Infoman

Member since 2017-07-15T03:50:57Z. Last seen 2025-06-14T19:39:11Z.

2755 blog posts. 128 comments.

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Posts by Infoman

• 
  

  Infoman

  別綁死自己（蔡瀾）

  又是新的一年，大家都制定這次的願望，我從不跟着別人做這等事，願望隨時立，隨時尊行則是。今年的，應該是盡量別綁死自己。

  常有交易對手相約見面，一說就是幾個月後，我一聽全身發毛，一答應，那就表示這段時間完全被人綁住，不能彈動，那是多麼痛苦的一件事。

  可以改期呀，有人說，可以但是我不喜歡這麼做，答應過就必得遵守，不然不答應，改期是噩夢，改過一次，以後一定一改再改，變成一個不遵守諾言的人。

  那麼怎麼辦才好？最好就是不約了，想見對方，臨時決定好了。喂，明晚有空吃飯嗎？不行？那麼再約，總之不要被時間束縛，不要被約會釘死。

  廣告

  人家事忙，可不與你玩這等遊戲，許多人都想事前約好再來，尤其是日本人，一約都是早幾個月。「請問你六月一號在香港嗎？是否可以一見？」

  對方問得輕鬆，我一想，那是半年後呀，我怎麼知道這六個月之間會發生什麼事？心裏這麼想，但總是客氣地回答：「可不可以近一點再說呢？」

  但這也不妥，你沒事，別人有，不事前安排不行呀！我這種回答，對方聽了一定不滿意的，所以只有改一個方式了：「哎呀！六月份嗎？已經答應人家了，讓我努力一下，看看改不改得了期。」

  這麼一說，對方就覺得你很夠朋友，再問道：「那麼什麼時候才知道呢？」

  「五月份行不行？」

  「好吧，五月再問你。」對方給了我喘氣的空間。

  說到這裏，你一定會認為我這人怎麼那麼奸詐，那麼虛偽，但這是迫不得已的，我不想被綁下來，如果在那段時間內我有更值得做的事，我真的不想赴約的。

  「你有什麼了不起？別人要預定一個時間見面，六個月前通知你，難道還不夠嗎？」對方罵道：「你真的是那麼忙嗎？香港人都是那麼忙呀？」

  對的，香港人真的忙，他們忙着把時間儲蓄起來，留給他們的朋友的。

  真正想見的人，隨時通知，我都在的，我都不忙的，但是一些無聊的，可無可有的約會，到了我這個階段，我是不肯綁死我自己的。

  當今，我只想多一點時間學習，多一點時間充實自己，吸收所有新科技，練習之前沒有時間練習的草書和繪畫。依着古人的足跡，把日子過得舒閑一點。

  我還要留時間去旅行呢。去哪裏？大多數想去的不是已經去過嗎？不，不，世界之大，去不完的，但是當今最想去的，是從前一些住過的城市，見見昔時的友人，回味一些當年吃過的菜。

  雖然沒去過的，像爬喜馬拉雅山，像到北極探險等等，這些機會我已經在年輕時錯過，當今也只好認了，不想去了。所有沒有好吃東西的地方，也都不想去了。

  後悔嗎？後悔又有什麼用，非洲那麼多的國家，剛果、安哥拉、納米比亞、莫桑比克、索馬里、烏干達、盧旺達、岡比亞、尼日利亞、喀麥隆等等等等，數之不清，不去不後悔嗎？已經沒有時間後悔了。放棄了，算了。

  好友俞志剛問道：「你的新年大計，是否會考慮開《蔡瀾零食精品店連鎖店》，你有現成的合作夥伴和朝氣勃勃的團隊。真的值得一試……」

  是的，要做的事真的太多了，我現在的狀態處於被動，別人有了興趣，問我幹不幹，我才會去計劃一番，不然我不會主動地去找東西來把我自己忙死。

  做生意，賺多一點錢，是好玩的，但是，一不小心，就會被玩，一被玩，就不好玩了。

  我回答俞志剛兄道：「有很多大計，首先要做的，是不把自己綁死的事，如果決定下一步棋，也是輕鬆地去做，不要太花腦筋地去做。一答應就全心投入，就會盡力，像目前做的點心店和越南粉店，都是一百巴仙投入的。」

  志剛兄回信：「說得好，應該是這種態度，但世上有不少人，不論窮富，一定要把自己綁死為止。」

  不綁死自己，並不是一件容易的事，我花光了畢生的經歷，從年輕到現在，往這方向去走，中間遇到不少人生的導師，像那個意大利司機，向我說：「煩惱來幹什麼，明天的事明天才去煩吧！」

  還有遇到在海邊釣小魚的老嬉皮士，當我向他說：「喂！老頭子，那邊魚更大，去外邊釣吧。」他回答道：「但是，先生，我釣的是早餐呀！」

  更有我的父親，向我說：「對老人家孝順，對年輕人愛護，守時間，守諾言，重友情。」

  這都是改變我思想極大的教訓，學到了，才知道什麼叫放鬆，什麼叫不要綁死自己。

  2019/01/13
• 
  

  Infoman

  Making a Game Boy Game. Part 1: Getting Started 239 broahmed 21 hrs 32 https://invisibleup.neocities.org/articles/18/ news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18873662

  Over the past few weeks I've decided to work on a Game Boy game that I'm having a bit of fun making. The working title of it is "Aqua and Ashes". It's open source, hosted at https://github.com/InvisibleUp/AquaAndAshes. In this first part I'll discuss how I came up with the idea, share some of my art, and go over how I managed to initialize the Game Boy hardware and draw a background to the screen.

  Coming up with the idea

  Recently I got an internship doing back-end PHP and Python stuff for a website for my university. It's a really nice job that I find fun and I'm thankful to have. But... at the same time, doing all this high-level web dev stuff has given me a big itch I need to scratch. That itch being the fun of low level bit fiddling.

  itch.io's weekly game jam email came in my inbox and it announced the Mini Jam 4. It was a 48 hour (well, a bit more actually) jam where the restriction was to have graphics like a Game Boy. My perfectly logical and sound reaction to this was to make a Game Boy homebrew, because that seemed neat to do. The themes were "seasons" and "flames".

  After a bit of musing about plot and mechanics that I could pull off in 48 hours that fit the theme restrictions, I came up with a rip-off reinterpretation of a level from the 1993 SNES game Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose! where you, as Buster, play a round of American football.

  I always sort of enjoyed how this stage took the incredibly complex sport of football, stripped out all the plays and positions and a lot of the strategic elements, and still ended up with a perfectly fun and easy to pick up game. Obviously this sort of simplified overview of football doesn't replace Madden in the same way that NBA Jam (same sort of idea; only 4 players on a much smaller court with much more streamlined gameplay than the real deal) doesn't replace the 2K series. But the idea has a certain charm to it, if NBA Jam's sales numbers are any indication.

  What the heck does that have to do with anything? Well, my thought was to take that football level and build upon it until it was fresh albeit original. First, I stripped it down to only 4 players, one offense and one defense per team. This was due to hardware limitations mostly, but it also would allow me to play around with smarter AI than the "run left and randomly jump" of the SNES game.

  To fit the theme, I change the goalposts to burning pillars or campfires or something (I haven't quite decided that yet) and the football to torches and buckets of water. This way the winner is the team that controls both fireplaces, which is an easy concept to write a simple plot around. The seasons came into play as I decided that the time of year would continually tick every turn, so that the pro-fire team got a buff during the summer and the anti-fire team got a buff during the winter. This buff would come in the form of on-field obstacles like snow piles that only effect other team.

  Of course, I then had to make the two teams each some kind of animal that does and does not like fire. My first thought was fire ants and some sort of water bug or praying mantis or something, but doing some research I couldn't find any bugs that were active during the winter, so I switched it over to arctic foxes and geckos instead. Arctic foxes like snow, geckos like laying in the sun, it makes sense probably. It's a Game Boy game, it's fine.

  Also, in case it wasn't obvious, I didn't get anywhere near done before the jam was over. Meh. I'm still having fun.

