skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
So the question is how would things go if you have an single mac (when you really need it) and several pad's. What cool things would you do if everyone had a few lying around. While it might be able to replace a desktop several years from now I think it can only be thought of as an accessory to a desktop at this point.

Edit: Also hearing so many people saying: "My mom should get one of these" is really them saying "I wont buy it, but someone else should". Really makes me ponder just how successful it really will be.
How Google sets goals and measures success
No not really - it isn't a concrete thing, its like a gut wrenching feeling you get when you look at a lot of clever C++/Perl code.
IP in the Indian culture and Open Source
Apple to the Rescue?
Yes, but with Android or any other powerful OS (osx, windows, linux) you can go to anybody else's shelves and have any product they'll sell you. With the iPhone you can only shop at the company store.
that works as long as the company encourages this.

i.e. at my mom's job(she is also a programmer) she used to do these little fixes for the users, and they all loved it. Then new management came in, and now to do a little fix a user has to send in a request, which the programmer needs to get signed off by 3 bosses.

And here is the funny part, the fix takes literally 5 minutes to do, boss #1 will say..."better tell the next boss it takes a few hours to give us some breathing room', boss #2 will say..."better tell the next boss it takes a few days, to make it seem like we are doing a lot of work" and boss #3 will say "better tell the user it'll take a week, we want them to know that we are doing major code for them"

So this tiny 5 minute code fix, that literally just required a change in a few lines of code that used to be done in 5 minutes, now gets expanded into a 2 week "project"

THAT's the difference between a startup and corporate culture
Fair point. But I would point out that the only things this works with are things we have thoroughly mastered (e.g. walking). People have issues talking and driving (e.g. in parts of Europe it's illegal to talk on a cell while driving because of all the accidents it causes).

In my experience it depends on the amount of processing required. If I'm driving a straight away with traffic going mostly the same speed I can hold complex conversations. As soon as something happens on the road I drop the conversation until my attention isn't needed on the road anymore.
From the article:

Yes, I do like and have tried to champion OpenSource software. How can I square that with my love of Apple? I’m complicated. I’m a human being. I also believe in a mixed economy and mixed nuts. I love our National Health Service and the National Theatre, but I also love Fortnum and Mason’s and Hollywood movies.
Even a technophile like me wants to just sit back and be a "regular person" once in a while; to sit back with a book, do some reading on the web, or watch a movie on the couch. The iPad doesn't have to have shell access to be an incredibly useful device for technophiles either. There are SSH programs for the iPhone; there will be similarly useful utilities built for the iPad too.
That isn't all you get for that $99, though. Unless you have absolutely no interest in distributing or selling anything through the App Store (in which case, what a waste!) it's a better deal than that makes it sound. (Yeah, the App Store isn't a magic money machine, but my point is you're not just getting what you say.) It's also an amazing deal compared to most mobile platforms and game consoles.
It's kind of funny that Chrome hasn't entered into the iPad discussions more. It's pretty much a second approach to the same problem.

Most people just want to use the web and email (most of the time THROUGH the web) on a computer. So give 'em what they want.

And if you say "what about Flash!" I'm gonna guess one of two things: you want video (cough cough PORN) or you want to play Farmville.
Actually, apple.com had the iPad page up well before the publish date of this article and it had all the specs. It clearly stated that it had a microphone.

I'm also dubious of the article that it neglects to mention battery life. The iPad claims up to 10 hours wireless browsing/video/music, which to me is very odd. Web browsing should be taking significantly less battery than video, so what is the true battery life when watching full-screen 720P video like the iPad can allegedly handle with full brightness?

I know with my iPod, with brightness on minimum, it only barely managed to meet the maximum Apple stated. I can only imagine how much of a power hog the iPad's screen is at maximum brightness on a 720p screen. I have money riding that the iPad's battery life, max brightness and 720p video is only going to last ~3 hours, 5 at a major push.
Is it me, or is computing not boring anymore?

