jsingleton

Depressingly pragmatic. While building resilience is certainly worthwhile, we can still fix this and should try.

I think individual actions can add up, particularly when we use the magnifying power of tech. I wrote a lot on this recently and I can't fit it all in a comment so I'll just link to it.

https://unop.uk/how-to-help-with-a-big-global-problem-as-a-t...

It boils down to a three step process:

- Understand

- Organise

- Amplify

There's a post for each and more to come.

Very well put. We have the tools to fix this problem, we just need the will.

I wrote a lot more on this recently, with ideas that people on here can use to help influence better outcomes: https://unop.uk/how-to-help-with-a-big-global-problem-as-a-t...

It's a shame that the big technology companies aren't using their influence and reach to help.

I wrote a trilogy of long posts on this topic very recently so I'll just link to that.

https://unop.uk/how-to-help-with-a-big-global-problem-as-a-t...

In summary, it's not somebody else's problem. It's our problem and we need to take responsibility and fix it. We already have all the core technology required to solve this and we just need to make it happen. Everyone can help, particularly the talented crowd on here.

This is a good point. Optimism is good for motivation but it has to result in action and not be simply ignoring a problem. Pessimism paralyses people into inaction but by understanding the psychology we can change that.

I wrote a series of posts on this recently with more to come. Far more than I can fit in here. It's a classic tragedy of the commons but there is hope.

https://unop.uk/how-to-help-with-a-big-global-problem-as-a-t...

Previously: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/internet/entries/f6f50d1f-a879-49... (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12093986)

Only took 2 years! I suspect the imminent release of Chrome 68 was a factor.

I actually wrote a couple of blog posts about some of my favourite books for summer reading recently.

https://unop.uk/6-non-technical-book-recommendations/

https://unop.uk/3-more-non-technical-book-recommendations/

The framework is included with the application, so no install is needed. You can already generate a self-contained platform-agnostic deployment that includes the framework, but it contains lots of files. You need to specify the platform, yet that is just for the bootstrapper. There are also some pre-requisites that have to be installed, such as SSL libs.

.NET Native (a.k.a. CoreRT) is more like what you get with Go, a single native binary. You need to know the CPU architecture ahead-of-time, but it has performance advantages. You can also strip out unused code with IL Linker and do things like Profile Guided Optimisation.

Keep in mind that if you're using Docker containers then you probably want to share the framework, otherwise this will increase the size.

There's some more discussion around this in the .NET Core talks that I've given: https://unop.uk/talks/

This is a bit complex, but for what most people think of as WCF (enterprise SOAP APIs) then it is not supported on .NET Core. The W stands for Windows after all.

However, the ASP.NET Core MVC framework supports Web API and this was originally part of the WCF REST services. Of course, you can still interact with SOAP endpoints (served by various frameworks) as a client, as pointed out elsewhere here.

For the UK (and France) this has a lot of geeky detail: http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/

UK data (inc. solar) with CO2 emissions in app form: http://gridcarbon.uk/

Basically this, but they also push things like Application Insights, which is heavily tied to Azure.

The VS Code editor is also embedded in the Azure web portal. So by getting people using Code they may find it easier to up-sell to Azure. In fact, Code started life as the Monaco editor in Azure and was spun out into a separate product.

Yeah, I meant the startup culture in SF/SV. Among regular companies I assume .NET will have a fair share of use.

I think .NET's vision is get people using Azure. You could say the same about VS Code. MS want to gain developer mind-share and get them using their cloud.

.NET is pretty popular in the UK and elsewhere (particularly in finance) but you also see Java/Oracle in the same space. There are moves towards JavaScript/TypeScript for modern front-ends though.

The only place .NET appears to be discounted is in SV, at least from those I've talked to. Outside of that it's fairly mainstream but obviously you see more of it if you work with it and write/talk about it.

Link to the recording (slides and audio): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=garlskQb8BU

I've written[0] and spoken[1] a lot about .NET Core, so I understand that it can be confusing. The similar naming certainly doesn't help. To summarize (and oversimplify) there are three main varieties of .NET: .NET Core, .NET Framework and Xamarin.

The new open source and cross-platform one is .NET Core and it is currently suited to writing server-side web apps (e.g. ASP.NET Core) and command line applications. It is a reimplementation of .NET and more use cases are coming (UWP, CoreRT, native tool-chain etc.).

The Windows only one is .NET Framework and it is better for graphical desktop apps on Windows. WPF and Windows Forms are not open and are Windows only, so are not in .NET Core.

Finally, Xamarin is also open now and lets you build native mobile and desktop apps on Android, iOS and macOS. Full details of all these are on the official docs site[2] if you want to read more, or you could buy my book on ASP.NET Core 2 :).

[0]: https://unop.uk/book/

[1]: https://unop.uk/talks/

[2]: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/dotnet/

Xamarin makes this separation work pretty well. Not Xamarin.Forms but a core business logic project with custom UI projects for each platform.

I'm hoping this will turn into a good solution. Xamarin already supports Mac (in addition to iOS and Android) and when it aligns more with UWP (XAML Standard etc.) that could cover a large slice of the platforms you'd want to target.

React native could be another option. I hear Android support has gotten better and you can supposedly also target UWP: https://github.com/Microsoft/react-native-windows

I wrote this a while ago but it's still fairly relevant: https://unop.uk/cross-platform-native-mobile-app-development...

You could also look at https://github.com/AvaloniaUI/Avalonia or https://github.com/picoe/Eto.

+1 for Pi-hole: https://pi-hole.net

It's better than a browser extension, as it works for mobile devices and native apps (e.g. Skype). Remember to set a backup secondary DNS server in case it goes down though.