  Getting the Game Boy up and running

  First off, I had to decide on requirements. I decided to stick with just the DMG mostly to keep with that game jam's requirements, but also because I wanted to. I personally have never owned a DMG game (but I have a few Game Boy Color games, weirdly enough) but I find the 2-bit aesthetic kinda nice and a fun limitation to play with. I might add optional color for the SGB and the CGB, but I'm not ready to consider it yet.

  I've also decided to stick with a 32K ROM + no RAM cart just in case I ever want to make physical copies of it. CatSkull, who published a few Game Boy games such as Sheep it Up!, has a really cheap 32K flash cart for sale that would be perfect for me. This is a bit of an additional challenge, but I don't see myself exceeding 32K with a game this simple any time soon. The graphics would be the trickiest part, really, and if worst comes to worst I can try compressing the graphics.

  As for actually making the Game Boy do things, that was mildly difficult. Honestly though, as far as retro game consoles go the Game Boy is the nicest I've ever worked with. I started out with an excellent tutorial (well, an excellent start to one, as it was never finished) by "AssemblyDigest". I knew that using ASM was the best way to go, as painful as it can be sometimes, because the Game Boy hardware is not meant for C and I did not have any confidence in that hotshot "Wiz" language mentioned being usable in the long term. Plus, well, I'm doing this mostly so that I can work in ASM.

  Follow along with commit 8c0a4ea

  The first order of business was to get the Game Boy to boot. Unless the Nintendo logo is present at the offset $104 and the rest of the header is set up correctly, the Game Boy hardware will assume the game cart isn't inserted properly and refuse to boot. Doing this was easy enough, as basically everyone on the planet had a tutorial for it. Here's my take on the header. Nothing super noteworthy here.

  The harder part is doing anything meaningful after it boots. An easy thing to do is to have the system throw itself into an infinite busy-loop, where it executes the same line of code over and over. Code execution starts at the main label (as the jump at $100 in the header points to), so at there I need to place some simple code like

  main: .loop: halt jr .loop which would do literally nothing besides wait for an interrupt happens to be fired and then go back to the .loop label. (From this point forward I'm going to skim over exactly how the ASM works. If you get lost refer to the docs for the assembler I'm using.) If you're wondering why I'm not just jumping straight back to the main label, that's because I want to have everything before the .loop label be program initialization, and everything afterwards what happens every frame. That way I'm not forced to loop over loading data from the cart and clearing memory every single frame.

  Let's step it up a little bit. The assembler suite I'm using, RGBDS, has an image converter. Because at this point I hadn't drawn any assets for the game yet, I decided to use the monochromatic button from my About page as a test bitmap. I converted that to the Game Boy format using RGBGFX and used the .incbin assembler command to include it after my main function.

  To display this on the screen, I needed to do the following:

  Turn off the LCD display Set the palette Set the scroll position Clear the VRAM Load the tile graphics into VRAM Load the background tilemap into VRAM Turn the LCD back on Turning off the LCD

  This was the biggest roadblock to getting started. On the orginal Game Boy, you can't just write data to VRAM (video RAM) whenever. You have to wait until the system isn't drawing anything. Emulating the phosphor beam of an old tube TV, this period between every frame the VRAM is open is known as Vertical-Blank, or VBlank. (There also exists HBlank, between every line on the display, but it's really short.) However, we can sideskirt this by turning off the LCD display, which means that we can write to the VRAM no matter where the "phosphor beam" of the LCD is.

  If you're lost, this overview should explain a lot. It's from an SNES perspective, so keep in mind that there is no electron beam and that the numbers are off, but otherwise the vast majority applies. We're effectively attempting to set the "FBlank" flag.

  The catch about the Game Boy, though, is that you can only turn off the LCD during VBlank. This means we have to wait for VBlank. To do this, we need to use interrupts. Interrupts are signals the Game Boy hardware sends to the CPU. If an interrupt handler is defined, the CPU stops what it was doing and calls the handler. There are 5 interrupts the Game Boy supports, and one of them fires when VBlank starts.

  There are two ways to handle interrupts. The first, and most common, way is to set up an interrupt handler, which works as I've described above. However, we can enable a certain interrupt and disable all the handlers by setting the interrupt enable flag for that interrupt and using the di opcode. This usually doesn't do anything, but it has the side effect of breaking out of a HALT opcode, which stops the CPU until an interrupt occurs. (This would occur if handlers were enabled as well, which allows us to break out of the HALT loop in main.) In case you were wondering, we will eventually make a VBlank handler, but the stuff in there will depend on certain memory addresses having certain values. As we don't yet have anything in RAM set up, attempting to call the VBlank handler may crash the system.

  To do this, we have to send commands to the Game Boy's hardware registers. These are special memory addresses that are directly connected to various bits of hardware, in this case the CPU, and lets you alter how it operates. We're specifically interested in addresses $FFFF (interrupt enable bitfield), $FF0F (activated but unserviced interrupt bitfield), and $FF40 (LCD control). You can find a listing of these registers in the pages linked in the "Documentation" section on the Awesome Game Boy Development list.

  To turn the LCD off, we enable only the VBlank interrupt by setting $FFFF to $01, HALT until $FF0F == $01, and then set bit 7 of $FF40 to 0.

  Setting palette and scroll position

  This is easy. Now that the LCD is off, we don't have to worry about VBlank anymore. Setting the scroll position is as easy as setting the respective X and Y registers to 0. The palette is marginally trickier. With the Game Boy, you can set the 1st through 4th shades of your graphics to any of the 4 shades of grey (or pea-soup green, if that's more your jam), which is useful for transitions and stuff. I set it to a simple gradient, defined as the bit list %11100100.

  Clearing VRAM and loading tile graphics

  On startup, the graphics data and the background map will be that of the scrolling Nintendo logo you see when the system boots up. The sprites, when I turn them on (they default to being turned off) will be garbage strewn across the screen. I want to clear the video RAM so I have a clean slate.

  To do this, I needed a function like memset in C. (I'm also going to need memcpy as well to copy the graphics data over.) memset sets a given chunk of memory so that is all equals a certain byte. This would be easy to implement myself, but the AssemblyDigest tutorial had these functions already so I just used those.

  At this point I could clear the VRAM using memset with $00 (although this first commit used $FF, which works just as well) and then load the tile graphics into VRAM using memcpy. I specifically need to copy into to address $9000, as those are the tiles used solely by the background graphics. ($8000-$87FF are sprite-only tiles and $8800-$8FFF are shared by both.)

  Setting the tile map

  The Game Boy has a single background layer, split into 8x8 tiles. The background layer itself takes up about 32x32 tiles for a total size of 256x256. (The screen, for comparison, is 160x144.) I needed to manually specify the tiles that made up my image, row by row. Thankfully, all the tiles were in order, so I just needed to fill each row with N11 through N11 + 10 where N is the row number, filling the other 22 tile entries with $FF.

  Turning the LCD back on

  You don't need to wait for VBlank here, as the screen won't turn back on until VBlank anyways, so I just wrote to the LCD control register again. I also made sure to turn on the background and sprite layers and set the tilemap and tile graphics locations to the right spot. With that, here's the results. I also re-enabled interrupt handlers using the ei opcode as well.

  At this point, for a little extra fun, I wrote a very simple interrupt handler for VBlank. By adding a jump opcode at address $40, I can set the handler to be any function I want. In this case, I just made a simple function that scrolls the screen up and to the left.

  Here's the final results. [Edit: Just realized that the GIF loops improperly. It's supposed to wrap around all the way.]

  Nothing exciting yet, but it's still neat that I can, in theory, get out my old Game Boy Color and see my own code running on it.

  Next time I'll talk some about art. That'll have to wait until I have access to my scanner, though, so I'm not sure when that's coming.

