skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I agree that the A4 chip is interesting. But to me the biggest news is that Apple is supplying the iPad with 3g access and an unlocked SIM. Not that the majority of people will buy an iPad, but they are preempting what I think we'll see in the future with data connectivity, namely that we'll pay a monthly subscription for wireless connectivity the same way many people now pay for cell phones instead of landlines. We'll expect a carrier of choice and we'll expect the service to be available almost everywhere and on almost every device.
I fucking hate Scribd; here is the original article:

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/print/65877

And PDF version:

http://andrewgrahamnyc.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/the-new-p...
Magical? Sure. Revolutionary? It's a giant iPod touch.

If this thing does sell, coupling it with 29.95/unlimited 3G on AT&T should do wonders for the network.
I am underwhelmed. I think they might have missed the mark on this product or there are a lot of things they didn't discuss in their presentation today!

Multi-tasking?
Flash?
This pretty much describes my life until college. It took a lot of work from a bunch of friends in college for me to develop enough social skills to handle non-geeks.
But do we know which 3G bands it supports? i.e. for American users will it work on t-mobile 3G?
No. Wait and see until the next generation.
How many of your average computers users really care about that? If I can access a shell and write some code on this thing, I'm sold. The battery life alone is worth it.

Edit: Sadly reading this thread is like reading Slashdot about the announcement of the iPod.
Fast page refresh makes it potentially very attractive for things like textbooks where you need to skim around. For linear novel reading, I'd think a Kindle is much better.
One of the best high-level but still applied and applicable books on marketing I've found is "Zag: The Number One Strategy of High-Performance Brands" by Marty Neumeier.

The author writes well, gives usable structure and advice, and walks you through his 17 step process to develop your marketing strategy, from the high level (Who are you?) to the mid-level (What do they call you? your brand name) to the details (What do they experience?). Amazingly, I found that his approach works for both large businesses (his examples), and fledgling web startups (my experience). His experience and enthusiasm also shine through.

It's a quick read, but I find I go back to it often to check if my thinking and perspective are where they need to be - that is, taking the end-user's viewpoint.
Gross is spot on with Canada being an ideal country for investments. I think AUS needs to be thrown in too. Both countries have regulated oligopolies in their banking sectors, reducing competition and in turn risk for blow up. Both countries are much better in terms of government spending debt to GDP too. And they are endowed with natural resources that will be essential for supplying the materials necessary for building China, India, and other developing nations.
Beware of PIMCO pubs-- they push their book.

Also, consider these comments:

You will note that missing from the chart is the $5.5 trillion in mortgages that the Uncle Sam has on their books, having followed Gross’ suggestion that the government make the GSE backing explicit instead of implicit.

Essentially, Gross is complaining that (amongst other factors) the government listened to him...
You had me excited for a second there.
Don't underestimate Apple's experience with ITMS. And looks like they are dealing pretty well with infrastructure.
This is the interesting page from there: http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/

"1024-by-768-pixel resolution at 132 pixels per inch (ppi)" Sounds like a nice display.
And do what with it? Install a slew of apps that you can run on any other computer, just on a tiny screen and tiny keyboard?
Do they even own a plant or is production outsourced?
This came up in my feed yesterday, but it was blocked (I'm not an ACM subscriber). I thought that was rather ironic.
PA Semi is fabless, right? So who's knocking out all these A4 processors for iPads?
Looks like the market wasn't liking this until Steve Jobs announced the price -- right when the price was announced you can see the stock jumping in price.
That reference says that South Park is a part of SoMA, a part that I worked in a couple of years ago. (SF is "famous" for folks inventing neighborhood names. They often do so to try to influence real estate values.)

Like I said, SoMA, let alone South Park, is not where "most" Bay Area startups are, even if it has more than the most popular NYC district.
Best illustration ever :-)
In case anyone missed the reference:

http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/23/1816257...
Turns out yes, and very tastefully done.
This is a leisure device, even if iWork is available for it. I was really hoping for something I can use at college, like the ability to load up PDFs, annotate them, search, report, sync, share with classmates, etc. I suppose someone will write an app to do that (no time to do one myself).
Ask Peter Norvig Anything
Whether it's sawdust, walnut husks, corn, grains, lard, or even other cows, someone in the past 100 years has probably advocated feeding it to cows. That's at least what I remember as one of the takeaway messages when I took ruminant nutrition and digestion.