If the router allows changes to the DHCP DNS settings then make them there. Some don't, so then you'll need to use the Pi for DHCP too.

However, keep in mind that it provides an unauthenticated web interface that exposes all domains that have been visited. This could be a privacy risk. It's pretty easy to simply use dnsmasq on its own if you don't want the extras.

You can also use this technique to make some news sites less annoying: https://unop.uk/block-bbc-breaking-news-on-all-devices

No, BBC News still doesn't support HTTPS (it's now over 6 months later than they said it would).

I think Scott updated the sample used for the screenshots after putting it in the post.

The code is listed as:

  // FIRA CODE
  object o; 
  if (o is int i || (o is string s && 
      int.TryParse(s, out i)) { /* use i */ }
  var x = 0xABCDEF;
  -> --> ==> != === !== && ||<=<  
  </><tag> http://www.hanselman.com 
  <=><!-- HTML Comment -->
  i++; #### ***

I think what was actually used is:

  // FIRA CODE
  ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
  0123456789!@#$%^&*()_+={}[]<>/?'";:~`
  object o; 
  if (o is int i || (o is string s && 
      int.TryParse(s, out i)) { /* use i */ }
  var x = 0xAB_DE_F;
  -> --> ==> != === !== && ||<=<  
  </><tag> http://www.hanselman.com 
  <=><!-- HTML Comment -->
  i++; #### ***

The underscores in the hex literal are not part of the font, which looks like it is confusing some people.

A couple of those lines are new C# 7 features (patterns and literals) that appear to have been partially lifted from this blog post: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/dotnet/2017/03/09/new-featu...

I wrote a section on C# 7 for a new chapter in the upcoming second edition of my book from last year. There are loads of useful new features in C# 7 (and 6 if you're still on 5) and I thought I recognised those snippets.

Most modern motor-homes I've seen/used have a solar panel for trickle charging the leisure battery.

Some other good examples of retrofits here: http://www.goalzero.com/solarlife/stories/en-route/

For anyone curious, a VAWT is a Vertical-axis wind turbine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_axis_wind_turbine). I always thought these were less efficient than the conventional designs but they're clearly simpler.

Progressive JPEG is slightly different but JPEG2000 is very interesting. The wavelet transform is pretty clever in how it arranges the frequency components.

It's a shame JPEG2000 never took off, probably due to the patent issues. It has a niche in medical imaging though.

I wrote my thesis on this topic, over a decade ago now. When doing image recognition you only need to read the first small part of a JPEG2000 file to get good results, which has obvious advantages. You can ignore the high detail bits at the end.

This appears to be quite similar to FLIF (http://flif.info/) and to some extent BPG (https://bellard.org/bpg/). There's no shortage of image formats that are better then JPEG and some have been around for quite a while.

The problem is in software/hardware support, particularly in browsers. JPEG has a lot of momentum. WebP is only supported in Chrome/Opera (https://caniuse.com/#feat=webp) and IE/Android don't even support animated PNG yet (https://caniuse.com/#feat=apng).

I did loads of research on this for a web app dev book, which I'm currently updating for the second edition. Browser image support hasn't changed much since it was originally published.

To be fair, the new https://docs.microsoft.com site is much better than the old ones, but I know what you mean. I still occasionally get confused at all the .NET nomenclature, and I wrote I book on the topic.

I gave a talk at the London .NET user group earlier this year on why it's all so hard to understand. Maybe it will help clarify some things, however it was before the 2.0 announcement: https://unop.uk/on-asp-net-core-and-moving-targets/

Shameless plug but I cover a lot of lower level network and hardware effects for web developers in this book: https://unop.uk/book/

It's mainly aimed at people interested in ASP.NET Core but there are a lot of general performance tips in there. I have a EEE background and I think understanding things down to the transistor level can really help you write better software.

BTW Gary's WAT video is great fun if you haven't seen it.

Deadline to complain to the home office is 19 May (tomorrow). You may also want to write to your MP, as they will probably be up for re-election very soon.

https://action.openrightsgroup.org/tell-home-office-protect-...

Follow up blog post (linking this to WannaCry): https://www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/2017/tcns-encryption (discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14365046)

Deadline to complain to the home office is 19 May (tomorrow). You may also want to contact your MP, as they will probably be up for re-election very soon.

Carbon Capture and Storage (particularly on biomass) appears to be one of the more realistic solutions. So it was a huge shame when the UK Conservative government cancelled planned investment in CCS (breaking a manifesto promise in the process).

It's not a technical or economic problem. It's a political and social problem.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/nov/25/uk-cance...

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jul/20/treasury...

FWIW FastMail also comes with file storage and notes.

They do have a calendar, which is something lacking from ProtonMail (although I believe they are working on this). ProtonMail has a free plan and if you only need a single custom domain then it's cheaper than FastMail. FastMail only have a free trial but the standard plan covers multiple domains (you have to pay more for extra domains on ProtonMail).

Edit (numbers):

FastMail = $50/yr (https://www.fastmail.com/pricing/)

Up to 100 domains (https://www.fastmail.com/help/account/limits.html)

They also do DNS and static website hosting (but not with HTTPS)

ProtonMail = $48/yr (https://protonmail.com/pricing)

1 domain, extra domains: $18/yr per domain

True, but probably still better than the US or UK: https://protonmail.com/blog/investigatory-powers-bill-email-...

Their EU servers are in the Netherlands. Although I guess it's hard to know if any EU traffic goes to the US servers.

Australia does have similar laws but it seems they don't apply in this case: https://blog.fastmail.com/2015/04/09/fastmail-is-not-require...