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matchstick brings firefox os to your hdtv
| this looks promising and is certainly needed in a market dominated by a $30 chromecast. i do wonder about the quality of it all - as a flame reference device owner i know first hand how immature firefox os is (dropped calls, random reboots, missing basic everyday functionality). isn't the platform too young to go beyond phones? | what is the release schedule of firefox os, anyway?i keep searching for firefox os releases periodically, but the news keep coming up only on obscure non-english language blogs. i can google-translate, but shouldn't the press releases, like, be announced in english, too, and make waves around the internet?according to <link> the 2.0 reached "code complete" on september, 1, 2014. does it mean that it has been released on that date? if not, then when? |
matchstick brings firefox os to your hdtv
| what is the release schedule of firefox os, anyway?i keep searching for firefox os releases periodically, but the news keep coming up only on obscure non-english language blogs. i can google-translate, but shouldn't the press releases, like, be announced in english, too, and make waves around the internet?according to <link> the 2.0 reached "code complete" on september, 1, 2014. does it mean that it has been released on that date? if not, then when? | hi..
i am not a very technical guy, (so i'm up for any opinions from you techno guys), but from what i've read about matchstick, google chrome, apple tv, intel tv etc is that none of them seem to be able to offer up the content people are expecting these day (what they are used to getting from the various cable-satillite monopolies including live tv channels. triniti comm seems to be offering a great solution to high cable costs without sacrificing any content. in fact they are claiming that they can offer up to 470 channels including all the pay tv channels like hbo and netflix, in addition to making peoples tvs into fully functional web browsers, making and receiving phone calls on your tv, home security, video conferenceing etc they also claim to be developing something called ala carte tv, which means just paying for what you like to watch. i would personally be interested in that. i'm sick of paying comcast over 150 bucks a month! i also heard they are going to be their own isp starting this winter. i found this website to be interesting... www.thetrinitisolution.com what do you guys think? |
matchstick brings firefox os to your hdtv
| hi..
i am not a very technical guy, (so i'm up for any opinions from you techno guys), but from what i've read about matchstick, google chrome, apple tv, intel tv etc is that none of them seem to be able to offer up the content people are expecting these day (what they are used to getting from the various cable-satillite monopolies including live tv channels. triniti comm seems to be offering a great solution to high cable costs without sacrificing any content. in fact they are claiming that they can offer up to 470 channels including all the pay tv channels like hbo and netflix, in addition to making peoples tvs into fully functional web browsers, making and receiving phone calls on your tv, home security, video conferenceing etc they also claim to be developing something called ala carte tv, which means just paying for what you like to watch. i would personally be interested in that. i'm sick of paying comcast over 150 bucks a month! i also heard they are going to be their own isp starting this winter. i found this website to be interesting... www.thetrinitisolution.com what do you guys think? | i would love to see this take off. i haven't bought a chromecast because i don't use chrome. i'd love a way to point my tv at arbitrary multimedia streams using any device i happen to have. |
matchstick brings firefox os to your hdtv
| i would love to see this take off. i haven't bought a chromecast because i don't use chrome. i'd love a way to point my tv at arbitrary multimedia streams using any device i happen to have. | they politely limit participation to serious devs with this field on the form: "i have an existing html5 app that i will port to firefox os for matchstick" with only one option: yes.well, i could certainly edit the dom and fill in my own answer >:) but i don't have an html5 web app.fortunately, the same equipment seems to be available via their kickstarter for $24.what the heck is this? <link> an eula? |
apple takes down another indie dev
| > apple takes down another indie devmore factual title: "launcher removed from app store". | it's right in the app store guidelines, you can't make an app launcher thing. the guideline describes exactly this.10.4 apps that create alternate desktop/home screen environments or simulate multi-app widget experiences will be rejected |
apple takes down another indie dev
| it's right in the app store guidelines, you can't make an app launcher thing. the guideline describes exactly this.10.4 apps that create alternate desktop/home screen environments or simulate multi-app widget experiences will be rejected | it's as if history is repeating itself:apple rolls out new features/platform.developer forges ahead in gray area (there's history here with apps that launch other apps).apple "clarifies" their stance by rejecting said developer's app. (in apple parlance, clarifying means issuing a firm opinion on their openly stated policy of "we'll know it when we see it".)development community cries out.apple remains singularly focused; stringently enforcing their policies (even if they are often unclear or inconsistent).i don't mean to lay the blame entirely at the feet of the developer in this case, but it's hard to argue that there isn't history here. remember when ios apps first hit and there were a whole slew of "home screen" apps that displayed things like the weather, calendars, etc? apple banned all those apps too. the reason given was that apple doesn't want apps to usurp the home screen. apple wants to control that part of the user experience, because apple knows best.> instead, apple is being apple and aggressively protecting things that do not need to be protected. they do so with inscrutable and nebulous reasons that leave all involved feeling dismayed.this is purely a matter of opinion. apple feels that they need to control the user experience. just read the introduction to the app store review guidelines [1]. apple's stance is really clear: they control what happens on their platform. they've made some efforts to make the process a bit less lopsided (the appeal board), but it's still crystal clear that apple holds the reigns.if, as a developer, you disagree with that philosophy, you have to decide how to best effect change. i would argue that continuing to develop for the apple platform is about the worst way one can affect change. proselytizing the developer community is a fool's errand. look at the case of the larger iphone. what drove that? apple looked at the market landscape and decided that they could no longer ignore the trend.imo, your best choice as a developer is cast your lot with the platform that best reflects your philosophy.<link> |
apple takes down another indie dev
| it's as if history is repeating itself:apple rolls out new features/platform.developer forges ahead in gray area (there's history here with apps that launch other apps).apple "clarifies" their stance by rejecting said developer's app. (in apple parlance, clarifying means issuing a firm opinion on their openly stated policy of "we'll know it when we see it".)development community cries out.apple remains singularly focused; stringently enforcing their policies (even if they are often unclear or inconsistent).i don't mean to lay the blame entirely at the feet of the developer in this case, but it's hard to argue that there isn't history here. remember when ios apps first hit and there were a whole slew of "home screen" apps that displayed things like the weather, calendars, etc? apple banned all those apps too. the reason given was that apple doesn't want apps to usurp the home screen. apple wants to control that part of the user experience, because apple knows best.> instead, apple is being apple and aggressively protecting things that do not need to be protected. they do so with inscrutable and nebulous reasons that leave all involved feeling dismayed.this is purely a matter of opinion. apple feels that they need to control the user experience. just read the introduction to the app store review guidelines [1]. apple's stance is really clear: they control what happens on their platform. they've made some efforts to make the process a bit less lopsided (the appeal board), but it's still crystal clear that apple holds the reigns.if, as a developer, you disagree with that philosophy, you have to decide how to best effect change. i would argue that continuing to develop for the apple platform is about the worst way one can affect change. proselytizing the developer community is a fool's errand. look at the case of the larger iphone. what drove that? apple looked at the market landscape and decided that they could no longer ignore the trend.imo, your best choice as a developer is cast your lot with the platform that best reflects your philosophy.<link> | it's plainly stated in the terms (<link> 10:10. user interface10.4
apps that create alternate desktop/home screen environments or simulate multi-app widget experiences will be rejectedso, like it or not, it's what we agree to if we develop apps for ios. |
apple takes down another indie dev
| it's plainly stated in the terms (<link> 10:10. user interface10.4
apps that create alternate desktop/home screen environments or simulate multi-app widget experiences will be rejectedso, like it or not, it's what we agree to if we develop apps for ios. | while i disprove strongly with apple's policies, that article is hugely apologist. they act like it is a peppy lone developer underdog stepped on for no reason and it is an utter surprise!sorry but apple's app store policies are pretty clear in this area. they have also squished tons of similar apps previously (which was well publicized).plus according to the article apple contacted the developer essentially saying "do x and y or we'll pull you!" and the developer didn't do x and y so consequently got pulled. they say the developer "compromised" but the way it is worded i have to assume it was a one-sided "compromise" (as in, he never got apple's approval before submitting an update that clearly didn't fix the issues raised).i honestly would have had more sympathy if the article wasn't so manipulative. now it has just got my back up and i'm more on apple's side than the developers.ps - apple's policies are dumb. i dislike them. i'm all for protecting user privacy and security, but many apple policies are essentially "don't compete with us!" which is dumb when app installation is entirely voluntary. |
how do i think like a programmer?
i'm a network engineer who has dabbled in python for some automation, php for random fixes on the many php sites i throw on my lamp, bash for, well, various systems stuffs.<p>i recently got into corona sdk and lua and am just trying to release a project. my biggest frustration comes from not the syntax or ide, but figuring out how and where to write and call functions. i feel like my brain doesnt think like a programmer, so i am constantly hitting a wall and starting over.<p>any advice? | if you're trying to change someone else's code, this requires special skills in addition to thinking like a programmer. you have to be able to think like the other programmers who wrote the code, which is often different from the way that you think. plus, you are unfamiliar with the code. these are additional difficulties, which is why the way programming is taught in schools, tutorials and books takes the point of view that you're always making something new from scratch, even though everyone knows that much real work isn't like that. the underlying hypothesis is that if you develop enough experience cranking out complete programs from scratch, you have a good base for jumping into other programs, which is plausible.knowing what function to call and where in a big, unfamiliar program, requires cunning: more so than in your own program where you know everything.find out if the program has a regression test suite, and learn how to run it. then when you make changes, execute the suite. if anything breaks because of your change, find out why; by answering the question "i cannot do it this way because ..." you will quickly get some fairly deep insights into the program. | i've often wondered what made steve jobs say that "programming teachers you how to think" and here's what i've come up with. programmers think in terms of orders of magnitude and have a strong ability to branch out.here's a good example:my friend has a business selling essential oils (eucalyptus, lavender, sandalwood) on amazon. this turns out to be a pretty decent business for one simple freakonomics'ish reason i believe. let me illustrate:you can sell 10ml of oil:<link> nearly the same price as you can sell 3 times the amount:<link> think the reason for this discrepancy is people can't do conversions between milliliters and ounces in their head, and since they can't hold the oils in their hands and only have a picture for reference, they use the price itself to determine the value of what they're getting.now back to thinking like a programmer: upon hearing this, a programmer's first instinct wouldn't be to start a competing line of business but rather would be to come up with a systematic way of scouring amazon's entire inventory for a multitude of such arbitrage opportunities. he'd branch out to using weight in addition to volume.in addition to exploring the details, programming gives you practice in seeing the big picture and branching out at all levels of the system. |
how do i think like a programmer?