  2019/01/11
• 
  

  Infoman

  美國消費電子展（Consumer Electronics Show, CES）今年在美國拉斯維加斯再度舉行，吸引全球頂尖科技品牌參與，展示最新產品。香港媒體報道最多的是，一個南韓品牌將推出的OLED超薄可捲起大電視，這算是劃時代產品嗎？電視、智能手機曾經都是領導潮流的產品，惟高峰期已過，留意下一代潮流產品更為重要。

  Google小火車體驗AI本領

  曾說不參加展覽的Google，面對後來者的挑戰，去年第一次參加CES，打出「Hey Google」招牌，推廣自家人工智能助手Google Assistant，還記得去年那段代為訂枱的短片嗎？

  今年Google沒讓粉絲失望，包下其中一個會場二樓，布置「Google Assisant小火車」（是真的小火車，不是要帶上VR眼鏡坐在原地動的小火車），為參觀者提供一場3分鐘的體驗旅程。展場入口處坐着一位「老太太」，整個旅程就是圍繞老太太的生日發生，參觀者在小火車上體驗幫老太太買蛋糕、過生日的旅程。

  小火車經過的幾個路段都是生活中再平凡不過的日常，說一句「Hey Google」，再說出指示，便能打開窗戶或鎖門，又或者你問Google Assistant時間，它會提醒有什麼行程（如果你不介意上載行程至Google Calendar，有點私隱考量的話）。若然前面塞車，AI助手會連線Google Maps提供新路線。至於訂蛋糕幫忙找蛋糕店，拍大合照時想請「人」按快門，根本就是小事。

  整個Google展館分為「家用」和「車用」兩大區域。家用區Google Home Hub能布置在家中不同角落，如大門、客廳、廚房、睡房等，簡單如調節燈光當然會，找食譜則會在儀器上直接播出YouTube短片，不只文字這麼dry。

  車用區有兩台福士汽車（Volkswagen），下載Android Auto系統，便能連結Google Assistant，播歌、打電話、傳短訊、導航等易如反掌。不過這些都只是前菜，最讓人期待的是無人車何時可以正式推出市場。

  擁有人流就是贏家

  此外，Google宣布內置Google Assistant的移動終端將於本月底突破10億大關（估計大部分都是Android手機）。

  說了AI助手這麼多功能，還不明白它有多重要？硬件產品不只是硬件，更是消費者接觸世界的工具。電視機為何重要，因為它曾是人們接觸世界的主要工具，人們花時間在它上面最多，所以電視的廣告也最貴。現在人們接觸世界的渠道多了，YouTube成了全球最大的電視台，電視和電視台的重要性不是江河日下了嗎？

  智能手機漸成明日黃花，人們花在上面的時間已近飽和，未來人們接觸世界的渠道，大概會分一些到家中和車中的智能裝置，誰能掌下一科技產品牛耳，當然值得再三注意。誰擁有人流，誰便有廣告費，但人工智能產品不只幫助你的生活，也會幫科網企業了解你。搜尋「巴黎」出現機票廣告，但人們就是戒不掉。

  hcl.hkej@gmail.com

  (編者按：郝承林著作《致富新世代2──科網君臨天下》現已發售)

  歡迎訂購：實體書、電子書

  2019/01/11
• 
  

  Infoman

  Start with a Website, Not a Mobile App

  1140 jenthoven 17 hrs 482

  https://www.atrium.co/blog/founders-should-build-website-not-mobile-app/

  news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18824993

  TwitterLinkedInFacebookPocketBufferEmail When I was a Stanford undergraduate in 2012, everyone seemed to be building apps. The sexiest tech startups—Snap, Uber, Facebook—were almost synonymous with the word “app,” and that the world was moving increasingly towards “mobile-only” software. Mobile fever was everywhere, and software = apps.

  Now it’s 2019. App obsession has calmed down. In the meantime, I’ve worked at Google and started a video editing website called Kapwing, so I have more perspective on what it’s like to launch a startup. In this post, I’ll share my opinion on why founders should almost always build a website first instead of a native app in the early days of a startup.

  Background

  Last September, my co-founder and I noticed that video memes were hugely popular and that there were several meme native apps, but there were no websites that helped people make video memes online. So, we built the web’s first video meme generator. Within weeks, Kapwing had hundreds of meme creators using the website daily thanks to the magic of SEO. Soon, our users were begging us for other video editing tools for the browser, and Kapwing was born.

  The pressure of bootstrapping helped us discover the power of the web. As we scrambled to get traction, we learned a lot about SEO, the affordability of cloud storage, advancements in web technology, blogging, and the growth of web productivity platforms. Ilya Fushman, Dylan Field, and Clark Valberg all got involved as investors. Now, we built an iOS app to facilitate video downloads, although almost all product development is focused on Kapwing’s web platform. Based on my experience in Startup Land over the last 15 months, here are some things you should consider when bringing your startup to market.

  Consumer usage: Mobile apps vs websites

  According to research from the Chrome team at Google and others, people spend more time on mobile apps than they do on mobile websites. Apps account for up to 90% of time spent on a phone and 77% of the time on tablets. But app usage is heavily concentrated in a few favorite apps (eMarketer). More than 50% of consumer app time is taken by a Facebook or Alphabet app (Apptopia), and 90% is spent in a person’s five top apps.

  Alternatively, time spent on the web is more evenly distributed across providers and publishers. In the browser, people visit new websites they find on Google, explore links from existing apps, and browse content without the barrier of app installation. As a result, it’s easier for an unknown startup to reach users for the first time with a web presence vs a native presence.

  4 reasons to first build a website instead of a mobile app

  Based on my experience as a founder, the web is an easier starting point that native. I recommend that aspiring entrepreneurs test out their ideas with websites instead of native apps because websites are easier to build, distribute, and monetize. Here’s why:

  1) Building the MVP

  Instant deployment

  When a web developer pushes changes to their site, the changes are deployed immediately, and every user sees the update. In contrast, mobile app users must install an update to get changes you’ve pushed, which leaves a long tail of users with buggy or outdated versions. Kapwing is more agile because we push updates quickly—even daily—without gating changes behind a release version or interrupting our users. Last December, right after Christmas, an API Kapwing depended on broke unexpectedly, and we shipped changes the same day to get our service back online. Since we could deploy immediately, the unexpected outage was only a small hiccup. If Kapwing was an app, it would have taken a week for the new version to get approved, go live, and rollout to users through app updates—that would have been a huge loss.

  Independent launch review

  Both Apple and Google have revised their developer policies in the last 18 months, adding stricter requirements for what is allowed in an app that’s featured on their Store. The App Store and Google Play’s approvers reject app submissions more often, especially from unknown startups they don’t have a relationship with. Every time a native app developer pushes an update, they risk delays and setbacks due to review requirements.

  When we first launched the Kapwing iOS app, it took nearly 2 weeks to push through review due to issues unrelated to the product. For example, Apple rejected our app because we used an iPhone 8 device frame in our App Store preview images instead of the iPhone 10, which falls short of Apple’s requirements to match the images with the user’s device. Responding to the “big company” nitpicks delayed the app and distracted our progress. In contrast, web developers can push any change without external roadblocks or opinions.

  Startup cost

  An App Store developer license costs $99/year, whereas a Namecheap domain is less than $10/month. These are small numbers compared to development costs down the road but are important for a bootstrapping founder to keep in mind.

  Developers at Kapwing 2) Getting users

  Ease of distribution and expansion

  No one wants to download apps anymore. The barrier to convincing someone to try your product is a lot higher for an app than a website. URLs can be easily shared and show up in Google search, and new users don’t need to install a software package that takes up space on their phone.

  With our mobile web app, thousands of users who would rather upload a video and download the edited output than install a new photo editing app on their phone. As we’ve grown, we’ve been able to expand into other editing verticals since users can try out new tools without needing to install a separate app. Our users share the links to their output videos and links to the Kapwing tools, propagating organic entry points across social media and the web.

  Acquisition cost

  Competition and app fatigue has driven the cost of acquisition for apps up dramatically in the last five years. The number of Android apps in the Play Store peaked in March 2018.

  Since we launched the Kapwing meme maker last September, we’ve acquired new users for free through SEO, a channel that is super accessible to bootstrapping founders. In the early days, when founders are still validating ideas, they can save themselves pain and money by leveraging organic acquisition through search.

