvising with
other musicians will disagree.
The statement is an oversimplification. It is an oversimplification that may
be necessary for music to become tractable to machine learning algorithms, but
it does more to highlight the limitations of current understanding of AI than
anything else.
Otherwise a very interesting read!
------
toolslive
> Most people can’t tell you why they like the music that they like. Not with
> enough resolution to accurately predict their preference for new tracks
Won't most people will be able to tell you with good resolution why they don't
like the music they don't like?
~~~
nerdponx
Sometimes. They might be able to identify which aspect of the music they don't
like, but I don't know if they are able to explain "why" they don't like it.
But I feel the same is true on the positive side. Maybe it's worth trying to
figure out what part of the music people like ("John Denver has a great
voice"), rather than some nebulous reason why they like it.
------
okonomi
Not machine learning but this is an extremely cool generative approach for
emulating sounds on a synthesizer
[https://fo.am/midimutant/](https://fo.am/midimutant/)
------
BillBohan
These are some interesting observations regarding music and machine learning.
It has been my experience that the majority of the output of ML music
generators falls into the category I would classify as noise.
I briefly experimented with procedural music generation many years ago and
will relate my experience in the hope that some may find it interesting or
take inspiration from it.
I had read the Byte magazine article called "A Travesty Generator for Micros."
which works with text files and realized that Markov chains could be applied
either to whole word or individual letters. Sufficiently long chains of
letters almost always produce actual words. Sufficiently long chains of words
generally produce complete (although nonsensical) sentences. Excessively long
chains copy the input to the output. See [1] and [2]
At the time I was playing LOTRO [3][4] which uses ABC files [5] which are a
text representation of music. I used the .abc files as input to the travesty
program and got very interesting output. I used the rescan method which reads
the input file for each note to output. It is slow but uses far less memory
than the array method which reads the input once and generates a complete
table of all transitions.
Running travesty on a single .abc file produces an output which is very
similar to the input and only mildly interesting. Chaining together 2 or more
input files is when it gets more interesting. It did not work well unless the
input files had the same key signature.
I considered the possibility of transposing all input files to a common key
signature but did not implement it. Nearly all music representation is an
abstraction of the music. Music is generally quantized into notes of the even
tempered 12 note scale. The tune is recognizable regardless of the instrument
it is played on. I wondered whether there were further abstractions which
could be used similar to the way that either letters or words could be used
for text but am not sufficiently musical that I could discover them.
If you try this I think you will quickly get results which encourage you to
continue.
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parody_generator](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parody_generator)
[2] [http://runme.org/project/+travesty/](http://runme.org/project/+travesty/)
[3]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings_Online](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings_Online)
[4] [http://www.lotro.com/en](http://www.lotro.com/en)?
[5] [http://abcnotation.com/](http://abcnotation.com/)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Imsai 8080 Computer (2004) - webdva
http://oldcomputers.net/imsai8080.html
======
carlos
I bought an Imsai8080 replica from
[https://thehighnibble.com/imsai8080/](https://thehighnibble.com/imsai8080/) I
had a really nice time building the kit, toggle switches and display leds look
exactly like original ones. Internally is an emulation of the IMSAI 8080 based
on the ESP32 microcontroller
~~~
wazoox
You may also find a more faithful replica of the Altair 8800 here
[https://altairclone.com/](https://altairclone.com/) though admittedly the
IMSAI with its big coloured toggles is much more eye-catching.
~~~
tyingq
Less faithful replica of the Altair, but much more affordable:
[https://www.adwaterandstir.com/altair/](https://www.adwaterandstir.com/altair/)
There's also a very affordable (< $100, including the needed Arduino DUE)
workalike that pops up on eBay every now and again...I bought one:
[https://imgur.com/a/qntqSMG](https://imgur.com/a/qntqSMG)
------
jdsully
I have one of these, got it after landing my first big tech job. I learned to
program on an emulator of these 8-bit computers so it meant a lot to finally
get a real one.
Most people search for high level languages when learning programming. My
brain worked different - I wanted to boil the complexity away and learn the
fundamentals. These 8 bit machines were the simplest computers I could find to
achieve that.
The joke was on me though, mine had been upgraded to a Z80 card (yay!) that
unfortunately no longer worked with the front panel (boo!).
~~~
antonvs
> I wanted to boil the complexity away and learn the fundamentals.
Ah, presumably you mean the lambda calculus.
~~~
jdsully
If only lambda calculus had big colourful switches and blinken lights.
------
hvs
Ah, the computer from "Wargames".
[https://www.imsai.net/movies/wargames.htm](https://www.imsai.net/movies/wargames.htm)
------
imglorp
Look at that rectified power supply. The transformer is enormous, guessing
about 15 kg, and the filter caps could shock an elephant. The ripple noise
would have irritated open collector logic.
~~~
tyingq
I assume that's the reason for the 2 giant capacitors.
The whole unit weighs 40lbs (~18kg). The default power supply output 380
watts, and there was an optional larger one with 480.
[https://www.hartetechnologies.com/manuals/IMSAI/8080%20Syste...](https://www.hartetechnologies.com/manuals/IMSAI/8080%20System.pdf)
------
jmount
My father purchased and built one of the originals as a kit. There was a
program that played "flight of the bumble bee" on radio using radio leakage on
the S100 bus.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How did your first paycheck from your business affect you? - timjahn
http://timjahn.com/first-paycheck.html
======
OafTobark
I guess I'm not that sentimental (probably not the right word) on these
things... My first paycheck was... meh, follow by <going in the bank>. That
was more than 15 years ago if you count my first business ever. Wasn't even a
thought much less an impression.
~~~
timjahn
Maybe I'm TOO sentimental. :)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Apple or Google? - rainmaker23
http://www.forbes.com/sites/panosmourdoukoutas/2012/10/02/apple-or-google/
======
michaelpinto
"Apple is spending too much time fighting legal battles instead of market
battles" ...all of which are proxy battles with Google.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
5 Reasons I Stayed Away from JavaScript - eliottenos
https://javascript.works-hub.com/blog/5-Reasons-I-Stayed-Away-from-JavaScript?utm_source=Hacker%20News&utm_medium=Content&utm_campaign=Eliott
======
davidjnelson
Doing logic in a constructor is trouble in any language. Also, typescript and
to a lesser extent flow are even nicer than vanilla es6.
~~~
aisofteng
>Doing logic in a constructor is trouble in any language.
This remark is often made, as is the similar comment that throwing exceptions
from a constructor is an antipattern. However, it's often said without saying
why it should be the case, and I get the feeling that sometimes it is parroted
without understanding. (OP: this is a general comment that is not directed at
you). For that reason, it took me a while to figure out the motivation for the
idea through experience (read: making mistakes and realizing them in
retrospect).
So, why is it bad to have logic in a constructor, or have a constructor that
can throw an exception?
There is nothing, necessarily, inherently wrong with doing so, at the level of
the specific object; the concern is at a higher level. The idea is, rather,
that doing so is an indicator of more widespread design problems in the
overall application. Let's look at an example.
Suppose that I have an object that is supposed to serve as a container for
data that is retrieved from a database - a User object, perhaps, which is
supposed to hold, say, a user's username, GitHub profile link, and other such
things. Suppose that I define my User class so that its constructor queries my
database for the its data and throws a SQLException if the query fails.
A fundamental principle of good software design is that of decoupling.
Decoupling essentially refers to the idea says that a component of a system
should not know more than it needs to know in order fulfill its role, nor
interact with more components of the system than it absolutely needs to.
If our object is supposed to hold data that is needed by other parts of the
application, it should not matter to it where the data comes from or how it
gets there; that is, if I have a User class that can throw a SQLException
while being constructed, then the User class simply knows too much - a
database connection error has nothing to do with a User, and so if User's
constructor does database retrieval in its constructor, then it hasn't been
decoupled from the data layer of the application.
To illustrate why this principle exists, suppose we have to switch our users
data store from Postgres to Mongo; the User class should not have to be
modified. Having User do query logic or be able to throw a SQLException in its
constructor means that it hasn't been decoupled from the data layer. This is
why people say, broadly, that doing logic or throwing exceptions from
constructors is "bad" \- it's not bad in and of itself, but it is bad in the
sense that it indicates that the overall application does not have good
decoupling, which can be a long term problem; furthermore, the severity of the
potential problem increases probably exponentially with the overall size of
the application. Imagine having dozens of data object that each do database
queries in their constructor - switching databases means you'll have to modify
every single one of these classes!
Just as important is commentary on how to avoid getting into this situation.
Let's use the same example - how do we decouple our User class, which does a
database query in its constructor, from our data layer?
There are numerous ways, but the general idea is to define a component of the
application whose job is to connect to the database and read data out, along
with a separate component of the layer that contains abstractions like User
which are constructed from this retrieved data. Concretely, in our User
example, we might first define something like a UserLocator class which takes
in a database connection and that has a method which takes a User ID and
returns some corresponding data from the database, and then a User class whose
constructor takes that data and pulls out what it needs. Later, were we to
switch underlying databases, we would only change UserLocator to query a
different database but have it still return the same data format that our new,
decoupled User class' constructor expects. This way, in the long term, our
application is easier to adapt to changes because we have good decoupling.
Applying this principle (and others) across an entire codebase can end up
being the difference between spending 90% of your time maintaining legacy code
versis spending 10% of your time updating existing code to meet new
requirements.
Hopefully someone finds this useful. I wish I had learned principles like
these earlier in my career; this sort of thing is definitely not taught in
computer science programs (nor, arguably, should it be - but many people get
hired out of such programs into places where knowledge of design principles is
very important).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Tell Microsoft and GitHub to Drop ICE as a Client - kalia35
https://github.com/selfagency/microsoft-drop-ice
======
djsumdog
There was a time when people came freely across the seas, and there were no
passports or citizenship documents. In many places it wasn't even that long
ago, 100 years or less. You just had to speak the language to make it, or find
your community. If you didn't, you'd often become a slave (or were brought in
as one).
But we live in a different world today, and there needs to be reasonable means
to control immigration in the way modern countries have evolved to operate. I
got a visa in New Zealand once and need to get my FBI fingerprints, a chest
x-ray and blood tests.
You might disagree with certain policies, and there should be a legal means
for more migrant labor for certain farm and factory fields to come in to meet
the demand, but blanket "ICE bad" is just a weird stance to take. As the son
of a legal immigrant, and someone who has gone through another county's
immigration process, I think it's a little bonkers.
There are also plenty of legal refugee status programs (although some are
difficult to find and yes, border security may deter people from the right
locations/checkpoints to apply -- different problem really). Many undocumented
workers come across the borders with their passports and just overstay (and we
should have a way to give them actual work visas if they have passports, no
criminal record and there is demand).
Well what about the war and crime and people escaping, you ask? Here's a
better solution. The United States should stop buying ALL THE COCAINE and also
put in actual gun registration so the big gun companies can't make as much
money with their massive smuggling programs:
[https://battlepenguin.com/politics/america-and-the-
mexican-d...](https://battlepenguin.com/politics/america-and-the-mexican-drug-
trade/)
~~~
the_matrix
Blame 4th generation information warfare for it. Each country has its own
narrative about what goes around both within and outside her borders, and they
want to adamantly stick to that narrative.
If their narrative loses to another country's, they simply cannot survive,
either politically or morally. Even people are becoming part of this narrative
wars these days, which is why each country is zealously guarding its borders
from outsiders.
------
zaroth
I think a country should have the absolute best tools at their disposal to be
able to handle processing and serving the millions of immigrants and billions
of dollars of goods which cross their borders.
If an influx of unaccompanied minors cross a border, a country needs to have
the systems, processes, facilities, and supply lines setup and ready to
activate to support that population.
Whether it is trying to confirm identification of someone crossing at a border
station or illegally, locating and vetting relatives (or someone claiming to
be a relative) in country, or finding a foster family or allocating space at a
shelter, there is a very significant amount of work that DHS and ICE needs to
be doing to both protect this vulnerable population as well as identify
criminals who may be trying to cross the border for nefarious purposes.
We need a best-in-world multi-layered system which includes everything from
search and rescue, drug interdiction, temporary shelters, family housing,
background checks and asylum claims processing, work permitting, and on and
on.
Border crossings on the southern border are actually at a historical low, but
the demographics of the people who are crossing has changed dramatically.
Instead of predominantly single males, we have had a massive increase in
unaccompanied minors and families. Instead of Mexicans, there has been a large
flow from Central America coming through Mexico and into the US. These new
demographics present extreme challenges to the existing facilities on the
border which were not built to accommodate that type of population.
IMO what we need to be doing is properly funding border enforcement and
processing, hiring a large number of new immigration judges to process claims
in days not months, and build facilities that can keep illegal entrants
reasonably comfortable for the _few days_ it should take to process their
arrival, whether that means admittance into the interior with a future court
date or refusal of entry and deportation.
I wonder, for example, what tools and services the USDS may be building for
ICE and DHS, and if the engineers on those products feel like they are
positively contributing to the safety and welfare of, for example, families
with qualified asylum claims, or helping identify children being trafficked
across the border.
------
Grue3
>Or, we will simply take our projects elsewhere.
I want to see how many actually do. If that's what it takes to break Github's
monopoly then so be it.
------
microcolonel
Pay attention to the record and intentions of your legislative candidates, and
go vote if you don't like what the government buys, or what kinds of
institutions your politicians have asked the Federal government to take over.
ICE will have Git hosting, this is not where your perceived injustice is
occurring.
------
TheRealDunkirk
If they don't, the people who forced Chef to drop _their_ contract owe them a
BIG apology. It's completely unfair to harass the little guys while the
Microsoft's and Oracle's of the world continue, unaffected.
------
johncoltrane
No. They can do business with whoever they want as long as doing so doesn't
break any law.
The world will never fully conform to anyone's vision, get over it.
------
Bostonian
The U.S. government is a big spender on tech. Tech CEOs have an obligation to
shareholders not to turn away big clients.
A sovereign country makes an effort to police its borders. It should do so
humanely, and not expect 100% success in stopping illegal immigration, but
immigration enforcement is a proper function. I get the impression that
critics of tech companies doing business with ICE are against all enforcement.
~~~
the_matrix
Its quite funny that America was once heavily criticized for meddling in other
country's affairs and inviting their hatred in return (pre 9/11 days). And
now, they are criticized for exactly the opposite thing: Just minding their
own business and securing it from outsiders!
~~~
kalia35
Securing a border != imprisonning children and separate them from their family
~~~
microcolonel
> _...separating them from their families._
When given the opportunity, the Democratic representatives refused to support
a bill that simply reversed that one Clinton-era decision that leads to the
separation of children from the people who claim to be their guardians at the
border (who are, as it turns out, often not).
Much noise has been made about using these children as bargaining chips, by
both sides, but neither seems to be totally above it.
~~~
kalia35
I think that's plainly wrong.
1\. There is no need for a bill to modify ICE misconducts 2\. The bill was for
financing ICE and help it amplify it's bad behaviors 3\. When the democrats
would not pay for inhumane ICE, the reps told everyone the dems were against
every changement.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Cryptogami – Social trading and analytics for cryptocurrency trading - nikkwong
https://www.cryptogami.org
======
nikkwong
Hey everyone (or no one :) )—I built this over the weekend because trading in
the dark causes you to miss a lot of information and opportunities that you
may have found otherwise. Would love to get some feedback and/or opinions.
etc! Thank you!
~~~
nikkwong
Better luck next time I guess! :-)
------
roberdam
Hi Nik, great idea! Will be good to see it in action before asking to
register, too little info yet to overcome the friction to register.
~~~
nikkwong
thank you so much! I was hoping the info cards displayed would make it kind of
obvious what the interface will be like. Do they not provide enough
information? Or how do you think that could be improved? Thank you, I really
appreciate your help.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How to licence for a MultiCore architecture? Pt II - TonyMaley
http://tony.cqd.be/how-to-licence-for-a-multicore-architecture-p
SpringSource TC server and VMWare Virtual Image Licencing policies.
======
TonyMaley
Would really welcome a good discussion on this topic. I feel there is much to
learn on how companies should licence software for a highly scalable elastic
multicore platform.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
No more email chains to plan things with friends - WePopp
http://www.wepopp.com
======
jmomarty
I'm not sure about the value proposition. You guys should make it clearer.
------
gmichiels
Interesting approach. Real challenge! Is there a native app ?
------
nmarlier
Seems nice!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Assembly Oriented Architecture - awebbmaster
http://openenterprise.wordpress.com/2009/12/18/assembly-oriented-architecture/
======
dkarl
We do that at my company and call it SOA. The most common image of SOA is the
architecture astronaut version of SOA, but you can do SOA without having a
service bus, without a UDDI registry of services, without formal life cycle
management, etc. Those elements may help in some circumstances to improve
scalability and manageability, but they aren't necessary for SOA. Anyone
saying that an ESB and UDDI are necessary for SOA is trying to make SOA more
complicated than necessary so their expertise will be marketable. At my
company, we just started writing services and hooking them together. We
introduce other elements of SOA as necessary to address real or predictable
problems, not imaginary ones.
------
ramchip
I expected something about CPU design, but it's actually about web services.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Honor 8x secretly taking screenshots? - deewana
I have noticed that my Honor 8x keeps getting "Couldn't capture screenshot" notifications (because some apps do not allow) from time to time. And none of these are initiated by me. I have a strong suspect that Honor 8x is secretly spying/stealing data in form of screen captures. Has anyone else also experienced this?
======
jmnicolas
If you didn't see it happen on any other phone of the same brand what makes
you think it's generalized to all the Honor 8X ? You might be the only one
targeted.
------
moviuro
Wipe/flash and start over. See if it happens again.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Man in a ‘vegetative state’ for 12 years, wakes to tell incredible story - tobydownton
http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/incredible-story-of-man-who-wakes-after-being-frozen-in-his-body-for-12-years/story-fnixwvgh-1227184009664
======
ColinWright
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8864791](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8864791)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Out.reddit.com HTTPS certificate has expired - l33th4x0r2
https://out.reddit.com/
======
shaunpud
Issued To
Common Name (CN) *.reddit.com
Organisation (O) Reddit Inc.
Organisational Unit (OU) <Not Part Of Certificate>
Issued By
Common Name (CN) DigiCert SHA2 Secure Server CA
Organisation (O) DigiCert Inc
Organisational Unit (OU) <Not Part Of Certificate>
Validity Period
Issued On Monday, 17 August 2015 at 08:00:00
Expires On Tuesday, 21 August 2018 at 20:00:00
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Clj-kondo: a linter for Clojure code that sparks joy - Borkdude
https://github.com/borkdude/clj-kondo
======
robertfw
I just started using this (using integration with (spac)emacs), and it does
indeed spark joy. I have been performing some refactoring today and it made my
life much, much easier.
I'm still working out how to configure it to avoid false positives on some
custom macros, but so far I'm all smiles
~~~
thenonameguy
Put something like this in your .clj-kondo/config.edn:
[https://gist.github.com/thenonameguy/d9f13155b2996e7d672542c...](https://gist.github.com/thenonameguy/d9f13155b2996e7d672542c5c84a0895#file-
config-edn-L4)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Feedback on my resume website written in Nodejs - miles_matthias
http://hiremiles.com
======
lhnz
Pretty damn good, but I'll still pick at it. ;)
Here's a general CV tip:
* Be concise. Cut down on noise; improve the signal. What will an engineer/recruiter need to see to (a) understand what your skills are, (b) trust you -- indirect: credentials, direct: validate promise via github, (c) take action on this and give you an awesome job.
On the web site design:
* Before scrolling down I know nothing about you. When hitting the site immediately you need something to engage with me. The first screen is mostly vacant of anything helpful.
* Github is mentioned in your introduction yet it is not in the mostly irrelevant list of services that you can be found on. Given that it's very important why not?
* 'Hire Miles' isn't obviously an email link. Perhaps you could put a small email symbol on it? The menu is also not obviously a menu. Read up on 'affordances' and you can improve the user experience with this knowledge. :)
* It would be a nice touch if you slide down (animation) to the anchor links as some other websites do.
* Dark red on tartan? Some of the typography is a bit off.
* Might be nice to link to the github for the website from the website or mention that it's written in node.js. Maybe only interesting for geeks but I get the feeling that this will be your market since other recruiters just expect normal resumes. :)
~~~
miles_matthias
Thanks! I made your feedback an issue on the github repo and will repost when
I have an update for more feedback.
I've had lots of people ask for an intro of some sort to greet the visitor -
that's definitely my top priority.
I'm also reconsidering the layout - I've gotten some feedback about the amount
of scrolling.
Thanks!
------
natural_order
One minor idea (not really an issue):
\- A small summation at the top perhaps? The website is lengthy, so perhaps
adding something to hook people in quickly would be good. Even "After he blah-
blahed at blah-blah Miles decided he needed to blah-blah. He could work for
you!"
Although I'm sure you could think of something better. :)
~~~
miles_matthias
Ha thanks :) Yea adding an intro is one of the outstanding issues on github
right now. Thanks for checking it out!
------
miles_matthias
You can follow the progress or add an issue on the repo:
<https://github.com/milesmatthias/hiremiles.com>
I appreciate any advice/feedback! Thanks!
------
Numeccalab
Good design.
~~~
miles_matthias
Thanks and welcome to HN :)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Nokia N900 finally supports bluetooth keyboard, no need for a notebook anymore - techvibe
http://www.mobilesider.com/topic/nokia-n900-finally-supports-bluetooth-keyboard-no
======
100tonmantis
Android phones do too. At least if you are root. I don't know if there is an
official app because I just wrote a script. Just use the standard Linux
bluetooth utilities.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Integration testing with Database for OSS - jetti
I have an open source project that I run that requires database access in order to function properly. It currently supports MySql and Postgres and has queries that are specific to both databases (such as finding primary and foreign keys for each table). My question is what is best practice for an integration test when it comes to OSS, especially small, virtually unknown projects? I've thought of setting up a free instance of Amazon's RDS but am hesitant to put that information out in the repo as who knows what people will do with it (even if it is read only). Any other ways to test the integration (maybe with docker)?
======
mtmail
[https://travis-ci.org/](https://travis-ci.org/),
[https://circleci.com/](https://circleci.com/) are free for public open source
projects. They come with databases pre-installed (or easy to add with one
line). You can set configuration values via the user-interface which get added
to a build and aren't public.
~~~
jetti
Excellent. Thank you for this, I will take a look. Do you have a preference
for one over the other at all?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Fully patched OSX hacked within seconds of start of pen test contest - nikblack
http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=2917
======
patrickg-zill
As much as I like Apple and OSX, I see some of the same kinds of mistakes
Next/NeXT made with NextStep, being made with OSX.
(I used to sell Next software for about 6 months and got to use a NextStation
every day. Very cool - later at another company I got to speak with the GUI
designer Keith Ohlfs and personally thank him for the best copmuter experience
I ever had.)
For instance, NextStep's POSIX interface was broken and thus, Next was not
able to compete against the then-very-inferior SunOS in government contracts
(because POSIX compliance was a requirement).
Instead, Next did win in CIA/NSA and other exempt contracts where the solution
was considered to be "custom" and thus didn't have to follow the standards.
It probably would have taken a competent Next programmer a few weeks to fix
the POSIX layer - but since POSIX was viewed as "dumb" it was never made a
priority.
Apple is letting some of the boring stuff slip - which is a danger sign.
Programmers at Apple can't all be programming the cool CoverFlow stuff and
ignoring the "guts".
~~~
jballanc
I appreciate your past experience with NeXT, but I'm going to have to disagree
with your extrapolation: <http://www.apple.com/macosx/technology/unix.html>
~~~
iuguy
I don't think he's specifically referring to POSIX compliance in the current
OSX, but I can certainly attest to my experiences with A/UX (the original Mac
OS/Unix hybrid OS) and say that POSIX compliance was also a minor issue -
perhaps not so much for a Unix, but it's other stuff that they let slip. I
don't use OSX as I don't have a Mac but I wouldn't be surprised if they're
focusing on the insanely great bits to the detriment of stuff under the hood,
as has happened before.
------
ealar
I find the title highly sensational and misleading. Of course it was hacked in
seconds given a prepared exploit, I would be shocked if it took the computer
longer than that to execute the exploit code.
~~~
tvon
Leads to the question, what took FF/IE so long?
They surely tested them all ahead of time, so why did anything take any longer
than a few seconds?
~~~
thenduks
It did take FF/IE only seconds to 'get exploited', but it was more than a few
seconds after the start of the contest... In short -- the guy with the Safari
exploit went first.
------
yan
Yup, I'm at CanSecWest now. This doesn't say much except that he just brought
a ready, armed exploit and just took the prize. Nils' breaking of the browser
trifecta was quite impressive though.
------
blasdel
Bringing a pre-made exploit to a contest like this kind of dodges the point of
the competition.
Maybe an exploit contest could be started after each browser revision, where
winning submissions must be exploiting a bug introduced by that version of the
software.
~~~
anatoli
While I definitely agree with you, I also think that Apple should start more
seriously addressing these kinds of problems. So far, unlike Microsoft,
they've been very slow to respond. (I'm an Apple-user.)
~~~
wallflower
I just got a MacBook (my first). Previously, in Windows land, I logged in as a
Limited User all the time (and saved Adminiatrator access for what it should
be used for - adding printers, installing software).
On the Apple, I run Security Update habitually. What software for virus
scanning, additional protection do you recommend?
~~~
inklesspen
There is no anti-virus software for the Mac worth running, because there are
no viruses for OS X.
This story is about a security flaw in Safari where the browser can be tricked
into executing code.
~~~
Jem
Ouch. A tad naive.
[http://www.sophos.com/pressoffice/news/articles/2006/02/maco...](http://www.sophos.com/pressoffice/news/articles/2006/02/macosxleap.html)
[http://louisgray.com/live/2008/08/i-got-mac-os-x-virus-
and-i...](http://louisgray.com/live/2008/08/i-got-mac-os-x-virus-and-
infected.html)
Just 2 from a quick google search:
<http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=mac+os+x+virus>
~~~
inklesspen
Second one's a trojan. First one's a worm; it doesn't actually infect files or
disks the way viruses did "back in the day". It relies on tricking the user
into executing a program when the user is not expecting to be executing a
program.
Compare to Windows worms that run automatically, or viruses for Microsoft
platforms that infect files that are commonly shared.
I repeat my statement that you don't need anti-virus on the Mac. You simply
need to have common sense.
I don't think it's too naive of a viewpoint. There are legitimate security
concerns on the Mac, just as there are on other operating systems. My point
was that you don't need cpu-cycle-sucking memory-resident antivirus programs
the way you do on Windows.
~~~
Jem
Worm, trojan, whatever - I didn't read the links, I left that for you to do :)
> You simply need to have common sense.
I ran Windows ME (of all things) for several years with no AV, using just
common sense. So, you don't "need" AV in Windows, but I would definitely
recommend it.
Although I agree with what you're getting at, both your original comment and
this one seems to be relying heavily on stereotypes more than actual fact.
That's what I think is naive.
~~~
wallflower
Microsoft is getting better when it comes to default lockdown modes (Vista)
but I believe Administrator by default is the reason why Conficker et al and
botnets exist.
I can't think of any good reason why the average home user needs to run as
Administrative user, other than convenience.
I have to "administer" my dad's old computer and I gave him a Limited User
account. Yes, he complains about not being to install some software his
friends email but no viruses, no spyware. Cuts down on support calls and
unnecessary trips home.
------
KirinDave
This is frustrating for me. I've become _very_ accustomed to the speed and
interface of Safari, but the security-conscious part of me says the only
rational response to this article is to stop using Safari for general surfing
and switch to Firefox, which seems to be lacking any major crash holes right
now.
But every time I fire up Firefox my entire body cringes at the sluggishness.
For many Mac users, myself included, this is going to be a real test of
discipline.
~~~
tortilla
If you haven't tried using an Intel optimized build of Firefox, give it a go,
it's pretty snappy: [http://www.latko.org/2009/02/04/firefox-31-intel-
optimized-b...](http://www.latko.org/2009/02/04/firefox-31-intel-optimized-
build/) (Still not as fast as the Safari, but very close)
And I use the Grapple Delicious theme (very mac like):
<http://www.takebacktheweb.org/>
~~~
KirinDave
I have.
The problem is that Firefox isn't _much_ slower, but it's _noticeably_ slower,
so it's tough to complain about but very irritating.
------
st3fan
Are there more details available? Like which version of Safari was hacked?
~~~
tptacek
You can safely assume the most recent version, and most likely the nightly.
~~~
tvon
It would be the latest stable release that you would get by running all of the
software updates in OSX.
it would not be a nightly.
~~~
tptacek
Running on the laptop, it wouldn't be a nightly; I'm opining that it would be
surprising if it didn't hit the nightly too.
~~~
tvon
Ah, good point, I completely misunderstood what you said.
~~~
tptacek
That's because I was terse and ambiguous.
------
JeremyBanks
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Low Sunlight Exposure in Pregnancy Linked to Risk of Learning Disabilities - laurex
https://www.technologynetworks.com/neuroscience/news/low-sunlight-exposure-in-pregnancy-linked-with-higher-risk-of-learning-disabilities-321159
======
zunzun
Theoretically this could mean that children born in nudist colonies would have
a reduced risk of learning disabilities, which would be amenable to
statistical analysis.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Porn watchers will have to prove they are over 18 under new laws - lumberjack
https://news.sky.com/story/porn-watchers-will-have-to-prove-they-are-over-18-under-new-laws-11224093?dcmp=snt-sf-twitter
======
marcoperaza
There is a censorial streak in the British Conservative Party. In addition to
porn, they also want to censor "extremist" views, with a very broad definition
of "extremism". In fact, the British Labour Party isn't too hot on free speech
either. A lot of laws restricting speech were passed under Blair's tenure. And
the current Labour leadership isn't exactly clamoring for their repeal.
Is censorship really a popular stance in the UK? What gives? I would love to
hear from a British person about this.
~~~
caseysoftware
Censorship is a popular stance all over, depending entirely on _who /what_ is
being censored.
In the UK, it's porn. In Germany, it's Nazi memorabilia. In Canada, it's
pronoun use and "hate" speech. In Iran and China, it's government dissidents.
In the US, it's companies instead of governments doing it but the result is
the same.
Same Stupid, Different day
------
lumberjack
I find this, quite peculiar. Who is pushing for this and why would they want
to do this? Is this some convert way to better track people, online? What
other motive could there be?
~~~
criley2
British conservatives have been pushing a porn crackdown for a while. I (as
someone on the other side of the Atlantic) believe real identity verification
is just a tool to crackdown on porn in general. Everyone knows that if you
keep porn records, they'll get out (accidentally, hackers, governments, or all
of the above).
On the other hand, the company the British are paying to do this, MindGeek, is
not just developing the AgeID checking system. They also run most of the
popular Porn websites. And they own many popular Porn production studios.
So this is also a case of an aggressive vertical monopoly corrupting a
government into enriching and deepening their extremely profitable monopoly.
Now, a private porn distribution company that ALSO makes porn will now have
EXCLUSIVE rights to porn related age verification for all UK citizens. They're
the Porn Company King of UK, and all other companies now exist on a second,
less-government-supported tier.
It also means the UK Government is effectively subsidizing pornography, in a
way.
~~~
ohyes
So it’s a way of getting a porn “moat” if you will.
------
samsonradu
Failing to understand the logic behind this. How could the UK government
possibly think letting an adult company collect user-data is for their own
citizen protection.
Wouldn't it make more sense for the government/ISPs to take care of the AgeID
product themselves? They are the gatekeepers to the internet basically isn't
it?