i'm a network engineer who has dabbled in python for some automation, php for random fixes on the many php sites i throw on my lamp, bash for, well, various systems stuffs.<p>i recently got into corona sdk and lua and am just trying to release a project. my biggest frustration comes from not the syntax or ide, but figuring out how and where to write and call functions. i feel like my brain doesnt think like a programmer, so i am constantly hitting a wall and starting over.<p>any advice? | i've often wondered what made steve jobs say that "programming teachers you how to think" and here's what i've come up with. programmers think in terms of orders of magnitude and have a strong ability to branch out.here's a good example:my friend has a business selling essential oils (eucalyptus, lavender, sandalwood) on amazon. this turns out to be a pretty decent business for one simple freakonomics'ish reason i believe. let me illustrate:you can sell 10ml of oil:<link> nearly the same price as you can sell 3 times the amount:<link> think the reason for this discrepancy is people can't do conversions between milliliters and ounces in their head, and since they can't hold the oils in their hands and only have a picture for reference, they use the price itself to determine the value of what they're getting.now back to thinking like a programmer: upon hearing this, a programmer's first instinct wouldn't be to start a competing line of business but rather would be to come up with a systematic way of scouring amazon's entire inventory for a multitude of such arbitrage opportunities. he'd branch out to using weight in addition to volume.in addition to exploring the details, programming gives you practice in seeing the big picture and branching out at all levels of the system. | the best advice in my own experience is don't buy books and learn by doing. grab some open source piece of software from github or anywhere else, have a poke around, get inspired and then try to build your own project from scratch. but above all...break things! the best way to learn programming is trying to do things, break them, understand why they don't work and go on.besides that, programming can be just like painting. each of us has its own style and, even if there are some common patterns e.g.: <link>, generally there aren't really written rules on how and where to write and call functions. just try, eventually learn some patterns and then just do what you feel is better for your own project following your own style.once you've done this everything will be easier and doing things will be awesome. in the end, you will be even capable of jumping from a language to another on the fly. don't be frustrated, keep trying and have fun! ;) |
how do i think like a programmer?
i'm a network engineer who has dabbled in python for some automation, php for random fixes on the many php sites i throw on my lamp, bash for, well, various systems stuffs.<p>i recently got into corona sdk and lua and am just trying to release a project. my biggest frustration comes from not the syntax or ide, but figuring out how and where to write and call functions. i feel like my brain doesnt think like a programmer, so i am constantly hitting a wall and starting over.<p>any advice? | the best advice in my own experience is don't buy books and learn by doing. grab some open source piece of software from github or anywhere else, have a poke around, get inspired and then try to build your own project from scratch. but above all...break things! the best way to learn programming is trying to do things, break them, understand why they don't work and go on.besides that, programming can be just like painting. each of us has its own style and, even if there are some common patterns e.g.: <link>, generally there aren't really written rules on how and where to write and call functions. just try, eventually learn some patterns and then just do what you feel is better for your own project following your own style.once you've done this everything will be easier and doing things will be awesome. in the end, you will be even capable of jumping from a language to another on the fly. don't be frustrated, keep trying and have fun! ;) | as others state, the best way to think like a programmer is to program, but also seeking a senior programmer as a mentor helps. also, browsing code on sites like stackoverflow and github but you kind of need to develop a quick sense of good vs bad code. there is a lot of both on those sites. |
how do i think like a programmer?
i'm a network engineer who has dabbled in python for some automation, php for random fixes on the many php sites i throw on my lamp, bash for, well, various systems stuffs.<p>i recently got into corona sdk and lua and am just trying to release a project. my biggest frustration comes from not the syntax or ide, but figuring out how and where to write and call functions. i feel like my brain doesnt think like a programmer, so i am constantly hitting a wall and starting over.<p>any advice? | as others state, the best way to think like a programmer is to program, but also seeking a senior programmer as a mentor helps. also, browsing code on sites like stackoverflow and github but you kind of need to develop a quick sense of good vs bad code. there is a lot of both on those sites. | you can only really think like a programmer by programming. just keep at it, and you'll get better at it.i have heard that going through sicp can help you better wrap your head around functional decomposition and that sort of thing, but i haven't gone through yet it myself. |
oniontip – donate to volunteers who are running tor relays
| i think the filtering stuff should be hidden by default, it looks like you have to pick a country plus i don't know what an exit vs guard is.also bitcoins only is really exclusionary. | there's a discussion about whether volunteers running tor relays should be motivated by cash reward. during the june 5th resetthenet campaign the eff put up a landing page for beginners to set up nodes and rewarded people with merchandise etc. if they lasted a certain amount of time. but it's possible that many of the nodes that were set up because of this were not long-lasting.motivating people with short-term reward does not produce long-lasting relays.edit: it seems like they are, but i wouldn't mind an update on this. <link> |
oniontip – donate to volunteers who are running tor relays
| there's a discussion about whether volunteers running tor relays should be motivated by cash reward. during the june 5th resetthenet campaign the eff put up a landing page for beginners to set up nodes and rewarded people with merchandise etc. if they lasted a certain amount of time. but it's possible that many of the nodes that were set up because of this were not long-lasting.motivating people with short-term reward does not produce long-lasting relays.edit: it seems like they are, but i wouldn't mind an update on this. <link> | this might be the only way the nsa is going to get paid for what they do directly by the users of tor.(to avoid looking suspicious the nsa will probably have to list some of their tor nodes here) |
oniontip – donate to volunteers who are running tor relays
| this might be the only way the nsa is going to get paid for what they do directly by the users of tor.(to avoid looking suspicious the nsa will probably have to list some of their tor nodes here) | i just setup a relay, and was reading up on what to expect. apparently it won't start consuming any reasonable amount of resources for several months.that seems extremely inefficient and quite bizarre. i understand that each node reports their available bandwidth, and also reports how much bandwidth was actually used the previous 24 hours.there was a vulnerability where new nodes were misreporting their bandwidth, and taking more than their fair share of traffic and i guess doing nefarious things with it.so they added a bit of a trust anchor by publishing an additional bandwidth metric as reported by a trusted pool of 'auditors'. but this takes some time to populate.even then, there are various mechanisms which will keep utilization quite low for a long time after you publish a new relay....so not as much fun booting up a relay without being able to watch the bits start flying by... |
oniontip – donate to volunteers who are running tor relays
| i just setup a relay, and was reading up on what to expect. apparently it won't start consuming any reasonable amount of resources for several months.that seems extremely inefficient and quite bizarre. i understand that each node reports their available bandwidth, and also reports how much bandwidth was actually used the previous 24 hours.there was a vulnerability where new nodes were misreporting their bandwidth, and taking more than their fair share of traffic and i guess doing nefarious things with it.so they added a bit of a trust anchor by publishing an additional bandwidth metric as reported by a trusted pool of 'auditors'. but this takes some time to populate.even then, there are various mechanisms which will keep utilization quite low for a long time after you publish a new relay....so not as much fun booting up a relay without being able to watch the bits start flying by... | a couple of days ago a colleague received $4 aud tip share due to a large tip which he thought might've been the 10 btc tip: <link> |
y combinator and the negative externalities of hackernews
| > hacker news has developed a reputation for toxic sexism and other insensitivity toward folks outside the silicon valley in-group of white, upper-class men.i don't see much evidence that this is particularly true; sure, i see people that complain that it is, and a roughly equal number who complain that hn is overly swamped with politically correct "social justice warriors" and biased against white, upper-class men.personally i think its rather balanced and mostly civil, with a few extremes on every conceivable side, with effective moderation (central and community-based) which both keeps a lid on the problems all-around and keeps the level of bias to a lower level than you'd expect given the rather extreme imbalance in the community to which hn is directed. | i thought i was the only one! |
y combinator and the negative externalities of hackernews
| i thought i was the only one! | the tl;dr is1. hn culture is (generally) sexist & racist, a "bro-fest" if you will.2. ycomb profits from hn3. ycomb says they're against sexism etc.: “we—the tech industry as a whole—need to fix this. most importantly, it’s an ethical issue.” ...4. ...but there seems to be no legitimate effort by yc to alter the culture & signal what's acceptable behavior (i.e. don't be racist) on hackernews. |
y combinator and the negative externalities of hackernews
| the tl;dr is1. hn culture is (generally) sexist & racist, a "bro-fest" if you will.2. ycomb profits from hn3. ycomb says they're against sexism etc.: “we—the tech industry as a whole—need to fix this. most importantly, it’s an ethical issue.” ...4. ...but there seems to be no legitimate effort by yc to alter the culture & signal what's acceptable behavior (i.e. don't be racist) on hackernews. | seeing a facebook/twitter photo of the person you are about to flame, before you press post, would probably have an effect, see: <link> |
y combinator and the negative externalities of hackernews
| seeing a facebook/twitter photo of the person you are about to flame, before you press post, would probably have an effect, see: <link> | i'm surprised that the author could write such a cherry-picked article with a straight face. i clicked through to the six links in the twitter comments. here's a summary of who made them: 1. bobcostas55: member for 146 days, 42 karma
2. gph: member for 997 days, 634 karma
3. lulzwat1111: member for 32 days, -8 karma, comment downvoted into oblivion
4. aianus: member for 588 days, 369 karma
5. <link> i honestly don't see the problem here?
