skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
If it's so trivially easy why don't you have 20 people do it under your direction, and to your benefit? If it's so easy why don't you just do it 10 times simultaneously?
Plus the domain name is completely different: all static content is served from subdomains of .fbcdn.net (and frequently of .ak.fbcdn.net).
Orange County Choppers' Hybrid Motorcycle
note: this is culture-specific phenomenon

http://journal.psych.ac.cn/jinzhan/qikan/Cpaper/zhaiyao.asp?...
I Prefer My Professor’s Illegible Handwriting To Your PowerPoint Presentation

With the right font in your PowerPoint, you can have the best of both worlds.
The same goes for Glenn Beck -- he's the favorite commentator in the group because he's Mormon too.
I understand what you mean by a "full linux" machine - but Linus, of all people, would see GNU/Linux as being what it really is: the kernel, and nothing more. The community has wrapped lots of things around it, but really, they aren't linux. I think it is good that him and people like him still realise that. Android makes a linux phone. Period.
The most egregious fault of the fourth point is that it is not actually currying in anything but the colloquial sense. It is correctly called partial application.

In comparison if you were to curry the function

function foo(a, b, c) { return [a, b, c]; }

you would get something approximating

function foo(a) {
return function (b) {
return function (c) {
return [a, b, c];
};
};
}

This new form is trivially partially applicable, eg:

foo(1); // returns a function accepting b

if you wished to call it with all the arguments you would need the rather ugly

foo(1)(2)(3); // returns [1, 2, 3]

The two are regularly confused. I'm not even sure you could automatically curry a function in JS because of the very flexible varargs support.

In contrast with this, partial application is often very useful, its easily written, and fairly common if not in the all the popular libraries.
Ruby blocks and closures
"Or a career change? Take up a job as a janitor for a few years until the job market recovers, then look for programming work again?"

Yes. Or as a waiter, or in retail, or anywhere that will pay you. Coding for half of minimum wage is about the last thing you should do.
Presumably we have different views of what was originally meant with “come in to work with you for a day”, seeing as this has now turned into “work for free for a day” ;)

Of course the intent was not to just get someone in to work for free, but more like when you take a first meeting with a new accountant or similar, you may ask him lots of questions related to your situation, and he will answer you based on his knowledge and experience. Most will not charge for the first meeting, presumably under the assumption that providing the client with useful information only increase the chance of having the client pay for future services.

Similarly if you come work with me for a day, and I am impressed with your abilities, you can be rather sure I will hire you. If I am not impressed by your abilities, I am almost certain that you will have learned something from the experience (either about your own skills or the tech. we work with), so for the client I would say this is win/win.
Singapore:A Totally Do-It-Yourself Library without a Customer Service Desk
or you can just pay for it... http://www.techcrunch.com/2010/02/04/an-apology-to-our-reade...
China jails man 13 years for running porn Web site
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/
Under the assumption that “it is trivially simple to make mid six figures” then to reach 7/8 figures just:

1. Start new enterprise
2. Increase profit to mid 6 figures
3. Sell enterprise for 7 figures
(only a couple of years profits)
4. GoTo 1

Do that enough times, and you should be loaded — as they say, once you are lucky, twice you are good :)
nginx has a feature that's perfect for this kind of thing: x-accel-redirect (also available in other web servers):

http://kovyrin.net/2006/11/01/nginx-x-accel-redirect-php-rai...

The nginx team added another feature that's even more efficient for this recently (doesn't require a dynamic piece of code execution for each hit) - a module that creates "secure links" for protecting static resources:

http://wiki.nginx.org/NginxHttpSecureLinkModule

(I think this feature would be a lot more useful if you could create links that expire after a certain amount of time).