~~~
caseysoftware
Why should _anyone_ collect this data? Can you imagine the first time it's
hacked and we have complete details of everything that anyone watches and
when? It will be awful, hilarious, and horrifying all at once.
_" Your Royal Majesty, according to the recent Mindgeek hack, it appears
you.."_
NO ONE in their right mind wants that.
~~~
samsonradu
Needless to say it shouldn’t be done, but if anybody...a 3rd party?
------
ben_jones
We should have a serious discussion about the impact of mass porn consumption
on developing persons. Does it have no effect at all? Does it increase sex
drive? Does it decrease sex drive? Does it cause depression? Does it lower
depression? Does it effect sexual preferences?
I feel like our understanding on mental wellness is so pitifully small that
something a innate as porn should be heavily studied.
~~~
jjeaff
I agree. It's like we are in the big tobacco phase where everyone is saying
it's normal and healthy. To say otherwise is considered prudish and sexually
repressive.
~~~
guitarbill
It would be nice to see it studied scientifically, without knee-jerk
reactions. But I hear one of the problems is finding enough people for studies
who don't watch pornography.
------
mythrwy
What the title suggest will never happen. But maybe users of big porn sites
might have to prove they are over 18.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
More trouble for Color: shareholders and board vote to wind down company - waterlesscloud
http://venturebeat.com/2012/10/17/more-trouble-for-color-shareholders-and-board-vote-to-wind-down-company/
======
jrmg
How does:
_A source within the company tells us that the company’s shareholders and
board last week voted to shut the company down._
Become, by the end of the article:
_Color as a company still has plenty of cash in the bank, which means we’re
likely to see another product from it before long._
?
~~~
jpdoctor
_Color as a company still has plenty of cash in the bank, which means we’re
likely to see another product from it before long._
Sounds like cluelessness on the part of the reporter: You don't have a board
meeting involving the words "shut down" and then decide it was really "pivot"
after the fact.
The money will first go to any bondholders/accounts-payable, then the
remainder back to the investors.
------
antr
I still remember when Google allegedly offered $200m for this business-less
startup. I know I'm playing Monday morning QB, but to reject such offer simply
demonstrates lack of economic judgement - both at the management and investor
level (and a lucky strike for Google).
We tend to complain plenty about Wall Street's greed but this represents no
different behaviour.
~~~
TillE
I think Google (or Facebook) would have done well with their technology and
people. Color is a great feature, to paraphrase Steve Jobs. Though maybe not a
$200m feature.
~~~
rikf
You can develop a-lot of features and hire some (a-lot of) pretty fucking good
people for $200m
------
hammock
As troubled as Color is, it represents the future direction of location data.
No longer will location data be just for its own sake- apps that answer "Where
am I?" "Where are you?" "Where's lunch?" It's evolving to be something bigger.
The future is integrating it into new uses, to answer questions we haven't
even asked yet. For some examples, see:
News.me and Instapaper - Sync your articles to your phone as you leave your
house, so that when you're underground on the train, you have all your content
right there
Now - Combs instagram for clustered activity in your area, and then notifies
you of what's going on (i.e. movie in the park that people are enjoying)
Dark Sky - Alerts you when it is going to rain in your precise location, based
on radar
Square - Automatically logs you in as soon as you arrive at the coffee shop or
wherever
What it boils down to is location is automating various parts of user
interface. Making your life better in the process. (this post a tldr version
of [http://adage.com/article/special-report-digital-
conference-s...](http://adage.com/article/special-report-digital-conference-
san-francisco-2012/location-technology-change-publishing-pay-content/237443/))
~~~
MatthewPhillips
> The future is integrating it into new uses, to answer questions we haven't
> even asked yet.
Actually, I think that's the exact wrong lesson to take from this. That's what
Color did: look for something that hasn't been done before and did that. It
was a solution to a problem that doesn't exist: meeting strangers. People
don't want to meet strangers, unless they're looking to hook up. That's why we
construct amazing home entertainment systems; so we can avoid being around
strangers. Ditto for Highlight and Airtime.
The takeaway from Color is not to go searching for the next big thing, but
rather solve a problem that you yourself have (warning, you are probably not a
normal person so don't spend too much time solving the problem before
releasing something).
~~~
eta_carinae
> Actually, I think that's the exact wrong lesson to take from this. That's
> what Color did: look for something that hasn't been done before and did
> that. It was a solution to a problem that doesn't exist: meeting strangers
Color has never been about meeting strangers. Never.
v1 of the application allowed people who happen to be at the same place at the
same time to share photos (still a great idea in my opinion, imagine concerts
or random birthday parties where you hardly know anyone but everybody is
taking pictures).
v2 was about live broadcasting (interesting tech but uninteresting product).
~~~
MatthewPhillips
Your description of v1 sounds exactly like meeting strangers; am I missing
something?
Yeah, v2 was about a different non-problem (normal people broadcasting their
everyday lives).
~~~
jfernandez
v1 To me sounds more like a way to facilitate sharing. I suppose this could
lead to fostering relationships between strangers but for example I would get
immense benefit from just having additional/better photos for an event that
another person decided to share.
------
tomasien
Color was coming out right as I was starting my first company. I was just
becoming aware of Valley culture, and I found the Color story really, really
confusing. As other things have started to click and I've moved from "not
knowing anything" to "being consulted professionally on these matters" the
whole story of Color remains pretty confusing to me.
~~~
tomasien
I don't mean to use hindsight to say I knew they were going to fail, just that
I'm just as confused as to how this happens as I was the first day I got
interested in startups.
------
cletus
This represents a rare (AFAICR) failure for Sequoia. I don't mean to be the
naysayer but even at the time, for me, Color had disaster written all over it.
All flash, no substance.
I wonder how much of that $40+ million is left and will be returned to
investors. Anyone know how many employees Color has (had?)?
It's been said that the military is always busy planning for yesterday's war.
The lessons of the past often don't reflect the change in circumstances. I
think the tech sector suffers from a version of this, particularly for VCs.
Facebook is big. Instagram sold big. Lots of people are chasing social. But
IMHO social is largely yesterday's war.
Take one of my current bugbears: social search. Many view it as the Next Big
Thing. Social is seen as a key future driver to recommendations and the like.
IMHO this is completely overhyped. This is something that's been much-
discussed already but a month or two ago I had an interesting conversation
that I think shed some light on the problem.
Let's say Alice is friends with Bob. Bob likes a particular movie. We as
programmers and entrepreneurs see an opportunity to use technology to solve a
"problem" here: namely, how to allow Bob to express that information in such a
way as to expose it to Alice, who it is argued, may well be interested in
that.
The problem here is that the view of the "problem" here is backwards. We see
social interactions as an inefficient way of disseminating information but in
most cases in the real world, it's the opposite: that movie recommendation is
simply a way of enabling and facilitating a social interaction. In other
words, the movie recommendation is a means to an end not an end in and of
itself. Too many social startups (IMHO) view the social interactions as a
means to an end when in fact it is the end.
Anyway, my condolences in particular to the employees of Color, who I have no
doubt worked hard over the last year or so. Luckily we're in a market where
you should easily be able to move on to bigger and better things.
~~~
eta_carinae
> Color had disaster written all over it.
Hindsight is 20/20, it's easy to criticize now, but look at it from the
investors' perspective:
\- A CEO who not only sold his latest startup to Apple but who built about
eight companies in the past twelve years, three that he sold and three that
went public.
\- A co founder team made from engineers that came from Google and Apple
... and you have a very solid foundation for a startup with much higher
success odds than any other.
~~~
heyitsnick
It's not just hindsight; a lot of people, commentators here and elsewhere,
were bemused by the entire Color story. A ridiculous amount of money for a
product that didn't exist, had no market, likely had niche interest at best,
and had no clear business strategy.
It did have disaster written all of it, and a lot of people called them on it
at the time.
As just one example, a quick google first turned up, but i read mountains of
commentary like this: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2655652>
edit:the parent thread is better to read. this was after shit started hitting
the fan, but i can't turn up earlier convos atm
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2655592>
~~~
MatthewPhillips
I remember reading those threads and you're right. The positive spin was built
around
1) That it was an interesting idea.
or
2) That it was a talented team which justified the funding.
or
3) That being a "fat" start-up they had plenty of chances to get it right.
I don't remember many (any?) people saying it was a good idea that would
succeed on its own merits.
~~~
cube13
Re: 1
It was an "interesting idea" in that most people really didn't know what the
heck they were doing, or what problem they were trying to solve.
All anyone really knew was that they got a boatload of money, and spent a lot
of money to get color.com.
------
duiker101
I wasn't expecting it.....that it took this long.
~~~
Pirate-of-SV
Same here. Maybe they should have been making something people would use
instead of playing around with their ball pit and foosball table in their
downtown Palo Alto office.
------
protomyth
I think Color shows one of the problems faced when people think about location
and geo-locking of data. Color (V1 - no idea about V2) didn't bring people
together or let distant people experience something that was happening to
their friends, it created a pool of photos at a geo-locked location among
friends with you and strangers.
Facebook works because it brings people together. Color only worked in places
where dense numbers were expected. Targeting things that only work in a urban
setting seems to be leaving out a lot of people including friends who just
aren't there.
~~~
bduerst
>brings people together
Facebook, and instagram, worked because they fed into the "braggart" mentality
that has seized social media.
By allowing users to post doctored photos to their friends, you've tapped into
their motivation to have better social standing in their "tribe". Few people
care what complete strangers think about them.
------
parfe
Does this mean Verizon will allow me to uninstall Color? They bought their way
onto my phone and I never even opened the app. You won't be missed.
------
Irishsteve
I really liked the first colour, its just no one else used it meh. Tough luck
for the guys hope everything works out as best as possible.
~~~
tomasien
I LOVED the first Color, if it had gotten any adoption I think it would have
been awesome. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) that's not how the world
works, and it forces us to think beyond "hey wouldn't it be cool if everyone
did THIS"
------
timmclean
See also:
[http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/17/color-says-not-shutting-
dow...](http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/17/color-says-not-shutting-down/)
<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4665928>
------
aneth4
How is it possible that Color has 120k daily active users. And certain that
doesn't mean "no one is using the app."
Something is wrong here, either with facebook's numbers or this conclusion.
That's not a small number.
------
rheide
It 'only' has 440.000 active users? I'd be quite happy with a failure like
that.
~~~
mibbitier
Would you still be happy if you'd spent millions getting those 440k users?
For $41m investment, you could pay 410,000 people $100 to become a user.
------
Kilimanjaro
Color was (and still is) a great idea.
Giving them $40M was not. Right there you killed the greatest force to do the
undoable.
Motivation.
~~~
tatsuke95
>Giving them $40M was not. Right there you killed the greatest force to do the
undoable.
If motivation and investment capital are negatively correlated, then the
Valley has bigger problems than I thought.
~~~
Kilimanjaro
> If motivation and investment capital are negatively correlated
At early stages, yes.
PG has it right, small investment enough to keep motivation high = food.
Deliver and get another round = toys. Grow your user base and get another
valuation = perks. Then you are ready to sit on the big table, with your
balls, your morale and your thick skin.
If you give it all at once in the beginning, you lose motivation, morale, and
your balls too.
Early money is the machete that will castrate you and turn you into a digital
eunuch.
------
nicholassmith
I wonder if even the employees are surprised, I thought they'd already folded
up given how quiet it's been from them.
------
bane
This isn't trouble; this is the end.
------
vijayr
This is somewhat similar to Cuil.
------
bane
relevant <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4586946>
------
vegas
hooray!
------
cpeterso
Pop!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
After discussions with jailbreakers, Microsoft opening up WP7 - rodh257
http://www.techeye.net/mobile/microsoft-strong-armed-into-adding-wp7-homebrew
======
rodh257
I realize the title isn't the same as the article, but I hate the title of
this article, I'm fairly sure that some random coders didn't force Microsoft
to make a major change to their new platform.
~~~
gte910h
I would imagine they're hearing earfuls from developers. They're _really_
talking to us alot. As in, I've personally talked to them for about it for 90
minutes.
~~~
rodh257
yeah I think that is the real case, especially given that WM6 wasn't locked
down, I went to one of the early previews of WP7 a while back and there was a
lot of angry WM6 enterprise developers about this issue, and all the MS
representatives agreed with them.
------
ljf
Amazing news - I wonder if this will give WP7 the lift it needs to compete
with iOS and Android?
I saw my first WP7 mobile in the flesh today, and I was impressed - but
without the backing of developers it could be a niche product.
Question to coders out there; Will this make a difference to you? Will you now
have a go at coding for WP7 - or will you be waiting to see if the phone is a
commercial success before testing the waters?
~~~
wccrawford
I probably will not attempt to code for WP7.
However, if it weren't open, there is absolutely no chance than I'd attempt to
code for it, since I don't own one and don't plan to. iPhone is in the same
category.
Android... I probably will. (Both because it's open, and because I own one.)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
SubEthaEdit 5 is now free and open source - schwuk
https://rant.monkeydom.de/posts/2018/11/28/see-is-back
======
petercooper
Oh nice. I forgot SubEthaEdit existed but it was first text editor on macOS
before the TextMate hype in the early Rails days :-) While I support the right
to release commercial products, I think it's very noble to open source things
after a certain time, if only for the purpose of history and preservation.
~~~
tlrobinson
BBEdit was probably the first editor for Mac OS X, though SubEthaEdit may have
been first one native to OS X.
~~~
mrpippy
BBEdit dates back to 1992, and I believe Tex-Edit is even older. CodeWarrior
and BBEdit were both Carbonized for OS X very early (because developers needed
them for bringing up other apps). I don't remember SubEthaEdit coming out
until at least 10.2 (ISTR it had a different name for first release also)
------
fitzroy
I remember being at the O'Reilly Emerging Technologies Conference in the early
2000s. Lots of UNIX-loving people had just bought their first Mac laptops and
basically the whole room was taking notes in a single SubEthaEdit doc via
BonJour[1]. Some people were typing verbatim notes from panelists, others were
going back and fixing typos and spelling, still others were researching topics
that had been mentioned, contextualizing them, and adding links.
In the end we all had a clean, detailed, copyedited document. It was a pretty
amazing experience. I was sure I'd just witnessed the future of collaboration
for lectures and conferences[2].
[1]At the time, SubEthaEdit was called "Hydra" and BonJour was still
"Rendezvous". [2]I guess the actual future turned out to mostly be scrolling
though Twitter. c'est la vie.
------
chappi42
Danke! -- MIT is a nice licence. Hope it works out well:
>>What are my hopes for the future?
- Attract contributors to ensure a long term thriving ecosystem
- The free availability both in and out of the App Store should reduce the barrier to entry to the collaborative use cases in education, pair programming, etc, leading to good bug reports and use cases that are worth investing some future development in
- Support for more languages, modes and contributions thereof
- Longevity of SubEthaEdit as a product<< (edited formatting, thanks davemp)
~~~
davemp
\- Attract contributors to ensure a long term thriving ecosystem
\- The free availability both in and out of the App Store should reduce the
barrier to entry to the collaborative use cases in education, pair
programming, etc, leading to good bug reports and use cases that are worth
investing some future development in
\- Support for more languages, modes and contributions thereof
\- Longevity of SubEthaEdit as a product
———
Formatted for mobile users.
------
simonw
I remember using SubEthaEdit at university for collaborative note taking in
lectures back in 2003ish and it was like absolute wizardry.
Really excited to see it open sourced. What a fascinating piece of software
history.
(Also: Carcassonne for iOS remains the best board game port I've ever played)
~~~
jtmcmc
yes I felt the exact same way in the same year
------
buserror
I have a bought licence of subethaedit, from years and years ago. I still use
it, but I never upgraded since I had to re-buy a licence to do so!
Glad I waited. I still love the coloured changes for modified text in a
document (that stay on after saving!), it's really really handy when working
on a longish file to have quick visual clues when scrolling back/forth. I wish
more editors had that.
~~~
woodrowbarlow
yes, VS does this by default too and it's nice.
lots of editors have plugins (like git-gutter for sublime) that do this with
VCS integration: highlight lines that were modified since last commit. for me,
this is even better because it remains not just after saving the file but even
after closing the file/editor and re-opening it.
combined with a minimap like sublime's which also shows the gutter
annotations, i can navigate a many-thousand-line file with lightning speed.
------
tosh
I still fondly remember when I first used SubEthaEdit.
Seeing collaborative editing working so seamlessly was just magical.
Language server protocol support would rock.
------
brians
Oh, wow. Nothing in here that obviously wouldn’t work on iOS.
------
jspash
I'm not meaning to take away anything from this announcement, which I think is
great. But what options are there for collaborative coding in Sublime? (I
don't use Atom)
Having tried Floobits, the experience was ok. But I do a lot of pairing online
with 0 day beginners, and need something as little setup as possible. ie. The
students are able to install Sublime and Packages. Having to sign up for
Floobits is just another step I'd like to avoid.
I suppose I'm looking for a service (paid or otherwise) that provides urls
which would relay the keystrokes between editors facilitated by a Sublime
package. Does anything like that exist?
~~~
schwuk
Not the answer you're looking for, but have you tried Visual Studio Code with
VS Live Share ([https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=MS-
vsliv...](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=MS-
vsliveshare.vsliveshare))? It works really well for pair/swarm programming.
~~~
brians
And the event-stream implementation will blow your mind.
~~~
sandos
Are you referring to the backdoor or is it actually a mind-blowing
implementation?
------
kenneth
Great story, and happy to see SubEthaEdit live on as open source software. Its
main collaboration use case is still relevant and unique today. I'm glad they
were at least able to get the technology integrated into Coda, and that they
were able to make a modest revenue from that.
Unfortunately, as a primary code editor, it was never for me as an avid user
of TextMate (and reluctant of Xcode) in the early days, before I finally
learnt vim and never looked back around 8 years ago or so.
------
wink
This looked quite cool, 15 years ago. But if you never owned a mac.. too bad
:P
I mean, I've always been around a high density of Macs and later MBPs (from
~2008 on) but I've also never seen people really use it. I guess it's because
most coworkers in the office had the project's/company's standard IDE.
------
rubyfan
I’ve always loved this product. I rarely used it for the live pairing ability
but loved its simplicity, highlighting and overall light feel as an editor.
Definitely time to revisit SubEthaEdit.
------
cutler
Sorry folks but Ford Prefect was a couple of decades early on this one.
------
ixtli
I'm so glad this editor has lasted this long. I haven't used it in years but
now that it's free im gonna replace the default system text editor with it.
------
exabrial
SSAAS (SubEthaEdit5 Server As A Service) can now be a thing!
------
codemusings
Brushed metal ... brushed metal everywhere.
~~~
ixtli
its got a dark mode, if you have 10.14.+
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Google Forcing Nest Cameras’ Visual Indicator Light To Be On - revicon
https://www.mattcrampton.com/blog/Google_forcing_nest_cameras_visual_indicator_light_to_be_on/
======
remote_phone
As a Nest owner with multiple cameras, I find it hilarious that no real
features have been introduced in years, and this is what they come up with
instead.
If they would spend more time shipping features I might not care as much but
they have done nothing and instead they ship this stupid “feature”. They don’t
allow us to train the cameras to ignore moving trees or shadows, repetitive
noise like birds cawing, or fix their “familiar face” functionality. I’ve had
complete strangers identified as being a familiar face, and I’ve also had cars
identified as a familiar face.
Google is a terrible consumer product company.
~~~
Urgo
My thoughts exactly! I've had outdoor nest cameras for a couple of years now
and was expecting at some point it'd learn that the trees moving or bugs
flying across the camera were not interesting but nope...... we get this...
It seems like I'm not the only one annoyed at nest lately though. I actually
backed a indiegogo last week called Camect that hopefully will fix a lot of
these issues and you don't even need to replace the nest cameras, though you
can if you want to. I recommend checking it out!
~~~
fredley
Nest thermostats are also very stupid. The 'smart' mode tries to build a
schedule of activity based on how much you walk past the specific spot on the
wall where your thermostat is, and predict when to heat the house based on
that. It's garbage, we (and everyone else I know) just sets a schedule like a
normal thermostat.
Given Google has access to my and my partner's calendars, why not link them
and use that instead, and cut the AI shit?
~~~
joezydeco
Or the weather. Or the real time price of electricity. Or high-demand periods.
Or the learned heat retention capability of a particular home. Or a ton of
other things that have never been implemented.
~~~
fredley
Given how much potential there is to make a vastly superior Nest-like
thermostat, why hasn't anyone done it?
~~~
greedo
Because the market is actually pretty small for expensive thermostats. I
bought the original version of the Nest thermostat because I wanted to
remotely control it via my phone. Most of the smart features are horrible, the
AI is dumb, and the fact that controlling it depends on a server that may be
EOL'd scares me.
Most thermostats are in the neighborhood of $25-$50, so $250 for a thermostat
that offers marginal utility is a hard sell.
~~~
redbeard0x0a
Everybody who gets a smart thermostat needs to keep their old one in a box for
the day the server gets EOL or the device and/or network gets hacked. When
that happens, you aren't going to be able to go to HomeDepot and buy a new
dumb thermostat.
~~~
joezydeco
Dumb thermostats will always exist. You could also preemptively wire one up
right now in series with your smart thermostat to act as a safeguard against
extreme settings.
~~~
fredley
One in series and one in parallel!
------
drusepth
This seems equivalent to security theater in response to misplaced fear and
mistrust over cameras in general. I understand why they felt pressured to make
this change (and the "good" PR it results in), but I can't help but shake the
fact that, well, it doesn't actually _do_ anything.
Bad actors will just disable the light in a myriad of ways. People will still
mistrust cameras because the light can be disabled. Drawing over the light
with permanent marker (or doing something temporary like putting tape over it)
doesn't even create a small barrier of entry for people secretly recording. If
they want to secretly record, it's not significantly harder now than it was
yesterday.
The only thing this is supposed to accomplish is appeasing people that don't
understand technology yet make a ruckus over Google disrespecting privacy. Now
Google can say "no look, we do!" and those people will complain about
something else.
~~~
floatingatoll
Other than physical access to the camera (at which point they will more likely
just install their own cameras), how _precisely_ could attackers disable the
light in any plausible ways? I’ll offer one for free:
1) “Forcing Google to do so through a government court order that leads to a
firmware update to that specific camera”
What other methods besides “issue Google-signed firmware to the device” are
you implying exist (“a myriad of ways”), that are obvious enough to be taken
for granted without further explanation?
I can’t see them, and so unfortunately I must request that explanation.
~~~
Someone1234
> how precisely could attackers disable the light in any plausible ways?
The light is software controlled, as this very change clearly demonstrates.
The fact Google can turn and off the light at a whim suggests an attacker
could. Your defense of this being possible is based on a vague theory of
infallible security.
You even seem to use a fictional quote to that end:
> What other methods besides “issue Google-signed firmware to the device” are
> you implying exist
Who are you quoting? What are you quoting? And where can I read up on google's
infallible firmware signing strategy that you're implying has the ability to
block exploits and bugs?
Despite claims to the contrary you're less "requesting an explanation" and
more making several unsupported security claims, then asking people to refute
your claims as if they were factual in nature.
If this device was as secure as you imply that would be quite unique for smart
home devices in general, and software in general for that matter.
~~~
floatingatoll
Nest historically used firmware updates to do this stuff, I see no explanation
why Google would vary that practice for something they’re doing to gain trust.
They _could_ be so absurdly stupid that they software control that lamp off
from their servers as a permanent solution, but I think they have more wits
about them than that. As you point out, it’s a terrible idea; and it’d wreck
them in the press if that was their final answer.
~~~
bigiain
That is not an answer to the question you were asked.
"And where can I read up on google's infallible firmware signing strategy that
you're implying has the ability to block exploits and bugs?"
I have no clue where on the scale of "state action" -> "bribed/coerced
insider" -> "disgruntled ex google employee" -> "Elbonian strip kiddie" you
need to be to "control that lamp", but I'm 100% certain that the reality is
that the capability to revert this new lamp behaviour is not exclusively in
the hands of authorised Google employees...
It's exactly the same as the current encryption bullshit. If there's a
backdoor for law enforcement, there's a backdoor. If there's a remote way for
Google to update the Nest software - there's an exploitable remote way to
update the software.
~~~
pingyong
>If there's a remote way for Google to update the Nest software - there's an
exploitable remote way to update the software.
This is (quite obviously?) wrong. One doesn't imply the other at all in any
way shape or form. If this were true, there wouldn't be a single device on the
planet, including phones, servers, etc. with remote update functionality that
would be secure, ever.
Also
>If there's a backdoor for law enforcement, there's a backdoor.
duh? But I think what you are trying to imply is that "there is a backdoor
that criminals could use" \- which is also wrong. As long as the
implementation is correct and the key isn't leaked, this is completely secure.
Of course it'd be insane to have one key being able to unlock essentially all
communication within a huge system, because chances are it might be leaked
eventually, but that has absolutely zero impact on the fundamental possibility
of making this system secure.
~~~
davemcg3
> If this were true, there wouldn't be a single device on the planet,
> including phones, servers, etc. with remote update functionality that would
> be secure, ever.
You're so, so close to waking up from the matrix. Very excited to have you
join us in the real world soon! Follow the white rabbit.
------
jedberg
This feels like a double edged sword. On one hand, yay, now I'll know for sure
that the camera is on and I'm being watched.
On the other hand, we know that the light is obviously software controlled, so
now we're going to get people used to the idea that "light on == camera on/
light off == camera off", and then when the camera gets inevitably hacked,
people will be a lot less cautious if the light is off, assuming the camera is
off.
~~~
scrungus
i think the obvious solution would be to have the light in series with the
power to the camera, so that in order for the camera to be on, the light will
also have to be on
~~~
vilhelm_s
Early macbooks tried to do something like this, but got it wrong. The camera
unit had a bunch of pins, including a "STANDBY" pin which turns off the
sensor, and they wired the green LED directly to the standby pin.
But then in 2013 some researchers figured out that actually the camera unit is
an entire system-on-a-chip, with a configuration register accessible on an i2c
bus, so they could write some malware which first re-configures the camera to
ignore the standby signal, and then turn it on...
The paper notes that many camera units have a separate power connection for
the CMOS sensor itself, which would be more secure. And I hope later-model
macbooks have fixed it. But I guess this shows that it possible to get even
seemingly bullet-proof solutions wrong.
[https://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/handle/1774.2/36569](https://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/handle/1774.2/36569)
(As a more practical problem, I have also seen suggestions that it's possible
to turn on the camera, take a photo, and turn it back off again too quick for
the LED to be noticable, and if you do that several times per second you could
capture low-frame-rate video without the green light, so even a hardware
solution might not be perfectly secure.)
~~~
ghostly_s
Your wording implies more-recent Macbooks no longer bother with this security
feature. I believe I've read elsewhere they actually switched to a custom
control board which renders this hack impossible. Is that not the case?
~~~
vilhelm_s
I didn't mean to imply that, sorry.
------
dollar
I love that Google’s commitment to privacy is mucking with the LED on a camera
instead of anything, you know, meaningful.
Like, maybe not tracking your every movement, search, interest, thought, fear,
and desire to turn you into clicks for money?
Or hey, maybe give you total control of the information they collect on you?
Nah, let’s turn the LED on and tout our commitment to privacy!
~~~
halflings
> Or hey, maybe give you total control of the information they collect on you?
What's wrong with "My Activity"? It gives you access to all data stored in
your account and lets you delete all or pieces of it.
[https://myactivity.google.com/](https://myactivity.google.com/)
~~~
ToFab123
Hopefully, sooner rather than later, a Google-Snowden will emerge revealing
the truth about Googles data collection and truth about if that data really is
being deleted.
~~~
CobrastanJorji
Maybe I'm an optimist, but that seems like it'd be high risk for very low
gain, given the likelihood that almost nobody ever even looks at that page let
alone deletes stuff, and the penalties for lying about deleting things,
especially in Europe, would probably be pretty steep.
~~~
orbifold
That page also lets you „pause“ your activity recording. I would be pretty
pissed if that didn’t work, because so far that means that it shows me no
actual recorded information (they still have my emails though)
------
herf
I have two of these cameras in a window, so they can see outside. Keeping the
LED on all the time makes them useless at night from reflections, so I always
turn it off.
It seems really wrong that I am "allowed" to add electrical tape, but not to
click a checkbox.
~~~
glennon
Same config -- right inside a window. It took three layers of tiny tape
squares to conceal the light on mine today. The cameras run pretty hot and the
adhesive is going to make a gooey mess.
~~~
sixothree
I use AC foil tape for this sort of thing. It's expensive but there are so
many project uses.
------
mbrumlow
Do I not own these cameras? I don't think they should be able to retroactively
change this behavior.
As a consumer of 5 of these things I hate them glowing at me. Any sane person
should simply assume that if a camera is aimed at you it is recording...
~~~
smt88
Genuine question: how do you feel about Apple preventing Japanese users from
disabling the camera "click" on iPhones when they first came out?[1]
1\. [https://www.wired.com/2008/07/pervert-
alert-j/](https://www.wired.com/2008/07/pervert-alert-j/)
~~~
tomschlick
Pretty sure that's by law in Japan.
~~~
saagarjha
As far as I can tell, it's merely convention and not the law to have this
sound in Japan.
~~~
mbreese
Here’s an article that seems to explain this better. Not sure if it is
accurate, but I think it is. TLDR; it is a carrier requirement for the market.
Not a law, but still a required feature.
[https://articles.inqk.net/2018/02/09/japan-iphone-
shutter.ht...](https://articles.inqk.net/2018/02/09/japan-iphone-shutter.html)
------
notus
But it's my camera
~~~
social_quotient
This should be the top comment.
If a car mfg forced driving lights remotely and killed your ability to run and
operate the car without the driving lights I feel like this issue would get
more clear resistance. The workarounds are cute but the alarming issue is that
we paid for these things with XYZ capabilities and specifically someone
thought this feature was good enough to build and ship and maintain for years.
Now that feature is removed, I guess this invalidates the previous use case to
have had it. It seems fair that new cameras would have this “feature” baked
in, old cameras notta. Same use case for the car scenario.
~~~
qball
>If a car mfg forced driving lights remotely and killed your ability to run
and operate the car without the driving lights I feel like this issue would
get more clear resistance.
This actually already happens: case in point, Tesla
([https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/attachments/notifications-
co...](https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/attachments/notifications-copy-
jpg.289910/)).
I find the lack of negative press over this disturbing, to say the least- this
_will kill_ someone someday.
~~~
bigiain
Tesla have also shown themselves to be untrustworthy with this capability:
[https://electrek.co/2016/03/05/tesla-hacker-musk-
replies/](https://electrek.co/2016/03/05/tesla-hacker-musk-replies/)
------
BuddyKallipygos
What use case are they trying to solve for? It's confusing to me. Especially
this:
>On Nest Cam, Dropcam, and Nest Hello, the status light will blink when the
camera’s live video is streamed from the Nest app. The setting to turn this
off will be removed.
So now someone trying to break into my house will know that no one is looking
at them on the camera so it's all clear?
Edit for formatting, sorry, I don't post ever.
~~~
peteretep
> What use case are they trying to solve for?
Watching a house-guest/renter getting naked
~~~
ridaj
No, because that's worked around with tape on the led. I think the use case
that they are trying to solve for is to avoid camera owners unintentionally
recording activities of other people who are unaware that they are being
recorded, and then ending up with footage that they probably wished they
hadn't captured because it makes them feel pervy. Maybe parent setting it up
for security but ending up with videos of their teenage kid making out...
------
SethTro
This is a great change particularly with respect to guests being in other
houses (visiting friends, Airbnb, ...)
