Hacker News Reader

footpathon Google Pay app will no longer be available

There's the Google Pay service that processes payments.

There's the old Google Pay app that got rebranded as Google Wallet.

And then there's a newer Google Pay app available only in the US, Singapore, and India. This is the one getting shutdown.

And a very helpful chart: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Googlepayments.svg

footpathon A decades-long art forgery scheme

The documentary mentioned in the article, There Are No Fakes, is available for free streaming on a number of providers: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/there-are-no-fakes

Give it a watch! I find it exhilarating.

footpathon Apple Card’s new high-yield Savings account is now available, offering a 4.15 p

It's a semi-hidden product called Preferred Deposit under BofA's Merrill subsidiary:

https://resources.bankofamerica.com/email/render-resource/40... https://olui2.fs.ml.com/Publish/Content/application/pdf/GWMO...

Big banks like Chase and Morgan Stanley have similar deposit products tied to their investment/wealth management arms:

https://www.jpmorgan.com/wealth-management/premium-deposit https://www.morganstanley.com/campaigns/wealth-management/qu...

They are not really competitive due to the high initial deposit or total balance requirements, as there are smaller banks that offer higher yields and no requirements. These products mostly function as an incentive for higher net worth individuals to maintain the relationship with their existing big bank.

footpathon Apple Card’s new high-yield Savings account is now available, offering a 4.15 p

Here are two manually curated lists of the currently highest yielding FDIC-insured deposit accounts in the US:

https://phatwalletforums.com/topic/109/best-nationally-avail...

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/high-interest-savings-to-get/

4.15% is good, but there are better options, including with big banks like Bank of America (4.50% currently, though with an initial deposit requirement of $100k).

footpathon R. Crumb Means Some Offense

Interestingly, Disney's new Chip 'n Dale movie actually features a cameo of Crumb's Mr. Natural character.

footpathon Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet

https://abc.xyz/investor/news/releases/2019/1203/

Slightly more organized info in the intro bullets.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the CEO and President, respectively, of Alphabet, have decided to leave these roles. They will continue their involvement as co-founders, shareholders and members of Alphabet’s Board of Directors.

footpathon Y Combinator’s growth fund to back challenger bank Monzo

PayPal is rolling out the Venmo debit card, and they also offer reward credit cards in partnership with Synchrony Bank.

footpathon Corel confirms it has acquired virtualization specialist Parallels

Corel Painter has its niche among digital artists - it's still one of the higher end digital painting programs that simulates real life mediums (acrylic, oil, watercolor) remarkably well.

There's really no iPad equivalent to Corel Painter, but Corel registered the procreate.com domain to redirect to their Painter product page (Procreate (procreate.art) by the Australian company Savage is one of the strongest digital art applications on the iPad).

Corel has also recently purchased Gravit Designer, which presumably will stand as their main digital design app that competes with Sketch and Adobe XD.

footpathon Corel confirms it has acquired virtualization specialist Parallels

PowerDVD is CyberLink, you're probably thinking WinDVD (which apparently is still getting new updates).

footpathon Persuasive Cartography: The PJ Mode Collection

You can click on one of the other links and change the 'Subject' filter manually in the left column, like this:

https://digital.library.cornell.edu/?_=1494882330433&f%5Bcol...

footpathon Zhou Youguang, creator of the Pinyin writing system, has died

I'm curious about that as well - I have always thought "zhun" is one syllable.

There can be confusions though - the standard way of writing pinyin groups whole words rather than individual characters, so something like "xian" may represent either "西安" (two syllables) or "先" (one syllable).

footpathon Zhou Youguang, creator of the Pinyin writing system, has died

Maybe it's a misspelling of supercentenarians?

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

footpathon IBM's “Think” Motto in Chinese

谋 is more like "strategize" and "scheme" than "think", there's a certain connotation associated with it that limits its scope.