I'll explain what I mean. From about 1995 to about 2007, the copmuter industry was predictable. Microsoft dominated the desktop and the laptop. A user interface in 1995 (e.g. Windows 95) looked and worked much the same as one in 2007 (e.g. Ubuntu 7.10). Sure, Microsoft had competitors, but Linux and Mac OS were niche systems that seemed likely to continue to be so.

But now, we have new user interface paradigms, e.g. the gesture systems used by the iPhone and iPad. We have new computing devices, particularly smartphones. We have new killer applications -- telephony and TV and books are all merging into computers, i.e. becoming a program you run on your computer.

It's even exciting on the programming language front, with new languages like Clojure, Erlang, Haskell, F#, etc having the possiblity of breaking out into the staid corporate computing world dominated by Java and C#.

Microsoft's dominance no longer seems assured. Apple or Google could easily exceed their market capitalisation in a few years. And platforms are doing deals with search engines: Firefox with Google, Ubuntu with Yahoo. Everything seems up in the air, uncertain, exciting.
Indeed. And this is why I think the current multithreading paradigm isn't going to scale well when we start getting into tens and hundreds of CPU cores. Something is going to have to change.
I would love to put out a "ipad" like device that is completely flash based. The flash haters would hate it, but the many dev's can easily bring their apps to the device, as well as offer the ability to play thousands of already created games for free, watch millions of videos, and work with the hundreds of flash based web apps.

I'd buy it!
maybe there is a way to grab their gravatar if they have one?
Slug?
The next big steps in game sound design
Needs a stylus, no question. Need to be able to take notes at lectures with this thing or I'm not buying it. Need to be able to take notes on the stuff I'm reading on it.
No. The iPad is something new and products like this have to go through the diffusion of innovation from early adopters to get to the early majority -- and I personally know of no early adopter who is happy with it (all of whom had an iPhone when it launched, etc). The word among early adopters is "bullshit". I don't care who Apple is, or who they think they are, they can't beat the diffusion curve.
Bacteria rebuilt to make oil
Last time I looked, Apple's market share of computers and laptops was a good deal <50%
People only stopped making fun of the Wii name when it was successful. If the iPad isn't a success then it will be laughed at forever.
Besides, I see some conceptual problems with concepts such as what is iTunes; why I can't download mp3 files to the tablet and listen to them; how to print PDF files?

They're going to be especially serious in countries with somewhat limited iTunes Store that does not support music, movies and shows.

For instance, Poland, which is rich enough for iPhone but apparently, but not for full version if iTunes Store.

I completely agree with the article, though. I've got very excited about all my non-tech friends, which constantly suffer from tech problems.

The presented problems are no longer purely technical, though, like they were on regular computers. They're just usability issues.
Totally agreed. However, I think the iPad should come with a more robust photo app — something that lets you import and manage photos (all through fun drag and drop, of course). In my experience, many light computer users still take digital photos. It would also be nice if this thing could manage video importing, with maybe some very basic editing functionality similar to what's on the iPhone.
It's a two-way street. Bosses demand sign-offs because someone at some time deployed something that didn't work. Signoff processes are there as a pain avoidance technique.

If you are positive about the quality that goes out, you can have a corporate culture that encourages this sort of thing. If you're in a company that feels like it has to fill seats you get a combination of people who are good at their job who have to deal with bureaucracy and people who aren't good at their jobs who are saved by it.
Just have a look at fig 4 at the paper I quoted above http://www.warwickhughes.com/icecore/zjmar07.pdf
You will see the 'hills' I mentioned above.

I am not actually suggesting inaction I support any measures that will lower human impact on the planet, however, I am supporting good science and policies that do not have the word TAX in them.
Unforgivable medical errors
What's in the Apple A4
The comments to the submitted article include a detailed discussion of design issues for software used in medical treatment. From those comments are links to many classic articles on software design.
Steampunk Game Boy Ultimate Modification
Yeah, those who don't equate Google today to Microsoft in the 90s continue to boggle my mind.