So, I'm not at all surprised that he can comb through the literature and find people suggesting that cows be fed corn a very long time ago. But it seems like a bit of a logical leap to use a few examples in the literature to refute claims like this:

“Before WW II, most Americans had never eaten corn-fed beef.”
And it's IPS!
Under $500, unlocked 3G and custom chip - iPad will be a smash hit
max-ipad => maxi-pad. Not sure if that was intentional on the OP's part.
Tell HN: Lets admit the iPad is an iLetDown
I'm a big Apple fan, have all kinds of Apple products from the Mac Pro to the iPod shuffle. But I gotta say I feel kinda wanting after this mornings announcement. Lets take a look at whats iWanting:

-no background apps

-no osx

-no root

-no camera

-no multitasking

-itsy bitsy baby storage

-no removable media

-no gps

-no fcking camera

-no fcking background apps

Lets face it, this is a larger iPhone 3Gs with no calling plan. And the name is iLame, as my friend said "sounds like a feminine hygiene product, ipad maxi for the large model".

Suck it, Apple.
--edit--

I didn't realize this service is just repackaging an existing service, so perhaps the following feedback should be directed to the people doing the actual service.

--end edit--

Aside from the point that I'm not sure how this constitutes a startup in any way (taken with a grain of salt; "there's no way a search engine could ever be a startup..."), I think this works pretty well. How are you planning to monetize it if you do in fact intend for it to be a startup?

I like that it actually renders the page with proper CSS3. Most services like this do not support CSS3 (things like CSS rounded corners, etc). I see that it also renders the javascript widgets, so that's another +1.

Also, how do you determine what width to make it? My consultancy's site's width is set to look perfect for widths of 1024px or greater. Below that width, it's not perfect, but usable. I see that this service renders slightly below that width.
isn't "lunatic" media the result of Apple marketing?
I am surprised that many of the comments so far are the equivalent of "No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame."

I'm excited at the very distinct deviation this is taking from the keyboard/mouse/monitor paradigm in something other than a strictly portable device. I think the OS looks pretty damn good and I can't wait to try using one myself.
Absolutely, but they are very close in functionality so I expect a lot of fuss to be made about this.

If the difference between two devices is screen size and preferred user interface (touch screen vs buttons) then I think one will have to yield.
On January 27, 2010, Oracle announced it finalized its acquisition of Sun
The way Wikipedia describes IPS it has a better viewing angle but uses more power. Is this the gist of IPS or is there more?
"One choice is no choice, two choices is a dilemma, three choices is a good start." -- Dr. Richard Bandler (?)

(I immediately remembered this quote and tried to track down its source; I'm not sure if he's the original source, and he's not where I heard it from.)
lack of front facing/any camera mystifies me
What do you mean not collecting taxes? If you rent your lawnmower to someone, that's taxable income. Of course many people cheat on little things like this, but technically they are supposed to pay.
We saw Flash on one of the web demos. It was Safari's missing plugin icon, so it's safe to assume there's no Flash still.
Actually, I ain't. Apple does an excellent job, as always: Everyone is overflowing with emotions by now.

"What emotions" is, obviously, a different story.
If they have the volume, which they probably will, more profit. This will allow them to do more R+D and eventually not give a portion of their profits to Intel for the big chips.

Chips are plenty powerful enough to run apps (for the standard consumer). Now the race is to be the most efficient chip, and since that's a fairly new race Apple should have a good chance at it.
In 10-15 years, I can see most students carry an iPad-like device to school instead of a bunch of books many (esp in Asian countries) need to put in their bags today. It would also be a great replacement for brick-heavy textbooks. If we can collectively break the textbook oligopoly, the costs would be much lower as well.

Together with video lecture inserts to clarify difficult points and interactive & intelligent tutoring software, this could potentially change the way people learn.
IPad - Technical Specifications
They didn't expand much on the improvements to actors and support for continuations, both of which are quite interesting.

