text
stringlengths 68
776k
| meta
dict |
|---|---|
Blackstone Plans Orbitz IPO - rbc
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070510/orbitz_ipo.html?.v=1
======
rbc
I'm curious how ITA Software will be affected by this.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Huawei to offload undersea telecoms cable business - jmsflknr
https://www.ft.com/content/cb093112-85d1-11e9-a028-86cea8523dc2
======
rurban
Non paywall: [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-huawei-tech-usa-
cable/chi...](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-huawei-tech-usa-cable/chinas-
huawei-to-sell-undersea-cable-business-buyers-exchange-filing-shows-
idUSKCN1T40BS)
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
How a Group of Heretical Thinkers Chipped Away at the Idea of ‘Us’ and ‘Them’ - hhs
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/30/books/review-gods-of-upper-air-charles-king.html
======
deogeo
> He started to put the word “race” in scare quotes, calling it a “dangerous
> fiction. [..] Boas and his circle confronted a bigotry that was
> scientifically endorsed at the time, and they dismantled it by showing it
> wasn’t scientific at all; today’s nativists and racists generally don’t even
> pretend to a scientific respectability”
Apply principal component analysis to human DNA, and race pops out [1,2,3]. It
seems odd the article wouldn't mention this well-known fact.
[1]
[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Principal_compon...](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Principal_component_analysis_of_human_genetic_diversity)
[2] [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Individual-
level_hum...](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Individual-
level_human_population_structure2.png)
[3]
[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:3D_PCA_plot_of_Xavan...](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:3D_PCA_plot_of_Xavante.png)
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Ask HN: What are some great startup blogs? - hackathonguy
Hey fellas!<p>What are some startups that run fantastic blogs? Looking for some inspiration for http://blog.yalabot.com.<p>I enjoy https://blog.baremetrics.com and the marvelous https://signalvnoise.com. Would love to hear your favs.<p>Thanks!
======
ceekay
Wouldn't say it's "fantastic" but people enjoy my blog on product management /
design for startups -
[https://blog.orangecaffeine.com/](https://blog.orangecaffeine.com/)
~~~
hackathonguy
Awesome, thanks!
------
hackathonguy
Clickable URLs -
[https://blog.yalabot.com](https://blog.yalabot.com)
[https://blog.baremetrics.com](https://blog.baremetrics.com)
[https://signalvnoise.com](https://signalvnoise.com)
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
A very creative 404 - zuu
http://www.nosh.me/404
======
ColinWright
Discussion on an earlier submission:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2835820>
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Pirate Bay Founder Remains In Custody - w1ntermute
http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-founder-remains-locked-up-without-charges-120930/
======
Peer
Typical sensational TorrentFreak article. This is normal procedure in Swedish
courts. The Swedish legal system is different and what would be called
"charged" comes much later in the legal process. He's currently häktad[1]
which is stopping him from destroying evidence or leaving the country, like he
did previously when he fled to Cambodia.
1:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remand_(detention)#H.C3.A4ktnin...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remand_\(detention\)#H.C3.A4ktning_.28Swedish_law.29)
~~~
Karunamon
Wow, this is actually a pretty sensible arrangement.
_A person who was häktad but was not charged (or was freed after trial) is
entitled to financial compensation, with an amount determined by the
Chancellor of Justice. It is usually around 500 SEK (US$80) per day for the
suffering, somewhat more if there was media attention, plus compensation for
lost work income. 1200 people were compensated in 2007.[10] If the prisoner is
sentenced, the time as häktad counts as a part of the prison time, so that
less time will remain after the trial._
------
jws
As is allowed by Swedish law, not unusual, and approved by the district court.
They can even extend it to a month if they need to.
~~~
unreal37
The article says it was originally extended by two weeks, and then recently
extended again by another two weeks. Can they extend it more?
~~~
mongol
This comment on Reddit describes it better than I can:
[http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/10pivx/pirate_ba...](http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/10pivx/pirate_bay_founder_remains_locked_up_without/c6fkuji)
------
benologist
Rabble rabble rabble!
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
ValidatorJS/A quick validator implementation - pharzan
https://github.com/pharzan/validatorJS
======
brudgers
If it meets the guidelines and want feedback, this might make a good "Show
HN".
Guidelines:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html)
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Hunch Hasn't a Clue About My Intentions - cyunker
http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=556&doc_id=189349
======
bhattisatish
To me hunch is not a recommendation system. To me it seems to be more of a
data collector. I have a strong feeling they are just collecting the data
generated by us and re-selling it, but pretending at the same time to
'recommend' something. A con job is all I can think.
------
angelbob
On the one hand, he has a good point buried in there: Hunch doesn't collect
enough useful information, and it doesn't do a great job with it. Fair enough.
However, his basic hostility to the idea of recommendations coming from a
machine seems misplaced. Presumably he's not out there railing against Amazon
and NetFlix recommending books and movies to all of us... And they actually do
a pretty good job.
Overall, a very poorly written article. Yes, yes, you'd like several semi-
elite celebrities of Silicon Valley to do a better job with $12 million. And
I'd like a pony.
~~~
rdl
Fundamentally bayesian antispam, netflix, and amazon all win because they
generate recommendations as a side effect of user actions (ideally "what they
buy/watch", but even just marking things with stars or tags). Hunch is a
failure because it tries to get users to explicitly generate recommendations.
Humans are unreliable self-reporters.
------
pclark
it's amusing how he calls Hunch the "la crème de la creme of Silicon Valley"
despite them being in New York. Heh :)
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
China Hints at Use of Force in Hong Kong and Says U.S. Is Undermining Stability - hker
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/24/world/asia/china-military-hong-kong-taiwan-protests.html
======
geowwy
I always think it's better to go back to the original source material, so
here's the white paper mentioned:
[http://english.gov.cn/archive/white_paper/2019/07/24/content...](http://english.gov.cn/archive/white_paper/2019/07/24/content_281476780919912.htm)
The basic message seems to be:
• As China and other countries develop, the world is shifting from unipolar
model to a multipolar one.
• The US is doubling down on unipolarity.
• China is doubling down on multipolarity.
~~~
Agustus
Absolutely not. China is doubling down on becoming the unipolarity. No where
do they go that they do not perform the same sausage tactics as the Soviets.
The question becomes, like in all non capitalistic environments, can they
succeed before their debts get to them.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Mozilla Marketplace goes live, install web apps like native PC apps - cpeterso
http://liliputing.com/2012/06/mozilla-marketplace-goes-live-install-web-apps-like-native-pc-apps.html
======
stewie2
people said "webapps are awesome, because there is no need to install."
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google - kushti
http://www.wral.com/Raleigh-police-search-google-location-history/17377435/
======
dwighttk
Do cell providers not keep the data long enough for this? Or is this a way
around having to request from multiple carriers? Does Apple get these
requests? Would Google inform their customers they were searched even if they
were allowed?
Great reporting, but there's still a lot of questions unasked.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Most Money Advice Is Worthless When You’re Poor - paulpauper
https://free.vice.com/en_us/article/ev3dde/most-money-advice-is-worthless
======
aw3c2
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Vimes#Boots_theory_of_soci...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Vimes#Boots_theory_of_socio-
economic_unfairness)
> The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they
> managed to spend less money.
> Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus
> allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an
> affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then
> leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those
> were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so
> thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the
> feel of the cobbles.
> But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who
> could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his
> feet dry in ten years' time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap
> boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would
> still have wet feet.
> This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic
> unfairness.
Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms
~~~
pasta
I don't think this applies anymore.
Cheap is getting better and better. And the rich just buy new because they
like to go with the trend spending hundreds of dollars on boots.
Most people I know (Netherlands) who are not wealthy have mental issues or
don't know how to manage money.
Edit: I don't want to sound like I think the author belongs to those 2 groups.
There are many more reasons why someone is poor.
~~~
tarboreus
I think it's fair to say that this is less true in America, where we have
essentially no social safety net.
~~~
chrisco255
We also have a HUGE, far more diverse, far more spread out population that's
an order of magnitude larger than the Netherlands.
------
PeterisP
This kind of has a very simple point - advice is useful iff your problem is
caused by bad choices, and advising to make better choices can help. If your
problem is caused by external forces that your choices can't change much, then
it's better to devote all your energy to doing stuff instead of looking for
advice on how to do stuff better, because there's no silver bullet, you can't
do significantly better, and you don't need to waste effort on looking for it.
If after non-negotiable expenses you have barely any money to budget, then
budgeting advice is useless as your budgeting choices don't matter much.
Career advice, on the other hand, may be useful in that case.
If you're unable to work because of a disability or other factors, then career
advice is useless as your career choices don't matter much, but financial tips
on how to get the medicine you need in the most affordable way may be useful.
~~~
village-idiot
Also, budgeting and finding ways to save money take time, energy, and skill.
The author of this article literally couldn’t afford one of the more popular
budgeting apps, You Need a Budget, from the liquid cash they had on hand.
Same goes for saving money by cooking at home. It works, but it takes skill
and time. If you’re working 60-80hrs a week then it’s very hard to justify
that time expenditure, and triply hard to justify the up front cost of tools
and ingredients. $20 for a mediocre kitchen knife is 6-10 McDonald’s meals
($1,$2,$3 menu), putting someone who is already broke deep into the red before
seeing any returns.
------
esotericn
Most advice on anything is useless if you're not the target audience.
If you're earning nothing and have no savings, you need crisis mode budgeting.
Think the financial equivalent of malnourishment - you don't want the regular
food pyramid, you need an IV drip.
This doesn't actually change ever. The 'best course of action' changes at
every level.
Poor people money advice is worthless to rich people too. Lower middle class
advice on 'how to save for a home deposit' is completely useless to the
wealthy.
Usain Bolt doesn't take advice from the guy running in the park either.
------
xythian
A shoutout to
[https://www.reddit.com/r/povertyfinance/](https://www.reddit.com/r/povertyfinance/)
as a community that is attempting to discuss and distill the kind of financial
advice that is useful for those with little to no means.
> Much of the financial advice online and on reddit is aimed at people who
> have varying degrees of disposable income, ability to invest, lots of free
> time, available transportation, no kids, a partner, access to credit, and
> beyond. This is a place for people who do not have a lot, nor ideal
> circumstances, to help each other get by and hopefully move up in the world.
~~~
dsfyu404ed
Reddit is a crap place to go for advice if you're in a situation where all the
options are sub-optimal because any advice that isn't 100% by the book ethical
or any advice that puts a negative externality on society for personal benefit
results in down-votes and name callings. Often times that means your "best"
options are off the table. It is also very much against "low class" ways of
saving money. Stuff like "just smash your old tube TV and throw the pieces in
the household trash in order to save the $20 disposal fee" or is not exactly
appreciated there. God forbid you tell somebody that they <gasp> shouldn't buy
snow tires. The internet in general is just shit when it comes to being
frugal. It's really easy to tell someone else how to spend their money.
Edit: Anyone want to tell my why I'm apparently so wrong?
~~~
em-bee
you are probably being downvoted because you seem to suggest that illegal or
imoral actions should somehow be acceptable just because you need to save
money.
------
rfugger
The real question here is if the author went to college and got a degree, why
are they working in sandwich shops? I'm not saying there's not a reasonable
explanation for their situation, but any discussion of their particular
problem should start there. Obviously there are people who are doing the best
they can in a sandwich shop, and those people may need better support than
they're getting, but I don't think that's quite the case here.
~~~
RickJWagner
The author's Twitter account shows that she flies from New York to LA for
television projects.
She's not just a sandwich-shop worker, apparently.
------
notacoward
There's a lot more to being poor than not having money. Being poor and healthy
is not the same as being poor and unhealthy, as the most obvious example.
Being poor but healthy, smart and/or educated, non-addicted, connected to
family and friends who will keep you off that last step to oblivion is
different than being poor and none of those things. Poor nutrition and sleep
and being cold all the time can really do a number on your brain. So can the
stress of not knowing where your - or your children's - next meal is coming
from. The isolation and despair and distrust that come with spending any time
at all in that condition can stay with you for years.
So yeah, poor people follow a _very_ different decision process, which might
not seem rational to people who have only ever been poor in the low-bank-
balance sense (if that). Don't tell someone who's already deprived to deprive
themselves further. Those small indulgences might be the only thing keeping
people from giving up entirely. To the extent that the truly poor need advice
from the less poor at all, it's advice on how to secure the most basic of
needs in the short to medium term. Only then, only when the most severe
psychological effects of being poor have been dealt with, is it rational to
expect that people will start looking further up Maslow's pyramid to things
like longer-term financial security.
~~~
zozbot123
> Those small indulgences might be the only thing keeping people from giving
> up entirely.
I might be sympathetic to that point of view... but then what about the
'indulgence' of keeping a rainy-day fund? You know, the one indulgence that OP
fails to acknowledge in any way and even disparages, despite the fact that
indulging in this _gets rid_ of a major source of stress in a poor person's
life? _This_ is why you should save, even at strenuous cost. Because when you
save, you _do_ feel better.
------
username90
I have yet to see a poor person blog written by anyone who are actually too
poor to save, instead its just people who don't understand how much all the
small things they buy actually adds up at the end of the month. In the end you
just need a computer (20$ a month over its lifetime) with internet (10$ a
month) for most non-physical needs, food is dirt cheap if you just buy the
right things (2$ a day so 60$ a month is enough to live healthily) and clothes
last a very long time so no need to buy new ones that often (~20$ a month),
then you have 40$ a month for random things. That is 150$ a month after rent
and transportation, if you got more than that and still can't save you are
doing something wrong.
Personally I lived like that for many years, with 350$ rent on 1000$ income
and thus saved 500$ a month, after a few years you will have saved a couple of
ten thousand dollars. That was enough for me to take time off to learn
programming properly without worrying about money, I am now working as a
software engineer and make lots of money (not sure how people can find enough
important things to spend this much on...) but I hated blogs like this even
when I was poor.
------
bloaf
The one universal piece of money advice is "Spend less than you earn, and put
the difference somewhere that earns interest." Most articles, recognizing this
universal truth, go on to propose ways of spending less and saving more
efficiently. The author of this piece, having reduced his spending as low as
reasonably possible, actually just needs advice on how to earn more.
~~~
Gibbon1
When I was dead broke that's what I did. Reduced expenses and then focused on
bringing in as much cash as I could sustain.
Towards the end of that people on 6th street stopped asking for change and
instead would say things like, do you know if check day is Friday or Monday
this month. That question was when I realized I needed a new jacket.
------
hourislate
Being a first generation American and coming from an environment of poverty,
my parents sacrificed their health and lives to give us kids a better one. My
father did the hardest, dirtiest work that was unfit for a beast and mother
cleaned houses. They had nothing but made sure the kids had everything they
needed (cloths, education, food) and through their sacrifice the chains of
poverty were broken.
Millions of Immigrants come to the USA/Canada with nothing but the cloths on
their backs and somehow they manage to support themselves and their families.
Others are 4th, 5th Generation Americans and can't seem to get off Welfare or
dig themselves out of a hole.
I don't understand.....
~~~
rue
You know, all immigrants can’t do that either. And other “others” do just
fine.
You have what’s called “survivor bias”, and you need to get past it to
understand systemic issues.
~~~
tomcam
Did the parent say all immigrants? Read the post a couple of times and
couldn’t find that wording
~~~
rue
Try looking between the lines.
------
RickJWagner
The author (Talia Jane) has some interesting tweets.
My BS-meter is showing a strong reading after seeing these:
"i’m pretty blindly aggressive against all the manifestations of capitalism so
naturally my takeaway is Eliminate The Stock Market: It Is Stupid And Harmful
And Archaic And, Perhaps Worst Of All, Boring."
"moisturizing in my 20s like i’m in my 40s with the (pointless) hope i won’t
look like i’m in my 50s by the time i hit my 30s"
Here she's offering to help buy some guy a mattress:
[https://mobile.twitter.com/itsa_talia/status/107409983684723...](https://mobile.twitter.com/itsa_talia/status/1074099836847239168?p=v)
Here's she's gone to LA (from New York) for work:
"lemme try this in LA-speak: hey, LA buds! although i’m in town working on a
tv project, i’d love to hang out tonight! let me know if you’re interested!"
~~~
RickJWagner
I'm disappointed someone would down-vote this. Sincerely: Why would you do
such a thing?
In my thinking, this author does not seem to be living the life of a poor
person trying to save.
If you downvote, please share your point of view. I'd really like to
understand.
~~~
zozbot123
I mean, who _wouldn 't_ have trouble saving after Eliminating the Stock Market
and perhaps "all the manifestations of capitalism"? Because isn't that what
capitalism is all about? Saving, and accumulating some capital, some seed
corn, so that you _don 't_ have to live hand-to-mouth?
------
speedplane
This person is clearly a good writer and is persuasive to a degree. He or she
clearly has potential if they find the right place for it.
------
sys_64738
Best advice I ever got is to never listen to other people's advice. They're
usually wrong.
------
your-nanny
if the author has a degree as claimed, then the author is eligible for a
number of better jobs, even part time ones, and doesn't have to work to flip
burgers. Substitute teaching pays better, usually, and is easier to do; also
gives you professional contacts. Getting a credential on top of your
bachelor's is within reach for most people; some districts so desperate for
teachers they'll hire you anyway, provisionally. With a bachelor's you can
also teach SAT prep and tutor, all of which pay better than fast food. And the
guy can write obviously.
I come from a poor neighborhood. I get it. Most of childhood friends are in
jail or are dead. But I have a hard time believing someone with a bachelor's
has to scratch it with the rest of them with multiple part time jobs, not in
this economy for sure.
------
rue
Anybody want odds on 50% of these comments being exactly that worthless
advice?
------
bluedevil2k
> The way I see it, being poor is like having cancer
What a terrible way to look at it, making it seem like it’s entirely out of
your control and you need outside help just to survive. There’s many examples
of people who have climbed out of poverty to middle class, even upper class. I
highly doubt they’d spread the advice that being poor is a hopeless disease.
~~~
paulpauper
I think IQ, which is biological and intrinsic to the individual, plays an
important role in upward mobility. All else being equal, someone with an IQ of
80-100 is going to have a harder time climbing out of poverty than someone
with an IQ higher than 115.
~~~
bluedevil2k
That’s probably a far too simplistic way of putting it - I would actually
think people with a hard work ethic (ie gumption, ie stick-to-it-iveness)
would be more likely to climb their way out of poverty.
------
Raidion
Of course "don't by the avacado toast or lattes" doesn't help save you money
when you aren't buying that stuff in the first place. Complaining that advice
on Google that applies to the 15%-85% bracket doesn't apply to you is similar
in saying that "Most health advice is worthless when you have cancer". You
have a situation that is outside the norm, and you're trying to apply general
information against that, of course it's not going to work.
~~~
EliRivers
Yet in this very thread is someone who read the article, read that these
people do not have the kind of money that enables the creation of savings, and
glibly gave the advice to save up.
The problem isn't _just_ that common advice isn't helpful; it's well-meaning
outsiders just missing this over and over and endlessly giving the same
unhelpful, irrelevant advice.
------
jotm
What a terrible article. Sure, yeah, you're poor, own it, give up. Go buy that
fast food shit, get fat and damage your health. Buy all that alcohol that
helps you get through life, _that will definitely help_. FFS.
No, you try, fail, try again, fail, try some more - to save up, and start
making more. All that advice glosses over just how hard it actually is (not
that it can even convey it properly), and it takes time, but you can't give up
unless you're ready to kick the bucket at any time.
~~~
EliRivers
This advice seems pretty irrelevant. She just said that these people do not
have any spare money to save up, but this advice is "save up".
~~~
jotm
The article's conclusion is "yeah, forget trying, get that fast food, indulge
in what makes you feel better about your shit circumstances"
Which is the worst thing one can say. It's just a short term relief. If you
plan on living, you need to NOT waste money AND always look for better
opportunities.
At the core, there's really three options: Advance (save more, learn more, to
ultimately earn more), survive hoping there's no major personal disasters, or
die. If you plan on living, it's best not to give into the easy choice.
Also typical HN, discuss poverty and pat yourselves on the back for thinking
about the poor (unlike those _other_ cunts), while downvoting people with
actual experience because it makes you feel bad. Waah, waah. Just fucking ban
this account already, I don't even know why I'm here. Upvotes for everyone.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Effect of One-Legged Standing on Sleep - ph0rque
http://quantifiedself.com/2011/03/effect-of-one-legged-standing-on-sleep/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+QuantifiedSelf+%28The+Quantified+Self%29
======
Tyrannosaurs
Methodologically isn't this close to nonsense?
His measure of how well rested he is is completely subjective. There's
obviously no blinding (as he's subject and experimenter) which makes it almost
certain that as he knows the hypothesis he's looking into and the measure is
subjective, he's going to either subconsciously or consciously push the data
towards proving or disproving it based on his preconceived ideas.
He talks about randomly choosing (possibly sloppy language but if you choose
in any way it's not random, regardless it's not clear) and he's failed to
adjust for or control any other variables that might influence sleep like,
oooo, alcohol or caffeine or stress or a whole bunch of things that will make
more of a difference than standing on one leg which given the relatively small
data set is a pretty big deal (again some of this may depend on the method of
randomisation).