Their tactics are different (the guise of openness), but make no mistake, their strategy is the same. And they are extremely smart and very effective at achieving their goals.

Remember, Anything that sits between the user and an advertisement is extremely strategic to Google. So if your product or company falls between a user and an advertisement, you are in their target zone. Good luck! :-)
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
- Arthur C. Clarke
Ask HN: How to setup home systems that can control lights/temperature, etc?
One side project I've been thinking about for a long time is setting up systems that control things at my home, such as temperature, lights, alarms, music.

Has anyone set up similar systems at their house? How did you go? What were the technical challenges?

Further, has anyone managed to setup systems that follow voice commands?
The site is down. Does anyone have a mirror or a summary?
I even started to think about writing code with Vim and tmux/screen again on the remote machine.

Like old good days, with nicer display. :-)
I agree.

I'd like to point out that the use of immutable data structures solves some threading issues. Unfortunately, as in this example, it's easy to get hung up somewhere in your technology stack without realizing what's going on.
Services to Help Us Stop Dawdling Online
They also take 30% of every app you sell. The fact I bought doodle jump underwrote the developer tools. As of this year they are the single biggest mobile company due to their app and phone sales. The $100 a developer isn't much of a profit for them as it is a means to control access.
UK Government IT strategy pays lip service to open source
Five reasons not to buy the Apple iPad
It's very misguided to extrapolate in that way from the iPhone. After all, it's a phone! That is its primary function. It's just dandy that the iPhone can also act as a powerful information tool.

This thing, it's an information tool first and foremost. Also, professionals are willing to pay top dollar. Apple already makes lots of unlocked top-dollar hardware aimed at creative professionals.

But the real kicker -- Apple could sell almost the exact same hardware, with a few tweaks. Voila, a new product with even higher margins.
Nowhere near as much as if it had ended up being called iSlate, though!
There has to be at least a few people on HN that have done this. Did you use systems like Linux Home Automation (http://www.linuxha.com/) or http://www.linuxmce.org ?

Did you roll your own? Buy a commercial application ?
I thought about mentioning that, but decided it didn't really fit in this article. You're absolutely right, though - Chrome OS is aiming for exactly the same target.

So this time, Apple's going to have a serious competitor early on. Interesting times for us consumers.
I would be shocked if there isn't. You can import pictures from memory cards or digital cameras (with an attachment).

I see myself using the iPad for this sort of quick-and-dirty post-shoot curation and showing off. Especially if I'm traveling and don't want to lug my full-on laptop with me.
We don't need no stinkin' Bubbles, Intrinsic & Traded Value
Make no mistake about it--they could run Mac OS X on the iPad a year ago, if they wanted to.

The iPhone OS (3.2) that supports the iPad is a full-fledged Mach/BSD kernel, as much as 10.6, and it's just a matter of which kernel extensions and system and user applications you include in the total build.
Hehe, thanks :)

I was hesitant whether this would be good HN etiquette, but then I figured that it's actually quite on-topic, and that it would be ok if I didn't spam a HN-thread link but a direct link to the article. I realise it's still a minor offence ;)
Evolution is too inefficient
I agree. I use my computer all the time for dev work. I want an ipad to do all of the other things I use my computer for - email, web surfing, watching videos, so I can do them on the go, or from the comfort of my couch and not at my desk.
I first tried to do something like this about 10 years ago. I wanted to put a microcontroller in every switch patress and network them across the mains using a TDA5051A modem. Unfortunately the size of the various components (including all the transformers and other passives) was too great for me to retrofit to exisitng hardware.

I've come back to this recently, as I can now use a ZigBee module for comms, and by going surface mount I can get the required components in a very compact space.

