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Stories from September 9, 2014
Go back a day, month, or year. Go forward a day, month, or year.
1.With genetic testing, I gave my parents the gift of divorce (vox.com)
467 points by anigbrowl on Sept 9, 2014 | 212 comments
2.Stripe and Apple Pay (stripe.com)
447 points by Peroni on Sept 9, 2014 | 97 comments
No, I don't want a smart watch.
344 points | parent
4.Issue #3 – Better Late Than Never (neovim.org)
344 points by bpierre on Sept 9, 2014 | 44 comments
5.Microsoft Near Deal to Buy Minecraft Maker Mojang (wsj.com)
354 points by thethimble on Sept 9, 2014 | 262 comments
6.Google Employees Secretly Live on Campus to Avoid Paying Rent (yahoo.com)
349 points by thejteam on Sept 9, 2014 | 263 comments
7.The curious case of the cyclist’s unshaven legs (theglobeandmail.com)
280 points by soundsop on Sept 9, 2014 | 80 comments
8.Apple – Live – September 2014 Special Event (apple.com)
237 points by Geee on Sept 9, 2014 | 362 comments
9.Intel Edison Module (intel.com)
217 points by gao8a on Sept 9, 2014 | 53 comments
10.Zimg – A lightweight and high-performance image storage and processing system (github.com/buaazp)
196 points by lonre on Sept 9, 2014 | 21 comments
11.Lost Franklin expedition ship found in the Arctic (cbc.ca)
189 points by trusche on Sept 9, 2014 | 34 comments
12.Apple Pay (apple.com)
185 points by andreiursan on Sept 9, 2014 | 212 comments
13.iPhone 6 (apple.com)
182 points by antr on Sept 9, 2014 | 308 comments
14.Weave – The Docker Network (github.com/zettio)
197 points by ferrantim on Sept 9, 2014 | 63 comments
15.DSLR – Damn Small Linux Remake (dimakrasner.com)
182 points by networked on Sept 9, 2014 | 84 comments
16.China's Island Factory – New islands being made in disputed China Sea (bbc.co.uk)
186 points by roc123 on Sept 9, 2014 | 144 comments
17.A Revolutionary Technique That Changed Machine Vision (technologyreview.com)
175 points by lelf on Sept 9, 2014 | 66 comments
18.Steve Ballmer did not write the text for the blue screen of death (msdn.com)
159 points by ingve on Sept 9, 2014 | 35 comments
19.How Apple Pay works and why it matters for developers (clover-developers.blogspot.com)
184 points by johndbeatty on Sept 9, 2014 | 113 comments
20.Ragnarok MMO open-source HTML5 client (github.com/vthibault)
176 points by mihai_ionic on Sept 9, 2014 | 52 comments

While someone else already made the reference to this quote, it's hard for me not to recall Commander Taco's (in)famous dismissal of the original iPod when I browse these comments.

Personally I don't know that there's any watch that would really get me to start wearing watches at all again -- I never liked them that much to begin with. But this knocks down an awful lot of the criticisms I've had of existing smartwatches. The smaller Apple Watch is 38mm, certainly not small but by no means an irrationally huge behemoth. (Even the larger is only 42mm, I believe.) When you consider the three lines, two sizes, and multiple bands, there's dozens of combinations available. You may personally not like the fashion sense, but other than the Moto 360 this is the first smartwatch that's had a fashion sense to criticize. (And guys, the Moto 360 is 46mm, so let's not pretend it's svelte, either.)

But what's really interesting to me is that Apple has clearly put a lot more thought into how interactions on a device like this should work than anybody else. Yes, I'm sure every single component has an antecedent you can point to, just like the iPhone's interaction model. Except that nobody put it all together like that before the iPhone. And nobody put it all together like this before the Apple Watch.

I'm not so glib as to say that catcalls when Apple introduces a new product are a sure sign of success (I remember the iPod Hifi, thanks). But again, it's hard not to see a few recurring patterns in the responses: oh, look, it doesn't do everything that it could (or that competitors already do!) and it's too expensive. If it sells well, it'll only because of the Apple faithful buying everything.

