skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
> Visionary founder with the perfect background...

> Disrupting the incredibly horrible experience of inventing a physical product...

> Top-tier investors...

> Board of directors stacked...

> Crazy high community engagement...

> ...an exceptional team of engineers, designers, marketers...

> So if everything was so good, how did the company spend $180M of investors’ money, sell very little product, replace the founder/CEO, layoff nearly the entire company, and file for bankruptcy?

How about, just for one second, that we pretend that all of these characteristics don't necessarily prescribe a successful outcome?
Wink Inc is up for sale separately from the rest of the Quirky business. There are already offers on the table, and their press releases thus far have said they don't anticipate any interruption to that part of the business -- the team's still in place, maintaining the services and working on improvements. There are so many "Works with Wink" products on the shelves -- not just GE, but Cree, Leviton, Lutron, Chamberlain, etc -- that I'm sure that brand will land a home with a future.
Problems with operation can START A FIRE

I suppose one way to solve this problem is to make sure that as much of the machine as possible in the cutting area is made of non-flammable material. Even if a fire starts it won't spread. Not possible with this one though, as the housing seems to be made of plastic.
Google Contributor -- See fewer Ads
Don't anyone here think 45% of the web content are ads which are being forced in to the page?
"Cord-cutting" has moved past Bleeding Edge and Early Adopters. Currently, Late Adopters are cutting their cable cords, and soon the Long Tail will be the only cable TV market.
Wink business is being sold. See my comment above.
Remember that Swift collection types have the semantics of copy-on-write. Under the hood they actually only copy if the collection is non-uniquely referenced.

An Array<T> is a struct but uses a storage reference type under the covers. In theory the standard library is actually free to make common slices of arrays share storage so pure additions don't even require copying but I have no idea if it is actually implemented that way (neither String nor Array guarantee contiguous storage)
Hey I'm one of the authors of the article. Can I pick your brain a bit? jbrustein at bloomberg dot net.
When this was posted yesterday, I commented at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10268465 about the following:

"The legend of “in-memory” seems to have been born from stories out of Facebook. "

As a general statement, that's not correct. In my field of chemical information, that 'legend' started in the mid-1990s.

The rest of my comment is at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10268604 .
I love to see this kind of immediate, positive, appropriate response to feedback.
> If you are claiming these do not exist...

I'm not. ju-st is implying either that we don't know how to build power plant sized fission reactors, that we've never built and operated one successfully and safely for decades, or both.

All projects in the US have delays and cost overruns. I addressed this in my reply to his comment. That doesn't mean that the design and construction of the thing being constructed isn't a solved problem.

> Consider that the Fukushima plant life was extended beyond its ["advisable"] lifespan.

And yet:

> When you hit a nuclear plant with the fifth largest earthquake ever recorded, then immediately follow that with a twenty foot high tsunami, and then it explodes, it still kills fewer people than an average coal plant does every single year when everything goes perfectly. [0]

Nuclear power is less dangerous than even solar power, hydroelectric power, or wind power!

> Rooftop solar power has a per terawatt death rate ten times worse than nuclear power because of - I kid you not - people falling off roofs when installing the panel. Hydroelectric power has a worse fatality rate because of dams bursting and flooding people. Even wind power has a worse fatality per terawatt rate - seventy three people have died in windmill related accidents. [0]

[0] http://squid314.livejournal.com/292620.html
Boeings New Drone Laser Weapon
The pages which pay for fake likes are punishing themselves in the long run.

If a page has tons of followers but none of them ever interact with any of the pages posts, then the page will be de-ranked and the reach of each post will get lower and lower.
There's a lot of focus in this thread on 'Why would you want a fake living room environment?' but he makes this statement:

"You could even go all the way to a face-locked screen with no distortion correction, which would be essentially the same power draw as the normal Netflix application, but it would be ugly and uncomfortable."

This is what his post is about - the work to accomplish a screen surface that exists in 3d space independent from your head. What goes around the screen is a secondary issue.
U.S. Air Force Requires Airmen to Praise F-35
PS: no pentalobe screws either.