  3) Scaling

  Works on all devices

  At a startup, engineering resources are scarce. It’s expensive to spread your engineering expertise across different platforms, so it’s better to focus on one in the beginning. Building for the web means that users on mobile, desktop, Chromebooks (which have become the most popular EDU hardware in the US), and any other internet-connected device can use your service, whereas a native app is specific to iOS or Android.

  Building a website does not mean you give up on mobile users; nearly 50% of Kapwing’s users come from a smartphone or tablet. With a web-based product, your engineers can build entirely in Javascript to streamline the development process versus working in multiple different front-end languages.

  Students using Kapwing’s website on Chromebook Adaptable

  If you build a successful mobile-friendly website with plenty of mobile traffic, you can push your mobile users to native apps eventually. Millions of active users have installed the Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Yelp, Reddit, and LinkedIn apps after getting a prompt on the mobile version of the website. But a successful native app will have trouble developing a similar offering for the desktop since the technology and user behavior is so different. It’s lower-risk to build out a responsive web interface then move to native once you validate your idea than to start with native on day one.

  Internationalization

  Browsers automatically translate text, so web developers don’t need to do much extra work to reach foreign users. Kapwing was designed by English speakers, but, without any additional work from us, the site serves tens of thousands of non-English speakers monthly. Web products get internationalization for free, which is important for a small, cash-strapped team. Native app teams need to figure out how to translate and launch in international markets.

  4) Making Money

  Desktop users pay a higher price

  When you’re trying to monetize, you won’t be able to extract subscriptions fee from mobile apps like you can on a desktop. Professional users expect their software to work on their work computer but don’t usually swipe the corporate card for native-only apps. As a result, the website price can be higher than the same service in an app. Kapwing charges $20 per month for the Pro no-watermark plan, while similar apps like Flyr TV charge only $5 per month for their premium package.

  Preserve your margins on payments

  Building an iOS or Android app means you’ll have to give Apple or Google a substantial cut of in-app purchase and subscriptions (generally 30%). In contrast, Stripe only takes roughly 3% of the payments we collect on our website. There are more options for web payments, so you can preserve your margins when you charge users directly instead of through the iOS.

  Exceptions: When you should build an app over a website

  Like every decision in Startup Land, the choice between a website and a native app has its tradeoffs. Founders should decide on a case by case basis; there are some ideas where native apps have a big leg up:

  1. Location

  If your app’s major value proposition is related to location awareness or transit, your app is essentially mobile-only and needs to be baked into the OS to get fast access to location data and sensors. Examples: Lime, Bird, Uber, RunKeeper, Maps.

  1. Tight integration with native components

  If your value proposition is closely tied to local component (accelerometer, moisture sensor, camera, barometer, gyroscope, etc), a native app will have better performance and accuracy. Examples: compass and camera apps, heart rate monitor, audio recorder, Strava.

  1. Frequent small transactions that require a sign in

  If you’re building a low-touch experience that the user does every day or multiple times a day, a native app removes the burden of a regular sign in and browser navigation. Examples: Habit trackers, dating apps, Venmo, Telegraph.

  E-commerce companies, productivity platforms, discovery sites, organizational tools, and data aggregators don’t fall into these categories. Most startups don’t. Even if yours does, you can start with a website and see if your users beg for a native app instead. You can always make the shift towards native. In that case, your website will still be valuable for marketing and acquisition.

  Kapwing started as a website, and we’ve invested heavily in SEO, content marketing, and browser-based tech. Although we dream of making Kapwing viral apps, we can build powerful, accessible productivity tools in the browser thanks to recent developments in HTML5. If we can scale to millions of creators, our user base might be loyal enough to attract app downloads. Until then, it isn’t, and we’re focused on the net.

  Screenshot of Kapwing’s web-based editor Conclusion

  Hopefully, this article helps young developers reframe their approach to ideation and iteration. As a student, indie hacker, or side-project hustler, it’s fun to experiment with new ideas and launch concept quickly. But, in my opinion, starting those projects on the web will be faster and more likely to succeed than starting with iOS or Android.

  Happy hacking!

  TwitterLinkedInFacebookPocketBufferEmail

  2019/01/05
• 
  

  Infoman

  世上的君王一齊起來，臣宰一同商議，要敵擋耶和華並他的受膏者，說：我們要掙開他們的綑綁，脫去他們的繩索。那坐在天上的必發笑；主必嗤笑他們

  2019/01/05
• 
  

  Infoman

  對早已把英國脫歐當成既定事實的歐盟來說，脫歐談判已經完成，目前的脫歐協議文本，是留給文翠珊政府唯一有意義的選擇。離脫歐只有不到100天，工黨的反彈徒具其形，而且文翠珊政府擊退新近一輪的逼宮之後──除非意外發生無協議脫歐──脫歐協議無疑接近通過。

  去年底執政黨內部一再傳出逼宮的消息，終於成真。針對文翠珊本人的黨內不信任動議，最終被她以不帶領保守黨參與下次大選為條件交換。比起2016年的黨魁競逐，文翠珊今次得票多了一票，保住了基本盤之餘，今次的不記名投票亦可當成保守黨內部對於文翠珊脫歐方案的一次認可。雖然向文翠珊投反對票的保守黨議員有多達117位，如果能夠說服一大部分的話，數字上工黨是可以在議會向政府提出不信任動議倒閣──但是前提是要工黨肯在脫歐一事上能達成統一戰線。

  現方案已是最佳選項

  到目前為止，儘管工黨內大部分是留歐派，另一大反對黨蘇格蘭民族黨在舉行二次公投的前提下也極力邀請工黨一同倒閣。但身為多年疑歐派的工黨黨魁郝爾彬不但說過不會有第二次公投，對於脫歐本身，工黨的官方立場依然是支持的。郝爾彬本身也不過是提及如果入主西敏寺，他「將會向歐盟談判獲取更多讓步」一類空中樓閣而已。

  按照目前局勢，文翠珊的脫歐方案不容易獲通過，但它其實是英國首相可以從歐盟獲得的最佳選項。根據協議，英國將會在2019年3月正式脫歐，進入直至2020年底的緩衝期。緩衝期間，英國將可以和第三方國家簽訂緩衝期後生效的自由貿易協議及其他國際條約，同時留在歐盟單一市場，即包括關稅聯盟和歐盟社區法規框架之內，並且繳納已經承諾過的款項（約350億至390億英鎊左右），例如歐盟公務員退休金，以及相應的歐盟預算等。

  英國國民在歐盟境內的公民權以及歐洲公民在英的公民權，亦將會在緩衝期間維持不變。由此，歐盟和英國企業將有足夠時間調整供應鏈及保持現有市場流通。至於愛爾蘭邊境問題，協議維持了談判期間歐盟一再堅持，如果雙方及後自貿協議談判不果將自動生效的「Backstop」擔保安排。就算聯合王國和歐盟無法在緩衝期達成協議處理邊境問題，北愛爾蘭都將會確保被留在歐盟關稅聯盟以及單一法規管轄，直至雙方簽訂合適的協議替代為止。

  現在，英國政界內部對協議依然扭扭捏捏，但即使如某些人所願推翻政府，舉行大選然後換首相，各方都心知肚明現有的方案是歐盟方面唯一接受的安排。任何歐盟方面的所謂「新讓步」都只會在方案附錄的「政治宣言」上出現，該宣言並無法律效力，僅僅是將來英歐關係的政治藍圖而已。

  其實脫歐方案如果在緩衝期後沿用下去，實際上等於目前挪威沿用的對歐關係模式，外加一個用以防止愛爾蘭存在硬邊界的地區性關稅聯盟會籍。這將會是符合現實政治下能滿足最多英國脫歐派政治訴求的選項。從歐盟角度來說協議條件也是罕見地優厚，極少第三方國家和歐盟有如此緊密的關係。要落實這個選項，挪威、瑞士、冰島及列支敦士登須同意英國加入歐洲自由貿易協會（European Free Trade Association, EFTA）。

  不過，EFTA規定所有國家必須在決策上共同進退，而EFTA四國無論經濟發展程度以及國力均等，忽然空降一個「不穩定因素」英國進入EFTA，未必是這四國的利益所在。目前，挪威最大的資方聯會、挪威企業聯會NHO的總幹事Ole Erik Almlid已經表態，指出EFTA成員均以接受歐盟法規以換取單一市場會籍益處為原則，擔心英國無法接受由規則決策者變成跟隨者，從而損害到挪威等國的利益。

  脫歐一事是英國政府示範內訌不斷、影響力不斷下跌的鬧劇。昔日，藉歐洲病夫未復甦，聯合王國憑一國之力和法德周旋；今日卻被愛爾蘭這個小國借布魯塞爾之手牽制。更甚之，脫歐協議如果進一步變成「挪威+」的方案，意味歐洲同儕以至國際間將把脫歐後的英國視為和瑞士，挪威，冰島等第三方小國同級的前大國。

  尹子軒_香港國際問題研究所歐洲研究主任

  2019/01/05
• 
  

  Infoman

  How Three Guys Turned Their Study Notes Into A Multi-Million Dollar Startup Three guys met at university, got jobs, got bored, then had an idea for a startup.