And, of course, if it sells well, than within a year all smartwatches will adapt its interaction model. Other manufacturers will come out with variants that Apple isn't making, and we can move onto the evergreen phase of dismissing Apple as a company that just copies everybody else.

22.Responsive Web Design with DevTools' Device Mode (chromium.org)
157 points by AshleysBrain on Sept 9, 2014 | 35 comments
23.Venture Firms Fret as Y Combinator Soars (genius.com)
154 points by samnm on Sept 9, 2014 | 58 comments
24.Summary of ZFS on Linux for Debian (gmane.org)
141 points by ferrantim on Sept 9, 2014 | 96 comments
25.The Satoshi Nakamoto Email Hacker Says He's Negotiating with the Bitcoin Founder (vice.com)
129 points by harwoodr on Sept 9, 2014 | 83 comments

I'm building PressureNet :) (edited my post above to add that)
27.From Reddit to Pornhub, Websites Slow Down for Net Neutrality on September 10 (eff.org)
121 points by sinak2 on Sept 9, 2014 | 43 comments
28.Ebola death toll rises to at least 2,296: WHO (reuters.com)
113 points by anigbrowl on Sept 9, 2014 | 38 comments
29.OPM – Open PostgreSQL Monitoring (opm.io)
102 points by rayshan on Sept 9, 2014 | 30 comments

I did this on a 6 month contract as an experiment over a mild winter in the UK in 2011. You can pretty much do this anywhere.

Couple of tricks: 1) Get a small camper/van that can park in one car parking space with a diesel heating system. Kitchen is irrelevant. Bed/toilet/heating system/space to sit and type/space for clothes to hang.

2) You need a toilet but usually you time your bowel movements to only need to use it as a urinal unless you decide to go for a crazy hot curry

3) Find a local sports centre (not gym) with a sauna. Go for a swim in the morning, spend the evenings working out or hanging out in the sauna (you get regulars).

4) Bank of leisure batteries in your van (to drive the heater and give your laptop power), can give you the power to live for weeks inside your van. Luckily I went home every weekend to recharge them. If you can't get a power source connection (friend etc.), then consider covering your roof in solar power cells.

5) Unlimited mobile data plan that allows tethering.

6) Clubs/Meetup/Work social groups (CRITICAL).

7) No it's not 'hot' to invite a girl back to your van in a car park.

8) Scout the areas and work out where to sleep. Sleeping on a road can mean you get traffic buzzing you from 5am. Go find a really quiet road or lay by. Use retail park car parks if they don't have security patrols. Remember you're parking up at work during the day. You only really turn up after the gym at 8pm or later and leave by 8am.

9) It's quite liberating. Want to wake up next to the sea and go for a swim....yes you can.

10) Be proud of what you are doing. The limited space you have frees you from clutter.

11) Do crazy things...like continue to run an ebay magic card sales business inside the van!

12) Cold is your enemy. When winter hit hard, the issue was the driver cabin and the rear doors. Two cheap double duvets insulated the rest of the van from those cold spaces.

13) Go stealth mode if possible. No windows on the sides of the van, roof windows are perfect. You want somebody to think there is no one in the van.

14) Layout can be interesting, but I prefer bed at back on a removable platform, storage under neath, rear door 'insulated'. Sliding door opens into a space with bench and toilet under bench. Blackout curtains between driver cabin and rear area. Lockable from the inside.

15) Always go for a van you can stand in.

16) Check your drinking laws. In the UK sleeping in the back of a van is legal if drunk.

17) Going to repeat this. Scout out your area and work out great un-disturb-able places. A quiet car park in the centre of town may have a lot of pedestrians walking through it at 2am going back from clubs. Go for those parks/spaces that are not natural through routes. You will get into a routine. You'll end up parking in the same place on the same night of the week.

18) Be social. Get out of that space. Do not go back to the van and lock yourself away and watch stuff on the internet. GET OUT.

[edit] This was the van: https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xaf1/v/t1....

Slightly on the big side, but it worked at the time. If I was going to do it again, I would custom build. Height for me being 6'2 is always going to be an issue. I would consider a normal height van but bending over all the time is not my thing.


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