And then the variation is within fractions of one percent (the scale showing
99 and 99.4) which given that the measure is subjective is essentially
insignificant.
Please, please tell me that this is a wind up about how people believe
anything scientific looking and trying to get people to stand on one leg for
lulz rather than something serious?
Given that what he's doing is basically exercise and that linking sleep and
exercise makes some sense, it's not a totally stupid hypothesis, but his
experiment proves nothing.
~~~
ScottBurson
Too many people, like you, are hung up on "proof". Yes, we should be aware of
the difference between hypothesis exploration and a solid demonstration. But
that doesn't mean that hypothesis exploration is pointless!
An experiment like this one is entirely appropriate when trying to decide
whether a hypothesis is worth exploring further; setting up a more elaborate
study would have been premature.
So when you say "his experiment proves nothing" I think you are judging it by
standards it was not, and should not have been, intended to meet. Don't focus
only on the results of science; without the process, there would be no
interesting results.
~~~
grhino
The experimental procedures he went through gave little additional support for
his argument than simply stating: "I noticed I sleep better when I stand on
one leg for a while".
The statistical analysis of the study does not provide any additional weight
to the statement. In fact, the statistical analysis is more of a distraction
because he didn't control for an important influence in self-evaluating
health. If a person expects that taking an action will improve their health,
it's very likely that the person will think he feels better after taking that
action.
~~~
beagle3
While it is not rigorously scientific in the sense that physics is, it is
compares very favorably to findings in the fields of medicine and nutrition.
(Yes, they are much worse than you imagine).
And while this document cannot reflect this, I've been following Seth Roberts
for a few years now -- he is the best kind of scientist, with a remarkable
talent for objective measurement of oneself. While this cannot be generalized
to other people easily, as far as it refers to himself, it's probably way
better than most medical results published in the last 20 years.
------
keiferski
_If I stood on one leg “to exhaustion” — until it hurt too much to continue —
a few times, I woke up feeling more rested_
Wouldn't it be easier to just exercise? Regular physical activity leads to
better sleep, and doesn't require you to stand on one leg.
~~~
jcl
What he's doing _is_ exercise. He's working a muscle to exhaustion, which is
essentially weightlifting without the weights. I guess the value is that he's
found a simple workout that gets the results he needs in eight minutes a day
with no equipment.
It would be interesting to find out if he would get better or worse results
through cardio instead of working a muscle to exhaustion, and whether or not
it is important that the legs be that muscle. Some people suffer from restless
legs syndrome which keeps them from achieving deep sleep, and maybe exercising
the legs is countering this.
(I wish there was some way he could experiment that wasn't subject to the
placebo effect, though, which makes the results moot when applied to anyone
else.)
~~~
keiferski
Well, yeah. It just seems a little strange (and likely less efficient) to do
leg raises, when a decent workout of real exercises would be just as easy and
more effective.
Even if you stick to the legs, exercises like bootstrappers, squats, and
lunges would be significantly better.
~~~
peterwwillis
(see above comment) dynamic exercise is only more effective at increasing
muscle twitch force. isometrics will be more effective at increasing strength
at joint angle. for example, i could do more squats in a minute (up to 90)
after i did isometric holds vs before.
~~~
keiferski
Fair enough. I just didn't get the impression that the OP took an exercise
approach to his experiment. It seemed less isometrics and more "I'm gonna
stand on one leg until I get tired."
------
skittles
Interesting, useless experiment. It was invalid from the start. He went in
'knowing' that standing for long periods 'made' him sleep better. That may or
may not be true. It is anecdotal. Not only that, but he may have drawn the
same conclusion that standing on one leg also worked and that doing 4 sets was
best, etc. I'm not saying that standing's effect on sleep doesn't warrant
proper exploration. I am saying that the placebo effect cannot be ruled out
with this guy's work.
------
klochner
We seem to be approaching self-satire here on HN.
------
Skeletor
My Mom always told me a glass of milk would help me sleep better. It isn't
scientific, but if I'm stressed out and have a glass of milk before bed I'll
relax more and sleep better.
One legged standing could be just a good! I'll definitely try it out.
~~~
p0ckets
The calcium in the milk helps:
<http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/163169.php>
------
JohnJacobs
Why is this on Hacker News!?
------
p09p09p09
Do squats, acquire sleep.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Show HN: Large – Get anything for your team or office via slackbot - barisser
http://hirelarge.com?hn=true
======
werber
How much of the functionality is a person at a computer and how much is
software? It looks like a really cool project
~~~
bitsweet
It is powered by a distributed network of people but they're bolstered by a
lot of software. This gives a very personalized experience while gaining the
efficiency of software behind the scenes.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
How do you find high traffic websites for my private advertising network? - iworkforthem
I am looking for a few high traffic websites for my advertising network. Right now, I am using quantcast.com to help me guess the traffic of my publishers' websites. It is a largely manual process right now, I was wondering if any one has a better way to seek out those high traffic sites?<p>- to bounce ideas off anyone... one way I can think of is to filter those high traffic websites on flippa.com, seek out similar/top search results on google and then make contact with the websites owners. But the problem here is that, most of these websites are largely file sharing/porn in nature.
======
RBerenguel
Are you focusing on some niche or just a broad advertising network? If you are
just niche-ing, just google and browse similar content as the one you found,
then check its stats. It can be slow, but it will be a sure fire way to pick
the best.
Cheers,
Ruben
~~~
iworkforthem
Definitely a niche topics... The issue is with Googling will most likely to
bring back USA/UK websites, and not the tons of Russian, Spanish and Chinese
related websites on the same niche topic which still bring in loads of
traffic. Missing out quite a bit of cheap traffic there.
Anyone got any idea how to solve this? Most of the time, I will use site:.eu
or site:.co.jp to limit the search, but then again, it is not in its native
language/context, the results are often not relevant. :(
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Why Quora Will Never Be as Big as Twitter - kingsidharth
http://mashable.com/2011/01/06/quora-growth-not-twitter/
======
StavrosK
"Why apples will never be as tasty as oranges."
------
kleinsch
I'm personally not sure if Quora will ever be bigger than Twitter, but I do
think they have a potential advantage in the fact that user who ask questions
are looking for answers when using their service. It's similar to the
difference in value of search ads vs display ads. Getting an ad in front of
someone who's searching for something specific is a hell of a lot more
valuable than putting that same ad in front of someone while they're browsing.
Most usage of Twitter is browsing, while Quora users (at least the ones asking
or researching questions) seem similar to searchers, so that portion of their
traffic may be much more valuable, depending on how successful they are at
monetizing it.
One problem with this theory is that some of Quora's traffic right now (don't
know the proportion, but I'd assume it's high in terms of page views) is users
answering questions or browsing updates from friends, who fit more into the
browsers mold than searchers. I think they're going to have the same
difficulty monetizing that portion that Twitter is.
------
ig1
The whole premises of this article is that in-depth Q&A can't have mainstream
appeal, which is just wrong.
Look at the magazine racks at your local store to see what's mainstream. Look
at what people pay money to read.
Now tell me there's no market for Celebrity Q&A or Music industry Q&A.
------
nicksergeant
Comparing Quora to Twitter is massively premature. Quora's not even better
than Stack Overflow, or even Answers.com. Riddled with annoyances, the only
thing I ever hear about Quora on Twitter is something that drives someone
crazy.
~~~
Swannie
I agree. I'm not sure what the whole buzz about Q&A is right now.
Stack Overflow certainly fills a niche that had, before, been filled by lots
of independent "specialist" forums. Having that community under one roof is
great, there are a lot of subjects with strong similarities. The badges system
appears to allow good self moderation.
The value in Quora was the presence of an unusually large number of "over
achievers". Most of the people on there are doing very well for themselves in
the technology world, and found the questions interesting.
Now Quora is expanding, I don't see the added value any more. Really, how is
this different to all of the other q&a services on the internet.
The Stack Overflow approach of creating separate communities will probably
work better than Quora, whose original community is being diluted, not
expanded.
------
citricsquid
Twitter can be useful (or at least they want to use it) to billions of people,
the service is what you make of it. The same can be said of Facebook or
Tumblr, but Quora? Not so much. It has no mainstream appeal. The fact that
this article needed to be written is surely enough evidence that everyone is
clamouring to find the next social media _darling_ that they'll grasp at
anything that shows a hint of being popular and try and force it.
------
plnewman
The author makes that sound like a criticism. A site or service can be
valuable without being "big". The thing that I like about Quora is that its
easy to identify notable people, which is lacking from other sites. I think
Quora could actually become a pay service and do OK.
~~~
fooandbarify
I agree. I don't really want Quora to become as big as Twitter, because then
it would become filled with garbage just like Twitter. (Weird, that sounds
crankier than I want it to.) I'd gladly pay to keep Quora a bit more
"exclusive" for lack of a better term.
------
SriniK
Comments like this are common for most any website/product. Remember everyone
including tc mentioned that twitter was pointless. Wait for few years, as long
as they stick to their game, people will find use cases.
~~~
benologist
Twitter was something new though, Quora's pretty late to the q&a party.
------
erik_landerholm
(yahoo_answers || answers_dot_com) + follow == fail
~~~
SpikeGronim
(concentric elite growth strategy || answers filtered by my friends) + email
notifications == win
Quora has so many respected tech industry people using it that I want to use
it. That's similar to how Facebook was first Harvard only, then Ivy League,
etc. - you want to be where your perceived social betters are.
My Quora feed shows the topics that my friends are interested in. This is
super valuable for finding information slightly outside what I would search
for myself.
Their email notifications keep me clicking back to the site so that I stay
engaged.
~~~
erik_landerholm
yeah, it's cool right now. but, to get big they are going to have to let the
'unwashed masses' in. Expect more questions like, "why is paris hilton such a
sloot?" and less about interesting topics with interesting answers.
Once that happens, and it will have to happen for them to have the number of
users that twitter or facebook has it will descend into yahoo answer hell. I
don't see how they avoid that and get mass user adoption.
~~~
SpikeGronim
That's very much a risk for Quora. But if they're still showing me my friends'
activity that could ameliorate the problem. My friends are still going to be
asking/answering questions that I am likely to be interested in.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
'Lucky' Woman Who Won Lottery Four Times - jc123
http://www.businessinsider.com/4-time-lottery-winner-not-exactly-lucky-2011-8
======
ColinWright
Same story:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2861390>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2868747>
========
Related - breaking the Massachusetts State Lottery:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2828122> <\- lots of comments
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2829953>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2834002>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2834122>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2839674>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2842018>
========
Also related, breaking the scratch card lottery:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2166555> <\- This has lots of comments
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2166829>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2174333>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2181729>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2186178>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2188198>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2202232>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2241306>
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Show HN: Monitor websites for changes and send scraped data to a webhook - omneity
https://monitoro.xyz/?ref=hn
======
omneity
Hello HN, Monitoro is a service I built to watch websites for changes, scrape
data, and whenever the data changes, send it to a webhook of your choice. 2
months ago, I shared this project on Hacker news and got a very warm
reception.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21398524](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21398524)
Since then, I have learned a lot in this space and from usage patterns from
our several hundred users, as well as extended research and insights from
veterans in the industry.
I refined the concept (including much requested premium plans), added Chrome
rendering and included a programmable layer in Javascript, and would love to
hear your feedback on it!
For an overview of the changes, take a look here:
[https://monitoro.xyz/whatsnew](https://monitoro.xyz/whatsnew)
------
onesmalluser
There seems to be a lot of competition of other people doing this. What is
special about yours?
~~~
omneity
Could you please refer which competition you have in mind exactly?
We're laser focused on extracting data, transforming it and sending it to
webhooks.
No other service to our knowledge achieves a similar result with the same
(low) effort required by Monitoro.
Beyond that, our focus really is to be a trigger to your automations, and in
that regard expect more specific functionality targeted at this space, beyond
what we are providing already.
~~~
egfx
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21781869](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21781869)
recently posted...
~~~
omneity
We’re barely out of the MVP stage, but I already see at least two major
differences:
\- Javascript based custom transformations
\- Specific focus on Webhooks (we’re compatible out of the box with Slack,
Google Chat, Discord and really whatever else has a webhook API)
Not everything that says “Change tracking” is the same product.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
What differentiates a “senior” programmer from a “regular” programmer? - acidfreaks
https://www.quora.com/What-differentiates-a-senior-programmer-from-a-regular-programmer?share=1
======
hoodoof
It is arbitrary, up to the people involved.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
The metamorphosis of Escher - rbanffy
https://escher.ntr.nl/en/
======
NKosmatos
One of my all time favorite or favourite(sic) artists ever. Here are some
links to keep you busy/entertained
Make your own Metamorphosis:
[https://escher.ntr.nl/en/mmm](https://escher.ntr.nl/en/mmm)
Create your own tessellations:
[http://www.tessellations.org/](http://www.tessellations.org/)
High quality scans from Boston public library:
[https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search?f%5Bcollection_na...](https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search?f%5Bcollection_name_ssim%5D%5B%5D=M.+C.+Escher+%281898-1972%29.+Prints+and+Drawings&f%5Binstitution_name_ssim%5D%5B%5D=Boston+Public+Library&per_page=100)
~~~
FavouriteColour
Why '(sic)' after favourite?
~~~
NKosmatos
Favorite=US Favourite=UK :-)
~~~
invalidusernam3
That's not really a use case for [sic]. As per wikipedia: erroneous or archaic
spelling, surprising assertion, faulty reasoning, or other matter that might
otherwise be taken as an error of transcription.
~~~
Hoasi
One or both of these use
> archaic spelling
> other matter that might otherwise be taken as an error of transcription
fit the description though the case for _archaic spelling_ is arguable.
~~~
invalidusernam3
Both the US English and British English spellings are used extensively, nobody
would think it's a spelling mistake. And calling British English archaic is
quite insulting, it would be like calling US English "dumbed down".
------
evanb
If you're ever in The Hague, the Escher museum is a must-see. Seeing
Metamorphosis II displayed in the round was just fantastic.
------
amai
One of my favorite transformations by Escher:
[http://www.josleys.com/article_show.php?id=82](http://www.josleys.com/article_show.php?id=82)
~~~
irickt
As linked in that article, here the Print Gallery has been un-transformed and
animated:
[http://escherdroste.math.leidenuniv.nl/](http://escherdroste.math.leidenuniv.nl/)
------
WillKirkby
I really wish it didn't do the forced scroll across the whole artwork on first
page load. Makes me feel seasick.
------
agumonkey
I can't stop thinking about E.Coli when I read the man's name.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
USB Typewriter - autumntraveler
http://www.usbtypewriter.com/
======
delish
I'm glad that device convergence and device divergence are happening at the
same time.
I've said this here before, but I cannot recommend highly enough Alphasmart's
Neo. 700 hour battery life, sunlight readable display (!), made in America, no
moving parts 'cept for the keyboard (i.e. durable), plug-and-play USB, thirty
US bucks on eBay[0]. Check out the Dana for a bigger screen and Palm apps (!).
[0] ebay search for alphasmart:
[http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2050601.m5...](http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xalphasmart.TRS0&_nkw=alphasmart&ghostText=&_sacat=0)
~~~
julian_t
I've got an old Psion Series 5 that someone gave me... fantastic for taking
notes, and one of the best keyboards I have ever encountered on a pocket-size
device.
~~~
joakinen
I regularly use one of those Psion 5mx machines for taking notes. You can even
exchange documents with MS Office and print through your PC. Sadly the PC
component (PsiWin) barely works on 64-bit Windows so I have a Windows XP
machine for this. Also you must replace the flexi ribbon cable on your Psion 5
after some years of use, but if you do, you have an almost indestructible
pocket computer.
------
derekp7
I had an idea once to hook up a solenoid with a weight attached to it to the
inside of an old Model M keyboard, and have it activate on each keystroke.
That way I can turn my all-to-quiet Model M into something that sounds like a
good old fashioned Selectric typewriter.
~~~
kevin_thibedeau
Still would need a margin bell which, incidentally, the IBM Displaywriter
provided along with more typewriter-like keys.
------
endgame
I emailed a typewriter-collecting friend who expressed concerns about the
platen getting dirty or damaged with conversions like these. Is there a way to
avoid that?
------
arh68
Darn, I was hoping this would be nearly the opposite invention.
Is there a USB teletype out there? I'm trying to imagine something that
converts keystrokes over USB to ink-on-paper. Not a full-blown printer w/
PostScript, just inking one letter at a time, manual carriage return, etc.
~~~
sitkack
I had an idea for something like this, it would be like a daisywheel
typewriter from the early 90s.
[http://www.typewritersupply.com/brother_printwheel.JPG](http://www.typewritersupply.com/brother_printwheel.JPG)
But it might just be easier to use a parallel linkage, two small steppers and
a 500 mw laser diode. Although not faster.
Not sure how much power a mems mirror could take, but it might speedup writing
fancy glyphs.
~~~
arh68
Interesting! I hadn't seen a daisy wheel before. Nice to see they could print
proportional fonts [1]. Pretty good for printing one character at a time.
[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFC5PyJdVIg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFC5PyJdVIg)
~~~
sitkack
I am trying to figure out how to get rid of the ink ribbon. Ink sponge? Silk
dam? Both would require a small pump to soak the medium with ink. Or make it
gravity/capillary fed.
Now that we are on the subject of inappropriate low technologies, why not a
reusable screen printing method? stainless steel screen, uv cured resist (use
an xy laser to create pattern). Resist should disolve in hot water.
Or maybe use aluminum foil and laser to drill holes in the screen? I like
this.
------
andrewfelix
I had a similar idea, but utilizing a microphone instead that listened for the
subtle tonal differences in each key strike.
To the naysayers: Typewriters have all sorts of appeal beyond visual
aesthetics. Just because it doesn't appeal to you personally, does not make it
a silly thing.
~~~
crimsonalucard
What kind of appeal does it have other then aesthetics?
~~~
6stringmerc
1 - It doesn't need batteries to work
2 - The written product does not need batteries to be read
3 - By writing in a "permanent" form of communication, the typewriter
encourages more active engagement with crafting words and sentences
4 - Some of the greatest written works of non-fiction and fiction were
products of typewriters
5 - A good used manual typewriter can be found and purchased for approximately
50 times less than a new Apple Laptop (I purchased a West German Olympia
portable for $25)
~~~
epochwolf
Why use a typewriter instead of hand writing then?
~~~
6stringmerc
I do both, but have you ever written 3-4 pages by hand in one sitting? I've
got exceptionally strong and flexible hand and finger muscles, but even I have
to take breaks and shake out the lactic acid build up. Alcohol only helps so
much. A manual typewriter can take its own toll, but it's different. Pen and
paper are very portable. Manual typewriters are portable and efficient.
My IBM Selectric III is not portable but that monster can bash out words so
fast and with audacity that I'm glad it's an option. Granted, I bought two
Selectrics before (a I and II) and both died due to being worn out and gross,
but for $50 and in mint condition, I've enjoyed it immensely.
------
AbraKdabra
Taking the mechanical keyboards concept to a whole new level.
------
RankingMember
Can you imagine how muscular your fingers would get from using this as your
primary work keyboard?
Or how quickly any coworkers within earshot would want to kill you?
~~~
zyxley
Coworkers? Don't be silly.
What you do is take it to a coffeeshop for typing on your iPad.
~~~
avn2109
In Williamsburg or Bushwick this would be the ultimate social status indicator
and it would probably get your band signed to an indy label immediately.
~~~
mhink
Pssh, it's already passé. I've seen four in Seattle already: three in Capitol
Hill and one in Fremont. The Stranger's already speculating about the possible
opening of a coffee shop/bar down in Georgetown with teletypes available for
rent by the hour.
If you're not carrying printouts of your Node.js microservice written using
'ed', you might as well be using _Windows_.
------
teddyh
Reminds me of this old thing: “ _The Guy I Almost Was_ ” by Patrick Farley:
[http://electricsheepcomix.com/almostguy/](http://electricsheepcomix.com/almostguy/)
------
spc476
Previous discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3029144](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3029144)
------
rootbear
I've thought in the past of how I might turn my grandmother's Underwood No. 5
into a terminal. Now I can just get this! As for all of the hipster
references, I'm don't know much about that subculture but I can say that an
Underwood No. 5 computer terminal is Steampunk heaven. Just the thing for my
Analytical Engine!
------
stox
We used to have devices to convert typewriters into output devices. I never
thought about going in the other direction.
~~~
Luyt
I remember having a daisy-wheel printer at the office. It gave nice, crisp,
typewritten and kerned output. Much better than the matrix printers. (This was
before laser printers became commonplace).
------
johntaitorg
I went to the site, looked at its many impressive pages, went to Youtube and
left a joke, came back to site, came to HN comments and finally clocked it
wasn't all a sophisticated joke.
Big shout out to all the other Alphasmart people here though!
------
TeMPOraL
Damn it, someone already commercialized what was my idea for a personal
gift... I even have a typewriter waiting for me to get around modding it...
But anyways. Cool execution of the conversion kit. I like that.
------
yoanizer
I don't understand how people would want to invest in this. But that's just
me.
~~~
dspillett
Its a gimmick. A toy. A silly play thing. A nostalgia trip. Some or all the
above. People spend more money on less useful things all the time!