  Now, Blinkist improves millions of people’s lives on a daily basis. by Tom Farrar | Dec 12 2018 This is about three college grads who turned their study aids into a multi-million dollar startup. What started as notes shared among friends has since grown into a company that secured $35 million dollars in venture capital and 8 million customers worldwide. But what did they build? They created Blinkist, an app that takes the key ideas from nonfiction books and transforms them into snappy 15-minute reads and listens. With a library of insights from over 3,000 titles, they managed to give the joy of learning back to people who no longer have the time to read. Here’s how they did it. Berlin-based Blinkist’s Co-Founders (l. to r.): Niklas Jansen, Tobi Balling, and Holger Seim Three friends, Holger Seim, Niklas Jansen, and Sebastian Klein met studying business at Marburg University. After college, they landed graduate jobs, and quickly realized full-time work left no time for reading. They wondered how (or if) they could still gain knowledge from books, but without the time commitment reading requires. Finding Time to Read is Tough Sebastian had a brainwave. Before he started working, he read a lot of nonfiction books and wrote notes to help remember what he’d read. He was passionate about self-development and becoming the best version of himself. He emailed the notes to friends so they could benefit from what he’d read and make personal improvements, too. The three friends thought it would be cool if they could put Sebastian’s notes into an app to read on-the-go and optimize unproductive time during the day — like during their commutes. Apps = The Future They knew they wanted to build an app but in 2012, most apps were there to distract, not to educate. So they reached out to Tobi Balling, who had the necessary technical skills to make it happen and they soon realized the huge potential influence that apps could have on the future of learning. “Back then, apps were a way to pass the time and we wanted to build something more meaningful — like a reading app, that could have a positive impact on people’s lives.” — Holger Seim, CEO of Blinkist A few weeks later, they all met in Frankfurt. They drank beer, brainstormed, and drafted a business plan for building an app that would provide a new way to learn. Before long they quit their jobs, moved to Berlin, and got started. That’s how Blinkist was born. In 2012, they launched Blinkist 1.0. Early stages proved tough; financial difficulties, low download numbers, product issues, and reaching the right people meant Blinkist was fighting a hard battle for two years. The company came dangerously close to bankruptcy twice — including a dark two months where Blinkist couldn’t afford to pay staff. Money Talks But Blinkist landed funding. Investors understood the vision and the potential and backed the business. VCs saw that Blinkist wanted to reach millions who want to read but don’t have the time. Money meant Blinkist could focus on adding more books to the app and building a winning team. Blinkist was hungry to make something that was going to make a difference and now they had the team and funds to make it happen. Oh, and the staff that weren’t paid for two months all stayed with Blinkist — they were building something special, and a few delayed paychecks wasn’t going to stop them. 8 Million Users Later Despite early struggles, within two years Blinkist had found its rhythm and was at the forefront of driving a new industry. Exciting things were happening: Blinkist created an audio feature, launched English content, introduced 26 nonfiction categories, secured $35 million in VC funding, and added at least 10 new titles to the app each week. In just six years, four college grads who discussed an idea over a beer were at the helm of a multi-million dollar startup. Powered by over 100 employees, Blinkist is now a major success story at the forefront of audio-first, micro-learning revolution. Blinkist is for the learners, the curious, for the people who make things happen. If this sounds like you, start your free trial today. Start your free trial with Blinkist What is Blinkist? Blinkist is an app that transforms key insights from great nonfiction books into quick, easy-to-understand highlights. The reality is – everyone loves reading, but no one has the time. Blinkist fills this learning gap and makes acquiring new knowledge effortless.

  Read more at: https://www.blinkist.com/magazine/posts/study-notes-multi-million-startup/?utm_source=cpp&utm_medium=paid&utm_campaign=20181212_TB_PRO_BlinkistJourney_iOS_Universal&utm_term=cnbc&install_callback=http%3A%2F%2Ftrc.taboola.com%2Factions-handler%2Flog%2F3%2Fs2s-action%3Fclick-id%3DCjBjMGIwZDkyNC04NzBjLTQxYTEtYjliZC02YmEyNDEwZGEzMDctdHVjdDMyNjAyMjESEWJsaW5rc2xhYnNnbWJoLXNj&utm_content=148717787

  2019/01/02
• 
  

  Infoman

  top-rated apps that will make you smarter, calmer and healthier in 2019

  Emma Newburger | @emma_newburger 19 Hours Ago

  We all have big goals for the new year, but with packed schedules, we often need to meet those goals while on the go. To keep you on track, motivated and inspired, CNBC Make It has collected the best self-improvement apps for Android phones and iPhones. These apps, recently named among the top tools by Google and Apple, can help you get fit or even learn a new skill in the year ahead. Download these seven apps now and get a head start on your goals for 2019.

  Mimo

  Mimo, an app that helps you learn to write code, was named one of the best self improvement apps by Google Play. The app, available for iPhones or Android phones, offers colorful bite-sized lessons to make learning to code less daunting. Its simple exercises can help you fit learning this new skill into any routine. 10% Happier

  The 10% Happier app, listed as one of Google Play's best self improvement apps, makes meditation accessible and simple through daily videos, guided experiences and practical advice. It offers a clear, simple approach to meditation with a two-week class taught by Dan Harris (a former meditation skeptic and New York Times bestselling author) and Joseph Goldstein (a renowned meditation teacher). The app is available for iPhones or Android phones. MasterClass

  The MasterClass app offers more than 45 classes taught by top personalities in their field allowing you an expert look at philosophies, processes and techniques for everything from writing to game design. You can learn to cook with Gordon Ramsay or take pictures with Annie Leibovitz on the app, which is available for iPhones or Android phones. Keep Trainer

  If it's an at-home fitness app you're looking for, Keep Trainer is free and requires no equipment. It has a range of workout plans complete with step-by-step instructions to help you reach your training goals. It is available for iPhones or Android phones. Language Drops

  Language Drops, a free app that Google Play ranked as a top self improvement tool, offers the chance to learn 31 languages using short word games that make the process fun. After each session you'll see your daily progress with a detailed report of all the words that you studied. The app is available for iPhones or Android phones. Fabulous

  Fabulous was ranked as one of Apple's best apps of the year for self-care. The tool taps principles from behavioral economics to reset your habits and help you make lasting change in your life whether you're looking to feel more energized, lose weight or sleep better. The app is available for iPhones or Android phones. Shine

  Apple presented Shine as one of the best apps for self-care in 2018. Features such as daily texts or motivational messages can give you a boost in the morning, a break in the afternoon or help you wind down before bedtime. The app covers topics like self-love, anxiety and burnout, and is available for the iPhone. Don't Miss: Steve Jobs had to convince Tim Cook to join Apple in 1998 — here's how he did it Apple CEO Tim Cook has been monitoring his phone usage — and he's 'slashing' this Like this story? Subscribe to CNBC Make It on YouTube!