6. nickthemagicman: member for 690 days, 241 karma, comment downvoted into oblivion
for context, i have over 4500 karma (i only comment a few times a month and don't submit much), and the hn user with the 100th highest karma has over 16,000. in other words, these comments are not representative of the entire community, or of even a single medium-profile user.the vast majority of the time, ignorant comments are met with multiple replies setting the person straight, or with downvotes (as i do, for anything that is insulting or offensive).hacker news intends to attract a technical audience. the community includes a wide variety of people, some of which are 16-to-25-year-old men who have poor socialization skills. some of them (and some others, certainly) have naive, twisted beliefs, or they are just unaware of their privileged position in society. others are from different countries that have old-fashioned gender norms.i don't think this is a problem unique to hn or even to tech. i claim that you could just as easily write an article like this about fraternity or country club communities, if their communications were indexed for the entire world to see. at least in the case of hn, you have a large number of dissenting viewpoints.i actually think it's good that short-sighted individuals express their bigoted views. it gives others a chance to provide them with some perspective. even more, though, prudent individuals who think the same thing have the opportunity to have their viewpoints changed as well. also, seeing the extreme version of one of your views can cause you to pause and reconsider it.personally, i was quite libertarian and lacking in perspective on several issues (e.g., end user empathy, social welfare, the importance of tact) when i joined hacker news 7-1/2 years ago. of course i can't give all the credit to hn, but it has definitely had some positive effect in improving my personality and broadening my perspective. |
show hn: sharq – open source, rate-limited queuing system
| seems like the exact same approach and even using the same redis datastrucutres as this talk from redisconf:<link>, the solution presented here is not open sourced.) | this is really cool. can queues be bounded, as well as rate-limited?(i built my own redis-backed distributed queue system long ago because i needed bounded queues with backpressure, which no other libraries seemed to offer: <link> |
show hn: sharq – open source, rate-limited queuing system
| this is really cool. can queues be bounded, as well as rate-limited?(i built my own redis-backed distributed queue system long ago because i needed bounded queues with backpressure, which no other libraries seemed to offer: <link> | i'm the primary author sharq. appreciate any feedback..here is the link to the slides from my pycon india talk: <link> is our blog announcement: <link> |
show hn: sharq – open source, rate-limited queuing system
| i'm the primary author sharq. appreciate any feedback..here is the link to the slides from my pycon india talk: <link> is our blog announcement: <link> | missing github link: <link> |
show hn: sharq – open source, rate-limited queuing system
| missing github link: <link> | i'm curious as to the author's choice of redis as opposed to rabbitmq, or another queue. redis is problematic when it fails, which makes me question the use of a centralized queue server altogether. |
microsoft announces windows 10
| interesting. seems like they have capitulated on all the major complaints. although strategically calling it 10 messes up the 'only odd number windows are worth using' mantra :-).did they mention if it will run on arm? not the rt nonsense but full up all apis windows? i am sort of expecting them to poke back at intel after the divorce. | "one product family. one platform. one store. windows... one. wait no, ten."this level of cluelessness from microsoft's branding team would be stunning if it hadn't been the rule for a decade and more. the os itself looks nice, though. |
microsoft announces windows 10
| "one product family. one platform. one store. windows... one. wait no, ten."this level of cluelessness from microsoft's branding team would be stunning if it hadn't been the rule for a decade and more. the os itself looks nice, though. | i would personally like to see good defaults (i don't understand the big icons on taskbar nor any forced integration with any microsoft markets), workspaces (more than 2) and flexible customization of visuals (not just transparency, colours and fonts) and some kind of a package manager for programs (at least set a standard/options for new installations of third-party programs to bind their update servers with a windows package manager). perhaps a selection of normal user vs power user on installation would be welcome.i know i'm describing linux desktop environments, but i have problems with drivers and hardware managers on linux distros (with my t420) and i don't think the desktop environments are polished as much as windowses and mac os's are. it feels like i have to put that extra effort in just to get things set up correctly. (i've used gnome, xfce and awesome) |
microsoft announces windows 10
| i would personally like to see good defaults (i don't understand the big icons on taskbar nor any forced integration with any microsoft markets), workspaces (more than 2) and flexible customization of visuals (not just transparency, colours and fonts) and some kind of a package manager for programs (at least set a standard/options for new installations of third-party programs to bind their update servers with a windows package manager). perhaps a selection of normal user vs power user on installation would be welcome.i know i'm describing linux desktop environments, but i have problems with drivers and hardware managers on linux distros (with my t420) and i don't think the desktop environments are polished as much as windowses and mac os's are. it feels like i have to put that extra effort in just to get things set up correctly. (i've used gnome, xfce and awesome) | ctr+v will finally work as paste in command prompt. finally ! |
microsoft announces windows 10
| ctr+v will finally work as paste in command prompt. finally ! | what in the world is an arduino yun doing in this picture of windows devices: <link> item on farthest left, it's an arduino yun board without the sticker: <link> yun has a 400mhz mips processor (and an 8-bit avr for arduino compatibility) that runs linux and i would wager will never run a variant of windows 10. did somebody in marketing or whatever just search for arduino and slap the first picture they saw on the slide? |
windows 10 is the official name for microsoft's next version of windows
| lol there was an april fools' article last year saying the same thing <link> | there was a massive internal debate to talk the marketing dept down from naming it windows 10 live active desktop 2015 home edition |
windows 10 is the official name for microsoft's next version of windows
| there was a massive internal debate to talk the marketing dept down from naming it windows 10 live active desktop 2015 home edition | this feels embarrassingly cringe-worthy. did they just skip a number for no reason?what's wrong with windows 9? too simple? |
windows 10 is the official name for microsoft's next version of windows
| this feels embarrassingly cringe-worthy. did they just skip a number for no reason?what's wrong with windows 9? too simple? | from the people who brought you the xbox 360 (2nd xbox) and the xbox one (3rd xbox)... |
windows 10 is the official name for microsoft's next version of windows
| from the people who brought you the xbox 360 (2nd xbox) and the xbox one (3rd xbox)... | go easy on them. they're just trying to catch up with os x! |
c for rubyists
| very pretty c code. rarely i find myself thinking 'c is beautiful' | this is really, really cool. if i could make one recommendation, after finishing the tutorial it wasn't clear to me what do next. i want to keep learning more c and about the ruby source code but it just sort of leaves me hanging. |
c for rubyists
| this is really, really cool. if i could make one recommendation, after finishing the tutorial it wasn't clear to me what do next. i want to keep learning more c and about the ruby source code but it just sort of leaves me hanging. | can anyone point to something parallel for python? python-experienced c-neophyte feeling envious over here. |
c for rubyists
| can anyone point to something parallel for python? python-experienced c-neophyte feeling envious over here. | great format! and ruby source is good for learning c. i really got into it with matz ruby source code.for anyone intersted how ruby parser works, i've written small article about patching ruby syntax: <link> |
c for rubyists
| great format! and ruby source is good for learning c. i really got into it with matz ruby source code.for anyone intersted how ruby parser works, i've written small article about patching ruby syntax: <link> | being able to rewrite a small section of ruby code in c is a great way to speed up some types of manipulations. this has yielded me two magnitudes of speedup multiple times in my career so far.here's an example using rubyinline, which is a gem that handles the compilation step for you:<link> |
cassini watches mysterious feature evolve in titan sea
| in b4 solaris | so this is that didymo stuff then? man, gets everywhere. |
cassini watches mysterious feature evolve in titan sea
| so this is that didymo stuff then? man, gets everywhere. | luckily, this isn't europa, so we may attempt landings there. |
cassini watches mysterious feature evolve in titan sea
| luckily, this isn't europa, so we may attempt landings there. | here we go again...<link>
<link> |
cassini watches mysterious feature evolve in titan sea
| here we go again...<link>
<link> | one of the insights of remote sensing has been that, if you look for changes, you will tend to find them. and generally you are surprised by the things you discover.the linked article is one, and various martian phenomena are another - @varelse linked the landslides, but there are also dust devils, winds, and ice caps. the geysers on enceladus are another example.nighttime astronomy has also had these surprises -- supernovae (leading to the discovery of dark energy), gamma ray bursts, blazars. all because we had the computational and data-gathering machinery to compare observations from surveys.in retrospect, it perhaps wasn't surprising, but i think discipline scientists have indeed been surprised by the variety of phenomena observed. |
reddit
| i like reddit. i recently obtained a data dump of every single submission and comment so i could perform interesting data analysis and may just determine what make a post on reddit viral.the problem i have with reddit is that i'm still unsure if it's a positive externality. there's a lot of good aspects of reddit (discovery, community), but there's so much bad about reddit that it's impossible to overlook it (abusive subreddits, abusive users, no administrator transparency, etc.)there's free speech, and then there's the ethics of promoting and profiting off of abusive/illegal content.my dream startup would be a reddit-esque link aggregator, which favors the actual quality of submissions, instead of submissions which are lowest-common-denominator which are optimized for the hive mind. | mod/admin censorship, government manipulation (out of eglin afb most likely), and corporate advertising/shilling are pretty blatantly huge in reddit right now, with many users openly looking for alternative websites. the admin team has shown again and again that they're willing to tolerate anything until there's bad pr.one of the founders (alexis) has a pr firm, antique jetpack, which is on record [1] as cooperating with stratfor of wikileaks fame. i can't quite see how the two are unconnected.a couple of years ago, one of the admins there tacitly admitted that he was under a national security letter complete with gag order to give up user information.a few months ago, reddit changed its voting system in order to completely obfuscate user detection of large scale vote manipulation. the community was unanimously against this change, and has been overruled.i don't see a great future for reddit, honestly. i'll continue to use it until whoaverse or another alternative is populated enough.[1]: <link> |
reddit
| mod/admin censorship, government manipulation (out of eglin afb most likely), and corporate advertising/shilling are pretty blatantly huge in reddit right now, with many users openly looking for alternative websites. the admin team has shown again and again that they're willing to tolerate anything until there's bad pr.one of the founders (alexis) has a pr firm, antique jetpack, which is on record [1] as cooperating with stratfor of wikileaks fame. i can't quite see how the two are unconnected.a couple of years ago, one of the admins there tacitly admitted that he was under a national security letter complete with gag order to give up user information.a few months ago, reddit changed its voting system in order to completely obfuscate user detection of large scale vote manipulation. the community was unanimously against this change, and has been overruled.i don't see a great future for reddit, honestly. i'll continue to use it until whoaverse or another alternative is populated enough.[1]: <link> | exciting news. one thing i sincerely hope reddit will do with the new injection is to increase the level of quality of content and discussion across the board. often the advice given is "you've got to find the smaller subreddits" and while that's true, i think having the first few layers filled with terrible content and hive-minded, often racist/sexist discussion is incredibly detrimental to both the site's image and new user experiences.i know there's great content there, and great people having great discussions, but it's not terribly easy to find. i'm thoroughly convinced that reddit could be an incredibly valuable source of reliable news, discussion, and entertainment, but the way it's structured highlights its more juvenile aspects.and if it can find a way to establish legitimacy, it'll be worth far more than it is today. |