_> But that's just me._
Exactly. I'd not buy one or invest the tie into making one either, but I don't
assume that because I don't like it nobody else will/should.
------
wbsun
Ohhh, the good old days :)
------
iuguy
For the hipster who thinks hemingwrite.com is too mainstream, perhaps?
~~~
DanBC
Some people just like typewriters.
I can find my typewriter, load an envelope, and type a name and address much
faster than I can open the word processor and then print that name and address
to a sticky label (or an envelope if I'm brave enough to risk a jammed
printer).
I've been working on my hand-writing so it's not as important now as it used
to be.
~~~
stevewillows
I really made a conscious effort to improve my penmanship last year. I started
tracing at first [1] to build up the muscle memory, but it didn't take long
before the movements became natural.
[1]
[http://www.handwritingworksheets.com/flash/cursive/index.htm](http://www.handwritingworksheets.com/flash/cursive/index.htm)
~~~
roel_v
Are you really saying you can't write? Or just that you're trying to write
more beautifully?
~~~
DanBC
Some people can write, but illegibly. So they want to improve their writing so
that other people can read their writing, or so they're not embarresed by it.
Pen and paper is a powerful tool and there's not much in software that matches
it.
------
ofcapl_
with this gadget my hipster level will reach over 9000!
------
datsun
This is every hipster's dream
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Hacking behavior: use the stairs instead of the escalator - wgj
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpUoA5slRX4
======
RiderOfGiraffes
Previously submitted ...
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=873059>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=872759>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=871721>
~~~
wgj
Really I should have known.
------
frossie
What did they do a week after when the novelty wore off?
Certainly giving people a stimulus can reward good behaviour. I recall reading
that drivers of (normal engined) cars with a fuel consumption live readout get
higher mileage than people driving the same cars without the display.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Virgin Galactic pilot defied the odds to survive crash - danso
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-virgin-survivor-20141105-story.html
======
hangonhn
If you're interested in the extraordinary characteristics that are needed to
be a test pilot or an astronaut or the early history of the space program,
check out Tom Wolfe's "The Right Stuff" ( [http://www.amazon.com/Right-Stuff-
Tom-Wolfe-ebook/dp/B00139X...](http://www.amazon.com/Right-Stuff-Tom-Wolfe-
ebook/dp/B00139XSBA/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1415484020&sr=8-2&keywords=the+right+stuff)
)
It also puts the Virgin and other private space travel experiments into
context. This stuff is really hard and dangerous. It takes a special breed of
people to sign up for it and then figure out how to survive when things go
wrong or when things are less than ideal. It's not just guts but also a lot of
intelligence and the ability to stay calm when you are less than a minute from
oblivion. Chuck Yeager had a number of close calls.
~~~
nisa
> This stuff is really hard and dangerous.
I really don't know why they don't control these prototypes remotely. It's
2014 and while I see that a human is the better choice for space travel
because machines can't yet understand every situation it's kind of strange to
endanger the test pilots for early test flights. Especially in light of recent
fuel changes and aerodynamic problems.
That being said. My uttermost respect for everyone involved in these
endeavours. In the digital age it's more and more looking like a miracle that
humans where on the moon in 1969.
~~~
teleclimber
It's really hard to control these things remotely. If you use remote control
you have to worry about latency, which can make recovering from bad situations
impossible. And if you rely on auto-pilot you are testing both a vehicle and
its autopilot at the same time. For a highly experimental vehicle this is
extremely risky. The reason you need to test the vehicle is because you don't
know 100% for sure what it's going to do. And if you don't know, how can you
design an autopilot that brings it back every time.
Consider what happened with SS1 when it started rolling uncontrollably:
[http://gfycat.com/GargantuanRecentJackrabbit](http://gfycat.com/GargantuanRecentJackrabbit)
can you imagine an autopilot that would properly handle this situation? Good
thing they had Mike Melvill in there.
~~~
kenrikm
Which is worse losing a test vehicle or losing pilots? Latency should be a non
issue at the distances they are dealing with.
~~~
teleclimber
Well you don't want to lose either obviously. You don't go in there thinking
you might lose the vehicle. We're not the 1950s anymore.
------
comrade1
Part of me can understand why test pilots in the 50s, 60s, 70s, etc did what
they did. American test pilots and early astronauts did it for country first
(in the context of the cold war), humanity second.
I have a hard time understanding why a test pilot would risk their life so
that Jerry Seinfeld can fly to the edge of the atmosphere and back.
~~~
pavlov
Acrobats risk their lives while entertaining casino guests:
[http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/cirque-du-soleil-
da...](http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/cirque-du-soleil-dancer-
plummets-death-las-vegas-article-1.1386709)
I suspect that the test pilot who gets to fly a new kind of spaceplane finds
it more gratifying than the acrobat who does the same show every night for a
decade.
~~~
groby_b
As a stage performer, you're grateful for every performance you get to do. It
might get a bit old, but it beats _not_ being on stage. (Also: You don't last
for a decade at any given show. You keep moving on to other things.)
And for many, being on stage is every bit as exciting as flying a space ship.
The emotional energy from a good performance is amazing. (It's certainly not
the pay that keeps them)
~~~
sitkack
Someone should write a book on how to exploit people who do things for a love
that transcends money.
------
rev_bird
The beginnings of what I'm sure is a fascinating story, but there are some
real weird turns of phrase in this story:
>It was a real world case of survival in the face of disaster, _like the movie
"Gravity_."
>In October 1947, he ejected out of one of the first combat jets, the Republic
F-84, and hit the tail at 500 mph, breaking both legs and _busting his face_.
------
teleclimber
This article doesn't say how he got out.
I think it's possible the pressurized cabin stayed in one piece long enough
that he might have stayed in it for part of the descent before bailing out.
I really look forward to hearing his story.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Save Bletchley Park - ccraigIW
http://weblog.infoworld.com/securityadviser/archives/2008/12/save_bletchley.html
======
jgrahamc
Bletchley Park is one of the 128 places in my travel book for geeks and an
absolute must see for anyone who's interested in computer science or code
breaking.
It would be tragic if it was allowed to fall into disuse or disrepair because
of a lack of funding.
I've started a simple campaign to help Bletchley Park by donating a power of 2
in the currency of your choice: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=387007>
~~~
danw
Where else is on your list of 128 places?
~~~
jgrahamc
See <http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596523206/> and monitor it for updates.
~~~
kennyroo
That seems like a really fun idea for a book. After reading a great deal about
BP, it seems to fit your idea perfectly. Good luck with the book!
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Concurrency is not Parallelism (it's better) - noloqy
http://concur.rspace.googlecode.com/hg/talk/concur.html
======
noloqy
For the video of the presentation: <http://vimeo.com/49718712>
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Towards practicing differential privacy - Cynddl
http://blog.mrtz.org/2015/03/13/practicing-differential-privacy.html
======
noisydonut
Nice tl;dr written by Nobel prize winner Al Roth:
[http://marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2015/03/reflections-on-
pr...](http://marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2015/03/reflections-on-practical-
market-design.html)
------
Cynddl
See
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9184479](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9184479)
from two days ago for more context.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Donald Trump meets with tech leaders - Jarred
https://techcrunch.com/2016/12/14/donald-trump-meets-with-tech-leaders/?ncid=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=FaceBook&sr_share=facebook
======
delegate
Strangely how this is not top news on HN - however you put it , I guess
everyone understands that this is a turning point in our industry.
------
silasi
The emoji issue with Twitter...
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Text particle android - mosh_java
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twkDyQby1eI
======
mosh_java
i made a code for android similar to previous web text particle was submitted
here, what should i do next ?
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Knuth's 2018 Christmas Lecture: Dancing Links - janvdberg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9OcDYfHqOk
======
johnsonjo
In Fall of 2017 I was still in school and had to write a sudoku solver in one
of my CS classes. I ended up using dancing links to solve my sudoku problems.
My implementation was in JavaScript and it could find solutions for sudoku
problems very quickly. The paper I read on dancing links ended up being my
favorite academic paper I read in 2017 (honestly probably one of the only ones
I read that year.) I wrote about that in this thread [1].
[1]:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16036588](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16036588)
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Latest version of Chrome can't copy and paste urls to Outlook - DerekH
https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!msg/chrome/Sqv4fPmgztU/wpWF0HXXDQAJ
======
tssva
This issue is only with pasting copied urls into Outlook. The title should be
changed.
~~~
DerekH
Thanks for pointing that out. I've been reading through the bug reports and
some people have been mentioning other apps in addition to Outlook: Notes.app
and Mail.app. I haven't noticed any others yet.
Source:
[https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=618771](https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=618771)
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
What’s Coming in Go 1.13 [slides] - dcu
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vRo5urog_B76BcnQbIo7I391MZUKFj7l3gku6hypJ-WK1KCFw40A7BiM6NOVsqD17sA9jS7GyzCfnN4/pub?slide=id.g550f852d27_228_0
======
cryptos
This slide deck might be nice as a wallpaper for a presentation, but it is not
a good read.
Is there a blog post targeting readers in the web?
~~~
andy_ppp
If you wanted you could copy every slide into a HN comment and then people
wouldn't have to read the article. There is not much.
------
lovetocode
Finally a better module experience inside of gopath. That was a major hang up
for me
------
andy_ppp
They made Go faster (priorities), added some very niche number types and TLS
1.3 support?
The only language features they seem to have added are small improvements to
error handling.
~~~
NotPaidToPost
A programming language should be stable, not add/change things all the time.
~~~
andy_ppp
Sure, it’s just that Golang deliberately lacks features to create abstractions
which means every time I look at it I’m disappointed.
It’s very frustrating how unstable and slow in terms of dev speed things are
in the last _THREE_ places I’ve worked (as a frontend with the backends all
written in Golang). Go teams seem to rebuild everything from scratch and they
never seem to understand micro services in the context of distributed systems.
I mean we are doing microservices, Golang, grpc, cockroach dB and we have a
few thousand users maximum. It drives me up the wall that this stack is so
popular and the engineers championing it can’t deliver reliable software
quickly in it... most of them can't even optimise queries in SQL and are
concatenating strings together in SQL queries.
Take the Elixir ecosystem; I could outpace a team of three Golang engineers
easily writing stuff in Elixir and my software would almost never crash or
panic and be very flexible when changes were needed. Everything in Golang is
calcified around current product requirements and a nightmare to change. So
forgive me when I think Golang has a long way to go before it's something I'd
want to use for anything but the smallest of command line tools.
~~~
kc1116
Sounds like you worked with shitty backend engineers. I don’t understand how
Go has anything to do with that. Nobody uses elixir bud, and saying basically
“my software would be perfect” is a naive silly thing to say.
~~~
andy_ppp
I just think I've had this happen three times in a row, as if there is
something likely to be wrong with the types of programmer who choose this
technology.
I never said my code is perfect or bug free at all, you just made up a straw
man to weaken my anecdotal evidence.
~~~
apta
> I just think I've had this happen three times in a row, as if there is
> something likely to be wrong with the types of programmer who choose this
> technology.
You can add a datapoint to that based on what I have experienced as well at an
employer. Exactly what you mentioned, so much time wasted either due to
reinventing the wheel, or because of language friction and it being way
underpowered to model the problem at hand. I keep laughing that Java would
have been a way superior fit in practically all fronts.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Comcast to acquire NBC - shaddi
http://money.cnn.com/2009/12/03/news/companies/comcast_nbc/index.htm
======
blahedo
The vertical integration continues. It's always seemed dicey to me that a
cable provider owns so many content stations, and this just exacerbates it.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
$stdout – Hell.js - alexgrcs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx6k6WR8GRs
======
FutureSpec
So good.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Apple delays FaceTime bug fix until next week - harshulpandav
https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/1/18206721/facetime-bug-fix-delayed-apple-ios-group-chat-eavesdrop
======
united893
Brilliant strategy on Apple's part -- picking a fight with Facebook and Google
(banning them for a few hours) to generate global headlines while leaving
dozens of other companies off the hook for sideloading their to their non-
employees (e.g: Square) [1]
[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19051609](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19051609)
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
PH Launch Who is going to share feedbacks? - DamlaYildirim
Hello Guys, MoovBuddy has launched on PH: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/moovbuddy<p>Please share your feedback and upvote if you like. Cheers
======
gus_massa
Please change the title to something like: " _MoovBuddy: An exercise app for
back & neck pain and joint health_"
It's also much better to link here to the page of the app directly, instead of
the Product Hunt launch.
The description is a bit too specific:
> _Less pain killer, less medical imaging and less chronic pain._
I think it can be a problem like the old marketing saying
> _An apple a day keeps the doctor away._
------
DamlaYildirim
Hey everyone! If you are interested and want to try premium, send me an email.
[email protected]
------
gnrbyrm
Hey Hackers, we have been working on MoovBuddy with Damla. Your comments and
feedbacks are appreciated! See our launch in PH:
[https://www.producthunt.com/posts/moovbuddy](https://www.producthunt.com/posts/moovbuddy)
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Tipu's Tiger - Thevet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipu%27s_Tiger
======
dct
Also featured in Sharpe's Tiger
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharpe's_Tiger](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharpe's_Tiger))
------
Camillo
I love the British reaction.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Chomsky, Valiant and the algorithmic mirror - petar
http://www.maymounkov.org/chomsky-valiant-algorithmic-mirror
======
mrng
Google Cache:
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.maymounkov.org/chomsky-
valiant-algorithmic-mirror)
for those of you getting the "Over Quota" error.
~~~
petar
Sorry folks. Should be back up soon. In the meantime, there is a mirror
article here:
[http://petar.svbtle.com/](http://petar.svbtle.com/)
------
petar
While the blog is "Over Quota", use this alternative link to the article:
http://petar.svbtle.com/
------
malgorithms
some quick info: Petar Maymounkov, the author, is the same guy who invented
kademlia, the distributed hash table that many p2p networks use
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kademlia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kademlia)).
------
petar
And the article is back up on the original link.
------
6ren
tinkling?
~~~
petar
faintly entlightening
~~~
6ren
Do you have a reference for that, or are you Humpty Dumptying?
~~~
petar
Reference for which? The meaning of "tinkling" or the claim made in the
sentence that contains it?
~~~
6ren
For the meaning of tinkling.
_EDIT_ ah, you probably meant "inkling".
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Welcome to Powder Mountain – a utopian club for the millennial elite - Southworth
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/16/powder-mountain-ski-resort-summit-elite-club-rich-millennials?CMP=share_btn_tw
======
masonic
[https://hn.algolia.com/?query=powder%20utopian&sort=byDate&p...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=powder%20utopian&sort=byDate&prefix=false&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story)
------
yazr
DUP
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16602878](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16602878)
(my own submission 30 minutes before yours. Wonder why it was not marked as
dup)
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Google Adds Voice And Video Chat to Gmail - dawie
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/11/google-adds-voice-and-video-chat-to-gmail/
======
lowkey
Okay, installed. Now need someone to video chat with. Requirements: Intel Mac,
Gmail account, Video Chat add-on, a personality.
------
shadytrees
This is a duplicate: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=360952>
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Turning Saltwater From Earth and Sea Into Drinking Water - iProject
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/10/science/earth/turning-saltwater-from-earth-and-sea-into-drinking-water.html?
======
hendler
Interesting that there was no mention of Dean Kamen's "slingshot"
<http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/03/colbert-and-kam/>
[http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2008/04/04/big-
problem...](http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2008/04/04/big-problem-neat-
solution.html)
~~~
thaumaturgy
Almost two years ago I commented in an HN thread about this,
"DEKA is a strange duck. They have some genuinely brilliant people there,
working on some genuinely revolutionary inventions -- but they just can't seem
to actually bring them to market. Or, they're not interested in bringing them
to market. ... I've yet to hear of the Stirling engine / water purifier being
deployed anywhere; ... I really don't "get" them. The best I can figure is
that everyone (influential) there is happy just to be working on these
puzzles, and they don't really care if anyone uses them or not."
(<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1793446>)
That opinion seems to be withstanding time's test.
~~~
planetguy
Actually, I'd say the truly brilliant people are in the marketing department,
building huge hype for something which... presumably doesn't work as well as
advertised or else we'd have heard about it again in the intervening three
years. I don't know precisely what _is_ wrong with it, but it's safe to assume
that there's something.
------
danielharan
As for energy, it's probably much cheaper to reduce consumption. This is a
hidden subsidy to agriculture and industry.
------
adnam
Desalination is less of a problem than pumping water to farmland, industry and
residences high above sea-level.
~~~
excuse-me
Where do you get the saltwater high above sea-level?
~~~
epochwolf
I think they are talking about pumping desalinated seawater over a thousand
miles inland.
------
brunnsbe
Out in the archipelagos in Finland (and I guess also Sweden) converting salt
water into drinking water is becoming more common as it's quite easy when the
salt amount in the Baltic Sea is quite low compared to the oceans.
~~~
excuse-me
They are having to start drinking WATER in Finland? Has the booze finally run
out?
~~~
brunnsbe
You need some water to create booze. ;-)
------
ChuckMcM
Most people believe that bottled water is just tap water marked up a few
thousand percent, it would be interesting if these desalinator plants sold
bottled water. They could run at a profit apparently, and they could make an
interesting argument:
"Conserve our precious natural water sources by drinking -Wapure-, purified
water."
This would then make it a _good_ thing to drink bottled water since you would
be keeping cows and what not alive.
~~~
zcid
My issue with drinking bottled water is the bottles. Estimates are around 1
billion bottles thrown away each year in California alone.
[http://www.consrv.ca.gov/index/news/2003%20News%20Releases/P...](http://www.consrv.ca.gov/index/news/2003%20News%20Releases/Pages/NR2003-13_Water_Bottle_Crisis.aspx)
~~~
ChuckMcM
This is one of those things where I wish the report would include their
methodology. This report was brought up during the "Great Bottled Water
Debate" at Google and a couple of people wondered how they came up with their
numbers.
As it turns out, if you sit at a dump site (at least in Northern California,
and Google is fortunate to be built right next to one) and watch the trash
being unloaded you will note that there is little recyclable material left in
the trash when it gets there, further the waste management company does some
separation as well because they get to keep any money they get from the
recyclables that get that far (unlike the ones in the cans at the curb which
they split with the city).
What was clear though was that between a fairly large homeless population
which relies in part on recycling fees and waste management contracts that are
structured to provide a disproportionate benefit to the waste management
company, they both get paid for disposing 'X' tons of waste which is measured
on the way in, and they get paid for 'Y' tons of recyclables they recover post
ingress weigh-in so its a double win for them.
The result is that in California there are several mechanisms in place which
select for recycling. This results in very little recyclable material actually
getting into landfills (which is good) but it also makes statements like the
one you link, essentially false.
------
6ren
Question: why do desalination plants use a filtering system, instead of
evaporation? (like that desert survival trick of spreading plastic over a
hole)
(guessing) Is it because (1) evaporation is actually very energy inefficient
compared to filtration, especially at scale; or (2) evaporation doesn't
separate out impurities that also evaporate.
~~~
kijin
(1) is definitely a factor. It takes a very large amount of energy to boil
water.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desalination#Methods>
> _Reverse osmosis plant membrane systems typically use less energy than
> thermal distillation, which has led to a reduction in overall desalination
> costs over the past decade._
But the wikipedia article says that 85% of desalination worldwide still uses
distillation.
~~~
ams6110
Seems like a good area to use solar energy though. Water is easy to store and
if you can make enough on sunny days to carry you through nights and overcast
times, efficiency doesn't really matter as much since your energy source is
"free."
~~~
planetguy
I'm sure it's possible, and that someone has sat down and done the
mathematics, and figured out that it's just not worthwhile.
The most efficient way to do it is to use solar thermal, not solar electric,
power -- build a huge array of mirrors to focus on heaters which boil your
water and distill it out. But it's not really "free" -- you need a lot of
land, a lot of mirrors, and a staff of people who keep the mirrors clean and
replace the broken ones.
Oh, what the hell, I'll do the maths myself. To heat up and boil one litre of
water from 20 degrees C takes 2.6 million joules. Sunlight, on a sunny day, is
one kilowatt per square metre; let's generously assume we can get 50%
efficiency over the eight hours of the day when the sun is high in the sky
[don't forget, this is solar _thermal_ power, it's more efficient than
photovoltaics]. So each square metre of collecting area in our plant can boil
5.5 litres of water per day. The desal plant in this article produces 27.5
million gallons per day so to replace it with solar we'd need nineteen million
square metres, or nineteen square km, of mirrors. That's a _lot_ of mirrors,
and a lot of squeegee men.
If you wanted a solar-powered desal plant I'm sure you could do it cheaper
using photovoltaics plus reverse osmosis.
~~~
phreeza
Wouldn't it be possible to somehow recover the latent heat of the boiling
water when it passes back into the liquid phase, minus the salt? I'm pretty
sure I learned the theoretical maximum efficiency for this in my undergrad
physics class but I can't quite remember.
~~~
kijin
Maybe you could use the steam to pre-heat the water that enters the system? If
the water is at 60C instead of 20C to begin with, that will reduce the amount
of energy needed to boil it. Besides, all that steam needs to be condensed
back to water anyway if people are going to drink it. (I think that's what
they already do in advanced "multi-stage" distillation plants.)