Amazon S3 has a similar feature, which they call "query string authentication": http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AmazonS3/latest/dev/index.... - again, you can generate a link to a static resource which is signed with your secret key and will only work for a specific amount of time. Last I saw, that's how Basecamp deals with download links for private files.
The Foursquare of sex
Cute implementation of a "silent" ballot, but loud hummers get a disproportionate vote.
Wouldn't this only hold true in perfectly efficient markets? It also seems to assume that every market participant is under the same influences. I don't care how well my holdings are doing at the end of an accounting year but a fund manager likely will.
I am holding a candle-light vigil for CrunchPad, yo.
Scrubbed for tonight, so...no.
Unfortunately, I think the peer review idea, which is great, is starting to break down. The latest news item that makes me sketical is the Lancet/autism piece, and then this article.

When did the common culture in the science start that "authorities" on a subject could release studies and criticism was not allowed?

I'll fully admit that I'm not qualified to judge the merits of most of these things, but in the past, scientists were excited to explain their findings to skeptics...now, they seem to want to change the subject away from findiings. Maybe I'm just old fashioned.
Mr. Wizard always looks less impressive from behind the curtain.

Hey hey now, Mr. Wizard never hid himself or any of his demonstrations behind a curtain, he always explained what was being shown, no matter how awesome it was. He also talked his helpers through forming hypothesizes and testing them. Everything was always reproduceable, and doing it at home was often encouraged (with adult supervision, of course). Let's not sully the Mr. Wizard name by implicating him with this climate data stuff -- we'd be better off if there were still shows on like his.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Wizard

(and yes, I know you're making a reference to The Wizard of Oz; should've said "The Wizard" instead of "Mr. Wizard" :) ).
No one has mentioned this, but if you buy into the argument that the housing market is in for another downturn, there is plenty of opportunity to cash in. Not sure what the CDS market is like these days, but I know that congress hasn't got around to regulating it yet and a small number of investors made out really well by taking large positions last time around.

Some additional data on current housing trends here: http://www.nnnrent.com/2010/02/housing-crash-profits/ ...charts galore too.
That's minimally informative.
I've said it before, but I'd advise people change the email addresses they've attached to facebook. And definitely don't use the email address you give out to employers.
The culprit is found easily: The headline of the submission. It is just not good to post something like that. Reverse flamebait or however you might call it.
I pretty much agree with you - though, I have to admit, things like GoogleMaps, GoogleDocs, are pushing that cut-point further each day.

I know a _lot_ of people who use the GoogleDocs Spreadsheet tools as their only spreadsheet, and gmail is a pretty powerful email client. I'm going to suggest that the cut point is at about 50% of the applications out there today, if we can include code that can be run offline by your browser as well. HTML5 is going to radically move that cutpoint.

Many of the new applications that we use in our company, Jira, Remedy, Confluence, Bamboo, are being built as web applications.

Microsoft Excel on Windows is still about 10x better than any spreadsheet Application out there for people who really need power, but, for 95% of the population - a lot of the web apps will serve them just fine.

Now - where I think we can all agree, is that the _backend_ of all of these webapps, are well and truly going to be thick server apps for the forseeable future.
ASP.NET MVC Performance II: Optimizing resources
NBC complete removes Conan Obrien
Thank you for that link, but it goes to prove the point.

The article mentions that in debugging time, the difference is 25:1. In terms of hours, that is a bug getting identified in one hour versus 3 working days. The difference is staggering. Consider the difference in coding time from the article, 5:1. The higher end of the curve completes in one quarter what it takes an average programmer over a year. In terms of development lifecycle, a project will be cut due to reorganized priorities before a group of average programmers even begin to think about a beta while a group of the strongest will have been working on version 4.

Looking for a 1000:1, 100:1, etc is a meaningless standard. If you meet a man twice your size, wouldn't that difference seem staggering? But it is only 2:1.
Far from gorgeous in FF 3.6 Win. A few quick ones:

1. Use (or make better use of) a grid layout.

2. Vary the type less. I count 3 fonts (excluding Firebug logo type) in too many sizes.

3. The 6 feature/functions (inspect, log, etc.) aren't doing much for me, and the bullets could be condensed. Firebug is awesome -- no need for fluff like Get the information you need to get it done with Firebug.
That depends on if it's a bitmap font or not. If it is bitmap, then it's already subpixel rendered, and you would need two different bitmaps depending on orientation. If it's truetype or similar, you would need a font renderer that was capable of subpixel rendering, and it would then have to render it differently depending on orientation.