Both 思量 and 考虑 as suggested in the blog do not work too well as mottos, I feel, as they lack in simplicity and elegance and work better as part of a complete sentence. 思考 is OK, but just 思 (as mentioned in one of the blog comments) could be even better.

footpathon Zhou Youguang, creator of the Pinyin writing system, has died

You're right about Bopomofo - both it and pinyin are based on the same pronunciations so there's actually a one-to-one correspondence between the two systems:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bopomofo#Pinyin

footpathon The Need to Read

There is a quote from one of Roger Ebert's movie reviews:

"No one with a feeling for literature and poetry can read the typical best-selling business or self-help book with a straight face, because their six rules or nine plans or 12 formulas are so manifestly idiotic, and couched in prose of such insulting simplicity."

footpathon China’s tyranny of characters

Which doesn't really matter in this case. The character for "he" in vernacular Cantonese is "佢", which isn't used at all in Mandarin.

The characters for "don't know how" in vernacular Cantonese are written as "唔識" in traditional Chinese or "唔识" in simplified Chinese, which are used in Mandarin, but never in this context (as the example given, the common way of saying "don't know how" in Mandarin is "不會" in traditional Chinese or "不会" in simplified Chinese").

In a sense, the relationship between various Chinese "dialects" and standard Mandarin Chinese is similar to the Scots language's (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scots_language) relationship to English.

footpathon China’s tyranny of characters

Although in the case of Hong Kong, neither Pinyin input nor Zhuyin input are likely to be used, as both are based on the phonetics of standard Mandarin Chinese. There are alternative input methods that are shape-based (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_input_methods_for_comp...) such as the Cangjie, and Cantonese-only input methods.

footpathon How a comment on Hacker News led to 4½ new Unicode characters

It is true to some extent. While 青 and 靑 have different codepoints, there are plenty of characters of the same codepoint that are rendered differently depends on the language specificed:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_unification#Examples_of_la...

Han characters that are traditionally viewed as variants of one another, or that are simplified from more complex logograms (such as 龜, which was simplified into 亀 in Japan and 龟 in mainland China) tend to have different codepoints, but the stylistically different ones usually belong to the same codepoint.

footpathon US Cellular Now a Part of Project Fi's Network

It's possible to transfer your number back to Google Voice after you cancel Project Fi:

https://support.google.com/fi/answer/6079398

However, it's not guaranteed:

"Google Voice’s number availability changes regularly, so even if your number was previously on Google Voice, it can’t always be transferred back. If you’d like to keep this number, we recommend transferring it to another carrier that supports it."

footpathon An Exhibition That Proves Video Games Can Be Art

The HN discussion on Ebert's comment was quite fascinating: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1273241

Jason Rohrer lived a very minimal lifestyle before 2012, as described here: http://hcsoftware.sourceforge.net/jason-rohrer/simpleLife.ht...

We have set our yearly budget at about $9,756. Town, village, and school property taxes eat up about $1500 of this per year. After that, we have a budget of about $688 per month. We have devoted $200 of this to utilities (water, electric, and amortized heat), and $65 to telephone and Internet. You might be laughing: "No fridge, but you have DSL, huh?" Remember, I am a computer programmer. After all of these expenses, we are left with about $423 per month, which must cover food and other purchases.

His computer setup back then involved a broken Dell Inspiron 4100 with 950 MHz processor and 256 MiB of RAM: https://usesthis.com/interviews/jason.rohrer/

His game Passage is a free download from his website.

footpathon Alan Rickman, Harry Potter and Die Hard Actor, Dies Aged 69

If you look up the term "dies" in HN Search, you can find obituaries for all kinds of people submitted to HN in the past, from Gabriel García Márquez to Roger Ebert to Kim Jong Il.

footpathon New Windows 10 Devices From Microsoft

Would this link work better?

http://blogs.windows.com/devices/2015/10/06/a-new-era-of-win...

Blog post with links to all the new devices.

footpathon The Trader Who Donates Half His Pay

There was a similar story with Jason Trigg, an MIT graduate who went to work for a hedge fund just so he could give money away, also influenced by Peter Singer. See these discussions:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5800345

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5819762

Here's the top comment from the second link:

Quote from quanticle:

        If you choose a profession that doesn't arouse your everyday passion for
	the sake of serving instead some abstract faraway good, you might end up as a
	person who values the far over the near. You might become one of those people
	who loves humanity in general but not the particular humans immediately
	around. You might end up enlarging the faculties we use to perceive the far
	-- rationality -- and eclipsing the faculties we use to interact with
	those closest around -- affection, the capacity for vulnerability and
	dependence. Instead of seeing yourself as one person deeply embedded in a
	particular community, you may end up coolly looking across humanity as a
	detached god.

