Hacker News Reader

jkon The Day Google Decided HttpWatch Was ‘Unwanted Software’

I have been using DuckDuckGo for more than 4 years now. I would use google only if DDG does not provide a good result. In the last one year, queries that went unanswered on DDG did not turn up a good result on google either. So for me, DDG has not completely replaced google.

Also, I am not living in the USA.

jkon Big-Endian “is effectively dead”

There are quite a few big endian MIPS devices. Many Chinese processor vendors (Mediatek, Rockchip, etc.) still use MIPS and have big endian configuration. Most common are TV SoCs and networking chips like WiFi SoCs.

jkon VP9: Faster, better, buffer-free YouTube videos

Minor correction: H.265 is HEVC - High Efficiency Video Coding.

H.265 and VP9 will (most likely) have a lot of difference when we consider hardware encoders/decoders. I guess H.265 hardware decoders will be present on all platforms in the next couple of years. There are mobile processors that have hardware H.265 decoder. H.265 encoder seems to be a bit far. I am not sure whether someone has a production ready hardware encoder. On the other hand, VP9 is not a priority for most of the companies.

jkon Mozilla to sell '$25' Firefox OS smartphones in India

Data plans are not too expensive in India. One can get 1GB plan for 3G data in Rs.139-Rs.160 ($2.35-$2.7) depending on the service provider. A lot of people are not using data plans as they don't have good phones. Most of the cheap handsets in the market are very slow and lack features that needs data.

jkon Indian School Girl Creates Washing Machine That Runs Without Electricity

Please note that this is something Remya created around 2003; more than 10 years ago. I am not sure how it was posted in 2013.

jkon Ask HN: Do you use a debugger?

gdb. I work in system software, so cross platform debugger is what helps to catch issues easily.

edit: gdb to debug asm and C code

jkon How to Overclock your Raspberry Pi

Backing up config.txt does not make sense. "sync" alone might be sufficient.

jkon Don Knuth releases Volume 4, Pre-fascicle 6A [gzipped ps]

It is not a gzipped file; open with any postscript viewer.

jkon My £60 ARM server

"Micro-SD card performance is highly variable, and generally rubbish"

Agree with that. I use a pandaboard as a build server and I felt it is a lot efficient to use NFS than running off an SD card.

Ewan, have you tried USB HDD instead of SD card?

jkon Galaxy S III preorders approach 10 million

I guess Samsung phones are more popular outside US. Among my colleagues, of 10 smartphones, 8 are Samsung ones (includes 3 Samsung Notes) and only one iPhone4S.

jkon Vimeo, DailyMotion, Pastebin, Xmarks & Major Torrent Sites Blocked in India

Court _has not_ ordered to block any website. The order asks ISPs to make sure that illegal copies of movies does not get distributed. https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bxi2TzVXul5ZUl9EclRQZXlRdVdU...

jkon DRM-Free Day, forever.

Linux Device Drivers, 3e, was available for free legitimate download - the authors themselves released GPL version of the book online - all the while. I bet it has not affected the sale of the book.

Forget piracy, we have a Safari books online account. Still, we buy copy of books we like. I have seen a lot of people doing the same.

jkon Ask HN: Linux laptop distro of choice?

I am using Fedora on my laptop. XFCE desktop is a good environment. rpmfusion provides major "nonfree" packages.

For me everything has worked out of the box.

jkon Poll: What is your primary operating system

Linux user since 2002.

Now I have multiple machines running linux. I use linux at work too. I am an embedded developer and use Linux in most of the projects. Using linux machine makes life a lot easy.

jkon Girls and Computers

In my experience, if you introduce kids to Linux, they learn pretty fast.

In my college days, I used to help students of a government school. It is a very undeveloped area and kids don't have computers at home. All school computers ran Linux and students (aged 11-12) didn't face any difficulty in using Linux.

I used to give this example to my classmates when they blamed Linux :-)

jkon Best Ultrabook for Linux?

Slightly off-topic - a laptop and not an ultra book. I use Toshiba satellite C640-X4012. Fedora runs smooth. It has Intel core i5-2430M @ 2.4GHz and 4GB ram. It has only 2 USB ports - the only drawback I have felt.

jkon India’s identity scheme: The magic number

Is social security number in US being misused? Developed countries would already have a unique ID in place.

Also, middlemen will not be able to take advantage of this. They will be cut out completely when the person has to avail the benefits after identifying himself/herself.

jkon Code a Wiki, win a BeagleBone

Probably a bit off topic: why all contest organizers want the project to be tweeted. There is one more contest (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3501355) posted today. I understand that the organizer gets visibility, but any other advantages?

jkon Poll: Would you pay a developer who is 3x as good as average, 3x the salary?

Agreed that you may not be able to judge while hiring. But if the developer turns out to be great, will you give a great bonus and hike? That is also a good option if one turns out to be a great developer.

jkon Anatomy of a Kernel Hack

cscope (kscope if you want GUI) will be easier if you have a copy of kernel. lxr is useful when you do not have a local copy of kernel.

jkon Social networking websites asked to screen content by February 6 in India

"I say: So what? As long as it does not promote hurting people, or people are forced to watch it, it shouldn't matter."

It matters a lot in India. To understand the real problem, you have to understand the social problems in India (and Asia to some extent). Even though literacy rate is increasing, religious fanaticism is not decreasing. It is very common to find highly educated people talking bad about religions they don't believe in. A small post derogating some religion is sufficient for silly extremist groups and crappy media (the news website ibnlive is a good example) to make a big issue. Extremist groups bash these posts to give themselves publicity. For media, it is all about ratings and advertisement so they keep broadcasting news about such posts all day. Both these groups conveniently shut their eyes on the religious polarization caused by their actions. This hurts the society and it hurts the country economically.

I also don't believe in hindering free speech. But when I see the social problems around me, I feel we will be better of with some regulations.

jkon Social networking websites asked to screen content by February 6 in India

Sorry, but you are completely mistaken. India does not have any legislation about posts in social network. The news is about a court order to remove derogatory posts about religion. It is not about any individual. I guess you mixed up this news and an older report.

jkon Cash Cow Disease: The Cognitive Decline of Microsoft and Google

Well.. nice thoughts. But didn't gmail start off in one of those "wasted" 20% of time?

jkon 30 day challenge: meditation

I have been doing Transcendental Meditation (TM) twice a day for 38 years. I am not suggesting that you do TM. But I have some practical guidelines:

Be regular. Absolutely do not miss sessions. Regularity establishes a base line to your day.

Find some group or guru who can help you discuss your experiences. Over time you will need to talk about what occurs during your meditations.

Meditation is a different way of thinking not non-thinking.

Meditation is the high point of my day. If you are not enjoying it or fulfilled by it, you are doing something else.

jkon Ask HN: What do you do to relax?

jkon Ask HN: Do you meditate?

I do standard TM. Have done it regularly for 38 years - 20x2x7. The practice is very simple and pleasurable. With TM, it is easy to be consistent. Transcending regularly makes a broader awareness of reality my daily experience.

I love strawberries also.

jkon Meditation misunderstandings?

I have been doing TM regularly, b.i.d., since 1972. One benefit I get from meditating is a dyed in awareness of reality. This may not sound particularly special. But it motivates me to continue TMing. Words cannot convey this experience.

jkon Poll: What is your religion?

I am a Quaker. I voted other.

jkon Meditation Becomes Beneficial Surprisingly Fast

I have been practicing TM regularly for 38 years. This practice has given me a pervasive perspective on life. I know just a moment away is bliss. This sense of certain security is constantly in my awareness.

jkon Advanced programming languages

Considering the context, it is amusing to see no mention of arc.