For the best experience on desktop, install the Chrome extension to track your reading on news.ycombinator.com
Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit | history | more ntlve's commentsregister

I imagine something like crouton[1] would come in handy for the CS students.

1. https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton


Any sources on that?



No, I tried to find some screenshots, but its 11 years ago. Current skype does not have this feature.


It's not the part about Skype that needs sources...


Surprisingly it was an okay experience in chrome for android. Only a broken top menu and a bit sluggish scrolling.


I use a password manager along with Syncthing[0] which seems to be the compromise you are looking for. This setup works well as long as your devices are decently often on a wifi that allows local device discovery (since syncthing needs either that or static IPs) and it also keeps your password vault offline (i.e no cloud involved).

0: https://syncthing.net/


What if preference is based on whatever makes you work the fastest? Or what if preference is based on objective, reproducible evaluation?


I'm curious as to why you think it is a bad experience?


Off the top of my head: The back button doesn't work right, saved passwords don't move over, clicked links (if they work at all) keep you in the new application instead of your browser, the places you're taken are left out of your browsing history, you can't bookmark the destinations. Basically all browser functionality that isn't "render the page" gets lost -- it's the same problem you'd run into if you use Chrome for everything and a link from Outlook pops up the page in IE: It _works_, but the ecosystem you've built up for yourself is gone.


Why would you think it's a good experience?

I can't count the number of times I'm annoyed when I click on a link to a website - say, clicking a link on news.google.com or a link here - get moved to that website and BAM there is a "you want to use our app. Click here to download it."

No. I don't want your F(!&^NG app. I want your website. Don't show me that.

The next time I go to the same website? BAM! Go To Our App page again!

A news page, blog or a forum doesn't need an app. I don't need to be constantly badgered to use said sh&%^y app.

Just my 2c rant.


That's not the same thing that is being discussed here. What's being discussed is that you click, for example, a youtube link in your web browser and android opens up the youtube app to view the video. Android will give you the choice to open it up in a variety of supported applications, including the browser, you can set your permanent preference if you want to not be asked again.


"The great thing about the web is links. Some times you click them and they take you places. If the place it takes you asks you to open an app instead... that's a bad experience"

This is the grandparents quote to the person I replied to. Looking over the quote, I think there's some ambiguity.

One one hand....

there is clicking a link in say Messenger that someone texts you... and "Which app do you want to use? Firefox, Chrome, Youtube, ...". That, I think, its a necessary "evil" and not inherently bad. If you have 5 browsers and youtube, where do you want that link to go? "Use this app every time with this kind of link... or just this time?" is a minor annoyance but expected.

This is to be expected in an environment where you have options. It would be jarring, in say iOS, because they don't give you options. Links open in Safari. Videos open in iVideo (or whatever it's called).

In Android, you have apps installed that make you have to choose - and generally you only have to choose when you say "This time only" or after you install something new.

On the other hand...

How I read it initially: there is clicking a web link, having it open in the browser and having a "You should really install our app. No really." box pop up every time. Not a redirect to an app, but a web page that points you to super-awesome-zomg-your-so-stupid-for-not-using-it app.

It's bad user experience, in my not so humble experience, to constantly be badgered to install apps - whether it's Youtube, LinkedIn (one of the worst offenders, again IMNSHO) or on a link leaving Google.


How does one override this? It's especially annoying with e.g. youtube links in twitter - twitter hides it behind a URL shortener, takes me to the browser to load the URL, discovers it's youtube and tries to bounce me into the app. I'd much prefer to be left in the browser.


You can clear it in settings for the app that currently holds the default.


That's not what is happening in this case. The app is not opening when you go to the play store in Firefox. It just goes to this page that says "this browser is not supported".



Have you tried Reddit News [1] ? It has a very large button at the bottom of the screen that says "Sidebar" which will show you the subreddit sidebar.

1. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=reddit.news


Out of curiosity, do you have any examples or references to something with examples of sets that are neither open nor closed?


The set of rational numbers that lie inside the interval [0,1].

This set is not closed there are non-rational numbers in that interval which are limit points of sequences that consist only of rationals. For example, any of the algebraic numbers. I think that all real numbers are limits of such sequences, but I might be mis-remembering some subtlety of Dedekind Cuts (one method for constructing the Reals).

This set is not open because any rational is the limit of a sequence of non-rational reals. This probably makes intuitive sense, but just for the sake of formality: To construct such a sequence for any rational r, start with the number x_1 = 1/pi, and approach by a factor of 1/pi at each step, i.e. x_n+1 = x_n + (r-x_n)/pi . x_n is irrational because pi is transcendental.

Any simple interval in R will be either closed or open on each end (but it could be closed on one and open on the other). It's more illustrative to create a set with a non-compact interior. In higher dimensions it's possible to have more exotic borders on an interval, but I think that border will just end up being isomorphic to a non-compact set in a lower dimension.


The simplest example I can think of is the interval (0, 1].

Proof that it's not closed: the sequence (1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, ...) is entirely inside the interval, but converges on 0, which is outside the interval, therefore etc.

Proof that it's not open: the sequence (2, 3/2, 5/4, 9/8, ...) is entirely outside the interval (i.e. inside the complement), but it converges on 1, which is inside the interval (i.e. outside the complement). Thus the complement of the interval is not closed, therefore etc.


[0,1) = {x | 0<=x<1} is probably the simplest example.


Also, it is possible for the opposite to occur. So-called clopen sets are both open and closed.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clopen_set


This is just me guessing but one of the initial goals of Dalvik was to use as little space as possible (due to memory constraints of hardware at that time). Perhaps they thought saving a a byte or two on method identifiers was a good idea. This would not be a problem if it weren't for the fact that dx also squashes all classes into one single class, meaning that instead of being 65K methods per class you now get 65K per apk.


Ah, mobile. Recapitulating all the horribly constrained hacks of the early PC era, in handheld size containers.


The Android version is going to need a lot of polish. The menu is jittery and the wrong icons are used. Also the whole app lacks touch feed back so there is no way of telling if you are pressing a button or not until afterwards. Finally, a few idioms like long pressing to edit items and such remain unimplemented which atl east made me confused.


I have had zero luck with the android app, but the webapp is perfectly playable from chrome-on-android


There's a third party app ("Habit AndroRPG") which is considerably better.


I wonder if the apps are open source. I'm sure they could use a PR if so!


Consider applying for YC's Summer 2026 batch! Applications are open till May 4

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search:

HN For You