  2018/12/31
• 
  

  Infoman

  接下來的1月，美國還要面對不少「內憂」及「外患」，包括聯邦政府局部停擺可能延續、中美貿易談判進展、英國國會表決「脫歐」協議等等，這些重大事件都會牽動投資情緒，在各項市場指標均轉差的情況下，美股周三相信是超賣反彈居多，牛轉熊的趨勢無改變

  2018/12/28
• 
  

  Infoman

  Artificial Intelligence Creates Realistic Pictures of People

  245 Liriel 10 hrs 107

  http://www.openculture.com/2018/12/artificial-intelligence-creates-realistic-photos-of-people-none-of-whom-actually-exist.html

  news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18761907

  Each day in the 2010s, it seems, brings another startling development in the field of artificial intelligence — a field widely written off not all that long ago as a dead end. But now AI looks just as alive as the people you see in these photographs, despite the fact that none of them have ever lived, and it's questionable whether we can even call the images that depict them "photographs" at all. All of them come, in fact, as products of a state-of-the-art generative adversarial network, a type of artificial intelligence algorithm that pits multiple neural networks against each other in a kind of machine-learning match.

  These neural networks have, it seems, competed their way to generating images of fabricated human faces that genuine humans have trouble distinguishing from images of the real deal. Their architecture, described in a paper by the Nvidia researchers who developed it, "leads to an automatically learned, unsupervised separation of high-level attributes (e.g., pose and identity when trained on human faces) and stochastic variation in the generated images (e.g., freckles, hair), and it enables intuitive, scale-specific control of the synthesis." What they've come up with, in other words, has made it not just more possible than ever to create fake faces, but made those faces more customizable than ever as well.

  "Of course, the ability to create realistic AI faces raises troubling questions. (Not least of all, how long until stock photo models go out of work?)" writes James Vincent at The Verge. "Experts have been raising the alarm for the past couple of years about how AI fakery might impact society. These tools could be used for misinformation and propaganda and might erode public trust in pictorial evidence, a trend that could damage the justice system as well as politics."

  But still, "you can’t doctor any image in any way you like with the same fidelity. There are also serious constraints when it comes to expertise and time. It took Nvidia’s researchers a week training their model on eight Tesla GPUs to create these faces."

  Though "a running battle between AI fakery and image authentication for decades to come" seems inevitable, the current ability of computers to create plausible faces certainly fascinates, especially when compared to their ability just four years ago, the hazy black-and-white fruits of which appear just above. Put that against the grid of faces at the top of the post, which shows how Nvidia's system can combine the features of the faces on one axis with the features on the other, and you'll get a sense of the technological acceleration involved. Such a process could well be used, for example, to give you a sense of what your future children might look like. But how long until it puts convincing visions of moving, speaking, even thinking human beings before our eyes?

  via Petapixel

  Related Content:

  Scientists Create a New Rembrandt Painting, Using a 3D Printer & Data Analysis of Rembrandt’s Body of Work

  Artificial Intelligence Writes a Piece in the Style of Bach: Can You Tell the Difference Between JS Bach and AI Bach?

  Artificial Intelligence Program Tries to Write a Beatles Song: Listen to “Daddy’s Car”

  Google Launches a Free Course on Artificial Intelligence: Sign Up for Its New “Machine Learning Crash Course”

  Google Launches Three New Artificial Intelligence Experiments That Could Be Godsends for Artists, Museums & Designers

  Based in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities, language, and culture. His projects include the book The Stateless City: a Walk through 21st-Century Los Angeles and the video series The City in Cinema. Follow him on Twitter at @colinmarshall or on Facebook.

  2018/12/26
• 
  

  Infoman

  3 ways to invest like Warren Buffett

  PUBLISHED SUN, FEB 26 2017 • 11:05 AM EST UPDATED MON, FEB 27 2017 • 2:18 PM EST

  Tom Anderson @BYTOMANDERSON

  WATCH NOW VIDEO02:30 New HBO documentary tells the story of Warren Buffett A cottage industry of asset managers, financial advisors and investment can give you their takes on how to be just like Warren Buffett.

  You can skip the circus of wannabes and hear from the Oracle of Omaha directly in his annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, which was published Saturday.

  In his most recent letter, Buffett praised the virtues of index funds, railed against the steep fees hedge fund managers charge and said “investors who avoid high and unnecessary costs and simply sit for an extended period with a collection of large, conservatively-financed American businesses will almost certainly do well.”

  You don’t have to be a stock-picking whiz to benefit from his success. Buffett has already detailed three ways to emulate him in your retirement portfolio.

  The two-fund portfolio Buffett outlined an investing strategy for ordinary investors in his 2013 annual shareholder letter:

  My advice to the trustee could not be more simple: Put 10% of the cash in short-term government bonds and 90% in a very low-cost S&P 500 index fund. (I suggest Vanguard’s.) I believe the trust’s long-term results from this policy will be superior to those attained by most investors – whether pension funds, institutions or individuals – who employ high-fee managers. You can buy U.S. Treasurys directly or invest in a low-cost government bond fund. (Vanguard’s short-term government bond index fund charges 0.16 percent annually with a $3,000 minimum investment, or 0.07 percent for the exchange-traded fund version.)

  Vanguard offers several S&P funds: a traditional mutual fund that charges 0.16 percent annually with a $3,000 minimum investment or one with a $10,000 minimum and a 0.05 percent annual fee.

  You can also buy a Vanguard 500 ETF that has an expense ratio of 0.05 percent. If you want a rock-bottom price, iShares Core S&P 500 ETF charges 0.04 percent. With ETFs, and unlike with mutual funds, you may have to pay commissions when you trade them.

  “Warren Buffett’s investment strategy is a good one for investors and signals that he doesn’t believe that most people, including professionals, can beat the market long-term, so just be the market and buy low-cost index funds,” said Stephanie Genkin, a certified financial planner in Brooklyn.

  Buffett put his money where his mouth is when it comes to indexing. He bet $1 million for charity that the Vanguard 500 Index Fund Admiral Shares would beat a basket of five hedge funds selected by Protégé Partners, a New York City asset management firm over 10 years starting in 2008.

  The index fund has tripled the performance of the combined returns of five unnamed hedge funds as of the end of 2015. A likely Buffett victory will benefit Girls Inc. of Omaha while Protégé is playing for Ark, an international youth education charity based in the U.K.

  Berkshire Hathaway stock You can share in gains of one of the world’s greatest capital allocators by owning stock in Berkshire Hathaway directly.

  Buffett’s holding company has beaten the total return of the S&P 500 over the past 10 years with an annualized return of 9.1 percent, compared to 7.3 percent for the index.

  Berkshire stock has two share classes. The primary difference between the share classes is the price. Class A stock recently cost more than $255,000 per share while Class B is 1/1,500 of that sum, recently at $170 per share.

  You can convert Class A stock into Baby Berkshire shares, but not the other way around. Class B shares, launched in 1996, also have slightly less voting rights.

  Beyond the lower price, the big advantage of the Class B shares for investors is that they can give them to people without triggering the gift tax, which kicks in for gifts above $14,000 each year.

  With any investment pool, the larger you get, the harder it is to produce outstanding results. Berkshire Hathaway is no different and Buffett addressed this issue in his shareholder letter:

  As for Berkshire, our size precludes a brilliant result: Prospective returns fall as assets increase. Nonetheless, Berkshire’s collection of good businesses, along with the company’s impregnable financial strength and owner-oriented culture, should deliver decent results. We won’t be satisfied with less. The Warren Buffett way For the adventurous (or foolish), you can try your hand at investing in stocks like the master of value investing himself.

  You don’t have to go it alone. Plenty of stock screeners, such as those from the American Association of Individual Investors, Morningstar and ValueWalk, strive to identify stocks of companies with positive free cash flows, good returns on capital and strong competitive advantages (what Buffett calls “moats” as in a castle with a moat). Automated investing service Motif lets you buy a basket of Buffett-like stocks for less than $10 per trade.