~~~
WrtCdEvrydy
So no more /r/airbnbporn?
------
cracauer
Those LEDs should be in-series with the camera's sensor power circuit. No
software control at all.
------
cptskippy
Just so we understand it correctly. The LED is software controlled and
therefore it being illuminated or dark signifies only that it's illuminated or
dark and nothing more.
------
hexo
"When the camera is on, the status light will glow blue." Blue?? Really?! At
least - one can always use black tape and "turn it off" for good.
------
jakewalker
We use Nest cams for a baby/child monitor at nighttime. Haven’t seen the
change yet, but I suspect it will make it so that this use case no longer
works.
~~~
timdorr
Just put a small bit of electrical tape over the LED. Problem solved.
~~~
ALittleLight
I think some people prefer the asthetics of their electronics without tape
------
ru999gol
I'm the total minority here obviously but anyhow..
First of all if you have a camera indicator light that you can turn off in the
software what you have is a very fundamental lack of understanding in the
first place. There is no point in indicator lights at all if you are let them
be controlled by software.
Second anyone who is using a cloud camera has automatically forfeit all right
to his or her privacy, if you are this monumentally idiotic this insanely
stupid to trust a random cloud provider with hundreds to thousands of hours of
footage of your private home, you are so irresponsibly ignorant you should be
arrested for it. Your children should sue you for the horrible privacy
violation you committed on them and you should have to go to prison.
~~~
Dayshine
Uh, we're talking mainly about doorbell cameras, or using these cameras for
security.
------
esotericn
I've never seen a nest camera in the wild.
I do however have a little USB webcam with LEDs that cannot be disabled. I
taped over them with black tape so as not to draw attention to the camera. The
proper version of this would just be to like, desolder them or whatever.
Is there any reason this wouldn't work? Perhaps if the camera is forced to be
displayed prominently like on a front door you'd see that it'd been obscured?
~~~
phnofive
Probably depends on the camera board, but mechanically disabling the LED is
either going to mysteriously disable the entire device, or be undetected, or
the designer specifically accounted for that and something else happens.
As long as you’ve got your iron hot, you could replace the LED with a D(iode):
[https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/111219/remov...](https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/111219/remove-
an-led-from-a-circuit)
------
sdca
It should announce its presence on an interval too. What if someone camoflages
the camera in some Christmas lights? What if you're blind?
~~~
knd775
No one would buy this.
------
pronouncedjerry
[https://twitter.com/dontbuynest](https://twitter.com/dontbuynest)
------
css
> As part of that commitment, we explained that you will always see a clear
> visual indicator when your Nest cameras are on and sending video and audio
> to Nest.
Since the LED is now always on, this sounds like a euphemism for "you can't
turn the camera off anymore"
------
anonu
Was there a catalyst for this change?
It's a bit annoying that the byproduct of always being connected is that
companies can control a product you own...
I suppose you don't really own it if it's connected to a cloud service and
that service is 90 percent of the functionality
------
Animats
If they were really concerned about privacy, they'd have a motorized cover for
the camera.
(That has potential as a product. Especially for things like Amazon's inside-
your-house door camera.)
------
t0mbstone
Nothing a little piece of black electrical tape won't solve.
------
FerretFred
In over a year of Nest Outdoor Cam ownership, I can safely say that only one
visitor has noticed our camera, despite its size, design and position. The
lack of a lit LED idiot light has been instrumental in this and now Google
have f _cked it up. So it 's black tape time, and f_ck you Google - stop
making decisions on my behalf!
------
sprite
They should offer to buy back every camera or grandfather in existing cameras.
------
Overtonwindow
Couldn’t you just put a small piece of electrical tape over it?
------
exabrial
Right, unless the CIA asks nicely
------
m3kw9
Black tape
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Why do Makefiles typically not include an uninstall script? - codebeaker
I'm typically a package manager guy, once you start screwing with the status-quo especially on distributions like Ubuntu, things get strange really quickly.<p>Case in point, Redis, the Makefile is so simple, and the code/project so clean and with so few dependencies, there's not even a `./configure` stage, why doesn't it include a `make uninstall`.<p>`make install` must generate a file list to perform the uninstallation, it should be trivial to uninstall those files.<p>Am I missing a trick, is there some way to snatch the file list from `install` and feed it to `rm`, or do they not include an `uninstall` task incase that try to uninstall something that's running (but, even that is a small portion of things which are installed, and surely 9/10 times it would keep running until stopped/rebooted??)<p>Thanks HN!
======
e12e
As for answering the first question, maybe this might be a hint:
[http://sources.redhat.com/autobook/autobook/autobook_109.htm...](http://sources.redhat.com/autobook/autobook/autobook_109.html)
"In our experience, uninstall is not a very useful feature. Automake implements it because it is mandated by the GNU Standards, but it doesn't work reliably across packages. Maintainers who write install hooks typically neglect to write uninstall hooks. Also, since it can't reliably uninstall a previously installed version of a package, it isn't useful for what most people would want to use it for anyway. We recommend using a real packaging system, several of which are freely available. In particular, GNU Stow, RPM, and the Debian packaging system seem like good choices."
Note this refers to GNU Stow[1] which is implemented in perl \-- I much prefer
the xstow variant[2] as it is more self contained. YMMV.
[1] <http://www.gnu.org/software/stow/> [2] <http://xstow.sourceforge.net/>
------
joe_bleau
Debian has checkinstall, maybe it'd work for you? (<http://www.debian-
administration.org/articles/147>)
~~~
codebeaker
> checkinstall
Thats a half-decent idea, nice smart move, and it looks like the authors
motivations weren't dissimilar to my starting point for this query.
I do wonder however if it isn't slightly over-killed, `make install` _must_
generate a list of commands to run, or there should have been some way to
stream the output of `make install` to a text file, that it might be undoable
?
------
eric_bullington
The clean way to use projects like Redis is to unpack them into an "/opt"
directory (either in your home directory or the root file system). Then just
`make` without the install and add that directory to your system path. In that
case of Redis, you have to add the Redis `src` subdirectory to the system path
in order to be able to use the `redis-server` command. You probably know all
this already, but it's really the easiest way to keep track of projects you
build yourself.
I think there is no `uninstall` command included usually because most packages
that are installed using `make install` are system libraries that other
packages depend upon. And so just uninstalling that one package could result
in a broken system. There may be some other historical reason, but that's my
guess.
EDIT: Yes, `checkinstall` is a really cool idea, but I've had a hard time
getting it to work reliably in practice. Building a deb is a complicated
process, so it's not surprising that attempting to automatic that process is
not 100% reliable. But you should try it out, maybe you'll have better luck
that I did.
~~~
e12e
I highly recommend using stow/xstow[1]. Pick a place to "stow" your "out-of-
band" programs, then:
cd <awsome-src-distribution>
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/ && make
make install prefix=/usr/local/opt/<awsome-1.2.3>
cd /usr/local/opt
xstow <awsome-1.2.3>
(aptitude install xstow on Debian & Ubuntu)
Xstow is also small enough to fit it into eg: ${HOME}/opt -- and it is able to
"unstow".
[1] <http://xstow.sourceforge.net/>
edit: formatting
~~~
e12e
To clarify; what (x) stow does, is manage a set of symlinks from/in eg: /usr
or /usr/local to a similar tree under eg: /usr/local/<program-version/, so
that for instance:
/usr/local/bin/<program> -> /usr/local/<program-version>/bin/<program>
Similarly for man, lib etc. If you don't put stuff under /usr or /usr/local
(but, say under /opt or ${HOME}/opt) -- you need to update your paths (PATH,
MANPATH, USER_LD..).
Uninstalling just means removing the symlinks (unstow) and deleting the tree
under /wherever/<program-version>.
This is what I do in my bashrc (which I use across a range of systems, some of
which are mine, some of which I only have a user accounts -- some on Solaris,
most on a flavour of Linux):
# set PATH so it includes user's private bin if it exists
for dir in "${HOME}" "${HOME}/opt" "${HOME}/opt/${unps}"
do
if [ -d "${dir}/bin" ]
then
PATH="$dir/bin":"${PATH}"
fi
# For python binaries, in "default" virtenv:
if [ -d "${dir}/pybin" ]
then
PATH="$dir/pybin":"${PATH}"
fi
# do the same with MANPATH
if [ -d "${dir}/man" ]
then
MANPATH="${dir}/man":"${MANPATH}"
fi
if [ -d "${dir}/lib" ]
then
USER_LD_LIBRARY_PATH="${dir}/lib":"${USER_LD_LIBRARY_PATH}"
fi
if [ -d "${dir}/include" ]
then
USER_LD_RUN_PATH="${dir}/include":"${USER_LD_RUN_PATH}"
fi
done
#Then later:
export PATH MANPATH USER_LD_LIBRARY_PATH USER_LD_RUN_PATH
The part about "pybin" is just becaus I do:
cd ~/opt
mkdir python-venvs
virtualenv --no-site-packages python-venvs/misc
ln -s python-venvs/misc/bin pybin
And can then pip install stuff and have it available without having to worry
about activating a virtualenv etc. I generally keep large packages in separate
venvs -- but install stuff like mercurial in the "misc" one.
Note that the structure of my opt-folder mirrors that of eg. /usr/local, so:
mkdir -p ~/opt/{bin,include,lib,man,share}
(I also have src and xstow in there -- src for source packages I want to keep
around, xstow for xstow-installed packages.)
And to repeat, if you put your xstow tree under /usr/local or somewhere most
likely already in your path, it should "just work" without having to set any
extra variables -- and is more useful for eg: installing a system wide service
(like Redis for production use).
edit: forgot to add export of environment variables to the .bashrc snippet
edit: the "${HOME}/opt/${unps}" points to a directory that contains
architecture specific binaries; the unps-variable, is set to be `uname -ps`
(with some trickery) -- and is then used for finding local binaries and
setting some options like PAGER.
~~~
codebeaker
Stow seems to have a flavor of Mac homebrew about it (more likely the other
way around) everything is compiled and installed into `/Library/Cellar` and
then symlinked into the system path, you can `brew unlink readline`, for
example and it goes away, link it back and it's available to the system again.
The `brew` executable knows about the correct flags to give to `--configure`
within it's own context, so it rarely goes wrong.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Simple is Social - jordaninternets
http://jst.is/2013/03/simple-social/
======
papablogger1992
I think without new features and innovation every one get bored so innovation
is necessary.But they must be user friendly
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ultima IV - kryptiskt
http://www.filfre.net/2014/07/ultima-iv/
======
ascotan
I loved Ultima IV. I think I still have the original cloth map and ankh
somewhere. I believe it came with 5 1/4" floppys for the C64.
You have to remember that at the time, that there were really 3 game media
back then. A) board games like DnD, B) the 8-bit Nintendo/Gameboy and C) the
PC.
The Nintendo was cool and fast paced and was great to play with your friends,
but the PC had all the adventure games. Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure
Bonds, Bard's Tale II, Zork, etc.
PC Adventure games were all MUCH more involved that today's stuff. All the DnD
games had decoder wheels and 500 page journals. You were expected to play it
slow, read the journal entries, and immerse youself in the game. The closest
thing I can think of today that comes close is Skyrim.
Most PC games today are built for kids with ADHD that aren't going to sit down
long enough to use a decoder wheel. Heck, how many people actually read the
quest text in world of warcraft?
Ultima IV actually had pretty good graphics for the time. The UI layout was
really great. Most of the other games of the time were based on the old
"wolfenstein maze" view of a game. Having an top down map was quite
innovative.
There was a lot of 'searching' in Ultima IV. You had to find party members,
you had to find secret doors. You had to find hidden items.
You had to run around do /say job, /say name, /say health, /say quest.. to
every npc in the game to see if they'd tell you something.
Anyway loved the game, but it was built for a different time.
~~~
danielweber
I'm going through all the Ultimas now. (Currently on U5 but I've been busy for
a few weeks.) The sense of world-building is the series is fascinating. With a
minimal amount of space a wide world was developed and it feels to persist a
lot more than in any modern game, where a bunch of spaz happens and then the
game is over.
I'm not sure if having to write down notes in a notebook is something
beneficial to game play, or just a limitation we had to live with. In a modern
game you don't have to remember shit. If Joe tells you to ask Bob, you get a
Quest Item reminding you to see Bob, and Bob has an exclamation point over his
head to remind you to go to him.
(About the article: it bugs me when people alphabetize the virtues instead of
the proper order of HCVJSHSH. ;> )
~~~
PythonicAlpha
Yes, not only space, but also limited hardware. U5 was the last Ultima that
still ran on 64kb of memory -- of course with several floppy discs to swap (a
second floppy drive was a big advantage for that game) -- I think, there where
6 or 8 of them, but you had to swap mainly two (overworld and town disc).
It was the genius of that time, that a game of that size could fit into such
limited hardware (64kB RAM, no HDD, only Floppy drives with 180kB size limit,
<1MHz clock with unbelievable slow 8bit processor (I guess, today they sell
such stuff as a smartcard "SOC" \-- but of course with out the Floppy drive --
even the processors on SD-Cards are faster today, I guess) [Specs from the C64
version, but there existed versions at least also for Apple II with similar
specs (It could even be, that it ran on Apple II with only 48kB) -- and
(later?) of course for IBM PC].
U4 was technically similar to U5 (also several discs to swap and a big world
on limited RAM), U5 did just drove the concept to the technical (and swapping-
endurance-) limits. I think, they doubled the disc number (and so the content,
I think 4->8 discs), improved the combat system (I liked the U5 combat system
the most from all Ultimas I know) and made a new story, that showed the other
side of "righteous" living.
Even, when I never found the time, to finish U5, for me it is still the best
of all time.
~~~
CamperBob2
Speaking of memory issues, I could've sworn that the Apple version of U5
required a 128KB //e. I just went and checked the box on my shelf, and you're
right, it only required 64KB. It's a memory issue -- with _my_ memory --
because I probably wrote about 50% of the code in question. :-P It's cool to
see that people are still enjoying it, though!
~~~
talloaktrees
I would read a blog post about your experiences.
~~~
CamperBob2
It would be about as exciting as any other programmer's blog, I'm afraid. This
guy's other blog entries on Ultima and the history of 8-bit RPGs in general
are outstanding -- see
[http://www.filfre.net/tag/garriott/](http://www.filfre.net/tag/garriott/) for
a lot of fun background details. I'd recommend reading his stuff instead. :)
One correction I'd offer: Richard never received a letter accusing him of
being a "Satanic Perverter of America's Youth," at least not in so many words.
That particular sobriquet was mine, after he made the mistake of letting his
car windows get a bit too dirty. It was hilarious at the time... but I 'fessed
up pretty quickly because he was either genuinely mortified, or doing a great
job of acting like it.
------
jkarneges
"I love to think about it, love the fact that it exists, that Richard Garriott
had the courage to make it — but just thinking about playing it makes me
tired. Like a work of conceptual art, to some extent the real power of Ultima
IV today is just the fact of its existence."
I played the NES version, which was probably a little more tolerable. Even
though it's a slog, it is one of my favorite games at least in concept. I love
how the air vehicle is a hot air balloon that you can't control other than
cast spells to change wind direction. Good times when you run out of MP.
The game is up there with Inindo for the SNES, which is another game that is a
chore to play, but is one of my favorite concepts.
~~~
danielweber
Nit: MP was rapidly regenerated in U4. However, you could run out of _W_ ind
Change spells. ;)
I'm a dork.
~~~
jkarneges
Ah yes, and I remember it not being so much the MP but the herbs needed in
conjunction to cast. Can't make anything simple. :)
------
snake_plissken
The only Ultima game I played was Ultima VII. I love that game. It's one of
the high water marks in computer gaming. I recall being around 7 or 8, playing
it with my younger brother, both of us completely obsessed, but at the same
time unsure of how really to play it. The game-play and world were for the
most part completely open, and immense; you could either talk to every person
you cam across and progress through the game, or you could explore the woods,
dungeons or go to random islands complete with pirates to battle. Then there
were the character development aspects of the game, like if you steal too many
things, your companions will leave you. I loaded it up again a few years ago
after seeing it for sale on GoG. It is timeless in every way. And now I am
feeling very nostalgic :]
Also, was there a secret way to kill Lord British in Ultima IV? I know of two
ways to do it in Ultima VII. You can either surround him with like 8 barrels
of gun powder, or double clicking this anvil thing in his castle while he
stands under it at 12:00 PM every day.
~~~
mratzloff
> _Also, was there a secret way to kill Lord British in Ultima IV?_
The Ultima Wiki actually has an entire page devoted to killing Lord British in
the various games:
[http://ultima.wikia.com/wiki/Killing_Lord_British](http://ultima.wikia.com/wiki/Killing_Lord_British)
------
xiaoma
Of all the 1000+ games I've played from the original Nintendo games on, if I
had to pick a list of five favorites, Ultima IV would be on it. The Ultima
games were impressively ahead of similar games such as the Wizardry series.
All of Wizardry I on consisted of building characters with stats, navigating a
menu-based town with no graphics, taking steps through a first person
perspective dungeon, and fighting monsters. Ultima I on the other hand, had
equivalent dungeons, many towns with top down views and people to talk to, an
overland world a space ship and more. The difference was staggering!
In terms of plot, early Ultima IV was a quantum leap from its predecessors.
Here were the goals in each game:
Ultima I - Kill an evil wizard.
Ultima II - Kill that wizard's evil apprentice.
Ultima III - Kill an evil monster.
Ultima IV - Become an avatar who symbolizes the eight virtues and inspires the
people of the land!
Needless to say, against the backdrop of RPGs with rigid or non-existent
plots, it was refreshing and immersive in a way that would be very hard to
replicate in today's flooded game market. In some ways the frustrating nature
of the game that the author mentioned, like the conversation system actually
made the game _more_ immersive. Since any stray word in a conversation could
be the keyword to unlock further secrets in a conversation with someone else,
I hung on every word. I filled a notebook with notes—"Talk to this person
about mystic armor", "Ask that person about navigation", "Ask the mage in the
woods at Yew about deep magic", and so on. I can certainly see how modern
gamers wouldn't want to go through all of that note-taking or draw their own
maps of dungeons. I probably wouldn't either, now that I'm not eight.
Nonetheless, Ultima was an impressive work of art I'll never forget.
I lived and breathed Richard Garriot's fantastic world for months until I
finally made it to the final question at the bottom of the Stygian Abyss,
ready to open the Codex of Ultimate Knowledge. And I kept getting the damned
answer wrong, which resulted in me being sent back up to the surface and
losing hours of work. Stuck within a single word of victory I finally gave up.
For three years, I didn't play the game. And then one day, somehow all of the
game conversations I'd burned into memory came together and I had it! I felt
confident knew the answer to the last question. I booted the game back up,
fought through the 8 levels of the Abyss, got to the final riddle, and with
trembling fingers, entered my answer.
~~~
danielweber
The raw answer never appears in the game, AFAIK. Smith The Horse was supposed
to tell it to you, or a critical clue, but they forgot that part of the game.
His two talk prompts are both "A" "A".
Smith became a running joke after that; in each game, he would tell you
something critical _for the previous game_.
~~~
xiaoma
Yeah, that was great! I'd almost forgotten about all the inside jokes and
easter eggs. Also interestingly, I tried to edit my stats and Lord British
appeared killed my party for pirating the game.
Good times.
~~~
danielweber
Which Ultima was that? I got scolded by _Beyond Zork_ for messing with stats
and not handling the checksum: [http://danweber.blogspot.com/2008/08/shove-
beyond-zork-under...](http://danweber.blogspot.com/2008/08/shove-beyond-zork-
under-rug.html) control-F for "checksum"
------
drcode
I think one essential part of the Ultima formula was its geometric
discreteness- The world was one in which the physics is broken into motion in
orthogonal directions through discrete cells, and everything in the game
leveraged this fact for maximum effect. It led to a really different gameplay
feel than many modern games. Other games of that era had that as well, of
course, but not many really leveraged it as well (Boulderdash and Archon would
be two other highlights)
Some modern games of course also use this approach to physics (Advance Wars
comes to mind) but it is far less common.
~~~
jeffmk
As someone who's never played this series, can you give more detail about what
this means?
~~~
math0ne
I think this is just the most complicated description of "grid system" I have
ever heard.
------
bcRIPster
Ultima IV was awesome. Here's text maps that were passed around from when the
game first came out. Designed for 80-column, tractor-feed output. Just print
them out, and tape them together. Woot! =)
World maps:
[http://www.kitchencloset.com/home/bryan/text_files/ultima_IV...](http://www.kitchencloset.com/home/bryan/text_files/ultima_IV__world_map__part_1.txt)
[http://www.kitchencloset.com/home/bryan/text_files/ultima_IV...](http://www.kitchencloset.com/home/bryan/text_files/ultima_IV__world_map__part_2.txt)
[http://www.kitchencloset.com/home/bryan/text_files/ultima_IV...](http://www.kitchencloset.com/home/bryan/text_files/ultima_IV__world_map__part_3.txt)
[http://www.kitchencloset.com/home/bryan/text_files/ultima_IV...](http://www.kitchencloset.com/home/bryan/text_files/ultima_IV__world_map__part_4.txt)
City maps:
[http://www.kitchencloset.com/home/bryan/text_files/ultima_IV...](http://www.kitchencloset.com/home/bryan/text_files/ultima_IV__city_maps__part_1.txt)
[http://www.kitchencloset.com/home/bryan/text_files/ultima_IV...](http://www.kitchencloset.com/home/bryan/text_files/ultima_IV__city_maps__part_2.txt)
------
morsch
CRPG Addict is replaying all computer RPGs - yes, _all_ of them -- in
chronological order and writes about his experiences. Here's his first post of
many on Ultima 4: [http://crpgaddict.blogspot.de/2010/04/game-16-ultima-
iv.html](http://crpgaddict.blogspot.de/2010/04/game-16-ultima-iv.html)
If you've got any other 80s era CRPGs you want to read about, the likelihood
of him having played it and written about it in-depth is pretty much 100%.
------
hyperion2010
Damn, it would seem that I need to play this. After playing Fallout 2 my dream
was the play a game like that set... in a fictional renaissance Italy with
more tech and maybe some magic. There would be no evil in the world. Just the
possibility to raise one town or family above the others and at the end of
your life/game have a retrospective on how your actions made a difference in
the world.
Maybe dwarf fortress can get us close to this, because to pull it off you need
a reference history (or rather set of histories) from which to compare. But
the idea of being able to see whether you as an individual can actually make
an impact on a simulated world seems incredibly valuable and educational.
Sadly most cRPGs today have completely forsaken the idea of truly simulating
the world in favor of narrow story telling. What happened to games made by
programmers?
------
samstave
My first ever computer game that I got into was Utima II on the Apple ][e.
I have played every Ultima since. I was also in beta and then a long time on
UO -- which for me was my golden age of gaming as I worked in the Intel Game
lab and played 4 accounts on 4 machines side-by-side on what was one of the
fastest corporate inet connections at the time!
I still reminisce about Ultima and UO a lot.
I still think I have the Ultima V cloth map somehwere... I used to be fluent
in the Rune Alphabet when I was in 7th? grade and my buddy morgan and I would
write school notes in the Runes...
EDIT: in one of the Ultima games, I recall finding a bug where you could dupe
ships -- I had oceans full of ships that I could use to bridge between
continents/islands...
Anyone recall this dupe bug and how it was done?
~~~
davidjhall
I seem to remember you could board enemy ships at sea? Something like you
would sail out, X-It your boat and stand on the enemy ship and then board it.
The enemy ship would still be there "underneath" and you would have another
ship you could use.
~~~
xipho
This! I remember it as well. Edit -> pretty sure it was II, or III... hell I
don't remember, can picture it though. What about dropping a coin in the lake
in I to get a random weapon, do it enough times and your puny starting
character gets a blaster (most powerful weapon).
~~~
danielweber
In U2 you get ships by having some item that lets you "take over" the ship,
and then by a pretty easy bug[1], duplicate the ship repeatedly.
[1] It was hard to _not_ exploit the bug.
------
pimlottc
Nostalgia trigger warning: Classic PC games
Seriously, there should be a warning--I just lost a few working hours. I don't
think I've ever seen so much well-written, well-researched content about
classic PC gaming and interactive fiction on a single site. Bravo!
------
reboog711
I loved all the Ultima games. But, as others have said; I can't imagine
putting in that much time today. [Because I'm old with responsibilities and
can't spend 8-10 hours a day on a game for weeks at a time].
A few others mentioned cloth maps; so at the risk of tooting my own horn; here
is the "Jewel" of my collection; a cloth map for the First Ultima game,
apparently only released in Japan and very rare:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kMprGHococ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kMprGHococ)
------
acomjean
The game stands in contrast to Ultima 3 (which I loved as well).
Ultima 3 you could go into a city fight and loot, then leave and go back
again, and everything would be back to the way it was before.
I remember exchanging hints with friends also playing.. I can't believe I
finished it. Those games where hard.
Some of the difficulty (and complaints in the article) was the lack of hand
holding and guidiance the game gave you. Given the limited hardware of the
time (64K memory...cpus of 1 -10 megaHz) these games were astounding.
~~~
danielweber
U4 reset cities, too, although the virtue penalties to massacring a town could
be severe.
In U5, you could permanently kill off city residents, even residents who still
hadn't given you a critical piece of information or equipment.
------
danielweber
_the only place where Ultima IV does even lip service to the idea that there
can be conflicts between its virtues, debate about their merits, is in those
questions that open the game_
There are some actions in game where you might have to choose one virtue over
another. Such as running from battle versus being victorious in it. If you
weak enough, you might have to take some karma-hits on the chin.
------
JeremyReimer
This was one of the first games I ever played on my brand new Packard Bell XT,
with its tiny orange monochrome monitor running SIMCGA to simulate a 320x200
4-color CGA screen.
It was a cracked copy, and so I didn't have a cloth map. Instead, I would use
the in-game map "gems" to show a tiny part of the map, sail a little bit
further, use it again, and so forth, all the time drawing a complete map of
the world in pencil.
I also didn't have a manual, and so I didn't know how to mix reagents to make
spells. In one town I had to get past a magical barrier and didn't know how to
make the "dispell" spell. I ended up writing a poor man's map editor in
QuickBasic, finding the hex code that corresponded to the wall, then using a
hex editor to zap that section out of existence. I figured that was some
pretty powerful magic right there.
While in the hex editor I found a strange bunch of text, including the words
"Note: you can't win!" and "Yvonne Yu has big balls!" The latter was in the
world map and manifested itself as a giant structure in the southeast ocean
consisting of dozens of writhing characters floating in the sea.
I took painstaking notes, writing down every possible hint I received from
every person in every city. It took months. I became somewhat obsessed with
the game, thinking about it during all hours.
At one point I realized I wanted to equip all my party members with magic
bows. I did this by going to the bridge just to the east of Castle Brittania
and walking over and over until trolls appeared. Shoot, get treasure, walk
back to Britain and sell, rinse and repeat. Over and over. I did get those
bows though.
Eventually I made it to the depths of the Stygian Abyss and faced the final
question. That's when the game bugged out and would say nothing more than "It
looks like you could use a good horse!" repeatedly. I figured this was Yvonne
Yu's handiwork. Damn you, Yvonne Yu, wherever you are!
A few years later I saved up enough to buy the Ultima 1-6 collection, which
included all the games on a single CD with manuals and many of the cloth maps,
and a single token (the metal coin with the virtues symbol on it from Ultima
V). Disappointed that it wasn't the ankh, I went and bought an ankh on a chain
from a street vendor and wore it a couple of times before it started feeling a
bit weird.
Anyway, I went back, using my handwritten notes, and finished Ultima IV
completely, getting the end scene noted in the article.
Ultima IV was my favorite game for a long time. Even then I knew there was
something special about it.
~~~
saraid216
> Eventually I made it to the depths of the Stygian Abyss and faced the final
> question. That's when the game bugged out and would say nothing more than
> "It looks like you could use a good horse!" repeatedly.
I haven't played the game, but this struck me as suspiciously relevant:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8022817](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8022817)
------
tunesmith
Ultima IV and Infocom's Sorcerer are the only two games I remember
solving/finishing without taking any hints. I remember both as hugely
satisfying experiences. I even called the company to ask for an extra ankh so
I could give it to my girlfriend. :-)
~~~
danielweber
I came _really_ close to finishing U5 without any outside help whatsoever, but
I didn't even realize there _was_ a harp puzzle. :/
~~~
djur
The 'bad ending' to U5 is probably the cruelest in video game history,
considering how hard Dungeon Doom is, and how you have exactly one chance to
learn about the very existence of the sandalwood box from a single character
that you're not supposed to trust and who will only talk to you if you tell
them a password you get by doing something extremely unvirtuous...
I'm pretty sure that you were intended to get through the entire game without
finding the sandalwood box, get the bad ending, and go back and replay the
whole thing the right way. That's how you got value for your dollar in those
days.
The sandalwood box in U5 is right up there in the pantheon of obscure paths to
victory in games, along with the numerous unwinnable states in King's Quest V
(eating the pie, not saving the mouse) and the legendary Grandmaster Ending in
Wizardry IV (itself arguably the hardest RPG in gaming history).
~~~
danielweber
At least in U5, if you clear a dungeon room it stays cleared, so the next time
through Dungeon Doom is lot easier.
U4 really kicked us in the crotch, though, with its "INFINITY" riddle ending.
There was only an extremely vague way of figuring it out: each time you would
get an eighth, a runic letter would be put on the screen. But reading runes
wasn't really required for U4, so at the time I didn't even _recognize_ them
as runes.
Entirely by coincidence, I had a card where I had all the virtues listed
horizontally, and I manually drew the "weird symbols" I saw at the bottom.
When you play U5 you get good enough to read runes by heart, and I glanced at
that card once and _immediately_ saw the answer leaping out at me.
------
thisjepisje
I have Ultima: Runes of Virtue for game boy lying around somewhere. Worth
checking out?
~~~
mratzloff
Ultima IV and Ultima VII: The Black Gate are widely regarded as the high
points of the series. The Runes of Virtue games are mostly forgotten
afterthoughts, but they're supposed to be decent games for what they are
(action-adventure games). They're not representative of the mainline series,
however.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Extending Markov to Hidden Markov - samanthabraden
http://www.edupristine.com/blog/hidden-markov-modeling
======
samanthabraden
Markov model is great tool for predicting and modeling systems where discrete
events happen in discrete time-steps. There are some special cases though
where we are interested in states underlying the events observed, and events
do not map to states in one-to-one or one-to-many fashion as had been
requirement so far. Hidden Markov Model (HMM) where unknown hidden states are
of interest but correspond to multiple observed states
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Judge Rejects Settlement in Hiring Suit Against Google, Apple and Intel - cjdrake
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/09/technology/settlement-rejected-in-silicon-valley-hiring-case.html?action=click&contentCollection=Technology®ion=Footer&module=MoreInSection&pgtype=article
======
geebee
I'm really glad to see the judge has rejected the settlement. People seemed
very surprised with it.
I see three main perspectives here. The members of the class want compensation
and justice. The lawyers want to be paid. And a larger group, ranging from
engineers who are not part of the class to the public in general, wants to be
sure that a small group of powerful CEOs and other inside players don't
collude illegally against the workforce.
The lawyers are obviously very risk averse. They have a crack at a huge amount
of money, virtually guaranteed as long as they settle. It's so much money that
the would rationally accept a small fraction of the possible win at trial.