However, subpixel rendering works because you effectively triple the horizontal resolution. If you flip your screen, you now have normal horizontal resolution, but triple the vertical resolution, which is less useful for rendering fonts, and it would of course also not look the same as the horizontally subpixel-rendered font.

So for devices like that, it's probably best to simply not do it and get a dense enough display that you won't need it.

Also, does anyone know if subpixel rendering works on OLED screens?
Reading the description it sounds virtually identical to what I know about CouchDB:

- Distributed document database
- Masterless replication
- HTTP interface
- Map-reduce-based query system
- Written in Erlang

Given that, and its relative obscurity compared to CouchDB, it seems odd that they only place where they bothered to compare the two was on the specifics of their map-reduced based query system.
Wow, good spot.
There is a veritable flood of tutorials nowadays that you can download or buy on DVD that can teach you how to draw or paint, even sculpt. And the materials needed for drawing are pretty minimal. Time + practice. :)
Now that we've established that the number of commits only gives us limited information about the contribution of various people/groups, can anyone familiar with the webkit codebase give us a "state of the union" about who's actually improving Webkit most these days?

What have been some of Google's biggest contributions in the past 6 months? Apple's? RIM's?
Http://www.indirbir.com/param_parca_1.0_18249.html
I've been using Finch (http://developer.pidgin.im/wiki/Using%20Finch) - libpurple client instead of Freetalk that the author mentions. Finch has really good keyboard shortcuts.
One of the commenters gave a fairly long character reference, to which I responded, "I am curious DW why you think anyone could or should care about a character reference from an anonymous pair of initials?" Schneier supported internet anonymity in the article linked here http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1097889 , but there are times anonymity is a negative, and it is useful for your purposes to show your identity. The internet needs both anonymity and the ability to prove your identity when you choose.
Google to Air "Search Stories" Ad During Super Bowl
On one page:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/233131/output/print
Well, it's certainly a fool's errand to strive honor or recognition as ends in themselves. However, one may hope that being truly outstandingly useful in society may have the side-effect of social recognition.
allowing plugins to take down the whole plugin environment is clearly a faulty software design. Sure adobe is lazy/incompetent, but the mozilla/safari teams are no better for not isolating plugins better. Back to school id say learn something about reliable software engineering and sandboxing.
The way Adobe handled this issue just goes to show how terrible their QA and bug triage processes are.

Personally, I've been withholding from using Flash blocking plug-ins because I always thought that it would take away from my experience of most modern web-sites - that is despite Flash being a big pile of crap in terms of full-screen HD video performance on a gaming-grade laptop that plays Far Cry on maxed out settings.

I believe my cup of anger just overflowed - I will be installing Flashblock today.

And until Adobe learns how to truly test performance of their software on a variety of machines (oh, don't get me started on GPU acceleration problems in Photoshop CS4 when it first came out and perf issues with Flash HD video playback on specific GPUs) as well as how to properly respond to security issues, Flashblock will be kept enabled.
[1] Because my undergraduate degree was in physics. I presume that if I'd studied undergrad EE someone would have mentioned along the way that my B.S. wouldn't actually qualify me to design a commercially-available table lamp without adult supervision.

Some schools are probably better, but I left my university after learning from graduated students that the dream course I was looking forward to, where all of the requirements would make sense and I would finally be told what I can do with my newfound knowledge, didn't exist. One friend of mine said that his BSEE degree entirely drained his confidence to accomplish anything in the real world. One could argue that a university degree should be purely academic, but this school's program wasn't too helpful there, either.