  To be sure, it is extremely difficult to generate a record anything close to what Buffett has done just by stock-picking. Public companies represent only a part of Berkshire Hathaway’s portfolio holdings, while the rest come from private deals ordinary investors can’t access.

  Where most investors lose their way in following in Buffett’s legendary footsteps is consistency. Even Buffett stumbles from time to time.

  “The problem that most people would have investing like Buffett is the time frame. Many of his investments can take years to pan out, and the average investor doesn’t have that sort of patience,” said George Gagliardi, a CFP and founder of Coromandel Wealth Management in Lexington, Massachusetts.

  “Remember the derogatory comments about Buffett during the Internet stock boom years? He went from a pariah in 1998 to a genius in 2003,” Gagliardi said.

  The key to Buffett’s stock-picking success has been his ability to buy when others are fearful.

  “Many companies, of course, will fall behind, and some will fail. Winnowing of that sort is a product of market dynamism. Moreover, the years ahead will occasionally deliver major market declines – even panics – that will affect virtually all stocks. No one can tell you when these traumas will occur – not me, not Charlie [Munger], not economists, not the media,” Buffett writes in his 2016 letter.

  “During such scary periods, you should never forget two things: First, widespread fear is your friend as an investor, because it serves up bargain purchases. Second, personal fear is your enemy.”

  Warren Buffett joins CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Monday, Feb. 27, to answer your questions following the release of his annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders. Post your questions on Twitter or Facebook using #Ask Warren.

  2018/12/26
• 
  

  Infoman

  Netflix Pulls the Plug on Feature Designed to Get Kids Addicted to Netflix

  282 Ibethewalrus 16 hrs 173

  https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/03/netflix-patch-testing-kids-binge-watching

  news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18754664

  Courtesy of Netflix.

  Netflix will never stop finding new ways to make its users even more obsessed with Netflix. The streaming platform has largely succeeded in that goal simply by releasing engaging content (hit shows like Stranger Things, for example), not to mention easily facilitating binge-watching and closely studying viewer habits in order to always suggest the perfect next show or movie. But the company’s latest idea—a feature that essentially gamified binge-watching for children—veered diabolical, infuriating parents who don’t want their kids even more addicted to television.

  After testing the feature and enduring a sharp round of backlash, Netflix has announced that it will no longer reward kids for spending extra time on Netflix. However, there’s nothing keeping the company from introducing a similar feature aimed at adults, especially since the company blatantly tells its investors that its competitors aren’t just other streaming platforms, but rather literally anything viewers do in their leisure time that is not watching Netflix—quite literally including “going out to dinner with friends or enjoying a glass of wine with their partner, just to name a few.”

  “We’ve concluded the test for patches and have decided not to move forward with the feature for kids,” a spokesperson said, according to Variety. “We test lots of things at Netflix in order to learn what works well—and what doesn’t work well—for our members.”

  The patch tests were first reported Friday, when Netflix confirmed that it was in fact testing what would happen if it rewarded viewers for finishing a large batch of episodes of a children’s show (A Series of Unfortunate Events, for example). Per Variety, the reward did not unlock any specific prizes or secret content—it was simply a digital badge, a virtual good-for-you-now-watch-this-next-episode gesture of sorts. Somewhere in there is a potentially innocent attempt to add an engaging element to the zombie-like state of binge-watching—but it’s buried under the fact that today’s kids are already addicted to screens, even without the promise of getting bonus points for their viewing habits.

  As Variety previously reported, there were plenty of parents who disliked the concept, claiming it encouraged kids to get hooked on TV. Josh Golin, the executive director of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, told Gizmodo that the feature was “designed to turn kids into lobbyists and undermine parents’ limits.”

  “It’s just incredible to me that as we’re having this national conversation about persuasive design of tech and how tech is often designed for the benefit of tech companies at the expense of users’ well-being, that Netflix would test something like this,” he continued.

  Netflix, it would appear, has heard everyone’s feedback loud and clear. Meanwhile, Count Olaf is busy dreaming up the next test idea.

  Get Vanity Fair’s HWD Newsletter

  Sign up for essential industry and award news from Hollywood.

  Full ScreenPhotos:Every Best-Actress Winner in Oscar History 9446181lq 2018: Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

  Photo: By David Fisher/REX/Shutterstock. 700001232_CP_4870_9FC2C99CD4BB086E732999DF3468821E.JPG_A 2017, Emma Stone, La La Land, in Givenchy

  Photo: By Christopher Polk/Getty Images. 2016, Brie Larson, Room, in Gucci. 2016, Brie Larson, Room, in Gucci.

  Photo: By Christopher Polk/Getty Images. 2014, Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine, in Armani Privé. 2014, Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine, in Armani Privé.

  1930: Norma Shearer, The Divorcee, in Gilbert Adrian. 1930: Norma Shearer, The Divorcee, in Gilbert Adrian.

  1972: Jane Fonda, Klute, in Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche. 1972: Jane Fonda, Klute, in Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche.

  1969: Barbra Streisand, Funny Girl, in Arnold Scassi & Katharine Hepburn, The Lion in Winter. 1969: Barbra Streisand, Funny Girl, in Arnold Scassi & Katharine Hepburn, The Lion in Winter.

  2018/12/25
• 
  

  Infoman

  How to Be a Programmer: A Short, Comprehensive, and Personal Summary (2002) [pdf]

  96 mtmail 6 hrs 24 https://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~susan/475/HowToBeAProgrammer.pdf news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18742199 View PDF: https://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~susan/475/HowToBeAProgrammer.pdf OR View this PDF using Google Docs

  2018/12/23
• 
  

  Infoman

  The budget breakdown of a 25-year-old who makes $100,000 a year and is excellent with money

  Emmie Martin | @emmiemartin 12:03 PM ET Fri, 21 Dec 2018

  Here’s what it’s like to live on $100K a year in Boston Trevor Klee, he admits, is a "terrible employee." But he's great at working for himself — and at taking tests. So the 25-year-old entrepreneur started a thriving business of his own. As a test prep instructor in Cambridge, Massachusetts, he brings in $100,000 a year tutoring people for the GMAT, GRE and LSAT. "It's one of those weird skills that turned out to be really monetizable," he tells CNBC Make It. Klee is the first to acknowledge he's benefited from both luck and privilege: "Growing up in a family that talked a lot about money was a definite advantage," he says. "In a lot of ways, I feel like I'm good with money, but I'm playing life on 'Easy' mode: I'm a single guy with no dependents and I make a pretty solid income."

  Here's a look at how Klee earns, saves and spends his money, and how he gives it away. What he earns

  Klee first started tutoring as a student at Princeton University, where he discovered that he could turn his understanding of standardized tests into a way to earn extra cash. "I've always loved teaching people," he says. "I coach jiu jitsu as a hobby, I love teaching friends … Tutoring was a chance to do teaching for serious." After graduating from college in 2015, Klee moved to Singapore to work for a test-prep company. While the company provided a good starting point, Klee soon realized he didn't like his employer all that much. Still, he wanted to continue tutoring. "I really do love teaching," he says. "I never really loved school, but I love being on the other side of a classroom." Klee didn't want to seek out a different test-prep company, though. He acknowledges that he's not exactly an ideal staff member. "I'm actually a really terrible employee," he says. That's because "I always think I know better than other people, and sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. Sometimes I'm just being stubborn." He decided to work for himself instead.

