FlailFast

Likewise! I'm halfway through myself. I'm a huge HP fan, and the concept of a Harry Potter universe with slightly modified initial conditions taken to a logical conclusion ("taken to a logical conclusion" being the operative phrase with this book) was hugely appealing. Loving every page, would highly recommend.

Another fanfic that's well worth reading for the consumate HP fan, although cut from a very different cloth: Dumbledore's Army and the Year of Darkness [https://www.fanfiction.net/s/4315906/1/Dumbledore-s-Army-and...]. If you've ever read Ender's Game, imagine Ender's Shadow for Book 7 of Harry Potter. :)

Just got it---thanks so much!

I'd also love an invite if you have an extra one. I'm joshcincinnati at gmail dot com. Thanks!

In Soviet SciFi, headline titles Must-Rewrite By You! :)

Which, rather ironically, didn't make it an outlier of the pop psych book genre.

Perhaps the market is in for equilibrium on the other side? Both Snapchat and toilet paper serve useful temporal utility, disappear almost immediately, and rarely contain anything but shit. Kimberly Clark (the maker of some of the most popular toilet paper brands) is currently worth $40bn according to the public markets.[1] Given that Snapchat is only worth $19bn, I wonder if perhaps Kimberly Clark is in for a deep correction.

[1]http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=KMB

Me too. I did free math tutoring for a while and it was a such a good feeling when I helped folks understand a previously difficult concept. Had a big problem with random cancelations, which made scheduling really difficult and made me less enthused to Helpout. Still, I'm sad to see it go.

This makes me so happy. If they get a C&D, I'm sure/hope the schematics are leaked for a 3d printed version.

In the long run, you can't stop the signal, Mal.

That small change was enough to get me to uninstall the Facebook app on my Nexus 5, and while I imagine there are others that felt that way, it certainly didn't manifest itself in their numbers, leading to some cognitive dissonance on my part.

The incredible staying power of default behavior being what it is, I'm sure these continued attempts to grow FB's mobile control on Android will be ignored/accepted...but it makes me wonder at what point a normal user will say "enough is enough." What's the threshold for abusive default behavior in an app? Or a network/platform, for that matter?

It's not cheating if the CPU is a Chess Processing Unit. :)

Can we call the conscious cultivation of this attitude the JFDI Mind Trick? :)

Good point, although I'd prefer to pay less to not have Android TV (I don't think the TV platforms make any sense compared to "Casting" content from mobile devices).

Maybe Chromecast v2 could have that, alongside HDMI 2.0? That, plus 802.11ac and 2x2 antennas would make it absolutely perfect. (And probably more expensive than $35, but possibly worth it)

As much as I like Fred Wilson, he occasionally does these native ad blog posts about companies in USV's portfolio and I have to admit it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I don't doubt his sincerity; when it comes down to it, I think he's trying to help startups and entrepreneurs, and the best way he can do that is reference his portfolio companies...but ultimately "an experience that a company I'm intimately familiar with" winds up feeling like "I have a large audience of highly networked people reading my blog and I should leverage this to promote my investments."

Inbox user chiming in: I actually like the desktop interface, and it's nice to not have to change mental context when using Inbox on mobile vs the desktop (probably the best, if more subtle, benefit to the Material overhaul of Google's services). My biggest gripe is the more restrictive keyboard shortcuts compared to Gmail, which basically necessitates using a mouse for some operations. But I imagine that will be remedied over time.

"Never tell me the odds." -Han Solo, who statistically must exist in the multiverse.

Thanks! Clearly missed that when I skimmed.

Armchair astrophysicist here: any way that these clocks could be used to detect evidence of gravitational waves? Seems like it would be a good use case for increasingly sensitive clocks.

Okay, so I came across a bit strong there, and I apologize for that. Yes, language is fluid, and meanings "flip polarity" all the time ("nonplussed" comes to mind).

