skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Always knew authoritarian and corrupt regimes are irrational, but banning vlc? What kind of mental gymnastics have they employed in doing so?
It is a little more complicated than that. A large percentage of people in India access the Internet from their mobile phones and are likely to be using the data plan of their mobile carrier. So, they do not have that luxury.
> the EU previously mandated micro-usb support

No they didn't, compliance is voluntary, just read the linked wiki page.

I agree with the point that it won't stifle Innovation though. The swift passing of the USB-C mandate has proven to me that the EU can move quickly, so if a new connector comes along they will be able to switch the law reasonably quickly.
A personal Google for your things
varkar (rhymes with "bar bar")
Hey! Just wanted to say I'm a huge fan of VLC, you saved me from having to look for codecs for Windows Media Player about a decade ago.

But I wanted to ask, the Indian Govt said they banned VLC because there was a hacked version that was infecting users' computers. Do you think that was the actual reason or was it something else and they just used that for cover? To me, "someone hacked a version and put malware into it" is just not a reason to ban the software outright, it's like if they banned Windows because someone got a virus.
>We are a ridiculously stupid species

Can you explain what you mean by this?
Intechopen is not peer reviewed at all. They publish anything that claims to be science, from quantum to traditional chinese medicine articles about qi and energy flows.
Deming’s Red Bead Experiment
not a nuclear proponent. but the maxim "don't let perfect be the enemy of good". just because its lossy doesn't mean we can the idea.
Do you have to watch these non-skippable FBI warnings?
It’s going just fine, from my perspective. Unfortunately I now have three different types of cables (micro-B, USB-C and lightning), and it makes it extra challenging that USB-C is sometimes double ended, sometimes B-to-C. On the other hand, it’s very nice I can charge my new Framework laptop and iPad using the same cable cable and charger.

But it’s going quite quickly, and most of the apple devices I bought recently already have USB-C in one way or another, and the actual problem for me is replacing power banks and chargers so that they support USB-C as well. Most of them assume USB-C == “high power slot”, when I just need a few of them for smaller stuff (AirPods and Apple Watch both came with USB-C cables).
> they were the only major manufacturer on the market not playing ball with a standardized port

I genuinely believe that there’s only one real reason Apple resisted moving away from Lightning:

They saw the writing on the wall from the EU over the last few years, and - remembering the way people lost their minds over the switch from 40-pin to Lightning (“it’s a money grab! they want me to replace all of my accessories!”) - chose to wait so they’d have someone to deflect blame to.

Licensing revenue from Lightning MFi is a drop in the bucket. I’m not a manufacturing operations expert, but I have to imagine that the simplification of supply chains alone will nearly offset that loss over time.
For C Code UML is sort of moot. UML shines outlining object oriented designs and transactions. Management loves it along with Power Point and large conference rooms. I don't know who in their right mind think that is possible or useful to standardize software documentation. Except the README or its fancy cousing README.md of course. That's standard. ;)
> Although compliance is voluntary, a majority of the world's largest mobile phone manufacturers agreed to make their applicable mobile phones compatible with Europe's common external power supply specification (EN 62684:2010).

Is compliance voluntary for this new ruling?
Because from a 10,000 foot view, everybody wants the same thing, but when you get down in close it turns out they don't, and the differences dominate the similarities. Common misunderstanding. A very similar root cause to the UML failure story currently on the front page.

Scaffolding tools in particular have the problem that once you union all the different requirements the resulting scaffolding is insane and impossible for anyone to understand. Some people need to have C modules in whatever non-C language you're working in. If your scaffolding doesn't include that they need to do a lot of work. If it does include that, a whole bunch of other projects now have a lot of crap they don't need, which may be difficult to extract properly from the resulting scaffold. Multiply this process by dozens of features and you end up with something that is basically guaranteed to be a monstrosity that nobody can understand, to be missing critical features, or most excitingly, both at the same time.

The natural solution many will jump to then is "Oh, we'll make it configurable!" Now the scaffolding authors are responsible for testing the exponentially-growing state space of possible configurations, and the scaffolding, whose whole point in life is to be simple, is now complicated. And most of the time, if you discover your scaffolding configuration was wrong after you've already started work it's non-trivially challenging to fix the config and re-run. This basically turns the scaffolding into a non-Turing complete domain-specific language. Those have their uses, but "operating in a fundamentally Turing-complete programming space" isn't one of them. It's also arguably an inner platform, replicating what the language already has.

But jerf, you protest too much. You seem to have disproved the utility of scaffolding in general, but I know that I've used it before successfully!