Brooks sees this as a disdvantage, but I do not. Frankly, given the levels of irrational thought and behavior we see in the world today, we should be doing everything we can to increase the amount of rationality and far-oriented thinking in the world. I would posit that a world in which people were more like Jason Trigg would be a far better world, on every measurable metric, than the present that David Brooks endeavors to defend. I mean, Trigg, at least, has a goal and a plan to achieve it. The goal is the old utilitarian one of achieving the greatest good for the greatest number. The means is to earn lots of money and spend it on that goal.
Third, and most important, I would worry about turning yourself into a means rather than an end. If you go to Wall Street mostly to make money for charity, you may turn yourself into a machine for the redistribution of wealth. You may turn yourself into a fiscal policy.
And what's wrong with that? The problem with fiscal policy is not the goal of fiscal policy. It is the coercive means used to achieve it. There is no coercion here. No one is forcing Jason Trigg to give away his wealth. He is doing it of his own volition. Were he older and richer, he'd be lauded as another Carnegie, or another Gates.
Making yourself is different than producing a product or an external outcome, requiring different logic and different means. I'd think you would be more likely to cultivate a deep soul if you put yourself in the middle of the things that engaged you most seriously. If your profoundest interest is dying children in Africa or Bangladesh, it's probably best to go to Africa or Bangladesh, not to Wall Street.
That's not true at all. Sure, if you have skills that are needed in Africa or Bangladesh, it's best to go there. But not everyone has such skills. If we all pitched in like Jason Trigg and managed to get a cheap malaria vaccine crafted, say, 3 years from now, we'll have done far more good than if we'd all gone to Bangladesh or Africa volunteering to hand out bed nets. It comes down to the old question: are you worried about doing good or feeling good? If you're worried about doing good, you coldly analyze all the alternatives, and pick the one with the highest impact, even if it has zero visibility whatsoever. If you're worried about feeling good, you do what David Brooks advocates. You go down to Africa, Asia, or where-ever and get warm fuzzies by hoisting the white man's burden.

Rationality is not a sin. Calculation is not a sin. Money is not inherently sinful. All of these things are means, and have the capability to do both great good or great harm, depending on the end to which they're applied. Jason Trigg understands this. David Brooks does not. And that's why I, personally, respect Jason Trigg a lot more than David Brooks.

footpathon ‘Braid’ creator sacrifices his fortune to build his next game

Here's a nice thread about Jonathan Blow's view on investing: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2198255

you are better off taking the mental energy you would have expended on "investing" and subsequently worrying about your money, and instead funneling it into your creative endeavors. You will make more money that way, especially when you take a long-term view.

...

If creative endeavors are profitable, you can use the resulting money to fuel more creative endeavors, thus making the world a better place. Keeping money in a bank account or publicly-traded stock does not particularly make the world a better place.

Once I got approximately into the f-you money level of income, it became crystal clear how fictitious money is in the first place. I wake up one morning, and bam, I am wealthy! Why? Because someone said so and typed a number into a computer. Okay... that's kind of weird.

Given that money is so fictitious and somewhat meaningless, it is a shame to give into primal hoarding impulses, just so one can see the number in one's bank account go up like a high score in a video game. It's much better to make like Elon Musk and use your money for what it is: a way to wield influence to make the world more like you would like it to be.

footpathon Laser inventor and Nobel laureate Charles Townes dies at 99

Some discussion from yesterday:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8957090

footpathon Gmail blocked in China

Here is an editorial from Global Times (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Times, a government mouthpiece known for its ardent pro-Party slant): http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/899197.shtml

Some select quotes:

"The problems with Gmail access this time may be caused by the China side, by Google itself or a combination of the two. But Western media pointed the finger at Chinese authorities immediately, accusing them of strengthening its cyber censorship. This is far too simple a hypothesis. It should be noted that Google voluntarily quit the mainland market in 2010. The issue at heart is to what extent Google is willing to obey Chinese law, on which China's attitude is steadfast."