  CNBC Make It In January of 2016, he moved to Cambridge, where he's close to a number of colleges and universities, including Harvard, MIT, Northeastern and Tufts. "There's a lot of people exiting college [and] going to graduate school, so it was a natural place to start a graduate exam test prep business," he says. Striking out on his own has paid off for Klee, who earned around $90,000 in 2017 and is on pace to make $100,000 in 2018. But he wasn't immediately successful. During his early days in Cambridge, he crashed on his brother's pull-out couch because he couldn't afford his own place. "I had no money," he says. "I had savings, but I had no income, so I desperately needed to find people." Klee started experimenting with various marketing tactics, which included promoting himself on Reddit and tutoring students for free in exchange for their testimonials. He took note of what worked and, as he refined his methods, he began to land more and more clients. "You can get more money a lot of the time if you ask for it. ... I just charged more, and now I make more money." -Trevor Klee, test prep instructor More than three years later, his monthly income ranges from between $3,000 and $4,000 up to $14,000 during busy periods. He charges $160 per hour for GMAT tutoring and $125 per hour for LSAT or GRE help, and he requires a minimum of 10 hours. He's also started consulting for other tutors on the side, for which he charges a flat fee or a percentage of revenue generated. He owes much of his success to his own hustle. "You can get more money a lot of the time if you ask for it," he says. "There are other GMAT or GRE tutors who charge probably like a tenth of what I charge, or at the very least, half of what I charge. I just charged more and now I make more money." Klee tries to keep his business costs low. He typically pays $350 per month for membership at a coworking space, although that can rise to $1,500 per month during busy seasons when he rents out his own office, and puts $100 to $200 toward marketing and online ads. He also pays his quarterly taxes out of his savings. What he gives

  Philanthropy is a key part of Klee's financial picture. Each month, he donates a significant amount, around $615, to a variety of charities, including More Than Words and GiveDirectly. The bulk of his contributions go to One Family, a non-profit located in Waltham, Massachusetts, that works to end homelessness and break the cycle of poverty for local families. "I spend money that I would otherwise spend on going out, or just putting it in savings," he says. It's a worthwhile expense for Klee because, while "it's not a significant amount of money for me," it makes a difference for others. "It doesn't affect my quality of life at all, and yet I'm able to actually alleviate a lot of suffering and make a lot of people's lives better," he says.

  CNBC Make It What he spends

  Here's a breakdown of everything Klee spends in a typical month. Rent: $825

  Klee lives in a shared house with four roommates and one dog. Although he says he could technically afford a studio apartment, which go for roughly $1,400-$2,000 a month in Cambridge, he prefers to save and invest the extra cash instead. "I like my rent to be at a number where it doesn't actually matter to me each month," he says. Groceries: $400

  Klee eats the majority of his meals at home and typically buys his groceries from Trader Joe's, a chain known for its reasonable prices. Dining out: $250

  Klee does splurge on a few meals out each month, mostly with his girlfriend. Depending on where they go, it can cost anywhere from $20 to $80 per meal. Transportation: $130

  Klee pays $81.50 for a monthly CharlieCard, which lets him use subway and bus lines around Boston. "I live pretty close to where I work, so I take the T," he says. He also spends between $40 to $50 on Lyft rides each month.

  CNBC Make It Phone: $40

  Klee is still on his family's phone plan. His part of the bill comes to $40 per month. Everything else

  Utilities: $195 Internet: $20 Health insurance: $270 House cleaner: $30 (his share of the total cost) Klee incurs a few additional regular expenses as well. He's developing a personal finance application for Google Sheets to track and analyze emailed receipts, and he maintains a separate bank account for the Google app so he can easily track how much he's spent on the project. He's also studying for the MCAT, which has attendant costs. While he splurges on the occasional video game, he mostly chooses to buy things only when he needs them. "My family tends to make fun of me for not spending money on a lot of things," he says. "I very rarely buy new clothes. I won't buy a car, I don't buy a bike." Klee buys things to last. "The only time I buy new clothes is when my old clothes get holes in them," he says. "My main goal is durability." "I don't really save up for goals. I just save." -Trevor Klee, test prep instructor What he saves

  Between a brokerage account, money market account and Roth IRA, Klee has around $43,000 put away. He estimates that about $20,000 of that is liquid. "I don't really save up for goals," Klee says. "I just save. My default mode is saving and I only spend money when I think I need to spend money." The amount he contributes to savings each month varies depending on how much he earns. He says that he likes to keep $4,000 in his checking account to cover expenses, including taxes, and then he saves or invests anything beyond that. What the experts say

  CNBC Make It asked Pamela Capalad, a certified financial planner and founder of Brunch & Budget, to comment on where Klee is doing well and how he could do even better. Overall, Capalad thinks Klee is making smart choices, but there's always room for improvement. He's smart to keep his rent low

  Not everyone wants to live with roommates. But because Klee is young and doesn't mind, Capalad says it's smart for him to save on rent while he prioritizes other things. "He understands what his needs are when it comes to that," she says. "Everyone has their own lifestyle preferences." How much you choose to spend on rent depends on many factors, and there's not a "right" answer for everyone, financially speaking. What's important, she says, is that "he has a gauge of when he's ready to take that next step, based on what his goals are."

  Source: Pamela Capalad An HSA could help boost his savings

  Capalad points out that Klee is already excellent at saving money. But one way he could bolster his savings is by contributing to a health savings account, or HSA, if his insurance plan qualifies for one. That's because an HSA offers a triple tax benefit, Capalad says. "You get a tax deduction for the money that you put in. All the money that you pay for medical expenses is tax-free. And for certain HSA accounts, you're able to invest the money and all of it grows tax-free," she explains. Unlike a flexible spending account, or FSA, any money contributed to an HSA can be rolled over year after year. Because Klee is young and healthy, it's likely he won't need to spend much on medical expenses, so anything he puts in an HSA is "all tax-free growth." It's a great idea to have separate accounts for side projects

  Capalad approves of Klee keeping a dedicated bank account for his Google project. "Separating things like that both physically and mentally will help you track a second source of income more easily and you'll know that you'll have the money for taxes," she says. Additionally, "it will give you a gauge of whether or not it's worth it to keep going." It might help to create a business account for tutoring

  However, Klee doesn't have a standalone account for his test prep business. Although his current expenses are straightforward, it can still be beneficial to keep things separate, Capalad says. Opening a business account would allow him to "pay" himself a set salary. Plus, it "will even out those lean months and he'll know that he's only spending a certain amount of money every month," Capalad says. It's harder to tell how much is actually coming in and going out when you're "topping off your checking account three times a month," she adds.

  CNBC Make It He's responsible with his giving

  Capalad explains that generosity can get out hand when you aren't sure how much you're donating, but although Klee gives away a substantial amount, it's not more than his budget can handle. "If he was living paycheck-to-paycheck and was giving away that much money, it would be a different conversation," she says. "But I think he's thought this through very carefully and is very clear why he's doing it." He could save even more with a SEP IRA

  It's great that Klee is already putting money away for retirement through his Roth IRA, Capalad says, but he could save even more on taxes by contributing to a SEP IRA, or simplified employee pension, as well. A SEP IRA allows self-employed individuals to make tax-deductible contributions and not have to pay taxes until they retire. They also offer higher contribution limits: As of 2017, you can contribute up to 25 percent of your income after deductions, or as much as $54,000. For Klee, having two types of accounts would mean twice the perks. "What's great about the Roth is he doesn't get a tax deduction now, but all of the growth is tax-free and what's great about the SEP is he gets a tax deduction now and all of the growth is tax-deferred," Capalad explains. "So he gets to take advantage of the tax savings on both sides."

  2018/12/23
• 
  

  Infoman

  Walt Disney (DIS) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

  Zacks.com, December 18, 2018, 05:45:15 PM EDT

  Walt Disney (DIS) closed the most recent trading day at $109.45, moving -1.06% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.01%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.35%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.45%.

  Coming into today, shares of the entertainment company had lost 4.16% in the past month. In that same time, the Consumer Discretionary sector lost 6.17%, while the S&P 500 lost 7.29%.

  DIS will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be February 5, 2019. In that report, analysts expect DIS to post earnings of $1.59 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 15.87%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $15.18 billion, down 1.14% from the year-ago period.

  Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $7.09 per share and revenue of $60.46 billion. These totals would mark changes of +0.14% and +1.73%, respectively, from last year.

  Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for DIS. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

  Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

  The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.16% higher. DIS is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

  Looking at its valuation, DIS is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 15.6. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 11.11.

  Also, we should mention that DIS has a PEG ratio of 1.89. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. The Media Conglomerates was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.46 at yesterday's closing price.

  The Media Conglomerates industry is part of the Consumer Discretionary sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 102, putting it in the top 40% of all 250+ industries.

  The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

  You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.

  2018/12/19