Oh! This takes me back. I used it as my primary browser during the Firefox 57 saga, and continues to use it for over an year. The developer was very responsive to bug reports, and fixed the issues right away. Unfortunately, I moved away from the Linux ecosystem as my primary computing environment, but I would still recommend this if someone wants to try a Vim-based browsing experience and is willing to try out a new browser.
> How many Regular Joe people are using progressive web apps in the first place?
I know several of them, because Google doesn’t let e-commerce apps in my country sell cigarettes and other products containing tobacco. The android version of these apps guide users into installing their PWA version if they wish to order such products.
Thanks for taking the time to respond to my comment. I didn't mean to be provocative or offensive, just wanted to show the perspective from the other side.
> I agree with the sentiment, or the problem that the government is trying to tackle, but I disagree with their methods. They violate the fundamental human rights of many millions of people -- predominantly in Jammu & Kashmir and Manipur -- whenever they disconnect entire regions, not just from the Internet, but from the outside world. Even the postal service has been suspended.[2]
> I don't think it's all India's fault though. At its core, this is a content moderation issue. Those malicious actors that spread misinformation use large WhatsApp groups and the like, and the companies behind those products haven't done enough to address the problem, so local governments in India take the drastic decision to cut off the Internet.
I appreciate the sentiment. People on HN who live in free Western countries might not appreciate how an under-policed country with deep historical animosities looks like (India had 145 police personnel per 100k population, whereas the US had 428[1]). Unmitigated misinformation can do (and has done) a lot of harm in such societies. I agree with you that at its core, its a moderation issue, and a policing issue. I myself do not agree with the blanket bans, but I do not see any other possible mitigations as long as the communication service providers (such as Meta) do not bring proper moderation and fact-checks.
> Rather than waiting for something like that to happen, I'm more interested in mitigating it in the first place. That's why:
> - Letro[3], the first -- and so far only -- app to be powered by Awala, only supports 1:1 messaging. No groups yet, and when we do, we'll only support a relatively small number of people (TBD; not hundreds or thousands).
> - The future functionality to support "broadcasting" information to many users already has built-in mechanisms to handle hate speech and misinformation.[4]
> - As I work closely with anyone integrating Awala in their existing services, I intend to ensure that they have adequate plans to address hate speech and misinformation.
I do hope the mitigation works, and people are able to communicate with each other without allowing misinformation to spread. I had done some research on opportunistic networks as an undergrad student, with a similar goal of restoring communication in regions without adequate network coverage, so I do understand the need for such services. I wish you all the best, and would be following Awala with interest.
Hi there. I’m from India (the world’s capital of Internet blackouts). A major reason for Internet blackouts here is because in many areas, there’s a deep seated animosity between different communities due to historical and ideological differences. Internet blackouts are done close to any sensitive event, to prevent malicious actors from spreading misinformation/rumours and provoking riots. Have you considered the ethical implications of your service in such cases? Are you willing to take the moral responsibility for the damage to life and property that could be caused using your service?
Not necessarily. You can write open source code in your own time and publish under Google org on GitHub. This is the recommended process if you don’t care about retaining the copyright to your code.
If someone does want to retain copyright, there’s another process for getting approval.
I don’t know about Uber specifically, but in my country, some food and grocery delivery apps pay their delivery agents more if they get a five star rating.
Your analogy actually shows why “open” is appropriate in this context. It’s true, you don’t have to cut the grass or fill a pothole in an open park or an open road. Similarly, you don’t have to fix any bugs in an open source software either. But if you do, you cannot stop others from using the fix. In your analogy, if you do fix a pothole, you cannot prevent other road users from using the patched portion of the road.
I’m not from the US, but would the initial capex and the ongoing maintenance expenses for the robots really be cheaper than a couple of minimum wage workers. IMO, a better approach would be to start with “people in trucks”, and gradually introduce robots as they scale. Something like Uber’s vision of offering cheaper rides using self driving cars (but more realistic).
I don’t get it. When I order a pizza, I care about its taste, hygiene, and the time it takes to arrive. Why would I even care whether it was cooked by humans or robots?
Designing Data Intensive Applications (DDIA)[1] is a great introductory book for such things. It covers a broad number of system design topics, and you can then go into detail for stuff that interests you.
Other than that, several companies (such as Uber) operating on a large scale maintain engineering blogs.
But why? Storage is much cheaper today than it was in the 80s. While I myself don’t like huge Electron apps, trying to save every byte of storage is simply not worth it.
> What was last major innovation at Google.. chrome?
20% of company drives profits while 80% is a decorated R&D lab chock full of benefits, upset about cutbacks in their free oatmilk lattes, even though they're not coming to office anyway.
Transformers were invented at Google, which is the underlying tech on which GPT is built. I would say that counts as innovation.
