Hacker News Reader

simo_daxon End of the line finally coming for BlackBerry devices

I still do, and I still mantain an open source Twitter client replacing the official one (no longer supported, as most apps on the platform). Q10, best phone I've ever had

simo_daxon People Keeping BlackBerry Alive

I can safely say that you can't make money out of this platform anymore, the user base is just too small. If I had to live with the donations coming from my apps for BB10 well, let's say I would have already starved to death ;)

simo_daxon People Keeping BlackBerry Alive

Bird10! It's open source (https://github.com/SimoDax/Bird10) and you can find it here https://forums.crackberry.com/blackberry-10-apps-f274/bird10...

simo_daxon People Keeping BlackBerry Alive

I'm one of those guys, I still use a Q10 (OS10 family) as my daily driver. I felt in love with its ux e.g. the hub which acts both as notification center and timeline, full gesture-based navigation (back in 2013!) and an app permission system which allowed you choose which one should be granted to the app (again, back in 2013! Android had to wait years before this was implemented)

Apps are scarce, many don't work anymore due to obsolescence, but the main ones are there: I mantain a Twitter and a Twitch app, and keep updating them to follow Api changes. Spotify and Whatsapp can be used through the android layer, the native BB maps are still functional. Another nice guy on Crackberry mantains a youtube app.. I feel I can say that if you don't have many requirements it's still a solid phone, it can't do much but what it does it does well.

Also, the privacy is unmatched

simo_daxon New EU regulation strengthens hand of developers in dealings with storefronts

Literally from europa.eu:

> Regulations are legal acts that apply automatically and uniformly to all EU countries as soon as they enter into force, without needing to be transposed into national law. They are binding in their entirety on all EU countries.

And:

> Public authorities in EU Member States have the main responsibility for the application of EU law.

simo_daxon Zuckerberg: advertisers will be back to Facebook 'soon enough'

https://www.stophateforprofit.org/participating-businesses

simo_daxon France rules Google must pay news firms for content

> Germany is run by a Christian political party. In addition to no longer being able to advocate for Nazi politics in Germany, now you cannot speak about certain facts that have occurred in the past

What did I just read.

simo_daxon Italy is extending its coronavirus quarantine measures to the entire country

Unluckily it is the thruth, here's an interview with a medic on one of Italy's most prominent newspapers (I linked the google translated version)

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=it&tl=en&u=https%3...

simo_daxon Fast inverse chirp z-transform found

It's not my field so I wouldn't know, but it's possible

simo_daxon Fast inverse chirp z-transform found

Each of these is certainly a complication, for example standard discrete-time Fourier transform is O(n^2) while the Fast Fourier Transform algorithm manages to do the same in O(nlogn), but I think the main difficulty here is that the direct transform is an integral (or series, depends if you're using continuous or discrete one) over time, which is a single real variable. The inverse is an integral over the complex variable, a+ib, and you need a whole 2D plane to represent it (the complex plane indeed), a single 1D line is not enough. So how do you take an integral of a complex value over a 2D plane? And here you start delving deep into theorems and convergence regions.. stuff that's quite difficult to grasp without having experience with complex calculus (and I don't)

The inverse fourier trasnform, on the other hand, is limited to the imaginary axis of the complex plane (the exponent is a purely imaginary number), so you're restricting it to be monodimensional, hence the relative simplicity in reversing the transform

Also, keep in mind that all of this assumes you have infinite samples, so you need to use some form of windowing which doesn't distort too much the signal

simo_daxon Fast inverse chirp z-transform found

The chirplet transform is a discrete-time implementation (i.e uses samples instead of continuous functions) of the mathematical transform i've written

   The corresponding inverse transform (the "sum" of the components to get the starting signal back) didn't exist before

This is exactly the inverse chirplet transform, which the guys in the article found a way to compute

simo_daxon Fast inverse chirp z-transform found

Small explanation for people not introduced to signals theory: Fourier transform is the decomposition of an arbitrary signal into many sinusoids, such that their sum gives a signal identical to the starting one. Each of these sinusoids can be represented using Euler's formula as e^(i * omega * t). You can see that the exponent is purely imaginary.

There is a generalization of this transform (i.e. this transform is a particular case of a more general one): what if instead of a purely imaginary exponent we use a generic complex value a+ib? Then e^((a+ib) * t) = e^(a * t)e^(ib * t): the new term that appears is a real-valued exponential, so exponential curves can also be used describe the starting signal!

However, making a discrete-time, sample-based algorithm of this transform is tricky, and the corresponding inverse transform (the "sum" of the components to get the starting signal back) didn't exist before

simo_daxon Tesla drops cheapest Model X, S variants, cuts prices to simplify lineup

Yep. My guess is that they're making clear the Model S is on a higher tier than Model 3 by giving it even more autonomy for a lower price. Understandable move since M3 is known to have eaten up some sales of both S and X

simo_daxon SpaceX Raptor: Methane fueled full-flow staged combustion cycle engine

> Enthalpy is basically the relationship between volume, pressure and temperature

I appreciate the non-technical approach to the subject, but this is false. Enthalpy is an energy, it accounts for both internal energy (heat) and work.

simo_daxon The Most Expensive Lesson of My Life: Details of SIM Port Hack

Oh, my bad, I thought US was the exception

Here in Italy you must provide your ID card and wait a couple days for the carrier to check the data. Goverment websites even use 2fa as a proof of your physical identity

simo_daxon The Most Expensive Lesson of My Life: Details of SIM Port Hack

I still don't get one thing: how could the attacker port OP's number without proving he owns the sim? Where I live (in EU) it's mandatory, isn't it the same in the US?

simo_daxon Third fatal Tesla Autopilot crash renews questions about system

True, but usually just the weight of your arms applied on the hand is enough to issue micro-turns to the wheel.

I believe the detection relies on torque + angular position (the model S manual says it will sense resistance to wheel motion as well as motion itself), and the latter should be more more sensible because those mechanisms are usually made of encoder-motor-high ratio transmission-load, so a small turn on the load gets multiplied 10-100 times by the transmission before being sensed by the encoder.

I guess the lack of precision comes from Tesla wanting to avoid false positives