Hacker News Reader

ohwpon Manchester City Council

In The Netherlands these two sites score very high every year: http://www.capelleaandenijssel.nl/ http://cms.dordrecht.nl/ They contain a lot more useful information above the fold than the linked one.

Good design involves a lot more than eye candy.

ohwpon Employee Turns Gaming Network Into Private Bitcoin Mine

Would it be viable to rent a (GPU) cluster for mining? $3700 in 14 days seems doable...

ohwpon What a stupid idea

I think most of us agree that good ideas are solving problems. So could it be that cigarettes, Pinterest and Vine solve problems?

Maybe they do. Cigarettes are solving the problem of easy nicotine intake to release stress.

I think (not sure) a lot of successful new-media companies are solving the "low self-esteem" problem a lot of people cope with these days. They act like a drug.

But ofcourse a better way is to solve the source of the problems: remove stress from society, change culture in a way that we can become who we are (whole).

ohwpon I just wore Google's glasses for 2 weeks and I'm never taking them off

Well I still don't own a smartphone because I ask myself the question "Why would I need a smartphone". And when I look around a lot of people don't need it. So in a way "I don't get" why a lot of people "need" a smartphone.

ohwpon Don’t Launch Your Product

"The trick is to not aim too high."

Like the "Blauwestad" which failed. http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blauwestad_(project) (Dutch)

ohwpon Don’t Launch Your Product

I understand what you are saying. But a product can be used to solve a problem. Building a city because a lot of people suddenly need a house is solving a problem. Building a city because you like to design a city is building a ghost town.

ohwpon News is bad for you – and giving up reading it will make you happier

I read the original "Avoid News part 1" (http://dobelli.com/?page_id=827) some time ago and also quit reading news. What occurred to me is that a lot of decisions people make are based or have to do with fear fed by news.

For example: fear for bad weather. Rain is just rain but reading the forecast in the papers sometimes make you wonder if you will survive the next day.

ohwpon What's the real environmental cost of electric cars?

I think since 2010 fuel consumption has declined a lot even though weight has increased. So when manufacturers decrease weight, combustion cars will become even more environment friendly.

For example: a big Audi nowadays can do 20-30 km/l. When losing a lot of weight it could even do more. Losing a lot of engine power maybe even more (there is hardly any need to go faster than 160 km/h).

Edit: wow, reading a little into it: in 1899 a electric car was the first to break the 100 km/h barier.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_car

ohwpon Why is there only one Elon Musk?

Like Richard Branson?

ohwpon IT for Oppression

I don't agree with you. The problem with IT technology is that it's connected. It is (evenly) distributed, but connected. This gives people who want bad a much wider perspective.

Centralized technologies are not dangerous because they can be easily broken by revolutions. That's why DRM does not work. It's being hacked all the time.

And ofcrouse you always have a choice. You can put down the stick, or disconnect. But the choice is becoming harder as we rely (too) much on technology.

ohwpon A command line refactoring tool for PHP

Those problems are not related to PHP but to inexperienced developers. Refactoring such code is always a pain. So unless there is nice money involved: don't refactor, just fix what's broken.

I don't think refactoring of spaghetti can be automated. But there are other tools that can help you to find bad code. Some that come in mind:

  https://github.com/fabpot/PHP-CS-Fixer
  http://pear.php.net/package/PHP_CodeSniffer/redirected

Those tools are used for coding standards (PSR-x), but those standards are also helpful to track down bad code.

ohwpon Stop externalising your life

What about meta content?

Why do you think Google likes meta content? Because that defines context. And content without context is often meaningless.

ohwpon Stop externalising your life

Getting used to something is not the same as liking something.

Edit: When you drop what you are doing to have a conversation with someone you make them feel important. Why not make people feel good?

ohwpon Stop externalising your life

Waiting for the pope: http://i.imgur.com/sNTmp4s.jpg

In my opinion you miss a lot around you when you are constantly staring at the screen of your device.

Two days ago I was sitting at a birthday party. The guy next to me constantly took pictures sending them with Watsapp. I never spoke a word to him because he was busy with his phone all the time.

