skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Filing a patent != having a patent. The Sony device is clearly prior art. I had one of those Sony's, BTW.

I can't believe anyone would compare this device favorably vs. an iPad. That's willful ignorance, I guess.
Actually, Craig's did innovate. By finding out what brings in the users, and then leaving it alone. IIABDFI.

Stable. Reliable. Functional. Google, MS, Apple can't even get that right.

Everybody who "knows how to fix it" should just go ahead and blow CL out of the water!
Sounds like http://www.instapaper.com/
Gold is a weird case, in that we don't actually have much practical use for gold. Some, sure (electrical contacts and such), but the vast majority of its value is circular: it's valuable because people perceive it to be a safe store of value, and therefore lots of it is held in vaults. A sudden discovery of a way to get large quantities of gold to earth could cause its value to totally collapse to near-nothing.
How odd, you'd think they could have figured it out before trying and failing, then.
I don't usually tell people this but the Indian geek on BBT is my cousin. And no disrespect to my cousin meant but I'm just not a fan of the show; mainly because I don't enjoy laugh track-aided sitcoms (exception being Seinfeld) and that I found the first season's humor very run of the mill.

But perhaps things have changed. I mean, Summer Glau guest starred so it can't be that bad. I think I'll start following the show and support my cuz now. He's actually incredibly talented. :)
Pricing always seems simple on the surface, until you try to work out the details. Then it gets endlessly complicated. What the author is suggesting sounds like a good idea, but I'm willing to bet it would work out to be a pretty bad business practice.

Gym memberships is the kind of thing people do on impulse. It's kind of like new year resolutions where people stick to them for a few weeks and then trail off. I wouldn't be surprised if the 80/20 rule applied to gyms - 20% of the people use 80% of the resources, and 80% of the members go no more than 20% of the time. If this assumption is true (and it most likely is), he'd leave 80% of the money on the table! Most likely, he'd use the system he described to lure in initial customers, and then would switch to the system everyone else uses in order to actually make a profit.

Also, I'm guessing that sign up rushes occur during specific times of year. People sign up before summer to get in shape, and after new years, to follow resolutions. That means that during quiet periods he'd have implement promotions to get customers to join, but if he were to keep the promotions during rush signups, he'd leave a lot of money on the table.

It's just the nature of the industry. Signups aren't uniformly distributed throughout the year, and consumption isn't uniformly distributed among customers. Price discrimination and contracts is just a consequence of this.
Definitely. I got an even better deal than Dan by joining Crunch over the summer (including no enrollment and month-to-month).

Part of the appeal is definitely the "exclusivity" via the pricing -- in LA, for example, the nearest (location-wise) choices are a 24 hr fitness ($199/yr) which gets terrible (1-2 star) reviews online, Equinox which is twice the price of Crunch, and quite a few private gyms. But in all fairness, the gym does offer justifiable perks for the price -- for instance a huge selection of classes which appeal as a middle ground to people who don't want to spend even more on yoga studios or personal training.
Why the hell does this arbitrary (and technically trivial) crap pass for an MIT Media Lab project? I thought they were supposed to have standards? (Sorry if I'm offensive, but... wtf?)
It's always been amazing to me that Apple has managed to convince a sizable number of otherwise intelligent people that a walled garden, tightly controlled by an overbearing schoolmarm, is preferable to the Internet and a totally free market.

The app store is a huge bug, not a feature. It's just plain bad for developers (because Apple owns yours customers and the pipeline to those customers, and can cut you off without warning if you happen to compete with them or do something they don't like), and bad for consumers (because the approval process slows updates, puts a filter in the relationship between developer and user, keeps useful applications out of users hands, and insures that Open Source applications have almost no room in the market). If consumers (and developers) were smarter, it would be a killer bug; one that prevented anyone from ever buying an iPhone or iPad or developing for it. But, people don't always act in their own best long-term interest, if the packaging is pretty enough.
Besides the actual use of gold being minimal - most of the gold dug up since Roman times is still around in one form or other.
FTA: "It must be emphasized that the results are valid for the phone code problem only; generalizing to different application domains would be haphazard"
None really. Problem is that some are close friends who I love having discussions with online and wanted Google Buzz to be that forum style of discussion with friends. Becomes difficult when I see everything else they do already a 2nd, 3rd or 4th time.
Girls would be even more underwhelmed by this if engineering was the language of love. These cups are the equivalent of "Roses are red\ violets are blue\ sugar is sweet\ and so are you."
At least 1, 3, 5, and 6 are more common in many fields than you might hope. It's quite hard to get work published that is "outside the mainstream consensus", and how exactly that "consensus" is defined is not always so narrow as to only exclude genuine cranks. It particularly often excludes anything challenging the work of important people in the field who edit its important journals. And there are a ton of shady things that go on around #5/#6. Reviewers don't always honestly review work that shows theirs in a negative light, sometimes steal results from papers they've rejected, etc. It's what happens when lots of money, positions, and reputations ride on these sorts of things, along with the cutthroat professorship/tenure competition. Climate change just magnifies all that by having a lot more money and general politics (as opposed to only academic politics) riding on the result.