Actors: http://www.scala-lang.org/node/2041

Continuations: http://www.scala-lang.org/node/2096
The 3G is almost compelling. However, lots of us already carry around a laptop with an expensive 3G account. I can only use one device at a time, and it's silly to me that I can't either tether to this with it's embedded 3G chip, or else use the same (capped) data plan for both. Since I can't, I'll stick with the laptop for everything.

Of course that's the cell carrier's fault rather than Apple's, but it's still going to keep Apple from getting my money for one of these gadgets.
I thought most of these errors could be handled with the error construct in Bison? I suppose most errors tend to get written as "Unexpected TOKEN, expected OTHER_TOKEN."

If you're willing to complicate your grammar a bit you can add productions for a lot of the erroneous situations which could arrise with nice error messages, such as:

for_init := ...
| var error { error("var not allowed in for initializer."); }

My syntax is a bit off, but can't all syntax errors be expressed with the CFG and be given errors as semantic actions?
One wants the computer to go away.
When you're talking about features it's awesome. But then when you look at the fact that it's almost as big as a laptop, but without the full capabilities of a laptop. Still no word on flash yet. Don't give a shit about YouTube. With my MacBook I can lug it around and I can also watch hulu. Plus I can actually do work on it instead of browing through photos.
How would you do multi-tasking, while promising ten hours of battery life?
If he had apologized, that would be one thing, but he immediately followed with "I don't mean to criticize", which is demonstrably false.
Apple bought P.A. Semi, a small chip manufacturer, last year, so it is technically under the Apple umbrella.
Interesting points. I suspect that Facebook doesn't allow you to change the name of your business page because of the way they anchor them in their database... but at the same time, I believe you can change your personal page in a way that requires redirecting to a new permanent link. This is the same on twitter or tumblr. On both you can change your name and it will automatically change your personal URL to match. As someone who has had a business page, both of these are complaints that I agree with completely though.
If you want to see the parts of the iPad that Apple cares about watch the video: http://www.apple.com/ipad/ipad-video/ It goes over all the bits they think are really cool.
Well, I'm not saying it IS better, until I play with it I'm just repeating the hype. But the proposition is that it will surf the net better than an iPhone and a MacBook. As I mentioned in another comment, I owned a Toshiba Portegé TabletPC and I can honestly say it was a KILLER web surfing device. Now I'm looking at the same ability to view web pages in portrait or landscape mode, weighing way less, and without a keyboard to get in the way. I could love such a device without ever taking it out of my house.

Toss in the ability to watch all the movies and the entire Prisoner TV show collection I have in iTunes... That's fairly compelling, I can see myself using it in bed before going to sleep. Watching movies with someone in my living room requires the big screen TV. But watching movies on my laptop is not a great experience because of its battery life, I need to have an extra power adapter in my bedroom and run the cord across my floor.

Finally, this could be a killer ebook platform. I won't say it's better than Kindle, but it seems like it could be awesome for viewing all the PDF and Gutenberg Project books I already have.

So... I think there might be something to the idea of a device that does a few things (browsing the internet, personal movie watching, and reading ebooks) better than an iPhone or a MacBook.
I'm going to hold off my criticism until I spend more than 20-30 minutes with it and see how well it fits my ideas of what a device like this should be. Knowing Apple, their product design and eye for aesthetics, I wouldn't jump to conclusions based on specs and photos of it.
This is going to do to netbooks what the iPod did to CD players.
Well, you'd look ridiculous trying to point the thing at someone to take a picture. And the truth is that hardly anyone really wants videochat.
How can people be saying that it doesn't have wireless? It clearly has both Wifi, and 3G just like an iPhone.
IPad – Apple’s latest creation
If you think you might be able to give it a competitive edge pretty similar to ExpressionEngine give it a go:) It's difficult to offer more without having more details like costs etc.
This makes Apple the new Commodore.

