ikurei

> [...] some people did reach out and most congratulated me. Which means a lot of people want it, they get its bad for them but "everybody is there" is the main argument.

I wouldn't give much weight to those congratulations. When I went vegetarian a lot of people did the same. Most new acquaintances that discover my vegetarianism respond very positively, specially left-leaning people. Although I try not to preach, I'm too often the only one that orders a salad. But they always follow it with "I see that it's wrong, but I could never stop eating burgers/cheese/jamón". I'm not even sure they truly think it's wrong, but feel a need to say it.

It's one of those things that many people associate with positive traits or stories. We've all seen the inspiring posts or youtube videos of the people who refuse to use a car because of pollution, or stop eating meat because of animal suffering, or will never use a device that runs proprietary software...

We seem to like these stories, and sometimes even admire the commitment, while having no intention of doing anything like. We feel good for congratulating them of tweeting our support.

(For example, many here admire Richard Stallman's commitment and honesty, and agree with a lot of what he says, but read him froma Mac. We are never going to switch to an old libreboot-able PC with gNewSense, but we sympathize with his cause.)

Many people love Facebook, and many others hate it but can't be weaned off it. We won't get very far by abandoning Facebook and prompting others to do the same. We'll a alternative, and/or very strong positive and negative reinforcement to do so.

> The difference is these few days blew off the periphery of uncertain users. It won't hurt them now, but in the long run - it may be like tobacco.

Your comparison with tobacco is very apt. People stopped smoking when a) leaving it was applauded, and b) people still smoking were starting to be seen with some contempt. It took a long time to build those up though. We are very far away from that with Facebook, and even if us leaving is the beginning, I don't think we want to wait 10 or 15 years. Tobacco damaged lungs, Facebook damage could be much more insidious.

But doesn't the status bar remain green while an app is doing that?

(I commented on your grandparent)

I agree that these are the main issues with using this kind of component. However, most of the time there is no need to fork the component and, if you actually need things that the component doesn't allow, then it's the time to do it yourself. Because that doesn't always happen, if the component is easy to use it often is worth to go with it and only do the additional work if you need it.

> or the configuration expands to be its own little akwards DSL with very surprising edge cases.

This is the crux of the matter. However with this particular library, the configuration is extremely reasonable, simple and readable. It would be no problem to refactor the code to use the very same configuration to create your own table.

Please try to explain further why something is a good or bad idea. Share your experience. I'm sure your criticism could be useful for many.

In my experience with React, this kind of approach produces much more readable and elegant code. And also less code. And as long as the configuration objects are simple and readable like these, the problems with it are not serious.

It's true though that when your needs get more specific and complex you will surely find you need something not included in the component's configuration options. In those cases some components will let you specify custom things, which may or may not be enough[1].

Then it's trivial to reuse that configuration and iterate over them creating the table yourself.

Most tables I've done could easily be written with this component. Most of the time I actually do something very close to its configuration objects, and then iterate over them with a `map` to create the `td` and `tr`. This allows me to separate concerns more clearly.

(I don't know about using css-grid instead of the old tables. Really, I don't know css-grid well enough.)

[1] The OP's let's you specify a custom renderer for particular columns. That won't solve everything, but will do for many cases.

> I can actually grind more nowadays, and I'm less tired when it ends. It probably doesn't have anything to do with smoking or not[...]

Well, your respiratory system is probably much healthier now. I would expect better oxygenation to make you less tired, to give you more stamina.

I've never been a smoker, so I'm curious, how big an impact would you say healthier lungs had in your life?

This just in: having kids reduces your life-maneuverability, precluding you from embarking in some kinds of projects! :P

> If you have a family, a few kids and maybe parents that rely on your financial support, a single dry month without income may spell disaster.

Sounds like you are asking for all companies to be stable and reliable sources of income. That wouldn't make any sense.

I actually agree with a lot of what you're saying. I'm working at a non-SV start up, and we've made many efforts to create a "normal" work environment: paying everyone at least enough to stay alive and out of debt, leaving at 5 and trying to reduce the ammount of extra-time people have to put in...

But we also realize the ways in which this is limits us, and I totally understand that when someone needs a breakthrough innovation or to fix a very hard problem, extraordinary sacrifices may have to be made. I know other startups working in the more SV/crunch style and honestly it probably makes sense for them.

Being willing to go this far for what you believe (or may be for the money you expect to make) has value.

Being able to go this far of course is very dependent on your lot in life (which is something we should work against, with a social safety net that enables people from all wealth levels), and also on the decisions you made before (like having kids; which I don't know we can be doing all that much about).

(I hope I made any sense, mondays are bad for my english-writing skills.)

> if you're already looking to use e.g., Emacs, you'll be better off using org-mode

I find that you should use org only if you use Emacs. Vim plugins for Org are very limited, and this is even more true for other editors.