Here's one of many recent non-climate-change examples: http://scienceblogs.com/ethicsandscience/2009/08/the_saga_of...
This has a Pixel Qi screen not a e-ink screen. (The OLPC screen has the same technology.)

It has the same reaction speed as a LCD. I'm not sure how good the colour mode is (probably TN level). The monochrome mode has 3 times the DPI (because of each RGB sub-pixel).

About e-ink readers: it's not the DPI. They generally have 160dpi which is lower than many mobile LCDs. For example the N770 I used to read on had a 225 dpi screen but I'm still faster on e-ink. I'm not sure what it is, it might just be the lack of backlight.
Heh, actually I had no problem with the workout, I want a trainer who pushes me. I had a problem with the fact that he 'forgot' about our appointment, that he was clearly hungover, and that he was complaining about that DUI he got the night before.
The BeagleBoard (http://beagleboard.org/) may count as desktop. It's a tiny board with a 600 MHz Omap3 with 256MB RAM and the ability to play HD-Video. Power consumption is less than 3 Watt.

I own one and it's fun to play with, although the display resolution is limited to 720p (maybe even 1280x1024) and a standard Linux desktop is pretty slow on it - Angstrom is better.
Normal people can't touch-type ... and you also can't write on your laptop while standing on your feet.

I really don't see why we are arguing here.
So when you have those $19.99 offer pages and small textual link in the footer to cancel or say no, you consider that stupidity and not malice
Totally agree with you.

These MIT students should be working on something more productive, more innovative, they should be solving the world's problems; not working on things that do little to benefit humanity.
The article is a little misleading. It uses an off-the-shelf Cortex-M3 processor core; the real innovation is in the clever power management system they use, and in integrating a microchip and a battery and a solar panel into a single tiny unit. They're looking at using it for wireless sensor networks, and adapting it to use other energy sources so they could use it in medical implants.
Record 13-Year Sentence for Hacker Max Vision
iPad killer Notion Ink Adam detailed Video From Slash Gear
"If true"?

OK, I've held off for a while, but...

If you know that your browser has a box into which you can enter an address, and use it regularly for that purpose, you're in tiny, tiny, tiny subset of all web users. Ditto for knowing what a "web browser" is (in the abstract sense, not in the sense of "the Internet button, that one that looks like a blue E".

If you know that there's such a thing as a "secure connection" to a web site (knowing the name "SSL" or not), again you're in a very small subset of users. If you also know which user-interface cues your browser presents to show you when you're using a secure connection, shrink that subset significantly further.

I could go on and on about this, but hopefully the point is clear: the way you use the web is not the way most people use the web. They're not "stupid" or "idiots" or "illiterate" because of this, they're just people who've never had to learn these things. And the disconnect between what various small subsets of the population do, and what everybody else does, is one of the most important things you can know about in this business; if you don't understand how the rest of the world surfs, you'll never be able to effectively reach them.

(and don't even get me started on how this informs successful business decisions made by companies which HN readers regularly vilify...)
Possibility One was that I was dreaming or hallucinating. Nobody’s figured out a test for that so, at the time I think that was my dominant feeling.

Actually, there is a pretty good test for this. Look at your digital watch, look away for a bit, and look again. If the digits are different between checks, you are dreaming. I'm told that this happens with enough regularity that it's a fairly reliable universal dream-test. (There are also others; google "lucid dreaming".)

The most effective test for me has been trying to jump out of my window. If it doesn't hurt (I live on the 16th floor...), then I must be dreaming. This is probably a bad strategy if you take hallucinogenic drugs, however :)
This site seems to assume that only coders are valid cofounders. I would have thought that the site would allow people of any area of expertise (business, designers, finance, marketing, tech) to seek people to cofound companies with. Why are coders the only valid cofounders?
What amazes me is the number of otherwise-apparently-intelligent people who appear to honestly believe that Apple users are just vapid trendoids who are fooled by all the pretty colors. Strangely, none of them seem to have figured out how to slap the same pretty colors onto their otherwise-superior products/platforms and carve out a chunk of the vapid trendoid market for themselves. How hard can it be?
Unless of course they don't/can't offer all the advantages aforementioned here.
Does it stop being porn when it's old?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dream_of_the_Fisherman%27s_...
Not necessarily, its just simple negotiations. Play your cards right and you will get the best possible rate. I assume most Front Desk agents wouldn't have the authority to change rates as much as I do, so don't pressure too much because they probably can't do a whole lot and then you will just be a pain in the ass that can't get a better rate.

