livatlantis

Nah, the goal isn't to learn a new language per se. It's in response to an actual need. I've sketched it out quite in detail (I previously sketched out db table schemas) a while back, and now I want to build it.

I'm just out of touch with what's out there. What PHP framework are you using?

Nah, it's not too hard -- it just has a bit too much magick for my liking. I'm comfortable with Ruby and the MVC pattern. It comes with too many things that are free but I don't need.

For example, for my blog, I didn't use WordPress because it's too bloated -- it comes with jQuery, widgets support, themes etc etc. All I needed was a way to generate articles. So I used node.js-based Metalsmith[1] and it does just enough without getting in the way.

I've never built an public-facing app but that's kinda the point of it why I want to do it. Hiring someone else and miss out on all the fun? ;)

[1] http://www.metalsmith.io/

I am, and don't call me Shirley.

Ah right, thanks! Ctrl+R, regedit

Now only if we had a version that could connect to the internet. Right now it tells me that it can't find a modem and that I should call MSN Technical Support! Cute.

Doesn't seem to work too well on Windows 10. It might be missing some DLLs. /s

Super cool! (I really can't get it to click on anything though)

Okay, I have to ask: it's been years since I came across someone else who'd heard of (nevermind used) Odigo[1]. Anyone remember that?

It was one of the most beautiful applications I'd used, one that mixed magical fantasy with something purely functional. It got affective design a decade before the industry started started getting interested in it gave it a name. If I remember correctly, it even had a beautiful on-boarding experience with lush imagery and sound effects. As a kid, I got to meet people from all around the world, imagined their lives (you created an avatar but everything else was just information you chose to disclose, or not) -- it was just fantastic.

And then it vanished.

Anyone?

1: Some images to give you an idea of what it was like: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=odigo+messenger&ia=images&iax=1

That bit about sodomy was hilarious†. I imagine he'd been looking sapiosexual? Good stuff.

I never really thought about what Tinder's founders would be like but I'll admit that his geekiness was a bit of surprise. A pleasant one, I think. Not sure how much freedom he has though, what with being part of the The Match Group.

† Not something you say everyday.

These are truly beautiful. I know we say this every time there's a post like this but it's worth repeating: I can't get over the fact that these are high definition images of the surface of a planet that's just a dot in our night sky. We see weather, different material, natural formations... infinitely fascinating.

In Paris right now. We are in shock. At both the scale and the extremely coordinated nature of the attacks on civilians at multiple locations.

I work near rue Bichat and Le Petit Cambodge, a warm little restaurant in the 10e that my colleagues and I frequent, where people were tonight killed. The Bataclan is a well-known concert venue for metal bands, where I've seen several bands play live. Les Halles is at the center of Paris. Everyone who lives here has close connections to these areas; they took place very close to our everyday lives. Even those of us fortunate enough to know that our friends are safe are reeling from what has happened.

This is the first time since the Second World War that France has declared a state of emergency.

It's too early to come to any conclusions. It's too early to talk about immediate and long-term ramifications, about connections to the refugees, how these events will make France more 'communautariste'. That time will come, but it's too early right now.

It's 2am right now, Paris is mostly awake. We mourn those who lost their lives.

Thank you, this looks fantastic!

I recently bought Leonard Susskind's "The Theoretical Minimum" [0] so I could better understand theoretical physics. The explanations are short and clear, but I'm starting to realize that I learn a lot better when I know the historical context in which these concepts developed (or why they were needed). Feynman does this in his lectures and it really helps.

I might really enjoy these podcasts.

[0]. http://theoreticalminimum.com/

Fascinating! This is exceptionally well-written. I can't imagine it being very easy to communicate mathematical concepts and the excitement of the discovery (!) in ways that even the uninitiated (like myself) can relate to.

His discovery (albeit not identified as such) contributed to laying the foundation for work in string theory and he had no clue.

I tried both Hugo and node.js-based Metalsmith[0] for a new version of my personal website that I launched just about a month ago. Ended up choosing Metalsmith because of its super minimalist everything is a package approach, but Hugo looked super nice too.

What I like about Metalsmith is you build you own workflow. A basic installation does nothing but copy files from the source directory to the destination directory.

I'm working on a beginner's guide to Metalsmith right now, in fact!