To sum up, the only ways I know of to realize that you are or aren't qualified to do something are to try it until you get rich or get sued, or work with someone else who already has.
Pretty easy, really. A tweet from a confirmed account or blogpost, <!--comment--> or footer in a known page, e-mailing the blog owner so he can update the post, etc.
It is, but Apple is using patents to prevent others from using these gestures. I'm actually surprised they activated this on the Android.
It is great, as Lisp is very good for prototyping and solve simple problems fast with a 5 minutes snippet (e.g. calculator for statistics). Anyway, the thing more I miss to run in my N900 is the GNU C/C++ compiler (it is possible in the SDK, but because of library dependencies it is not yet possible in the actual device -someone has to do the work-). As alternative, I didn't tried yet to use the Fabrice Bellard's TCC ("Tiny C Compiler"; may be it works off-the-shelf, as it contains ARMv4 support -i.e. no Thumb2 opcodes, meaning larger binaries-, done by Daniel Glöckner), but may be I'll try it some day.
I don't see $150 breaking the bank, not if the app being advertised has sold marginally well in the past. And its a fun, different way for people to remember about your app after you've spoken to them about it (say, after a conference). If they seem interested, give them a card. And if the person in question isn't interested, just don't give them a card.

Not that the situation I outlined above is how the cards are being used. Instead, an application about running is being advertised at a running event. Presumably, you have some sort of interest in running, if you're watching a leg of a marathon take place. So, its not too hard to presume that this would be useful for more than 1 in 25 people watching the marathon.

This kind of reminds me of a sticker. Only, instead of just a picture of the app (or the app icon, in Colloquy's case when we handed out stickers), it also says a few words about what the app does for you.

percentage who download, percentage who purchase.

These two "funnels" are the same. The App Store doesn't currently have any sort of trial, and this app doesn't seem to have a free version of any sort.

or search on App Store by name -- can you even do that?

Yes, you can search for applications by name (or keyword, or developer) in the App Store.

Don't charge $2 if you're going to have marginal advertising expenditures, folks. It is not sustainable.

As a random datapoint, I've seen a few companies pay for a weekly spot on daringfireball, which is $2,500/week where the app only costs $2/app and the company didn't have any other applications available.
In related news:

The truth about user perception of Flash finally emerges:
http://i.imgur.com/xbA8W.png
JooJoo (ex-crunch-pad) IPad killer - pre order available
Java's checked exceptions were a mistake (2003)
Hah, perhaps... Yet, I don't think that corruption at TechCrunch is quite as important as corruption at the very top of the US government... as much as it might seem to matter more to us :-)

Then again, I guess an argument could be made both ways. Touché.
Give me commit access and I can overtake them both with a tight 'for' loop.
lighty and apache has x-sendfiles
What's the reason behind this? Please someone explain? I would be happy to see "I just fall in love" or "I've just said I'm in love" since it is romantic and positive, but why would I want to know sex positions on the valentine's day?
People like to screw. shrug
I agree excel is a better app than google docs. I find the argument that it's just fine for 95% of the population worrying. This doesn't say that the browser is a superior technology, but an inferior technology that 'will do'.

If we turn the tables and I was advocating non web apps because they're good enough for most users, well I'm sure what the reaction would be (I'm being downvoted for advocating a technology that is superior and easier to develop for at the moment - but it seems my water is kool aid free).

I'm not disagreeing that some web apps are useful, and indeed I use them regularly, I'd put the point at closer to 5%, and if I exclude google search we'd be down to 2%. I'm a business user and I'm happy to pay for applications that I use and provide value. But the idea that is being pushed to new developers is that all future apps should be web apps is damaging to the profession and is incorrect.

If we look at the proportion of html based web apps that generate value and exclude search it would be interesting to see what percentage value of application revenue would be generated - 1%? 10%? more, less?

I also note the applications you mention are business apps with a html client and server backend which I agree are suited to an html client. Although I prefer (as do many others) a more responsive native client front end. This uses html as a more advanced 3270 terminal really, which is fine but it's not cutting edge, no matter how it's presented.

