HN user
The energy spent on bitcoin’s proof of work is not tied to the volume of transactions though. At a technical/protocol level, the same amount of mining would be needed if there was $100 trillion being stored or $1 being stored.
Although higher prices make larger mining operations more enticing and profitable.
And don’t forget the bane of working from home in the suburbs: leaf blowers.
It seems at least once per day there is an active leaf blower in my neighborhood vicinity. Same goes for my colleagues.
Noise cancellation is great for, well, cancelling their noise.
My bull case is this: over the next few decades, cryptocurrency will find its use case. Even if it’s just another asset class like Gold or Silver that some people and institutions put their money in as part of diversifying investments.
That alone is a huge global market and it’s barely started.
I think a best case scenario is something like the Lightning Network grows in scale and popularity and becomes a defacto standard for online and mobile purchases.
I deleted an unofficial Reddit app from my phone, since I found I was wasting too much time on it. I figured for the occasions I wanted access to reddit (mostly from searching for topics on Google), I’d just use the web version.
But the web UI, combined with Google AMP, made it unusable.
I’ve gone back to the app but with iOS screen time restrictions.
What can we do, now, as developers ?
Get a job at one of Apple's competitors, and make those competing products better.
Apple beats competitors because their product lineup is simpler and their products don't generally suck as much.
Look at Microsoft's attempt at ARM notebooks a few years ago compared to Apple's now. The difference is staggering.
If we want to see people move away from Apple, they need worthy competitors.
How is it that Google create/rebrand/close so many music and chat services over the years. While Apple have a single message service (iMessage) and a single music service (Apple Music) that have been consistently branded with constant growth and show no signs of being shut down?
As a consumer I have no idea what’s going on with some areas of Google’s products. It’s a major turn off.
I’ve worked in the games industry and this is pretty much my advice for people who are interested in it: Just make as many games as you can.
Don’t get hung up on some big new MMORPG game you’ve got in your head. Just start by making Pong, then Space Invaders, then Pac-Man. Then make a dozen small prototypes of your own ideas, each time based on what you’ve learned.
You get practical development experience but more importantly, you learn that iterating and experimenting is where good ideas come from and where bad ideas are discarded.
Once the business model and psychology of content aggregation and habitual user feedback loops was discovered, there was no going back. That model is just too powerful and too economically successful. It sucked all the oxygen out of the room.
Unless your community is paid for by some benefactor, you usually run out of money convincing people to pay for it, or end up copying the structure of Facebook/Pinterest/Twitter/Instagram etc.
I’m so sorry you have to live with that system. I’m in Australia and had my first child not that long ago. After multiple hospital visits due to ongoing complications during pregnancy, an induced labour and an emergency c-section followed by a week in hospital for my wife to recover...the only thing we had to pay for was parking at the hospital and a few meals for myself at the cafeteria.
The whole ordeal was stressful enough but the financial aspect was never in our minds. I can’t even imagine having to add financial stress on top of that.
This what my takeaway from watching Baraka again recently:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baraka_(film)
While the film doesn't focus on any particular person, it covers society at large. It portrays the build-up of a modern, global society and eventually shows shots of ancient Egypt ruins. We are no different. One too all of this will be gone.
I would love if Apple started treating app analytics like they do my GPS location or my camera permissions. Basically, if apps want to send analytics, they must go through an iOS API.
Then as a user, I can inspect what apps are sending and how frequently. I should be able to block requests or set myself as anonymous. Or allow apps for certain amounts of time etc.
That “stuffed ears” feeling took me about a week to get used to. Now it’s no longer an issue. Everyone is different though I suppose.
In my experience when people focus too much on sprint deadlines, they miss the purpose of sprints.
Timed sprints exist not for the benefits of managers, but for the benefit of developers. They exist so that the development team has a shield against managers making last-minute decisions and changing priorities without notice.
If the focus and discussion is regularly on short term deadlines, then the developers are not driving the process, the managers are. It means that sprints are seen as a management methodology and not a development methodology. And then everyone has a hard time.
Managers who think this way know they’re not “allowed” to make mid-sprint changes so instead they focus on the end/deadline.
