skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Passive solar used to be the way everyone built... at least before way back with the Ancient Greeks and Chinese. But when we stopped relying on sun for energy, most of us stopped building this way.

I would guess passive solar gained popularity in the seventies due to more attention to energy conservation (oil crisis and all) and then when oil got cheap again, it wasn't so trendy. Hope that's not that case now.

Though cheap oil and global warming aside, I'd still prefer to live in a home heated by the sun and cooled by the earth. AC gives me a headache and I much prefer the feel of sun through a window than the blast of central heating.
Oracle/Sun: Ideas are mergerproof
What you call beliefs, I call principles. It's nice to know he doesn't compromise them.
At the point it becomes most interesting the author cops-out with a trite conclusion.

This speculation:

Hypercrisy might thus be a signal of submissiveness—one
that is exaggerated in creatures that feel themselves to
be in the wrong place in the hierarchy. By applying
reverse privileges to themselves, they hope to escape
punishment from the real dominants.

.. steers further awry:

Perhaps the lesson, then, is that corruption and
hypocrisy are the price that societies pay for being
led by alpha males (and, in some cases, alpha females).
The alternative, though cleaner, is leadership by wimps.

For those interested, the model for austere leadership is Cincinnatus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cincinnatus
Stallman is pretty steady and unchanging in his habits towards software and internet access.
In 2007 at least, he opted to use a demon to email him pages rather than browse the web:

For personal reasons, I do not browse the web from my computer. (I
also have not net connection much of the time.) To look at page I
send mail to a demon which runs wget and mails the page back to me.
It is very efficient use of my time, but it is slow in real time.

http://lwn.net/Articles/262570/
Corporation puts bottom line ahead of its users.

Color me surprised, really I am totally stunned.

The reason the phone company can't use your phone number the minute you cancel your contract is so that there will not be a large number of people dialing that number and getting someone else than the one they expect.

Since 'the real Harman' has probably done more than his share to promote this particular URL he's not only screwed out of his vanity url, he also has spent time and effort promoting it.

After a t.o.s. violation that kills an account that account should simply be declared 'dead', at least for a significant amount of time.

Re-sale or re-use should be expressly forbidden.

And t.o.s. violations should always be accompanied by the specific rule in the t.o.s. that has been breached.
One feels like allowing people to die (offering a dangerous product), and the other feels like forcing people to die (coercing officials to require use of a dangerous product).
A lot of the stuff described in this document requires a Gizmo5 account, which are difficult to come by. Registrations are closed and there's no invite system, so someone has to actually give you the credentials to an account they already have to transfer it to you.

I have SIP set up on my Nexus One, replacing the default GSM phone functions with SIP stuff over the data band. Here's what I use:

1. The Android SIP client, sipdroid. http://sipdroid.org/

2. An account with sipgate: http://www.sipgate.com/ Free signup gets you a real phone number, same calling rates as Google Voice, decent web interface. It has some features that are more powerful than Google Voice, but no transcription.

3. An account with pbxes: http://pbxes.org/ (Warning, their landing page has Flash with very irritating sound, yuck) pbxes acts as a programmable in-between for SIP communications, like SIP Sorcery as described in the article posted here.

You connect sipdroid to pbxes, which connects to sipgate:

Your phone (sipdroid) <---> pbxes.org <---> sipgate

pbxes acts as a much more powerful wrapper around sipgate. Sipgate will connect your SIP calls in and out of landlines, and pbxes gives you more powerful control over the SIP-only stuff. Even if you don't want to use the power features of pbxes, I still recommend connecting sipdroid to it instead of directly to sipgate or another provider, as pbxes has implemented a little trick that can save you a ton of battery life on your Android phone when connecting to it with sipdroid. You can read about it here: http://code.google.com/p/sipdroid/wiki/NewStandbyTechnique

The hardest part of setting this up will be filling in the information for your sipgate account correctly through pbxes' web interface. It's a little clunky and unintuitive. There's a guide here: http://seethisnowreadthis.com/2009/07/11/get-sipdroid-to-wor...

End result of all of this: Google Voice-priced calls, higher quality audio than GSM phones, same latency, same drop call rate, still have E911 service through normal GSM bands if you need it, programmable caller id, scriptable phone routing, near-perfect phone integration on Android. Ditch your voice plan.
> I didn't know about the yeeloong, though. Interesting device.

It seems to be very slow, has a small RAM and just a couple gigabytes of storage. I would love the idea of a Windows-proof computer I could use, but this is still not it.