(Commodore really took off when they acquired MOS Technology. It enabled them to develop the custom silicon they needed to make the VIC, 64, and Amiga world-class game-changing machines.)
I have a Kindle too. It has a few things going for it that the iPad doesn't. First, its screen is really good for reading. Easier on the eyes than a backlit display. Second, it's much cheaper. $500 for the cheapest iPad, or $259(1) for a Kindle. Last, it sounds like books on Kindle are going to be cheaper ($10 instead of $15 on the iPad), though that could change.

What the iPad can do to improve on the Kindle is allow for interaction with reading materials. Note taking, discussion forums based on specific paragraphs/sentences in the text, real-time highlighting, audio/video playback, color photos. All a dream for a college student. None of this exists for iPad yet, but it'll probably come in version 2.0 of its OS. The best Kindle can do in return is its clunky text-highlighting, which isn't saying much.

So my point is, they're far apart in pricing and capabilities. Kindle will probably stay popular among book lovers, which are a fickle bunch. iPad seems like a Kindle with a zillion other capabilities. The iPad is to an iPhone as the Kindle is to a normal Cell Phone. One's very flashy and has some cool capabilities at a cost, and the other is cheaper but does a simple thing relatively well. I don't think they'll eat each other's lunch, but we will have to wait and see to be sure of course...

(1) $470 Kindle DX aside; I'd grab an iPad before a DX any day.
Netbooks cost 50-60% less, so they're pretty safe.
I looked up IPS on Wikipedia once they mentioned that. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_crystal_display#In-plane... It only really mentions the "con" of requiring a brighter backlight/more power. What are the pros?
I've been watching the stocks of both companies, and apple's has just overtaken Amazon's (not for the first time, mind). The 'ibook' functionality and publisher relationships basically caused them to swap places within moments of being announced. Both are up on today's opening, though down on that of a week ago.
Perhaps he values multi-tasking more than having ten hours of battery life.
iPod Touch DX.
Yeah, ATT is already overloaded. Offering unlimited access so cheaply will bog it down even more. I hope AT&T will be beefing up their network over the next few months.
Genetic algorithms (and other evolutionary algorithms) aren't necessarily complex nor slow. They could get faster and better results than traditional algorithms. And, best of all, you don't have to understand your problem domain to use them.

This last point is very important. You could just throw an EA at a problem without understanding it at all. Just give the EA the task with some variables to optimize and it'll come up with solutions.

You do have to come up with an automated way of judging which solution is best, but that's usually much easier than understanding the problem domain well enough to model it with a traditional technique.

Take a look at Monica Anderson's talks below for a high-level overview of some of the advantages of using EA's and other "model-free methods":

http://videos.syntience.com/
I find it really strange that they advertise 720p playback, but they didn't give it a 720p screen. I would expect the device to have a 1280x720 resolution display (like some netbooks) instead of a 1024x768. I'm not sure what their target user is, but I guess one who watches HD video isn't it. Still, it does look interesting.
Find me a CD player that costs $250.
How many do you think are going to look at the Kindle at $250-500 and then the iPad at $500 and choose the single-purpose-does-one-thing-somewhat-better device?

If Amazon dropped the price to sub-$100, I think they'd sell them by the boatload, but at current price points... nah.
Call me naive but I think my productivity problem can be solved now. I'm thinking to get an iPad just for the email, HN and notes. That is, not check email on my work computer but rather go to iPad whenever feeling the itch to check email/HN and etc. Not sure, but excited to try that idea ;)
I meant to add too that the price point of under $500 is really key. It keeps it competitive with netbooks.
Battery life has nothing to do with multi-tasking. It's about providing consistent UX and not having to deal with misbehaving background processes.
I would rather have be usable for 4 hours than limited for 10. If you can run iPhone apps not in full screen, why can't I run a few side by side. I don't want unlimited multitasking, but a few at a time would be nice.
With Skype and a Bluetooth headset, this will be cheaper than an iPhone!
+more accurate colors and no color shift with the viewing angle change. Pretty much the best type of LCD. Usually you find IPS in the best monitors, and I am not aware of any notebook with IPS screen.
P.A. Semi are designers, not manufacturers. I expect fabrication is outsourced to an outfit like TSMC.
Poll: Are you getting an iPad?
Now that the details are out, are you going to get one?
16GB WiFi only
16GB 3G+WiFi
32GB WiFi only
32GB 3G+WiFi
64GB WiFi only
64GB 3G+WiFi
10 hours of battery life in a device half an inch thick.
Apple's Mistake
So buy one anyway. Use it for a month. Worst case is you sell it on craigslist for $50 less than you paid and your expenses are the $50 discount and $30 for the unlimited, no contract, data fee.
Well. At least they didn't call this OS version 4.0.