Theoretically, you could also add a steam turbine to make some extra
electricity on the side, but I don't know how efficient such an add-on might
be.
------
antidoh
California, with its long coastline and big brain and capital pools, could
transform itself into a fresh water sheikdom.
~~~
arethuza
Your comment about California having a "long coastline" got me wondering how
it compares to other places. It turns out that even if you measure the length
of the coastline quite generously (i.e. tidal shoreline) the length of the
California coast is 3,427 miles.
That sounds pretty impressive until you compare it with places with more
crinkly coastlines - Norway has ~13,000 miles of coastline and even tiny
little Scotland has 6,158 miles.
However, I suspect that there won't be much call for de-salination in Norway
or here in Scotland (where it has been raining for most of the last week).
~~~
josefresco
You don't even need to leave the US to find a state with a _longer_ coastline.
Maine's comes in at 4,568 miles
~~~
jonknee
That's a bit deceptive though because that figure for Maine includes all the
islands and what not. Maine isn't very big, there's no way it has that much
actual coastline.
------
hexagonal
(Production of desalinated water costs 2.1 times more than
fresh groundwater and 70 percent more than surface water,
according to El Paso Water Utilities.)
Copyediting fail. How about "110% and 70% more"?
------
cheatercheater
Can you couple this with osmosis based energy production for double win?
[http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2010/10...](http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2010/10/osmosis-
re-emerges-as-a-promising-power-source)
~~~
planetguy
No, because thermodynamics is a bitch.
Desalination works by reverse osmosis and costs energy. Rather a lot of
energy, in fact.
Osmosis-based energy production goes by forward osmosis and produces energy.
However if you were paying attention back there when I said "thermodynamics is
a bitch" it should come as no surprise that the energy you get out by wasting
your fresh water isn't as much as the energy you put in to get it in the first
place.
~~~
cheatercheater
> it should come as no surprise that the energy you get out by wasting your
> fresh water isn't as much as the energy you put in to get it in the first
> place
Agreed, but maybe the effect can be used to alleviate the cost of getting the
fresh water? For example, it doesn't cost so much to heat up a building once
it's been heated up if it has heat exchangers in its HVAC: the output heat is
used to heat up incoming hot air. A wasteful process can be made more
efficient with stupid tricks.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Spacemacs: The best editor is neither Emacs nor Vim, it's Emacs and Vim - Garbage
http://spacemacs.org/
======
lorenzhs
This comes up fairly frequently on HN (mostly in comments, but also
submissions) - most notably perhaps
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9394144](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9394144)
and
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10837833](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10837833)
It seems that there's quite some interest in Spacemacs and lots of people hear
about it for the first time every time it's being talked about, maybe these
old discussions can be interesting as well.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
AMA with COO of Stack Exchange - gloves
https://plus.google.com/events/c8nurjg4aqpihup1bqhhl67mjjk
======
NKCSS
Maybe add a (video) tag? I am not in a position to watch videos at this time;
others might appreciate it as well.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Scientist grow dinosaur leg on chicken - esalazar
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3487977/Scientist-grow-dinosaur-leg-CHICKEN-bizarre-reverse-evolution-experiment.html
======
tkinom
We can, but should we?
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Automatically Link Twitter Usernames In Content - paulund
http://www.paulund.co.uk/automatically-link-twitter
======
ColinWright
... on WordPress - like that's the only system anyone ever uses.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Snippet?? App Facilitates Social and Business Opportunities Right Around You - joannabellatrix
The Snippet?? iOS app is an on-location socializing & networking tool to find people around you and make valuable social & business connections without working an entire room or leaving it to chance. Approach & engage in in-person conversations with confidence using common interests as an icebreaker. With Snippet??, you don't have to waste time trying to work an entire room to try and find people with common professions, social hobbies, interests, or networking goals (ie find an engineer, an investor, a fellow salsa dancer). You never know what valuable opportunity or connection you could make with someone at the same venue. Now Snippet?? shows you and encourages in-person interaction, where the real connections are made. It all starts with a conversation.<p>About: Founded in October 2018. Currently only in the Apple app store, with Android & mobile web versions soon to follow.<p>https://www.facebook.com/snippetconvos<p>https://angel.co/snippet-4
======
phoenix9
I like the idea of being able to network but not necessarily sharing my
profile with everyone, is their a way to protect my privacy while still being
able to network?
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Senate Passes Major Portman-Murphy Counter-Propaganda Bill as Part of NDAA - aburan28
http://www.portman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=3765A225-B773-4F57-B21A-A265F4B5692C
======
aburan28
I give this story 5 minutes until it is buried via the no "politics" policy
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Ask HN: A solution for click bait headlines? - nvader
I'm getting really tired of seeing incomplete headlines on news articles all over the web and in my news feeds. What specifically irks me are headlines that tell you virtually nothing about the article, but try to arouse your curiosity or interest on what usually ends up being a flimsy premise.<p>When I first noticed it happening, I would be slightly annoyed that my attention had been stolen and my time wasted. That annoyance was compounded by the fact that my stolen eyeballs had provided revenue to the publisher via ads.<p>At this point, if I see a mildly interesting link, I don't know whether to click it and risk rewarding poor behaviour.<p>Are there any existing solutions I can use to determine if an article is something I want to read? (Or even nullify my view of the page if it was useless!)
======
MichaelCrawford
If the "articles" permit comments, post the links to NoScript, AdBlock Plus
and Privacy Badger.
Alternatively, email the links to the author.
Writing articles is one of the best ways to earn money online, but the common
practice yields poor results. Most articles are only long enough to make the
ads fit on the page without leaving too much blank space.
What works well for me is to spend quite a long time - anywhere from three
days to a month - to research and write an in-depth, insightful article, ask
for constructive criticism from readers, and then to post just a couple small
ad units.
This works because those who read my article will generally give me organic
links.
Clickbait articles might get clicks from those who actually read the articles,
but they're not likely to get any inlinks.
------
adam419
This is a product of a systemic issue with "journalisms'" current business
model and how they're paid.
Ryan Holiday sums it up pretty nicely in his book Trust Me I'm Lying.
After reading it and having it talk about so many things I was unable to put a
finger upon until now, I've become extremely distrustful of media in general.
It's pretty bad actually, communities like HN or getting news directly from
trusted sources on emergent networks like Twitter is really what's left.
The web has spawned "iterative journalism" and floods the internet with all
the bullshit that passes it's ethical standards. This met with a general lack
of peoples attention spans has created a god awful state of journalism.
------
smt88
I've thought about creating a Chrome extension that allows you to say "This is
clickbait" on any article, and then it'll remove it from other users' DOMs.
Or, if not remove it, at least it'll prevent you from clicking the link.
My solution is to use StayFocusd on Chrome to block sites that are almost
always clickbait. I then use FeedBin to subscribe to sites that never post
clickbait (Quartz, mainly).
That's the only solution I've found that works for me. There are probably
subreddits that would also serve your purposes.
The unfortunate thing is that hard news doesn't get clicks. Every media
company has to use clickbait to survive.
~~~
nvader
What about a chrome extension that notified you how many points a link in the
wild got on hn, reddit or similar? Seems like that would be simple to make,
and very resilient to gaming or noise.
~~~
smt88
That's a great idea.
I actually rarely come to HN itself, though, because so many links are (what I
personally consider to be) clickbait. They don't live up to the promises of
their titles.
I now use a service that converts HN posts with 150+ upvotes into a feed. That
gives me the cream of the crop, and it's limited to maybe 10 articles a day.
So your solution would probably limit _uninteresting_ posts, but I personally
am trying to find a way to limit posts that don't help me learn/grow/stay
informed.
A good example are recent posts of the Ant-Man trailer. I find it interesting,
but I don't actually get value out of watching it. I need to be protected from
my own curiosity, so to speak.
Another solution I thought of would be to have a site where editors can curate
the news every day. You find an editor you like, with similar values to you,
and you follow that editor. They can only publish a certain number of stories
a day.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
How Many Spreadsheets Does It Take to Run a Fortune 500 Company? - nikunjk
http://www.wired.com/2014/03/many-spreadsheets-take-run-fortune-500-company
======
greenyoda
Duplicate of
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7994086](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7994086)
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
The Case for C++ - johnmurray_io
https://itnext.io/the-case-for-c-4122a5b47130?source=friends_link&sk=ca95e477c339e9504a00791d4d8ef477
======
mikece
If one learns the latest version of Modern C++ how likely is it for one to
then get to work only with modern C++?
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
What Can't be Solved with Money? - fezzl
http://blog.asmartbear.com/
======
gvb
Tip for fezzi: The link is to the blog main page, which breaks HN's duplicate
detection. It is better to link directly to the blog entry itself
<http://blog.asmartbear.com/startup-money.html> so us lazy readers don't have
to click twice.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Two Killed in Icon A5 Crash - diggernet
https://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news/Two-Killed-In-Icon-A5-Crash-228966-1.html
======
Aaronn
In today's TFR Dispatch
([http://dispatch.learnthefinerpoints.com/issues/73#start](http://dispatch.learnthefinerpoints.com/issues/73#start))
the author writes:
"I don't get to add my opinion when I write for AVweb, so my editors cut my
last paragraph as excessively editorial in nature, but here's how that article
would have ended:
"This crash is the second hull loss for the A5 in the last two months. In both
cases, the sole occupants were ICON employees. Although the light-sport
amphibian has been reported to have docile handling and be nearly impossible
to spin, due in large part to Karkow’s work, ICON has taken heat for what some
perceive as promotion of dangerous flying. ICON’s aggressive CEO and founder,
Kirk Hawkins, is a former F-16 pilot and has staffed the company with
disproportionately large numbers of retired fighter and attack aircraft
pilots. When Flying Magazine awarded the A5 an editors’ choice award in 2015,
the staff noted 'Icon has also worked hard to cultivate a bad-boy image with
the release of videos and promotional materials that show A5 pilots performing
the sorts of aggressive low-level maneuvers that have been getting people hurt
or killed in airplanes for more than a hundred years.'"
If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times. Flying is just exactly as
safe as you want it to be. Skill isn't a material factor in flight safety.
Karkow was a legend. Test pilot. Engineer. Soft spoken bad ass. I went up and
introduced myself to him at a conference last month, because he was a hero to
me and I wanted to shake his hand. On Monday, his aeronautical decision making
skills got left behind, and he flew into a box canyon at 40 feet. If you
passed your private pilot checkride, you have all the ADM skills you need, but
you have to elect to use them."
~~~
Aaronn
For non pilots: ADM in the last sentence refers to Aeronautical Decision-
Making
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Ask HN: How to monetize free content? - hhrowuu
What are ways besides ads and affiliate links to monetize free educational content, targeted at entrepreneurs?
======
sempron64
Patreon. Product sponsorships from SaaS companies (I assume you mean banner
ads). Paywalled content
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
ISS Virtual Tour - kapranoff
http://esamultimedia.esa.int/multimedia/virtual-tour-iss/
======
sandyarmstrong
This is awesome. If you'd like a live video tour, I recently sat down with my
5 year old to watch a wonderful video from NASA [0].
They talk about some of the facilities in a way that kids can understand, and
there's something wondrous about seeing how they move around, regularly
changing their orientations, etc.
[0]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doN4t5NKW-k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doN4t5NKW-k)
~~~
jsingleton
The coolest video I found on the ESA tour is this time-lapse one from the
Cupola. Absolutely stunning.
[http://wsn.spaceflight.esa.int/php/download.php?fn=/videos/F...](http://wsn.spaceflight.esa.int/php/download.php?fn=/videos/F_2014/F_Blue_Dot/1417170856_Timelapses_Long_HD/hires.mp4&newfn=Timelapses_Long_HD_HR.mp4)
------
torgoguys
Very cool!
Wow, I never realized how cluttered the ISS was. Stuff all over! Lots of
Thinkpads as already mentioned, but lots of lots of things: cameras, lens,
etc. I surprised at the amount of duplication. (I do realize that redundancy
is key when you can't just run to the store to replace something, but
still...)
~~~
arrrg
If you zoom in on the images you can see why they have so many cameras: loads
of dead pixels everywhere. They don’t last forever up there because of the
increased radiation. I would assume they don’t really fly stuff like still
functioning cameras with loads of dead pixels back. (Even some old iPad seems
to get good use as a wall clock next to the dining table.)
Also, if I remember correctly (from some interview with some ESA guy, I think)
people on the ground would prefer it if the station were kept tidier – but the
people up there are busy people with more important things to do than to keep
everything always super-tidy. But inventory management is apparently a big
topic and they do have a system for it. (I think even including a barcode
scanner to catalogue items.)
I mean, even still, looking at those images, I do have to say everything does
seem … tidier than usual. I think they cleaned up before they took them. Those
more improvised tours of the station from astronauts you can find on YouTube
show a station that is substantially more cluttered. Or at least seem that
way. Looking at those pictures and being familiar with others and videos of
the station my first thought was not how cluttered everything is but how tidy.
Compared to the usual state of things, at least.
------
arethuza
I'm going to put the audio-book version of _Seveneves_ on (just started
listening to it for the second time this morning) and have a good browse
around this.
~~~
d_theorist
Made me think of Seveneves as well. I bet Stephenson would have found this
thing really useful for writing the book.
------
aurelian15
This entire tour is interesting and enjoyable! Just spent an entire evening --
almost three hours -- looking around and watching the videos. Many kudos to
Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti for her very concise explanations and
demonstrations.
The panoramas are of very high quality (except for the inevitable dead
pixels). It is nice to see all the Ethernet cables, electrical outlets,
stopwatches, valves, tools or just the video projector connected via VGA to a
notebook in Node 1, just before you fly into the Russian module. And yes,
there is a striking contrast between the Russian and the US/European/Japanese
modules.
I especially recommend watching the time-lapse video shot by Alexander Gerst:
[http://wsn.spaceflight.esa.int/videos/F_2014/F_Blue_Dot/1417...](http://wsn.spaceflight.esa.int/videos/F_2014/F_Blue_Dot/1417170856_Timelapses_Long_HD/hires.mp4)
_Edit:_
Btw. executing the following code in the JS console
"{" + pano.getCurrentNode() + "}\",\"" + pano.getPan() + "/" + pano.getTilt() + "/" + pano.getFov()
gives you a string encoding the current position. You can restore that
position by copy and pasting it into the "pano.openURL()" method. Examples:
pano.openUrl("{node5}","216.49016925709486/38.116922404005344/47.440801242792304") // The IMAX...
pano.openUrl("{node5}","288.6799234893748/17.169120787478608/17.33030268127927") // ...and its CF cards
------
jefurii
After a bit of digging, I foudn that the wall behind the cluster of Thinkpads
in the Columbus module is made up of European Drawer Rack modules[0] which are
basically 19in racks. NASA has its own International Standard Payload Rack
(ISPR) module system[1]. It would be interesting to see some articles on the
power and data infrastructure of the station.
[0]
[http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_Spaceflight/Columbus...](http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_Spaceflight/Columbus/European_Drawer_Rack)
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Payload...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Payload_Rack)
------
gii2
Did you noticed that there are only ThinkPads there? It is the only laptop
certified to work on ISS.
~~~
Kiro
What are the requirements?
~~~
rtkwe
There's a lot that goes into space worthiness rating even beyond the technical
spec requirements. There's probably a bid request available for when they were
first considered too. No idea where to start hunting that down though.
There was a really good article[0] (plus a video talk I can't find) on a team
that modified an Android phone to go to space to interface with the SPHERES
mini satellite experiments. A short list of the things they had to do
includes:
\- No Lithium Ion battery, it takes 2+ years to get a LIon battery certified
for the ISS
\- Had to put a screen protector on, broken glass screen becomes an inhalation
hazard in zero G, BUT many materials are considered flammable in the high
oxygen environment on station.
\- Had to lobotomize the Wifi and cellular chips to ensure they'd never turn
on. Just removing the software that would control and allow them to turn on
wasn't enough.
In addition to everything in the article they have to worry about off gassing
from all the various materials that make up anything sent to space.
[0] [http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/03/how-nasa-got-an-
andro...](http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/03/how-nasa-got-an-android-
handset-ready-to-go-into-space/)
------
robryk
It's interesting to see some differences between the US-and-everyone-else and
Russian part. One that was most striking to me is cabling and piping between
modules: on the Russian side, the pipes go through the hatches, which
complicates closing the hatches but makes the cables and pipes easier to
access/repair and makes it easier to install new ones. On the other side,
there are no pipes or cables going through hatches.
There's also a hatch in the deck of Unity that seems to have nothing on the
other side (the one labelled Hab). Is it a place where a module will be added?
~~~
sudhirj
Probably stands for Habitat. I could see bunks anywhere else. I doubt the
astronauts want to show living quarters. Not much privacy as it is.
~~~
robryk
I mean the hatch in the middle of Unity's floor. It appears to have space on
the other side and is closed.
They do show living quarters in Node 2 -- there is even a video of the
interior.
------
ourmandave
If you're an early riser this site will tell you when you can watch ISS fly
over.
[http://iss.astroviewer.net/observation.php](http://iss.astroviewer.net/observation.php)
~~~
jsingleton
Nice. I remember using that to see the ISS over London on Christmas last year.
Great sight.
[http://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2014/12/16/space-station-
to-...](http://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2014/12/16/space-station-to-fly-over-
london-over-christmas/)
------
drzaiusapelord
I love the disconnect between science fiction and reality. There's no
beautiful Kubrick-esque set design here. The whole thing just looks like
someone's garage, full of nick-nacks, tools, and little projects. It just a
giant mancave, really. This is why I'm a little bored with LEO space
exploration. I can't wait for the SLS to go live and try something that isn't
this.
That said, I would love to see a ISS-like structure on the moon, perhaps also
serving as a dark-side radio telescope.
~~~
arrrg
The mundanity is what makes it real and also very cool to me. I don’t think
manned space exploration will look any different in the future … until maybe
it starts looking mundane in other ways (think mundanity of commercial air
travel). Even if we do go to Mars or other places. LEO has little to do with
that … and SLS will look just the same on the inside.
~~~
drzaiusapelord
Good point. I guess what I was trying to express that just floating in LEO is
fairly boring. My example of a moon base would be much more thrilling,
especially if it could serve as a dark-side radio telescope or even as a
space-port for deep launches.
A lot of little experiments an LEO ferrying back and forth is something we've
been able to do since at least the 60's. I would love to see some next-gen
stuff and with the SLS I will. I think NASA is very committed to a manned
asteroid mission and a return to the moon.
------
throw7
Had to laugh about the tools on board... both a set of metric and english. :D
And apparently the english set are used more often (not sure what to take away
from that... heh)
------
return0
Are the EXIT signs real or a cruel joke?
~~~
arrrg
There are Soyuz constantly docked to the ISS with enough seats for everyone on
board. Those are where you would exit the station in case of emergency. The
signs show the way.
I assume that’s the case, since that is the only explanation that does make
sense given the design – with the red stripes – and the consistent placement
of the signs. The station has two other obvious exits – the two air locks –
but those wouldn’t be used in case of an emergency and don’t need signage
throughout the station showing you the way there.
There is an exit sign right next to the US airlock, but that could also just
be there to tell you to turn left when you exit the airlock to get to the
docked Soyuz: [http://imgur.com/8UJP11Y](http://imgur.com/8UJP11Y)
If you look around you can see that the red stripe design is used throughout
the station to show you where things are you would need in an emergency, like
“Portable Breathing Apparatus”, “Fire Extinguisher” and “Fire Port” (all for
use during fires). There are also some signs with red stripes that have
different directional arrows and pictograms on them. Oh, I just zoomed in on
those and look what I found:
[http://imgur.com/3Qyl3bE](http://imgur.com/3Qyl3bE)
That’s your definite answer! The pictograms are an elaboration on the Exit
signs, showing you the directions in which you can find the Shuttle and Soyuz.
Obviously, that Shuttle pictogram – it was always docked at the other end of
the station – is kinda outdated by now. They can hopefully put some nice
Dragon/CST-100 stickers on there soon.
It seems they use red/white stripes to indicate emergency routes and equipment
and yellow/black stripes for warnings and caution signs. Blue signs to show
you where up and own, backward and forward, left and right is. As the station
is always in free fall that’s obviously arbitrary, but consistently defining
those directions in some way obviously also helps with orientation (and, I
would assume, communication between everyone working up there and those on the
ground communicating with the station). Look for the OVHD, FWD, AFT, DECK and
so on signs around the hatches. Also, look at the hatch where you enter the
Russian sector (directly beyond that and down are the Soyuz). You can see many
round glow-in-dark patches around the hatch, obviously also used to show you
the way to a Soyuz ship, especially if, say, power and lights are out.
By the way, look what I found:
[http://imgur.com/Elwl8Rf](http://imgur.com/Elwl8Rf)
It seems someone moved the equipment for some reason and patched over the
emergency sign, adding a handwritten note with the place the equipment was
moved to.
I know that they _do_ have a printer on board but, eh, I guess a handwritten
note will do. (I love looking at all of those all over the station.)
(Cosmonauts in the Russian part of the station apparently have an innate sense
of direction in space and as such do not need signs, or at least not as many.