The class wants compensation, but the individual cut is small enough that
there is probably more incentive to go to trial. If someone offered me 50
million or a 70% chance at 300 million, I'd hesitate. Really. Because there
isn't that big a difference in my life between those two numbers - in a way,
it's a choice between a life guaranteed free from any financial worry, or
merely a good chance of it. But remove a bunch of zeroes, offer me 5,000 or a
70% chance at 30,000, and I'd take the latter. This, I think, represents the
difference between the lawyers and the class (and it's why so many people
think the whole approach is broken and should be handled by a federal or state
prosecutor).
Lastly, of course, there is the use of litigation as a way to pry information
out of companies that would prefer to keep it quiet. While the public may in
general not have a specific stake in this, everyone has an interest in
preventing collusion. This class, as it stands to gain nothing but
information, would probably take the highest risk approach. They'd like to see
a heavy penalty, but most important to them is the litigation itself and the
information that comes to light.
I'm in the third group, so obviously I'm happy to see this. But my guess is
that a lot of the engineers in the class would prefer a higher risk strategy
as well. Money in compensation is nice, but most of the engineers affected
here are probably reasonably successful financially, but they must be pretty
angry, with the companies and with this settlement.
------
imd23
This is getting good. Finally. I love Steve and menu other top execs, but even
prison fits rasonably here.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What to do in a household where self-isolating could be difficult? - badrchoubai
======
sigmaprimus
Find a roommate? Or is that the problem? I think the question needs to be a
bit more specific.
~~~
totetsu
Possibly the roommate is the problem? Shared kitchen/bathroom etc.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Low Fat Computing - peter_d_sherman
http://www.ultratechnology.com/lowfat.htm
======
peter_d_sherman
Excerpt:
"His programming style is thoughtful. He thinks about the problem a lot and
writes very little code. He thinks it through again and rewrites the code. He
objects to letting too much code accumulate from historic reasons and likes to
rewrite. _He is the most productive programmer I have ever seen yet he has
only written about 15K of code in the last fifteen years._ He has rewritten it
a number of times. It is quite amazing and has almost no fat. The people who
buy or sell six figure VLSI CAD software sometimes get very upset by his ideas
of giving away his ideas and tools so that children could play a VLSI CAD game
under OK on their workstation in a mouse and simulate and print state of the
art chip designs."
(Note: 0K is probably a typo... the author probably meant 10K... but either
way, _that 's small_...)
~~~
eesmith
[https://yosefk.com/blog/my-history-with-forth-stack-
machines...](https://yosefk.com/blog/my-history-with-forth-stack-
machines.html) gives an often-referenced (9 submissions to it on HN) counter-
commentary to Jeff Fox's essay.
> The tiny VLSI toolchain from the epigraph? I showed Chuck Moore's
> description of that to an ASIC hacker. He said it was very simplistic – no
> way you could do with that what people are doing with standard tools.
> But Chuck Moore isn't doing that, under the assumption that you need not to.
> ...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What are the best (free if possible) Wordpress themes for coding blogs? - kexari
Hey, wanting to start blogging about my code learning and wondering what Wordpress themes people use for this? I guess I'm looking for something minimal which will look good with crayon plugged in https://github.com/aramk/crayon-syntax-highlighter. Looking forward to hearing your suggestions!
======
Cozumel
I've used this one
[https://wordpress.org/themes/commodore/](https://wordpress.org/themes/commodore/)
very retro!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Drought-Stricken California Communities Consider Desalination - MilnerRoute
http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2015/03/09/drought-california-desalination
======
steven2012
I've heard that it's the farmers that are taking up the bulk of the water, and
if they weren't planting water-intensive crops like pistachio nuts and
almonds, we wouldn't be in a drought. Is this correct, or just hogwash?
~~~
EdwardDiego
Do people in California water their lawns? Cosmetic grass must be one of the
biggest users of urban water - the last time I left our sprinkler system on
for a day (I turned them on to humour our landlords, never turned them on
since), it drained our 2500L tank, which is not ideal when you 'only' get 900L
a day.
I like the Las Vegas approach of painting rocks green, no watering and best of
all, no mowing.
~~~
ouchy
If all Californians stopped watering their lawns, the state's water situation
would remain almost wholly unchanged. It's an incredibly minor contributing
factor.
Most of the laws passed mandating reduced watering are done primarily to
satisfy the electorate that "something is being done," so they don't notice or
care that groundwater supplies are being rapidly depleted in the interest of
making billions off nut sales:
[http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/11/almonds-
water...](http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/11/almonds-water-
walnuts-pistachios-california-drought-charts)
~~~
sanswork
While I agree that lawn watering regulations in most places will do very
little to actually help conserve water directly I think it goes a long way to
making water shortages real to people. It's very hard to believe there is a
serious issue when everywhere you look sprinklers are going. Being forced to
conserve water in a simple way like that probably isn't going to be a direct
benefit but getting people thinking about it more by it directly affecting
their lives definitely can be.
~~~
zaroth
I think just the opposite. You pass a law and _think_ you've done something,
but actually the problem remains exactly as large as is was the day before.
And now you have another excuse for more bureaucracy, call lines for snitching
on neighbors, excuses to fine people exorbitant fees which can hit a family
very hard, etc. I think it's the worst possible action we could take.
There was a period in Bay Area about a year ago, before some of the more
strict regs were enacted, when the local papers were running front page
stories almost daily about water shortage and the city's refusal to implement
"common sense policies" and other such nonsense. No one said a peep about that
bag of almonds which wasted as much water as your entire house would use that
month, lawn watering included.
I see it as a means of subjecting the population toward ever increasing levels
of scrutiny, control, and government interference. The drought is just an
excuse. The policy has zero meaningful impact except to expand government
largess and the populace's willingness to kowtow to authority.
~~~
sanswork
For most people sure they will stop watering their lawn pat themselves on the
back and be done with it. You won't ever get action from those people though
so we can ignore them. There is a smaller group that will be annoyed that they
are having to make sacrifices when industry/agriculture isn't and those people
will be pushed to be more active.
Does it guarantee improvements? Nope, but it does get more people on the side
of conservation.
Any way to improve it would require increasing levels of government
interference. Clearly people(industry included) aren't willing to self
regulate their water usage or they would already be doing so.
~~~
ouchy
It gets people _thinking_ they're conservationists. It doesn't necessarily
make them conservationists. In fact, I'd argue it has tended to produce the
opposite effect, because it creates a mental barometer based on the wrong
indicators.
And any way to improve it may require increasing levels of government
interference, but increasing levels of government interference ≠ improvement.
I know it sounds obvious when put that way, but too many people fall into the
trap of thinking that because something must be done, anything must be done.
And, that because something was done, it was a good thing. Which is seldom
true, unfortunately.
~~~
sanswork
I agree it will make lots of people think their conservationists when in
reality they are just retweeters/fb likers but I disagree that it won't
actually lead more people to being actual conservationists.
>And any way to improve it may require increasing levels of government
interference, but increasing levels of government interference ≠ improvement.
Agreed but I think increasing interference in the "wrong"(as in not most
effective place I.E. watering lawns) place will put pressure on them to also
put pressure on the right places so the people under the first problem don't
feel like they are over contributing.
That said I've not read any studies on this so really I'm just guessing blind
here.
------
ghshephard
Desalination is a no-brainer for residential use. Less than $0.50/1000 liters
to generate, and, on the coast, transport costs are low.
~~~
bronson
It's only a no-brainer as a last resort. Your number is preposterously low,
and desal's environmental costs are pretty high. Where possible, conservation
is a better plan.
Here in California, desalination runs about $2000-$3000 per acre-foot, so your
number is more like $1.60-$2.40/1000 litres. (For comparison, I pay around
$5/HCF for rainwater from my city, which is $1.70/1000 litres.)
And even that price doesn't include externalities. Desalination takes a huge
amount of energy, and the salt doesn't just disappear. It gets pumped back
into the ocean along with chemicals:
[http://www.paua.de/Impacts.htm](http://www.paua.de/Impacts.htm)
~~~
ghshephard
The Tuaspring desalination plant at S$ $0.45/m^3 in Singapore, 318,500
m^3/day. [1]. At 1233 m^3/acre foot, that's $399/acre foot. Not that useful
for the central valley, because it's expensive to transport, but fine for the
coastal cities.
The technology has advanced a lot recently, so older plants (or plants that
were started a while ago), might be more expensive.
It's even cheaper just to recycle water, so that's another option in the
toolkit for the California Cities.
Conservation has it's place, efficiency even more so, but for residential use,
with a bit of planning, it's entirely reasonable for an individual to consume
200 liters/day.
[1] [http://www.waterworld.com/articles/2013/09/singapore-s-
secon...](http://www.waterworld.com/articles/2013/09/singapore-s-second-
desalination-facility-set-to-open-with-combined-power-plant.html)
------
stephentmcm
This is a great idea. Victoria, Australia built one and the drought conditions
immediately abated making the entire thing pointless. I'm sure someone here
can find a term for describe the sense of 'fate' created by seeing something
created to protect against a now non-existent issue.*
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_Desalination_Plant](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_Desalination_Plant)
*I realise Australia as a whole is likely to lapse into drought again and make having a desal plant good but until then it's amusing.
~~~
vondur
This too happened here in California. The city of Santa Barbara build a
desalination plant, and it opened just in time for the drought to end. It's
been unused since 1991, they are now planning to get it up and running again.
~~~
Dylan16807
Now? What took so long?
~~~
bronson
Because there was no need. Reservoirs were full and residents conserved:
[http://www.santabarbaraca.gov/gov/depts/pw/resources/system/...](http://www.santabarbaraca.gov/gov/depts/pw/resources/system/sources/desalination.asp)
FWIW, this explains why it will take 20 mil to get it back on line:
[http://www.noozhawk.com/article/santa_barbara_desalination_p...](http://www.noozhawk.com/article/santa_barbara_desalination_plant_water_drought_20140131)
One eye-opener: reverse osmosis membranes break down with disuse so they were
sold to Saudi Arabia.
------
mrinterweb
If the drought in California is a continuing trend, which many believe will be
the case, desalinization may be the only option. Desalinization requires a lot
of energy and that demand could be met by solar and potentially, in the near
future, fusion energy. [http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/products/compact-
fusion.htm...](http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/products/compact-fusion.html)
~~~
zachrose
Hopefully! Otherwise the energy needs will be met with fossil fuels that
exacerbate climate problems that desalination is trying to be a solution for.
------
lisowski
Vice did an excellent mini-doc on the issue. They do a good job of covering
the problems, effects, and solutions. It is such a complicated situation!
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmUwjk4S3gw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmUwjk4S3gw)
------
gojomo
Another thing I expect California to eventually try: geoengineering far out in
the Pacific, to create extra winter storms.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why Black Hole Interiors Grow (Almost) Forever - digital55
https://www.quantamagazine.org/why-black-hole-interiors-grow-forever-20181206/
======
c1ccccc1
I wonder what definition of "volume" Susskind is using here? Something
coordinate independent, presumably, though I don't really see how it's
possible to get around the issue of GR allowing many equally valid slices of
spacetime to be called "the present moment". Also, they can't be referring to
the Schwarzschild metric here, since that's static, and the article states
that the volume is increasing over time. It has to be some more complicated
solution that describes the collapse of a star into a black hole. Maybe the
Schwarzschild metric is the end state of such a collapse process and has
infinite volume according to Susskind's definition, though that's just
baseless speculation.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How to drive in India (2015) - nilsocket
http://theforeignchallenge.com/how_to_drive_in_india/
======
virtualwhys
I visited India for the first time last year, in early March. Spent 2 weeks
traveling by train through the north of India, and then planned on settling in
Rishikesh for 1 month or so.
Rented a scooter and began to experience India roads directly (i.e. not as a
passenger in a taxi/tuk tuk). Was chaotic, but certainly doable if you paid
attention; that is, until a giant black bull cow came charging through
oncoming traffic directly at me.
I steered sharply to my right to avoid getting killed, which was effective in
terms of saving my life, but not so effective in terms of preserving my
ability to walk. Lying in the sweltering hot afternoon sun with a complete
fracture of the hip, a few kind locals dragged me to the side of the road,
where I lost consciousness, leaving this body/mind for some eternal realm that
I cannot describe.
Eventually I came back to this world and an ambulance arrived, whereupon I was
refused surgery at the local hospitals (3 in total) and summarily shipped down
to Delhi on an 8-hour hell ride, with the young drivers smoking hash and
pumping the loudest Indian hip hop to provide some ambiance.
Really, it was the stuff of movies, but it was real life, and somehow I came
through it all -- am more or less back to normal, walking, just with a bunch
of metal in my hip.
In hindsight the entire experience was like India: extreme, full on, and
holding nothing back -- hang on, it's going to be a wild ride :)
~~~
gruez
>whereupon I was refused surgery at the local hospitals (3 in total)
did they say why?
~~~
thisisit
This happens quite frequently because hospitals tend to fear repercussions.
First, they fear the overzealous police who might ask for bribes because they
admitted an accident victim.
Second, they fear mob violence. If even a small thing goes wrong people tend
to go on a rampage - breaking stuff and harassing people.
Third, lack of awareness and general apathy of law. Most cases in India tend
to run for years altogether. So, while there is a legal framework for such
cases many hospitals are not aware of it or they just want to avoid making
court trips for years.
~~~
test1235
> police who might ask for bribes because they admitted an accident victim
I get that police look for any excuse to pick up bribes, but what's the reason
for hassle over accident victims?
~~~
thisisit
Once an accident victim is taken to the hospital a legal case has to be made.
It is called medico legal case. And the hospital needs to inform the nearest
police station. This to ensure that no accident gets brushed under the rug.
Police then has to do an investigation into the matter and find out the exact
details.
if the hospital doesn't draw up a mlc document then they can be sued for
malpractice. But if they do and these things go to court they have to make
multiple appearances to provide details of the case.
This fact is used by the police to pick up bribes.
The interesting thing is that even hospitals are not above trying to extort
people. MLC filings are supposed to be free but hospitals like Apollo etc
charge extra 2-5k to admit a MLC case.
------
thisisit
Couple of things which needs to be added:
Never get into an accident in India. First, if you driving a car mob will
surround and harass you. Second, in case you get away from the mob, police
will come and harass you. And things get worse if they perceive you as an
outsider.
Here's an anecdote which happened with a friend:
While taking one of these mentioned u-turns and ensuring that he was honking
constantly, a bike coming from the wrong side hit his car. A mob quickly
formed and people started abusing him for being a reckless car driver. He
makes it to the accident site with difficulty. There were two people riding
the bike. Both had bruises. But the pillion rider was not wearing a helmet,
something which is against the law in Bangalore.
He took both guys to the hospital. After X-rays and brain CT scan (for the
pillion rider) it turns out the rider was fine with some minor bruising and
gets first aid. But the pillion rider had a fracture. So, the bike rider's
family started to threaten my friend. When he pointed out their mistakes -
coming from wrong side and not wearing a helmet, they change their tactic and
demand money instead.
Now, in India most of the time accident cases are settled on-spot with cash.
Even the authorities, police etc, also force people to settle by paying cash
to avoid work (and they take money from both parties too).
But the amount demanded by family is too high. "You are an IT guy" they tell
my friend which is an euphemism for ultra-rich in Bangalore. My friend refuses
to pay any money and asks for police to be called for due process.
Then these guys started shoving and verbally assaulting him. And because of
the language barrier it is difficult for him to ask anyone nearby for help,
not that anyone wanted to help.
So, he tells them to allow him to go home and get money. He went back and
hired a lawyer to save himself. But, two weeks since, he still gets
threatening calls. Police is not interested in the case and tells him to
settle "amicably".
~~~
jguimont
And that is why when I went there for business, my company insisted on hiring
a driver for the whole month. He was a phone call away and was driving me all
over the place, anywhere I wanted.
(that's also why most politician or people in high places get a driver)
~~~
mothsonasloth
Yea I had a driver when I was in Chennai, it was enjoyable being in an air
conditioned Toyota Landcruiser. Was totally worth the extra £10 a day for the
company expenses :D
~~~
nojvek
Yeah India is a country where there’s so many people that sometimes it’s
shocking to see when they don’t value human life and start squeezing out
everything they can.
Definitely don’t drive in India, get a driver.
------
nlh
I visited India in 2017 and while I didn't get to drive, I spent a lot of time
in cars/tuk-tuks/busses and got a keen sense of the driving conditions.
I actually quite liked them! (I know, this sounds crazy).
It's absolute and utter chaos, but the thing is -- people pay attention.
Drivers are not dazed off listening to a podcast or fixing their makeup or
texting. They're keenly aware of the space around their vehicle and they react
quickly to (the constantly changing) road conditions -- it's a matter of
Darwinian survival.
I actually found driving back in the US more frustrating once I returned.
There's just so much ... indignance. If a car needs to cut across 2 lanes
(which happens!) - other drivers in the US flip out: they lean on the horn,
they shake their fists, they rage. "How dare that driver do something I didn't
expect!"
I think we'd all be better served if we were forced to be more active and
aware while behind the wheel.
~~~
EB66
> It's absolute and utter chaos, but the thing is -- people pay attention.
> Drivers are not dazed off listening to a podcast or fixing their makeup or
> texting.
They might pay more attention on average, but I've seen _plenty_ of distracted
drivers plowing through traffic in India. I've also had "drivers" where I
discovered it was only their second or third time ever driving a car and here
they were driving me through the heart of Mumbai. There's plenty of driver
negligence on Indian roads.
> If a car needs to cut across 2 lanes (which happens!) - other drivers in the
> US flip out: they lean on the horn, they shake their fists, they rage. "How
> dare that driver do something I didn't expect!"
It doesn't matter where you are, abruptly and unexpectedly cutting across two
lanes of busy traffic is dangerous. It doesn't matter if it's the norm in
India -- if it increases the likelihood of an accident, then it's dangerous.
Don't forget that India has 10x the number of traffic fatalities per vehicle
count as the United States and 20x the number as the Netherlands, Germany,
etc.
IMHO, not accepting reckless driving behavior and "flipping out" to let them
know it's not OK is a good thing in moderation.
------
vmarsy
I think in a lot of the situations, there's a simple rule that Indian drivers
follow, which is like motor boats official rules: the biggest vehicle has
priority.
So when it comes to u-turns, cars won't do a u-turn if there's a van or bus
coming from the other side, but a bus will have no problem starting a u-turn
if there's only a flow of cars and motorcycles coming.
Motorcycles are just expected to flow around, make their u-turn small and
fast.
Same thing when it comes to overtaking on small roads, or when there's those
traffic police barricades at the entry/exit of towns, which reduces the road
size to only one way. At those barricades, people will rarely have to come to
a complete stop: they just look at how big the vehicle in front of them is,
and if it's bigger they'll slow down to give it priority.
For overtaking, in Western countries we'd just consider whether there's enough
space/time to safely overtake (unless you're a driver from the mountain
regions), but in India they also consider who would win if there was a frontal
crash, and the would-be loser will slow down if needed to make sure the bigger
vehicle on the other side can finish overtaking.
The equivalent of the sailing boat in term of priority are the cows on the
road: they get priority over any motor vehicle
~~~
dsfyu404ed
>I think in a lot of the situations, there's a simple rule that Indian drivers
follow, which is like motor boats official rules: the biggest vehicle has
priority.
This is how it works everywhere in the world. In any given ship yard small
fork lifts yield to service trucks which yield to semis which yield to large
fork lifts which yield to freight trains yield to ships. It generally works
quite well unless you ask pedestrians and cyclists in wealthier urban areas in
the west (and I say this as someone who rides trains and walks for my
commute).
~~~
alistairSH
Part of the issue with pedestrians, in the US, is they have priority over
cars/buses/etc. I don't believe this is true in many other parts of the world.
As the smallest, easiest to stop/start, and most likely to be injured, they
probably should yield to other users.
~~~
plussed_reader
It actually depends on the locality; stepping off the curb in Vegas or NYC is
your ass on the line.
~~~
alistairSH
Legally, those cars should be yielding (to pedestrians in a cross-walk).[1]
But, as you mentioned, it varies by state, and the laws are rife with "yield
here, but not there, and only on Tuesdays after a full moon." Would probably
be easier to just say "humans are fragile, cross only when it's clear."
1 - [http://www.ncsl.org/research/transportation/pedestrian-
cross...](http://www.ncsl.org/research/transportation/pedestrian-
crossing-50-state-summary.aspx)
------
jnty
I can only assume that the people who predict that self-driving cars are just
a few short years away from universal adoption have never visited India!
~~~
rlpb
India already has self driving cars. Hire a car and it comes with a driver,
picking you up from wherever you are. You'll get dropped off where you need to
be and the car will find somewhere to park itself. When you want to go
somewhere else, use your phone and the car will come pick you up, or if where
you are is inconvenient for a pickup for whatever reason, you can find
somewhere suitable, describe where you are, and the car will go there. No need
for a smartphone app - a normal phone will do.
AFIACT, the only practical difference between this story and self-driving cars
is that it involves human labor. However that's cheap in India compared to the
West.
The masses however can't afford cars, let alone self-driving cars.
~~~
rohit2412
USA also has chauffers and Uber drivers. So self driving cars are real?
Your argument is as stupid as it comes. Not everyone is upper class and can
hire a driver.
~~~
vivekseth
Are drivers in India limited to just the upper class? Whenever I visit India
it feels like anyone who’s not lower class can afford to hire a driver.
~~~
truncate
I'm from a middle class family in Delhi, and we never had (or could have)
afforded a driver full time. Maybe now, my father can, but it is still
expensive and not worth it. Most middle class families don't have a driver
IMO. Much more common with upper middle class. However, we did hire driver for
couple of days in rural areas every now and then.
~~~
vivekseth
Do you guys hire other kinds of servants for things like
cooking/cleaning/laundry?
------
paulvs
A couple more from around the world (esp. Paraguay): 1\. To drop a passenger
off where there is no street parking, just turn on your hazard lights and stop
in the middle of the road. 2\. In the seconds before a red light turns green,
the cars behind you will honk to get you moving. 3\. Be prepared for squeegee
men at traffic lights who clean your windscreen for coins even if you say no.
4\. Most city parking spots are controlled by guys who "take care" of your car
while you're away for notes (really your car would be better off without them,
they sometimes scratch your car if you don't pay). 5\. Asphalt streets have
preference over cobble stone. 6\. Speed bumps come in all shapes and sizes
(and are not always marked). 7\. Drove through a pothole? Hey, you should've
been looking where you're going. 8\. Pedestrian crossings (zebra crossings)
have no real significance.
~~~
Synaesthesia
>3\. Be prepared for squeegee men at traffic lights who clean your windscreen
for coins even if you say no. 4. Most city parking spots are controlled by
guys who "take care" of your car while you're away
This so much in South Africa.
~~~
reaperducer
And New York. And Chicago. And Houston (the squeegee guys). At least in the
90's and early 2000's.
Thanks to Lyft and Uber, I rarely drive when I'm in cities anymore, so I don't
know if it's still a thing in the U.S.
~~~
pthomas551
It's not - one of the first things Giuliani did in NYC was get rid of the
squeegee men, and other cities followed suit.
------
Krasnol
Coming from an East European country I thought I've seen it all traveling
through Europe where even Italy didn't bother me. Where I come from, road
traffic is a fight. With hate and madness.
Then I went to Egypt. I've been picked up by a local friend on the Airport at
night and I was shocked that once we came upon one of those north/south
highways, the first thing he did was to turn off the lights! From then on he
used them only to blink at the traffic coming towards us. Which made the whole
situation even worse as it was pitch black outside in the desert. But
everybody seems to be very chilled about it This day I learned: there is real
madness on the roads out there but I'd be happy to witness (and survive it)
all. Especially in India and certain other Asian countries where "driving"
seems to be a different way of flowing with the rest but also somehow similar
to a German Autobahn where you can flow with 200kmh and every small mistake
may be the last one you witness.
~~~
maxxxxx
I would never, ever drive in India. I have driven in Cambodia and Laos and
there traffic was chaotic but pretty slow and you could get used to it. India
is on a whole different level. Chaotic, fast and unpredictable. I wonder what
the accident statistics are. When I was there I saw surprisingly few
accidents.
~~~
frandroid
I don't know the numbers, but anecdotally from the people I know, everyone
seems to know multiple people who have died in traffic accidents. Plus you get
the odd bus falling off a cliff every few months or so...
------
RileyJames
> Expect potholes and unmarked speed breakers almost everywhere! A nice
> flawless looking asphalt road can suddenly surprise you with deep potholes ,
> just like someone has thrown a hand grenades on a road. The more rural you
> go the more extreme it can get. You can even find yourself driving inside a
> pothole which has it’s own potholes in it.
Haha, so true. I remember coming to skidding halt in taxi, in a rural area, at
2am. And directly out of the passenger door, was a pot hole. When I say pot
hole, the entire middle of intersection had been torn up. And at the bottom of
the pot hole were three men fixing a pipe, by the light of a fire.
Of course there were no barriers, signs, tape, nothing to show work was going
on.
~~~
mrath
> Expect potholes and unmarked speed breakers almost everywhere
The worst part is people can build speed breakers at their will with their own
spec. I know a person died because an illegal speed breaker was built with
much more than standard height and no marking. The condition is bad, the
accident rates are much higher and not all accidents are reported.
------
hprotagonist
A friend of mine from Mumbai once turned their car off in the middle of the
road, got out, and left out of sheer frustration.
Apparently, nobody seemed to regard this as particularly unusual.
------
0xmohit
> Often when you are pulled over they will try to find a reason to give you a
> ticket ,even when there seems to be no breach of the traffic law.
So true. The policemen know for sure that they'll manage to find _something_
that'll enable them to ask for a bribe. Even if one were to insist on paying
the fine in case of a real violation, they'll ensure that they don't end up
issuing a ticket and grab money _unofficially_ so that they can pocket it.
> Driving at India is similar like driving all the way with brakes applied.
> It’s slow, unpredictable and tense.
Driving in India is stressful. But walking on the roads is even more so. You
may be walking on a one-way road and suddenly a bike travelling in the wrong
direction might run into you. What's worse is that the guy is more likely to
be abusive than sorry.
------
factsaresacred
There's an extremely readable version of this for Chiang Mai here:
[http://www.chiangmailocator.com/wiki-traffic-rules-in-
thaila...](http://www.chiangmailocator.com/wiki-traffic-rules-in-thailand-and-
how-to-avoid-traffic-accidents-p169)
It's as much a window into Thai culture as it is a guide to driving and
contains a few 'aha' insights for those who've ever been perplexed by some of
the traffic etiquette in Asia.
> _The most important factor that influences all Thai traffic behaviour is
> what I call a Thai driver’s ‘Range of Responsibility’. A Thai driver’s Range
> of Responsibility is what he (should) pay attention to in Thai-style,
> basically it 's all that appears in his eyesight without turning his head._
> _Because of the Range of Responsibility is a Thai driver 's implicit leading
> principle, everything else depends on it. "You're in my sight so I adapt to
> you" is the practical solution that Thai traffic society has adopted._
> _Hindering traffic flows is common....time isn’t as valuable as in Western
> societies, there is less of a hurry, there is no concept of opportunity
> costs, and you’re supposed to adapt and accomodate each other rather than
> claiming your rights._
> _Cutting corners is a habit (or skill!) that Thai people have...the focus is
> not on doing things the correct way, but on getting your things done the
> easier way. Another way to understand this behaviour is to realize that it
> is the flow that goes before the rule...expecting others to stick to the
> rules doesn 't work, you better watch the situation as it occurs and adapt._
> _When you engage in Thai traffic, be prepared to take on a double work load:
> think for yourself but also think for others around you._
> _Sometimes traffic doesn 't flow through and just parks in the middle of the
> intersection. The U-turn is Thailand's response to that, it allows traffic
> to gently blend in with the current flow, in other words: it is the Thai
> alternative to let people interact more harmoniously and it is much more
> suitable to Thai culture than open or guarded intersections._
~~~
reaperducer
_time isn’t as valuable as in Western societies, there is less of a hurry,_
This is the opposite of my experience in Bangkok. We were stuck in a taxi in a
traffic jam and all the cars were honking, and the taxi driver was fuming.
But then Bangkok may be different than Chiang Mai.
------
maDdj
People bend traffic rules all over the world. At some point of time even the
ones commenting has broken a traffic rule or two. With 1.3 billion population
and 1/3 sq ft area to that of US, yes space is a commodity in India. I had
been to Italy and driving there is chaotic as well.New york is another classic
example. People in overpopulated areas develop a sense of competitiveness
which evolves and pushes them to the way things are. If people understood the
basis of the problem than just pointing at the problem, we can all make a
better world together.
~~~
kevin_thibedeau
> New york is another classic example
New York driving experience: 90% of the trouble is caused by Uber drivers
(T&LC plated), 9% is caused by yellow cabs. 1% is caused by everyone else.
Those 99% are overwhelmingly immigrants importing their subpar driving culture
into the US.
Driving through the blizzard earlier this year was a dream primarily because
the Ubers were gone.
~~~
subashp
Its survival my friend. Try running your family driving a taxi. May be your
opinion changes then?
~~~
kevin_thibedeau
That's no excuse to threaten other people's safety.
------
asteli
When I was a kid visiting family in Bangalore, a motorcycle hit the rickshaw
we were in. The rickshaw driver and motorcyclist stopped right where they
were, in a large (4-6 lane?) roundabout, and proceeded to argue with each
other for a couple minutes. I still have no idea what they were saying, but
the motorcyclist eventually picked up his bike and left in a huff. For his
part, the rickshaw driver got back in, kicked a huge dent out of the sheet
metal on his rickshaw, and we set off again.
------
stephenhuey
Having lived in Nigeria while growing up (and specifically Lagos part of that
time), I've always been proud of how remarkably exciting it can be to drive
there. My pride swelled considerably when a friend who grew up in India and
also lived in Cairo and other places told me after visiting Nigeria that Lagos
had the wildest driving he had ever seen! As crazy as some find it to be, just
like in many similar places, the drivers seem to find a rhythm to work
together quickly, communicate whereabouts by horn frequently, and thus avoid
accidents more than one might expect.
*edit: "find it to be"
------
onetimemanytime
>> _How to drive in India_
So don't drive, hire someone. The worst thing for a stranger is to have an
accident in such places, between the family of the "victim" and the police
you'll be royally screwed.
~~~
jplayer01
Even if you're not driving, you may be screwed just because you're a foreigner
and you're in the car, but yeah, why would you ever drive in a place like
this?
------
kelvin0
Road rage must be rampant? Or is there a (implied socially) hierarchy which
prevents this most of the time?
~~~
truncate
Power matters more than money I believe. Considerable number of people are
tempered on road (correlates with education background and kind of jobs they
do). So if they think they can harass you, they probably will. You may be
rich, but if you don't look that physically strong or they feel you probably
don't have support of goons or police (which most regular engineer like me
wouldn't), be ready to exchange bunch of verbal abuses or potential fist
fight.
------
npmn2
Ok, I learned to drive in Kanpur, infamous for drivers not following anything.
Driving around there, you felt alive as you needed to constantly scan the road
for potholes, unpredictable vehicles, unannounced speed bumps, running
pedestrians, animals and high beam oncoming traffic with no lane separation.
Bad Side, driving in other cities has painfully boring and an easy task for
me, as you now have lesser variables to worry about.
~~~
mayankkaizen
Kanpur fellow here.
People here wouldn't realize that the situation in Kanpur is far worse than
one would guess from description. :)
------
pretty_dumm_guy
I was recently in India and I noticed something that troubled me. The traffic
signals change on opposite ends very quickly without giving the other side
some time to adapt.
For e.g, When there is a change from green to red at one end, there must be a
time gap in order to make sure all the vehicles have cleared the passage
before changing the signal from red to green at the other end. This doesn't
seem to be the case. I saw at least three minor accidents happen because of
this in a time span of four days while I was in India few weeks ago.