Can't wait for WWDC '10 to see a new OS with a better interface (at least for the iPad).
I wonder if the folks at Delicious Library are upset about Apple's new 'iBooks' app, that essentially looks the same as theirs.

http://www.delicious-monster.com/images/librarypage/screensh...

http://images.huffingtonpost.com/gen/136360/thumbs/s-IBOOKS-...
"Fully control the supply chain?" that was the question in my mind so it appeared . But I agree with your concerns.
How A Great Product Can Be Bad News: Apple, iPad, and the Closed Mac
The Applet Tablet: a complete history, supposedly
the baseline does not have 3g, that's an extra $130.
This isn't really new for Apple. They used to own a sizeable chunk of ARM (26% if memory serves) back in the days of Newton but ended up selling out.

Now they own an ARM licensee.
> Amazon's infrastructure is second-to-none.

That's true, but why does that matter for digital stuff? (I'm assuming you're talking about Amazon's ability to distribute physical goods). I don't necessarily disagree with your point but I don't see how Amazon's infrastructure is a factor.
My feeling is that it is fairly non-essential. But the same holds for the iPod, and they sold loads of them. So it seems possible they might find buyers for the iPad, too. The price is OK.

I guess the real need it is filling will be "I really want to buy something right now, but I already own everything I need".
This is going to change the whole computer market forever.

Why would anyone (edit: a user who buys a below $1k machine) be inclined to purchase a netbook or even a 13" PC instead of this?
It's unlocked, but the radio only supports the ATT 3G frequencies in the US, so it's effectively locked in to ATT unless you want to use EDGE for everything on T-Mobile.
That's a disappointingly low pixel density compared to the iPhone, Droid, Nexus One, etc. Really wish we would see more high resolution devices because they're much easier on my eyes.
It seems like it will be excellent for for salesmen or pharmaceutical representatives.

Personally, I'm fighting whether I should continue with my Kindle DX purchase, or get this instead.
It still covers the ground between $200 and $500 for those unwilling or unable to commit to an AT&T contract, including everybody's favorite segment: teenagers.
And, I think they'll add background apps in the new OS. I think the hardware (on the iphone as well) is ready to handle the load.
So, what does this chip do that, say, a Snapdragon doesn't?
What's the A4? Probably some ARM variant design, right?
In my experience, people want videochat to look at their grandchildren.
In 2001, the iPod launched at $399. That's roughly $500 in 2010 dollars.
If that's really your desire, you could have gotten a cheaper netbook a long time ago. On the other hand, if you happened to buy an iPad and wonder what to do with it, then your idea might come in handy.
Apple’s iPad Just a Big iPod Touch
It depends on how serious the DDOS and if you expect it to continue. Switching to another host and not letting them know about your situation could result in some unpleasantness.

There are hosting providers which specialize in hosting sites which are under DDOS attacks.

Depending on your needs (shared, dedicated, etc.) you might want to investigate a number of different companies. In the past I've found webhostingtalk to be an OK community for knowledge about this sort of thing.

If you just want a name for right now, I've heard ok things about http://www.blacklotus.net/ . They do shared hosting, dedicated servers, or if you want to keep a server farm on something like EC2 they do reverse proxying (although since you use 1&1 I'm assuming that your probably on either shared or a single dedicated box). There may be better providers out there, its been a long time (thankfully) since I've head to look into this sort of thing.
http://twitter.com/wilshipley/status/8289792566

http://twitter.com/wilshipley/status/8290423381
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1BUH9eXy18

Prescience much? :)
iPad SDK (iPhone OS 3.2 beta) available for download