And definitely none with such gaudy designs!)
------
deneca
I would love to see a version of this for Google Cardboard
~~~
soylentcola
Later this evening when I get home I'm gonna fire it up fullscreen in VR
Desktop (Rift rather than Cardboard). It's not 3D but 360-panoramic can still
be cool to look at.
------
harywilke
Duct Tape spotted! Zarya module. look up! three hose fittings? covered in
tape. I think i'd live in constant fear of bumping the wrong knob/pipe/lever
while floating from one module to the next.
------
jefurii
I wish there was a way to link to things in this by "room", angle, and zoom
level.
I'm really curious what some of this stuff is, like that green box in the
middle of that cluster of Thinkpads on the Columbus module, the blue box and
other stuff "beneath" the oven. Power distribution modules? Computers in
hardened cases?
~~~
jefurii
aurelian15 answered my question in another thread. Thanks aurelian15!
------
Kiro
Aren't there any windows?
~~~
plg
i think they use linux
~~~
gadrfgaesgysd
They also get apples occasionally.
------
shpx
Any chance someone has the raw pictures? They serve them as small images and
stitch them together in the browser.
------
nomercy400
This is so good. A more than decent explanation of what's going on in such a
restricted environment.
------
chmullig
Seems like their poor server is struggling with load.
------
ekianjo
The space station is full of Thinkpads :)
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
The first great battle of the Internet is over..... - aitoehigie
http://fakesteve.blogspot.com/2008/06/phase-one-of-internet-is-over-and-we.html
======
tstegart
Seriously hilarious fake rant.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Signature of Antimatter Detected in Lightning - Anon84
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/11/antimatter-lightning/
======
RK
_During lightning storms previously observed by spacecraft, energetic
electrons moving toward the craft slowed down and produced gamma rays._
That actually sounds like bremsstrahlung x-rays, not gamma rays. They have
very different energy spectra due to their origin. Although you can also slow
down the electrons by first producing an electron-positron pair, and then the
positron will decay into two gammas.
------
teeja
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning#Gamma_rays_and_the_ru...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning#Gamma_rays_and_the_runaway_breakdown_theory)
------
rbranson
Anyone want to shed light on why this is significant? IANAScientist.
~~~
teeja
Since the 1920s, up until a decade or so ago: "Many investigators believed
that the lower atmosphere was too dense for electrons to accelerate to speeds
high enough to emit x-rays and other high-energy particles. Instead, they
thought that lightning worked by conventional energy discharge--a bigger
version of the spark that occurs when you touch a doorknob after trudging
across the rug."
[http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=x-rays-
abou...](http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=x-rays-abound-when-
lightn)
Pilots reported red and blue jets and sprites for a long time but noone
believed them.
<http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/elements/bluejets.htm>
How thunderstorms work is still poorly understood. This building evidence is
exciting a lot of new research and ideas. A lot of people are impressed that
the earth can generate gamma rays of higher energy than those from the sun.
------
dnewcome
"But for now, he said, the answer is up in the air." Worst pun ever.
------
CamperBob
I'd sure like to assume they have ruled out plain old lightning-induced RFI to
their instrumentation.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Silicon Zoo - kruipen
http://siliconzoo.org/
======
mattbillenstein
Also,
[http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/creatures/](http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/creatures/)
And a chip I made in college:
[http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/creatures/pages/cincinnatibearca...](http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/creatures/pages/cincinnatibearcats.html)
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Ask HN: What Office document renderer for Web/Electron do you recommend? - yayr
I know there are online viewers from MS and Google, but all open source projects seem to be either dead or quite limited. Am I missing something?
======
nxj
discussion on stackoverflow:
[https://stackoverflow.com/questions/27957766/how-do-i-
render...](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/27957766/how-do-i-render-a-
word-document-doc-docx-in-the-browser-using-javascript)
There are online viewers from MS and Google. They are only good though if you
have no Electron offline scenario and want to send your data :-/
JavaScript conversion always has its limits:
[https://github.com/lalalic/docx2html](https://github.com/lalalic/docx2html) —
docx to html, most elements are supported, but project seems to be dead
[https://github.com/mwilliamson/mammoth.js](https://github.com/mwilliamson/mammoth.js)
— supports headings, lists, tables, endnotes, footnotes, images and text boxes
[https://www.npmjs.com/package/docx2html](https://www.npmjs.com/package/docx2html)
— Converts DOCX documents to HTML in the browser or nodejs, based on lalalic
library, thus also dead
[https://github.com/artburkart/docx2html](https://github.com/artburkart/docx2html)
— apparently, works in the browser, also dead
not sure, if there is a complete and supported project out there
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Static Web Apps – A Field Guide - trumbitta2
http://www.staticapps.org/?hn
======
simonw
Allow me to describe a revolutionary way of creating web applications. I call
it "Pages and forms".
If you need to display some information, you use an abstraction called a
"page" \- a full HTML document served from a URL. You can generate the HTML
using a variety well understood, easily tested server-side frameworks. You can
even just serve static HTML saved in a file.
Pages are easy to scale, easy to link to and work on every device, platform
and browser released since IE and Netscape 3 back in 1996 (or earlier if you
don't need to rely on the Host header).
How about adding interactivity? That's where "forms" come in. Forms allow your
application to request information from users and submit it back to your
server using a simple and widely understood key/value mechanism.
By combining pages and forms you can build applications that work everywhere,
are easy to link to, easy to maintain and can be scaled to handle anything you
can throw at them.
~~~
jfaucett
I see your point but sorry, its nonsense when talking about "webapps" \- as
opposed to anything largely text based and with very limited user interaction.
You are going to have to rerender the page for every single user action. The
feedback the user gets is going to be ridicously slow for marginally
complicated apps, creepingly slow on low-bandwith devices.
Just deleting an item in a paginated list will require posting data while
maintaining the query parameters in the url, running a possibly very complex
query on the server again, recalculating and rerendering the page and then
shoving that data all back to the user via expensive TCP cycles - huge waste.
A "webapp" on the otherhand makes a post to the server gets a 204, and on the
client side simply removes the corresponding dom element.
As an example, think about implementing MS Paint and the corresponding user
experience - using what you're talking about.
~~~
simonw
I agree that you'd be nuts to build an interactive drawing program like
this... But the vast majority of what people are calling "web apps" today
aren't anything like a drawing program.
I'm also personally a big fan of adding a layer if JavaScript to improve
interactivity, but the "static apps" approach advocated in the OP goes way too
far for most apps in my opinion.
------
skrebbel
These people call an app "static" when all content is _dynamically_ generated
_at runtime_ on the client-side. Everybody else calls these things "single-
page web applications". I really don't see the point of defining a new,
confusing term for an existing concept.
~~~
thruflo
I believe the point is to drive traffic to
[http://www.divshot.com](http://www.divshot.com), re-labelling their snake oil
as a uniquely cold-blooded essential along the way.
I quote from their features page:
> Fully featured? Yes. Get pushState with custom routes, clean URLs (goodbye,
> .html), and more. ... Whatever you choose, we support it.
> S'all about you, dev, s'all 'bout you.
~~~
mbleigh
Actually, we built our static hosting service because we were already
developing with a static web architecture and couldn't find an existing
acceptable option for hosting.
I'm building the platform because I believe in the technology, not espousing
the technology because I built the platform. :)
~~~
thruflo
I also believe in the technology and the general architecture you're
espousing. I found the content on
[http://www.staticapps.org](http://www.staticapps.org) well written and
constructive and the links to [http://www.divshot.com](http://www.divshot.com)
are unobtrusive.
My reaction to [http://www.divshot.com](http://www.divshot.com) is something
else entirely. To solve the "problem" of static file hosting and deployment
with a service that is "compatible with Angular and Firebase" and supports
"pushState with custom routes" is clearly disingenuous.
Not that there's anything wrong with effective marketing. If your target
audience is people who don't know what the words mean, then knock yourself
out.
~~~
mbleigh
We're trying to market to people who want to use static architecture,
regardless of experience. It's a bit of an education issue as people are
familiar with e.g. Angular and Ember but don't necessarily know what it means
to deploy them as a static app.
Can you tell me what you find disingenuous about the claims? What would appeal
to you when describing a static web hosting service?
------
hibikir
I used to work at a place that switched to only building apps this way. It was
architecturally simple, but for random business apps, there was one major
difficulty: The tooling felt like going back on a time machine. You have all
this tools out there for download, but almost all of them don't do quite what
you want, are not easy to extend without just getting tied to an old version
forever, and have trouble interacting with each other.
When you get developers that are wishing they were back using Swing because it
was easier, you know you have trouble.
~~~
fidotron
Swing is/was verbose for simple stuff, but beyond a fairly low complexity bar
it is enormously preferable to the web stack, at least from a developer
perspective.
While Java got somewhere with the whole deployment thing it was never quite as
slick as the web, and that's the killer aspect of the web really.
What is funny about the web these days is how they're very slowly reinventing
all the things NeXT were doing in the 80s, only using a lot more memory and
CPU in the process. Ironic given it started on a NeXT in the first place.
------
daleharvey
Disagree with a few things, the title 'static is better', is hyperbole, its a
different environment. Also the 'the doesnt mean they are any less capable' is
pretty much by definition wrong.
That being said I absolutely love the architecture, pretty much every
application I build these days starts with switching my github default branch
to gh-pages. I work on [http://pouchdb.com](http://pouchdb.com) and use that
for storing and syncing data. not having to worry about how my servers are
configured / how they are running, how to move an application makes me feel
like I can build what I want then when I come back in 2 years it 'just works',
with dynamic applications I always feel there is a maintenance burden that I
cant shake.
~~~
e12e
> Disagree with a few things, the title 'static is better', is hyperbole, its
> a different environment.
This.
I feel I might fall under the hn banhammer soon, but I really wish people
would actually _read_ Fieldings thesis (introducing REST) -- it's a really
good overview of the different architectures one might use for a client-server
system. It' not _just_ REST, REST is a natural conclusion drawn from the
alternatives when the goal is a highly performing system for hypermedia:
[https://www.ics.uci.edu/~fielding/pubs/dissertation/net_arch...](https://www.ics.uci.edu/~fielding/pubs/dissertation/net_arch_styles.htm#sec_3_2)
But it's worth noting that fat-client styles are also in there, and the trade-
offs mentioned are worth keeping in mind (no, there is no silver bullet -- you
actually should choose an architecture that fits your problem domain.
Shocking, isn't it?).
------
rquantz
So is this just another way to talk about the now-ubiquitous thick-client app?
Or is there something revolutionary I don't see in my cursory look at this
site? There is definitely something to be said for building separate services
as your API, rather than thinking your static assets have to be married to the
data processing backend. But calling that a static app is misleading -- it's
still dynamic, and in fact the server is still processing data, it's just
distributed.
~~~
badman_ting
The assets served to the client are static, they can be served by a simple
server, cached through CDNs, etc.
~~~
derengel
I don't know how it is static either or are you referring that it is 'static'
only from the web browser(consumer) point of view? for example, in the backend
you could be generating a value from a database.
~~~
badman_ting
It's really not worth sperging out about this. It just means the HTML/JS/CSS
assets delivered by the front-end server do not change.
~~~
mtrimpe
Sperging out? Are you serious?
~~~
abrichr
I had to look this one up:
_Sperging out: When someone goes on a long, in-depth, overly elaborate
explanation long after everyone already gets the point, but will not fucking
end._
[1]
[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Sperging%20ou...](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Sperging%20out)
~~~
mtrimpe
Just so the original author doesn't accidentally misinterpret my complete and
utter disgust for his statement as ignorance; I pretty much guessed it
instantly.
It might be a new term, but as far as I'm concerned it's as bannable an
offense as calling someone a faggot or something of that kind.
~~~
mantrax4
Gee, aren't you an outraged little fella.
~~~
mtrimpe
Ah well; thank you for your contribution. Enjoy it here; I have feeling you'll
fit right in by now.
I'll just retreat to my old-man cave to contemplate a time when the internets
had this quaint little place where conversation was civil, the news was
enlightening and everyone was striving to break free from the status quo by
going at it alone, forging our own path.
It was fun while it lasted...
~~~
mantrax4
Did those old times include being insulted and outraged at every word your co-
debaters said?
It's quite ironic for you to be sad about the lack of civil discourse, when
you used the opportunity to hijack the original point of the poster and start
discussing a 'bannable offense' on the occasion of a silly colloqual phrase
they used.
You think you're taking the high ground? I for one long for a debate where the
people talking can stay focused on a topic without being constantly insulted
by this or that for the purpose of cheap outrage.
------
foreigner
The elephant in the room is performance. They can't help mentioning "perceived
performance" but conveniently haven't gotten around to explaining that in
detail. In my experience browser performance is a struggle, and it's always
faster to do as much as possible on the server.
~~~
couchand
Also indexing by search engines or the like. Expecting a web crawler to
resolve your JavaScript code to produce a complete page is probably a recipe
for pain.
~~~
mbleigh
Search friendliness is probably the biggest problem yet to be completely
solved for static apps. There are workarounds, but they are admittedly less
than perfect.
However, given the general web development trends towards JS-driven interfaces
and upcoming standards like Web Components, I don't think it's going to stay
unsolved for much longer.
------
troels
I don't think the dichotomy of static vs. dynamic is that useful really. At
least not if they are taken to mean pre-compiled vs. generated directly as a
response to a http request. The so-called static pages are presumably still
assembled by some programmatic pipeline (aka "dynamic").
What does matter, is that pages that are the same for all users, and that
change rarely are served with proper caching headers. That way you can drop a
http-cache in front of your app and voila, you have all the same benefits that
a pre-compiled site would give you, but without the pain of having to use a
completely separate process.
The hard part is separating elements that have different frequencies of change
from each other. For some reason, this is not something that popular web
frameworks (Such as Rails) push very hard, but it's something I find extremely
useful when building web apps. A classic trick is putting user-specific
information (Such as your name + karma score in the top right corner of this
site) in a separate ajax-call, while the main page is served with hard public-
cache headers.
------
jcolemorr11
I honestly misunderstood the definition when I first read it. I've built a
variety of web apps (old php + mysql, actual static content, nodeJS +
angular), and I this terminology escaped me. I've never looked at an Angular
app and referred to it as static? In fact, what is defined here is the exact
opposite of what I'd assume was a static application.
------
bowlofpetunias
I wonder if people who advocate this as "better" have ever build anything even
remotely complex. It's this kind of simplistic tunnel vision why many
engineers look down their noses at "web development".
Also, this is nothing but a marketing site for a "static web hosting service",
which explains the superficial buzzword bingo.
~~~
mbleigh
Your derision comes with a dearth of actual reasoning as to why "complex"
applications don't work from a static architecture perspective or how you
define complexity.
------
daemonk
Isn't this really just advocating clear separation/encapsulation between
client-side and server-side? IE. create a "static" web app that can get data
from server side through REST API or allow you to plug in other sources of
data (pouchdb).
------
badman_ting
It certainly has its advantages. I would even say if you can get to a point
where your app is totally static, you should do it. But if there's even a
little server-side state things can get complicated pretty quickly.
For example, say your app uses hash/fragment URLs, and users need to be logged
in to access the app. A user hits yourapp.com/#/whatever, but isn't logged in,
so you bounce them to the login page. Except, oops, the hash/fragment doesn't
get sent to the server, so your login page doesn't know where to redirect the
client after logging in.
~~~
ethikal
There are ways around this. With ember it is possible to use browser history
to mask the hash... [http://emberjs.com/guides/routing/specifying-the-
location-ap...](http://emberjs.com/guides/routing/specifying-the-location-
api/)
------
BinaryIdiot
After looking over the site it seems to be advocating simply serving static
content statically and / or create single-page web applications.
I'm not entirely sure 100% static makes sense either. For instance serving
debug versus minified versions of a website. Sure you could compile everything
and create different outputs but that takes time and testing to setup; I
haven't worked on a team that would really have the upfront time to do that.
The alternative is loading assets via JavaScript but that's much slower than
including the links upfront.
The other issue is serving code that requires higher permissions to execute. I
would rather leave chunks out if I know if can't be accessed from the server-
side to make it a little more difficult for someone to figure out how to
exploit my website. It's certainly not foolproof nor secure but I don't want
to make it completely easy for someone to understand how all administrative
functions and permissions work either. You could probably compile different
versions of the website and control which gets served based upon
authentication but that's even more upfront cost.
~~~
mbleigh
The great thing about a static app architecture is that for things like
administrative functions you can usually easily build an entirely separate
interface and application utilizing the same back-end resources.
Security through obscurity is never sufficient, and static architecture makes
you think through those concerns more thoroughly before deploy. See
[http://www.staticapps.org/articles/authentication-and-
author...](http://www.staticapps.org/articles/authentication-and-
authorization) for more on that subject.
As to development vs production, minifying etc. that's something we're trying
to solve with multi-environment hosting at Divshot.
~~~
BinaryIdiot
It's not typically cost effective or realistic to build an entirely separate
interface for administrative functionality (in fact, for user experience
purposes, it's typically better to be able to administrator changes in place).
As I mentioned it's doable but requires additional upfront work that I have
never had time to do on any project I get to work on.
Obviously security through obscurity isn't sufficient as I said it wasn't
security :) but I don't see any reason why a static architecture should make
you think about those issues any more or less; you should already be doing so.
------
rubyn00bie
In other breaking news:
_) Earth still exists_ ) Human's breathe oxygen *) Cow's fart a lot
Not to be a total arsehole, but I mean... uhh, what's the point of this?
If anything, it sounds like, from the copy, they want you to make websites but
instead of calling it a "website" because that's un-cool? I don't get it.
// Start of semi-related rant
I would also like to call this statement in their opening paragraph complete
non-sense and almost simple minded:
"Static web architecture eases common web development headaches without
introducing additional complexity"
After many years of doing web development, I can see programming in Java,
Obj-C, or .NET is worlds easier for application development. Instead of 27
different platforms (IE, Firefox, Chrome, Safari on different platforms) I
have one-- the god damn operating system. Was this always the case? Nope, but
it is now.
Is it easier to write a single screen on the web using JS, HTML, and CSS?
Sure, but the return is marginally decreasing as the application grows. More
screens, more complexity, the more HTML/CSS/JS start to show their age.
Web development becomes actually more complicated than writing a native
application.
------
dpweb
The static thing - I think its a reaction to the obvious inefficiency of
dynamic pages, server processing for data that is only changed occasionally.
Consider a blog which gets posted to once a week. Do you really need dynamic
processing for every page render 24/7/365? Well, that's the way it works.
But you have to have something additional for changing data/separate API. You
can do the static site, but you still gotta have the XHR or JSONP calls to
fetch dynamic data. You get a nice separation of UI/data, easier to tweak the
UI - independent of the data (hand it off to a designer), and your separate
data server can feed multiple apps or you open it up for the world to use.
~~~
snowwrestler
> Consider a blog which gets posted to once a week. Do you really need dynamic
> processing for every page render 24/7/365? Well, that's the way it works.
Isn't this the exact problem that a reverse proxy cache solves?
~~~
dpweb
it does if you want to setup the 2nd piece, but I like nginx alot
------
AdrianRossouw
I try and keep things static unless I have really good reason to do
dynamically generated markup. There are still very good reasons for having a
backend sometimes.
There is a middle ground if you are primarily replacing a CMS though, which is
using a static site generator like jekyll.
This is something I learnt while working at [1] DevelopmentSeed. They also
built a wonderful editor for github pages called [2] Prose.
[1] [http://developmentseed.org/blog/2012/07/27/build-cms-free-
we...](http://developmentseed.org/blog/2012/07/27/build-cms-free-websites/)
[2] [http://prose.io](http://prose.io)
~~~
anishkothari
Prose is seriously awesome! Thank you :-)
------
minhajuddin
What a coincidence, I have been building a CMS which spits out static HTML
which uses the same bolt icon :)
[http://getsimplesite.com](http://getsimplesite.com)
I think static apps are best suited for very simple apps which don't have a
lot of business rules, simple CRUD apps are the best candidates for this kind
of a setup. Once you go beyond a simple app doing things on the server is much
easier.
~~~
mantrax4
And you also make the same unsubstantiated claims of superiority, without any
explanation.
What is this magical hosted CMS that limits my freedom, exactly?
~~~
minhajuddin
Many CMSes ask you to write your templating code in something which is safe to
run on the server, check
[http://get.harmonyapp.com/](http://get.harmonyapp.com/) for instance it
forces you to use liquid templates. Getsimplesite on the other hand uses plain
javascript to write page templates.
~~~
mantrax4
So then the solution that comes to mind before I drop my entire stack to use
yours, is to simply use the language the CMS itself was written in (Python,
PHP, whatever), instead of the CMS. Sorry. Work on your value proposition.
------
snowwrestler
A reverse proxy cache in front of a dynamic application can approach the best
of both worlds. If the page requested is static, you get a fully rendered set
of HTML etc. from the cache. If the page requested needs to be customized
somehow, the request passes through the cache and hits the application, which
custom-renders a new page to send back.
------
klapinat0r
Having skimmed the available articles, I'm still left asking: How does
authorization work here? As in, do you use it to 200 or 401 an url
(example.com/static/klapinat0r/feed).