reddit
| exciting news. one thing i sincerely hope reddit will do with the new injection is to increase the level of quality of content and discussion across the board. often the advice given is "you've got to find the smaller subreddits" and while that's true, i think having the first few layers filled with terrible content and hive-minded, often racist/sexist discussion is incredibly detrimental to both the site's image and new user experiences.i know there's great content there, and great people having great discussions, but it's not terribly easy to find. i'm thoroughly convinced that reddit could be an incredibly valuable source of reliable news, discussion, and entertainment, but the way it's structured highlights its more juvenile aspects.and if it can find a way to establish legitimacy, it'll be worth far more than it is today. | as a long time reddit user, i've been really disappointed lately with reddits "battle" against content creators and the little recourse you have if you are marked as a spammer or shadow banned. see the recent /r/indiegaming debacle for example, where a subreddit where mainly indie devs would post about their games now allows very little self promotion ( <link> ). some of these rules are reddit wide so theres nothing they can do but it essentially discourages content creators from being close to their audience on reddit.on top of that, if you are banned from a subreddit (even a default one) the moderators can basically choose to ignore you and you are sol. there's the whole 90/10 rule where if you are posting something from the same source too often, you can be seen as a spammer and banned. it's very easy to break this rule. for example, if you make a few self posts, make tons of comments, post links to 5 different websites, then post 1 link to your website, you are breaking the rule and if a mod sees it you can be banned (comments/self posts don't count towards the 90/10 rule so your 5 posts to 1 self promotion post is breaking the rules). i wish they would just let the upvote/downvote system do its job and weed out content people don't want instead of forcing people to post a bunch of crap they wouldn't normally post just to make their profile look good so they can post about their own projects once in a while. |
reddit
| as a long time reddit user, i've been really disappointed lately with reddits "battle" against content creators and the little recourse you have if you are marked as a spammer or shadow banned. see the recent /r/indiegaming debacle for example, where a subreddit where mainly indie devs would post about their games now allows very little self promotion ( <link> ). some of these rules are reddit wide so theres nothing they can do but it essentially discourages content creators from being close to their audience on reddit.on top of that, if you are banned from a subreddit (even a default one) the moderators can basically choose to ignore you and you are sol. there's the whole 90/10 rule where if you are posting something from the same source too often, you can be seen as a spammer and banned. it's very easy to break this rule. for example, if you make a few self posts, make tons of comments, post links to 5 different websites, then post 1 link to your website, you are breaking the rule and if a mod sees it you can be banned (comments/self posts don't count towards the 90/10 rule so your 5 posts to 1 self promotion post is breaking the rules). i wish they would just let the upvote/downvote system do its job and weed out content people don't want instead of forcing people to post a bunch of crap they wouldn't normally post just to make their profile look good so they can post about their own projects once in a while. | "it’s always bothered me that users create so much of the value of sites like reddit but don’t own any of it. so, the series b investors are giving 10% of our shares in this round to the people in the reddit community, and i hope we increase community ownership over time. we have some creative thoughts about the mechanics of this, but it’ll take us awhile to sort through all the issues. if it works as we hope, it’s going to be really cool and hopefully a new way to think about community ownership."this is awesome. curious to see how this plays out. what's the approximate timing for announcing if reddit is able to do this or not? |
ask hn: what trustworthy sources of general news do you use?
what trustworthy sources of general news do you use? | i like <link> despite the paywall.i also use <link> to lead me to news general interest. | fark news an amazing crowd sourced aggregator, wide variety of subjects, global sources > <link> |
ask hn: what trustworthy sources of general news do you use?
what trustworthy sources of general news do you use? | fark news an amazing crowd sourced aggregator, wide variety of subjects, global sources > <link> | al jazeera english and bbc international.i don't really trust any of the us news channels. frankly us news to an outsider sounds like raw propaganda most of the time (and that is aimed at the so called "non-bias" news channels in the us, not just fox news and msnbc). and the rare times they aren't spreading propaganda, they're seeding fear into the population.the only decent source of news coming from the us is a handful of newspapers and comedians (e.g. daily show, last week tonight, etc). |
ask hn: what trustworthy sources of general news do you use?
what trustworthy sources of general news do you use? | al jazeera english and bbc international.i don't really trust any of the us news channels. frankly us news to an outsider sounds like raw propaganda most of the time (and that is aimed at the so called "non-bias" news channels in the us, not just fox news and msnbc). and the rare times they aren't spreading propaganda, they're seeding fear into the population.the only decent source of news coming from the us is a handful of newspapers and comedians (e.g. daily show, last week tonight, etc). | i use reddit's worldnews subreddit /r/worldnews for a nice crowdsourced news source. it will often contain breaking news at incredible paces.the news agency al jazeera in english is an amazing news source. they stream 24/7 and it's free to watch. very daring journalists whom approach the happenings moreso than most other agencies. very rarely biased.google news, while old, is still quite good. |
ask hn: what trustworthy sources of general news do you use?
what trustworthy sources of general news do you use? | i use reddit's worldnews subreddit /r/worldnews for a nice crowdsourced news source. it will often contain breaking news at incredible paces.the news agency al jazeera in english is an amazing news source. they stream 24/7 and it's free to watch. very daring journalists whom approach the happenings moreso than most other agencies. very rarely biased.google news, while old, is still quite good. | <link> and <link> two can tend toward overly cynical and conspiratorial but i find it easier to moderate that in my mind than read the totally sanitized stuff in major papers. |
announcing windows 10
| looking at the features, all i can think was, "don't i already have all of this in kde?" | why can't they just release a patch for windows 8? does a new start menu really warrant all this? |
announcing windows 10
| why can't they just release a patch for windows 8? does a new start menu really warrant all this? | >error establishing a database connectionthis works...<link> |
announcing windows 10
| >error establishing a database connectionthis works...<link> | <link> |
announcing windows 10
| <link> | as now i am getting:>the service is unavailable.or>error establishing a database connectioni hope microsoft servers run not on windows 10 :-x |
ask hn: what should i do? help. something
i've seen people post on hn a bunch and receive some good advice. i need some advice, and maybe some motivation.<p>i hope to god my story is interesting enough for people to help. i need it to be.<p>i'm at the point where i basically hate school. i have 2 semesters after this before i graduate. the school i go to is in my opinion a shit hole. i love the people, they are people trying their best after all and this is a real university that does research (bla bla bla), but i can't stand what i'm learning, how i'm learning it, and the rest of it.<p>i took some online classes in os and database structures... i also didn't keep up with the lectures. no big deal, the classes aren't hard for me anyways, but the classes also take some questions from the class and ask for those specific answers on the test. i almost failed my midterm today that had the easiest questions... if you watched the lectures that is. i get so unmotivated in classes because i correct everything and everyone. it feels like i can't trust anything i learn here. at this point i'm getting the piece of paper and being done with it so i can actually have time to learn...<p>i'm working at an awesome place with some of the smartest at my school where we do client work together, but while i was learning ios with some python/django too and going to be moving away from the shit php work i'm doing i have lost all my time for that with school and actual work to do. i need the money.<p>i avoid doing work to hang out with my girlfriend. she doesn't know it, and if she did she'd tell me to get my work done. she is also dealing with things too and i don't want to lean on her.<p>i'm so angry and unmotivated and generally uncomfortable with my own skin today. what in the hell is wrong! i know it will pass, but how long? how many things will i ignore or fail at until i snap out of it? how many times? | i went through something similar in college.so i started a side project. i got to work on it only after my school work was done and my job was done. sometimes that meant staying up a few extra hours.i think this will pass. 2 semesters, i'd stay in school and bang that out. could you take an extra class or 2 this next semester so you have a really easy last semester so you can job hunt or dedicate yourself more to a project you enjoy? | i was two semesters away from finishing my degree. i quit. as a result i was unable to pursue the job that i had dreamed about as a child (joining the navy as an officer and flying). i've also been turned down for opportunities, that i was qualified for, simply because i didn't have a degree. it took me years to gain the experience that overshadowed my lack of a degree and it was a long, painful, and difficult road. please get your degree. |
ask hn: what should i do? help. something
i've seen people post on hn a bunch and receive some good advice. i need some advice, and maybe some motivation.<p>i hope to god my story is interesting enough for people to help. i need it to be.<p>i'm at the point where i basically hate school. i have 2 semesters after this before i graduate. the school i go to is in my opinion a shit hole. i love the people, they are people trying their best after all and this is a real university that does research (bla bla bla), but i can't stand what i'm learning, how i'm learning it, and the rest of it.<p>i took some online classes in os and database structures... i also didn't keep up with the lectures. no big deal, the classes aren't hard for me anyways, but the classes also take some questions from the class and ask for those specific answers on the test. i almost failed my midterm today that had the easiest questions... if you watched the lectures that is. i get so unmotivated in classes because i correct everything and everyone. it feels like i can't trust anything i learn here. at this point i'm getting the piece of paper and being done with it so i can actually have time to learn...<p>i'm working at an awesome place with some of the smartest at my school where we do client work together, but while i was learning ios with some python/django too and going to be moving away from the shit php work i'm doing i have lost all my time for that with school and actual work to do. i need the money.<p>i avoid doing work to hang out with my girlfriend. she doesn't know it, and if she did she'd tell me to get my work done. she is also dealing with things too and i don't want to lean on her.<p>i'm so angry and unmotivated and generally uncomfortable with my own skin today. what in the hell is wrong! i know it will pass, but how long? how many things will i ignore or fail at until i snap out of it? how many times? | i was two semesters away from finishing my degree. i quit. as a result i was unable to pursue the job that i had dreamed about as a child (joining the navy as an officer and flying). i've also been turned down for opportunities, that i was qualified for, simply because i didn't have a degree. it took me years to gain the experience that overshadowed my lack of a degree and it was a long, painful, and difficult road. please get your degree. | that was me one year ago.i just graduated and i must say - i am really glad i did. it has been frustrating, exhausting and driving me mad for the most part of it.i was working two jobs and attending the uni at the same time while having a normal relationship - all at the same time. it was getting harder and harder, no free time, no weekends no nothing, no me time. i have felt helpless and i was going to give up twice. the university was boring and i couldn't focus on the stuff we were doing there because it was to easy, and the way we were learning it was... not suitable for me.talk with people, it helps. you will feel frustrated for most of it, but i must say - it is really worth it. it is just a year, it would be a shame to lose the previous years.