Yes, you can solve all these problems with basically the Gordian knot solution. You just provide scaffolding anyhow, and it can be helpful. But my proposition here would be that you basically just accept that any given scaffolding can't be The Solution For Everyone, you don't go crazy trying to provide endless configuration, and you just accept that it'll be missing features for some people and have unnecessary features for others. There is absolutely value in simple scaffolding even despite what I say here, especially for things like "Here's how to start getting into Ruby on Rails!" or other similar frameworks where it honestly may not be practical to expect someone to be able to bring up a new project from an empty directory. My point here is more to not jump into the Turing tarpit of spending tons of time and resources trying to 100% solve this problem everywhere and for everybody. Grab some quick wins, be aware of the risks, be aware of the infinite regress of feature requests that lies down this path with ever diminishing returns, and move on in life. There's plenty of other situations like this in the programming (and engineering in general) world.
Ask HN: Is serverless worth the time investment?
No reason to get upset over language conventions. There are many countries in which Colombia is refered to as Columbia (mostly phonetically). Same for the US: most countries refer to it simply as America. There are at least two countries which can be refered to as Congo. Beijing is refered to as Peking in old literature and in many european countries as well.
I don't particularly follow Apple's products, so I don't know when they started selling USB-C devices, and hence what "recently" means to you.

What I can say, is that in France on Amazon, USB-C cables and Lightning cables had similar prices when I last bought mine a few years ago. I usually compare Amazon Basics and Ugreen / Aukey brands.
Yes, "senior designers are jaded" should be added to the list — probably a differentiator between "senior" and "principal" to get over that sort of passive-aggression.
Yes, they brought it back. You can still charge via USB-C, though.
Are you talking about https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_external_power_supply? This wasn't a mandate, it was just a recommendation.
ClickHouse Cloud is now in Public Beta
SpaceX has been bidding against itself for NASA’s science missions for awhile
No it was never mandatory only voluntary. There was a threat to make it mandatory but most mobile phone suppliers signed a letter of intent on implementing a common standard (apple included).
>Programming languages aren’t intuitive either, yet we learned them.

While saying "it isn't intuitive" is a bit of a simplification, I think there is something to the argument.

I wonder if that is the case. Many programming languages do seem intuitive in light of other programming languages and other formal notation like math. The ones that don't are the ones I struggle with more. If I'm reading a new language and I see an '=' I can assume either a comparison or assignment. If I see a '<', I can normally interpret it as less than. The more a language violates this, the less intuitive I consider it and the harder it is to read through it without familiarity. This even applies among non-intuitive paradigms. OOP isn't what I would consider intuitive out the box (but then is anything), but once you know two languages implementation of OOP you can measure a third language's implementation as being intuitive to the exist pattern or not.

My experience with UML is that it was wholly new. It was as intuitive as the first programming language a person would learn if they didn't know math notation, which given the rate new students to programming know math notation, is a level of unintuitive that even most programming languages wouldn't have even as a first time language. Add in that many are introduced it alongside OOP in general (at least that was my experience in college) and it is even less intuitive than that.

So to that extent, I think I can criticize it as being non-intuitive even with the comparison to programming languages.
> the EU using its influence to exert control over things that don't matter at all.

If it doesn't matter at all, why is Apple still stubbornly refusing to adapt?
Words of Comission spokesperson, 2060: We're fully aware of Deukhoofd's words and even though they aren't in the letter of law, we're still working hard on approving a better connector. Unfortunately as all things in life, there are tradeoffs with every single change, so we're planning to come up with a new definition of the term "better connector" in the next 10 years. Stay tuned in our hard work and don't forget to vote on us if you want to see this finished.
How exactly is the charger the least of the worries if it is the one thing that you are forced to use?

I'm sure these will be available in iPhone design soon:

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/usbharpoon-is...

A charger has one job, namely to charge. Stop this "thin hardware design" mania and design a proper plug.
Yes.

What you describe in an ADHD context might be called "hyperfocus": It's a period of intense focus which you are able to maintain and enjoy cause it stimulates your brain.

But, critically, you are not able to maintain this hyperfocus for longer periods on a single topic as the stimulus of novelty flattens out and you become bored and understimulated and this quickly leads to procastination or switching to something new.
Reminds me of the "The Books Will Stop Working" incident from a few years back.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20297331
I'm not from the EU, but could they include a Micro <-> Type C adapter with the phone to skirt the mandate?
It's a British thing; I'll generally pick the underdog, even if both
fighters are assholes.
Have not used any of this tools other than in toy examples but I'm thinking the biggest problem is to keep the code and the template in sync.

I know I'm asking too much but I wish I can just update the template and have all the files generated by it updated too.
One of the constant refrains in the Anglo-Saxon world is to describe Europe and the EU as permanently on the verge of collapse. It has not occurred so far, and it will not occur this time either.
I've used an rtsp sever [1] along with hls.js [2] so that I can have it in a nicer webpage and then stuck it all behind a vpn (wireguard).

[1]: https://github.com/aler9/rtsp-simple-server
[2]: https://github.com/video-dev/hls.js/
> When will the EU ban HDMI connections to monitors or force Apple to remove them from MacBooks?