[0]: http://www.metalsmith.io/

Someone else recommended Vintersorg. It's now on my list of bands to check out, along with many others from this thread.

But while we're on the topic of Swedish artists (who have unrelated day jobs†), I absolutely have to mention Seventh Wonder[0].

They based their 30-minute anthem "The Great Escape" on Aniara[1], an epic sci-fi poetic cycle authored by Harry Mattison. It's a significant piece of literature because, to quote his Wikipedia page[2]:

"He was awarded a joint Nobel Prize in Literature in 1974 together with fellow Swede Eyvind Johnson 'for writings that catch the dewdrop and reflect the cosmos'."

Someone actually uploaded a comparison of lines from the English translation of the poem to the lyrics of the song[3]. Maybe I'll write a more detailed article about this at some point, but it's a beautiful song that really lets you get into the story.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventh_Wonder

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aniara_(opera)

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Martinson

[3]: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MUd4hf0FH4gQQN_9kypNtGBe...

† Tommy Karevik is the singer in Seventh Wonder (and Kamelot) and also plays the part of the Prodigy in Ayreon's Theory of Everything. He is also a firefighter.

It didn't even occur to me to try to read the song in any but the most literal sense. Your explanation is very compelling!

The only thing that detracts from it is the relative cheerfulness of the song (especially the keyboard/guitar duet that starts at about the 2m30s mark) -- although who knows, it could very well represent euphoria associated with the prospect of imminent liberation?

Thank you for this! Glad you like Strato; I love the way Event Horizon shifts to Elysium, a song I listened to three times a week for 4 months on repeat on my 20-minute bus commute back when I was in uni.

I don't listen to death too much, but really enjoyed the last melodic death band I stumbled upon. These are great, thanks!

01 is actually how I discovered Ayreon. I'm now going back and listening to older albums. Was surprised at the number of incredible guests! (Bob Catley, James LaBrie, Bruce Dickinson, Floor Jansen, Jordan Rudess, Hansi Kürsch...).

You're right, it actually isn't! This has more to do with the information paradox and black hole complementarity and is not related to the collapse of the wave function. I've removed the sentence and put an edit notice.

I don't know Tool at all, actually. Listening to Lateralus now though, thanks for the heads-up!

Author here. I wasn't sure if it was bad etiquette to submit my own article to HN but decided in the end that it might actually interest the community.

For fans of metal and sci-fi, I should mention that Dutch musician Arjen Anthony Lucassen does much more than just write science-inspired metal operas for Ayreon. He also has another project called Star One[0], where each song is based on an iconic sci-fi movie, book or series (Blake's 7, Doctor Who, Dune, Alien, Star Trek, A Clockwork Orange...).

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STAR_1

I love this story. (In fact, I even wrote and recorded a song based on it, from the perspective of Kuno).

I find the societal obsession with ideas fascinating. Especially this bit:

> In the evening she looked again. They were crossing a golden sea, in which lay many small islands and one peninsula. She repeated, "No ideas here," and hid Greece behind a metal blind.

To think that the Earth could inspire nothing is just... sad.

This was written in surprisingly easy-to-understand language. The original article[0] goes into a little more detail but mentions something fundamental about black holes that I do not yet understand:

"The so-called teleology of the black hole event horizon is an artifact of the way in which physicists define an event horizon: the event horizon is defined with respect to infinite future elapsed time, so by definition it 'knows' about the entire fate of the universe[...]".

Can someone explain to me why this is? Why infinite future elapsed time if you don't see black holes as holographic screens?

[0]: http://phys.org/news/2015-09-law-implies-thermodynamic-black...

One super-grain of salt, to be precise.

You're right. I too was disappointed. AFAIK, not a single pillow has made it to the front page of HN. And we're all still waiting.

They should definitely rename to avoid further confusion (not to mention the false sense of hope).

"Back room" -- I like that! I suppose the general idea is that there's this place somewhere out out "back" where the client can't see it where you administer things.

I usually call it the admin area but I have no idea why I'm bothered by the use of "back office" (English words) in a French language environment, when the term is not too common in English in this context. (Or that's the hypothesis I'm trying to test/challenge).