If you are booking a room, the advice I would give is be as nice as possible, not only that, but be sincere. I assure you, I will be more than willing to help you out the best I can, as I am sure the same applies to other FDA's. Just remember that the majority of people who check in aren't happy to give up ~$100+/night, and therefore are not the greatest people to deal with. The easy people to deal with are a welcomed break.
They already have an API and which is good. Because in products like this (without millions of admirer) open sourcing the application won't help.

They can open source the application but not add any new developers outside of the company (which wouldn't mean anything, other than good faith).

They can open source it and bunch of people might send stuff in an un-organized way, it never ends good. There are thousands of open source projects some serious usability issues because no one cares and it's hard organise people in open source projects and consistency is the key for usability. So open sourcing projects in this scale, %95 of the time won't be better than what it's.

I can't even recall one successful product that area.

Although publishing more document, samples etc. about API definitely helps.
This basically seems to be a job board.

If I was building a system like this I would allow people to post an ad about the company they are starting, their location, the people currently involved, something about the vision of the company (without giving away too much), the expectations of how much work is involved, are the other people full time, equity on offer, the skills, experience and qualifications of the other co-counders, does location matter, do you need to be in the same city etc etc etc.

Instead this odd site assumes that searching for cofounders is about placing job ads. A bit strange.
More links
http://www.slashgear.com/notion-ink-adam-hands-on-0969281/

http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/08/notion-ink-adam-stripped-...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zy9fPc1yGSU
The Romantic WTF Public license.
Hey, if you don't have NoScript and FlashBlock turned on, you're already explicitly giving any and every Web site permission to do whatever they want with your spare (and not-so-spare) computing resources.
I just googled the probable original Japanese titles of the first four listed seized items. I found they are all available on Amazon.co.jp (3 available as used from third-party vendors, 1 as new directly from Amazon). From the covers it's clear these are the items in question.

It's not like you need to go underground to buy them; Amazon is selling them, though obviously Japanese standards of what counts as obscene are different than those of the U.S.
I think it's astonishing how nearly everyone posting here seems to have some complaining to do about Evernote for some reason or another. Please try to put yourself in Evernote's shoes - provide a Linux version? For which userbase? Will they get 50-100k+ Linux users with at least 1k+ premium users to make it worth their time (compared to other platforms)?
Also, there are lots of unspecific complaints. It's great everyone can vent his anger and opinions, snark just doesn't really help. Does it help to just say "it sucks on platform x"?
Unrelated, because the girl in that painting is not obviously under 18. No, I don't think the legal system makes sense here.
http://programmermeetdesigner.com/ ... not sure how good it is, but it's there :).
What exactly is the danger of people having my email address(substitute me with you if it helps)?
Not unrelated, Wired implies that part of the problem with the manga was that they depicted bestiality. Although it seems that he wasn't convicted for the bestiality part?

I don't totally understand the law - maybe the bestiality helped further classify it as 'obscene'?
W/o limitations is cool if you are a hacker.

For everyone else it's just annoying. Making boundaries is exactly what makes your product a mass market consumer product.

95% of users of technology need limitations so they can't fuck things up.
I think it is the wrong question. The interesting question would be, what is the nature of god? If it is just some entity that create a universe (like maybe we could simulate a universe in a computer), then you have to ask where does god come from? You have not answered the question at all, you have only pushed it up one meta-level.

Imagine we were beings in an artifical life simulation, created by droodlewhoops. Maybe one day we would figure out that that's the case. Then we still don't know what droodlewhoops are, hence we don't know anything.

You are right that atheism is also a kind of belief, that is way these day it is more common for rational people to be agnostic.
This showcases several major problems with our legal system. The first is obvious; cartoons are not children, nor can they be abused. So there is no point in going after people who possess said representations. Not really my thing, but definitely not a federal crime. (How long until any document the Ruling Party doesn't like becomes "obscene"?)

The second problem is more subtle; and something I see as a major threat to the rights afforded to the accused -- ridiculous trumped-up charges, and minimal pleas in exchange for not going to trial. 15 years in prison for owning certain books? Who would risk a fair trial if that's a possible outcome? Much better than submit to the will of the system and take your six months.