Never tried to do voice recognition in a socket, but that's a very interesting idea - have microphones in every patress and network them to create an array.
iSlate = is Late!
Details on the ANI runtime
The Apple iPad Dilemma
Thanks for the offer, but I'm afraid I have to decline so that I learn how start from scratch.

I'm on an EC2 Ubuntu instance.
I don't know how much I buy the "the oceans are getting more acidic" line. The oceans are 3 orders of magnitude larger than the atmosphere, and CO2 makes up 380 parts per MILLION in atmosphere.

oceans: 1.384 × 10^21 kg
http://hypertextbook.com/facts/1998/AvijeetDut.shtml

atmosphere: 5 x 10^18 kg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Earth
Both first A9 and first Mali GPU I've seen in the wild.
Ask HN: What contact management system do you use
I need to find a good solution to my ever increasing number of biz cards I get from networking events and conferences. Do you guys use a biz card scanner? What can you recommend? What address book tool do you use?

Thanks
Apple Event In Pictures
They do have an adapter for connecting directly to cameras, or readins SD cards. Don't if it'll let you import the photos or not, but I suppose it'll at least show them.
As I sit here on my Windows machine, looking at Process Lasso Pro - I'm fascinated by the background processes eating up my performance. Virus scanner to Outlook to winlogon.exe. Even if Mac OS X could run on the new A4 chip, I think Apple is concerned about 3rd party apps that are multi-tasking degrading the performance/overall experience.
Pure numbers aren't the important thing here, IMO. How many college students are playing with DB2 or IMS on System Z? It's going to be a very low number, for a few very good reasons:

* while reliable, System Z is incredibly hard to work with as a programmer or sysadmin

* in my experience, IBM flat out refuses to give any of their "serious" products to universities. They say "Oh, download DB2 Express-C" and that's the end of the discussion.

If I know there are 1000x more people in the field with Oracle experience on common hardware than DB2 on System Z, I'm going to go with Oracle. Hardware is cheap. Good engineers/sysadmins aren't.
You really want to use an iPad for email? I think I'd be running for my laptop after about 6 words.
Unfortunately Hacked iPad Won't Work on T-Mobile 3G
Everybody is outraged with the lack of camera. Is it really that important? I see myself using this device for watching video and casual surfing on the couch - no need for a camera for that.
Ask HN: Had enough of the iPad yet?
I can't read the news without the constant reminder that the iPad is the greatest thing ever created.

I get it. Its cool. But not EVERY headline on EVERY website has to be about the iPad...

Am I the only one whos had enough of the iPad yet?
A better comparison is with the Nintendo Wii. While Sony and Microsoft competed in the cut-throat market of consoles for gamers, the Wii also created a new product category: consoles for everyone else. It worked pretty well for them – it turns out that there’s a lot more non-gamers than gamers, and making a device that appeals to 95% of the population sells better than making one that appeals to only 5%.

Daniel hit the nail on the head. The industry has been tending towards making high-spec machines while often neglecting human interface issues. People complain that all of this email/booting up/installing/URL stuff was too complicated, and we techies blamed them and told them to RTFM.

In the meantime, others directly address their concerns, and surprise -- people give them money.
>I wont buy it, but someone else should".

No. Its not about that.

Since most such people already use a laptop throughout the day and have iPhone. So its something they think might be more used by people who are not carrying a computing/entertainment device throughout the day.
Yes, technically, "global warming" refers to modern, human-induced climate change. But outside of paleontological circles, they are the same thing.

There's certainly no need to be criticizing people for that usage, since there's no possibility of confusion; we're always talking about modern climate change.
Anybody can point to figures/estimations showing how much Google makes in China and in North America per capita ? I strongly believe that doing business in China is really not worth the associated trouble in Google's case (and in many others too).
I wonder if it's possible to make decent bluetooth cameras? That feels more useful to me. A tiny camera you point and shoot that sends pictures/video to the giant iPad screen.
> 1)When you rotate the screen, it feels responsible instantly.