i promised myself that i will do it. and i stuck it out, got my "let's d this" hat on, kept the jobs, finished uni and now doing a gap year before my masters - i need a break. it will pass, talk to your girlfriend, and relax - it seems like an impossible thing to do, but you will be glad once you graduate. |
ask hn: what should i do? help. something
i've seen people post on hn a bunch and receive some good advice. i need some advice, and maybe some motivation.<p>i hope to god my story is interesting enough for people to help. i need it to be.<p>i'm at the point where i basically hate school. i have 2 semesters after this before i graduate. the school i go to is in my opinion a shit hole. i love the people, they are people trying their best after all and this is a real university that does research (bla bla bla), but i can't stand what i'm learning, how i'm learning it, and the rest of it.<p>i took some online classes in os and database structures... i also didn't keep up with the lectures. no big deal, the classes aren't hard for me anyways, but the classes also take some questions from the class and ask for those specific answers on the test. i almost failed my midterm today that had the easiest questions... if you watched the lectures that is. i get so unmotivated in classes because i correct everything and everyone. it feels like i can't trust anything i learn here. at this point i'm getting the piece of paper and being done with it so i can actually have time to learn...<p>i'm working at an awesome place with some of the smartest at my school where we do client work together, but while i was learning ios with some python/django too and going to be moving away from the shit php work i'm doing i have lost all my time for that with school and actual work to do. i need the money.<p>i avoid doing work to hang out with my girlfriend. she doesn't know it, and if she did she'd tell me to get my work done. she is also dealing with things too and i don't want to lean on her.<p>i'm so angry and unmotivated and generally uncomfortable with my own skin today. what in the hell is wrong! i know it will pass, but how long? how many things will i ignore or fail at until i snap out of it? how many times? | that was me one year ago.i just graduated and i must say - i am really glad i did. it has been frustrating, exhausting and driving me mad for the most part of it.i was working two jobs and attending the uni at the same time while having a normal relationship - all at the same time. it was getting harder and harder, no free time, no weekends no nothing, no me time. i have felt helpless and i was going to give up twice. the university was boring and i couldn't focus on the stuff we were doing there because it was to easy, and the way we were learning it was... not suitable for me.talk with people, it helps. you will feel frustrated for most of it, but i must say - it is really worth it. it is just a year, it would be a shame to lose the previous years.
i promised myself that i will do it. and i stuck it out, got my "let's d this" hat on, kept the jobs, finished uni and now doing a gap year before my masters - i need a break. it will pass, talk to your girlfriend, and relax - it seems like an impossible thing to do, but you will be glad once you graduate. | if you can't go to class for 4 hours a day or whatever, take notes, and do assignments, then how are you going to work for companies that require the degree and want to manage your time for 8 hours a day and give you tasks that might be just as menial? you chose your degree, you get to choose your classes, and for the core requirements, if the school is decent, you at least have the option of waiting to take it with a different teacher if they are that intolerable.the ability to do tough work that you might not necessarily enjoy but must be done and do that consistently without stopping is exactly the reason companies require them. of course they also want good talent that will contribute and make them more successful, but a large part of joining a company at first is training on menial tasks, working full time, and working well with others. it doesn't so much require that you have knowledge/skill, just the ability to learn the way the company does things, be absorbed into the culture, and be manageable. this also only gets you the smallest salary in the company, but it at least gets you your foot in the door so you can be mentored and learn from others, just like you are supposed to be learning from your teachers/peers.many talented and driven people don't need that. they can find something that can make money and learn about how to accomplish that all on their own. however, although i am not one of those people, i assume that it is a rough road to take by depending solely on this talent. if you can tolerate getting a degree and showing that you can be obedient, you can make it a lot easier on yourself to gain more knowledge, talent, and resources by getting into a company easily. it's a big risk to depend only on yourself, because there is a lot of competition out there. |
ask hn: what should i do? help. something
i've seen people post on hn a bunch and receive some good advice. i need some advice, and maybe some motivation.<p>i hope to god my story is interesting enough for people to help. i need it to be.<p>i'm at the point where i basically hate school. i have 2 semesters after this before i graduate. the school i go to is in my opinion a shit hole. i love the people, they are people trying their best after all and this is a real university that does research (bla bla bla), but i can't stand what i'm learning, how i'm learning it, and the rest of it.<p>i took some online classes in os and database structures... i also didn't keep up with the lectures. no big deal, the classes aren't hard for me anyways, but the classes also take some questions from the class and ask for those specific answers on the test. i almost failed my midterm today that had the easiest questions... if you watched the lectures that is. i get so unmotivated in classes because i correct everything and everyone. it feels like i can't trust anything i learn here. at this point i'm getting the piece of paper and being done with it so i can actually have time to learn...<p>i'm working at an awesome place with some of the smartest at my school where we do client work together, but while i was learning ios with some python/django too and going to be moving away from the shit php work i'm doing i have lost all my time for that with school and actual work to do. i need the money.<p>i avoid doing work to hang out with my girlfriend. she doesn't know it, and if she did she'd tell me to get my work done. she is also dealing with things too and i don't want to lean on her.<p>i'm so angry and unmotivated and generally uncomfortable with my own skin today. what in the hell is wrong! i know it will pass, but how long? how many things will i ignore or fail at until i snap out of it? how many times? | if you can't go to class for 4 hours a day or whatever, take notes, and do assignments, then how are you going to work for companies that require the degree and want to manage your time for 8 hours a day and give you tasks that might be just as menial? you chose your degree, you get to choose your classes, and for the core requirements, if the school is decent, you at least have the option of waiting to take it with a different teacher if they are that intolerable.the ability to do tough work that you might not necessarily enjoy but must be done and do that consistently without stopping is exactly the reason companies require them. of course they also want good talent that will contribute and make them more successful, but a large part of joining a company at first is training on menial tasks, working full time, and working well with others. it doesn't so much require that you have knowledge/skill, just the ability to learn the way the company does things, be absorbed into the culture, and be manageable. this also only gets you the smallest salary in the company, but it at least gets you your foot in the door so you can be mentored and learn from others, just like you are supposed to be learning from your teachers/peers.many talented and driven people don't need that. they can find something that can make money and learn about how to accomplish that all on their own. however, although i am not one of those people, i assume that it is a rough road to take by depending solely on this talent. if you can tolerate getting a degree and showing that you can be obedient, you can make it a lot easier on yourself to gain more knowledge, talent, and resources by getting into a company easily. it's a big risk to depend only on yourself, because there is a lot of competition out there. | can you hack together a resilient mindset and positive attitude while grinding out your degree program?suggest reading viktor frankl's classic man's search for meaning, good food for thought> <link> |
show hn: sync done beautifully
| products can be beautiful and delightful, but i'm not sure it's meaningful when you call your own product beautiful and delightful. | "hand-crafted in california". is this silicon valley fetishism really still going on? it's like the "made on a mac" of the '10s. |
show hn: sync done beautifully
| "hand-crafted in california". is this silicon valley fetishism really still going on? it's like the "made on a mac" of the '10s. | the landing page loads a whopping 6 mb of assets, the culprits particularly being two images at 3.2 and 1.8 mb. it was definitely not a fun experience on my lowly mobile network connection. |
show hn: sync done beautifully
| the landing page loads a whopping 6 mb of assets, the culprits particularly being two images at 3.2 and 1.8 mb. it was definitely not a fun experience on my lowly mobile network connection. | how is sketch file support? when we've tried to share files via dropbox it's constantly stepping on each others toes just when someone tries to open it for view-only. makes collaboration difficult between a designer and a developer.*sketch files are actually folders with data, previews, etc. the act of opening the file actually modifies things like the thumbnail. |
show hn: sync done beautifully
| how is sketch file support? when we've tried to share files via dropbox it's constantly stepping on each others toes just when someone tries to open it for view-only. makes collaboration difficult between a designer and a developer.*sketch files are actually folders with data, previews, etc. the act of opening the file actually modifies things like the thumbnail. | this sounds incredible, obviously the details are everything. would be nice to see a comparison to other solutions, and an explanation of how infinite storage is possible/economical. |
a strange green organism has spread, clogging up the world's rivers
| this finding reported in the article is interesting: "related to this discovery is an extreme irony. governments and organisations around the world have, for a very long time, tried to stop algal blooms from strangling rivers by reducing phosphorous pollution, believing the algal feed off this nutrient boost. but in doing so, they might have encouraged the green snot that is didymo. 'it goes against everything we’ve been thinking for 50 years,' says spaulding."the main takeaway from this interesting article is that we still need to do a lot more foundational science about microorganisms and their ecological relationships with various changes in the natural environment. | didymo is edible btw, and rob rhinehart has talked about future soylent ingredients being made by bio-engineered algae. |
a strange green organism has spread, clogging up the world's rivers
| didymo is edible btw, and rob rhinehart has talked about future soylent ingredients being made by bio-engineered algae. | this crap has been a pita a for flyfishers for a while. rock snot is an apt name for it because it is treacherous when you're wading. personally, i prefer felt boots because they have better traction, but they're also an easy vector for didymo and it's just not responsible to use them anymore since i'm in multiple rivers. i ended up switching to rubber boots. not nearly as nice to walk in, but far less likely to have didymo hitchhiking along when practicing proper river hygiene. |
a strange green organism has spread, clogging up the world's rivers
| this crap has been a pita a for flyfishers for a while. rock snot is an apt name for it because it is treacherous when you're wading. personally, i prefer felt boots because they have better traction, but they're also an easy vector for didymo and it's just not responsible to use them anymore since i'm in multiple rivers. i ended up switching to rubber boots. not nearly as nice to walk in, but far less likely to have didymo hitchhiking along when practicing proper river hygiene. | "[...] its biggest impact seems to be aesthetic. 'the main effect of didymo is how it changed the appearance of rivers and streams,' she says. 'it's not toxic. it really doesn't do anything really awful.'this is true, but it can cause problems for people swimming downstream: "people swimming in waters downstream from areas containing high concentrations of didymo have complained of eye irritations, which may be caused by the silica of the frustules."<link> |
a strange green organism has spread, clogging up the world's rivers
| "[...] its biggest impact seems to be aesthetic. 'the main effect of didymo is how it changed the appearance of rivers and streams,' she says. 'it's not toxic. it really doesn't do anything really awful.'this is true, but it can cause problems for people swimming downstream: "people swimming in waters downstream from areas containing high concentrations of didymo have complained of eye irritations, which may be caused by the silica of the frustules."<link> | diatoms are primary producers and the fastest growers. if they are thriving it's a signal the water quality has dropped and they are doing their job, consuming the excess nutrients, so trying to kill it makes no sense.while they feed on nitrogen and phosphorus their limiting nutrient is silicates, so maybe it's tied to siltation (erosion making it's way into water bodies). i don't see this mentioned on the article. |
gifshot: js library to create animated gifs from media streams, videos, images
| this looks really awesome - nice work greg and team. it's depressing when someone releases an open source library that does something novel using interesting technologies, has a lot of potential real-world use cases, and clearly took a ton of work, and the responses range from 'i don't like gifs' to 'there's already a library that has gif in the name so i'm going to assume this is redundant and leave a passive-aggressive comment'. what's wrong with you people?! | i was really hoping this would work on the server-side, too. it didn't. :-( or maybe i configured something wrong?here's what i found: $ git clone <link>
$ cd gifshot
$ npm install
$ node
> var gifshot = require('./build/gifshot')
> gifshot.creategif(
... {'images':['random-image.png'],
..... 'text': 'test'},
... function(obj) {
..... console.log('done!');
..... console.log(obj);
..... })
done!