Raw text if paywalled: http://pastebin.com/1LKLmQWP

I think you meant "unsafe", and I agree with you. I too am very annoyed when I stop at a pedestrian crossing (or at a red light) only to have the bike behind me zip past me, creating a VERY unsafe situation for people trying to cross. (I sometimes feel I betray pedestrians at crosswalks without red lights when I stop--they thank me, they start crossing, and are almost hit by a passing bike or motorbike that didn't stop! In this case, I have created an unsafe situation... in a weird way).

I think a lot of people on bikes disrespect pedestrians. I find it reflects very badly on cyclists who do respect other people with whom they share public space, and on Parisians in general. People have priority, not least because I as a cyclist have a machine to help me move about and pedestrians don't. There's also civility and just being nice to one another in general.

I actually think words like "pedestrian", "cyclist" and "motorist" create unnecessary conflicts of interest between people who live in the same city. Everyone is at some point a pedestrian -- we're pedestrian by nature!

Having said all this, I think people on bikes would be less likely to be as aggressive if cars were less aggressive towards them. (It's a vicious cycle, and in the end nobody wins and everybody is stressed).

I'm actually working on an article on this for the French press, to look at this situation from a UX pov.

As a cyclist in Paris, yes, I'd say the presence (and domination) of cars is a BIG reason I feel less safe. I have friends from other cities who grew up biking but who don't dare get on one the excellent bikeshare Vélib bikes to get around because they're afraid of being hit. But cars are just one piece in the puzzle; I think what's worse is the psychological atmosphere: the stress, the having to always be on the lookout and, oddly, the lack of civility.

I've approached trucks and cars parked on the bike lane to ask them if they could move just a little to the so bikes don't have to swerve around them and enter the flow of car traffic. I do so politely, making sure to not adopt a defensive/aggressive attitude. In a few rare cases, the driver had been genuinely unaware and apologized and moved. In most cases though, I'm insulted and told, "vous me faites chier !" (something along the lines of "You're pissing me off!"). I was once even told by a genleman on a scooter that, "If you want to ride your bike, why don't you just go to the countryside?"

If you're on a bike, cars, scooters and motorbikes will constantly remind you that you're not welcome. Try explaining to a car that he's parked on the "sas vélo", that little space reserved for bikes in front of traffic lights. Or explaining to cars that when they turn right and through a bike lane, that it's common courtesy to signal the turn (instead of suddenly turning and shouting at bikes for being in their way). It's a problem of education, too.

Cyclists aren't all innocent, either. I've seen people on bikes not stop for pedestrians even when they have right of way. Pedestrians, who are understandably annoyed and probably used to no one looking out for them, also do stupid things like cross when it's red even as they see a bike approaching fast downhill. (This actually happened to me; she apologized when I had to slam my brakes, as did the car behind me. What was odd was that she actually stopped before crossing, saw that the light was red for her and green for cars and bikes, that we were approaching and started crossing anyway. And this isn't an isolated incident, I experience this at least two or three times per week).

So, it's a very unhealthy environment where everybody feels no one respects their rights. But cars are by far the biggest reason Paris feels unsafe (even though it really isn't once you get the hang of it).

I ride without a helmet but recently got a Hövding (the portably bike airbag from Sweden) to test in the city and wrote a review of it[1]. Mine actually went of accidentally, but I thing they're very, very promising. Not least because of how much more effective they are at oblique, non-perpendicular impacts.

[1]: http://www.neustadt.fr/reviews/testing-hovding-invisible-hel...

Ah, I see it now. I wasn't reading it the way the author intended. The Chinese governments wants the OS. With the goal of replacing Windows.

Excellent explanation, thank you canjobear! (And jameshart).

<aside>I see what you mean, but I don't think it's the implied 'that' that's problematic.

The subject of the second clause is 'the Chinese government', the verb 'to want to', the object 'replace Windows'.

This whole thing qualifies the first clause, 'the OS'.

But the semantic relation between these two clauses ("with") is not established.

It's like saying "A detailed look at the mountain John wants to dance with an elephant".

Doesn't make sense without the "on" which links the two bits. </aside>

PS: Excuse my pedantry; this stuff really interests me.

<aside> Is it just me or is this title missing a preposition?

Surely it's 'A first look at the OS with which the Chinese government wants to replace Windows'.

Or perhaps, 'A first look an the OS the Chinese government wants to replace Windows with' if you don't mind dangling prepositions. </aside>

Interesting how far they went to make it look like XP. What are the chances that someone using it is frustrated when they learn they can't install <insert Win package name here>?