Or are they simply advocating serving HTML as templates and updating with js?
If so, that's hardly news is it?
By their definition that'd be Hybrid though, right?
~~~
mbleigh
Authentication and Authorization are handled via JS calls to back-end services
that know. Did you read [http://www.staticapps.org/articles/authentication-
and-author...](http://www.staticapps.org/articles/authentication-and-
authorization) \-- if so, what doesn't make sense from that perspective?
~~~
klapinat0r
Whether or not this was a new take on static + auth, as it sounded like it was
the standard client-js apps (which you confirmed it is). Not that it's not a
valid approach, I just assumed it was something new.
------
alok-g
Web development newbie here. Is there a starter template available on these
lines that has the guts built-in, including both client and server code, user
authentication, server-side database access, a default theme, etc., where the
developer can start by defining the application-specific data models and
business logic?
~~~
jakejohnson
I recommend checking out some of the examples provided by Firebase. In
particular, something like angularFire-seed
([https://github.com/firebase/angularFire-
seed](https://github.com/firebase/angularFire-seed)) is a great way to get
started. Firebase can handle user authentication and data storage. AngularJS +
Firebase is an amazingly productive combo. Set up Bower and use Bootstrap for
the user interface, you’re all set.
It would be a great idea to set up some boilerplates for StaticApps.org
showing how easy it is to get started.
------
pygy_
What's their plan for dealing with CSRF?
For this type of app, the usual solution is to embed a token in the first
response, shared between the page and the server, and use it for authenticated
communication through the data channel (be it AJAX or a WebSocket).
Consequently, the first page can't be static.
~~~
Joeri
The token is returned by the auth service when the user logs in. The initial
page bootstraps in unauthenticated mode and always has to query the auth
service first to figure out if the user is logged in. That's how I've done it
in the past.
~~~
pygy_
How do you tell apart the app loaded in several tabs and and an attacker?
------
ams6110
So we're back to Powerbuilder again.
------
kennethkl
Why take a step back in technology?
~~~
Gracana
I think you're misunderstanding what they mean by "static." The served pages
are static html and javascript, and the javascript loads other resources from
the server. The "static" part just means there is no page rendering occurring
on the server.
~~~
otterley
Out of all the processes that must occur to render a dynamic server-side
response (database queries, computations, etc.), assembling HTML ("page
rendering") is probably one of the least expensive. This seems like a
premature optimization to me.
~~~
reverius42
It's not just a performance optimization. It's a cleaner architecture that's
easier to test.
------
dickeytk
you can totally use s3 with pushState sites. They allow you to set custom
redirection rules
~~~
mbleigh
Redirects don't maintain URL state. If I make a redirect rule that points
everything to /index.html, once I get to /index.html the browser doesn't keep
the old URL in the location bar.
------
mantrax4
Congratulations. With this arbitrary limitation you just eliminated the
cheapest, most scalable and most simple part of the entire web application -
HTML template rendering, to replace it with fragile and invisible to search
engines JavaScript logic.
I believe people in firm grasp of their common sense would take the practical
hybrid approach and do what makes sense for each specific scenario, rather
than rely on ideology to architect their app for them.
~~~
mbleigh
If you're running a mostly-public content site that depends largely on search
engine traffic, static is probably not the way to go (yet).
If your application lives mostly inside of a login, there's little reason to
force yourself to render HTML from the server rather than building reusable
APIs that can be shared across web, mobile, etc.
~~~
mantrax4
False dichotomy.
Building reusable APIs has nothing to do with forcing yourself to consume them
with client-side JS. Maybe that approach works as a training wheels type of
guide for developers who can't stay focused, but a service layer is pretty
much the norm for any competently written web app, whether a particular API
call is materialized with client-side or server-side view rendering.
Few additional points about thinking intranet apps get a pass for being
intranet:
1\. Even on the intranet, it's good for people to be able to bookmark specific
point of their navigation and query type (i.e. page, sorting order, filtering
criteria, via URL query); it matches how they use the web, and improves their
workflows and performance. People don't react well when the web app you
developed just decided to pick up all the limitation of native apps, with none
of the benefits of a native app (native UI, performance, OS integration etc.).
Don't make it a crappy wanna-be-real-app web app, just make it a good web app,
acting like a web app.
Now, sure, if you try really heard, you can emulate it with a big number of
static pages (so it works when you refresh) and manually synching everything
with the browser History API, but whoops, you just blew your budget, deadline
and doubled the number of tests your app needs to pass QA checks since your
app now has complicated history management where it didn't need any (aside
form ideology), instead of letting the browser and server work it out using
the good old school ways of handling page state.
2\. It's pointless waste to develop two set of practices, tools and processes
for creating & maintaining public apps, vs. internal apps. What for? Feeling
good inside that you saved 3% CPU on the server in view rendering? Please.
I've gotten people fired over insisting on using their own pet practices like
these (with no provable real-world benefit) over common sense, and wasting the
business time and money.
3\. In my practical the line between an intranet app and Internet apps is
thing. So if an internal app becomes public (in a limited or full-blown
capacity), it's a good idea you don't have to drop all the UI code and start
over, mkay.
I write intranet apps for a living (they mix server-side and client-side
rendering).
~~~
mbleigh
I wasn't referring to intranet vs. internet apps, but rather apps that
generate public content that can be viewed without authentication (e.g.
Twitter) vs. apps whose information is entirely restricted to authenticated
users (e.g. GMail). Basically: does the app generate stuff that needs to be
crawled by a search engine?
While client-side routing and state preservation used to be a very difficult
thing, these days it's actually pretty straightforward (ngRoute, Backbone
router, Ember router, etc).
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
A tiny static full-text search engine using Rust and WebAssembly (2019) - jaden
https://endler.dev/2019/tinysearch/
======
jil
I've been a fan of Matthias' project for a while. I learned about it soon
after starting Stork: [https://stork-search.net](https://stork-search.net)
They're very similar and share a lot of principles, though Matthias went full-
on towards the algorithmic aspect and I focused on the experience of including
the UI (copy-pastable from the code on the home page) and building a search
index.
I think WASM-aided in-browser search is really exciting! There are clear
benefits for content creators (embedding search on a Jamstack site has
historically been tricky) and for users alike (Caching & offline support is
pretty rad if your users are doing a lot of searching). I'm excited to see
Matthias' project get attention here!
------
jka
Does anyone else begin to feel like their role as a software developer is to
maintain a mental search index of available techniques, languages, libraries,
and metadata properties about each of them?
It's becoming so easy to compose software from available open source
components, and migrate functionality (like full-text search) to different
layers of the stack (and that's fantastic!).
It's just tricky to keep all the requirements and constraints (and
implications) in mind when selecting the appropriate libraries :)
~~~
amelius
It's sad that we still don't have automatic interoperability between
languages.
Someone should define a common API, and every language should adhere to it (or
risk not be taken seriously). This is not trivial, since some languages have
garbage collection, but it should be possible.
~~~
adwn
Like ImprobableTruth said, this isn't really possible without restricting the
expressivity of the interop API or the set of supported languages. At least
not on the function-call level.
A more flexible – though less efficient – approach would be a service-oriented
protocol. You'd send requests in the form of messages (binary or text) over a
byte-oriented bidirectional channel and receive the replies on the same
channel. Unfortunately this approach would require more code to set up than
primitive [1] function calls, and fine-grained interaction with the library
would be harder.
[1] "primitive" as in _lower-level_ , not as in _dumb_.
~~~
adwn
Dammit, now I can't think about anything else but how to design such a
protocol, and how to generate adapters which translate between this protocol
and the API of a library...
Edit: From the perspective of the interop protocol, it wouldn't make much
difference if the library runs in the same address space or in a different
process. Large blobs of data, like an picture or a long string, could be
passed via pointers (in the same process) or via shared memory (in different
processes).
~~~
asdfman123
If you're trying to make an API for all programming languages, aren't you
essentially just recreating something like the Java virtual machine but with
your own biases and assumptions inserted?
~~~
adwn
You're misunderstanding my idea. Don't think "C ABI with higher-level types
and objects", think "HTTP with more structure".
~~~
asdfman123
But it seems that kind of protocol would just be a way of telling a computer
_what_ to do, not _how_ to do it. How would that be better than any other
messaging format that exists?
Genuinely curious, because I don't fully understand this myself but the idea
is interesting.
~~~
adwn
To be honest, I don't know. It was just a quick idea, and I'm increasingly
less sure, whether it makes sense at all. Sorry to disappoint you :-(
------
krut-patel
I was looking for something similar (client side text search) and landed upon
MiniSearch[0]. While it doesn't support some of the advanced features of lunr
(like wildcard search), it was perfect for my needs. The accompanying blog
post[1] explains the trade-offs pretty well.
0 -
[https://github.com/lucaong/minisearch](https://github.com/lucaong/minisearch)
1 - [https://lucaongaro.eu/blog/2019/01/30/minisearch-client-
side...](https://lucaongaro.eu/blog/2019/01/30/minisearch-client-side-
fulltext-search-engine.html)
------
karterk
Really cool. Reading through your incremental discoveries (aka going down the
rabbit hole!) reminded me of my own adventure with building a typo tolerant
search engine (you can see it here:
[https://github.com/typesense/typesense](https://github.com/typesense/typesense)).
What began as a simple side project 4 years ago has consumed a significant
part of my free time over the last couple of years.
Web assembly is certainly going to open a lot of new avenues for doing
interesting things on the browser.
------
_bxg1
Really neat project and fantastic write-up. I always enjoy following the
journeys of people who forge into the untamed lands of WASM.
I always find myself wishing I had a good excuse to use WASM for something,
but never being able to find one, so it's exciting to see that you did! The
fact is that JavaScript logic is rarely the bottleneck in web apps. And when
it is, it's usually tangled up in UI rendering code that would be hard to
tease out into WASM. You do bring up an interesting point, though, which I
hadn't considered: WASM isn't just faster, it's _smaller_. That alone could
make it useful in some cases where the speed may not be needed!
~~~
omn1
Thanks! On top of the size benefits, I love that I can finally use languages
other than JavaScript on the frontend. I couldn't have done it in JS because
I'd have to write a BloomFilter implementation in it (which I would not be
capable of) or bundle an existing library, which would have increased code-
size (hence, defeating the point of the project). Portability is the other big
feature of wasm.
------
craig
Great post! Doesn't it make sense to load the index separately, instead of a
single bundle? RN the client would bust it's cache every time the content
changes?
~~~
omn1
This was requested before and there even was work on a prototype that has
since stalled. If you (or anyone else) is interested, please check out
[https://github.com/mre/tinysearch/pull/37](https://github.com/mre/tinysearch/pull/37).
Maybe we can get this done in a future version. :)
------
prayze
I've always been curious about this. What's the best practice for loading a
large JSON file for large sets of search results? I believe when working with
lunr in the past, I ended up making large network requests to load the entire
JSON file at once. What's the proper way to deal with this?
~~~
wereHamster
Once your website reaches a certain size, the JSON will be too big to load.
Then you'll have to offload the search request to a server. Either self-
hosted, or a service like Algolia.
~~~
pmlnr
Push the corpus into SQLite, it has built-in FTS engines[^1]. Then serve it
with anything. Unfortunately this needs server side code, but like 30 lines of
PHP.
[^1]: [https://www.sqlite.org/fts5.html](https://www.sqlite.org/fts5.html)
~~~
ComputerGuru
You can do SQLite in the browser but it’ll have to download the entire dB file
instead of only opening the pages it needs (because the naive JS port can’t
convert page requests to range requests).
~~~
woadwarrior01
It should be possible to support loading only the required pages on the
browser with SQLite compiled to WASM along with a custom VFS implementation.
Here’s a project[1] which does something similar (selectively load the SQLite
DB on demand), albeit with the SQLite file in a torrent.
[1]:
[https://github.com/bittorrent/sqltorrent](https://github.com/bittorrent/sqltorrent)
------
nmstoker
So once this loads, it sounds like it could be made to work offline. That
might open some interesting possibilities.
~~~
whb07
Wasm can be cached!
------
bitskyx
How about putting this index and search logic into a CloudFlare worker?
[https://developers.cloudflare.com/workers/templates/pages/he...](https://developers.cloudflare.com/workers/templates/pages/hello_world_rust/#resources)
~~~
bitskyx
Then you can upload index up to 1MB and still have decent performance
[https://developers.cloudflare.com/workers/about/limits/#numb...](https://developers.cloudflare.com/workers/about/limits/#number-
of-scripts)
~~~
omn1
That's a good idea. In my case, I wanted a static search that I could deploy
next to my content. Cloudflare workers would require a (free) account, but
most importantly they wouldn't work full offline. For bigger indices, that
would be a great trade-off, though. If you like, you can try pushing
tinysearch to a worker using wasm-pack. It's all Rust in the end, so you'd
only need to add a `/search` route e.g. with hyper
([https://github.com/hyperium/hyper](https://github.com/hyperium/hyper)). If
you're willing to experiment with this, don't hesitate to open a pr/issue on
Github and we can add that feature.
~~~
tmzt
It would be interesting to see a hybrid approach:
* server side WASM such as cloudflare workers and kv to build and maintain the index
* streaming copy of the simplified index to be pulled in by a browser-side wasm
* queries that go beyond the simple index forwarded to the worker
One way of simplifying would be to limit search terms to a certain length, or
only expose the most popular results.
By sharing wasm code the format can be optimized and not require a
compatibility layer or serdes.
------
hfourm
Couldn't find the search on mobile :(
~~~
codazoda
I found it, but couldn't make it work. Pixel 3a running Android 10 and the
stock Chrome browser. Hitting enter on the search field did nothing and I
can't see any other submit button. Then again, 10% of the search field is also
missing.
~~~
codazoda
On second look, it's real-time. No need to submit. The results just blend into
the page so I thought it was broken.
~~~
omn1
Sorry to hear that. Not an expert, but if you have any ideas on how to improve
the UX I'd be thankful.
------
Luff
How does it compare with flexsearch? It claims to be the fastest, smallest,
prettiest search library in town. [https://github.com/nextapps-
de/flexsearch](https://github.com/nextapps-de/flexsearch)
~~~
PaywallBuster
this one is 100% client side, flexsearch is client-server.
I guess for bigger indexes not gonna work out, as the payload will be huge and
it pushes all the work to the client.
~~~
rraghur
Nope.. Was looking into flex search today.. is all client side
------
kragen
Today's thread on the other search engine:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23473365](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23473365)
------
steffan
Thanks for describing your process as well as the tool, jaden! I appreciate
your pursuit of efficiency in the download and implementation. This is
inspiring me to add Wasm to my Rust usage.
~~~
steffan
That is, thanks to Matthias. But thanks for the post, jaden
------
tuananh
this should be smaller than sth like lunr.js?
[https://lunrjs.com/guides/getting_started.html](https://lunrjs.com/guides/getting_started.html)
~~~
Groxx
potentially _much_ smaller, since you don't need to bundle the full content of
all articles to be able to search them.
------
steventhedev
How does this compare to a full reverse index? I would expect a full index to
be much simpler to implement and would compress better.
Still very impressive work, and gives me a new reason to learn Rust.
~~~
omn1
Author here. Tried a full reverse index first but it's much bigger in size -
think around two orders of magnitude, if I remember correctly.
------
unwoundmouse
I'm also curious, how does zola compare to jekyll?
~~~
guu
jekyll:
\+ plugin support
\+ large community with lots of themes/plugins
\- need to install ruby and dependencies
\- slow to build large sites
zola:
\+ easy install (precompiled binary)
\+ fast
\- smaller feature set and community
\- no plugins
------
blairanderson
this search does not work, but I enjoy your enthusiasm.
~~~
pryce
In terms of not performing what the user might expect from search behaviour,
an example I found was the following:
A word "elasticlunr", appears in the linked article, and the linked article
appears in search results, but searching any partial string such as "elastic",
"elasticl" "elasticlu" and "elasticlun" will not result in finding the linked
article. Perhaps this behaviour is intended by the author, but it may not be
intended by the various users of the site.
Oddly,
> elastic* and elasticl*
does find the linked article, but
> elasticlu* and elasticlun*
do not.
~~~
ricket
Also the search index has not been updated in 8 months so it doesn't include
the several recent articles. Which can be confusing, since those articles are
right next to the search box when you're at the homepage. I opened a github
issue for him.
~~~
omn1
Thanks for the heads-up; will fix.
The reason is, that I'm working on decoupling the search frontend from the
JSON search blobs. Want to make the frontend-part installable through npm as
well (and not just cargo as it is now). Didn't get around to adding the search
index generation to Github actions yet due to limited time. Here's the
pipeline if you want to give me a hand and add the tinysearch build:
[https://github.com/mre/mre.github.io/blob/source/.github/wor...](https://github.com/mre/mre.github.io/blob/source/.github/workflows/ci.yml)
------
boromi
Interesting use of zola, been thinking about trying gatsby.js perhaps Zola as
well now. Has anyone used either?
~~~
steffan
Just started using Zola recently. Early, but after comparing with several
other engines it seemed the best suited to my application. So far I'm happy
with it.
~~~
lwhsiao
I'm a big fan of Zola. When I need more features, I'd reach for Hugo before
Jekyll. But for most simple static sites, Zola is my favorite.
~~~
Keats
Which features are you missing the most?
------
npiit
Thanks Matthias! I learned a lot from your YouTube channel on Rust. One of my
favorite tech channels ever.
~~~
omn1
Awww. Thanks so much. I suffer from extreme impostor syndrome, which is one
reason why I didn't continue making shows. Hearing that people actually
learned something is heart-warming. If anyone is interested, the old episodes
are here: hello-rust.show
~~~
npiit
I truly mean it. Your channel is one of the best real tech channels I've ever
seen.
~~~
deathtrader666
Link to said channel please?
~~~
omn1
[https://www.youtube.com/hellorust](https://www.youtube.com/hellorust)
------
bepvte
Great stuff, but it doesn't seem to search titles
~~~
omn1
Yeah, that's a bug. XD I was ingesting the title into the bloomfilter without
making it lowercase like the rest. Then when searching, I lowercase the user
input and guess what... the title can't be matched. Whoops. ;) Will fix.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Video Recording From Your Mobile Browser - cdanzig
http://cameratag.com?
Hey guys,<p>Just a quick note to let you know that we just unveiled support for mobile web video recording / uploading. (iOS 6.0+ and Android 2.2+). You can check it out by pointing your mobile browser to CameraTag.com and clicking on the "click here to record" box.<p><i></i> For all you webtech geeks- WebRTC soon to come :)<p>-c
======
cdanzig
Hey guys,
Just a quick note to let you know that we just unveiled support for mobile web
video recording / uploading. (iOS 6.0+ and Android 2.2+). You can check it out
by pointing your mobile browser to CameraTag.com and clicking on the "click
here to record" box.
__For all you webtech geeks- WebRTC soon to come :)
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
The vanishing began at night, frightened families packed after hearing the news - babakian
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/04/us/after-ruling-hispanics-flee-an-alabama-town.html?hp=&pagewanted=all
======
rick888
I feel bad for these families, but nothing really has changed. The officers
are just enforcing existing immigration laws. There are legal ways of getting
into the US and more immigrants should use this route in the future or suffer
the consequences of getting booted out of the country.
In most other countries in the world, the same thing will happen.
~~~
sixtofour
I wonder why those legal ways are not more used?
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Apple, Cisco, and Dow 15000 - ajaymehta
http://blog.adamnash.com/2012/02/13/apple-cisco-dow-15000/
======
rdl
The big point to know about the Dow is that it's basically arbitrary and not
rigorous, but has a long history, so enh.
I personally watch NASDAQ Composite, S&P 500, and Vanguard VTI
(<http://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSEARCA%3AVTI>) a lot more. If you _just_
want to track large caps, Vanguard MGC. The Vanguard funds track MSCI indices
and have super low expense ratios.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Spreading the gospel of entrepreneurship in the developing world - cawel
http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=11848444
======
cawel
Interesting (as well as recurrent) property of the developing world, notably
different from the developed world:
“If Endeavor had been an investor, rather than an independent, objective, non-
profit enabler, it would not have been trusted by the business elite, or the
entrepreneurs,” she insists. “Trust is everything.”
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Ask HN: BountySplit.com: UBER + Affiliate Marketing - sharemywin
Affiliate marketing for personal services? Earn 5-15% for referring others to post their project on bountysplit.com. Am I on to something?
======
sharemywin
would 2 tiers be better or worse?
visit [http://www.betterpro.net/](http://www.betterpro.net/) for an idea of
the look and feel of the potential site.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
High-risk video game venture has Rhode Island, Curt Schilling reeling - olegious
http://boston.com/business/technology/articles/2012/05/18/high_risk_video_game_venture_has_rhode_island_curt_schilling_reeling/?page=full
======
Steko
[http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2012/05/17/curt-
schillin...](http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2012/05/17/curt-schilling-
cash-and-credibility-crisis/KQPwPrKHUD4zJoTdT51C2I/story.html)
_Schilling is a self-described conservative with a disdain for big
government, which he considers intrusive and overbearing. He is a big believer
in people helping themselves and solving their own problems.
A couple of lines from an old post on Schilling’s blog, 38 pitches, sums it
up:
“If a conservative is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his
situation.