As trivial as it may sound, I think it would help regulate the traffic more if
they implement a better traffic signal system which takes this into account.
~~~
toast0
Having sufficient time where all sides are red in order to clear the
intersection is very useful for safety when traffic is flowing quickly and
when drivers will wait for a green light and check if it's safe to enter an
intersection. From my experience as a passenger in vehicles in Bangalore for a
week around 2010, traffic was rarely flowing fast enough to make a difference;
and I would expect a significant amount of traffic to treat red in all
directions as an invitation to enter the intersection; especially motorcycles
and autorickshaws.
Quote from the article:
> Do not assume that traffic lights will keep order on junctions. Red light is
> just a beautiful color which makes everyday life little more colorful.
------
NTDF9
This really is a great opportunity for an enterprising youngster or a
foreigner to start a consulting company to bring rules into the driving
system.
The way to approach this is: 1\. Create a company, build a small DB of rules
in UK (the closest road cousin to India), Australia and US. Maybe Hongkong to
understand dense cities
2\. Get estimates of costs required to stripe lanes, put traffic lights, green
road signs
3\. Make a list of 10 rich cities/municipalities. Approach their roadworks
dept and propose a plan
4\. Profit
Developing countries these days are willing to throw money at this. They just
want someone to do it efficiently and at low cost.
To see how this worked before, look at Jakarta, Indonesia.
~~~
mlboss
I am not sure if you are joking. There are road signs, stripe lanes and
everything else that you mentioned in India. There are laws for everything.
The problem is nobody follows them. What is missing is enforcement of those
laws. No startup can do that. It has to come from government.
~~~
NTDF9
I'm not joking. A major part of reckless driving there is just that no one
knows what lanes are meant for. Having more striped lanes, better traffic
lights and yes, better enforcement on wheels would help.
But an entire population wouldn't learn what it means to drive in a lane
unless there are real lanes. Simple as that.
------
akshayB
The tick is to keep a small rectangular buffer zone around you and just go
with the flow. Since no one follows any rules or traffic laws you keep an eye
open and always be prepares to adjust based on what others are about to do.
------
gwbas1c
The author didn't mention anything about seat belts.
The first time I got in a car when I landed in India, I had to insist that my
driver pull out the seat belts. I don't think he even knew what the seat belts
were for!
~~~
truncate
I'm mainly lived in Delhi, and haven't been any other big city. Although it is
common in smaller towns/cities to not wear seat belts, but in Delhi you
definitely do, and there is fairly good chance you will get caught.
------
sriacha
One of the most dangerous things I ever did was drive a motorcycle in India,
with no almost no previous motorcycle driving experience. Exhilarating and
very stupid.
------
jotm
I don't get it, if there's laws, but no one follows them, isn't that a great
opportunity to make a lot of money off of everyone? It may go to the
government, it may be pocketed, but it would teach everyone to fucking respect
the traffic laws.
------
known
Avoid driving at night;
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
From Word to Markdown to InDesign: Fully Automated Typesetting Using Pandoc - rhythmvs
http://rhythmus.be/md2indd/
======
Animats
Well, yes, if you dumb your document down to the level of "markdown", it's not
hard to grind them out as plain text with some styling. You can write HTML in
that style, too. People did that 20 years ago.[1] That was the original vision
of HTML.
Some people wanted to stop there, and limit HTML to describing the semantics
of a document, not its visual appearance. They lost.[2]
Pandoc doesn't really use "markdown". It uses "enhanced markdown":
_" Pandoc’s enhanced version of Markdown includes syntax for footnotes,
tables, flexible ordered lists, definition lists, fenced code blocks,
superscripts and subscripts, strikeout, metadata blocks, automatic tables of
contents, embedded LaTeX math, citations, and Markdown inside HTML block
elements."_
Pandoc's "markdown" now has roughly the feature set of HTML 3.
[1]
[http://www.animats.com/papers/articulated/articulated.html](http://www.animats.com/papers/articulated/articulated.html)
[2]
[http://www.w3.org/People/Raggett/book4/ch02.html](http://www.w3.org/People/Raggett/book4/ch02.html)
~~~
jolux
If you prove that those who thought HTML should be exclusively for semantics
and not visual appearance "lost" by linking to a history of HTML that was last
updated in 1998 it makes it seem as if you missed HTML5 when great pains have
been taken to _remove_ visual styling information from HTML in place of
semantic markers.
In fact most of the web developers I speak with regularly agree. The consensus
in recent years is that HTML _is_ supposed to be exclusively semantic and
markup should be styled with CSS.
[http://www.csszengarden.com/](http://www.csszengarden.com/) is this concept
taken to an extreme. Same HTML, same semantics, different styling.
~~~
Animats
The claim was made for HTML5 that it would do that. Some HTML5 page source
does look like that, but not most of it.
~~~
jolux
No, there is a specification for HTML5, and it does exactly what I said it
does. Granted, most "HTML5" is a mix of HTML 4 and HTML5 (sometimes even a
little XHTML) but these are not strict validated sites.
Here, try running a few websites through
[https://validator.w3.org/](https://validator.w3.org/) and see what pops up.
You'd be surprised.
For example, [https://news.ycombinator.com](https://news.ycombinator.com) is
extremely bad HTML5, and if you look at the report on it,
[https://html5.validator.nu/?doc=https%3A%2F%2Fnews.ycombinat...](https://html5.validator.nu/?doc=https%3A%2F%2Fnews.ycombinator.com&showimagereport=yes&showsource=yes)
you can see a bunch of "Use CSS Instead" suggestions. This is the separation
of style from semantics that HTML5 was made to reinforce.
------
rubidium
So 30% of my current job is writing technical user guides for large, custom,
automated research systems (the rest is design and development of those
systems).
Each one is slightly different, and so needs its own guide. We currently are
stuck using Word b/c it's so fast. Yes it's ugly. Yes it's a pain to work with
sometimes. But I haven't found anything that's faster to produce these docs
with.
The reason we haven't switched to html, latex, or xml etc... is because I
haven't found a typesetting program that is as easy to drag and drop images
into and out of. Each guide has 30+ images on average. I _need_ that interface
to be drag and drop otherwise it's too tedious to write the guide. The
formatting of the text I'd love to do in some sort of markup language, but the
images have to be dead simple.
Short version: Anyone know of a typsetting solution with some markup language,
version control, print to PDF happen at click of a button, and drag and drop
images?
~~~
rhythmvs
That’s exactly the sort of use case we are focussing on and building our
automated typesetting service for.¹ You’ll probably also benefit from file
inclusions so that you can keep a library of text snippets, with variables,
keeping them versioned separately, and which you can then re-use and assemble
to form a new, slightly different manual, with the variables automatically
populated at typesetting time.
Could you be more specific on the problem you’re facing with placing images?
Is it that there are like hundreds of them, for which you would want to have
created the references (and ) automatically, because typing
out the file paths manually is too tedious? That is doable, although it would
be more of a drag-and-drop feature to be implemented by a dedicated Markdown
editor, or an ST plugin.
Or would you like to have more fine-grained control over floats, sizing and
placement of the images relative to their place in the text narrative? For
which a WYSIWYG interface is indeed more well suited, re: many document
author’s gripe with TeX’s figure placement.
¹ [http://textus.io/](http://textus.io/)
~~~
rubidium
Glad to hear it.
Here's some bullet point thoughts: 1) Workflow needs to be uber-fast and not
require saving/naming the images (at least at the user level, the program will
of course). Many images are screen shots from SW installs. Workflow goes: Run
SW in VM-> screenshot portion of interest -> Copy+Paste into word doc. I never
even save the image in that case. The rest of the images are photos of HW. I
just want to drag and drop into the document, not rename them all and move
them to a same folder with the document. The document/CMS/program should take
care of that all for me (like Word does).
2) I do need the text and images to match better and be more WYSIWYG. Location
is more important than aesthetics for a guide. It cannot be the abomination
that LaTeX is. LaTeX figures are terrible to work with (and that's having
published multiple academic papers + PhD thesis in LaTeX). Sizing is less
important (that can be [width=x, height=y]).
3) Variables/snippets: Libraries of text snippets and variables is what we do
quite a bit of. Right now with a few kludged together macros and custom Word
doc properties. Lots of docs go "Run the <SW install name> for <device>" with
<> items defined at document level. Sounds like you do this, and it's probably
better than how word does :)
sorry for dumping on ya, but I'm excited to find people working in this space.
It's something I feel like there should be better tools for but just haven't
found yet.
~~~
brazzledazzle
You might be interested in Problem Steps Recorder[0]. Word should be able to
import the resulting mhtml file.
[0] [http://blogs.msdn.com/b/patricka/archive/2010/01/04/using-
th...](http://blogs.msdn.com/b/patricka/archive/2010/01/04/using-the-secret-
windows-7-problem-step-recorder-to-create-step-by-step-screenshot-
documents.aspx)
------
jolux
Is Markdown really "relatively new?" According to Wikipedia, it's older than
OOXML, aka .docx .xlsx .pptx etc.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_Open_XML](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_Open_XML)
~~~
rhythmvs
Relative to widespread brand recognition, I guess, and relative to similar
initiatives. But indeed, Markdown — as in, the concept of _lightweight markup_
— predates the Web and is at least as old as Usenet. I footnote 9, I linked to
my Github repo with Markdown resources; there you’ll find the following
chronology:
\- Setext (Ian Feldman, 1992) \- AFT (Todd Coram, 1999) \- Grutatxt (Ángel
Ortega, 2000) \- atx (Aaron Swartz, 2002) \- AsciiDoc (Stuart Rackham, 2002)
\- MediaWiki (Magnus Manske & Lee Daniel Crocker, 2002) \- reStructuredText
(David Goodger, 2002) \- Org-mode (Carsten Dominik, 2003) \- Textile (Dean
Allen, 2004) \- Markdown (John Gruber & Aaron Swartz, 2004)
~~~
jolux
Yes, I'm quite aware of the history, which is why I thought it was strange
that you referred to it as "relatively new." Otherwise, it's a great post.
~~~
rhythmvs
Thanks! And yeah, if people would only know their history… Relatively new, to
me, unfortunately, means that lightweight markup still is not something which
the broader public is familiar with, not even by its proxy brandname
“Markdown”, even with big outlets (e.g. Reddit) pushing it forward.
------
shortformblog
From the perspective of someone with experience working in the print industry:
This is impressive work, and you nail down the biggest issue with Word—if you
don't use pure style sheets, you get cruddy code. (Google Docs has this
problem, too.)
I think that lots of folks are trying to find different ways to solve this
problem in the print world, especially as stories have to be pulled into CMSes
as well.
Personally, I'd be curious if it'd be possible to cull copy from a InDesign
file to convert into Markdown, complete with links to images used in the
document that could then be edited.
------
katabasis
It's great to see others in the publishing world moving away from proprietary
software like Word and towards plain-text based processes. As the author
points out there are many benefits of this.
Here's something to consider: you've ditched MS Word, maybe you can ditch
InDesign too? In my experience once content goes into an Adobe program, it's
hard to get it out again in a clean way. It's pretty impressive what you can
accomplish using CSS3 for print layout[1].
I work at an academic publisher, and I've spent much of the last year
preaching the benefits of a similar workflow. Some of the editors are now
editing manuscripts in Markdown files directly. Currently we're building a
system where a single set of text files get fed into a program like a static
website generator. This produces a web version, but also PDF, ePUB, etc.
automatically. We're getting pretty close[2]. I think this is the future for
many forms of publishing.
I think one of the big remaining pieces of the puzzle is creating a better
Markdown editor, something suited for the needs of scholars & academics with
support for things like footnotes, bibliographies, etc, while remaining a
plain-text format.
[1] [http://alistapart.com/article/building-books-with-
css3](http://alistapart.com/article/building-books-with-css3) [2]
[http://egardner.github.io/posts/2015/building-books-with-
mid...](http://egardner.github.io/posts/2015/building-books-with-middleman/)
------
zyxley
Unlinked footnotes in a webpage?
With all that unused margin space on a desktop, it seems like they would have
made more sense as Tufte-style marginal notes anyway.
~~~
rhythmvs
Though they are linked, see e.g.
[http://rhythmus.be/md2indd/#fn2](http://rhythmus.be/md2indd/#fn2) — it’s
Pandoc after all, which creates those ;-)
The wide margins are due to typography best practices, which dictates between
~50 and 70 characters on a line. One could of course blow up font-size, as is
in fashion, since Medium. But then there are too few lines above the fold.
But you’re entirely correct as regards marginal notes. Unfortunately, they’re
not trivially implemented, since you’d need to swap end-notes to side-notes
relative to the viewport, cq. media query breakpoint, but while that involves
DOM manipulation, it cannot be done with CSS alone. Let alone dealing with
collision detection for stacking longer footnotes vertically…
~~~
munificent
I implemented this in my online book[1] and it wasn't too bad. Try resizing
the window to see.
The entirety of the JS (not including jQuery) is:
$(document).ready(function() {
$(window).resize(refreshAsides);
// Since we may not have the height correct for the images, adjust the asides
// too when an image is loaded.
$('img').load(function() {
refreshAsides();
});
// On the off chance the browser supports the new font loader API, use it.
if (document.fontloader) {
document.fontloader.notifyWhenFontsReady(function() {
refreshAsides();
});
}
// Lame. Just do another refresh after a second when the font is *probably*
// loaded to hack around the fact that the metrics changed a bit.
window.setTimeout(refreshAsides, 200);
refreshAsides();
});
function refreshAsides() {
// Don't position them if they're inline.
if ($(document).width() < 800) return;
// Vertically position the asides next to the span they annotate.
$("aside").each(function() {
var aside = $(this);
// Find the span the aside should be anchored next to.
var name = aside.attr("name");
var span = $("span[name='" + name + "']");
if (span == null) {
window.console.log("Could not find span for '" + name + "'");
return;
}
aside.offset({top: span.position().top - 3});
});
}
In my book, the asides are positioned very precisely next to certain lines. If
you don't need that level of precision, a pure CSS solution is possible, I
think.
Overlapping footnotes could be a problem, but to me that's a case where trying
to completely separate design from content is a bad idea. Design should
optimize for the actual prose you have and not all possible copy you might
write. Likewise, it's often worth tweaking copy a bit to make it look better
with your design.
In a couple of cases with my book, I tweaked or rearranged asides to avoid
them overlapping.
[1]:
[http://gameprogrammingpatterns.com/introduction.html](http://gameprogrammingpatterns.com/introduction.html)
~~~
Scarbutt
Nice book, what did you use to create the HTML from the Markdown? Or did you
do some CSS fiddling?
~~~
munificent
A very simple cobbled together Python script:
[https://github.com/munificent/game-programming-
patterns/blob...](https://github.com/munificent/game-programming-
patterns/blob/master/script/format.py)
------
akavel
@rhytmvs Have you considered using SILE [1][2] instead of LaTeX (and maybe
even InDesign)? (I'm not affiliated, but I believe it may become a worthy
successor to TeX in future.)
[1]: [http://video.fosdem.org/2015/main_track-
typesetting/introduc...](http://video.fosdem.org/2015/main_track-
typesetting/introducing_sile__CAM_ONLY.mp4)
[2]:
[https://archive.fosdem.org/2015/schedule/event/introducing_s...](https://archive.fosdem.org/2015/schedule/event/introducing_sile/attachments/slides/772/export/events/attachments/introducing_sile/slides/772/sile.pdf)
------
cossatot
Will it work with equations? A major peeve of mine is trying to get Tex to
deal with figures in a better manner, especially in space-limited situations
(e.g. grant proposals), and I used to use InDesign for that before my work got
too mathy.
~~~
adiM
Try ConTeXt. The float placement is much more flexible than in LaTeX. Being
built on top of TeX, it supports all the math
------
pjstew
I've been looking into the same problem for a while, and came to exact same
solution a few weeks ago, coincidently. I haven't actually got round to
completing all the code for it, but have tested each section. I was delighted
when I spotted your article this morning, but was hoping you would have also
shared your code... No git repository? I'm sure I can make the whole system
myself, but I'm always happy to use others work if it exists. If you do have a
working version of this process, please do share it!
------
pessimizer
I prefer asciidoc:
[http://powerman.name/doc/asciidoc](http://powerman.name/doc/asciidoc)
[http://asciidoctor.org/docs/what-is-
asciidoc/](http://asciidoctor.org/docs/what-is-asciidoc/)
------
todd8
I'm really looking forward to the evolution of Markdown, but it will not be a
complete replacement for TeX (for many years). TeX is designed around a
powerful (macro based) programming system. This is an excerpt from a comment
that I posted on HN a while back that is apropos this discussion:
TeX's macro style of programming is too difficult. Nevertheless, people have
done amazing things with it.
TeX has somewhere around 325 primatives, and one of the most important is the
\def primative used to define macros. These primatives are used to define
additional macros, hundreds of them, available in different so called formats.
A basic format known as Plain TeX includes about 600 macros in addition to the
325 primatives. LaTeX is another format, the most widely used, but there are
others, like ConTeXt, that are also very capable. Each of these extend TeX's
primatives with their own macros resulting in different kinds of markup
language. TeX's primatives are focused on the low level aspects of typesetting
(font sizes, text positions, alignment, etc.). LaTeX provides a markup
language that is focused on the logical description of the document's
components: headings, chapters, itemized lists, and so forth. The result is a
system that does simple things easily while allowing very complex typesetting
to be performed when needed.
In addition to the TeX core primatives and the hundreds of commands
(implemented as macros) in a format like LaTeX there are additional packages,
classes, and styles that are used to provide support for any conceivable
document. LaTeX has a rich ecosystem of packages. Typesetting chess? There's a
LaTeX package for that. Complex diagrams and graphics, there's a LaTeX package
for that. Writing a paper in the style of Tufte? Writing a book? or a musical
score? or building a barcode? there are packages for that. The _documentation_
for the Tikz & PGF graphics package is over 1100 pages long! The documentation
for the Memoir package is 570 pages.
The amazing thing is that all of this is built out of macros. Diving into
this, and once one needs to customize the look of a document it's inevitable,
you find yourself in a maze of twisty little passages. Once upon a time, while
writing assembly language for large computers, I enjoyed writing fancy
assembler macros. I was facinated with Calvin Moore's Trac programming
language based on macros and Christopher Strachey's General Purpose
Macrogenerator. These were early (mid 1960's) explorations into the viability
of macro processors as means for expressing arbitrary computations. Reader's
interested in trying out macros for programming can try the m4 programming
language (by Kernighan and Ritchie) found on Unix and Linux systems. m4 is
used in autoconf and sendmail config files. Yet, TeX macros are in a whole
other dimension. All of these powerful macro systems have one thing in common:
parameterized macros can be expanded into text that is then rescanned looking
for newly formed macros calls (or new macro definitions) to expand as many
times as one wants. This isn't just an occasional leaky abstraction; it is
programming by way of leaky abstractions. Looking at TeX packages is some of
the most difficult programming that I've done. It's unbelievably impressive
what people have come up with (e.g. floating point implemented via macro
expansion in about 600 lines of TeX), but it's also unbelievably frustrating
to program in such an environment. The LaTeX3 project is an attempt to rewrite
LaTeX (still running on top of the TeX core). Started in the early 1990's it
is still not done. I think its just that they are mired in a swamp of macros.
They do have a relatively stable set of macros written, with the catchy name
expl3, that are intended for use when writing LaTeX3. Here's a sample
\cs_gset_eq:cc
{ \cf@encoding \token_to_str:N #1 } { ? \token_to_str:N #1 }
This is described in the documentation as being a big improvement over the old
macros and "far more readable and more likely to be correct first time". I
can't wait.
I think LaTeX is absolutely without peer, but I wish improving it's
programming method wasn't so daunting. I keep toying with starting a project
to do just that, but so many others have tried and failed. It's disheartening.
Links:
[TRAC]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRAC_(programming_language)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRAC_\(programming_language\))
[GPM]
[http://comjnl.oxfordjournals.org/content/8/3/225.full.pdf](http://comjnl.oxfordjournals.org/content/8/3/225.full.pdf)
[m4] info pages available on Unix and Linux
[Tikz & PGF]
[https://www.ctan.org/pkg/pgf?lang=en](https://www.ctan.org/pkg/pgf?lang=en)
[Memoir]
[https://www.ctan.org/pkg/memoir?lang=en](https://www.ctan.org/pkg/memoir?lang=en)
[expl3] [https://www.tug.org/TUGboat/tb30-1/tb94wright-
latex3.pdf](https://www.tug.org/TUGboat/tb30-1/tb94wright-latex3.pdf)
~~~
akavel
Did you maybe have a look at SILE [1][2]? (I'm not affiliated, but it got me
interested very much and I believe it may become a worthy successor to TeX in
future.)
[1]: [http://video.fosdem.org/2015/main_track-
typesetting/introduc...](http://video.fosdem.org/2015/main_track-
typesetting/introducing_sile__CAM_ONLY.mp4)
[2]:
[https://archive.fosdem.org/2015/schedule/event/introducing_s...](https://archive.fosdem.org/2015/schedule/event/introducing_sile/attachments/slides/772/export/events/attachments/introducing_sile/slides/772/sile.pdf)
~~~
todd8
Thank you. I'm definitely going to look into it.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
New iRobot ConnectR Virtual Visiting Robot - epi0Bauqu
http://www.irobot.com/sp.cfm?pageid=338
======
cmos
I have almost cobbed something like this before - the ultimate way to be out
of the office and get the benefits of 'wandering'. Of course, a kind soul
would have to put you on the conference table during meetings.
Imagine a virtual company, with a bunch of these running around in a room.
Each one would have a picture of that person taped on the top.
I guess a problem could be it's not very skirt friendly, depending how you
look at it.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Reasons blog posts can be of higher scientific quality than journal articles - vixen99
http://daniellakens.blogspot.com/2017/04/five-reasons-blog-posts-are-of-higher.html
======
ChicagoBoy11
I'm surprised that so many of the comments seem to attack the claims in the
post along the dimension of "well, anyone can write a blog post." I think as a
community HN would staunchly advocate that the recipe for building great
companies or software is an almost radical devotion to reducing any and all
barriers to entry, except in this domain somehow people feel that the rigidity
and exclusivity which journals provide somehow lead to the betterment of
science. Makes me think about pg's "what you can't say" post.
There is short shrift given to the distortion that gets introduced in order to
"get published". The "file drawer" effect is very real, and it gives us a very
skewed view of what the actual scientific work being done really is; p-hacking
and other statistical trickery are table stakes to anyone trying to survive in
the academic world, as being published is a key metric to success yet it is
surprisingly orthogonal to being right. As Brian Nosek's "reproducibility
project" is uncovering, there is a non-trivial amount of "science" out there
that is pure garbage, and much of it was produced in order to "get published."
In a world where "random hackers" can write twitter bots to parse scientific
papers and uncover obvious mathematical flaws (which sometimes invalidate
central claims of the paper), I don't understand how we aren't immediately
gravitating to standards which promote more and more openness.
Lastly, the biggest issue we have to address is the fact that notoriety is now
the chief indicator of success, and not genuine scientific discovery. In
college I had world-famous faculty who have made a career, fortune, and placed
themselves well on the spotlight on the backs of research which was later
completely reversed -- and not in the way "science is supposed to work" sense,
but rather in the "you purposefully fudged the math" sense. And yet there was
virtually no reputational damage done to their career. Worse yet, I think it
is clear that this lack of ethics actually is a direct cause of the success
they enjoy today. Given that these are pressures faced by all in the academic
community, true openness is the one avenue we have to counteract this sort of
thing, and hopefully enterprising individuals come along and find a way to
make "truth-seeking" reputation something researchers care about.
~~~
colmvp
One of the reasons why I sometimes dislike my industry (design) is it's filled
with a lot of Medium posts that get highly upvoted by say, emerging or other
adept designers, yet it's rare that someone will substantiate their claim with
data to prove that a rule or belief that they state is actually true.
Sometimes I feel like designers believe x only because other designers believe
x, when in reality non in-group behavior might suggest something completely
different, that x is irrelevant, unnecessary, or confusing.
What I enjoy about learning about other subjects that make claim in research
papers is that it is at least legitimized through a rigorous process. One can
substantiate that y is better than x because tests show doing y requires less
computing time than doing x. Or that doing y results in higher accuracy of the
model. While getting a research paper published is an imperfect process where
even high quality ideas get rejected for at times pretty trivial reasons, I
can appreciate the process itself mostly results in a sharpened idea.
~~~
YCode
> Sometimes I feel like designers believe x only because other designers
> believe x, when in reality non in-group behavior might suggest something
> completely different, that x is irrelevant, unnecessary, or confusing.
Parallax scrolling sites come to mind. They look pretty, but quite often are
terribly dysfunctional to navigate and use for a customer who just wants to
learn about or buy(!) your product.
~~~
aggie
Is _your_ assertion backed by data?
Here's a study that disagrees with you, at least in terms of how many people
have trouble with parallax (2 out of 43). [http://uxpajournal.org/the-effects-
of-parallax-scrolling-on-...](http://uxpajournal.org/the-effects-of-parallax-
scrolling-on-user-experience-in-web-design/)
Not to say that study is a comprehensive judgment on the design pattern.
~~~
YCode
TL;DR for anyone wandering by:
> We hypothesized that PS would improve UX, which is defined in this study as
> the emotions that are aroused when a user interacts with a product or
> technology. The PS website was perceived to be more fun than the no-PS
> website. With respect to perceived usability, enjoyment, satisfaction, and
> visual appeal, there were no differences between the PS website and the no-
> PS website.
Great that someone formally studied it, though I'm a little put off by their
subjects demographics as compared with potential customers of any given
business. That is, I feel like students at a university are more adept at
using interfaces than "the average user" who is going to be your potential
customer.
1/5 factors they tested did signal added value, the 1 being "fun". More fun,
but not more usable. I'm not yet convinced that fun correlates to sales in
this context as much as usability, ESPECIALLY once the initial wow factor
wears off.
I assume by "trouble" you mean motion sickness. Two of them had motion
sickness, not just run-of-the-mill confusion from the usability of the site.
All that said, the main point I was making was that often designers spend a
great deal of time trying to get PS working just right not because they think
it will bring in more customers or make their site more usable, but because
that's what other designers are showcasing and they want to emulate that
trend.
------
CJefferson
One reason blogs are of lower scientific quality -- anyone can make series of
large and unresearched claims, cherry picking a few examples to claim a broad
point.
Good journals do have peer review, and they wouldn't have accepted this.
Also, one big disadvantage of blogs -- depending on where you host it, they
often don't last long, and point 4 (easy to edit) is a blessing and a curse,
particularly if people edit things without telling you they did it.
Of course, blogs have their place, I keep one myself, it's great for breaking
news, explaining things in greater depth, sharing and understanding. And
journals could learn from blogs / arxiv (make it easier to make corrections,
allow discussions).
~~~
shubhamjain
Getting a research paper published sounds so meritorious, no matter how
idiotic or trivial it is. Take for example, Princeton 'research' in 2014 that
predicted that Facebook will lose 80% of users by 2017 [1]. The evidence?
Google trends data which has near-zero correlation with DAUs of Facebook. The
research not only got published, but also got a wider-audience after major
media websites covered it.
Had it been a blog post, I don't think anyone would have taken more than a
cursory look at the analysis. Yes, anyone _can_ fit data points and reach a
conclusion with blogs, but isn't academic research fraught with similar
problems already?
[1]:
[https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jan/22/facebook-...](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jan/22/facebook-
princeton-researchers-infectious-disease)
~~~
kilburn
You picked a bad example. The actual source article is published at... arxiv.
From an academic perspective it is worth exactly as much as a blog.
Academic literature has many problems but it is way above the blogosphere in
that regard. And media coverage is going to suck no matter where stuff is
published...
~~~
gpm
> From an academic perspective it is worth exactly as much as a blog.
From the perspective of peer review, yes. But per google scholar that paper
has been 66 cited times, including in many articles that _are_ in at least
somewhat reputable journals (published via Elsevier, ieee, Springer, etc) and
apparently two books [0]. So I think it's pretty clear that being a
"scientific paper from Princeton" was significant reputation wise regardless
of whether or not it was peer reviewed.
[0]
[https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Epidemiological%20model...](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Epidemiological%20modeling%20of%20online%20social%20network%20dynamics&btnG=Search&as_sdt=800000000001&as_sdtp=on)
I was also skeptical about the citations so I checked that two with freely
available pdfs were actually this paper, they were
[1]
[https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/4ebb/b654c59aff454ad97301e6...](https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/4ebb/b654c59aff454ad97301e6ecd9e82c69122b.pdf)
[2]
[https://arxiv.org/pdf/1509.07805.pdf](https://arxiv.org/pdf/1509.07805.pdf)
~~~
bbctol
Right, but it's _not_ a scientific paper. It's a problem when people trust
something just because it came out of Princeton, but the problem you're
identifying isn't one with scientific papers (and the citations you've
identified are places where they're using the Cannarella paper as an example
of people being interested in applying epidemiology to social networks, not
citing the research they did as accurate or important.)
------
afandian
(to repeat a comment I made on the blog)
We're seeing a huge amount of non-traditional scholarly activity (if you'll
pardon the dry phrase) happening in blogs. Alternative metrics aka altmetrics
(as distinct from altmetric.com) have been taking in to consideration the
scholarly activity that happens around traditional publishing for a while.
Crossref, the organisation who brought you DOIs for scholarly publications,
thought that it would be a good idea to help collect this kind of data as a
counterpoint to traditional publishing and citations. We're building Crossref
Event Data, which is a free (libre, gratis) service for collecting mentions of
articles on blogs and social media, so that it can be used by the community in
all kinds of ways. Discoverability, recommendations, and yes, maybe more
metrics. How you use it is up to you.
The article raises a good point about blogs as primary methods of publishing
rather than, for example, as a venue for the discussion of traditionally
published articles. Establishing an open 'citation'-graph-like-dataset of
blogs is a good first step toward that.
We're heading into Beta soon, and you can read more about it
[https://www.crossref.org/services/event-
data](https://www.crossref.org/services/event-data) . The User guide is a work
in progress, but might answer any questions you have:
[https://www.eventdata.crossref.org/guide](https://www.eventdata.crossref.org/guide)
. You can also contact me at [email protected] if you have any questions.
------
mikk14
People here seem to attack only the argument about "anyone can write a blog",
but I was expecting HN to give a couple of thoughts also about his first
point. To me it reads something like: "publish all your data out in the open
for everybody to see".
I find it _extremely_ problematic. Sure, sharing data is necessary to verify
that the conclusions are supported by it and they are not due to
methodological errors. But to _anyone_? Out in the open? I would expect better
data ethics, especially from a psychologist.
Your data can contain political opinions, health records, sexual orientation,
contact information, the places a person has visited, and when. People sign up
for these studies usually with the agreement that the information that can
harm them cannot be freely shared, unless to people involved in studies with
similar data protection systems. Data like I mentioned has sometimes to be
stored in computers not connected to the Internet, to reduce the risk of data
leak. Free access to this data paves the way to persecution and shaming.
If I were to sign up as subject to a psychology study and had a person with
his ideas leading it, I'd withdraw immediately. I'd question if this person
should be a psychology researcher at all. Sharing data is good, but protocols
are there for a reason.
~~~
metalliqaz
Personally identifiable details can be removed from data.
~~~
mikk14
There is a seminal paper showing how carelessly adopting this point of view
can lead to disasters: "87% of the U.S. population is uniquely identified by
date of birth, gender, postal code" [1]
In many other cases, as pointed out, it's just not possible. I'm studying
mobility patterns through cellphone metadata. Even if you strip out the actual
phone number with a random ID you still know where a person is going, and thus
re-identify them if you have other public data.