This makes me happy :) Also, any chance you might demo one of these at Metrix on Capitol Hill sometime? I'd love to check it out in person without having to pay $2,000 first!
So content is king?
Your logic does not follow.

Lots of men are hostile to women. Making jokes regarding women's issues fuels hostility. Therefore men should not make jokes regarding women's issues.

Some people are mentally unstable. Guns in the hands of mentally unstable people can cause catastrophic results. Therefore people should not own guns.
Thank you, I had forgotten about class guard. It's a great tool, but I recall having problems getting it to work on larger applications.

It's also possible for you to remove the ObjectiveC metadata from a binary entirely, obfuscate/encrypt it, and then add it back to the ObjectiveC runtime as needed. With LLVM bitcode this becomes much more difficult (but maybe not impossible...)
Amores Prohibidos
Inspiring, yes - but it's also disheartening with respect to how far away we are from highly-convincing VR.

It's not even a matter of engineering the solutions; we have yet to fully understand so many of the problems, and we'll need years (decades?) of research before beginning to think about some of the solutions. That's not to say it can't be an overall positive technology/experience in the meantime, but it'll likely be many years before it's free of certain side effects (e.g., nausea, discomfort) that bother people.
Ask HN: Interest in Q&A with former Somali minister for ICT
I've got access to the former minister for ICT from Somalia. He was asking me what people from around the world thought with respect to Somalias ICT history and whether people had suggestions or thoughts.

I initially considered an IAMA but considering the subject material thought it might be more useful on HN, considering It's technical focus.
I agree very much with this article. Kaufman is a very cool, stand-up guy; everyone I met at Quirky was smart and nimble and on board with the vision. The products ranged from naïf (hence "Quirky") to straight up brilliant. It makes sense to me that they simply took on too much, and should have focused and iterated on their better products.
Quirky also derisked the process and took preorders.
Like electric cars, they have that nice abstraction layer where you don't _have_ to depend on fossil fuels. Just provide solar charging!
I cut (engraved?) my teeth on the laser at Metrix - love to get them one at some point soon, but it'll be after preorder campaign is over I'm afraid. We'll be at the Geekwire event next week if you'd like to check it out, though. (and are at Maker Faire in NYC this weekend for those eastwardly inclined)
Class act.
I also didn't know anything about them until hearing about the shutdown but now that you mention it I have seen the "Wink" stuff in Home Depot and probably elsewhere. However that was negative signaling for me, since Home Depot is not a name that I trust for tech but just a place I go if there isn't time to order something. With Nest products however it was because I had heard of them long before seeing them in Home Depot that my reaction was neutral-positive for retail stores carrying them. I don't expect my jaded 20-something outlook to represents most shoppers but it would've been cool to know about.
Tech worker lives in car and avoids spending money he doesn't want to spend, and gets praised for creative problem solving.

Tech bus driver lives in car and avoids spending money he doesn't have, and gets sympathy for his miserable situation.
Ive found ubuntu to be the most painless route, usually a resolution to a driver issue is a google search away.

The best path is to pro-actively google your model Macintosh with Ubuntu (version number) and another with Fedora (version number) and see what pops up in compatibility issues and resolutions. Really, its pretty much that easy to figure out.
There's something weird with this app, it asks to "sign in with icloud" to update the blocking rules... I'm already signed into icloud and I honestly don't understand how this is related to an app's block list update feature??!
From the post that I was replying to, posted by the person you're replying to:

> Indeed. I was working for a Facebook gaming company around 2010. Through the "recruit a friend" bonuses and "have X friends click this" mechanics, there were incentives to simply make fake accounts to obtain the goals. We looked at our users and figured about half were fake Facebook accounts. I have to imagine the numbers for other companies, like Zynga, were similar, as they used the same mechanics.

You're NOT talking about the same thing.
Currently on front page: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10272098
Would a 2-lines nibbles game be better?