The larger one looks promising.
Dvorak does have some cons, but I'm not sure yours are really the most relevant.
1) Most OSs allow you to switch layouts with a hotkey like left and right Alt, right Alt+Ctrl, etc. (ubuntu and osx at least)
2) Typing on internet cafes, is not really the norm, and is something most people just a small amount of time in long periods to be really relevant. Its like having to go to an internet cafe in france (where some keys are misplaced), assuming you totally forgot qwerty.
3) On my mac, all shortcuts are where they should be, following dvorak layout and not qwerty. so close window (Cmd-W) is cmd-w in dvorak (which is relative to pressing cmd-.)
We already have a good system for establishing identity on the internet. They're called domain names, and they have reasonable ownership semantics and established case law.

I have no idea why anyone thinks it's a good idea to use a URL on someone's platform with ToS allowing arbitrary revocation and reassignment.
The reason for "No Derivatives" is that RMS doesn't want his words to be changed. Some text files inside Emacs are (c) RMS, but with a permission to copy and distribute the entire article verbatim.
From FB's ToS regarding usernames:

If you select a username for your account we reserve the right to remove or reclaim it if we believe appropriate (such as when a trademark owner complains about a username that does not closely relate to a user's actual name).

As an aside, where is evidence that shows (or even suggests) that Facebook actually sold the URL for $$?
RMS had actually switched to an OLPC XO laptop but then dropped it:

http://www.bostonreview.net/BR33.6/stallman.php

Does anyone know of a US distributor for the Yeeloong netbook?
I can't help but feel that perhaps Mr McCormick should be out there himself searching for bombs with his device.
I don't understand the god like status given to this guy. He's clearly crazy and from a whole other world than the one real people live in.

Who really cares if their BIOS is open source or not? Why does it matter? Are the designs used to make his laptop case open source as well? I doubt it.
AppBox doesn't even mention which of their "copyrights" has been infringed, and when looking at the side by side comparison screenshot, and reading their complaint - I get the feeling they are acting like kids.
The simlarities are not that relevant. There is a finite number of ways you can create a usable, say, calculator. Or battery mete. Or calendar. Specially when Apple takes such a strong position on interface conventions.

It's like Ford asking the government to prohibit Toyota from building cars because their steering wheel is round too.
The negative tone in this thread is incredibly out of character of Hacker News. What happened to civility?

If you have a problem with the way they handled these delays, I can understand. Getting delayed -sucks- and getting a crappy response sucks worse. It reminds me of dealing with airlines - they already have my money and can't manage to give me a straight answer.

But please consider giving these guys a break. Hardware is hard! It's a delicate balance between software and electrical engineers. You can't avoid outsourcing production - a process that's hard to manage for cost and quality standards. You don't just hack a site over a weekend and go from there. It takes tons of planning and lots of risks. It is not easy.

If you don't like it, at least give them the benefit of common curtesy. Email them sternly and politely and request your money back. Problem solved.
How is a plain text file more flexible than a PDF? It's trivial programatically to extract plain text from a PDF so it's as least as good as .txt?
The Management f-Laws
Ask HN: Is email address the wrong choice for usernames?
I've recently decided that I just don't care about e-mail anymore. If somebody really needs to talk to me, they can call me, SMS me, or instant message me. There's nobody in my personal or professional life who does not have access to these three forms of communication.<p>That being said, I'm starting to doubt the usefulness of E-mail itself. I've decided to run an experiment, and am deleting the MX records/disabling inbound mail processing for my primary email domain for a week or two. The only caveat here is that I've found some sites will lock an account, or at least nag you to death if they are unable to email you.<p>I used to be in the camp of "everybody has an email address, it's the perfect UUID". Now I'm not so sure. I'd like to live without email, because some combination of spammers and relatives have long-since made email a miserable experience.<p>What do you think? Email as a username, or not?
I am not American, so I need to ask - why would Apple be worried about litigation?
I don't see how a widget shop can be sued for selling a product when there is a dispute between two widget manufacturers.
And what you call principles, I call dogmata.
Read the article: it's his name. He's not squatting on their trademark!
I have seen ISO standards (even pre-OOXML ones) that were more obscure than any code I ever saw.
It looks to be pretty circumstantial, but the fact that Harman International contacted 'Harman' to try to persuade him to turn it over 'voluntarily' in return for some beads and mirrors, and that within a very short time after that his vanity url is taken back leaves open only two possibilities:

- facebook has indeed sold the name

- facebook gives trademark law preference over personal names
(they may have been threatened to be sued, but then they should
have simply stood up for their users).

Facebook uses 'impersonation' in their terms of service there is no reasonable case that could be made the 'Harman' is trying to impersonate 'Harman International', it is simply his name.

Facebook is first and foremost a site for PEOPLE, not companies so the rights of users should always go before the rights of incorporated entities.
Where did I say he was?

I just quoted the ToS and tangentially remarked that, despite the articles title, I couldn't find any evidence that Harman International actually paid Facebook.

