skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
According to Table 4 in [1], a GSLV launch was $47 million in 2017, so a bit lower than e.g. a Falcon 9 launch ($61.2 million in the same table).

Taking the $146 million quoted above at face value, that means 2/3 of Chandrayaan-2's cost was independent of launch cost. Let's say about $100 million.

Another comment here is implying that those $100 million do not include labor. I find that hard to believe; it is (or should be) common knowledge that the bulk or aerospace project costs is labor [2], so it would make no sense to forgo standard accounting practice and only report what amounts to a bill of materials. But if we nevertheless assume that comment is correct, it would mean that you should at least double the estimated cost for developing something equivalent to Chandrayaan-2 at developed-country aerospace salaries. So you would be (optimistically) spending something like $200 million on the probe, and saving maybe $15 million out of a total cost ~ $250 million by launching it from India rather than e.g. the US.

Once the added administration and logistics costs are taken into account, I wonder if you would be saving anything at all.

[1] https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-17-609

[2] Aerospace project management handbook (2017)
Why do people assume that the assumptions in DL are correct for more general intelligence? It's not remotely like a real biological NN. It's seems like an arbitrary gross approximation that everyone is starting with just because it is the prevailing worldview.

Why do some Chinese focus on SNNs? I suspect they just have a different worldview because they are exposed to a different information stream in their language. But SNNs are still a gross approximation. Also, why assume it needs to look like an NN at all?
HN has become Reddit in that regard, even though they obviously tried to be different by enabling downvoting only for accounts with high karma, and disabling downvotes on a comment after 1~ day, but now they're shying away from discussion on this system.

It's easy to farm karma; just jump on the "winning" bandwagon during any polarizing discussions (usually politics, FAAMNG royal rumbles or PC vs. Mac)

Too many accounts have enough karma to downvote now, and too many perfectly valid comments being grayed out.

Maybe add another criteria like needing to be active in the last week and getting at least N new karma recently?
Godspeed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanist_politics#Liberta...
But then the page has a ton of photos (presumably submitted by users) that I can download. So perhaps the original photo isn't used and deleted, but the generated photo belongs to them.
This is probably a covert reference to his homosexuality which was plagued by accusations of having exploitative relationships with minors, in low-justice economies. The Stanley Kubrick biography around 2001 talks a bit about the dynamic in the Sri Lanka Clark household.
I think this really depends on the problem. Some problems are best approached by extensive upfront planning while some problems can be better solved by trying the idea out and building a quick prototype.
Honestly, I just prefer the days when he talked through repairing a computer, and wasn't standing on a soapbox while he did it.

It was really relaxing and interesting to watch, but now that he's complaining about Apple half the time, it's significantly less enjoyable for me to watch.
I choose clothing mostly to be low maintenance, functional, and inexpensive over the long-term. I had (apparently incorrectly given the discussions here) assumed that to be the norm around here. The amount of people expressing difficulty finding clothing that lasts also surprises me. Maybe it's because I'm a guy or maybe it's because I've never purchased from a fast fashion brand. (?) In my experience a typical adult men's clothing item from Walmart will last hundreds of wearings and washings, no special picking through the options needed. (I'm talking just regular clothes--coats, footwear, gloves, etc are probably exceptions to this).

The only area I've had trouble with is finding casual, easy slip on/off everyday shoes that last a long time. I wear the same shoes literally everyday and always seem to wear the soles out in less than a year. (Perhaps I'm asking too much here there because I'm on my feet a lot?) Any tips on this would be appreciated.
Yes, I meant placket! Thanks for the ideas of custom tailors; I'll check out their prices.
To find interestingness in others is a skill you can develop. There are things of interest in every topic.

Have you ever really tasted wine, with others? tried to figure out the different components? I had a friend tell me a few days ago that grape tannins and oak tannins are felt in different parts of the mouth (tongue vs cheeks); I'll have to check into this. I know for a fact that I taste wine differently than my husband -- we taste sweetness differently and bitterness differently. Why is that? Can it be quantified? What are the dimensions along which you'd want to get subjective ratings if you wanted to map peoples' tastes? We could have a party and taste a bunch of wines and rate them and then do a singular value decomposition to find similarity between different tasters and between different wines; maybe then we could form a hypothesis, especially if we had some chemical data...