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latanya_Sweeney](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latanya_Sweeney)
~~~
user5994461
full name + date of birth + place of birth.
That leaves about 500 non unique individuals in a country of > 50 million
inhabitants.
------
tkt
Titus Brown also a blog post on this earlier this year "The top 10 reasons why
blog posts are better than scientific papers"
[http://ivory.idyll.org/blog/2017-top-ten-reasons-blog-
posts....](http://ivory.idyll.org/blog/2017-top-ten-reasons-blog-posts.html)
and it generated similar discussion.
There are a few elements they emphasize.
One is what the blog format enables that traditional publishing doesn't
support. Those are things like having real-time feedback and comments, being
able to version and making the blog post interactive, rather than a static
document. Another element to the format is a lack of gatekeepers, so it can be
quickly disseminated and disseminated by anyone, so there aren't barriers to
participation in the scientific discourse.
Another is norms and expectations. In blogging, it is more the norm that data
and code are open. Open is still possible in traditional publishing; it just
isn't yet the norm. A new format however, enables new norms and it's easier to
set them from the start, than try to revise existing ones.
Finally, there's the element of 'correctness'. Going through peer review and
being in a traditional journal certainly doesn't ensure that the paper is
correct. You can just look at retractions to see that
[http://retractionwatch.com/2011/08/11/is-it-time-for-a-
retra...](http://retractionwatch.com/2011/08/11/is-it-time-for-a-retraction-
index/). However it would be interesting to see more evidence around whether
the blog format does ultimately lead to more 'correct' conclusions, on the
whole, and not just for the posts that lead to a lot of discussion.
------
mrdrozdov
Is it so hard to publish at arxiv, share the paper on twitter, and submit a
link to HN? At a minimum, arxiv is better than a blog post because there's
some sense of versioning.
For anyone who is curious, some conferences share the peer review comments
(even though they do not share the identities of author or commenter). Here
are the comments from iclr2017
([https://openreview.net/group?id=ICLR.cc/2017/conference](https://openreview.net/group?id=ICLR.cc/2017/conference))
and here are comments on Ian Goodfellow's GAN paper by Jürgen Schmidhuber and
others
([https://media.nips.cc/nipsbooks/nipspapers/paper_files/nips2...](https://media.nips.cc/nipsbooks/nipspapers/paper_files/nips27/reviews/1384.html)).
------
pdkl95
For some time I've thought that the concept of a "journal" artificially forces
together several features that can exist independently. This usually includes
something roughly similar to: (not a complete list, or in any particular
order)
1\. people that want to publish their research, theories, response, _etc_
2\. a mechanism for having submissions peer reviewed
3\. curating which submissions will be included in the publication
4\. actually physically (or electronically) publishing and disseminating the
papers to the interested community
5\. people actually reading it and responding (possibly recursively)
6\. reputation and status derived from authorship, being referenced by others,
_etc_
7\. archiving the papers - _and hopefully the data_
These features are traditionally part of the same process for practical
reasons like the cost/time to physically publish before modern printing
technology. This worked, creating resistance to any change. Now, I suspect
that over reliance on the concept of a "journal" limits your thinking. This
article demonstrates some of that with it's framing of blogs as an alternative
or competitor to journals.
Instead, consider that modern computing and the internet make #4 very easy and
almost free. We have various ways to archive (#7), which include actual
verification (e.g. "git fsck", signed commits). We already curate (#3) as a
separate step with specialty blogs and aggregators like HN.
I'm not saying journals are bad or obsolete. I'm just suggesting that there
might be better ways to organize the process, and that different granularities
of "journal"-like process can probably coexist.
~~~
BHSPitMonkey
Many of these topics are constantly being championed by the somewhat obscure
digital libraries space. These departments are mainly found in universities,
and they focus heavily on the pipeline you described. Despite the point you
made that throwing content on the internet is usually easy and "almost free",
it's actually a pretty large and costly effort when you're trying to do it at
scale. A lot of clerical and engineering effort goes into
tagging/organizing/storing/replicating the data, guarding against bit rot and
other integrity errors, and making the data easily searchable and browsable
(and that's to say nothing of the political and psychological battles involved
in simply getting researchers to follow through and provide the data to these
processes, in the proper formats, before they finish their degree and
disappear).
If the hacker side of these challenges interest you, I suggest checking out
the code4lib community: [https://code4lib.org](https://code4lib.org)
~~~
marcosdumay
Still, compared to what it used to cost to just distribute it, and compared to
the cost of journal subscriptions, it's approximately free.
------
dahart
> Blogs have Open Peer Review
No, they don't. This is conflating having an opinion with the scientific
review process. The scientific review process can prevent publication of bad
research in journals and require changes before publication, the blog "review"
process cannot do either of these things.
------
shouldbworking
I feel comment sections on well targeted sites like HN are better than peer
review sometimes.
It's not uncommon for an industry expert or creator of a product to Koolaid
Man into the comment section around here.
~~~
marcosdumay
I didn't stay any long on the academic world, but the comments on targeted
tend to be better than nearly all peer review I've seen there.
The thing is, the very small exception is incredibly good.
------
westurner
So, schema.org, has classes (C:) -- subclasses of CreativeWork and Article --
for property (P:) domains (D:) and ranges (R:) which cover this domain:
\- CreativeWork:
[http://schema.org/CreativeWork](http://schema.org/CreativeWork)
\- - BlogPosting:
[http://schema.org/BlogPosting](http://schema.org/BlogPosting)
\- - Article: [http://schema.org/Article](http://schema.org/Article)
\- - - NewsArticle:
[http://schema.org/NewsArticle](http://schema.org/NewsArticle)
\- - - Report: [http://schema.org/Report](http://schema.org/Report)
\- - - ScholarlyArticle:
[http://schema.org/ScholarlyArticle](http://schema.org/ScholarlyArticle)
\- - - SocialMediaPosting:
[http://schema.org/SocialMediaPosting](http://schema.org/SocialMediaPosting)
\- - - TechArticle:
[http://schema.org/TechArticle](http://schema.org/TechArticle)
Thing: (name, [url], [identifier], [#about], [description[_gh_markdown_html]])
\- C: CreativeWork:
\- - P: comment R: Comment
\- - C: Comment: [https://schema.org/Comment](https://schema.org/Comment)
------
4258HzG
#1 Reason: Blogs aren't included in the publication count which is needed to
gain research funding, get hired as a professor and get tenure.
A bit cynical, but a lot of the problems the writer suggests are more of a
symptom of trying to get as many papers out as possible than the cause (and
that one rarely reviews the supplementary material). If scientific blogs
counted like publications many of the same problems would appear there.
------
lr4444lr
The author calls "Nature" a "low quality journal". Is that really it's
reputation?
~~~
capnrefsmmat
Its reputation among people like Lakens, and others complaining about the poor
state of statistics and rigor in modern science, is that it features
overinterpreted overhyped results from small underpowered experiments, and
when errors are pointed out it's usually not too interested in correcting
them. The editors are more interested in "important" results than
methodologically rigorous ones.
It's similar to how Andrew Gelman always sarcastically refers to the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences as the Prestigious
Proceedings, because that's invariably the adjective used in news reports, yet
many of the articles are of the "female-named hurricanes cause more damage"
type.
------
IanCal
Unless they're properly archived along with all their resources as well as
only referencing other properly archived material, I'd be very cautious before
saying they're better.
This _can_ be done, but I suspect it is rare whereas it's the norm with a
journal article.
~~~
steventhedev
I think they serve different purposes, and the quality varies heavily across
subfields. Academic research will produce a journal article as the primary
output, whereas a blog post is typically a side effect of a practical project,
and most will contain a link to the actual code.
Ultimately, I think they're both good, but they do have different uses.
~~~
IanCal
I'm still highly concerned about the loss of these things. I very regularly
follow links to code that's just gone. The code for research definitely should
not only exist in a related of post link.
Archiving, for me, is a requirement if you think it should be used over more
than a year or so.
~~~
steventhedev
Obviously, having a professional librarian working on archiving data, code,
and articles is ideal. However, I've found that the public facing side of
journals experience bit rot even faster than most of the older blogs. Of
course, there are exceptions, and even the most public figures can decide to
delete everything, code included (e.g. _why)
Gwern has tackled link rot[0] in an exhaustive way, and may give you a
starting point from where to continue.
[0]:
[https://www.gwern.net/Archiving%20URLs](https://www.gwern.net/Archiving%20URLs)
------
aviggiano
It seems the future lies in something like GitHub, stack overflow or quora for
articles, where people with the best code/answers naturally gain more
reputation and where you still have an incentive for peer review and open
data.
------
colorincorrect
As in, "if you follow these best practices, you too can produce high quality
research"
There is no reason why this post should be focused on blogs in general, asides
from generating discussion + clickbait. The key here is actually following the
best practice, but do most blogs actually do this?
Alternatively: there is a high minimal requirement for research articles, but
there is no minimal requirement for blogs.
------
88e282102ae2e5b
I think it might be better to say that contemporary psychology is frequently
not being performed scientifically.
------
notahacker
Advantages that scientific journal articles have over blogs is that they are:
(i) not written in clickbait format
(ii) impact is measured in terms of other research which sees it as a relevant
study to cite rather than numbers of pageviews (see also (i))
(iii) one of the things a peer review process can flag up is that bold and
implausible claims like "On blogs, the norm is to provide access to the
underlying data, code, and materials" probably need some form of qualification
for what is meant by "blogs" and/or quantitative evidence to support that
claim
Blogs can be well reasoned and evidence-based, comments can (even more
infrequently) be enlightening and journal articles aren't immune to flaws, but
the linked blog article is a prime example of _why_ arguments expressed in
blogs are seldom afforded the respect of arguments advanced in journals.
~~~
lucb1e
> (i) not written in clickbait format
Really? I find them to be incredibly clickbaity whereas blog posts are much
more matter-of-fact. Blogs are almost never a commercial entity/enterprise and
while no writer would shun search engine traffic, they usually write for
peers, not for publicity like journalists or scientists, both whose funding
depends on this.
~~~
notahacker
I have yet to see the stereotypical "5 reasons why [bold claim involving zero
research]" format the linked blog post uses uses in _any_ academic journal.
Scientific writing in closed-access journals is the definition of writing for
peers, and never includes AdSense, affiliate links or digital tip jars.
------
baali
One more related link on the same subject, "The top 10 reasons why blog posts
are better than scientific papers": [http://ivory.idyll.org/blog/2017-top-ten-
reasons-blog-posts....](http://ivory.idyll.org/blog/2017-top-ten-reasons-blog-
posts.html) * there is a "maybe satire" tag added by the author to this post.
------
pjc50
"Impact factor" systems incentivise the production of poor quality journal
articles. Effectively researchers end up needing to produce a certain amount
of "journal-bait" in order to stay funded.
(See HN passim "Every attempt to manage academia makes it worse")
------
agumonkey
There's a lot of publications. Some of them are really small step attempts at
understanding. Sometimes it's just a test. A careful one, but nothing more. I
guess in some fields we're still at the poking level.
------
Spooky23
IMO This is one of those cases where people are committed to an existing
system and have bent their thinking around that system to the point that they
cannot see the big picture.
There's alot of value to the existing journal system, but perhaps it would be
appropriate to have a more formal process and a more informal/collaborative
process. Maybe that would address the problems with having so many journals.
------
afandian
Can anyone recommend scholarly / academic blogs (or aggregators)?
~~~
pjc50
[http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/](http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/)
"In The Pipeline" is good and has been running for years.
~~~
afandian
Thanks! Looks great.
------
logicallee
They left out the biggest one! If you say something dumb in it, the comments
will crucify you for it :)
~~~
daxelrod
And also if you say something controversial.
~~~
logicallee
What you point out is an interesting effect. Blog posts that are controversial
know that there's a chance a sh$#storm will ensue in the comments. In the case
of general bloggers, such as researchers i.e. not people who are actively
trying to troll or generate pageviews, but on personal blogs, how does this
affect writing that is controversial?
I don't know academic publishing well enough to compare. I think that as far
as controversial claims that would make it to somewhere like Hacker News, the
effect is that if the controversial statements are _wrong_ , then the comments
will shoot them down, and the story will be buried. Furthermore, the rest of
the comments will pile on the first comment that points out that the blog post
is mistaken.
Perhaps an effect of this is that you can tell from the tone that some blog
posts take, that they are being extremely careful to lay a rock-solid
foundation, and kind of "convert" their readers who might otherwise vehemently
disagree with them. For a recent example, check out this blog post:
[https://gregfallis.com/2017/04/14/seriously-the-guy-has-a-
po...](https://gregfallis.com/2017/04/14/seriously-the-guy-has-a-point/)
I actually just noticed something really interesting! The very first words in
this blog post are: "I got metaphorically spanked a couple of days ago."
Would any academic article on any subject start in this way?
So the _effect_ of the backlash against controversial statements, on the
writing style of blog posts, is interesting and in many cases highly visible.
It is hard for me to compare this with academic writing. (But it certainly
wouldn't start with words like that.)
------
ylem
I can't comment on the field of psychiatry. However, I will comment on my
field of physics. The author seems to completely neglect the signal to noise
problem. There has been an explosion of journals and scientific publication.
It's rather hard to keep up to date on the literature and editors do provide a
valuable function in filtering what they think is interesting (which is
further filtered by the referees). Also, for the referee process--it's not
perfect and will probably not catch complete fraud. But, it is good for
checking the basics of whether or not the story being told in a paper is
consistent. Also, again related to signal/noise, the editors hopefully choose
referees with a minimum level of competence in the field (not always, but
usually). Also, in terms of dilution--if there's a blog, there's no guarantee
that a critical mass of people will read it to try to give it a critical
review. Whereas, even for a journal that is not widely read, the papers in it
will have received some peer review where someone in the field tried to take a
look through it for obvious errors. I am not convinced by open peer review.
Let's consider two scenarios. Suppose there is a leader in the field trying to
publish something (or perhaps even a friend or collaborator). If I notice that
they are wrong, am I more likely to call them on it if I am anonymous or if
they know who I am? One can be idealistic, but researchers are people too. I
think that the anonymous review allows people to speak frankly (though it does
sometimes let people be mean--that seems to be the cost of anonymity in forums
unless there is strong moderation). Let's consider another scenario. Suppose I
am a junior researcher and I get a referee comment that I determine is wrong.
If it comes from the leader in my field, maybe I won't push back as hard as if
it came from someone else junior--again, in an ideal world, it wouldn't
matter, but researchers are people too. It would seem that the editor knowing
the identity of the referees would serve as a check on bias, not 100 percent,
but I think that more is gained than is lost from a closed referee system.
In terms of error correction, there are errata that are published if someone
finds an error in a major study and in journals like the physical review are
linked back to the original article.
The open data problem is hard. In my particular field, our raw data is
available on the web, but the problem is that the meta-data needed to
interpret is not. And that's nontrivial. For example, I may perform several
operations on my data (for example, background subtraction) before fitting it
to a model. We are experimenting with dataflow languages where we embed the
series of "filters" that we apply to the data, but if we want someone to be
able to reproduce this 20 years from now, then there's a whole ecosystem that
would have to be maintained--for example, not just my code, but all of the
libraries that it depends on to run. We can describe the basic process in the
paper, but for true long term reproducibility, it's a hard problem...There are
groups that are working on open-data and reproducible research, so I don't
think that there isn't interest, just that it's not as easy a problem as you
might think. But, for reduced data, I agree, it would be nice to have that
available for papers in a machine readable format...
Open access. This is also a hard problem. Increasingly, funding agencies are
requiring that publications be made available in an open format after some
embargo period. I think that may be the best we can hope for. Just paying for
competent editors requires funding. If we want additional features like data
attached to papers (for decades), it will take more funding. That money has to
come from somewhere. For typical open access journals, the author pays, but
that seems to create difficult incentives--not to mention that it makes it
difficult for poorer funded researchers to publish. I'm not sure what the
right answer is, because I agree that the public should be able to see the
results that they paid for--perhaps an embargo period is the best solution...
I think a blog is a great way for communication of ideas and for education,
but I do not think that it is able to replace publication in a refereed
journal.
------
rechecker
"Why can... "
Uh, shouldn't that be "How can... "?
~~~
scottmf
Why?
------
soufron
Can't they?
------
leecarraher
blog post on blogspot advocating that blogs are better than journals seems a
bit biased, unfortunately i don't think i can get a journal article about
journal articles being better, accepted in any peer reviewed journals.
checkmate daniel.
------
JohnStrange
In my opinion blog posts have no scientific quality at all, since they are not
peer reviewed. They may occasionally have quality, but that's another matter.
To be fair, some fringe journals have no scientific value either, because they
do not peer review properly, but they are easy to spot and everybody in the
scientific community knows them.
On a side note, originality is one of the key requirements for publication in
a reputed journal and I have not ever seen a blog post that made any
scientifically original claims. But maybe that's because I don't read blogs
very often.
~~~
maaaats
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymath_Project](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymath_Project)
Bunch of mathematicians collaborating through blogs.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN : Interesting Words - sundeep
http://getaninterestingword.com
======
sundeep
I like interesting words ...
Clicking on the word reveals it's meaning ... and a reload gets another word.
I'm currently working on harvesting various corpora and on different measures
of "interesting".
I might add commenting on specific words and submission of words soon.
~~~
russell
I got xanthippe = ill-tempered woman. Do you suppose she was the real reason
that Socrates took the hemlock?
~~~
sundeep
she emptied a chamber pot over his head, according to wikipedia.
so, yes ... i don't think he listed her as one of the reasons to not take
hemlock.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Training Your Brain So That You Don’t Need Reading Glasses - prostoalex
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/27/upshot/training-your-brain-so-that-you-dont-need-reading-glasses.html?partner=qz&_r=0
======
isaiahg
What about nearsightedness? I can read print just fine, but restaurant menus
hung up high are the worst.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Cryptome.org Extorting Kickstarter Donations Through 403 Site Error? - pcvarmint
https://twitter.com/catbrainland/status/476361827337895936
======
mattl
This just seems like an honest mistake, surely?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Tesla beats expectations with $3.4B in revenue - GW150914
https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/02/tesla-earnings-q1-2018/
======
chollida1
Numbers: \- 1Q Adj Loss/Shr $3.35, Est. Loss/Shr $3.41
\- 1Q Rev. $3.41B, Est. $3.32B
\- Tesla reported 19.7% gross margins for Q1, beating Wall Street estimates.
Model S and Model X are now above 25%,
\- Cash burn in the quarter looks to be $1.05 billion
Misc:
\- Customer deposits up to $984 million from $854 million
\- says it will reach full GAAP profitability in Q3 and
\- company had $3.2 billion in cash on hand.
\- says it can get to 5,000 Model 3 units a week in about two months.
\- Solar City seems done as a consumer product, After installing just 87
megawatts in the fourth quarter, it deployed even less in 1Q -- 76 megawatts.
\- Tesla's 5.3% bonds are unchanged at 89 cents on the dollar,
\- Tesla will not offer a leasing option on the Model 3 this year.
Translation, Telsa needs cash and needs it right now in a big way.
\- "Our Model 3 general assembly line consists of fewer than 50 steps, which
is about 70% less than conventional assembly lines. All Model 3 vehicles use
only one standard body frame, down from more than 80 for Model S, a wiring
harness that has 50% less mass than average vehicles, and a fraction of the
number of controllers, connectors and CPUs."
\- "At this stage, we are expecting total 2018 capex to be slightly below $3
billion, which is below the total 2017 level of $3.4 billion." Open
Question... how do you ramp up car manufacturing from 2500 to 5000 to 10,000
per week and reduce CapEx at the same time. Seems like eithr Capex estimates
will blow out or prodcution will but both can't coexists. Check bond
yields....
\- Tesla spent $146 million on interest payments in 4Q -- roughly the same
interest expense as GM, a company with approximately 10 times more revenue.
Interest expenses rose to $149.5 million last quarter.
~~~
dharmon
In case you ever feel like its a waste of time, I, for one, appreciate your
posts with notes + numbers.
Its so easy for conversations about these things to get derailed about, oh, I
dunno, flying cars, that its great having your post with hard numbers there to
keep the discussion grounded.
Its great that companies have big dreams and grand visions, but how will it
work out in the numbers?
~~~
chollida1
Thx, that's appreciated.
It's really something I do for my job, I just put them here as well. I think I
often get penalized by the HN algorithms because a post can get edited 4-5
times.
~~~
mkmk
I really enjoy your posts too, thanks! Stupid questions: can you explain 'wall
street estimates'? I've heard it a million times, and I get that there are
people at the company that make estimates and also analysts at financial firms
(investment banks?) that supposedly take a stab at what the earnings per share
will be, but-- who are they? What determines if somebody 'counts' as an
analyst? How are estimates recorded so that they show up in yahoo finance?
What are the motivations and abilities those analysts have to be right?
~~~
xapata
That's like asking what counts as art. There are some major museums who hire
curators, who in turn buy art. Similarly, there are some large financial
companies that publish advice, who hire analysts. You "count" if people listen
to you.
~~~
pooya13
But don't they have a conflict of interest since their "estimates" affects the
same market they are investing in?
~~~
sz4kerto
In theory there's a strict separation between trading and research
departments. (People on the trading floor cannot even enter the area where
research sits.) This doesn't mean that there isn't some conflict of interest,
but the industry and regulators are aware of it and at least in principle
there are ways to mitigate it.
------
misja111
The talent that Tesla has to spin bad results is amazing.
"In its letter to investors, Tesla provided some updates to its Model 3
production, noting it hit 2,270 cars produced per week for three straight
weeks in April."
Seems pretty great, 2270 cars for three straight weeks! Looks like Tesla's
production is going steady. However, in its early March press release about
the Model 3 production, Tesla was still saying something else:
"The Model 3 output increased exponentially, representing a fourfold increase
over last quarter. This is the fastest growth of any automotive company in the
modern era. If this rate of growth continues, it will exceed even that of Ford
and the Model T."
Exponential production increase! .. which they now say abruptly stopped after
the press release.
~~~
IkmoIkmo
Yeah there comes a point where you stop rooting for the little guy doing
little-guy marketing gimmicks and realise it's a billion dollar company making
intentionally disingenuous statements.
The Model T reached around 70k per week. Tesla has no business referencing it.
It's like saying I got a promotion growing my salary from $50k to $80k this
year, a growth rate of income that, if continues, will exceed even that of
bill gates. It's a joke.
------
krrrh
You can listen to the earnings call here:
[https://edge.media-server.com/m6/p/nwvzygvo](https://edge.media-
server.com/m6/p/nwvzygvo)
It was... pretty strange. This is being pegged as the reason for the 5% drop
in after hours trading despite beating estimates. Some details, and a youtube
link to a portion of the call here:
[https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-05-02/musk-meltdown-
tesl...](https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-05-02/musk-meltdown-tesla-
tumbles-after-elon-cuts-conference-call-question)
~~~
unknown_apostle
When a company has nominally good news for the world but the share price tanks
after its release, this is usually a bad omen going forward.
------
Animats
CNBC business:
_In the quarter ended March 31, Tesla 's net loss widened to $784.6 million,
or $4.19 per share, from a loss of $397.2 million, or $2.04 per share, a year
ago._
_Revenue rose to $3.41 billion from $2.7 billion a year ago, and outpaced
analysts estimates of $3.22 billion._
It's deceptive to list the revenue in dollars and the loss in dollars per
share. Reality is a loss of $785 million on $3.41 billion revenue.
~~~
traek
> It's deceptive to list the revenue in dollars and the loss in dollars per
> share.
It's just convention. Earnings per share (EPS) is a very commonly used metric,
sales per share much less so.
~~~
justicezyx
That just means the convention is deceptive.
~~~
Retric
It's actually very useful to know earnings or loss per share as you buy shares
not the entire company.
Revenue provides different information, and is useful to figure out market
share etc.
------
caio1982
"Tesla also expects to achieve full GAAP profitability in Q3"
That would be a massive hit at skeptics as Q3 is almost around the corner (I
wasn't even expecting it to happen this year), but even being a fanboy myself
I still doubt such bold statement.
~~~
mdasen
I hope they do become profitable, but I'm skeptical they will.
1) Their losses are growing, not shrinking. From March 2017 to now, they lost
$330M, $336M, $619M, $675M, and $785M. Maybe they hit a tipping point and
there is an abrupt change, but it seems like the more natural trajectory would
be for losses to become smaller and then turn into profits.
2) Tesla has said they'd be profitable before.
[https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-results/tesla-
expec...](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-results/tesla-expects-to-
become-profitable-in-2016-shares-surge-idUSKCN0VJ2J6)
Tesla is a really cool company, but it's hard to see a future where they
justify their share price. Let's say that Tesla becomes the next Toyota 15
years from now. Toyota is only worth $213B. So, the kinda max value for Tesla
is around 4x their current price. So, under really rosy conditions, Tesla
appreciates at 12% per year over the next 15 years. That's not bad, but the
likelihood that Tesla is the next Toyota is very small.
Let's say that Tesla is incredibly successful and becomes the next Volkswagen,
Daimler, or BMW (the #2, 3, and 4 auto makers by market cap). They'd be a
$106B, $85B, or $73B company. That doesn't leave much for price appreciation
over their current $51B market cap.
Maybe Tesla can make a company that's way more profitable per vehicle and sell
so many vehicles. But that's a bit of a moon-shot.
It seems more likely that Tesla will become a company like Subaru ($26B),
Mazda ($8B), Nissan ($43B), Ford ($44B), Hyundai Motor ($40B), Fiat Chrysler
($34B), Renault ($32B), PSA Peugeot Citroën ($22B), Suzuki Motor ($26B), GM
($51B), or Honda ($60B). Those are all very successful auto companies. If
Tesla becomes the next Mazda 15 years from now, that will be incredibly bad
for investors. Basically, if Tesla doesn't become the next Toyota, it seems
hard to believe Tesla won't underperform the market by a lot.
It's possible that Tesla will become the next Toyota, but unlikely. Comparing
Tesla's market cap with that of most auto manufacturers makes you realize that
investing in Tesla isn't just betting that Tesla will become a great volume
car company like Mazda. They have to become _the_ car company.
When investing, it's also important to note that money later is less valuable
than money now and account for risk. Tesla is being priced like it's making
$6B/year today and it's future is certain.
Beyond that, is the automotive industry long for this world? People are re-
urbanizing and city traffic is only getting worse. Self-driving vehicles will
mean that being driven unlimited places might fall to $50-100/mo which is
significantly less than the $400+/mo of car payments, insurance, gas, parking,
maintenance, etc. Why should I spend $631/mo for a $35,000 car plus insurance,
gas, parking, maintenance when I can just get driven around for a fraction of
that cost? Today, Uber's help is more limited since the human driver costs a
lot of money per mile. If that future comes to pass, there will be a lot fewer
cars manufactured and bought which limits Tesla's value.
If an autonomous car is serving 25 people a day, that's a lot fewer vehicles
that need to be bought. World vehicle production is around 90M/year and Toyota
and Volkswagen are 10M of that each. If the demand for vehicles falls to 4% of
its current demand, that's only 3.6M vehicles per year. Even if Tesla makes
100% of those vehicles, they don't come close to being the next Toyota or
Volkswagen. Even if an autonomous vehicle only serves 10 people a day, that
cuts the vehicle market down to 9M. Even if an autonomous vehicle can only
serve 4 people a day, that cuts the market to 22.5M. The future market for
vehicles might be pretty small compared to the current one and so even if
Tesla hits a Toyota or Volkswagen-like 10% of the market, it might not be a
large market.
And self-driving services are likely to have stiff price competition. Unlike
an Uber competitor that has the network effects of having drivers already
signed up, it's relatively cheap to blanket a city with self-driving vehicles.
$20,000/mo isn't a huge run rate to to buy 50 vehicles at $400/mo and that
will let you place a vehicle within a short distance of everyone in a city
like San Francisco (47 square miles). You could position them so that they're
usually less than half a mile away to pick you up. $20,000/mo isn't a huge run
rate to get your service started and you can buy more vehicles as you get
riders. So, even if you think that Tesla might be that self-driving network
and will make profits that way, I think it's more likely that the space will
have a lot of competition that will push margins down. Waymo and GM/Cruze are
well on their way. Nissan and Toyota are expecting to enter the game in a few
years. Uber wants to be in this space.
It just seems like Tesla is more likely to become Mazda than Toyota and that
the auto industry might be facing a large market-shrinking threat in self-
driving cars. As such, it's hard (for me) to look at Tesla's market value and
see the potential for a lot of appreciation over the long term. They're
already worth more than most successful auto makers.
~~~
IkmoIkmo
All good points but, I think you're missing one (extremely unlikely) scenario,
which is the bet that Tesla to cars will be like Apple was to phones. Not just
supplanting existing phone manufacturers, but redefining what the market means
and how big it is.
Nokia was a $90b phone company in 2007. The best-case scenario for a new phone
company could in 2007 be expressed as a topping out at Nokia's size (Toyota in
your example), but it'd be a moonshot. It'd more likely be an Ericson or
Motorola, whose phone divisions weren't half as big as Nokia's. So the best
case scenario is $90b, and more likely to be around $30b. And that would've
made sense, until you figure Apple drove a market cap approaching $900b,
mostly on the basis of its phones, all within 10 years of 2007.
So there's something to be said about the possibility that Tesla doesn't just
supplant Toyota to become _the_ car company, but also redefining cars and the
size of its market, just like with smartphones. I see some people making that
bet. That having been said, I personally think the chance of that happening
approaches zero. The points you make are very apt. Self-driving cars means we
can increase utility rates of cars (which sit still for 90% of the day) from
10% to say 90%, and that will completely destroy sales volume.
~~~
plopz
I'm not sure how that last part plays out. If you need 100 cars active at rush
hour and 10 active the rest of the day, then sure those 10 might have 90%
utilization but the other 90 wont.
~~~
IkmoIkmo
Well, suppose you have a fleet of 100 cars. In the morning and evening, 100
people travel for 1 hour to work and back during rushhour. That's 2 hours in
total, or 100% utility of the fleet during 8% of the day.
Now suppose that every hour of the rest of the day, there's only 10 people
making a trip of 30 minutes. That means there's only 10% of the traffic volume
compared to rushhour on the road. But you're seeing 22 hours of two groups of
10 people making a trip every hour. That's 440 trips.
Now suppose that the two groups of people, rush and non-rush, all used their
own cars. You'd have 100 cars for the rushhour group and 440 cars in the non-
rushhour group. You get to 540 cars needed.
Now suppose the two groups shared vehicles. You just need 100 cars still to
make the same amount of trips.
Under these (made up) assumptions, you can reduce the amount of cars needed by
5x.
Then there's the notion that you can get dynamic pricing, e.g. look at Uber,
but for semi-public transport. This incentivises people and companies to
distribute their travel in a better manner, which also allows a system where
producers of congestion pay for it. Thereby you can distribute load better,
increase utilization, decrease the number of vehicles needed even further.
But indeed, you're unable to get to 100% utilization because demand fluctuates
during the day. But even increasing it from 10% to 20%, or 30%, would
introduce massive changes to the market size.
------
bhouston
Interestingly, I think nearly all people in Ontario on the Tesla waitlist got
their option to buy cars in the last few weeks. I believe it is because the
likely new provincial leader is going to revoke a huge tax break to electric
cars, so Telsa is trying to get all of its Ontario customers to buy in before
the rebate is gone.