“A liberal wonders who is going to take care of him.”
Now Schilling is back with his hand out at a time when Rhode Island is dealing
with double-digit unemployment and an economy so bad that many of its
communities are in grave financial trouble. State officials are facing bigger
problems than Schilling’s 38 Studios._
Christ what an asshole.
------
debacle
Economic development agencies are, in my opinion, a terrible idea.
If the people deciding where the money should go had any ability at all, they
would be working in private investment. Instead, what you have are politically
motivated nit-wits spending someone else's money on pipe dreams.
Locally, we have IDAs (industrial development associations) who are allocating
county grants to local organizations that aren't going to create value on the
order of what the grants presuppose.
This is a gross malappropriation of taxpayer money.
With regards to Curt Schilling, you can't blame the guy. He's personally
wealthy and wanted to make an MMO. That's the dream of almost any gamer out
there, and Rhode Island was foolish enough to not do due diligence.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdoms_of_Amalur:_Reckoning#R...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdoms_of_Amalur:_Reckoning#Reception)
If you look at the lineup, you have RA Salvatore, Todd MacFarlane, and Grant
Kirkhope (the guy who wrote the score to Golden Eye and Perfect Dark). I
haven't played the game itself, but anecdotally I've heard it's a great game
but with a niche audience. You can create a successful game studio on that,
but you can't create a billion dollar company.
~~~
rprospero
> If the people deciding where the money should go had any ability at all,
> they would be working in private investment.
Just curious: do you think that economic development agencies would be
improved if governments were willing to pay salaries equivalent to private
investment firms, thus attracting better talent?
~~~
debacle
See masterleep's comment.
Governments will always be bad with money because they never are dealing with
their own money.
~~~
jbooth
Private organization stakeholders aren't usually dealing with their own money
either, with similar results depending on the org. You know how much multi-
million dollar business gets done over a few grand worth of Yankees tickets?
This was a case of garden variety corruption, where the gov wasn't even
getting kickbacks, he just liked the Red Sox, Schilling's a hero in New
England, and he saw him as a fellow traveler conservative. If Schilling was
going to George Clooney's fundraisers, this deal doesn't happen.
~~~
debacle
Private investment management is usually performance based.
~~~
jbooth
If you're going to restrict it to specifically the investment business, then
yeah, typically. But pretty much anyone who purchases for a living is awash in
kickbacks, the kind of stuff you'd be fired from a government for.
FWIW I agree that the government shouldn't be in the investment game except
for strategic investments by the federal government (ball bearings, green
tech, DARPA, stuff like that). Certainly not video game companies.
There is still a role for development agencies, doing stuff like helping
streamline paperwork, advocating for sewer hookups, stuff like that. They
shouldn't be investors.
------
bhickey
The deal was pushed through by the former Governor Don Carcieri while he was a
lame duck. The incoming governor, Chafee, tried unsuccessfully to block the
transaction.
Meanwhile the legislature was bamboozled into increasing the EDC's development
pie by exactly the amount given to Schilling. Topping it off, Schilling is
anti-government in his political disposition -- arguing for personal
responsibility and hard work. Today 38 Studios failed to make payroll.
When the dust settles I wouldn't be shocked to see some indictments come down.
------
mkramlich
To Curt's credit he does/did own/run a board game company called Multi-Man
Publishing which was responsible for reviving Advanced Squad Leader,
considered by many to be a classic wargame. It's original owner was Avalon
Hill which ultimately got bought by Hasborg where it languished before MMP
licensed it. One of the really smart things MMP has done with ASL is create a
series of very simple introductory subsets of ASL called Starter Kits. Many
people love ASL but one of it's biggest flaws is that the total rules set is
so large and complex, accumulated over many years, that historically it was
very intimidating for potential new players. I don't think Curt directly
designed the Starter Kits, but the fact that he was an owner and allowed and
encouraged an environment and management team to do that, is a big positive
mark in my book.
But yeah, from the sound of the article, the way they went about trying to
start that video game company was completely misguided. Backwards. Cart before
the horse. They should have started small and scrappy, with a polished game
prototype, with a real game designer behind it, that real users love on a
small scale with modest placeholder graphics. Then incrementally flesh it out.
Game industry is very much a hits-based market, with lots of fickle consumers.
And very few of the people "designing" games are true game designers.
------
Impossible
Teaser trailer of the game available here.
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9nvnrP0j8U&feature=youtu...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9nvnrP0j8U&feature=youtu.be)
Disclaimer: I'm an employee.
~~~
cma
Haha I like the Atlas Shrugged guy holding up the pillar--nice touch from a
bunch of moochers.
------
aresant
Democrats created the pool of "job creation" money and their Republican
governor earmarked it for an idiotic venture.
And yet, I keep hearing in this year's campaign messaging that
"bipartisanship" and "bringing the parties together" is what the future of our
government needs.
------
danso
Well, at least he knows how to capture the Zeitgeist:
[http://bostonglobe.com/business/2012/05/18/facebook-curt-
sch...](http://bostonglobe.com/business/2012/05/18/facebook-curt-schilling-
denies-paid-himself-back-with-money-thanks-supporters-ailing-studios-video-
game-company/EnqdY2flmq0Bf55m4YvdRM/story.html)
>Former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling used his Facebook page to make his
first public comments since the news that his Providence video game company,
38 Studios, would be unable to make payroll this week.
~~~
ricree
Is there any word on what the game's development costs were? I was under the
impression that it sold reasonably well, if not spectacularly so.
~~~
cpeterso
Considering they have been working on the Copernicus MMO since 2006 and
Kingdoms of Amalur in parallel, they have probably burned through a lot of
money.
Copernicus sounds cool, but I fear it will be another Daikatana.
~~~
mariusmg
Amalur was done by a different studio (Big Huge Games) which they acquired 2
years ago. 38 Studio are working on a MMO for 6 years and nothing to show...
~~~
cpeterso
_Convenient_ timing: 38 Studio just revealed their first video of _Project
Copernicus_ content:
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9nvnrP0j8U>
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
High-Speed Rail – Japanese Shinkansen vs. TGV – Is One Better Than the Other? - Osiris30
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=p3zrqotjw7A
======
mikixa
Over the Shinkansen's 50-plus year history, carrying over 5.3 billion
passengers, there has been not a single passenger fatality or injury due to
train accidents.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + ... = -1/12 - anigbrowl
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-I6XTVZXww
======
ivan_ah
Oy mate! Don't you have a pint of cider to drink in a cozy pub somewhere
instead of producing videos of such bollocks?
The series $\sum_{n=1}^\infty n$ is divergent, so you can't say anything about
its sum. For more info on the 1 - 1 + 1 - 1 +1 ... see:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Grandi's_series](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Grandi's_series)
This quote from the page is telling:
G. H. Hardy dismisses both of these as "little more than nonsense."
~~~
mathnoob
It is not totally nonsense but the use of the benign sign = associating the
analytic continuation of a series where it converges to a place where it does
not without huge warning is not very rigorous.
------
abc_lisper
Properties of numbers change at infinity. It is not conceivable to me, we can
use normal arithmetic operations on quantities tending to infinity. For
example, consider this...
9999999999........... infinity
-9999999999........... infinity
-------------------------
00000000000............ infinity
-------------------------
Now, subtracting infinite numbers from infinite numbers should give a infinite
result. All we have is infinite zeros here, which cannot be inifinity.
~~~
kazagistar
You cannot understand "infinite numbers" without understanding how equality is
defined (bijection).
~~~
abc_lisper
Ok.. My post was a bait :).. Please tell me more or can you suggest me some
books i can read?
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Amazing robotic dexterity from Honda's ASIMO - dusanbab
http://www.wired.com/2014/04/honda-asimo
======
dusanbab
Direct ASIMO demo video link:
[http://condenastl3cdn.cust.footprint.net/videos/53501be36970...](http://condenastl3cdn.cust.footprint.net/videos/53501be369702d3275860000/low.webm)
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Hitler Quote Controversy in the BSD Community - animeseinfeld
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/17/11/21/1750218/hitler-quote-controversy-in-the-bsd-community
======
rurban
Slashdot cannot even summarize the issue properly. FreeBSD just removed some
tasteless and offensive Hitler quotes from the fortune database. It did not
remove fortune as stated.
[https://svnweb.freebsd.org/base/head/usr.bin/fortune/datfile...](https://svnweb.freebsd.org/base/head/usr.bin/fortune/datfiles/fortunes?r1=325095&r2=325781&pathrev=325781)
I haven't checked yet who inserted that quotes. Personally I would flag that
person for intensive study.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Does anyone remember websites? - dfps
http://tttthis.com/rememberwebsites.php/
======
dogcow
Check out the search engine at [http://wiby.me](http://wiby.me)
From their about page:
_Search engines like Google are indispensable, able to find answers to all of
your technical questions; but along the way, the fun of web surfing was lost.
In the early days of the web, pages were made primarily by hobbyists,
academics, and computer savvy people about subjects they were interested in.
Later on, the web became saturated with commercial pages that overcrowded
everything else. All the personalized websites are hidden among a pile of
commercial pages. Google isn 't great at finding those gems, its focus is on
finding answers to technical questions, and it works well. But finding things
you didn't know you wanted to know, which was the real joy of web surfing, no
longer happens. In addition, many pages today are created using bloated
scripts that add slick cosmetic features in order to mask the lack of content
available on them. Those pages contribute to the blandness of today's web.
The wiby search engine is building a web of pages as it was in the earlier
days of the internet._
~~~
Zhenya
My favorite website: [http://www.otherhand.org/](http://www.otherhand.org/)
And my favorite article on it: [http://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-
rescue/the-hun...](http://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-
hunt-for-the-death-valley-germans/)
(No association)
~~~
martinpw
That article was a fascinating read. Thank you.
~~~
livatlantis
Ah yes, I remember stumbling into this page when looking for cold-case/solved
mystery stories. I got through all 13 pages in one afternoon! Excellent story
and writing.
------
ambrosite
I do remember those websites. For me, the difference is that now the Web is
much more useful, but back then it was a lot more fun. True, you could
sometimes waste hours following random links hoping to find something good,
but the thrill of discovery when you stumbled across a gold mine of
information was a huge part of the appeal.
Nowadays, anyone with a basic understanding of search engines can find almost
anything they want within seconds. That makes the Web on the whole much more
useful, but the thrill of the hunt is gone -- that's what Jakob Nielsen was
referring to all those years ago when he talked about "information scent".
[https://www.nngroup.com/articles/information-
scent/](https://www.nngroup.com/articles/information-scent/)
~~~
userbinator
_Nowadays, anyone with a basic understanding of search engines can find almost
anything they want within seconds._
Almost anything popular and rather insipid, yes. Try to find more detailed
information on very specific topics, however, and you'll discover that search
engines like Google have been optimising more and more for the former content,
making it harder to find the latter. I don't think that's a good thing at all.
To add insult to injury, if you do try very hard to seek the latter by
carefully repeating similar search queries with slight word tweaks, quotes,
and trying to dig through all the pages of results to see if you've found what
you're looking for, Google will quickly decide that you're a bot and either
give you a CAPTCHA or just ban you for a little while entirely.
~~~
rayiner
Google is not great for finding stuff. I’ve complained at length about how bad
it is for doing research, but recently I’ve also found it’s totally useless
for finding things like reviews of products (unless it’s something like the
new iPhone). It’s like legitimate reviews are a casualty in the war between
Google and clickbait SEO crap.
~~~
JohnBooty
This is true. The only way I can find product buying advice is:
1\. To find a community of enthusiasts and see what they have to say about
products in that space. This works pretty well for products that actually have
enthusiasts.
2\. Go to Amazon and read a product's _bad_ reviews. The good reviews are
nearly useless. But, with bad reviews, you have to weigh the number of bad
reviews against the product's popularity. If something has twelve negative
reviews, that means _very_ different things for a product that sells 10 units
a month versus a product that sells 50K units a month.
3\. Read the tiny handful of reliable product recommendation sites. Cool
Tools, Wirecutter, annnnnnnd.... I'll let you know when I find another one.
~~~
q845712
I bought a subscription to Consumer Reports and have been happy with the two
purchases I made on their recommendation (headphones in the $100 range, and a
new food processor). Do you consider them compromised? It's actually just
about time to renew my subscription and i've been wondering whether I should.
I've also used your strategy of reading the bad reviews on Amazon!
~~~
r00fus
The appliances I bought using their advice has been hit/miss - ranges are
decent but the fridges and dishwasher I bought are noisy and required service
barely outside warranty period. These are big name brands too.
I don't necessarily fault CR but I with the hundreds of models released all
slightly similar but different (I hear partly to prevent price-matching across
stores) it must be as impossible to review for CR as it is for consumers to
keep track of.
~~~
nickpsecurity
I wouldn't count the appliance reliability against CR as this great article
shows appliance industry is doing it on purpose:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13909365](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13909365)
Typical cartel-like, profit-boosting activity of oligopolies which appliance
market seems to be with a handful of companies owning most brands.
------
kaoD
> This article can be discussed on r/TTTThis.
Oh the irony.
The web has changed: in some ways for the worse, and in others for the better.
I remember websites being like a lottery: sometimes you'd hit jackpot but most
of them were "Under construction" GIFs over ugly tiled backgrounds.
There is still ton of content and much more than what I would've dreamt on the
90s. Platforms like Reddit allow _everyone_ , whether they know HTML or not,
to publish their own content and even comment on others'.
Yes, Facebook and Twitter suck, but that's mostly it. I'm very, very grateful
for everything else on modern internet.
This smells like 'memberberries.
~~~
dfps
I didn't put discussion on the page in order to keep it as code-light as
possible. Reddit is a good option for discussion (at the time of writing),
especially considering I didn't want to clutter HN up with a discussion page
for each article (no problem on a subreddit).
I agree with you on the value of reddit and platforms (and I actually value
Facebook-type platforms as well, with the obvious qualifications), but the old
html sites I write about here have a different type of construction, material,
and value.
(- The author)
~~~
kaoD
> the old html sites I write about here have a different type of construction,
> material, and value.
These still exist. They are prettier and more content packed than the 90s ones
you're reminiscing about, and there are many, many more than there used to. I
honestly think you're seeing the early web with rose-tinted nostalgia glasses.
Unless you liked the DIY amateurish hacker feel of it (which I agree has its
value on its own) I think they've changed mostly for the better.
Just to be on the same page: what's exactly that type of construction,
material and value you miss? What did you like of it?
EDIT: After re-reading your original post I think I get your point. It's
just... #RememberWebsites, _of course_ it's nostalgia-fueled! And that was the
point of the post, right? Celebrating it (which I completely misunderstood as
a celebration of websites themselves).
There are still many. Here's one that might fulfill your oldschool needs:
[https://www.justinguitar.com/](https://www.justinguitar.com/)
~~~
wolco
Mobile changed websites into displaying less content. Are we better off?
Scrolling forever vs clicking next page / last page. I think scrolling is
worse if you ever want to find that piece of content again.
~~~
dualogy
For developers, information breadth and quality was excellent when I first
onlined in '98, and has improved by leaps and bounds year by year.
For other stuff, I agree with that OP article, that was a uniquely rich
caleidoscope that got "blandened" (now lost/gone/fully-transitioned) as the
types of folks who'd craft such little labour-of-love sites mostly did so for
lack of easier / more-convenient options that soon popped up first with prefab
forums and prefab Wordpress / Blogger, then Tumblr/Medium/social-media.
------
themodelplumber
This is pretty harsh critique. I first got on the web in 1992 and what we have
now is a paradise compared to what we had then. Sure, you may have to look
with intent for what you want, but freely coasting around the web has always
carried liabilities. It used to be "you'll find lots of junk" and the junk has
simply diversified since then.
I also noticed the author doesn't even use a single hyperlink in his own
article. Be the change you want to see.
I was just checking out Project Rho. Before that I was building a link page of
my own because I'm getting into ham radio. The old web we love is still here
and it'll always be around in some form.
~~~
outsidetheparty
> what we have now is a paradise compared to what we had then
Here's how I recall it:
Back in the day, you'd search for subject {$foo} and you would find mostly
websites written by some cranky bearded weirdo who is obsessed with {$foo},
who has devoted weeks of his time to personally collating his every thought
about {$foo} into one ghastly-looking site.
Nowadays, you search for {$foo} and find mostly beautifully template-designed
pages of text written by indifferent fiverr freelancers who had about 20
minutes to stuff in as many keywords into as many column inches wrapped around
as many ad slots as possible before moving on to the next subject.
I know which one I prefer.
(I may exaggerate. But only slightly.)
~~~
always_good
> Nowadays, you search for {$foo} and find mostly beautifully template-
> designed pages of text written by indifferent fiverr freelancers who had
> about 20 minutes to stuff in as many keywords into as many column inches
> wrapped around as many ad slots as possible before moving on to the next
> subject.
Yeesh, does anyone else have this opinion?
I sure don't. It's never been more trivial to find good, enriching content.
How many of these posts are just HNers getting more crotchety in their old
age? Sometimes it just seems like a pissing contest for who can be most
cynical. ;)
~~~
outsidetheparty
> more crotchety in their old age
I will willingly cop to this. But seriously, genuinely yes, the internet is
full of a lot more content-free clickbait than it used to be. Because
clickbait didn't used to be a thing that existed.
------
jancsika
I've never been particularly nostalgic for websites.
I'm _slightly_ nostalgic for shared Windows folders on LANs at college dorms.
I remember seeing the first South Park short from such a folder as it was
going viral.
I'm _extremely_ nostalgic for the original Napster. I don't ever remember
searching for a piece of music and coming up short. And I remember it being a
very sudden shift-- one month you're making a mental note to search for a CD
you misplaced somewhere back home, the next month you're getting on Napster to
check if the theme to Ghostbuster's 2 has lyrics that recount the plot of the
movie. It does.
A few weeks ago I typed "Battlestar Galactica" into Netflix, and guess what?
It showed me lots and lots of results, _none of which were Battlestar
Galactica_. And this isn't your run of the mill entitlement of a fool addicted
to his Iphone apps. That is entitlement of a person yearning for modern
functionality to match a shitty piece of software that saw its last stable
release _15 years ago_.
I'm having a hard time finding any numbers for the actual amount of music that
was available on the original Napster at the time. Can anyone put some hard
data to my rose colored glasses?
~~~
tomduncalf
Check out Soulseek, it is very similar to how I remember the original Napster.
Lots of obscure rarities on there music-wise, I've not tried it for anything
else.
The one P2P thing I am nostalgic for is Audio Galaxy - it had an awesome
system where it they indexed everyone's content on their website, so you could
see every file that had ever been on the network and add it to your "want
list", then when that person came online, it would start downloading. To be
fair "wish list searches" in Soulseek serve a similar purpose, but I loved
that ability to browse every file that had ever been online!
~~~
sixstringtheory
Soulseek is incredible, discovered all sorts of smaller-time musicians that
never wouldve been sold at the Best Buy in the suburban wasteland of my youth.
I can’t believe it’s under active maintenance after all these years!
------
schnevets
10 years from now, we'll be waxing nostalgia about entrepreneurs who made a
living off Instagram, Amazon, WordPress, and other platforms. 'There was a kid
who used to "rate dogs" and he was hilarious! And he did it for free without
any corporate backing! Made a killing on T-Shirts and stuff as well!'
------
tonyarkles
Last night I ended up, for some weird nostalgic reason, installing a Gopher
client, just to see if there was anything still around. Amazingly, there's a
bunch of blogs (called phlogs in Gopherspace) that people are updating
regularly! Pretty amazing!
~~~
tree_of_item
How did you find these Gopher sites? Is there a Gopher search engine, or is it
just a hand-updated list?
~~~
dogcow
Gopher is a great protocol. I never really used it back in its heyday; I'm not
sure I knew it existed at the time (I didn't really get "real" Internet access
until 1995 or so). I recently discovered it after having similar sentiments as
the author of this article concerning the state of the WWW.
After you get your Gopher client set up (lynx in the terminal works great), a
good starting point is gopher://sdf.org
There are many active "phlogs" published on SDF.org; there is also an
aggregator that tracks some 20-odd phlogs at:
gopher://i-logout.cz/1/en/bongusta (though it seems to be down at the time of
this posting).
The "Gopherspace" is a refreshing wormhole -- with a surprising amount of
present-day activity -- into the Internet of yesteryear. I highly recommend
checking it out and perhaps publishing your own content on Gopher if you're
tired of the dumpster fire that is the WWW.
~~~
fasquoika
On gopher://sdf.org:
"Many people think the http protocol deprecated gopher, but that just isn't
true. Where do you think gophers live? underground"
Edit: more gold
"After dumping linux and x86 in favour of return to real computers, we have
not had any major security issues"
------
fiala__
> Most websites were written with html, so they were all unique.
Every single website on the internet always was, is and will be HTML (with
various kinds of XML/SVG markup sometimes). People just gradually realised
proper and standardised web design makes the Web better for everyone, by
making it more usable and accessible.
I don't see why I should feel nostalgia for an Internet plagued by
`<marquee>`s, poorly-laid out flashing gifs and bright yellow text on a white
background.
~~~
Latty
I saw a lot of people trying to avoid HTML in their websites in the past.