Listen, if you want to get nerdy, you can make anything nerdy. Kids = child development, Chomsky's hypotheses about syntax, the fact that babies' noses are designed to get squashed in when they fall on their faces and then designed to pop out (if your kid's nose doesn't pop out you can gently pull it into shape). Evolution, the microbiome, whatever. Gardening -> mycorrhizae, the game theory or economics of mycorrhizae, pollinators, seed banking, GMOs, edible plants, what is a weed. And there is so much in recent science that is bearing out what "uneducated" but knowledgeable practitioners have been saying for years. Maybe it would help to consider your "boring people" as practitioners of arts that you have not been educated in. Or you can work backward from their actions and thoughts to uncover the assumptions by which they construct their worldview, and then put it into a larger geopolitical context.

Or maybe you're just burned out and tired, and need to recover. Your curiosity antennae are turned off.

Good luck.
> most of the interesting bits of Self were left by the wayside in the process

A short summary of those interesting bits would be a nice read for us JS devs :)
Free high quality and easy editable PSD mockups
What FaceApp incident?
Use geometric reasoning. If you expect every manager to spend a fortieth of their time on each of their (forty?) direct reports' projects, then that would imply that across two levels, there's only about a minute of consideration, and for three levels, less than two seconds.

On the other hand, maybe this explains why upper management is always so disconnected.
It's not hard to get good at an instrument, but how you practice is the difference between accelerating skill and perpetual struggle.

Don't "noodle around" as a beginner, because practice makes permanent and good form is everything.

Do you want to be actually good and not just okay? Take weekly lessons, follow online tutorials carefully, and practice at least 30-45 minutes 6 days a week, giving it an absolute laser-like focus. (More practice is always better, and preferably in singular sessions, but that's the minimum and it's enough to make progress.) Focus on fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals. Treat good form like religious gospel and don't deviate from it, even if it's easier that way.

And since you already have played for a while, you're going to have to spend the first few months of practice painstaking unlearning the bad habits you've undoubtedly collected, which is not enjoyable because it will feel like you're moving backwards.

Do that for a year and people will compliment you on how much better you've gotten. After 3 years you'll be good enough for any semi-decent cover band in town. In 5-10 you'll be better than 95-99% of people who own a guitar and know how to make sounds on it.

tl;dr: it's totally possible to be good at an instrument, but it takes discipline and you have to be very intentional about it.
Beavers, The OG Ecosystem Engineers, May Help US West Adapt to Climate Change
>You can set Adblock Plus to block all ads.

All you need to know really. It sucks that it's on by default though.
Please submit less generic politics news. HN has a different focus https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/best
Elon Musk promises longer, curved tunnel for future Hyperloop contests
I was a self-taught dev for nearly a decade. Then I got the opportunity to go back for the CS degree. Probably the biggest thing that I got out of it was that I had to work on some things I almost never would have done myself (for me, my low level C/Linux code and networking classes), and it expanded my overall understanding of computers a bit. You can do that yourself, but you have to do it yourself. :)
If it has a zipper, and that zipper is not made by YKK, it is disposable garbage. This indicates the main priority in production was reducing cost.

Sadly the other way around doesn’t always work, you can still get crap stitching and fabric on an article with YKK.
Blood? It's renewable.
Actors are digitally preserving themselves to continue careers beyond the grave
Technical: I wish I learned Perl and Python earlier. Scripting is powerful.

Non-Technical: Learning to speak the Will-to-Power language of executives; coded Power-Talk and all that. Once you start getting to the Senior Manager / Director / VP level whole battles are won and lost based on being able to play their games. I got burned a couple of times before I caught on, and lament not picking it up sooner.
Serious question: Have the XPS QC issues been addressed?