Not to nitpick, but ITYM responsive.
Download iPhone SDK 3.2 beta to Develop iPad Apps
Download iPhone SDK 3.2 beta to Develop iPad Apps
There are two Lisp implementations on www.spoj.pl. One is Clisp which is bytecode compiled and rather slow and the other is SBCL which compiles to machine code and is the implementation used by the OP.

It looks as if you only looked at the former as the later has an entry at 0.52 (as mentioned by another commenter.)

A note about Common Lisp implementations is that there are many of them, all with different performance specs ideal use cases. Some are considered very fast, such as SBCL and CCL, others, not so much. Most of the data I've seen benchmarking Lisp against other languages uses one of the open source implementations. I'd like to see how a commercial Lisp, such as Allegro or Lispworks, performed, especially since those are the ones that have actually been worked on since the 80s/
Just grab the keyboard stand from out of your backpack. Or, you can use one of these:

http://www.usbgeek.com/prod_detail.php?prod_id=1219

Someone should write an iPhone app that does this over Bluetooth.
You have just added to the buzz. :-)
This is probably the best post someone has put together on everything so far. My mom already wants this device. My roommate who had a macbook then decided to drop having a computer all together for 6 months is going to get this. It's kind of what Litl was trying to do with the web-book. It's about making computers simple and easy to use again. Less headaches, less complexity, and robust functionality.

I think the iPad is something special, because it's going to open the door for us to rethink what a computer should be. Maybe this is the chance we have to rewrite everything.
In the MMO genre, this divide is called "themepark vs sandbox". A game like World of Warcraft is a themepark - you're given a lot of direction in terms of where you're supposed to go and what you're supposed to do. EVE Online is a sandbox - you do whatever you want and you get fewer roadsigns that say "go this way" or "beating this means you win".

Current computers are sandboxes - you can do with them whatever you want, run arbitrary code, create your own workflow, and operate without rules. The iPad is a themepark - it has specific programs that do specific things, and then it's got little roped off paths between them. For many users (the proverbial Mom), a well-developed theme park is more attractive, because all they really wanted to do anyhow is ride the roller-coaster or the Ferris wheel. People like the average Hacker News reader (or even the average reddit or digg reader) can't stand the roped off paths, but for Mom, those laid out sidewalks are a relief.
So there is allegedly climate change due to carbon dioxide without increasing global temperatures? I've never heard this. What is the mechanism, and what is the evidence?
I find distraction a very simple method. When I'm absorbed in a problem, I can go the better part of a day without eating. Often then, when I finally eat, it's because the lack of food / nutrients is starting to significantly hamper my thinking and focus. But it takes (this well/overfed U.S. resident) some time to reach that point.

The problem is to keep this mode of life up for a sustained period of time.

I also tend to lose significant weight while on vacation. This is usually because my vacations involve: 1) Intense, extended interaction with people (very occupying, if "distracting" is perhaps not the best word to use re social company) in non-food settings; 2) A lot of traveling and getting around from one novel place to another, again very occupying and without much of a food context.

I guess I could add that vacations for me involve very little TV.

Finally, as an aside, I've remained a fan of "TV host" Craig Ferguson's simple comment on the topic: "Eat less, move around more." I realize that it's not that simple for everybody, but for a fair number of people -- myself included -- it is. And his phrase, especially delivered in his accent and trademark combination of absurd and serious, is very memorable. This makes it useful to me on an ad hoc, day to day basis.
ANY starch is broken down rapidly in the small intestine and absorbed as sugar.

That may be an oversimplification. Lustig, in the lecture mentioned by the GP, shows that there are big differences between how the body metabolizes glucose and fructose. If these differences are significant enough (Lustig's thesis is that they are), then it isn't a "false distinction" to single out sugar/HFCS from other carbohydrates.
Did this just change or something? Earlier today I did a search and copied the URL and it was something like http://www.google.com/url?url=http%3A%2F%2F... But just now when I tried to duplicate it, I didn't get that. Weird.