{ errorcode: 'canvas',
errormsg: 'canvas elements are not supported in your browser',
error: true } |
gifshot: js library to create animated gifs from media streams, videos, images
| i was really hoping this would work on the server-side, too. it didn't. :-( or maybe i configured something wrong?here's what i found: $ git clone <link>
$ cd gifshot
$ npm install
$ node
> var gifshot = require('./build/gifshot')
> gifshot.creategif(
... {'images':['random-image.png'],
..... 'text': 'test'},
... function(obj) {
..... console.log('done!');
..... console.log(obj);
..... })
done!
{ errorcode: 'canvas',
errormsg: 'canvas elements are not supported in your browser',
error: true } | related, and pre-existing.<link> |
gifshot: js library to create animated gifs from media streams, videos, images
| related, and pre-existing.<link> | isn't this kind of backwards when we have tools like <link> that can make mp4/webm?animated gifs are horrible in terms of file size and quality compared to actual mp4/webm video files, which are supported by all modern browsers. |
gifshot: js library to create animated gifs from media streams, videos, images
| isn't this kind of backwards when we have tools like <link> that can make mp4/webm?animated gifs are horrible in terms of file size and quality compared to actual mp4/webm video files, which are supported by all modern browsers. | i wish we could move away from the awful format that is animated gif and use something much better in terms of compression, color support and frame rate. like webm.[1][2][1]<link>[2]<link>[3]<link> |
reddit plans cryptocurrency to give back to its users after $50m raise
| "as well as individual investors like ... calvin broadus jr. aka snoop dog [sic] (also randomly)"snoop dogg is actually a pretty active reddit user: <link> - especially in a certain..err.."plant-based" subreddit.he's done several amas that are actually amazingly fun to read. in some ways, amas can provide a better "celeb-to-fan" interaction than twitter so i can see why they got a few celebs in this round. | well, that explains why they were looking for a cryptocurrency engineer.<link> |
reddit plans cryptocurrency to give back to its users after $50m raise
| well, that explains why they were looking for a cryptocurrency engineer.<link> | this seems like an interesting but risky experiment if reddit really does tie something like this to user contributions.first it seems like a massive regulatory headache. from reddit's perspective, are they going to send out 1099s to their users? will they require them to have real names and addresses on file? from a user perspective, will i need to worry about my reddit activity when filling out my tax returns.it is also a gamble for reddit as there is a psychological principle know as the overjustification effect [1] that is at play here. once a person is paid for a habit they previously only did for enjoyment, the habit will generally become less enjoyable. reddit turns from a hobby to a job.finally there is the issue of "circle jerking". reddit is already notorious for its annoying and dangerous group think. can you imagine if people could actually turn their karma into straight cash? the incentive will be even higher to simply echo back to the group what you think it wants to hear.[1] - <link> |
reddit plans cryptocurrency to give back to its users after $50m raise
| this seems like an interesting but risky experiment if reddit really does tie something like this to user contributions.first it seems like a massive regulatory headache. from reddit's perspective, are they going to send out 1099s to their users? will they require them to have real names and addresses on file? from a user perspective, will i need to worry about my reddit activity when filling out my tax returns.it is also a gamble for reddit as there is a psychological principle know as the overjustification effect [1] that is at play here. once a person is paid for a habit they previously only did for enjoyment, the habit will generally become less enjoyable. reddit turns from a hobby to a job.finally there is the issue of "circle jerking". reddit is already notorious for its annoying and dangerous group think. can you imagine if people could actually turn their karma into straight cash? the incentive will be even higher to simply echo back to the group what you think it wants to hear.[1] - <link> | this seems incredibly strange. personally, i don't see how it's going to add value to reddit and help build the community. mixing money into the site is going to complicate things, bring forward a lot of challenges, and it's going to be a large time sink.i think reddit has more important things to focus on, and i don't find this to be a good use of resources. reddit is also slow to roll out changes, so if this has a negative impact, it'll take them a long time to pivot back on track.perhaps it's going to be a minor feature that the majority of users never know exists, and things will continue as they do now. if it's a major feature, i think it'll be a flop, and open up room for competition.edit: to expand a little more, what's the best case scenario they're hoping for here? they think the community is going to grow and more people will flock to the site because of this change? reddit is anti-corporate, the community likes to feel small, even though it's one of the largest communities on the internet. when they associate money with the site, people will look at it as more of a business, and i think that'll drive more people away than it brings in.why doesn't reddit just launch an image hosting platform? why do they send all this traffic to imgur and gfycat, when they could roll out their own solution for the community? they can spin it off into a separate service to attract non-redditors, and with all the incoming visitors from other sources, they can refer more people back to reddit. to me, this seems like a no-brainer, since a large portion of their site revolves around images, and they're giving that traffic and monetization away to third parties at the moment. |
reddit plans cryptocurrency to give back to its users after $50m raise
| this seems incredibly strange. personally, i don't see how it's going to add value to reddit and help build the community. mixing money into the site is going to complicate things, bring forward a lot of challenges, and it's going to be a large time sink.i think reddit has more important things to focus on, and i don't find this to be a good use of resources. reddit is also slow to roll out changes, so if this has a negative impact, it'll take them a long time to pivot back on track.perhaps it's going to be a minor feature that the majority of users never know exists, and things will continue as they do now. if it's a major feature, i think it'll be a flop, and open up room for competition.edit: to expand a little more, what's the best case scenario they're hoping for here? they think the community is going to grow and more people will flock to the site because of this change? reddit is anti-corporate, the community likes to feel small, even though it's one of the largest communities on the internet. when they associate money with the site, people will look at it as more of a business, and i think that'll drive more people away than it brings in.why doesn't reddit just launch an image hosting platform? why do they send all this traffic to imgur and gfycat, when they could roll out their own solution for the community? they can spin it off into a separate service to attract non-redditors, and with all the incoming visitors from other sources, they can refer more people back to reddit. to me, this seems like a no-brainer, since a large portion of their site revolves around images, and they're giving that traffic and monetization away to third parties at the moment. | they shouldn't use a new cryptocurrency, instead, <link> |
how ram scrapers work: the tool behind the latest credit card hacks
| the term "ram scraper" seems pretty stupid to me.these are likely using hooking. they don't scan ram all the time, instead they patch or inject code into the pos software and then record the data when that code is called.think of something like microsoft detours. ram scrapers seems a pretty inaccurate description. | it seems that many people are really confused about this stuff. because if pa-dss standards are followed, the pc doesn't ever get any actualy credit card data. yes, it's possible to backdoor / modify / infect / re-firmware or what ever the actua pos terminal, but it has nothing to do with the pos pc. pos terminals are independent systems with their own ram, keyboard, networking, processors, firmware, operating system, and software. i just made credit card transaction, here's all data what the pc get's from the credit card terminal. b2a8aaa4-6585-4d97-8af7-c2de0a617e3b for 40€ is successful. so? feel free to abuse that information, if you find way to do so.
so when ever writing stuff like this, it would be very smart to mention if the attack is targeting the pc or the actual pos terminal. |
how ram scrapers work: the tool behind the latest credit card hacks
| it seems that many people are really confused about this stuff. because if pa-dss standards are followed, the pc doesn't ever get any actualy credit card data. yes, it's possible to backdoor / modify / infect / re-firmware or what ever the actua pos terminal, but it has nothing to do with the pos pc. pos terminals are independent systems with their own ram, keyboard, networking, processors, firmware, operating system, and software. i just made credit card transaction, here's all data what the pc get's from the credit card terminal. b2a8aaa4-6585-4d97-8af7-c2de0a617e3b for 40€ is successful. so? feel free to abuse that information, if you find way to do so.