HDMI is a somewhat-open-ish, widespread standard and for what it's worth Apple MacBook models haven't carried HDMI ports for ages now.

> Why are dSLR cameras allowed to continue to use micro USB and SD cards when they could just use USB-C so we don't have to buy dongles and adapters?

Again, the market seems to converge towards USB-C already (almost all the models on [1] and other buying guides have USB-C), and for memory cards towards SD cards and CFexpress (on the pro segment). Both of these are somewhat-open-ish again.

The EU usually only steps in when the free market is either stuck somewhere along the road and needs a push towards a specific standard (=> USB-C), profit incentives need to be overruled (=> RoHS / leaded solder) or the free market suffers from oligopolies that need to be broken up for actual competition or the creation of an actual single market (=> EU-wide mobile roaming).

> The argument that Apple only provides one physical port (they also provide Magsafe and allow other wireless charging options) isn't sufficient with respect to your discussion point about market-wide standards.

Apple can provide a MagSafe port on MacBooks or a Lightning port on iDevices if they want. All Apple has to do is to support the mandated USB-C port as well!

[1] https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/buying-guides/the-best-mi...
Isn't this the real Eleventh Commandment?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eleventh_Commandment_(no...
I described some of my feelings on the matter fairly recently here:

https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/17/linux_desktop_feature...

My personal preference, and what I'm writing on right now, is Unity.

I am also very fond of the ROX Desktop.

What would I really like to see? Well, barring attempts to just rip up everything and start again for no good reason, I think there would be a lot of mileage in recreating some of the classic UIs of the past that many people have loved.

* Classic MacOS was a sublime UI, with a lot of subtle non-obvious features. In its way it was far more polished than Mac OS X, even now.

* OS/2 2.x's Workplace Shell was not one of my personal favourites, but it had some excellent design features, and was loved by many.

* I have an Amiga but I never was a big fan back in the day, but a good solid modern Amiga Workbench clone would have some mileage, and as I said in the article, there are already FOSS implementations, just not for xNix.

* GEM is FOSS now. Why not recreate DR's multitasking GEM/X on Linux, or any of the late-era multitasking GEM desktops from the Atari ST, such as Thing or TeraDesk?

One of my favourite UIs is undergoing a pretty good re-implementation effort, in the form of NeXTspace:

https://github.com/trunkmaster/nextspace

There are more than half a dozen non-Windows-like desktop metaphors. Is that enough for you or shall I find some more? :-)
The video referenced by this article is fantastic, well worth the watch.
Ask HN: How to Change from SWE/SRE to Sales?
I'm a SWE/SRE who has worked at a lot of big tech firms on backend systems. I got into software for the money and have mostly compartmentalized that side of my life since relationships with people are what really makes me happy.

Given my personality I've been wondering if I may be happier doing something that's more people oriented but still makes use of the knowledge and experience that I've accumulated over the past decade.

Could I leverage my strong background in software engineering to pivot into sales? Should I look into something else that's related and relatively social like developer relations?

A word of advice from anyone who has made a change like this would be a huge help. Thank you!
My two cents about the experiment: https://www.2uo.de/deming/#deming-and-systems
Free courses to learn Julia – Start learning today
Where are all the market players that sell phones with iOS with USB-C? I might have voted on them. Or, perhaps one that allows side-loading and has a removable battery and a fingerprint sensor?

Oh, capitalism makes all these choices possible for me, how wonderful!
Got "low/medium probability". Guess it's not that.
If the cost to rent is X and the cost to buy is some multiple of X such that I suspect we'd rent enough to overcome the buy, I will buy, fully knowing I may lose access to it some day.

Same reason that when I go to rent from RedBox and they offer the rental for $1 and let me keep the DVD for $2 or whatever I'll just buy.

It's much more likely that my entire Amazon/Apple/Whatever account gets banned for something than they revoke access to more than a small subset of the movies, so for me the risk is worth the reward.
I am hoarding DVDs and it's because a.) it's cheap, b.) it's reliable c.) it's future-proof and d.) I don't trust tomorrow's political/cultural landscape to not disappear things down the memory hole as well as subtly editing out offensive material or otherwise altering things in hard to detect ways. Case in point, not long ago a family member witnessed "Scrubs" being scrubbed of a particularly offensive joke that ran afoul of today's censors. With streaming, you have absolutely no control over what version of a movie you're seeing. What are you going to do? Store the bits and compare it to your neighbors'? That right there is a crime.
Interesting article. Felt strange to read through the entire thing and not see any mention of Rails, which I have to imagine is the most sophisticated, or at least the most widely used, example of the genre.
I have heard nobody in the US pronounce the first syllable in "character" other than as rhyming with "air".