I've just typed the implementation by Ricardo Bittencourt (http://www.ricbit.com/mundobizarro/twoliners/) and it works. BGM included: https://imgur.com/a/PnE0s
JavaScript has had try/catch since forever though?
|1. Content creators have to be paid, or much of the web I know and love will cease to exist. 2. Life without ads is much better.

One of the nice things about ads is that it allows many users to browse content for free - subsidised by those that interact with adverts.

If advertising were to go away and micro-payments replace it - how do users get free access to content subsidised by the masses? I can freely browse the most internet today from anywhere in the world regardless of my income situation. A micro-payments barrier to entry isn't going to allow that.

Also those who are most likely to pay for a solution like this are likely the most affluent who are likely to be the ones clicking and buying products through advertising.
That's pretty shabby of Apple to claim one thing and have their official developer tools say something else even without having to tweak anything :-/
Better products wouldnt have helped. Customers dont know something is better until after they buy. They certainly had a branding issue by focusing on their products instead of on their users.

If they asked themselves before making every decision, "how will this help our users invent better products and bring them to market, they may have survived. Instead they asked themselves, " what can we do to make more money."

Their core product was their community, they never seemed to get that!
On reflection this probably can't work, as apparently wood melts only at stupidly high temperatures. Though maybe a lower temperature to embrittle the carbon would be enough?
My son is 21 and only has cable at the apartment.
That's ridiculous and not at all analogous. The British Empire is not without its faults, but countries such as New Zealand were enthusiastic British subjects for decades. The Third Reich enjoyed few French supporters and only for a few years at that. (Having said that, I don't entirely agree with the 'melting pot' comparison either.)
I spoke to an RAAF test pilot a few weeks ago who confirmed the stories that this plane is an absolute lemon.
It's trying to be too many things and failing at all of them.
Li ion batteries still have a LONG way to go in energy density compared to Jet A kerosene.

Jet A, about 43 MJ/kg. Lithium ion, <1 MJ/kg.
Secrets of Silicon Valley’s Dating Scene (2013)
I don't get it. Why would you want your head forced to point in one direction when you could, for example, lie down and point your head in the most comfortable position.
I guarantee you their liquidation preference is not 2x (or indeed above 1x). And 30% is not 50%. Even if for some unfathomable reason the liquidation preference was 2x, and even if for some even more unfathomable reason the company promptly exited at $1B, that would leave $400M to be distributed to everyone else who had stock.
As a product manager, this makes me cringe. This attitude is exactly why engineering often hates product.
I like this guy. Can we get him to make other things?
I posted this in another thread about them (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10217582), but it bears repeating:

If the customer service experience was anything like what it was pre-pivot, I'm not surprised they failed.
When they were going out of business/pivoting, I ordered a bunch of their inventory at a large discount. One week after the "expected arrival date" (and 14 days after my order), surprised that my order hadn't arrived, I emailed them asking for a tracking number. They told me that it was waiting for the carrier to pick up the order and that I would get a tracking number that day. Every two days, repeat the same thing. Promises, no tracking number. Finally, 5 weeks after the order was completed, I received a tracking number.
Terrible experience, for what amounted to a bunch of (fun) junk.
Nice to hear that your son is a Late Adopter for this video source change.
Oculus Connect 2 talks
Abiti da Sposa economici, migliori Abiti da Sposa – Noradress
Or it could be that we hadn't yet learned to avoid it, and we're slowly learning:

http://mumbrella.com.au/mamamia-has-said-goodbye-to-clickbai...

http://digiday.com/publishers/upworthy-goes-clickbait-free-n...

http://blog.newscred.com/how-reader-demand-for-content-marke...
Stay classy.
Any way-out future plans to offer deals to hackerspaces? makehackvoid.com in Canberra, Australia could probably make great use of one of these. (As could many others, just wanted to get a shoutout in)
So, where can I borrow for 0-0.25%? Shouldn't this be standardized by the entity capable of receiving a loan at the given rate?
Skeptic's Guide to the Universe
> So half the planet is incapable of learning what clickbait is and only you can resist it?