Judging a technology only for its technical merits is unproductive. Markdown has "won", it's everywhere and everyone can learn to use it. Those are damn powerful advantages.

Using Markdown, I gain the ability to read and write on a smartphone or tablet in my phone or tablet, which for some notes is extremely convenient. Many times being able to access my notes on philosophy from my phone during a bus commute allowed me to develop and write down a thought, which would have been a pain to do with other technologies. Of course I could have done the same with other options, but this ubiquitous convenience and effortlessness is great.

What I'd love to see is a way to transition easy-to-write-everywhere to more powerful type-setting easily when needed. May be combining Markdown and Latex? Or converting Markdown to Latex before publishing?

I'm sure this exists already; I just haven't needed it enough yet :)

This trope makes me quite sad...

I'd love to learn other languages and stacks! It's just that, often, it isn't a worthy use of my time. All that time used into learning C++ and Qt would be better used in making and improving my software.

This is even more impactful when hiring people. I'm building a small team that has to handle Web development, mobile apps, and someday a desktop app. The less different skills I need for all of this, the more cost-effective it will be.

Personally, I'd rather have ultra-fast, spartan-looking, as-efficient-as-possible apps. If I could choose just by heart, I'd code in Lisp, and probably I wouldn't even make GUIs and just make CLI apps. Sadly, programming is not only a hobby and I have to consider my business needs before my technical preferences.

Engineering isn't about picking the best, most perfect technologies, but about handling trade-offs. Many are using web tecnologies because of the fads, and some out of lazyness, but many (i'd guess most) are doing it because it's worth it.

Thanks for the suggestion, i'll check it out right away.

It's a service that converts text or websites to audio. It's voices seem pretty good (I've just tested a couple, both with text in english and in spanish).

I love that it haves the ability to integrate the articles I send to Narro into a podcast feed, that I can suscribe to see in Overcast next to my "real" podcast.

Definitely. I use it from time to time, but rarely I can get through more than a short article without being too frustrated with something of how it works.

Things like pronouncing in an inintelligible way any english words in the middle of an article in spanish, or reading A.P.I. as "A, period. P, period. I, period." make it so that it works great for some articles, and terribly for others.

I hate emoji too, but I think it's even more childish to care so much and be so judgemental about how other people use emoji.

Using emoji everywhere is very much in vogue and many people like it. It doesn't make you childish.

We (for some value of we that includes me and simooo) are just old, or old-fashioned youths.

I doubt they'll be that straight forward.

"Oil stains are better cleaned by treating the stain with vinegar and, after a few minutes, using an specialized local cleaner. Would you like to by one? I will arrive in 1 hour."

"Ok alexa"

"Would you like Dr Bubbles Super Cleaner, for 5$?"

"Sure"

Anyway, I'm sure they can include shitty advertising without diminishing the quality of the results in a way that normal, non-privacy-aware people will care about.

This is probably one of the most important questions possible: How should I teach my kids?

I was denied access to computers, and I don't think it did me any good. I'm 27, so a bit old for this topic, but my house was specially up to date bc of my dad's job. The internet was dangerous and diabolic in my mom's mind though, and my access to computers was extremely limited.

This, I feel, made me want computers even more. I realised early the magical powers of the internet. I wanted nothing more than a computer for myself. Even now, I easily get hooked (wouldn't say addicted) with videogames, porn, or just browsing.

Observing my friends, those who had more freedom in this regard are the ones that cares less about any of this; those of us still playing too much videogames are the ones who had very stingy restrictions there.

I'm under the impression that what my parents would have been better advised to do is give me more freedom. All of my younger siblings had more leeway in that sense, and I'm by far the most introverted of the bunch. All of my peers were very obviously more socially apt than me; they had been going out for years by the time I was allowed. Feeling at a constant disadvantage in social situations stifled me.

Of course, anecdata. Also, raising a child might be one of the most difficult and terrible things you can do. And at the same time, kids are more resilient that we give them credit for, as long as they're loved (!) and fed.

(I feel my parents did a fantastic job, even though I could point out a dozen things I think were very wrong. I'm sure if I had children of my own my opinion on my parents' job would increase dramatically.)

You seem to assume the business of a musician is to publish music and distribute it.

Artists also make a lot of their money by licensing their music, or concerts, which are big logistical problems full of middle men. Big labels also give you a lot of PR and visibility.

Since others are commenting alternative apps, I'll chime in:

https://www.camscanner.com/

I've been using CamScanner on Android since forever. I only stopped a few months ago because I moved to iOS (and didn't realize it's also there).

It does the page detection fairly well, but also let's you correct it. Very useful, specially when the picture is bad. I then used to upload it to Dropbox.

Notice that although it looks like Google doesn't have buildings in those links, they do. You just have to zoom in a bit for them to appear.

