amosj

Brilliant

I wonder about this a lot. I've been to small communities where children are still free to roam outside, with minimal to no adult supervision. It always seemed nice. Now that I have a toddler, it seems like a crime not to have it

For a second I thought this was going to be about abstract-algebra/category-theory

Well written, this has given a concrete description to a vague notion that has been in my mind for a while

I second this, this video is amazing. It had a big impact on my thinking the first time I saw it

Brilliant, I've switched to DDG recently and have been very pleased with it

Greetings HN,

This is an app I built to help me combat the (previously!) firmly-established habit of pulling out my phone to read the news / reddit whenever I had 5 minutes of downtime. The idea is to channel that energy in a more productive direction: instead of opening XYZNews for the nth time I'll try reading wikipedia - but in a different language. That way I'll learn something new about the world, practice that language, and not blindly stare at the news feed hoping something interesting came up since the last time I looked at it 1 hour ago.

The app offers sources of content in a foreign language (by default wikipedia but any website can be added) and a built-in dictionary, which is activated by double-tapping a word [1]. It's actually worked quite well, and though I do still read HN I've drastically reduced the number of times I compulsively open news websites.

Fun fact, some wikipedia versions (e.g. Italian) have a "quote of the day". Those have become my favorites. Otherwise all pages have an "article of the day" which is often interesting.

As mentioned the websites are configurable. The languages/dictionaries are hardcoded (mostly wordreference), but trivial to add by modifying the source. The built-in browser is sometimes buggy and gets dizzy if it follows too many redirects, but it builds in Android Studio and otherwise works fine most of the time[2]. Any feedback welcome!

(note: no ads, no sign-in, no data is collected by the app)

(disclosure: I've allowed myself to resubmit this because the last title did not show the relevance to the subject of battling social media addiction, which I think is of interest. I believe this is allowed within the site's guidelines)

[1] Although e.g. Chrome has a built in integration with wordreference, it still requires too many clicks.

[2] might crash if you cross the international dateline in a canoe. I mean it might. If you try please let me know.

> MY NAME IS BEING USED IN A PHISHING ATTACK. > DO NOT RESPOND TO MAIL OFFERING MONEY FOR UNDERGRAD RESEARCH ASSISTANTS.

I wonder if that's been effective. I suppose the targets are students at Princeton so once repeated enough, on his web page and elsewhere, it'll make using his name less profitable.

sincere question: what are the better alternatives?

Do any have a (different) key technological component or do they mostly rely on other non-technology-based trust channels like a notary or a lawyer, as other comments have mentioned?