Yes, there is ample evidence that it was used to mean "with emphasis, but not in reality" for some time. I was wrong. I was attempting to make a glib remark without much consideration for facts...next time I'll endeavor to either keep my snide commentary to myself, or at least do a bit of fact checking.

...but in the mean time/back to the parent topic, people really should read Phillip K. Dick. He's a fantastic writer and visionary, and uses language far better than I can.

Quite true, and sometimes in a very literal[1] sense![2]

[1] Literal in the classic sense, not the contranymical nonsense that has been thrust upon it thanks to teenagers who "can't even"...read a dictionary.

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_adaptations_of_works_by...

> A revolutionary bit of technology called the block chain

Nice overview, but something that bugs me whenever someone talks about Bitcoin (particularly some VCs): they talk about the blockchain independently, as a "technology," without recognizing that, in fact, it's as much a triumph of technology as it is a triumph of clever incentives. Small semantic point in this article, but more broadly applicable when folks say "they don't love Bitcoin, but they love the 'blockchain technology.'"

Spoiler alert: the blockchain is both reputable and trustless because there are thousands of miners securing the network by hashing the night away. And why do they do it? Because of the unit of account they generate by participating.

Whenever I hear someone talk about how they love "the technology of the blockchain" without explicitly mentioning the incentives at play, I automatically become suspect of whether they actually understand what's going on. (I'm looking at you, venture capitalists) Less of a problem with this article, but I think it's worth highlighting all the same.

I like this idea a lot, but given the centralization of authority to a user's email account, I do think it requires beefed up security for however the user accesses their email---i.e., would be great to allow this only for users who have 2FA enabled on their webmail, although I have no idea how you'd check or enforce that.

Actually, the "lost password" flow already assumes email as a single point of failure, so I suppose my 2FA comment is moot (in other words, we should be pushing for 2FA for accounts regardless of their password approach on other accounts).

This is so great to see. I know we're years away, but what does the HN community think it would take for Daala to reach the Opus-levels? Not just in technical achievement, but widespread usage/hardware support? I would love to have a completely free codec dominate video.

Agreed on Square, but they even went a step further for a time and allowed geofencing at your favorite places...back when Square Wallet was still around, I used to frequently go to a Houston-area coffee shop with Square Register and never had to pull my phone out to pay. It was downright magical...wish they hadn't cancelled Wallet, it really had so much potential.

An alternate title: People with incentives to promote lean startup methodology score massive consulting contract with GE.

Speaking as someone who who lived in Houston for the last two years, I disagree about Houstonians not wanting Uber/taxis. Yes, we all have cars, but I can't tell you how many times I would have preferred not to drive on Friday/Saturday nights (as a 20/almost 30-something). We wind up driving because, as you say, taxis were rare, and when they were around they were all pretty awful. Not living there now, but I'm very much looking forward to visiting Uber/Lyft.

Also, as an aside, I knew someone in Houston who was in city government, and it's amazing how some of these dynamics work. Basically, this change was blocked by the yellow cab lobby for the last two years, and only for the price of about $5,000 of campaign contributions per city council seat. Local politics are insane.

Quick someone code Groot!

Well, there is some value. For example, the value from having some popcorn and watching these things implode.

Next up, FCC chair accuses scapegoat of not providing good enough distraction while he dismantles net neutrality.

When I was a kid, I tried this with imported Zelda/Final Fantasy games. As an American, I was lucky enough to study Japanese as an elementary schooler, and back then, there was a pretty significant lag between Japanese and American releases.

Consequently, I had some pretty massive incentives to try out these RPGs and muddle through the language (play the game months before my friends!). Unfortuantely most of the kanji was beyond my ability to divine, and I didn't know how to use a kanji dictionary effectively back then...so I often didn't really know what I was doing, and wound up getting the English versions too.

Still, if I had a bit more support (slash knew how to use a kanji dictionary), I could have imagined it really working to improve my Japanese ability. Now that the lag doesn't exist for game releases there's not as much incentive, but it would be interesting to see someone design a game with these sorts of things in mind.