I know 3 people on the waitlist who just all of a sudden got told they can now
buy a car immediately. That is likely not a coincidence.
------
Theodores
Model S sales - allegedly down on April 2017.
Has America fallen out of love with the sedan? Even the Tesla version?
Ford announced they are not going to be selling sedans in America, Mustang
excepted. GM are ditching the Bolt (or Volt?) and FCA aren't making a lot of
regular cars in the USA.
From now on monster SUVs powered by oil is what the future is in America,
thanks to fracking and easy credit. Can't wait for the invasion of affordable
Chinese electric cars.
~~~
plaidfuji
This was essentially what happened in late 90s/early 00's, and the subsequent
rise in oil prices and '08 recession led to the bankruptcy of American auto
companies that had stopped producing fuel efficient cars. The taxpayer-funded
bailout included a stipulation that increased their fuel economy standards;
that part of the deal is now being reversed by the current administration.
~~~
adam
Thanks for commenting about this - I don't understand why there isn't more
commentary about Ford deciding to drop sedans. It seems like someone is way
way behind on the forecasting game. Just as oil prices are going back up and
the demand for fuel efficient vehicles will increase, they're doubling down
on...gas guzzlers.
~~~
cityofdelusion
Crossover vehicles (misleading labeled as "SUVs" by the industry) have largely
replaced sedans in the last few years. Think vehicles like the Nissan Rogue,
Ford Edge or Honda CR-V. These vehicles are essentially lifted sedans or
hatchbacks with a slightly taller body. They have nearly identical combined
fuel efficiency compared to economy sedans.
I don't think there is much risk in the industry. Sales of full-size SUVs of
yore (the gas guzzling V8s based on full-size trucks) are down, people want
the newer, smaller, lighter 4-cylinder crossover and it will end the sedan
era. Ford isn't alone here either -- every manufacturer is pumping out models
of crossovers based on sedans. Sedans are either pivoting into territory that
sportier cars used to occupy (Toyota Camry) or morphing into entry luxury
vehicles (Honda Accord). Even with this pivoting, year-over-year sales of cars
like the Nissan Altima and Honda Accord are _significantly_ down.
Real example: Mazda 3 sedan vs Mazda CX-5 crossover SUV. They use the exact
same 4 cylinder engine pushing 155 horses. The sedan gets 30/41 mpg and the
crossover 26/35\. People aren't going to give up their higher ride height and
comfy seats for 5 mpg. Another example to consider is that sales of crossovers
are way up in europe, despite having gas that costs nearly __double __that of
the United States.
Ford is making a logical move. Their 4 cylinder ecoboost engines are efficient
and they want to introduce hybrid drivetrains, even on their muscle car.
~~~
rconti
And sedans like the Taurus have become fat pigs anyway. And a Ford Fusion is
the same weight as a Ford Escape. (Yes, theoretically different size vehicles,
but consumers LOVE pretending like their SUVs have more space than they do,
and to a certain extent they 'feel' bigger due to greater distance between
floor and ceiling.. and neither vehicle has 3 rows of seats, so....)
------
newnewpdro
I find it strange there hasn't been mention of what's being reported on here
[1] in this thread. Anyone who actually paid attention to the earnings call
care to comment?
[1] [https://www.marketwatch.com/story/elon-musk-acted-like-a-
jer...](https://www.marketwatch.com/story/elon-musk-acted-like-a-jerk-and-
tesla-stock-paid-the-price-2018-05-02)
~~~
jhall1468
I didn't hear the call but that article has a pretty clear agenda given how
many shots it took. That was not a news story, it was a hit piece editorial.
Furthermore only MarketWatch is reporting on it.
~~~
newnewpdro
> Furthermore only MarketWatch is reporting on it.
Untrue, I just didn't go out of my way to fill my comment with a pile of URLs
considering news aggregators were chock full of them [1], all saying largely
the same thing.
[1]
[https://news.google.com/news/search/section/q/musk%20tesla%2...](https://news.google.com/news/search/section/q/musk%20tesla%20earnings/musk%20tesla%20earnings?hl=en&gl=US&ned=us)
~~~
jhall1468
More than half of those weren't written when I said that 6 hours ago, and of
the remainder the majority don't paint anywhere _near_ the picture MarketWatch
did.
~~~
newnewpdro
For posterity sake: I didn't cherry-pick the MarketWatch link from the
comment. It was one from several tabs I had open on the topic at the time from
casual news consumption, and they all seemed similar enough for me to not
particularly care.
------
samfisher83
[http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/ABEA-4CW8X0/623988100...](http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/ABEA-4CW8X0/6239881006x0x979026/44C49236-1FC2-4FD9-80B1-495ED74E4194/TSLA_Update_Letter_2018-1Q.pdf)
If you look at the financial statement their cash flow used by operation went
up 4x from the same quarter last year. Their margins on their cars are getting
worse, I guess probably due to the model 3. Maybe Musk would have been better
off just focusing on their high end cars and get all the processes ironed out.
~~~
ucaetano
> Maybe Musk would have been better off just focusing on their high end cars
> and get all the processes ironed out.
Tesla would never become a mainstream car maker focusing only on high-end
cars, and would not justify the market cap.
~~~
sgillen
I think maybe he is saying they should have focused on high end cars only
until all their automated manufacturing processes were ironed out.
~~~
aquadrop
You can't have the scale with just high end cars to justify same level and
dedication to automation. Ferrari sells 7-8k cars a year, Tesla wants to sell
more in a week.
------
paulcole
Stop making cars but keep taking people's money. Is this a viable longterm
strategy?
~~~
SirLJ
Yep, create company after company and not one is profitable... Musk is where
hype is going to die...
~~~
njarboe
Re-usable rockets seem to be working. The margins on SpaceX launches is going
to get huge until the competition catches up. That seems like at least a
decade off at this point.
~~~
SirLJ
Just raised money for SpaceX - not profitable... maybe it will buy Tesla :-)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Facebook Says Its New Data Center Will Run Entirely on Wind - Ashuu
http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/11/facebook-iowa-wind/
======
jongibbins
When they say 'wind' do they mean all the hot air produced by all the people
using it?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Using Nested Selects for Performance in Rails - kb21
http://blog.aha.io/index.php/using-nested-selects-for-performance-in-rails/
======
kenn
It would be slow on MySQL, though.
If you EXPLAIN that query, it's a DEPENDENT SUBQUERY which has to fetch N*M
records. It would be mitigated if the columns are property indexed, but two
separate queries (N+M) just as eager loading would be faster and more
predictable than nested scans in terms of IOPS.
------
yarb
"But there is no easy way to do this in ActiveRecord without sacrificing eager
loading."
Define a relationship:
has_many :approved_comments, class_name: "Comments", condtions: {approved:
true}
Then eager load approved_comments.
~~~
kenn
That works, but what if there are thousands of comments? Initializing N*M AR
objects could be even slower than N+1 queries.
I wish if we could do something like:
has_one :approved_comments_count, -> { select(:post_id,
'COUNT(comments.post_id) as comment_count').group(:post_id) }, class_name:
'Comment'
and
posts.includes(:approved_comments_count).map(&:comment_count)
------
NARKOZ
Author could use counter cache to solve the problem.
~~~
schneidmaster
Author here. That would work for a count (so perhaps that was a poor example
to choose for this post) but we also use calculated_attributes for many more
complex cases (for example, querying the earliest date in 3 columns across 3
tables).
~~~
NARKOZ
There is a gem called eager_group that you might find useful.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How Mint Beat Wesabe, Or The Importance of a Name - keiferski
http://nomvilla.com/blog/how-mint-beat-wesabe/
======
steventruong
Relevant: <http://blog.precipice.org/why-wesabe-lost-to-mint>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Chrome Extension That Adds Gallery View to Google Meets - walljm
https://github.com/Fugiman/google-meet-grid-view
======
walljm
from the project "This script adds a button to the top right bar (next to chat
& participant list) to enable grid-view in Google Meets. Grid view gives every
participant an equal sized video for use in meetings without a primary speaker
(such as working from home silent meetings)."
Link to chrome extension: [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-
meet-grid-v...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-meet-grid-
view/bjkegbgpfgpikgkfidhcihhiflbjgfic?hl=en-US)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Dear project managers, that's not so simple - trez
http://anthony-tresontani.github.com/Thoughts/2012/11/08/dear_pm_thats_not_so_simple/
======
lmm
Utterly backwards. "We need a login page" is exactly agile; you should be
taking more ownership of the product rather than being content to be a dumb
code monkey following an explicit spec. Just give me high-level requirements
and access to a customer to ask questions.
~~~
trez
We used to have waterfall projects where everything is specified upfront and
tried to describe a system we don't know about. My point is not to go back to
that but just to think deeper about the high level problem to give more
directions about a solution the project manager already know about (or can ask
the customer during meetings). That just try to prevent useless iterations
which doesn't enhancement the solution through a better understanding of the
problem but fix communication issue because people with different background
don't know how to communicate.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Disable Visited Links for Firefox - ChrisAntaki
https://github.com/ChrisAntaki/visited-links-firefox
======
ben336
My understanding was that this security loophole had been mostly dealt with,
with the exception of weird situations where you can trick the user into
clicking on things based on the color of items on the page. Sites can't tell
what color the links are unless you tell them.
~~~
pdjstone
Timing attacks still work in all browsers -
[http://www.contextis.com/documents/2/Browser_Timing_Attacks....](http://www.contextis.com/documents/2/Browser_Timing_Attacks.pdf)
------
userbinator
Does anyone else find it a little disappointing that this is essentially over
40KB of code whose only function is to set the
layout.css.visited_links_enabled option to false? For that size, I was
expecting at least functionality like per-site preferences (which would be
_very_ useful and beyond the default functionality of the browser.)
~~~
phaker
Most of that 40kB is eaten up by three icons. The actual code is 13 lines
long:
[https://github.com/ChrisAntaki/visited-links-
firefox/blob/ma...](https://github.com/ChrisAntaki/visited-links-
firefox/blob/master/lib/main.js)
(plus a 14 line manifest file, 12 lines of test boilerplate and a 10 line
readme)
------
o_s_m
What are some other useful flags to set in Firefox that don't noticeably break
functionability?
~~~
ChrisAntaki
Disable WebRTC with _media.peerconnection.enabled_ =false
(WebRTC leaks your local network IP, without any user interaction. This helps
differentiate computers on a network/VPN. Here's a plugin which provides an
easier way to toggle this off/on. [https://github.com/ChrisAntaki/disable-
webrtc-firefox](https://github.com/ChrisAntaki/disable-webrtc-firefox))
Disable plugin & mimetype enumeration with _plugins.enumerable_names_ =""
(Our browsers oftentimes have unique sets of plugins & mimetypes, when you
factor in the version numbers. This helps differentiate specific browsers, on
a network/VPN. Here's an addon which adds an easier way to toggle this off/on.
[https://github.com/ChrisAntaki/plugins-and-mimetypes-
firefox](https://github.com/ChrisAntaki/plugins-and-mimetypes-firefox))
~~~
o_s_m
Thanks. BTW, I like your ambient music. I have it playing in the background
right now.
~~~
ChrisAntaki
Thanks, glad you're enjoying it
------
chrismorgan
I’d be more interested in something that ensured that visited links were
marked _differently_. Many, many sites go shushing up :visited when I would
rather not have it shushed.
~~~
eli
You could use one of the user stylesheet solutions to add your own styling. I
like Stylebot, but I think it's only for Chrome.
~~~
chrismorgan
I’d like something more selective than that. Pages that don’t make them the
same, do nothing; pages that make them the same, apply some algorithm to
select a new colour which is likely to be appropriate in the context.
Something like that.
------
SimeVidas
A Firefox extension whose whole purpose is to set/unset a flag :) Didn't know
you can do that with extensions.
------
Cthulu201
Wouldn't making layout.css.visited_links_enabled false in about:config do the
same thing?
~~~
ludwik
It would. This is probably supposed to be a little more user friendly.
------
gingerrr
...why would i install a plugin to do something accessible in the user
preferences menu?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Bing's search algorithm has been had - jeremywrockford
Was doing some work for a client. Looks like 90s webcrawler all over again.<p>https://www.bing.com/search?q=seattle%20personal%20injury%20attorney
======
chatmasta
One nice thing about Bing is that it actually offers an API. I had a client
who needed some scraping done -- basically, scrape a bunch (millions) of
search terms and then intersect the results -- and I was able to use the Bing
API to do it, without any need to beat Google CAPTCHA's or setup complex proxy
systems.
------
PuffinBlue
Looks like it pretty much works for "* personal injury attorney".
Slightly embarrassing.
~~~
jeremywrockford
definitely did a quick look on whats going on, all redirects to one URL,
here's there request:
HTTP/1.1 302 Found Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2018 22:12:45 GMT Content-Type:
text/html; charset=utf-8 Connection: keep-alive Set-Cookie:
__cfduid=d16c7107d2f0d7f82b98a8549260931421517263965; expires=Tue, 29-Jan-19
22:12:45 GMT; path=/; domain=.qpersonallawyer.com; HttpOnly Cache-Control:
private Location:
[http://google.com/?serverkw=Bellevue+Personal+Injury+Attorne...](http://google.com/?serverkw=Bellevue+Personal+Injury+Attorney&bingkw=&maindomain=qpersonallawyer.com)
X-Powered-By: ASP.NET Server: cloudflare CF-RAY: 3e4f88e5e2925534-ORD
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
I Wish I Worked With This Man...He's Hilarious - arunitc
http://www.tickld.com/x/i-wish-i-worked-with-this-manhes-hilarious?utm_content=bufferaa647&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
======
aeontech
The original:
[http://www.27bslash6.com/p2p2.html](http://www.27bslash6.com/p2p2.html)
------
neduma
///////////////funny.
------
pgsch
Not really "hilarious"
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Cash Cow Disease: The Cognitive Decline of Microsoft and Google - rbanffy
http://ronburk.blogspot.com/2010/08/cash-cow-disease-cognitive-decline-of.html
======
btilly
Some articles make you stupider for having read them. This is one of them. It
is full of nice sounding misinformation that you'd be better off forgetting.
The original purpose of the XBox was to kill the profit margins on Sony's cash
cow, the playstation. It succeeded in that, and Sony is no longer threatening
Microsoft across a range of areas. This was a wise strategic move, and profit
was not the main motive.
According to Google's Q3 release, Google's annualized run rate on mobile is
over a billion dollars. Android is a disproportionate share of that. Android
is not a waste of resources for Google. It is a profit center.
As for Wave, it was a great experiment. It didn't work out. But lots of ideas
from Wave are showing up in docs. I think it was a worthwhile risk to take,
and Google learned something from it.
The one thing that I agree with the article on is that Microsoft's mobile
strategy is severely broken. But the reasons for it are more complex than
simply saying that Microsoft has a bunch of cash.
And now I'm going to try to forget having read that article.
~~~
foobarbazoo
_The original purpose of the XBox was to kill the profit margins on Sony's
cash cow, the playstation. It succeeded in that, and Sony is no longer
threatening Microsoft across a range of areas. This was a wise strategic move,
and profit was not the main motive._
If you think that btilly is not describing and then praising wealth
destruction in that quote about Microsoft's Xbox business, please downvote
this comment. Thanks.
HOW TO DESTROY WEALTH:
When I spend $100 on materials and labor, and I can -- at best -- sell the
result to you for $80, $20 of wealth is destroyed. Why? Because the original
$100 came from the creation of wealth equal to that, and I transformed that
$100 into something that is now only worth $80. Literally, wealth was
destroyed.
If you'd like a more concrete analogy, what Microsoft did is a lot like taking
a a 1 carat diamond and smashing it into diamond dust. Only the arrangement of
matter has changed, but in terms of wealth, the diamond dust is worth far less
than the sparkling 1 carat diamond.
It's the same with the $100. As a $100 bill, it is worth exactly $100.
Microsoft took that $100 and spend it on labor and materials. The matter in
the world stayed the same. But the new arrangement of matter (an Xbox) was
only worth $80 to the world. Microsoft destroyed $20 in wealth to the world.
This, in a nutshell, is what Microsoft did with the Xbox. Sony was doing
something the world wanted with the Playstation. They were literally spending
$100 and getting $120 in value out of it. That's what wealth creation looks
like.
Microsoft did the opposite. Even worse, they did so in order to make it
impossible for Sony to create wealth, too. In my book, reducing the wealth of
the world for something so stupid, so small, as to "eliminate competition" is
about the worst sin a business can do.
The literally billions of dollars of wealth destroyed at both Sony and
Microsoft by the behavior of Microsoft has hurt the world in enumerable ways.
For all we know, had the money been returned to shareholders, we may have made
more progress on green energy. Or food production. Or water purification. Or
cancer research. Or any of the other things we could have done instead of
destroying wealth.
That is why the OP is so off base. And why the rest of you should upvote my
comment like crazy. Wealth destruction is bad, full stop.
~~~
zoomzoom
It is not praising wealth destruction, it is praising competition. The market
is not a zero-sum game where Sony's loss is everyone's loss.
------
raganwald
Putting my investor hat on here:
Cash cow businesses have a cash flow that they either return to investors or
reinvest themselves. The _only_ metric for success reinvesting the cash flow
is whether the company's stock grows at a higher rate than investors could
obtain for themselves if they invested the dividends in the market.
Microsoft has consistently failed this test. It doesn't matter whether their
investments are purported to be defensive to protect their main businesses or
offensive to develop new sources of cash flow.
Defending Windows from competition, for example, is only useful to the extent
that it helps the company's stock grow. If the stock does not grow, it would
be better to preside over a gradual decline while throwing off as much cash as
possible so that investors could invest the remaining dwindling cash flow in
better companies.
Google is an entirely different animal because their stock is much more
attractive to investors. As long as their stock continues to grow, management
are able to get away with much more "wasteful" attempts to get lightning to
strike again. But the moment its stock plateaus, they will be subject to the
same merciless metric from me, namely can they establish that they can manage
the company's stock price such that reinvesting cash is superior to giving it
to shareholders to invest for themselves.
~~~
3am
This is just back of the envelope, but 24 years ago Microsoft's [EDIT: split-
adjusted] stock price was .10. With today's price at $28, that is an
annualized rate of return of a little over 26%, which should exclude the $5.79
they've distributed in regular and special dividends since they instituted
their policy in 2004.
Also, the criteria for investing money you've described is baffling. I thought
return on invested capital was based on earnings, not stock price.
I think you are confusing sentiment with fundamentals.
~~~
raganwald
The last time I looked, 24 years was far too long a period to examine the
performance as the stock has had a reverse hockey-stick profile for quite some
time.
------
evilmushroom
This article is poorly thought out. He accuses Google of stifling innovation,
then he spouts this gem:
"Meanwhile, at Google, the cash cow is search-driven advertising. That allows
the company to encourage engineers to waste 20% of their time on "projects",
like Google Wave."
Apparently he thinks that a) A company should only stick to its core product.
(and some how this is innovation) b) If a company experiments it is "waste"
and crushes other smaller companies stifling innovation (which is why twitter
got crushed... oh wait)
Waste of my time reading this.
~~~
mmt
The key here isn't innovation, but _useful_ innovation.
_But the net result of cash cow disease is a waste of brainpower, and a
decrease in useful innovation._
From what I can tell, there isn't as much of a contradiction as you imply, and
the author is merely advocating a spin-off technique for investing in non-core
innovation.
~~~
evilmushroom
And what of the "unuseful successful innovation"?
1) Android is growing like wildfire-- contributes over a billion to revenue
last year it was claimed.
2) Google App Engine serves over a billion page load a day.
3) Google Apps? I love it--
etc etc.
Spin-off is a technique, but I don't think it's the only way to go.
~~~
mattmanser
The point the article is making is that if Google hadn't entered those
markets, someone else would have and done it a lot better.
Who's going to seriously invest in an online word processor or spreadsheet
with Google apps squatting on the territory? Just MS.
Google apps is still pretty basic and they're not operating under commercial
conditions, which means potentially the customer is not getting what they
actually want.
I think in some ways he's wrong, not operating under commercial pressures is
not necessarily a bad thing, but Google and Microsoft have recently been
extremely weak on following through on promising technology, abandoning
projects instead of pivoting.
But in Google's case it can be especially toxic, it's then difficult for
others to enter those markets as suddenly there's a free competitor. That's
not healthy and on that I agree with the author.
~~~
kenjackson
_But in Google's case it can be especially toxic, it's then difficult for
others to enter those markets as suddenly there's a free competitor. That's
not healthy and on that I agree with the author._
But isn't this the grave we've dug for ourselves (as software developers)?
We've pivoted the whole market so that software has no intrinsic value on its
own?
Look at WordLens for example. Mindblowing technology. If you could only get it
in a standalone piece of HW the markup would purely be a function of the HW
cost. As it is, they started pricing at $5. And as ridiculously cheap that is
I can see people saying, "Why isn't it 99 cents?"
At this point the horse is out of the barn. The value of your product is no
longer the utility of the product, but rather how well advertisers can
leverage your audience.
Although that makes me think, there's great advertising angles with WordLens
since you know what words/signs people are looking at. I freaking went to
sleep thinking about that product... sorry for the tanget. :-)
~~~
mattmanser
I don't really agree with you here, the size of the biggest market they can go
after, anyone who takes foreign vacations, is so massive that $5 is fine.
By keeping the cost lowish, they're discouraging immediate competition, but
can still make a large profit if they market it right. And that video
certainly looks like the right marketing to me!
~~~
kenjackson
I'm sure they'll make plenty of money, no disagreement there. My point is that
I don't think they can charge much more than $5. Consumers just don't value
software enough to pay that amount. The people that complain about a $10 app
w/ this functionality will have no problem paying an extra $20,000 for the top
line package on a new car. Or $20 for a T-Shirt. Or will pay an extra $2,000
to upgrade to 1st class on that foreign vacation.
For most people software has the value of a Happy Meal prize.
------
RodgerTheGreat
I think this article is a little off-base. Having money and a less than dire
need to survive does not automatically stifle innovation. Microsoft has an
enormous amount of management overhead and process that grinds brilliant
engineers and their output into a fine paste. They have cannibalistic internal
competition for resources and teams are actively discouraged from sharing code
and cooperating. You might argue that their war chest allows this insanity to
continue, but it's not the root of the issue.
~~~
rbanffy
> Having money and a less than dire need to survive does not automatically
> stifle innovation
No, but it makes space for the kind of complacency that stifles it. Also,
having a successful product that's your cash cow makes it hard for you to
develop the next-generation product that will kill it, specially if it does so
by generating lower revenue.
Having huge amounts of cash also help you to make very bad product decisions.
In order to learn what it learned with Wave, did Google really have to create
such a monstrous flop? Couldn't it be a private beta or an internal tool?
Couldn't it be a private beta? As for the original Xbox, I am not sure the
only reason for its existence was to hurt Sony. It's very nice to say "we
intended it to fail" years after you release a second-generation product.
Microsoft was into games before, with Sega (the Saturn ran a version of
WinCE). Did Microsoft really have to release the Kin?
But I agree with you on one thing: Microsoft is the Grand Master of using
vaporware and half-assed products to damage the competition. Why would anyone
consider the date Courier was "shown" be days before what was suspected to be
the date Apple would announce its tablet? I also disagree with the article
when it considers Google's 20% time a waste. Neither them nor we know what is
the Next Great Thing that will make search-driven ads obsolete. They, like us,
have no idea. That's why they encourage creative people to shoot in all
directions: because one will eventually hit something big.
And yes, as of December 2010, he is wrong about Android. It's a huge success
and telcos, AFAIK, pay Google a fair amount to use it (although open-source,
you pay for some apps like Gmail and contacts and to use the Android and
Google trademarks). I am not sure whether he would sound better in August.
If Wave has any pressure to be a successful application, it would have been
integrated with plain old SMTP e-mail, and would possibly be eating Gmail's
lunch by now.
~~~
kenjackson
_Did Microsoft really have to release the Kin?_
Word is they did. Apparently they had some contractual obligation to do so.
And I don't think they intend for XBox to fail, but the goal wasn't to make
profit in of itself, but rather to block and clear the way for their own
living room initiative.
_Why would anyone consider the date Courier was "shown" be days before what
was suspected to be the date Apple would announce its tablet?_
Huh? Courier was first shown in 2009. Way before the iPad was announced. If
anything MS cleard the field for the iPad by announcing they were killing the
Courier project.
~~~
rbanffy
> Huh? Courier was first shown in 2009. Way before the iPad was announced.
It was shown days before an Apple event. Rumors at the time pointed to Apple
releasing its tablet at that event. They didn't and watching the rushed CGI
video of a concept that would never become a product being released right
before a non-event was priceless.
> If anything MS cleard the field for the iPad
I wouldn't hold my breath
~~~
kenjackson
I took a look at the time line and you appear to have improperly recollected.
The Courier leak happened 9/22/2009. The Apple event was 9/9/2009. By the time
the Courier leak occurred everyone was already speculating the Apple Tablet
was coming out in February as Apple's September event had long passed with no
mention of a tablet. See this Mashable story:
<http://mashable.com/2009/09/22/microsoft-courier/>
MS cancels the Courier on April 29th -- the same month the iPad came out (and
actually a day before the launch of the 3G version).
There doesn't seem to be a FUD play at all here, except in the eyes of the
most ardent consipracy theorists. RBanffy? :-)
~~~
rbanffy
There was an Apple product announcement on October 20th 2009. That's when they
announced the new LED-backlit Macbooks, the Magic Mouse and a new line of
iMacs. By the time the Courier video was shown, there was a lot of speculation
on what would Apple announce that October.
As for the September 9th event, it was disappointing. Lots of people expected
a "one more thing" moment with what would become the iPad.
So, it was right after an Apple event and right before a couple product
announcements from Apple.
------
eitland
One of Microsofts bigger problem might be that improving anything might break
their stranglehold on consumers and other companies.
See <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1991950> /
[http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/ej32l/we_are_the_hotma...](http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/ej32l/we_are_the_hotmail_development_team_lets_talk/c18gp4r?context=1)
where the hotmail team seemingly can't understand the reason why someone would
need IMAP support when ActiveSync exists
~~~
yuhong
Yea, MS's vendor lock-in is old and well-known and part of why MS was
considered evil.
------
SeanDav
Disagree with this article. There was a rather good article on hacker news a
few weeks ago which made a lot more sense as a reason for Microsoft/Google/et
al dropping projects. Wish I could remember the name so I could link to it.
The essence though is that the Googles of this world have completely different
sets of requirements to the startups of this world. Additionally the public
has expectation of the Googles that are vastly different to their expectation
on smaller, younger company's. This is not Google or Microsoft screwing up,
but rather dropping products that don't meet their requirements or what they
perceive are the requirements of the public/customers.
I am no fanboi, almost the opposite in fact as far as Microsoft is concerned,
but I do respect the power of these companies to lead and to innovate.
------
shanked
According to the author, Apple should have never developed the iPod, iPhone,
or iPad....
~~~
alextp
Actually Apple until recently didn't have a cash cow per se. When the iPod was
first developed Apple was making very little money, and broadening its product
base was a good strategy.
I think the main popular tech giant that seems to avoid most of the
consequences of the cash cow disease is Apple. Even though they are turning a
profit comparable to microsoft's, you don't see nearly as many spin-offs or
research departments or other leakages. Pretty much the only things that come
out of Apple are its top-of-the-line products.
While this is scary for someone who would one day like to work in an
industrial reaearch lab, they certainly seem to know how to make money.
------
kenjackson
The article has the classic issue of a strong degree of selection bias. While
MS and Google don't drop hit songs every release, the fact of the matter is
neither does every startup.
MS and Google effectively become angel investors in startups of their
choosing. This seems like a rational way to spend the money. And given that
Apple is dominating the consumer market, giving money back to shareholders
indirectly means funding Apple.
------
jk
Well.. nice thoughts. But didn't gmail start off in one of those "wasted" 20%
of time?
------
AndrewHampton
From the original article:
_Meanwhile, at Google, the cash cow is search-driven advertising. That allows
the company to encourage engineers to waste 20% of their time on "projects"_
If I remember correctly, didn't Paul Buchheit create Gmail and AdSense on his
20% time?
------
vlucas
This has to be one of the worst articles I have read in a long time. While
it's true that companies exist to profit their shareholders, sometimes the
best way to do that is to withhold immediate current revenue for the hope of
even large future revenues by re-investing it in other products to move the
company forward.
Google's 20% time is one of the best things Google has even done, and many
profitable projects have already come out of it - GMail and AdSense to name
two.
------
david_p
Failed experiments is what makes science go forward.
How can people who make a profits of innovation (yes, the shareholders he is
talking about) ignore so much on the process that leads to innovation ?
This is why I believe there is a problem with the stock market : people who
buy stocks don't have a clue, they just want to gather profits.
This only lead to shortsighted investment, pushing management to take
"actions" to reassure clueless shareholders like him.
------
gawker
I don't understand how there's a title called "Making Economic Sense" yet for
the most part monetary benefit is the main subject while social benefit is
nowhere to be seen. There are claims that the 20% of employee time is being
wasted? Would that not make an employee's work-life that much happier? It also
seems the article preaches that almost every decision that Microsoft or Google
makes cannot fail.
------
unshift
this guy is an idiot. the whole point of other products, 20% time,
diversification, etc. are to not only create other cash cows but allow
tolerance for a product's growth/earnings to slow down. ever hear of "don't
put all your eggs in one basket"?
the simple fact is, when you have a cash cow, you got extremely lucky. it's
really hard to duplicate that so you do your best to support it and keep it
going by creating an ecosystem around it and expanding it wherever you can.
see: gmail, google webmaster tools, MS SQL server and friends, and so forth.
his real gripe seems to be, though he may not realize it, that companies
aren't operated as short-running events that generate a burst of money for
shareholders and then fizzle out and die. he doesn't seem to like the long-
haul approach that has kept e.g. MS in business for 30 years.
~~~
foobarbazoo
"the simple fact is, when you have a cash cow, you got extremely lucky"
And here we have yet another comment purporting to argue against the article,
and inadvertently proving it's main thesis.
Google should _give the profits back to shareholders_ instead of trying to
duplicate or continue what you yourself agree was success that was "extremely
lucky".
The author isn't expecting lightning to strike twice at Google, and thinks
they should put the money back in the marketplace where it can be spent
wisely.
~~~
unshift
when you have a cash cow you can either take the money and run, or reinvest
and try to milk it for all it's worth. sometimes the former is the best idea,
sometimes the latter works out well. MS, google, apple, facebook, etc. are all
examples of the latter. which completely goes against the premise of the
article -- google wouldn't be google if they didn't have a wide breadth of
products and would have likely gotten bought out if their only concern was a
quick return on investment money.
------
Aloisius
He did get one thing right. Google starves the valley of engineers (as does
Facebook). Their starting salaries are now so high for even straight-out-of-
college grads that it actually harms startups.
------
danshapiro
Applying this article's advice retroactively - HP should be producing
oscilloscopes, Sony should be producing cassette players, and 3M should be
producing... rocks.
------
stretchwithme
Maybe Google should go further with its 20% time concept and let people who
want to work on ideas of their choosing for months at a time instead of just
part time.
------
known
I think Obama should focus on creating _overseas_ jobs for Americans.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Proteus: Underwater research lab worthy of a Bond villain - shivghosh8
https://www.cnet.com/news/proteus-is-an-underwater-research-lab-worthy-of-a-bond-villain/
======
sradman
> The plan is to build Proteus off the coast of the Caribbean island of
> Curaçao, at a depth of 60 feet (~18m).