The managers should be spending their energy supporting the team and figuring out what the priorities are for the next sprint(s). If they’re spending their mental energy on deadlines then they’re doing everyone involved a disservice.
Do you have any other google apps installed in your phone? Apps from the same developer can share information.
We should be doing both.
Exploration of the solar system could be the greatest human endeavour of the next hundred or thousand years. Both manned and unmanned missions will be needed.
That's why I love UK and Australian/NZ power plugs. It's impossible to plug them in "the other way around". They only go in one way.
Being able to track the location of objects (or other people) through walls, for displaying in AR glasses. That's my guess.
Is this a uniquely American problem?
My Australian mobile phone receives maybe one spam call per year. It’s my single phone and I give out the number to various businesses and people.
To “observe” something, you need to interact with it in some way, such as bouncing a photon off it. That interaction changes the quantum state.
The scenarios are usually less about creating realism, and more about crafting interesting combat puzzles.
“The Last Of Us” does a great job imo. Each fight offers different strategies and paths. And the enemies are usually there for a reason with some explanation in the AI interactions.
You can already set "background app refresh" permissions on a per app basis in iOS12 (and it is disabled system wide if you're in low power mode). I hope this carries through to the new background tasks in iOS13.
Apollo 11 is such a great documentary. They restored a lot of 70mm film and the clarity of the image is surreal.
It didn’t get screened in any cinemas where I live, but the bluray looks absolutely stunning. I wish they did a 4K release.
It’s not a lack of control, it’s a different kind of control. Driven by algorithms and engagement metrics which appear to promote extreme content.
That difference is what has people worried because the political and social endgame is not yet clear.
At a studio I worked at once, two others and myself were assigned to a new project. Since we were the only ones working on the project, we got permission to clear out a storage room and convert it into an office.
It was just the three of us in a decent sized room and I feel that my work satisfaction and productivity was double what it was anywhere else in the open plan office space. There were very few distractions, but our office was open-door and just off a commonly used hallway so we weren’t hiding. We had enough space for a whiteboard and a 4th desk that we used for reviewing work together.
A few months later one of the managers saw what we’d done and decided he wanted it for his personal office. We went back to open plan :(
With macOS and BetterTouchTool, I set up trackpad to do so much:
- 2 finger swipe left/right: go back and forward
- 3 finger tap: open link in new tab
- 3 finder swipe left/right: move between tabs
- 3 finger swipe up: new tab/window
- 3 finger swipe down: close tab/window
- 4 finger swipe left/right: move between virtual desktops
There are so many other gestures available too. While I prefer having a desktop and a mouse if I'm going to spend hours working on a project...the Apple trackpads are still the best out there imo.
Apple have different distribution methods for different use cases. Enterprise distribution is meant for internal company apps. Testflight is meant for test customers. Use any of these in a way that Apple doesn't approve of and you'll deal with the consequences.
Apple's platform, their rules.
Every time "design thinking" comes up the responses around here are similar: That's it's an obvious and somewhat natural process.
I think that's part of the point. It's a natural process for creative people with development experience and critical thinking skills. But those people are often not in charge of projects. Those people in charge need these concepts formalised into a process to even consider it. In my experience, many development frameworks come from developers trying to get average managers to sort their shit out.
Make an effort to make friends with some locals. Otherwise it's easy to get stuck in the "expat bubble" where all you do is work, drink, and travel to places outside Singapore. My best memories are with local friends going to places I would have never known about.
I lived there for 2 years. It's a fun place but it can get on your nerves at times. It's hot, crowded, everything (other than local food) is expensive, and the people can be petty and dogmatic. It's growing rapidly which is affecting racial and social cohesion. It's very much a "follow the rules and you'll be ok" place to live.
I really hope they won’t kill the AppleTV. Yes the device is expensive (it’s an Apple product after all...) but it’s so refreshing to use a TV OS that is performant, responsive, and doesn’t have ads in it. And I personally love the trackpad remote. Apple’s stance (and track record) on privacy also gives me peace of mind that it’s not sending back unwanted data.
Brands crate their own AI-rendered influencers, so they have complete control.