I'm still not sure what to think about that but I don't think I like the change.

ohwpon Bitcoin has everything it needs to become a major speculative bubble

Noob question: as I understand Bitcoins are linked to values of other currencies. Is it possible to link it to a stable non-currency value/index? (I'm thinking about the Big Mac index here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Mac_Index)

Or to put it in another way: it it possible to link a Bitcoin value (or any currency) to an index not influenced by greed? Could it be linked to the number of people alive for example?

ohwpon Airline to charge overweight passengers more

Excluding or rejecting people without arbitrary reason is called discrimination. Since weight is a big issue in fuel consumption I don't think you can call this discriminatory.

But when you are charged extra because your weight is above X, it is discriminatory. So airlines should not charge extra but should charge by kilo-distance.

ohwpon Powerful Thoughts From Paul Graham

I think it is. Those are the disciples of PG.

I'm not sure if I find the image a little scary...

ohwpon Lessons Learned from YouTube’s $300M Hole

Maybe I read it wrong, but to me it sounded like: we got the best content creators, but they only could make beautiful content. All the amateurs were creating the best content.

ohwpon Lessons Learned from YouTube’s $300M Hole

To me the message here is: it's all about content.

And a lot of people underestimate this. A beautiful website without good content is worth nothing (well maybe it's worth inspiration for designers). A newspaper without content is worth gossip and sensation.

That's why some blogs are better than high profile newspapers and that's why some home made Youtube movies provide more information (and are thus better) than big money productions.

ohwpon Stunning Future iPhone with Wraparound Display Revealed

"This is certainly one of Apple's hottest inventions of the year"

Well lets just say it is innovative because the concept is not new.

Here for example a Blackberry concept with wraparound display: http://s3images.coroflot.com/user_files/individual_files/ori...

Edit: I think this Samsung is also looking great: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGra_9kvnBI

ohwpon Global Internet slows after 'biggest attack in history'

The picture is clearly Photoshopped. Light in the background is coming from the right, while light on the team is coming from the left.

Edit: talking about this picture: http://cyberbunker.com/web/images/swat-bunker.jpg

Edit2: I think it's more difficult to determine if it's real than I thought.

ohwpon Global Internet slows after 'biggest attack in history'

"a Dutch web host which states it will host anything with the exception of child pornography or terrorism-related material"

Since it's a Dutch company I highly doubt they host anything illegal (as the article implies). The same rules apply to them as they do to other hosting companies in The Netherlands (and EU).

ohwpon Issue 224182 - chromium - Chrome wakes me up in the middle of the night

Yes and all websites should have a black background ;)

ohwpon My crazy idea to piss off spammers

About 70% of all emails send today is spam. Imagine that you reply to all those emails. It will slow down the internet.

Edit: in 2010 they estimated 294 billion messages were sent per day, more than 2.8 million emails every second.

ohwpon Regarding fake projects and loyalty tests

I've got a strong feeling this is about RND projects that never launch. Those projects are real but can make you feel useless.

Unfortunately I did a lot of those "never launch" projects and they make you wonder if the company is testing your loyalty.

ohwpon How to Live on Twenty-Four Hours a Day (1910)

Gaining knowledge (or wisdom if you like) can be "vain" if you forget to live ;)

Imho that is a very valuable lesson.

ohwpon How to Live on Twenty-Four Hours a Day (1910)

Reminds me of the book Ecclesiastes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecclesiastes

"While Qoheleth clearly endorses wisdom as a means for a well-lived earthly life, he is unable to ascribe eternal meaning to it. In light of this perceived senselessness, he suggests that one should enjoy the simple pleasures of daily life, such as eating, drinking, and taking enjoyment in one's work, which are gifts from the hand of God."

ohwpon The Internet is a surveillance state

And while using Disconnect and Ghostery you still got tracked by IP address, your installed fonts, screen resolution, installed plugins, while your internet activity was stored by your internet provider.

ohwpon Google Reader shutting down

I created a poll to keep track of the best alternative: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5373538

ohwpon Trello for iPad is Here

Maybe you could take a look at YouTrack: http://www.jetbrains.com/youtrack/ (compare the Agile board)

I think Trello looks nice(r), but it's easy to create a mess with it.