An underwater lab at only 2 atmospheres on an island famous for its shore
diving accessible by car? This reminds me of a Freeman Dyson quote I
referenced [0] in a different thread on underwater exploration:
> [The Russians] are very proud of the space station and for good reasons.
> They believe that human activities in space are an end in itself,
> essentially as an international sporting event. They don't sell it under
> false pretences as a scientific program.
[0]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23482656](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23482656)
[1] [https://perimeterinstitute.ca/videos/living-through-four-
rev...](https://perimeterinstitute.ca/videos/living-through-four-revolutions)
~~~
wdb
Why do they want to build in near Curaçao? Sounds like a great way to ruin the
already weak water ecosystem near Curacao. I have to admit I have a summer
house in Curaçao so might be biased.
~~~
sradman
I suspect that the same characteristics that make Bonaire and Curaçao a haven
for shore diving simplify the design of the underwater lab:
> Fresh air, power and internet will be provided by an umbilical cable to the
> surface.
------
sandworm101
>> One of the other big names he's enlisted is Yves Béhar, a name you might
recognize from a variety of tech projects like One Laptop per Child. He and
his company Fuzeproject designed the futuristic-looking station.
Um ... wasn't that the premise behind an Archer episode? Sea Tunt? The rich
Tunt brother had backed both the sea base and one laptop per child. Is this
the tail wagging the dog or at some personal level is there a link to the
show?
~~~
makerofspoons
That is an interesting connection for sure. The gag was "One Laptop per Child
Soldier":
[https://archer.fandom.com/wiki/Cecil_Tunt](https://archer.fandom.com/wiki/Cecil_Tunt)
------
Cantbekhan
It's worth mentioning that there were many similar and even larger (and also
much deeper) underwater labs and habitats since the 1960s.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underwater_habitat](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underwater_habitat)
------
gambiting
So.....an underwater lab where the whole premise is not having to do a lengthy
decompression....and yet it's only down at 18m depth? Reading the article I
thought they were aiming for much deeper than that, it seems like there's
hardly any benefit at the dept given. According to this[0] table,
decompression from that depth takes just 2 hours?
[0]
[https://www.hse.gov.uk/pUbns/dvis5.pdf](https://www.hse.gov.uk/pUbns/dvis5.pdf)
~~~
sandworm101
If we are comparing this thing to the ISS, an emergency return from the ISS
would take just under five hours. So someone with an appendicitis can probably
get home before dying. Much further away than a few hours and otherwise
routine medical emergencies start get much more difficult.
~~~
fastball
That's why you just send the doctor down to the sea lab!
~~~
sradman
Or have a chamber nearby on the surface staffed by doctors trained in
hyperbaric medicine [1].
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperbaric_medicine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperbaric_medicine)
------
slowhand09
Funny the story completely missed "Fantastic Voyage" movie
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantastic_Voyage](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantastic_Voyage))
which had a research submarine called "Proteus".
~~~
aerostable_slug
I was happy to read that at least some of the journalists covering Victor
Vescovo's recent dives got the references in his vessel names (I think it's
not unlikely the later ones cribbed off the first few articles).
------
sparsely
Someone's been playing too much Subnautica
------
GekkePrutser
I don't really get this - is the bends the only reason for doing this? If so,
why not mix some other inert gas than Nitrogen that doesn't have the problem?
Cool base though :)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Debugging Go code (a status report) - abraham
http://blog.golang.org/2010/11/debugging-go-code-status-report.html
======
akeefer
One of the first things you will find out, if you attempt to write a new
programming language and then use it for actual production work, is how much
users of that language will miss simple, taken-for-granted things like
debuggers.
Creating a programming language by itself isn't all that hard. The real work
is actually making it usable with good error messages and stack traces, tools
like debuggers and profilers, editor support (if you're into that sort of
thing), and documentation and specs. All of that (especially good editor
support) is easily an order of magnitude more work than a parser and a
compiler, and that doesn't even consider libraries you might need to write if
you can't interoperate with an established language. (Spoken from personal
experience, for what it's worth).
~~~
nickik
but the real hard thing is to make a language people want to use. If you did
that the rest will be done by the comunity but even then it a lot of work.
One of there reasons new langauges are often targeting the JVM or the CLR. You
can reuse most of the tools and libs with less work.
~~~
akeefer
Exactly. Funny story there . . . we started our JVM language as interpreted,
more or less, and ended up having to write our own not-so-great debugger for
it. We decided to compile it down to native java bytecode precisely so we
could take advantage of all the native Java tools that work with standard
Java-like classes, such as debuggers, profilers, and even just stack traces.
That approach doesn't work so well for languages that don't match Java
relatively closely (i.e. stack traces in Closure are, I understand, pretty
horrific), but for our language it's turned out pretty well.
------
hartror
When it comes to debugging, nothing beats a few strategic print statements to inspect variables or a well-placed panic to obtain a stack trace.
I respectfully disagree with this statement.
Beyond simple issues a debugger is invaluable for following program flow and
inspecting variable/memory states.
And why does "missing .. patience" mean you are more likely to use a debugger
over a print statement?
~~~
supersillyus
In the last decade, I think I've pulled out a debugger only a handful of
times. Apparently many people use them, but for me, understanding my code,
writing tests, and tossing in some printfs has always been the way. I don't
have a problem with debuggers, butfor me it is usually about having theories
and testing them. This testing can happen in a debugger or in a print
statement or in a test, but a test always seems like the best idea, and a
print statement usually seems more straightforward to me than trying to stop
and inspect my program while it is running.
~~~
barrkel
You use this "my" word a lot. I personally use debuggers for debugging other
people's code, code that's possibly decades old, that doesn't have enough
modularity for good unit tests, and whose bugs in any case often only show up
in complex multithreaded integration scenarios. GDB only acquired
multiprocessing debugging support this year; to my mind it's pretty primitive.
------
enneff
How many people use debuggers like GDB day-to-day? I've found them useful when
trapped in a corner, but typically I debug with the source in hand.
Anyone got any good debugging war stories?
~~~
abhijitr
I would assert that it is pure folly to attempt to build a non-trivial
application in a compiled language without the assistance of a competent
debugger. You simply cannot iterate quickly enough through the debugging loop
of "Form theory" -> "Test theory" if you have to wait a minute for a build to
complete each time. Unit tests help, but will never get you all the way there
(good luck tracking down a leak with unit tests).
~~~
nickik
the repl is your friend even in compiled languages like haskell.
~~~
Devilboy
A proper REPL can do a lot of the same stuff you'd use a debugger for, and a
whole lot more. With a nice REPL you'll do just fine without a debugger.
~~~
arethuza
Why not use a REPL _and_ a good debugger? It's a nice combination.
------
pepsi_can
I've always used debuggers as a faster form of print statements. It faster to
inspect several values using the debugger than it is to write and then delete
a bunch of print statements.
However print statements become my go-to tool when debugging multithreaded
code.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The art of Skype set-dressing: how to video-call the office when in quarantine - mr_toad
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/11/quarantine-video-call-coronavirus-colleagues-home-work
======
prgr
So - not sure about this how-to. Any artfully placed pot plant might not be a
good idea behind the camera.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The IBM PC, Part 1 (2012) - Stratoscope
http://www.filfre.net/2012/05/the-ibm-pc-part-1/
======
kpgraham
My company sent me to Boca Raton in 1983 to learn how to use the PC. It was a
week long class with hands on experience configuring PCs and BAT file
programming using "EDLIN".
I had PC serial #7 in the class and serial #1 was at the front of the
classroom.
The instructors were very excited that they could use BAT files and were
bragging that the whole class roster was entered and managed on the PC using
only the tools that came with PC-DOS.
The course set me on the path of systems and programming and kept me fat and
happy for the next 35 years.
~~~
mschaef
> the whole class roster was entered and managed on the PC using only the
> tools that came with PC-DOS.
Having once written a depth-first directory tree traversal using edlin and
batch files, I can only imagine what this must have entailed.
------
forinti
First time I used an IBM PC I thought it was awful. I was used to 8 bit micros
that had: colour, OS in ROM, BASIC in ROM, and sound.
You couldn't do anything with it before you used at least two disks: one for
DOS and the other with an application.
I thought business people liked them because they wanted boring machines on
purpose.
And then came the 16 bits machines: Amiga, ST, etc. And then the Acorn
Archimedes. And IBM PCs were still awful. They started to make sense to me
when 386s came about.
~~~
bluedino
The 386's weren't even that great for games/graphics. Most games were still
286-compatible, and if you had a 386SX you might as well have had a 286. I
remember being blown away by a friends Tandy because of the graphics and sound
card it had, even though it was basically an IBM PC underneath.
The CGA graphics options on the IBM really didn't do them any favors. EGA
wasn't much better but at least you could do games like Commander Keen. I
remember playing games like Prince of Persia, BattleChess, and thinking
"Finally. My friends with Atari and Amiga (and even Apple) computers have had
these games for years."
It really took a 486 and a VGA card to let the PC start to shine. And then
once the 3D games started coming out (Doom, Descent), you didn't even need a
console anymore.
~~~
Zardoz84
Correction , a 386 with SVGA card I played Doom, Descent, Wolfstein 3d, Dune,
Dune 2, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Warcraft II, Sim City 2000 and
Hexen on a simple AMD 386@40 with 4 MiB of RAM and OAK SVGA 1MiB that my
father build self.
~~~
mschaef
The 386/40's were definitely fast enough to be pushing into the 486's
performance envelope (at least for integer).
------
walterbell
_> Rather than talking of an open architecture, we might do better to talk of
a modular architecture. The IBM would be a sort of computer erector set, a set
of interchangeable components that the purchaser could snap together in
whatever combination suited her needs and her pocketbook. _
Has this been achieved with software components in any niche? Other than early
IETF protocols, software mutation tends to challenge interoperability.
Containers are making progress in this direction.
On the hardware front,
[http://www.opencompute.org](http://www.opencompute.org) has increased choices
for those who can buy servers in large quantity. But small business has less
choice these days. Even Dell, pioneer of build-to-order PCs, now favors pre-
configured PCs.
On a positive note, it is now possible to buy some PCs without a Windows tax.
Dell offers Linux and HP offers Linux/FreeDOS on select models. Is there room
for PC OEM/ODMs to innovate in (free, non-bloatware) software components to
increase the value of their mix-and-match hardware components?
~~~
badsectoracula
> Has this been achieved with software components in any niche?
Isn't this what "programs" and "files" do? There used to be a time when
computers were really one (or few) trick machines but since the time when
anyone could install any program on their computer and have programs work with
any file (regardless of which program originally made it), software on the
whole is as modular (if not more modular) as hardware.
(which is also why i dislike the trend that iOS created with software being
isolated both in terms of execution and file access, except a few preapproved
holes here and there)
~~~
jacquesm
> There used to be a time when computers were really one (or few) trick
> machines
You mean the time when programming was done with plug boards?
Computers have been more or less universal since the time RAM was used to
execute the programs, the fact that files are a convenient way to organize
data does noes not detract from the fact that the internal structure of a file
needs to be known if you want another program to make sense out of it.
In that sense the text file is the most enabling element here, and binary
files with unknown structure the least.
The ability to quickly load a program quickly (rather than to load it in
through elaborate means such as plugboards, switches, punched cards, paper
tape or magnetic reel-to-reel tape) definitely has had a lot of effect on the
universal application of computers but that doesn't mean they weren't
universal machines.
And even in the time of plug boards there were tricks that would keep multiple
programs active by means of switching out an entire bank or segment of
configured boards for another.
Software is as modular as the hardware it runs on permits, but it can also
very effectively restrict or expand that modularity, a nice example of this is
virtual machines which present a machine entirely different than the one that
the original hardware embodies.
~~~
laumars
> _Computers have been more or less universal since the time RAM was used to
> execute the programs, the fact that files are a convenient way to organize
> data does noes not detract from the fact that the internal structure of a
> file needs to be known if you want another program to make sense out of it._
> _In that sense the text file is the most enabling element here, and binary
> files with unknown structure the least._
text files haven't always been universal. There used to be different text
encodings (ASCII hasn't always been universal) and even different sizes of
byte (eg some systems would have 6 or 7 bits to a byte). And even if two
machines you're wanting to share data between were both an 8bit ASCII system;
there's no guarantee that they would share the same dialect of BASIC, LISP,
Pascal or C.
~~~
jacquesm
ASCII isn't universal even today (the page you are reading is UNICODE), but
all text was much more readable and in general easier to process with ad-hoc
filtering or other manipulation than binary formats.
This is what underpins most of the power of UNIX, but at the same time is
something of a weak point: good and error free text processing is actually
quite hard.
~~~
laumars
> _ASCII isn 't universal even today (the page you are reading is UNICODE)_
That's not really a fair point because Unicode and nearly all of the other
extended character sets (if not all of them) still follow ASCII for the lower
ranges. This also includes Windows Code Pages, ISO-8859 (which itself contains
more than a dozen different character sets) and all of the Unicode character
sets too.
> _but all text was much more readable and in general easier to process with
> ad-hoc filtering or other manipulation than binary formats._
Text is still a binary format. If you have a different byte size or
significantly different enough base character set then you will still end up
with gibberish. This is something we've come to take for granted in the
"modern" era of ASCII but back in the day "copying text files" between
incompatible systems would produce more garbage than just a few badly rendered
characters or the carriage return issues you get when switching between UNIX
and Windows.
~~~
jacquesm
So, essentially you are trying to make the point that even ASCII has its
problems and that all data has to be encoded somehow before processing can be
done on it. The latter seems to be self-evident and UNICODE is a response to
the former.
~~~
laumars
That's not what I'm saying at all. ASCII is just a standard for how text is
encoded into binary. However it hasn't been around forever and before it there
were lots of different -incompatible- standards. It was so bad that some
computers would have their own proprietary character set. Some computers also
didn't even have 8 bits to a byte and since a byte was the unit for each
character (albeit ASCII is technically 7bit but lets not get into that here),
it meant systems with 6 or 7 bits to a byte would be massively incompatible as
you're off by one or two bits on each character, which multiplies up with each
subsequent character. This meant that text files were often fundamentally
incompatible across different systems (I'm not talking like weird character
rendering; I'm talking about the file looking like random binary noise).
ASCII changed a lot of that and did so with what was, in my opinion at least,
a beautiful piece of design.
I did a quick bit of googling around to find a supporting article about the
history of ASCII: [http://ascii-world.wikidot.com/history](http://ascii-
world.wikidot.com/history)
There was also some good discussions on HN a little while ago about the design
of ASCII, I think this was one of the referenced articles:
[https://garbagecollected.org/2017/01/31/four-column-
ascii/](https://garbagecollected.org/2017/01/31/four-column-ascii/)
The history of ASCII is really quite interesting if you're into old hardware.
~~~
jacquesm
ASCII wasn't nearly as universal as you think it was.
And a byte never meant 8 bits, that's an octet.
ASCII definitely was - and is - a very useful standard, but it does not have
the place in history that you assign to it.
In the world of micro-computing it was generally the standard (UNIX, the PC
and the various minicomputers also really helped). But its limitations were
apparent very soon after its introduction and almost every manufacturer had
their own uses for higher order and some control characters.
Systems with 6 or 7 bits to a byte would not be 'massively incompatible' they
functioned quite well _with their own software and data encodings_. That those
were non-standard didn't matter much until you tried to import data from
another computer or export data to another computer made by a different
manufacturer.
Initially, manufacturers would use this as a kind of lock-in mechanism, but
eventually they realized standardization was useful.
Even today such lock-in is still very much present in the word of text
processing, in spite of all the attempts at getting the characters to be
portable across programs running on the same system and between various
systems formatting and special characters are easily lost in translation if
you're not extra careful.
Ironically, the only thing you can - even today - rely on is ASCII7.
Finally we've reached the point where we can drop ASCII with all its warts and
move to UNICODE, as much as ASCII was a 'beautiful piece of design' it was
also very much English centric to the exclusion of much of the rest of the
world (a neat reflection of both the balance of power and the location of the
vast majority of computing infrastructure for a long time). If you lived in a
non-English speaking country ASCII was something you had to work with, but
probably not something that you thought of as elegant or beautiful.
~~~
laumars
With the greatest of respect, you don't seem to be taking much attention to
the points I'm trying to raise. I don't know if that is down to a language
barrier, myself explaining things poorly, or if you're just out to argue for
the hell of it. But I'll bite...
> _ASCII wasn 't nearly as universal as you think it was._
I didn't say it was universal. It is _now_ , obviously, but I was talking
about __before__ it was even commonplace.
> _And a byte never meant 8 bits, that 's an octet._
I know. I was the one who raised the point about the differing sizes of byte.
;)
> _ASCII definitely was - and is - a very useful standard, but it does not
> have the place in history that you assign to it._
On that we'll have to agree to disagree. But from what I do remember of early
computing systems, it was a bitch working with systems that weren't ASCII
compatible. So I'm immensely grateful regardless of it's place in history.
However your experience might differ.
> _In the world of micro-computing it was generally the standard (UNIX, the PC
> and the various minicomputers also really helped). But its limitations were
> apparent very soon after its introduction and almost every manufacturer had
> their own uses for higher order and some control characters._
Indeed but most of them were still ASCII compatible. Without ASCII there
wouldn't have even been a compatible way to share text.
> _Systems with 6 or 7 bits to a byte would not be 'massively incompatible'
> they functioned quite well with their own software and data encodings. That
> those were non-standard didn't matter much until you tried to import data
> from another computer or export data to another computer made by a different
> manufacturer._
That's oxymoronic. You literally just argued that differing bits wouldn't make
systems incompatible with each other because they work fine on their own
systems, they just wouldn't be compatible with other systems. The latter is
literally the definition of "incompatible".
> _Initially, manufacturers would use this as a kind of lock-in mechanism, but
> eventually they realized standardization was useful._
It wasn't really much to do with lock-in mechanisms - or at least not on the
systems I used. It was just that the whole industry was pretty young so there
was a lot of experimentation going on and different engineers with differing
ideas about how to build hardware / write software. Plus the internet didn't
even exist back then - not even ARPNET. So sharing data wasn't something that
needed to happen commonly. From what I recall the biggest issues with
character encodings back then were hardware related (eg teletypes) but the
longevity of some of those computers is what lead to my exposure with them.
> _Finally we 've reached the point where we can drop ASCII with all its warts
> and move to UNICODE, as much as ASCII was a 'beautiful piece of design' it
> was also very much English centric to the exclusion of much of the rest of
> the world (a neat reflection of both the balance of power and the location
> of the vast majority of computing infrastructure for a long time). If you
> lived in a non-English speaking country ASCII was something you had to work
> with, but probably not something that you thought of as elegant or
> beautiful._
I use Unicode exclusively these days. With Unicode you have the best of both
worlds - ASCII support for interacting with any legacy systems (ASCII
character codes are still used heavily on Linux by the way - since the
terminal is just a pseudo-teletype) while having the extended characters for
international support. Though I don't agree with all of the characters that
have been added to Unicode, I do agree with your point that ASCII wasn't
nearly enough to meet the needs for non-English users. Given the era though,
it was still an impressive and much needed standard.
A side question: is there a reason you capitalise Unicode?
------
bogomipz
Interesting I had no idea about this passage:
>"In September of 1975 the company introduced the IBM 5100, their first
“portable” computer. (“Portable” meant that it weighed just 55 pounds and you
could buy a special travel case to lug it around in.)"
6 years later the "luggable" from Compaq became a real thorn in IBMs side. If
you enjoy this type of computer history I highly recommend watching "Silicon
Cowboys" a documentary about the rise of Compaq but also a bit about the
history of the IBM PC and "clones". It's pretty fascinating and it's available
on Netflix as well as free on Youtube:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oylmFdZswCM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oylmFdZswCM)
------
amelius
Computing was more fun when hardware and software were separated.
Unfortunately the trend is now going in the opposite direction.
~~~
mschaef
How far back do you want to go with that? I remember assembling computers out
of video boards, motherboards, etc.... but there are some people that remember
soldering chips together... or transistors... or tubes... or relays. The trend
towards higher levels of integration in computing extends back to the 50's (or
maybe 40's).
> Computing was more fun
Fun is where you choose to find it. Modern machines are so good that they can
be fun too.
------
walshemj
Interesting the 8 inch floppys look similar to the ones used in the IBM
displaywriter hard sectored and made a distinctive "graunching" sound when the
drives where accessed.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Best Universal Remote: Your Phone - pbj
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,2072502,00.html
======
tobylane
There aren't enough good uses of this fact, the apps that I could find include
- HippoLite, Teamviewer, Vlcremfree, MochaVNC and Awake. And eventually mine
which will be web based.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: We have free SSL certs now. Isn't it time we got free domain names? - mathnmusic
Is it possible? What's the actual cost of maintaining a TLD registry? Can it be funded like LetsEncrypt?<p>(Ignoring blockchain-based name registries as they aren't universally supported, and still cost money.)
======
zimbatm
The main issue that has to be solved is name squatting.
~~~
learn_awesome
This indeed seems to be the main issue (which LetsEncrypt didn't need to worry
about). Zero cost would necessarily mean that early users will hoard all the
valuable names, leading us back to square one.
Human-recognizable names are a scarce commodity. Zero price would create a
market distortion.
------
wmf
Unfortunately ICANN has issued lucrative contracts allowing registries to
charge ~$8/year/domain or more and it seems like the cost of providing those
registries has expanded to consume all that money (like in the old days of Ma
Bell). Companies will never give up that money.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Microsoft Comic Chat for Freenode - enthdegree
http://hastebin.com/vevopugatu.py
======
enthdegree
Demo here: [http://i.imgur.com/jVLhw8A.png](http://i.imgur.com/jVLhw8A.png)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Richard Stallman on the Failure of One Laptop Per Child & his new laptop - nickb
http://www.bostonreview.net/BR33.6/stallman.php
======
0xdefec8
>I plan to try to organize counterpressure while in Peru this November.
All I can picture are some very confused little Peruvian children wondering
why the large scary bearded man is yelling about computadora libre.
------
jws
Title is in error. The article is about RMS refusing to use his OLPC since it
is capable of running Windows. He has switched to an inferior machine with a
MIPS processor that won't have this flaw.
~~~
allenbrunson
i don't think that's fairly representing his case. he stopped using his olpc
because he feels that the project has lost sight of its original goals, and
that they are now doing more harm than good. if he continues to use an olpc,
he feels that it appears he supports what they're doing, when clearly he does
not.
i don't agree with a lot of rms' ideals. he's far too dogmatic, which has
driven away a lot of would-be supporters. but i have to admire the guy anyway.
it's very rare to find someone who believes in things as strongly as rms does,
and is willing to go so far out of his way to practice what he preaches.
~~~
endtwist
The problem isn't that the project lost sight of its original goals. It sounds
more like the goal of this project wasn't clear between groups.
Stallman stated that "the plans aimed for low cost, enabling many children to
use the machines, and free software, so they would have freedom while using
them." From what I understood, the goal of the project was to get computers
into the hands of children in third-world countries, so they could simply get
experience with computers -- period. It was my belief that the fact that free
software was used was simply out of convenience; since free software was also
free (as in beer), it was another step in cutting the costs of the laptop.
When Microsoft stepped in and "offered up" its OS at the extremely cut costs,
Negroponte decided that would be a more useful option; I don't think his
intention is to force-feed proprietary software to children. Either he
believes Windows is a better option, or he is an economically self-serving
individual. Regardless, I sense that the ultimate purpose of this project was
unclear to certain people.
On a less direct note, I can't stand Stallman's zealotry. It's great that he
is able to stand so firm on one particular point, but it is also a terrible
trait, considering that he isn't willing to even give a moments consideration
to alternative options on a scope/level _outside_ his "cause."
~~~
arebop
It obviously is true that there is confusion about the project's goals, but
the confusion is not a simple matter of Stallman's passion coloring his
perception. Even today, vestiges of an ambition and commitment far beyond
delivering machines to children remain on the OLPC site.
"XO embodies the theories of constructionism first developed by MIT Media Lab
Professor Seymour Papert in the 1960s, and later elaborated upon by Alan Kay,
complemented by the principles articulated by Nicholas Negroponte in his book,
Being Digital." --- <http://laptop.org/vision/mission/>
If you read more about constructionism at
<http://www.papert.org/articles/SituatingConstructionism.html>, you will see
that it is consonant with the freedom "to improve the program" and all the
rest of the Free Software freedoms.
"Our commitment to software freedom gives children the opportunity to use
their laptops on their own terms. [...] we do not want any ceiling imposed on
those children who choose to modify their machines." ---
<http://www.laptop.org/en/laptop/software/>
------
Tichy
With all sympathy, it seems to me that a PC that is capable of running Linux
AND Windows is more free than a PC that is only capable of running Linux.
I understand the concern of making Windows available to children, but in the
end, it is better than no PC at all.
At least if you have a OLPC with Windows installed, hopefully you can find a
Website that tells you how to install Linux on it. If you have no OLPC, you
can not even install Linux on it.
~~~
cabalamat
_it seems to me that a PC that is capable of running Linux AND Windows is more
free than a PC that is only capable of running Linux_
That's like saying a society where some people are free and some people are
slaves is more free than a society where everyone is free.
_I understand the concern of making Windows available to children, but in the
end, it is better than no PC at all._
If it was a choice between a PC running Windows or no PC at all, ever for the
rest of someone's life, then I'd agree. But as Stallman says "Teaching
children to use Windows is like teaching them to smoke tobacco—in a world
where only one company sells tobacco."
~~~
Tichy
Running Windows is not the same as being a slave.
In fact, why not dig deeper. Is the CPU Open Source? Why is it not a problem
to use proprietary hardware?
Actually, Windows does not even have that much of a lock-in, or does it? The
lock in used to stem from MS Office, and even that is not so severe anymore
these days.
And I think for those children it was a question between no PC or a Windows
PC. If for whatever reason the government or whoever pays for the PCs says so,
what do you want to do against it?
~~~
cabalamat
_Running Windows is not the same as being a slave._
Of course not. I didn't say it was.
_Is the CPU Open Source? Why is it not a problem to use proprietary
hardware?_
Open Source processor designs exist. It wouldn't surprise me if in future
FLOSS operating systems run on them.
I don't consider proprietary CPUs to be a big problem -- though they would be
if they were running some sort of Treacherous Computing system or DRM which
meant they wouldn't do what the user wanted.
_Windows does not even have that much of a lock-in, or does it?_
The lock-in is vastly less than what it used to be. I can develop web
applications using a GNU/Linux system with no problems.
_If for whatever reason the government or whoever pays for the PCs says so,
what do you want to do against it?_
It's not for me to tell foreigners how to run their countries (it's not my
country). Though IMO if they make themselves dependent on Microsoft, they are
not acting in their own best interests.
~~~
Tichy
I certainly wouldn't advise those countries to use Microsoft products.
------
nickb
I'm guessing that this is the laptop he uses now:
<http://www.lemote.com/english/yeeloong.html>
_The world's first fully open hardware/software. All system source(BIOS,
kernel, drivers etc.) are open source, no close firmware needed._
_CPU: STLS 2F(Loongson 2F) 900MHz, with integrated DDR2 controller and PCI
controller_
~~~
kqr2
[http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewA...](http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=323954&source=rss_topic122)
The end of this article contains a few more details on Richard Stallman's new
choice of laptop.
It is slightly ironic that the world's first "free" (by Richard Stallman's
definition) laptop is produced by China -- a country notorious for cracking
down on human rights. I guess it's the difference between freedom of speech
and freedom of "intellectual propety".
~~~
martey
_Unfortunately, it doesn't have a suspend-and-resume capability, which
Stallman called "somewhat inconvenient." Nor does the battery charge while
it's running, which he called "an annoyance."_
A lot of people would call these "dealbreakers."
------
jodrellblank
I'm surprised to read that Mr Freedom of Choice himself is in favour of
computers that can't run Windows.
(As if Microsoft wouldn't port Windows to MIPS if it became a large market oh
wait Windows CE runs on MIPS devices and Windows NT 3.1 and Windows NT4 ran on
MIPS (- wikipedia)).
~~~
jcl
I agree; his concerns are baseless. Any hardware that is free enough to run
Free software can be made to run proprietary software. Stallman would like to
remove the user's freedom to restrict freedom on hardware -- the hardware
analogue of GPL vs. BSD -- but this doesn't work on hardware because copyright
doesn't apply, so the best he can do is choose a platform that is merely
inconvenient for some proprietary software.
Moreover, OLPC continues work on its Linux software, which is still the
preferred distribution. The next wave of Give-One-Get-One machines are
shipping with Linux, not Windows. And if Stallman's MIPS machines ever take
off, the best educational Linux distribution for them may well be the OLPC's
software, so helping OLPC (or, at least, SugarLabs) is not a waste of time or
money.
The reason Negroponte is so eager to help Windows onto the device is likely
because several countries expressed interest in it, and he wants to boost
sales. Urging these countries to instead purchase laptops that are not
compatible with Windows is not a feasible strategy; if they wanted Linux, they
would not have requested Windows.
------
fjl
_Teaching children to use Windows is like teaching them to smoke tobacco—in a
world where only one company sells tobacco_
_No wonder Microsoft offers the first dose to children at a low price._
neat.
------
josefresco
"Windows Vista has features to spy on the user, restrict use of data in the
machine, and even attack the user (Microsoft can forcibly install changes in
the system at any time)."
People take this guy seriously even after spewing idiocies like that? Sorry,
Vista isn't 'attacking' me.
------
etal
In a nice coincidence, Guido van Rossum recently posted this:
[http://neopythonic.blogspot.com/2008/11/bibles-or-
computers-...](http://neopythonic.blogspot.com/2008/11/bibles-or-computers-
its-same-thing.html)
------
scott_s
Link is dead. Found a version on the FSF website:
<http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/can-we-rescue-olpc-from-windows>
~~~
kqr2
Not sure if that's the same article. Somebody on reddit, copy and pasted it
before the original link went down:
[http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/7b25e/richard_s...](http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/7b25e/richard_stallman_on_the_failure_of_one_laptop_per/c065u4p)
~~~
fjl
it's up again by now. tsa, tsa, tsa, operating on cpu quota limit.
------
jfarmer
Let me guess: didn't use enough Free Software.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
PyCharm 2017.3 released - sashk
https://www.jetbrains.com/pycharm/whatsnew/
======
neillyons
New http client is great. I prefer to write the request manually instead of
using a GUI.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why Facebook Apps require disabling HTTPS? - phwd
http://webapps.stackexchange.com/q/26391/40
======
Bxstraz
Apps are hosted on other servers. So if it is not using HTTPS (to get the app
page hosted on another server), it cannot load the content over HTTPS that
Facebook is using _at the moment_.
Switching Facebook to HTTP solves this problem. Because why use HTTPS with
Facebook? It's not necessary.
Also, the deadline was October 1, 2011 (last year).
~~~
VikingCoder
I think HTTPS is entirely necessary for services like Facebook. My friends
share information with me privately. Without HTTPS, any intermediary or
snooper could trivially see that information.
Out of curiosity, which services do you think are better candidates for HTTPS.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Emmanuel Faber's speech at HEC graduation - stangeek
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECppfNbXUUg
======
stangeek
Just a bit of background: Emmanuel Faber is the CEO of Danone, and was asked
to do the graduation speech for the HEC business school in France. The first 5
minutes are unfortunately in French, and then he switches into English. IMHO
this speech is at the level of Job's "stay hungry, stay foolish" \- very
inspiring.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Java Remote Debugging Through Websocket Proxy in Golang v0.2.0 Released - blackicebird
https://github.com/leonlee/jrdwp
======
blackicebird
added server-deadline flag that to shutdown server automatically to reduce
intrusion risks
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.