This isn't any kind of attack on them, it's just that when I was searching for a laptop they seemed to be having some issues and even the warranty replacements had issues. Which really sucks because the XPS lineup do look enticing for me.
They're just mimicking what the US-based social media platforms have been doing for years now. And who can blame them? It's a very profitable business model.

I suppose at least now the "bad" countries are doing this there may finally be some meaningful public debate about it.
Hacking
I know a real professional hacker who has worked for me twice in the past one month. He is very good at hacking. He offers legit services such as,
clearing of bad records online without it being traced backed to you, he
clones phones, hacks DATABASE, hacks facebook,instagram,whatsapp,emails,twitter, bank accounts,
FIXES CREDIT REPORTS, RETRIEVES DELETED TEXT MESSAGES, tracks calls. He also helps to retrieve accounts
that have been taken by hackers.
You can contact him on his mail
Cyberhacker55@outlook com
Canned laughter makes jokes seem funnier
Probably because you're close to whatever tower it's connecting to and the radio bits are not having to spend a bunch of energy screaming at the top of their lungs to be heard by the tower.

Even plastic clad android phones will get hot if you try and make a long phone call from BFE.
Coincidentally just posted a blog about these tools - “5 Great Tools That Didn’t Work Out — Software Project Management” https://medium.com/kredx-engineering/5-great-tools-that-didn...
That seems much too dismissive. Maybe scooters won’t end up being as transformative as Bird hopes, and probably that’s where the smart money is. But I’m imagining someone in 2007 saying “come on Steve, it’s just a cell phone with a big screen”.
1. “Shooting from the hip” or saying exactly what’s on your mind isn’t always a virtue.

1b. Seize every opportunity to give an honest compliment

2. Look for a way for everyone to win.

3. Build people up and help them succeed.

4. Pick your battles, and only engage in conflict when it’s truly important.

5. You may get upset, but the character you play doesn’t.

6. It only takes a moment to make a good impression but it can take years to overcome a bad impression.

Books:

- Influence by Caldini

- growth mindset

- How to win friends and influence people

- the war of art

- 48 laws of power

- 50 rules for aging

- the like switch

- what every BODY is saying (book on reading body language)

- the prince (Machiavelli)

- art of war (if you only get one idea from this book, it’s that the great general wins without fighting a single battle)
Inspirational quotes always perform well
Hello, I'm Nicolas, I'm a 29 years old Developer from Uruguay.

As most of you already know, experts insist on using quotes in social media marketing, here are some interesting links:

Quotes are always re-shared like crazy. This is one of those things that’s almost sure to work no matter how many times you do it. Quotes never get old. The fun thing about sharing quotes is that it will get more re-shares than comments - https://www.searchenginejournal.com/boost-social-media-engagements-using-quotes/

Quotes and text-based images are a simple but effective way to boost engagement quickly with your Instagram posts - https://blog.hootsuite.com/instagram-post-ideas/

Now they are some of my most shared content on every platform, not just Instagram. Easy to make, effective and attractive, you should add them to your content regularly - https://imninjas.com/blog/social-media/create-awesome-eye-catching-instagram-content/

Humorous, inspiring or motivational quotes always perform well - https://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2014/06/25/100-killer-ideas-for-your-social-media-content/

That gave me the idea to create an app to generate beautiful quotes images customized with your brand logo and link. The result is ViralQuotes (https://viralquotesonline.com).

Is a web app ideal for social marketing automation, a social media content generator. You can choose from a wide range of topics and enjoy an original set of custom quotes, with backgrounds chosen from a quality set of royalty-free images.

I appreciate if someone let me know where could be a great place to show this app, because I think is useful but for a very specific niche.

Also, any feedback would be great, suggestions, critics, ideas, etc.