I edited to avoid ambiguity.
I am still amazed that it happens even with higher-profile users and Paypal's CEO or CPRO just let it happen...
And the the related: you can't con an honest man.

Of course you can. Here's three types of cons that would work on honest men:

1) Romance scams: The con artist develops a relationship with the target (mark). The con artist then develops a range of fraudulent reasons that they need money from the mark, from needing the money to travel to the mark's country to see them to needing the money for cancer treatment.

2) Various fake medical cures. There's a huge industry of these preying on cancer victims, for instance.

3) The melon drop: a scammer will pretend to bump into the mark and drop a package that's already broken, then demand compensation.

There are many, many more. Merely being "honest" is no protection.
http://www.virtualteacher.com.au/crazyone.html

Seriously though, rms, is one of the principal founders of the free software philosophy, and creator of the GPL, upon which some significant software has been licensed. He's consistent in his vision, which is freedom, and can reliably be looked to for guidance on topics regarding those freedoms.

Can you identify even three people who have had as significant impact on free (as in speech) software?

[edit - I don't mean people like linus, who create great software, but people who develop/evangelize free software philosophies - Theo De Raadt comes to mind - there aren't too many others that I can think of right away]
Ironic that the only laptop running free software from top to bottom is made in China.

Pretty cool little computers they make too. Check out this: http://www.lemote.com/bencandy.php?fid=134&id=675

RMB¥1699, that's about AUD$295 or USD $265.

Or if you prefer the iMac form factor: http://www.lemote.com/bencandy.php?fid=136&id=849

WTF is with the name of that PHP script though.
Surely. But this is still great news for entrepreneurs--start your company, get bought for $10M or so, work at Google for 6-12 months gaining contacts and big-infrastructure experience and then leave to do the next thing.
I'm really hoping that my own experience isn't going to be this bad. I'm owed close to $20k from a client who's so far failed to pay, and I'm working on taking them to arbitration (as per the contract) while looking for other work. Luckily, I brought it up to my startup's lawyer and he offered to take it on, so at least that part will be simple. I'm really hoping that arbitration will be as quick as I've been told it is, but as OP found out, nothing is ever that easy.

I feel for anyone in a similar position; it always sucks to be out a decent chunk of money, waiting for some third party to decide you really do deserve it. I don't know about anyone else, but I'm getting my money in escrow from now on...
What the Enterprise wants from Django
Level is a direct copy of example code from Apple (similar graphics too)

Battery stats is very similar to earlier battery apps

Ruler is the only thing that AppBox has introduced that AppVault has copied (that I can tell; perhaps there's prior art here too)
Free software existed before the GPL. Pretty sure linux would still have happened without it.

People are moving to a web based architecture all the time. The amount of software people actually download and install is reducing, so to some extent the whole idea of OSS for most people (I believe) is becoming less important.

Meanwhile Richard Stallman doesn't even use the web.

I just don't see it as that relevant anymore.
Ouch, I don't know the english word for it, but you're making a severe error by assuming that pro's and cons are as likely to report here. If you really want to know whether it's coincidental or not you'd have to phone people chosen at random from the total population (just humans, just americans or just american programmers for example)
You know why I'm harsh now? Because this is just a small community. They are dealing with a mass-market product - if they discover the things that piss off customers now, they will know better how to do things in the future.

Yes, hardware is hard, but if you coddle a business then it will grow in expectancy that things will just fall in their lap. They made a serious mistake - it annoys me, and I'm telling them. If they think that I am wrong for saying my opinion, then they will repeat the mistake and they will piss off more customers that way.

I was really really a big fan of their approach when they launched. But they fucked it up. They did something wrong, and because they belong to this community, we could pat them on the back and say - oh you'll do better next time - but the customers do not belong to this community. The customers don't give a shit who YC or PG are, all they know is this same feeling I am feeling now. And they will convey the same impression to their friends, other potential customers.

WakeMate is not launching a new concept. They are entering a market with established competitors. They need some tough love, because they just played bad with their greatest asset.

Their greatest asset is the fact that they have a direct line to the early adopter community, through this site and through the YC program. This social network is what they can use to leapfrog over competition. Apart from that, they have little compared to FitBit and others.

If they mess with their core advantage, people have to let them know. There HAS to be a negative tone so that they know they fucked up. If we are all nice and dandy, then they will merrily go on whistling down the road till they discover that the cliff started a few steps back.

They fucked up. I am angry. I am communicating this to them, so that they know how what they did makes their customers feel.

If you feel it is not neccessary to communicate this to them, then it is you doing them a disservice.
Can this Easter Egg get him/her fired?
Why is that a nice trait to have?