so when ever writing stuff like this, it would be very smart to mention if the attack is targeting the pc or the actual pos terminal. | from what i gather from the article, the systems which ram scrapers attack were running on general purpose computers, with very similar vulnerabilities.why isn't sensitive software like this built and audited with the same concern for reliability and security as avionics, medical equipment, scada, etc.? certainly the cost in financial losses caused by these attacks makes this a pertinent question. |
how ram scrapers work: the tool behind the latest credit card hacks
| from what i gather from the article, the systems which ram scrapers attack were running on general purpose computers, with very similar vulnerabilities.why isn't sensitive software like this built and audited with the same concern for reliability and security as avionics, medical equipment, scada, etc.? certainly the cost in financial losses caused by these attacks makes this a pertinent question. | the fundamental problem is that credit cards are built around a model where credit card numbers are theoretically supposed to be secret, but every random retailer has to have them to process transactions. if credit cards were electronic devices, like in europe, rather than fancy pieces of paper with a number written on them, then fraud would drop, and retailers would be freed of a massive burden. but american banks aren't up to the task of creating that sort of infrastructure, so instead they blame it on whichever poor retailer happened to have its computers broken into. |
how ram scrapers work: the tool behind the latest credit card hacks
| the fundamental problem is that credit cards are built around a model where credit card numbers are theoretically supposed to be secret, but every random retailer has to have them to process transactions. if credit cards were electronic devices, like in europe, rather than fancy pieces of paper with a number written on them, then fraud would drop, and retailers would be freed of a massive burden. but american banks aren't up to the task of creating that sort of infrastructure, so instead they blame it on whichever poor retailer happened to have its computers broken into. | a long time ago i helped a company get their payment terminal up and running after their first consultant had spent 9 months and $30,000 not getting anything done. the code i got was astonishingly bad and i realized that these folks had no way of evaluating good or bad code, and it depressed me that this was more the 'normal' situation rather than the 'unusual' sort of situation. i hope that in today's target rich environment folks are investing a bit more care into these things but i worry that isn't the case. |
scriptable operating systems with lua [pdf]
| a lot of the discussion here has been around lua, but not around what they do with it.i think that putting yet another language and runtime in the os kernel is a bad idea. it makes the amount of code to validate much bigger. i much prefer the mill computing approach to security, where "everybody works the same" including the kernel (see <link> if you have not seen it already). that's also the idea behind many microkernels.although the mill cpu embeds basic mechanisms in the hardware to make it easier, i believe this could be achieved on modern x86 or arm as well with reasonable performance. you don't need privileged instructions to deal with packet routing or cpu throttling, you only need controlled memory access to specific regions of memory (e.g. device registers, buffers, etc). i see no reason why the scripts could not do their work from user-space, with kernel-controlled access to the regions of memory they need to operate. and the overhead in doing that is practically zero (basically, it's the cost of the tlb translations, which is paid for every single memory access anyway).obviously, you also need inter-process and inter-cpu synchro, interrupt handling, etc. but all these are already presented in a virtualised form to user-space.also, if you want the flexibility of a scripting language, you are willing to forego quite a bit of performance in the process. is the cost of a user-kernel transition really that relevant in this scenario? and if it is, there are mechanisms to mitigate that cost, e.g. pooling requests, deferring, sending to another cpu, etc.i'm a bit appalled by the way they measure the overhead (section 5 of the article). they say that their cpu rethrottling code runs in "only" 8 microseconds. well, if compared to the rescheduling interval, it may seem small, 8 microseconds in kernel code is actually a lot. it means 1/125 of a regular millisecond tick. all this just to change the frequency of the cpu?in short, i agree with the objectives (making the os more extensible and more flexible), but the way they did it seems dangerous and under-optimal. | i really like netbsd. it has a clean design and it was the first unix-like os that i really picked up on, right around the v1.5 - v1.6 releases (2001 to 2002).i haven't been able to run it much since then due to owning incompatible hardware, but after seeing how well it runs in emulation, i am considering recycling some pc hardware and running it on top of microsoft's free hyper-v server 2012. the only problem is that hyper-v server doesn't support wireless networking and where i want to put it isn't anywhere near a router, so i am unsure how to handle networking. |
scriptable operating systems with lua [pdf]
| i really like netbsd. it has a clean design and it was the first unix-like os that i really picked up on, right around the v1.5 - v1.6 releases (2001 to 2002).i haven't been able to run it much since then due to owning incompatible hardware, but after seeing how well it runs in emulation, i am considering recycling some pc hardware and running it on top of microsoft's free hyper-v server 2012. the only problem is that hyper-v server doesn't support wireless networking and where i want to put it isn't anywhere near a router, so i am unsure how to handle networking. | a very interesting article. while the idea of using scripting to extend os functionality has been around for a long time, surprisingly few attempts have been made to implement it.of the potential uses, an os built-in webserver would be especially appealing. many scripting languages provide tcp server/client apis so it doesn't seem too much of a stretch to embed this functionality in a kernel. for example, tcl's "socket" core command makes it very easy to set up a tcp server or client.if performance or security is an issue, some interpreted languages can also be compiled to native code. there are scheme implementations that are embeddable in c and can load interpreted or compiled modules.one thing i didn't completely grasp is the distinction of "embedding" vs. "extending". are these really disjoint ideas? i found this puzzling:"... extension scripts are loaded into instances of a kernel-embedded tcl interpreter that execute in independent system processes [22]. a set of extension bindings exposes to the scripts the necessary resources for extending the kernel. what distinguishes our approach from [micro]choices is our support of scripting by embedding the language interpreter, in addition to scripting by extending it." [emphasis is mine]on the whole, the idea seems familiar and sensible where sane security policies and safety constraints are applied to actions of the embedded scripting language. |
scriptable operating systems with lua [pdf]
| a very interesting article. while the idea of using scripting to extend os functionality has been around for a long time, surprisingly few attempts have been made to implement it.of the potential uses, an os built-in webserver would be especially appealing. many scripting languages provide tcp server/client apis so it doesn't seem too much of a stretch to embed this functionality in a kernel. for example, tcl's "socket" core command makes it very easy to set up a tcp server or client.if performance or security is an issue, some interpreted languages can also be compiled to native code. there are scheme implementations that are embeddable in c and can load interpreted or compiled modules.one thing i didn't completely grasp is the distinction of "embedding" vs. "extending". are these really disjoint ideas? i found this puzzling:"... extension scripts are loaded into instances of a kernel-embedded tcl interpreter that execute in independent system processes [22]. a set of extension bindings exposes to the scripts the necessary resources for extending the kernel. what distinguishes our approach from [micro]choices is our support of scripting by embedding the language interpreter, in addition to scripting by extending it." [emphasis is mine]on the whole, the idea seems familiar and sensible where sane security policies and safety constraints are applied to actions of the embedded scripting language. | a while ago, i hacked some forth interpreter (i don't recall which one) into the linux kernel. it was just fooling around though, and didn't do anything useful or hook into anything interesting. this looks like a much more practical approach to that kind of thing. |
scriptable operating systems with lua [pdf]
| a while ago, i hacked some forth interpreter (i don't recall which one) into the linux kernel. it was just fooling around though, and didn't do anything useful or hook into anything interesting. this looks like a much more practical approach to that kind of thing. | for those who are not familiar with lua, or who have heard the prevalent "conventional wisdom" about it, here's a quick clarification:a. lua's source code is really really small and extremely well-commented[1].b. lua is super easy to integrate... you can literally just throw lua's entire source code into your app[2] and it'll compile just fine.c. lua's c api is super easy to use, and way more thought-out than python's or ruby's (no offense to matz or guido) -- yes, it is stack-based, but this actually makes its api much simpler and smaller than it would otherwise be. you can probably learn all of it in an afternoon (with the right guide).d. lua is uncannily similar to javascript in semantics, and the syntax[3] is ridiculously simple to learn. semantically, it has way less magic to learn than either ruby or python.e. lua isn't only for scripting video games. i wish this "conventional wisdom" would just die. yes, it is good for scripting video games, for the same reason it's excellent for scripting anything.f. table indices starting at 1 is not hard to reason about, not hard to use, and it's not hard to switch back-and-forth between lua and languages where indices start at 0. this is a complete myth.[1]: <link>[2]: like this: <link>[3]: here's lua's ebnf in its entirely, fitting on a single screen for me: <link> |
show hn: reach more people with a share-to-gmail-contacts button
| i would love to hear your feedback.would you consider putting this on your site? if not, why? | even if i did want to share something with all my contacts on gmail, the other challenge is that gmail considers everyone you have ever emailed a "contact". that's hundreds and hundreds of people, old mailing lists, etc. etc. that are on there. it's not a "contact list", it's a list of everyone i have ever contacted. |
show hn: reach more people with a share-to-gmail-contacts button
| even if i did want to share something with all my contacts on gmail, the other challenge is that gmail considers everyone you have ever emailed a "contact". that's hundreds and hundreds of people, old mailing lists, etc. etc. that are on there. it's not a "contact list", it's a list of everyone i have ever contacted. | anything sent to more than around 25 contacts is marked as spam in gmail, is there a way to get around that? |
show hn: reach more people with a share-to-gmail-contacts button
| anything sent to more than around 25 contacts is marked as spam in gmail, is there a way to get around that? | this is one of the scariest buttons i've ever seen: when would i ever want to email everybody in my gmail contacts list? everybody?? |
show hn: reach more people with a share-to-gmail-contacts button
| this is one of the scariest buttons i've ever seen: when would i ever want to email everybody in my gmail contacts list? everybody?? | this is nice and all, but i really hope nobody who has me in their contacts ever clicks that button. |
atlantic.net launches $0.99 ssd-based vps servers
| so will i get a nastygram if i buy 10 of these and push the whole 1tb every month?edit:so their aup[1] is full of a lot of crappy policies. not allowed to use all the ram you're assigned. not supposed to use all the bandwidth you're assigned. not supposed to use all the cpu you're assigned. no crons or background services -- what the fuck? no irc, tor, or p2p activity. they have an obscenity/morality clause. cannot do any webdev that uses custom headers -- would even suggest that running wget or curl with a --user-agent flag is in violation.edit2:and they require a valid address and phone number to even register. screw off. please note that in order to protect the integrity of
our cloud, atlantic.net verifies phone and other
contact information prior to account activation. please
be certain to provide a working phone number where you
can be reached in order to avoid delays in the account
creation process.