Thanks!
No CS Degree – Interviews with self-taught developers
For Java I would add some of Marc Reinhold's talks. Also he has a very nice voice - that is a pleasure to listen to.
If Apple provided a superior or even comparable service, Rossman would be out of business tomorrow. No-one wants to seek third party repair, they are driven to it.
Any suggestions or recommendations for those attempting to improve those nontechnicals at earlier stages in their career?
Thanks for the super clear description! Doing some internal research on this.
In Canada it's $400k CAD.

Open to all -- bring $$$ and drop em in the local economy.

See also: Vancouver housing issues.
It's very unlike Apple to deliberately ignore an opportunity to sell a bit of convenience as a premium. Lots of ipad owners own iphones and yet buy the ipad with a 4G modem that they technically don't need. An always on Mac Book Air that "just works" is such an obvious thing to do given the target demographic of people using this on the go, that there must be another reason than "we already sell iphones/ipads". I don't buy the "users don't need this argument" since, I see way too many people thethering their macs with separate access points that are definitely not their phone for this not to be a thing at least.
The Difference Engine [Gibson and Sterling] vividly describes a fictional - and probably worse - debacle based on this event.
I don't believe that it will be interesting. It will be a catastrophe. For SUSE much worse than for RedHat.
Hopefully this UK lead will be over soon.
More generally, every EU country that subscribed the Convention of Strasbourg of 13/11/1987 and converted it in national Law.

[PDF]: https://rm.coe.int/168007a67d

Article 10 – Surgical operations

1 Surgical operations for the purpose of modifying the appearance of a pet animal or for other non-curative purposes shall be prohibited and, in particular:

a the docking of tails;

b the cropping of ears;

c devocalisation;

d declawing and defanging;

2 Exceptions to these prohibitions shall be permitted only:

a if a veterinarian considers non-curative procedures necessary either for veterinary medical reasons or for the benefit of any particular animal;

b to prevent reproduction.
I write database engines for Linux and the filesystem situation really is a train wreck. It isn't anyone's fault per se, design choices and standards were accreted over many decades that in isolation made sense in some context but which in aggregate have many poorly defined interactions and create conflicting requirements. And you can't change any of it easily because there are several decades of software built using the existing design. Guaranteeing precise, consistent behavior is nearly impossible with the standard filesystem API infrastructure and the implementation details change invisibly in important ways.

This is evident in database engines if you look at the number of lines of code dedicated to storage. Working with raw block devices requires the fewest lines of code, working through the filesystem requires the most, and direct I/O (partial filesystem bypass) is somewhere in the middle. And even if you design for comparable guarantees across these models for working with storage, the consistency of behavior across Linux environments also significantly improves as you bypass more of the filesystem.

Ironically, I now tend to borrow the low-level storage interface from database kernels, which abstracts the filesystem mess, for all code that needs to work with storage even if it isn't a database. It provides a saner interface with more consistent guarantees and often better performance. In my ideal world, someone properly designs a completely new filesystem API from scratch that sits alongside the legacy APIs that applications could start migrating to. But it would probably require adverse changes in the way the Linux kernel works for the legacy path, which means it will never happen.
Props for props: how I made a royally unusual talk for JAMstack Conf London
I came late to linux in heavy use, being a BSD person of old. Commercialized BSD exists but the foundation(s) behind the major flavours are clearly NFP models.

So as a late linux adopter, in Debian, I am wondering why people see value in SUSE and RedHat since all my experience has been the SLA value is .. dreck. No problem we had with a RH kernel or OS behaviour was fixed inside our $SLA$ in the EL release we had. All problems were either WONTFIX or re-install later EL.

Debian update/upgrade appears to work. Fixes get applied. What am I missing? If they want to own SAP-ON-LINUX or ORACLE-ON-LINUX why should I worry?

I am more concerned about GPL and ZFS these days, than commercial backing: I dont think it actually adds value to me. (20+ nodes in a research cluster, cloud)
I have 2017 model XPS. I honestly don't have any issues. I would buy one at costco and see for yourself, you would have 3 months to return.
Man, that feels so true to me. If someone shows me that level of genuine kindness I'll go to the ends of the earth to help them. I'll give them my full, unwavering support.