The world isn't perfect. It's certainly not black or white either. You have to compromise.
Why are you apologizing for them feeling that way? It seems to me like everyone is reacting in the same way. Perhaps you should apologize for your own behavior.

I don't think the delay is near as bad as the way you guys are handling it. I'm a bit taken aback and I haven't even invested in your product. If it were my company, everyone would be refunded their $5 since they pre-ordered to receive their product on time. I would certainly not offer (what appears as) contrived premium features.
OCaml, Batteries Included 1.0.0 released
Currency for iPhone: So Simple, Yet So Powerful
Putting aside the fact that my day job is writing about and working with the foreign exchange (Forex) market , knowing the value of the world’s currencies is always useful information. As I was thinking about what app I was going to review today, I had a realization. It occurred to me that with the tremendous number of apps on the various platforms, it is extremely difficult to hear about any app that is not in the top 100 list, does not get publicity on the social channels, or is not sent to me directly from the developer.
A huge project for turning OCaml into a truly usable development platform. I can't wait to test version 1.0.0 .
Because they use that platform ?

Of course they don't 'have to' as in nobody is holding a gun to their head but if the terms of service have been lived by (and I don't see anything that this guy has done to cross the rules, except that his parents named him 'Harman') then he should have a reasonable expectation of being able to use it.

If he had named his vanity domain 'harman international' and his real name was 'John Smith' I could see the point but in this case in my opinion they are simply plain wrong.
Agreed. I remember listening to Letter From Home as a kid and just loving every note that came out of my speakers.
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I think it is kind of rediculous. Who's going to jail, if a corporation as a "person" robs, steals, beats or even kills? A Personhood is not only constituted by its acts, but also by it's intentions, the way it's intentions are created and least but not last: The way it suffers / can be punished.
I'm going with the latter. They offer a guy some free swag, so they must have come up with enough dough to pay-off FB to do the deed for them?

I'm not saying it's impossible, but based on just that I don't see how TC can run such a headline... FB's actions being deplorable or not.
If you are in India, read Mint - highly recommended. Great business stories.
where is evidence that shows (or even suggests) that Facebook actually sold the URL for $$?

Any hard evidence will be on private email servers and we may never see it. But the fact of the confiscation and reallocation is obvious; it is its own evidence.

Whether or not money actually changed hands or whether it was part of some quid pro quo arrangement or whatever is kind of besides the point. Obviously FB is getting something out of the deal, or it wouldn't have done it. Either way the user is getting screwed.
I offer the proposition that all models are inaccurate, some models are useful, and the usefulness of a model is in the balance between the accuracy and the ease of use.

Compared with floating point numbers in computing, and finite difference types of calculus, the model offered by the reals is much, much simpler to work with, and then modelling them with floating point nubmers is comparatively simple.

Doing the work directly with floats is hard, and detailed analysis and theorems are virtually impossible.

For a sound theoretical basis to many applications, it's easier to work with reals and then approximate with floats than it is to work with floats directly.

I further offer the observation made in another item that working directly with computer calculations is making science unreproducable

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1069808

Suggesting that we simply do the calculations and then work with the results has its drawbacks.

Finally, I'm doing some huge simulations at the moment, and every now and again they blow up. The results are supremely plausible, but if I didn't have an underlying theory, rigorously developed in the world of pure math, I wouldn't know that.
"Selection bias" is the term you're looking for. ;-)

And yes, I know I'm making it, and choosing to make it anyway. Mostly because it squares with my own experience (there's a term for that too: "anecdotal evidence"), and because we don't have any evidence the other way.
Huh, I didn't realize that PDF hasn't been propriety format since 2008. That's awesome.

Reading plain text files is simpler to do across platforms. If an app on a mobile device just pays attention to the text then that's fine for functionality, I guess. But then I have a problem with the extra formatting being there, unused. Kind of like having a problem with unused CSS in a style sheet just sitting there.
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> but based on just that I don't see how TC can run such a headline...

You mean techcrunch would use a headline that is not 100% the truth simply to get more viewers?

'Honour' and 'Techcrunch' have not been used in the same sentence other than this one since they posted twitters internal documents, 'because otherwise someone else would have'.

Using a misleading title is small fry on that scale.
Acknowledge the rage
- facebook gives trademark law preference over personal names (they may have been threatened to be sued, but then they should have simply stood up for their users).

Sued? For what? Under the Fair Facebook Vanity Names Act? There is no conceivable case Harman would have against FB for URLs on their own site!

FB might have a policy which would give companies priority. I think Twitter has been doing something similar when it reassigns celebrity names; in such cases the personal name of the original user is irrelevant as the decision is based upon what most people would expect from that name/what the company wants. Obviously, both Twitter and FB want to encourage companies and celebrities to endorse their service and offering them the names they want is a great way to get that endorsement.