no thank you.[1]: <link> | hi everyone:thanks for the thumbs up on this.firstly, we are a 20-year old startup! everyone laughed at us when we talked about doing the original internet startup -- dialup internet. over time, we adapted and rode the booms and busts that went on in our industry, all the while staying cash flow positive and learning to grind.we are thinking there is going to be a explosion in startups globally, that will lead to the next big things, not just in the web but material sciences, biotech, etc.our goal is to build out a global compute infrastructure and get it in the hands of tomorrows einsteins.. wherever they are born. we want to see the future happen faster, and see more of it in our lifetimes. thats not going to happen if we wait around for today's dominant players, who for whatever reason are moving extremely slow.thats our over-reaching goal. you can read about it here:<link> a startup is really, really hard. we're trying to make it less so. we're also ready to provide an alternative narrative to aws conquering the world -- but we have to be aggressive and go fast!so, bottom line is we're trying to do something new,take some risks,be bold, and take on the giants of the industry.aws's margin is our opportunity :)wish us luck! we're going for it! |
atlantic.net launches $0.99 ssd-based vps servers
| hi everyone:thanks for the thumbs up on this.firstly, we are a 20-year old startup! everyone laughed at us when we talked about doing the original internet startup -- dialup internet. over time, we adapted and rode the booms and busts that went on in our industry, all the while staying cash flow positive and learning to grind.we are thinking there is going to be a explosion in startups globally, that will lead to the next big things, not just in the web but material sciences, biotech, etc.our goal is to build out a global compute infrastructure and get it in the hands of tomorrows einsteins.. wherever they are born. we want to see the future happen faster, and see more of it in our lifetimes. thats not going to happen if we wait around for today's dominant players, who for whatever reason are moving extremely slow.thats our over-reaching goal. you can read about it here:<link> a startup is really, really hard. we're trying to make it less so. we're also ready to provide an alternative narrative to aws conquering the world -- but we have to be aggressive and go fast!so, bottom line is we're trying to do something new,take some risks,be bold, and take on the giants of the industry.aws's margin is our opportunity :)wish us luck! we're going for it! | it's always surreal to me to see atlantic.net in the news. i worked in their customer service department for over six years back when their primary product was still dialup internet. it was a pretty good job, for call center work. no scripts, no quotas - each msr was trained and trusted to actually be able to solve customers' problems on their own.i don't know if that's the case anymore. by 2007, dialup was dead and the company had pivoted to making most of its money from hosting. i left a few months prior, but still had friends working in the call center when they were all laid off. i don't know if they outsource their phone-based customer service now or if they set up a new call center in orlando instead of gainesville, but if it's the former, it's a shame. |
atlantic.net launches $0.99 ssd-based vps servers
| it's always surreal to me to see atlantic.net in the news. i worked in their customer service department for over six years back when their primary product was still dialup internet. it was a pretty good job, for call center work. no scripts, no quotas - each msr was trained and trusted to actually be able to solve customers' problems on their own.i don't know if that's the case anymore. by 2007, dialup was dead and the company had pivoted to making most of its money from hosting. i left a few months prior, but still had friends working in the call center when they were all laid off. i don't know if they outsource their phone-based customer service now or if they set up a new call center in orlando instead of gainesville, but if it's the former, it's a shame. | > atlantic.net says it is targeting this service at early-stage and bootstrapped startups that want develop on a dependable cheap server.they are doing no such thing.at 99 cents per month, they are targeting people who want things for free, hoping that they can later up-sell, or convert them to a higher plan.don't know how well this is going to work in the hosting industry - usually the lower the cost, the worse the customer is.i'd like to say maybe as someone on the 99 cent plan sees that they need more resources, they could click a button and get on the $9.99 plan, but that might be wishful thinking, and they are just opening themselves up to an enormous drain on resources.either way, if there is any indication of people signing up for this, all the other hosting companies are going to match this plan within 24-48 hours, just like they did when everyone switched to "unlimited" offerings. it's a race to the bottom. |
atlantic.net launches $0.99 ssd-based vps servers
| > atlantic.net says it is targeting this service at early-stage and bootstrapped startups that want develop on a dependable cheap server.they are doing no such thing.at 99 cents per month, they are targeting people who want things for free, hoping that they can later up-sell, or convert them to a higher plan.don't know how well this is going to work in the hosting industry - usually the lower the cost, the worse the customer is.i'd like to say maybe as someone on the 99 cent plan sees that they need more resources, they could click a button and get on the $9.99 plan, but that might be wishful thinking, and they are just opening themselves up to an enormous drain on resources.either way, if there is any indication of people signing up for this, all the other hosting companies are going to match this plan within 24-48 hours, just like they did when everyone switched to "unlimited" offerings. it's a race to the bottom. | what boggles my mind about cheap hosts is how the ip addresses still seem to keep flowing. i thought we were close to exhausting them, and it's certainly tricky to get extra ips on some hosts, yet you can pay relatively small sums to spin up vpses all over the place, each with their own ip :-) |
prison bankers who profit from the inmates
| this is a state-granted monopoly and it's being abused. the services jpay offers should either be government run or open to free market competition. | so they bribe and kick-back their way through the year and then throw a big party (ahh 'convention') in vegas where they give each other awards while sucking down premium liquor, hand-rolled cigars, and no doubt metric tons of the stuff half of their inmates are in prison for.the pigs from 1984 would blush over this stuff. |
prison bankers who profit from the inmates
| so they bribe and kick-back their way through the year and then throw a big party (ahh 'convention') in vegas where they give each other awards while sucking down premium liquor, hand-rolled cigars, and no doubt metric tons of the stuff half of their inmates are in prison for.the pigs from 1984 would blush over this stuff. | they also operate the e-mail system that can be used to send e-mail to/from inmates (using a jpay tablet, of course). you have to purchase 'stamps'. for e-mails.[1]1: <link>;one stamp corresponds to one 6000 character message (about the length of one handwritten page), or one attachment.""jpay’s correctional email service is faster than regular mail, with inmates usually receiving emails within 48 hours." (emphasis added)looking up the pricing for a random facility[2], it's $18 for 40 'stamps', each one of which is good for 1 small attachment or 'page' of text. this is fucking extortion.2: <link> |
prison bankers who profit from the inmates
| they also operate the e-mail system that can be used to send e-mail to/from inmates (using a jpay tablet, of course). you have to purchase 'stamps'. for e-mails.[1]1: <link>;one stamp corresponds to one 6000 character message (about the length of one handwritten page), or one attachment.""jpay’s correctional email service is faster than regular mail, with inmates usually receiving emails within 48 hours." (emphasis added)looking up the pricing for a random facility[2], it's $18 for 40 'stamps', each one of which is good for 1 small attachment or 'page' of text. this is fucking extortion.2: <link> | the only question that rings to me anymore about these stories: what can i do?what code can i write? what broker can i call? what form can i sign? how can i register my civic will so as to undo this blight?for me, this is the most embarrassing thing about being a united states citizen. |
prison bankers who profit from the inmates
| the only question that rings to me anymore about these stories: what can i do?what code can i write? what broker can i call? what form can i sign? how can i register my civic will so as to undo this blight?for me, this is the most embarrassing thing about being a united states citizen. | the prison phone systems are also bilking families. in the alaska prison system, i had to call collect to my family. phone calls were limited to 15 minutes and they cost my family $33 per call. i hated calling them because i felt so bad about that cost. |
microsoft unveils windows 10 system with start menu
| i just don't understand anything that microsoft seems to be doing lately.random version numbers, a ui full of mismatched colors and a phone os that has gone so far from its roots its just confusing. i mean sure they seem to be getting more dev friendly, but my god their end products are getting so far off track. | a quick preview here - <link> |
microsoft unveils windows 10 system with start menu
| a quick preview here - <link> | hopefully this will also include the re-introduction of the "hotdog stand" color scheme. |
microsoft unveils windows 10 system with start menu
| hopefully this will also include the re-introduction of the "hotdog stand" color scheme. | so the big headline about microsoft's new os is that it has a start menu. really? |
microsoft unveils windows 10 system with start menu
| so the big headline about microsoft's new os is that it has a start menu. really? | am i the only one seriously underwhelmed?everyone else is talking about the start menu and name. that's all fun and good but it isn't very substantive. the only actual feature which i've read about is virtual desktops (which was already obtainable via the "desktops" technet download[0]).if those are all the improvements microsoft has to talk about then frankly what the heck have they been doing for the past several years? windows 8 for all of its problems was a substantial change that likely took a lot of work. the difference between 8.1 and "10" is far from substantive.[0]<link> |
semantic annotation and similar content discovery
| these can be pretty useful for healthcare and pharmaceutical industries to manage their entities. | astroturf comments and votes are not allowed on hacker news. |
semantic annotation and similar content discovery
| astroturf comments and votes are not allowed on hacker news. | these guys semantic annotation services are pretty awesome. they seem to be the best for healthcare and pharmaceutical industries. or even for government entities. |
semantic annotation and similar content discovery
| these guys semantic annotation services are pretty awesome. they seem to be the best for healthcare and pharmaceutical industries. or even for government entities. | very useful for managing entities in greater number. nice shear! |
semantic annotation and similar content discovery
| very useful for managing entities in greater number. nice shear! | this actually looks very interesting. wonderful shear there eddie! |
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