Are you suggesting that this was my contention?!---I fall for click bait all the time.

> Are we all so psychologically weak that we cant figure it out?

No, but I don't think ``we" are actively trying to figure it out. People design these traps _for a living_; ``we" get trapped by them _in ``our" spare time_.

> ...

...
ScyllaDB: open-source C++ rewrite of Cassandra with 10 times more throughput
Your sarcasm isn't appreciated. I want to know why the founders left their company, and are creating a new company that is in a related space.

Why didn't they just do it as a part of SocialText?

And what should the current SocialText employees think about their founders leaving and basically starting over, with a fresh cap table, while they try to make something of value with the remains of a founder-less company?
This is wonderful. The human body is complex but it is still a finite machine and it can be repaired. Interfacing with the nervous system is a problem that can be solved in our lifetime.
Reddit Ads PM here. We actually don't run 3rd party ads on reddit.com.
RFC 1984 status updated to “best current practice”
If you want to recode all captions... Captions are coded to be rendered in particular places on the screen. It's a lot of work.
Kidding right? I stopped watching TV 8 years ago. Who wants to make an appointment to watch a show? Tried cable for a few days because Cablevision insisted... canceled it two days later.
We are entering that age because tech is addressing issues like this and has made life easier for the paraplegic man.
> That works once. Are you going to do it every time you compile?

Sounds like a good case for a unit test.
The rationale for this decision is discussed here:
https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/msg/ietf-announce/FXpz3-UE...

An excerpt:

"For both symbolic reasons (that the technical position then is the technical position now) and to better ensure that IETF specifications reflect the spirit of RFC1984, a number of participants in the discussion felt it would be advantageous to recognize the substantive content of RFC1984 as a BCP."

Also, the RFC number is worth emphasizing.
Show HN: Interactive Penrose tiles
That is kind of an unfair standard, but when you think of a bus driver, you definitely don't think of someone rolling in money.
I understand why the backend is different between such user bases, but shouldn't the complexity of the app be a function of features, not number of users?
Saw "5000" in the title and immediately thought of this book.
They allow gif ads if i recall and haven't got a way to give feedback (ie your ad is for a bad product).
... shipped a product they knew was defective (Makerbot fifth generation) ...

Yikes. Clogged extruders and many software problems:

http://nicklievendag.com/makerbot-replicator-5th-generation-...
Adblock Fast: A new, faster ad blocker for Chrome, Opera, and iOS 9
One of those hats and a $100 VR google, and I'm set for life. And batteries.
I'd be surprised if Google, Apple, or Microsoft didn't pick Wink up.
I haven't had cable for well over 10 years now, and I don't miss it one bit.

One great side effect is that when I choose to consume shows tv shows I do it without ads.
Every time that I hear that I just mention Ramanujan. End of discussion.
I don't understand how you can say this...

>> Quirky nailed nearly everything

and then say this...

>> It may sound harsh but at nearly every step of the way, the loftiness of Quirky’s ambitions far outpaced the laws of physics.

So they nailed nearly everything, but the fundamental goals they set were impractical and unattainable?
Those are all fine questions, but your original was just "what happened to ST?", which begged for an lmgtfy :-)

Myself, I wouldn't suspect any particularly interesting backstory here. ST was founded thirteen years ago (!), and Ross left a while ago.
The latest Oculus SDK (0.7.0.0) on Windows _absolutely_ fixes this mess. I have nothing but praise for the latest software and this is coming from someone who couldn't use his Rift since around November last year when the AMD drivers and the Rift's extended mode stopped working together.

Basically now the Rift is considered a proper HMD as a category of its' own and not a bastardized monitor. There is no more extended mode. Everything compiled with Oculus SDK 0.6.0.0 and above now works in Direct Mode only. The latency is noticeably better. With the latest AMD/Nvidia drivers, you just plug the headset in and there's no monitor-type configuration at all.

Note this is with Windows 10; I don't have first-hand experience with 8.1 but think it'd be much the same. It really is that much better.