I find often when I've been difficult and uncooperative it's because people have been not quite so accepting.

I guess I've typically felt like the "weird kid" (as many of us technical people have growing up) and if you make me feel like that again I really, really don't like it.
> assuming you have an iphone

Any phone can do that, not only iPhones. How often are you on the move without a phone?

Also the battery argument is not so definitive since a laptop on 4G/5G would also consume battery. If you can connect your laptop to a wall outlet you can connect your phone too.
The Linkedin 500 Club Is the Saddest Lie in Hustle Culture
For decades style has generally trended toward informal so I'd be interested in an article focusing on informal and sportswear.

I own formal clothes, smart casual, business casual, but as trends continue I'll probably never wear any of that stuff again, other than maybe some smart casual on dates with my wife.

Lots of people spend all their time at work and home looking like they're dressed for a picnic at the park or are on the way to the gym, so it would be interesting to see an article focusing on that kind of clothing.

I don't mind looking like I'm permanently on the way to the gym; I would like to look good doing so.
Well that's not a good way to run a company - it's basically designed to be customer hostile.
Yeah, but it's not like myriad cameras are recording their face and storing it for posterity whenever they leave the house! /s
New Practice Guide: Mobile Device Security: Corporate-Owned Personally-Enabled [pdf]
Tangentially related => I used ffmpeg + puppeteer to build StoryScroll https://neal.rs/app, which turns blog posts into scrolling videos for social media.

I also used to build a desktop app that my team uses to download Alexa Flash Briefing metrics (because there's no API for that)

Puppeteer's full-screen screenshots & DOM manipulation abilities are clutch!!
also, are they even really "modems"? I know that "cable modems" are really routers… surely cellular modems aren't all bzzzt-brrzzt-bing-bong-bing-bong like my 90's Hayes 1200baud.
You're probably in luck with the next iPhone after https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/04/qualcomm-and-apple-ag...
Docker DSM License activation ends on Aug 12th 2019
I have a hybrid (2013 Volvo V60 D6), and I really like the car itself with it's three modes, Pure, Hybrid and Power (Pure feels like a BEV with a tiny 40km battery; Hybrid is mostly like my previous car, just 15 years younger; Power is pretty pointless for daily driving, but it's quite fun to "feel" the combined 285hp).

BUT: Every single time I drive on Diesel, I feel like I should have gone with a pure electric car: Driving on battery just has a much better feel to it. That's with a 70hp electric engine (not much for a 2t car) and a really well behaved 215hp diesel engine (it only "roars" when it delivers a lot of power, but during normal driving it's calm).

The point is: Don't go with the Q5 Hybrid if you can avoid it ;-) If you can afford it, maybe lease a cheap/nice car for a year (or two) and see what the BEV market has to offer then. You won't regret it (and worst case: Save some money by buying a Q5 as leasing return).
I believe that's Dave Barry.

“You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests you think she's pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment.”
> In 2008, those three publishers released 98 games; in 2018 they released just 28, not including expansions. In short, the single-player game was not sustainable. So why should we think the current model is?

The single player game was 'dead' because video game companies decided they were dead, not because of any market forces. They realized that games with multiplayer features sold a bit better, so they decided to focus on those, to the point of (mostly) abandoning single player games.

Big publishers decided to make fewer, bigger games. But indies (and other mid-tier devs) filled a huge market gap (Kickstarter, anyone?), so nothing really changed much.
Java and JavaScript programmers have solved it years ago. Maven Central and npm do the job :)
Those toughbooks are getting more and more powerful. They're made for jungle and desert (military contractors), have replaceable batteries, can be operated with gloves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnJAtSapAnQ
Choose any "let's write an OS in Rust" project that has recently been featured on HN. Then try to follow it using the stable compiler (sudo apt install rustc) and see what happens.

Maybe "work in progress" better describes the situation. We need to wait for the language to stabilize, then the tooling and finally the libraries before starting a huge project like writing an OS.
I just uploaded a picture of nicolas cage.
Limnic Eruption