But yes, when I (rarely) have to pronounce it, it's "vairkair".
Is there a change you accidently entered 2013 instead of 2003?
> So this would force Apple to replace MagSafe with USB-C? How is that not killing innovation?

Depends how the law is written.

"Must have at least one USB C port for charging"? Then current laptops with magsafe are already compliant.

"Must only have …"? Then I would agree it goes too far.
With the "14 biggest phone producers in the world", back when the original proposal for micro USB came up. I mean, who would you consult with?
| Even amongst Apple's own devices it is a mess. To charge an Apple Pencil with an iPad Pro you need not one, but two adapters.

I’m curious what you’re referring to. I charge my Apple Pencil while connected to my iPad, and my iPad chargers via usb c. No adapters for me?
City of London
Here are some interesting historical examples:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taligent

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copland_(operating_system)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workplace_OS
The color of bits simultaneously doesn't exist at all, and yet is very real
New dataset pushes limits of neuroscience
I’m not sure even how to respond to this. If a protocol is weak due to a flaw, like being susceptible to MITM attacks, then yes it is a problem with the protocol.

This is exactly my point. People are desperate for there to be no flaws in TLS, so much so they ignore MITM attacks.
Not a big app but I had a few small sites I ran on Ruby on Heroku. I moved them to a shared hosting provider using PHP. These apps are super basic but I was paying Heroku and realized that PHP would save me a 20 bucks a month and it wouldn't take long.

The real benefit is not having to worry about upgrading stacks at EOF and that stuff.
That isn't the relevant question. The relevant question is were you to get cancer today what would your prognosis be versus what it would have been forty years ago? Some cancers from forty years ago that were essentially death sentences are successfully treated today with minimal impact to quality of life. Obviously that's not the case for all cancers, but it is for many of the most common cancers - which has been our focus.

My point is year-over-year the progress has been slow and there's always reports of "breakthroughs" in cancer treatment. But if you look at the bigger picture you can see we've made serious strides in cancer treatment.
Apple already supports usb c and dropped lightning on IPADs but you are pretending for some reason that Apple's position is USB C is unsafe?
More than a few years, this particular legislation yes but it really started in 2009 where they wanted to mandate micro-usb.
Rich guys and their dumb graphs
It's not just extra DNR applied, modern image and video compression formats almost make it a point to erase all detail and texture from images.

For example, compare the WebP and AVIF (VP8/AV1) compression artefacts with JPEG (and MPEG).

With WebP and AVIF all textures and low contrast details tend to be erased or smoothed out, preserving only high contrast parts of the image.

The JPEG image may have some visible ringing and block edge artefacts, but at least the textures and fine details are preserved!
> Why don't we standardise payment protocols instead?

Like SEPA and PSD2?

> Or biometric identity verification?

Such as AFIS or maybe EU 2019/1157?

> Or ID cards even (that the UK is allergic to)?

EU 2019/1157 again?

It's not like EU standardisation of chargers is an outlier.
Lightning vs USB-C is like VHS vs Betamax or HD-DVD vs Bluray, only Apple has sufficient market power it can abuse to avoid the inevitable convergence towards a common standard. It's exactly the correct thing to do for a regulator to step in and fix this.
I actually liked the list. I see past the literal meaning of each sentence into situations I've seen managing designers in the past.

On deadlines: Sometimes there is pressure from the top that is completely unrealistic. I think it is ok to ask for a deadline, but I think it's better to propose a timeline as a way of getting to the stakeholder's real deadline in a manner that gets them amenable to reduce scope. It's an exercise in educating the stakeholder about the sheer weight of the ask. Time, money, output. Pick the one you care about the least.

On multiple designs: Of course for this one it depends. A simple button or form on a secondary page does not need several rounds of polish and iteration. Star feature on an upcoming flagship product, though, does.

On explaining decisions: This is mostly about getting buy-in from multiple stakeholders. I may be CTO and love the new design, but there are three other chairs in the room looking at the work and its more efficient if you prime the meeting with the constraints you were dealing with. A strong secondary benefit is that it makes you easier to recommend to others, since a big part of a strong referral is trusting that the referred party can properly portray themselves and their work to others.

On waiting for directions: If you've never managed juniors this may come as a shock, but a large number of juniors will sit and wait until they're told what to do. It is partially explained by cultural background at times, but its present everywhere I've worked. If one thing juniors took away from the article was this, then I would count that as a major win.

I could go on, but my overall point here is that many commenters are looking at this as designers that are focussed on specific skills of the craft, instead of seeing it as a stakeholders point-of-view on junior versus senior designers.

There is one thing I would add to the list that transcends the junior-senior distinction: Nothing beats an honest, enthusiastic designer.
Some quick googling indicates that asbestos brake pads are pretty rare these days (USA). Still can be a concern for mechanics who clean brake dust with compressed air though.
I thought all three of them had!