"In this sense, it's dubious that China "blocked" Gmail simply over security concerns. Since both Google and China haven't given an explanation and meanwhile Gmail is a technically complex system, there may be some puzzling reasons behind the incident.

"If the China side indeed blocked Gmail, the decision must have been prompted by newly emerged security reasons. If that is the case, Gmail users need to accept the reality of Gmail being suspended in China. But we hope it is not the case."

The article's original Chinese version can be found here: http://tech.huanqiu.com/internet/2014-12/5313893.html

Curiously, the English version is missing the following two paragraphs:

"中美围绕互联网既有合作，亦有摩擦，双方的相互适应过程仍在继续。由于中美关系庞大而复杂，互联网问题只是其中一部分，外部变数的影响也是存在的。"(Third to last paragraph)

My translation: In regards to the Internet, China and the US both cooperate and experience some frictions, so the mutual adaptation process of the two sides continues. Due to the complexity of the Sino-US relationship, Internet issues are only a part of it, and there also exist other external variables.

"因此无论Gmail“失联”是谷歌还是中方的原因，或者是复合原因，使用者们不妨顺其自然，做多手准备。中国发展有过多难以计数的磕绊和插曲，这个故事又算得了什么。"(Last paragraph)

My translation: Whether Gmail's "losing contact" is caused by Google or China, or a combination thereof, users should just go with the flow, and be prepared with other backup plans. China's development process has been met with countless stumbles and other interludes, so this story doesn't really matter in the end.

footpathon Depression

To note: byuu is the author of bsnes, an emulator that seeks to be the most accurate representation of the original SNES hardware. Previously discussed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3675123

Also an article from Ars Technica: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2011/08/accuracy-takes-power-o...

footpathon Low Light and High Dynamic Range photography in the Google Camera App

You are still looking at it from a purely technical perspective. In the article, the photographer already mentioned that he's only using the iPhone for the "composition and the perfect photo opp".

The point of the parent, I think, is that in the hands of a competent photographer, any adequate camera can produce works of certain artistic merit. Those who are most up in arms about the technical aspects of a camera often ignore the artistic aspects of a photograph.

Here is a video of how an awarding-winning cinematographer (Phillip Bloom) films a short video using a low-resolution Barbie Doll camera: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VS3C183G8g

All technical aspects of the Barbie Doll camera are dismal, but the end product, when viewed as a whole, is not something that an Average Joe can produce, even if equipped with a RED ONE camera.

footpathon Walmart Prepares to Offer Low-Cost Checking Accounts

Charles Schwab's mobile deposit limit varies depends on the user and probably a variation of factors. I know someone with a mobile deposit limit of $1,000. When I first opened my Schwab checking account, I had a deposit limit of $10,000, and has now fallen to $5,000, which, in comparison with the stats shown on this page:

http://www.mybanktracker.com/news/2014/03/19/comparing-mobil...

is still pretty good. Fidelity also offers a Money Management account that can essentially function as checking account, and has comparable features as Schwab (refund all ATM fees worldwide, for example), and according to the Fidelity site, their daily mobile deposit limit is $25,000.

footpathon Email Is Still the Best Thing on the Internet

Email was one's passport and identity. Before Facebook became a true alternative for verifying one's identity on the web, the email address was how one accomplished serious things on the Internet. Want to verify a bank account? Email. Amazon? Email. Forums? Email. Even Facebook in the early days? Email.

Looking at Facebook's sign up page right now, and it seems that email is still required for registering a new account.

The thing is, almost every Internet service still requires an email address to sign up, and that ranges from mobile games to ecommerce shops. Some services provide the alternatives of allowing users to sign up via Facebook/Twitter/Google+; but in order for the users to get a Facebook/Twitter/Google+ account, they'll still need to sign up using an email address. Besides, almost all services that allow social network sign-in gives their users the option to sign up with email as well.

The services that do not allow email signups are few and far between -- like Medium.com, for example, but as said before, in order to get a Facebook or Twitter account, the user would still need an email address. Even mobile only apps like Whatsapp still appear to require an email address to sign up for their online support site.