So much more could be achieved by using native front ends and just forgetting about the web browser. Look at itunes as an example it's a web enabled app and uses native code.
Great idea, unintuitive interface... when you zoom in, the markers disappear until you hit the 'refresh markers' button.
Maybe they are planning on monetizing based on those stats. I'm sure certain companies would like to deliver targeted ads based on individuals' preferences.

Also, judging by the "Use of condoms by country" graph on the Love Stats page (http://ijustmadelove.com/map/statistics/), users in certain ahem countries could do with some condom ads or sex/health info delivered to their phones!
Buy Now, Pay Later (Maybe With Your Allowance)
Oh jeez, I read it as "Socialistan" as well. Odd.
Very innovative. Seems like a huge opportunity.

Excerpt from the article:

Minors as well as adults can buy items in the games with a “Kwedit Promise,” which can be paid off later in a number of ways — with a credit or debit card, for example, or with cash sent in a mailer that Kwedit supplies.

But here’s an entirely new payment option: A user can print out a barcode and head to a 7-Eleven store, which will accept cash, scan the code and notify Kwedit that payment has been made. In the next three months, a Kwedit logo will join those for credit cards and other payment methods on the doors of all 7-Elevens, a company spokesman says.

As game purveyors, Kwedit’s current partners sell virtual goods whose marginal cost is virtually zero, so there’s no risk of real financial loss if the promise is not repaid. But by offering Kwedit’s service, the game publishers capitalize on the most frictionless form of sales: buy now, pay later.
Official reasons why Adobe doesn't open-source Flash
Gifts.Freebiejeebies
Is it on-topic to remark, "pics or it didn't happen"?
Ask HN: Approaching day job's customers about startup?
I'm posting this from a fresh account, hope that's OK. I've been a HN member for 2+ years.

I'm in a situation that I hope some of you have been in as well. I have a day job but spend nights and weekends building out different ideas.

I've identified a need from my work at the day job, but it's not the company I work for that experiences the pain I'd want to solve, but some of the customers.

Now, my question is: what would you think about me approaching my day job's customers about being beta customers for my new app? Is it unethical, business-wise?

I wouldn't be competing with my day job, as this is a new offering that they don't have, but I would be using the fact that the customers know me from working with me at company X to sell them on idea Y, while still being employed by X.
ijustgotanstd.com is still available.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marching_cubes#Patent_issues
Can we get this crap off HN? Please? It's just sad that the current #1 story is one about people having sex. And not even anything intellectually interesting about sex. Just "there are people having sex". Um... Great?
Biggest Spanish ISP wants to charge Google, Yahoo and Bing
For what it's worth, I think Adobe has two paths in front of it:

1) Resolve the licensing issue and transfer ownership of the Flash player code to the community, and do that quickly. This, with plenty of cooperation with the community, could mean that Flash development is taken over by the community, and it may even be integrated into HTML5 in some way.

2) Rebuild their culture to be competitive. Reported, documented, reproducible crash bugs hanging around for years are inexcusable, for any reason. The main reason I see for this is their slow culture that allows long release cycle and a "we'll fix it in the next release" attitude.

I suspect the second one is far harder to fix, so my recommendation would be for the first one.
It's a web app someone made, I think linking to interesting web apps is almost always on topic as long as they are more complicated than a single serving web site.

---

looking forward to when pg lets us starting tagging things as meta
PHBs never learn, do they? ;-)
I tried processing.js (having used both processing and canvas+js) and I must say I would _not yet_ recommend it.

The tools just aren't there yet, I'd rather develop in plain js+canvas for now (for which you can get decent editors, debuggers, profilers, etc.)
So if I made a webapp "Cats On Keyboards", which displays pictures of wonderfully cute kitties blissfully sleeping on keyboards, then that would be HN material?

Don't think so.
Anime is as much addictive as cigarette