The flash ones are the obvious example, but I once had the pleasure of an
entire site that looked like any other, except it took forever to load and
links worked weirdly.
That was because the entire site was an image map over a giant .bmp for each
page.
~~~
fiala__
Oh yes, totally forgot about flash and `<map>`s – but one could argue even
those were originally designed to solve the problems of 'vanilla' HTML. They
of course failed and HTML kind of prevailed, but only by being coupled with a
massive set of APIs on the Web Platform. If it wasn't for those JS APIs, we
might be stuck with Flash forever.
------
qznc
They are still out there. Probably even more than ever. You just don't find
them because the SEO-sites drain away all traffic.
I believe my own site would qualify?
[http://beza1e1.tuxen.de/](http://beza1e1.tuxen.de/)
~~~
sgt
That would be interesting - a search engine that was resistant to most SEO
techniques and allowed one to find these types of sites. Would be a great
alternative to Google sometimes.
~~~
taftster
The only search engine that is resistant to SEO is one that doesn't have
enough traffic for any SEO to matter. If it's popular, it will be gamed.
------
clydethefrog
See also the analysis (from 2015) of an Iranian blogger who got arrested in
2008 and got free in 2015 - he did not recognize the new web. (Ironically also
posted on Medium...) According to him, hyperlinks turned into a social media
stream.
[https://medium.com/matter/the-web-we-have-to-
save-2eb1fe15a4...](https://medium.com/matter/the-web-we-have-to-
save-2eb1fe15a426)
~~~
username223
After blocking all the JavaScript and hiding the position=fixed garbage, that
was an interesting article.
> So I tried to post a link to one of my stories on Facebook. Turns out
> Facebook didn’t care much. It ended up looking like a boring classified ad.
> No description. No image. Nothing. It got three likes. Three! That was it.
I write a blog, and publish links to posts on Facebook because doing so costs
me nothing. It also gets me next to nothing. People click on those links about
as often as Facebook asks me for my credit card to "boost" them.
~~~
gboudrias
> hiding the position=fixed garbage
Oh wow, I literally never want this behavior! Do you have a generic trick?
"Inspect element" is tedious.
~~~
mabcat
I have a "Kill Sticky" bookmarklet to do that job, as the first thing on my
bookmarks toolbar. I'm clicking that thing all the time, it works great. So
long stupid sliding navbars, enter-your-email popups, fixed video autoplayers,
etc. I think I got it from here: [https://alisdair.mcdiarmid.org/kill-sticky-
headers/](https://alisdair.mcdiarmid.org/kill-sticky-headers/)
------
pers0n
Another thing is people often just go to Wikipedia, Wikipedia replaced the
need for many fan sites. I had things copied from my sites and put on
Wikipedia and tired to get a link back or a source mentioned and it was
removed each time. So I lost motivation to even update fan sites, since
whatever I type is going to get pasted onto Wikipedia with no link back.
~~~
cheschire
And wikia. That replaced much of the need for fictional fan sites. I visit
memory alpha weekly.
~~~
djur
Unfortunately, Wikia looks like it's in the process of becoming a cautionary
tale, with its recent move to start injecting its own video content into
certain high-traffic wikis and a general decline in customizability and
independence.
~~~
CM30
Wikia seems to be gradually being replaced by self hosted wikis, at least
where larger fandoms are concerned. The Nintendo Independent Wiki Alliance
(Mario Wiki, Zelda Wiki, Bulbapedia, etc) are one example, the Square Enix
Wiki Alliance are another, and I'm sure the likes of the Simpsons Wiki have
moved away from the service as well.
~~~
Hedja
Zelda Wiki is hosted on Gamepedia. It's like Wikia but specifically for Video
Games and less obstrusive.
~~~
CM30
Well it used to be self hosted. Not sure I like the move much, feels like
they're betraying the organisation they're supposedly part of.
------
Illniyar
"it was largely a collection of websites made by people who were interested in
some subject enough to write about it and put it online. "
Oh,you mean like blogs?
Seriously, this sounds like being nostalgic for it's own sake. I fail to see
how using dreamweaver and ftp is somehow better then using Wordpress and the
cloud, writing your own html as a prerequisite to having a website was never a
good idea - now everyone can have their own website.
I really don't miss the "glorious 90's" type of websites - with the thousand
of animated images, weird background images and marquee everywhere. Sure it
made every site unique - every site was terrible to the eyes in it's own
special way.
Also the idea that all sites now look the same is quite preposterous - sure a
lot of sites are cookiecutter websites - especially marketing websites, but
there are tons of unique designs - especially for blogs and personal websites.
~~~
fphilipe
> Oh,you mean like blogs?
Yes, but before they all looked the same and were hosted on the same platform.
I miss the days where you would encounter a blog filled with great content and
with a unique look and feel. It's as if it almost burned in in my memory. I
still remember how the website looked of some great articles that resonated
with me.
That's one of the reasons I dislike Medium et al.
~~~
Illniyar
I don't think it matters where they are hosted, but I think it's disingenuous
to say that all blogs look the same.
Sure everything on medium looks the same, but there are many many blogs not on
medium.
Here, just after a simple search, a list of personal websites/blogs that look
nothing alike:
[https://www.themuse.com/advice/the-35-best-personal-
websites...](https://www.themuse.com/advice/the-35-best-personal-websites-
weve-ever-seen)
------
disconnected
> Does anyone remember when you they stumbled on a new website written by some
> guy and read his first article, then clicked back to his homepage and saw he
> had a list of similar articles that looked like they'd be just as
> interesting.
Or, more likely, you clicked "back" on the "navigation bar" and it would 404
because the author messed up the links, since it was all hand crafted HTML.
Funny stuff aside, there are still loads of "websites" out there. If I
understand the criteria here, we are looking for mostly hand crafted pages
maintained by individuals (or small groups) that have interesting content.
Something, should I say, very "web 1.0"?
Here's a good one. Make sure to check the GUI Gallery section:
[http://toastytech.com](http://toastytech.com)
User Friendly is always hilarious (unfortunately, updates stopped ages ago,
but going through the archive is sill fun):
[http://www.userfriendly.org/](http://www.userfriendly.org/)
And here's something random, the best page in the universe:
[http://maddox.xmission.com/](http://maddox.xmission.com/)
Like I said, there are TONS of these out there. You just have to, you know,
look for them.
~~~
Jaruzel
We need a good search index of these and all the other sites likes them.
Something that deliberately doesn't include pages from bigger sites or sites
full of cruft.
~~~
discreditable
It could probably be easily accomplished by filtering out sites that use JS
libraries like jquery, etc.
~~~
fenwick67
"best viewed with" followed by your query (ex: "best viewed with" dragons)
gets you lots of great old results in a regular search engine. It will grab
any sites that said "best viewed with truetype fonts", "best viewed with
Netscape" et cetera from the internet's heyday.
------
adrianratnapala
It's clever of the author to use "website" in this more specific sense.
Technically a "website" roughly means anything served as HTML over HTTP. But
all us fogeys know what his title meant anyway.
But I still think he protests too much. The style subject-oriented websites
which the author is referring to evolved slightly and got the new name
"blogs". The blogosphere might not be as popular as social networking, but it
is still huger than the web of the '90s.
~~~
gfodor
Eh, I don't think blogs are really that equivalent to old school websites.
Blog, being short for "web log" implies a temporal-based feed of posts. Old
school sites were often much more varied, webs of pages broken up by subject
or topic with links scattered everywhere to the rest of the web.
------
p4bl0
This is why I really love initiatives such as
[https://neocities.org/](https://neocities.org/) :). I don't have a use for it
myself as I have my own servers, but I'm glad this kind of service exists!
------
ggambetta
> Does anyone remember websites? These might be unfamiliar to anyone unexposed
> to the internet before 2005 or so [...] it was largely a collection of
> websites made by people who were interested in some subject enough to write
> about it and put it online.
Does the author mean web rings? I do remember these :)
~~~
dfps
I wasn't exactly talking about webrings, but now I'd like to see one. Can you
link me to one please?
(- the author)
~~~
jacquesm
[http://www.homebrewcpu.com/](http://www.homebrewcpu.com/)
Bottom of the page.
------
dwheeler
I understand the sarcasm, but really, there are a lot of "real" websites,
directly controlled by individuals who post what they want. I point you to my
own website, [https://www.dwheeler.com](https://www.dwheeler.com) .... it's
not the latest in CSS, no Megabytes of JavaScript, and no cross-site tracking
either.
------
minikomi
I've found amateur ham radio stations are a good thread to tug on to find that
older weird-internet.
\- Look for the sites with 4-5 letter callsigns on them
\- Go to their links page
\- Keep going down the rabbit hole.
EG. here's a few I just found googling:
[http://www.qsl.net/kp4md/](http://www.qsl.net/kp4md/)
[https://k7nv.com/](https://k7nv.com/)
[http://www.w8ji.com/](http://www.w8ji.com/)
------
joeblau
I thought about this a few weeks ago. I remember the late 90's actually
searching around the web. Now there are so many walled gardens that individual
creation is limited to posting a Medium blog or Facebook post. Today, I only
visit a handful of sites and developer documentation.
------
shams93
I was a part of the Geocities team in 1998. Part of the reason a large part of
the early web no longer exists is that many of these web pages were hosted for
free by Geocities. Tragically when they were purchased by Yahoo, Yahoo decided
to simply shred the early web, they decided it was not worth it to keep
supporting the service and simply hit delete on a huge chunk of the content of
the early web.
~~~
astura
In fairness, Yahoo ran geocities for an entire decade before shutting it down.
------
arca_vorago
I do, which is why many years ago I told myself I was going to make my
websites as js free as possible. Pure, simple, readable html5+css is my long
term goal.
The thing is, this part of the web still exists, it's actually just simply
harder to find due to the control on the filter big corps have these days. You
just have to search. I am regularly adding hackers blogs to my bookmarks.
Sometimes they stopped updating in 2012, but their writing still looks
worthwhile. The real democratization of knowledge the internet offers to us is
there for the taking if people would break free from their self-forged filter-
bubble shackles.
~~~
acuozzo
> I am regularly adding hackers blogs to my bookmarks. Sometimes they stopped
> updating in 2012, but their writing still looks worthwhile.
Can we start sharing these somewhere? I have several I'd like to contribute.
------
osteele
I remember the NCSA Web Site of the Day, circa 1993. It was a page that listed
new web sites that had appeared on the web, with a brief summary and link to
each one.
Many days there wasn't a new web site. Some days there were _two_.
------
davesque
Unfortunately, a large part of the reason the web used to be fun is that there
didn't used to be anything like it. The only way we can get that again is by
inventing the next world-changing communications technology, not by trying to
dig up the old web. It pains me as much as anyone else to say this since I got
started on the web back in 1994 and experienced its early magic first-hand.
------
joosters
_Another thing was that there was no dross, because everything had to be
written and uploaded by a person._
Some rose-tinted glasses right there!
~~~
Semiapies
Yeah, I've been on the web since NCSA Mosaic, and there was a lot of dross.
------
DamnInteresting
As the operator of a website old enough to still have a "webmaster" email
address, it can be hard to remain relevant in the age of Google's search
monopoly. Their algorithm has become the de facto gatekeeper to the entire
Internet, and it happens to favor newer content over old. Consequently it
favors those crappy flip-shop[1] sites where "writers" find quality content,
perform a mild thesaurus modification, and re-post it. The original source,
where the actual research and writing occurred, is stomped into
insignificance.
Yes, perhaps I'm slightly bitter, why do you ask?
Between that and the "Wikipedia wall," boutique websites have been an
endangered species for some time.
[1]
[https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=flip%20shop](https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=flip%20shop)
------
halr9000
I'm "old" and I remember websites, and Bulletin Board Systems too, for that
matter. But technology changes, and you gotta keep up, man. Don't let the kids
bother you--they're just running through your yard to the next house over.
It's a cool house, maybe check it out someone.
------
exabrial
No. Even basic documentation sites now has to be a fricken enriched browser
experience
------
zapperdapper
Couldn't agree with you more!
Now sites seem to be spread out across the behemoth sites like Medium and of
course all the social media platforms. A lot of the fun and sense of adventure
that was present in the early days of the web is gone. Now it's "just
business" \- that blows! When did everyone get so obsessed with boosting their
"online presence" in order to make a quick buck?
I will also give a big thumbs up to Neocities. It's brilliant. There's a great
retro feel to many of the sites there. People are having fun creating sites
with HTML and a dash of CSS - for free.
------
mpetrovich
One of the few websites I can still lose hours on:
[https://waitbutwhy.com/](https://waitbutwhy.com/)
------
mdhughes
As the former perpetrator of several hand-coded sites and blogs full of text
organized by 52-card-pickup principles, going back to '80s BBS's, online
services, USENET, and then Gopher and WWW on a University shared network…
Switching to Wordpress (obLink:
[https://mdhughes.tech/](https://mdhughes.tech/) ) and slowly reposting the
stuff I want visible in an organized, searchable format with a consistent
style and a nice CMS is the best possible improvement.
My latest change is a "Starred posts" category, so I can surface the longer,
more thought-out pieces and still have ephemeral content like semi-daily music
links and status updates.
Manton Reece's [http://micro.blog/](http://micro.blog/) is putting Twitter-
like interaction under a blog framework, hosted on m.b or on your own site.
Discovery of these things is still hard, and Google's ad-searching site
unsurprisingly only surfaces ads, but [http://duck.go](http://duck.go) and
social media (like HN) can point you at content you want to see. [ed: sp]
------
dickclucas
Shameless plug but what he describes was partly my inspiration for building
[https://nogradient.com/](https://nogradient.com/). It is very stripped down
and minimal. Would love some feedback on it.
------
galfarragem
That's just Capitalism.
Once Capitalism takes over a system, everything is optimized for profit. Some
diehard _hobbyists_ might remain but most convert. I'm still keeping 2 niche
blogs.. let's see till when.
------
Chiba-City
Early business Web was Decision Support and not ad distraction based. There
were cool "calculators" that would match relocation zip codes in Tulsa most
like my favorite DC zip code or pick optimum breed/age/weight dog food.
Product Selection Engines (PSE's) were a different value proposition than
product or brand promotion. They are fun to write for engineers because they
correct purchase errors with IT good deeds like Consumer Reports but with user
variables on priorities or constraints.
The Consumer Web threw out a great deal of baby with the .com era bathwater.
------
HaoZeke
For me the web is more alive than ever... Just look at the way static websites
are taking over..
However JS is the real threat to websites, react and its ilk are not amenable
to being stored long term.. Too many things break.
------
indigochill
Does [http://3564020356.org](http://3564020356.org) count? It does appear to
use Alexa for tracking now, but otherwise it looks pretty "home-grown".
------
citruscomputing
I wrote a little program that does the "follow links and see if I find
anything interesting" thing. It takes seed links, pulls all links that don't
go back to the same domain, and then chooses 50 and repeats. Then there's
another program to find the uncommon sites from everything gathered. Check it
out at [https://github.com/riley-
martine/water_skimmer](https://github.com/riley-martine/water_skimmer)
------
jumpkickhit
Can't say I miss Geocities inundating the search engines.
Still though, it was pretty fun when there were more than 5 or so websites to
go to, like a lot of people tend to only do these days.
------
anthk
[http://neoticies.org](http://neoticies.org) Welcome back :) I am currently
doing a minimal OpenBSD site in Spanish :D
------
zacvivo
I have been thinking on this idea lately and trying to build a tool to filter
out the crap. What I have found is operators help, but the only things I have
found to work are EDU sites, pre-2010 operator, and intext: welcome to my
site. Beyond that, nothing seems to work to find complex content. I also
thought about maybe making a tool to filter out content from the top million
sites or so, but for now I am going to just use operators.
------
edflsafoiewq
The site I remember feeling that way about was the Robot Wisdom Homepage, now
preserved only on the WayBack Machine:
[https://web.archive.org/web/20130409045156/http://www.robotw...](https://web.archive.org/web/20130409045156/http://www.robotwisdom.com/home.html)
------
scroot
Ian Milligan has done some interesting work [1] on the history of GeoCities,
including some archives I think
[1] [http://www.ieee-
tcdl.org/Bulletin/v11n2/papers/milligan.pdf](http://www.ieee-
tcdl.org/Bulletin/v11n2/papers/milligan.pdf)
------
ForFreedom
I started my career as a web designer back in the 1998-2000 which was fun
then. People wanted gifs like crazy.
------
thallukrish
This is what I wrote years ago in this blog
[http://productionjava.blogspot.sg/2014/07/the-broken-
web.htm...](http://productionjava.blogspot.sg/2014/07/the-broken-web.html) and
I have been working since then to fix it.
------
jwm4
Steve den Beste's original website, USS Clueless, was a perfect example of
early website/blog.
------
somberi
I would like to add photo.net and particularly Philip Greenspun's "Travel with
Samantha".
------
dredmorbius
Joseph Wood Krutch: "bad roads act as filters... bad roads bring good people,
good roads bring bad people".
[http://www.escapist.com/baja/books.htm](http://www.escapist.com/baja/books.htm)
------
alkonaut
Wait, we don't call websites "websites" anymore? What do we call them now?
~~~
Semiapies
This is a variation of the "RSS is dead (but everything provides RSS feeds)"
thing.
------
woodbot
How about this for a website:
[https://beakerbrowser.com/](https://beakerbrowser.com/)
The Beaker Browser! P2P browser, bringing back (the web and) websites since
2017
------
chewz
I remember that spending time on a web was actually interesting back then.
Interesting like discovering and learning something new not like browsing
shopping sites and FB, Instagram because there is nothing else to do...
------
i6Respawns
Yes I think I know how you feel. You might like reading books haha.
------
mamcx
Something close today, Go to:
[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/randomitem.php?p=1](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/randomitem.php?p=1)
------
dbshapco
The Internet has become a carrier signal for advertising.
------
pythonist
A very fine example of such site
[http://www.jeffbridges.com/](http://www.jeffbridges.com/).
------
canoebuilder
[http://fusionanomaly.net/nodebase.html](http://fusionanomaly.net/nodebase.html)
------
vinsingh0289
I have so many websites but never got much traffic on any one of them, so i
forgot all domain name of the website i created long back.
------
bluetwo
Remember when the Google "I'm Feeling Lucky" button was interesting and took
you to one of these random sites?
------
ashtube
The hit counter is what makes this website.
------
albeebe1
My website still uses tables
[http://albeebe.com/](http://albeebe.com/)
~~~
DamonHD
Here is my '90s vintage still alive and kicking (we were one of the first UK
ISPs):
[http://www.exnet.com/](http://www.exnet.com/)
and a new old site also built with hand-crafted HTML but CSS rather than
tables!
[http://m.earth.org.uk/](http://m.earth.org.uk/)
It's nonsense to say that such things no longer exist.
------
superkuh
The web of the 90s is alive on .onion.
------
rch
I think Ward's Federated Wiki approach could help bring some personality back
to the web.
------
peterburkimsher
The most ironic part to me is that the page is PHP, not static HTML.
Although this type of style isn't common with the online web these days, it's
still visible in offline caches of popular websites (e.g. offline Wikipedia).
Pages load so fast, and the total file size is much smaller because of the
lack of JS/jQuery/React/etc bloat.
------
starboy1996
Sure. If it's really worth visiting. You remember them somehow and never
forget
------
tutuca
It even has got a broken hit counter and all... 000020083 at time of reading
:)
------
agumonkey
resonnates with my previous comment
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15586839](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15586839)
------
agumonkey
recent re-found
[http://www.photomemorabilia.co.uk/](http://www.photomemorabilia.co.uk/)
great example of dense cool passion driven site
------
mfukar
Things change, nostalgia happens. Nothing to see here.
------
EngineerBetter
I remember websites, and I remember that some were made by women, too. The
author seems to have only read websites made by men.
------
rogerweissman77
I have to bookmark everything.
------
blue100
I remember all those websites.
------
epigramx
They are called home pages.
------
robertdicabrio
i remember a website letmewatch.ch have any one heard it.
------
jimmeyotoole
Member websites??
------
tek-cyb-org
is that a new app?
------
frik
MySpace, Tripod, GeoCities, LiveJournal, and similar free hosted/services had
a lot of interesting, weird, etc pages. It was easy and friction free to
create a new site. Everyone had a copy of
Frontpage/Dreamweaver/GoLive/HomeSite/iWeb/Composer on his PC and uploading
worked with a browser form, one file at a time.
------
igorgue
I miss them, they were a great example of how creative everyone can be, now
doing "awesome" things on the internet is so cookie cuttered.
~~~
astura
And "welcome to my website it is still under construction please sign my
guestbook" isn't cookie cutter?
------
lovemetwotimes
Nowadays, anyone with a basic understanding of search engines can find almost
anything they want within seconds.
~~~
vog
That's simply not true:
Case in point:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15634089](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15634089)
(Unless, of course, you mean by "almost anything" everything of your personal
interest.)
------
koancone
The problem is the advertising model for content monetization. This is the
same reason TV is mostly crap.
------
SimpleLogin
It really is interesting how incredibly niche everything was once upon a time.
------
keerthivar
very interesting website, and easy time pass
------
keerthivar
easy identify methode
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.