Also, if you haven't checked out the latest VR Desktop (http://www.vrdesktop.net), you need to do this too. In addition to giving you a giant screen to see your desktop on, you can now play full-screen games in it, watch YouTube 360 videos properly in it and watch 3D movies encoded in side-by-side or top/bottom encoding. It's really really awesome :)
#NoEstimates: key arguments for and against
My process:

1. Read article, sounds like a good idea, maybe I can throw $10 in a month + white-list Google ads in my ad blocker
2. Go to Contributor website, read through all information aaannnddd "Contributor is not yet available in your country."
3. Close tabs and move on
I went to orangepi.org, clicked the "point me to buy the boards" link, and landed at a link[1] offering a price of $39. Where did you find it for $15?

[1] http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/NEW-orange-pi-plus-A...
Don't compile from source - Only use the official builds
> AFAIK the tools are all stand-alone command line applications which you have to run every time you want to check whether you're on the right track.

I really don't understand this distinction. My tools run those commands for me. I type in my editor, and it tells me if the compilation fails. My editor is also far more responsive and uses far less ram than the typical java IDE, so it feels faster to me, not slower.
I've found ThreatConnect's reports to be alright compared to many other security companies. Could you link a report with sloppy research?
Internet or Cable is just the delivery model.

TV is still TV irrelevant of whether the screen is your monitor or a Smart TV... Delivery owners are also the content owners, and they playing hardball against players such as Netflix. If you own the premium content you're not going to give it away. People will follow where the premium content lives, this is why Netflix etc have had to produce content.

I wrote about this stuff about a year ago across 4 posts -http://www.hoista.net/post/100055701637/pt-4-ad-platforms-an...
http://www.hoista.net/post/99371777282/pt-3-content-packagin...

http://www.hoista.net/post/97194595897/pt-2-content-creation...
http://www.hoista.net/post/95719699857/digital-disruption-in...
I have an honest question. If I believe that I would make an incredible forecaster, where can I start testing myself? Is there something that requires significant less amount of information before starting to forecast, than, say, stocks?
There is an exceptional irony in investing in an exceptionally talented team as they are typically the ones with the smallest downside in failure.
I don't know about studies, but the evidence is strong. Let's look at home runs:

* Since 1920 [1], excluding the PED era, only twice have players hit 60 or more home runs in a season and both barely passed the threshold: Babe Ruth hit 60 in 1927 and Roger Maris hit 61 in 1961.

* In the 4 years from 1998 to 2001, the feat was accomplished 6 times by 3 different players (2 very strongly associated with PEDs, the other widely supsected of it), many blowing away the former threshold, hitting 73, 70, 66, 65, 64, and 63 home runs.

* Since PEDs were banned in baseball, only one player has hit more than 55 home runs in a season.

[1] 1920 is when hitters embraced the modern strategy of trying to hit home runs, led by innovator Babe Ruth. Before that, a period called the 'Dead Ball Era', they generally just tried to get any hit they could and home runs were much more rare. Also, there were technological and rule changes which may have facillitated home run hitting. Before 1919 players regularly led the league with 10-15 home runs; in 1919 Ruth hit 29, a record at the time and more than most entire teams hit; in 1920 he hit 54.
I remember when I tried to order it, the shipping itself was 20$, and there was no way to order more than one. I often order stuff way larger than that, that come to way less than 20$, all in, from China. I'm pretty sure that's part of their margin.
I like the way amazingribs.com does it, a bunch of bbq geeks who mostly only show adverts for products they have reviewed and liked.
I am a US citizen married to a Canadian citizen. We lived in Toronto for a number of years. One funny thing you notice is that when the government or media refers to what in the US would be "the public" or "the people" or "the voters" or "the general public" or what have you, often the actual expression used is "Canadians", as if nobody other than Canadians resided in Canada and/or had any reason at all to pay attention to what was being said. It smacks of some kind of vague provincialism, unsurprising I suppose, given their neighbors.