So what would you recommed for non-techical users? Does this put Firefox behind Chrome in your opinion?

> Does the new Firefox have a password sync feature like Chrome's?

It's had that for years, and I'm yet to have a problem with it.

> As an aside, one silly thing that tarnished Mozilla's brand for me was the treatment of Brendan Eich. I may not agree with his donation of money but I think impinging on his rights is a far more fundamental immorality than what he was accused of.

I can't decide if what they did was wrong or not, but I'm not totally comfortable with that issue either... no person or company is perfect though.

I don't see how that's straightforward, especially numbers 3 and 4. Are you gonna vote out the president just for NN? Even if you don't think the other guy is gonna be much different in that regard?

Americans cast one single vote (in presidential elections) for one of two candidates, on a myriad of issues of every level of seriousness. Leaving aside the fight to convince a majority of americans, just deciding to vote against someone for NN is anything but straightforward.

I don't see why the criticisms on the idea discussed in the article. We can try both routes, give them all the flak we can for this and also try alternative paths to NN. This is an extremely uphill battle, we should be looking for every remotely-viable path.

> But even with murder, the law doesn't stop murders before they happen, but rather only acts retroactively (and that is for good reason).

Murders are punished after they happen. But a plot to murder is in itself a crime.

Also, the fact that punishments come after the fact has nothing to do with this. Murder isn't banned after it happens. It's banned before it happens.

Lastly, you say "the law only acts retroactively". The main purpose of punishing past actions is to disuade people from doing them in the future. If I hate my boss but I decide not to murder him because I don't want my child to grow with me in prison, the law has stopped a crime before it happens.

I just googled it. Can't say I'm a fan, I didn't even know about it. It seems very focused on home-maintenance and tools, which I know nothing about, but I'll certainly check it out in greater depth ;)

Do you mean this [Cool Tools](http://kk.org/cooltools/) (http://kk.org/cooltools/)?

TL;DR: I see that Apple is doing great engineering, but where is this engineering better than Samsung's? Or is it not?

---

This was fascinating, but I am not very knowledgable when it comes to hardware and I have a burning question.

Everybody here seems to think this was a great feat of engineering. I am looking also at the teardown of the Samsung Galaxy S8. Where is Apple doing a better work than Samsung? Is it just the fact that Apple are "doing it themselves" that is impressive? (not implying it isn't.)

The only thing I can see is that the iPhone X seems to devote much more space to battery, by cramming up all of the components tighter together. Does this mean the iPhone X will have a better battery life?

I truly have no dog in the fight, and have no interest in starting a flame war. I'm just curious.

PD: Yeah, the A* CPUs are fantastic, no doubt. But that doesn't show in this teardown.

> Part of the reason Google's initial launch was so ballsy and great (which they've lost over the years) was a strong focus on getting the user off the search results page as fast as possible.

That's an interesting example, because it contains also why Google changed. There is little business to be had in just being a place where users spend as little time as possible.

I'd say it's both.

Anecdotally, to me being able to see the whole title and in a vertical list is just enough to like it, it makes it so much easier to find something among a shitload of tabs. Also, I feel it's a much better use of space in widescreen displays.

The tree part of it is less important, but also very useful to visually group related tabs.

Task-managing feels wrong to me in most (all?) OSes I've tried. A browser window with 100 tabs, relating to different research topics and ideas, feels wrong.

For that, I'd rather use one window per topic, and have the tabs in there be related, and that's what I tend to do. It's not always comfortable, and having several big/fullscreen windows from the same app in MacOS is a PITA. Also, you don't always know how much a task is gowing to grow and branch out...

I'm always curious to know how other people deal with this and how they feel about it.

I assumed by x200 you meant x200-series.

I love old-ish laptops, but how is that Core 2 Duo holding up? No touchpad, 1200x800 screen... What do you do with it, if it's not much to ask? I'm truly curious.

He might very well be a cat, but it's true that Thinkpads are sold with very different panels, even in the same Thinkpad model[1].

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:X260

The x260, for instance, can have a 300:1 contrast ratio, 200 candelas screen, or a 700/1, 300 candelas screen.

[1] Would "model" be the right term then?

Don't you need an at-least-mediocre GPU to get high resolution on 3 monitors on any OS? I wouldn't connect 3 high resolution monitors to a Windows or Mac machine with no GPU.

Hard to guess the tone, but do you mean that in a negative way?

I think it's fantastic that MS are being forced by Mac to improve their damn OS. Mac being the only option for many people (although I love Linux) was a terrible situation.

> The performance bottlenecks I hit seem to be disk i/o related.

Would it be possible to mount the folders with the code on RAM? They aren't, usually, very heavy. May be a small-ish 500mb volume on RAM could help? Is this even possible on WSL/Windows?