Fifteen years should not even be an option on the state's table. 1 year max. Fifteen years is what murderers and rapists get, if they have a really bad lawyer. Is owning books worse than taking someone's life?

Not going to trial means that the legal system never has a chance to strike down these blatantly unconstitutional laws, leaving anyone who owns books open to potential criminal charges. Are you sure the government likes every book on your shelf? With this kind of precedent, you should probably quit reading and just watch CSPAN -- It's What's Best.

Edit: I just realized that many actual child rapists face fewer than fifteen years in prison. So rather than reading a book showing someone who might be underage, it's better for you to just rape children instead. A fine message our lawmakers are sending us.

A few more cases like this, and I'm quitting programming and going to law school. This stuff needs to stop.
Seriously. Why do people publish to PDF anyway?
I assume that's something that just sounds good in a press release, not something that was actually a factor. But who knows. This guy never got his trial, so we'll never really know.
Still, why do people buy automated can openers, or electric pepper mills? Unless they are disabled, it just seems to be such a waste.

His experience was that the can openers never worked, but his parents kept trying and buying new models. Maybe by now they work. Still I don't see why anyone would want to have one. Call me a treehugger, but why waste energy and produce toxic waste for something you could easily do manually.
>> "Right now, my first six tabs are Gmail, FriendFeed, Facebook, Twitter, Voice and Wave"

Jeez. Do you manage to get any work done?
Close account and delete all services
Is this being put forward as a suggestion to:

a) Get access to paid content.

b) Highlight the fact that search engines are allowed to see free content.

If its "a)", I disagree with your suggestion.

If its "b)". I agree, I find it highly annoying when you click on a link to discover the part you want to read is hidden from you behind a pay wall. Search engines should show what we see the non paying public, furthermore I believe google doesnt like the addition of words to raise the rank of the page, sites which do this should be penalised for this behaviour. Which is what happens when you give google access to "fuller" data.
This is badly, badly, mistaken.

(a) You don't get buzz just by getting something out there. Usually, nobody cares when you launch, no matter how cool your idea is. What you were seeing was either effective PR or dumb luck, neither of which can be duplicated trivially.

(b) One friggin week advantage is nothing. Usually the first player in a space takes it in the shins. It's so exceedingly rare for a first mover to win that calling it an advantage seems to ignore market realities.
Explicitly pointing out sarcasm makes it so much more fun.
I've seen good discussions in comment threads on various political-themed blogs for my local area. One that springs to mind is the Seattle Transit Blog. They have a good (bad?) number of trolls. However, they don't tend to overwhelm the discussions about the history of regional transit policy and how it relates to municipality X's service imbalance.
Easy wins.

As much as I love downloading and building everything from source... actually, no, I hate that. Apple built that first easy app install experience, and that's the reason people love it, not because of some ideological preference.
I find myself inherently suspicious of US legal attempts to crack down on porn because 'cracking down on obscene content' is the justification that the CCP uses in China to censor many things that are clearly not porn.
They still have to deliver your mail, unencrypted (besides TLS) through POP3. Which means that at some point, your mail is unencrypted in their machines. But they would have to be outright malicious to intercept your messages at that point, so I think we can trust them on this.

Anyway, there is more than just your e-mail: there is your connection logs, the quantity of messages you receive (and from whom), retrieve (and when) and sent (and to whom).

Plus, the relevant authorities could compel them to surrender your logs. You may prefer that they (have to) ask you directly. (EDIT: Vivtek says this happens very rarely, if you care do ditch the logs, so this may be a small issue.)

I don't think we can get closer to truly anonymous web based mail. That may be sufficient for most people, though.
I take it the negative opinions are majority here. I'm still very excited about this. It's a completely new (and practical) way to bring technology into one's environment. Assuming it it's well enough made, it's something that people can forget it's even technology and simply use it. Like magic. It's not a computer or a gadget. It's just a cup that happens to glow when the other cup is used.
Kind of a low rent copy of the guy who linked the chair in his apt with the chair at his place at the table at his parents house so when he sat at his table, his place at his parents table would glow softly.

Anyone remember that? I googled and couldn't find it again. Seems a lot more classy as well as being the obvious inspiration of this.
I suppose you need to get a Lover's Cup data plan, for which you receive a Lover's Cup bill every month, listing the time and duration of each drink, to the second. Most Lover's Cups are carrier locked and come with a lengthy contract, but you can shell out for a jailbroken Lover's Cup on eBay, or jailbreak it yourself by hacking a firmware update.

How romantic.
Unlimited Free License Giveaway For Partition Table Doctor
What's the deal with the yellow circle?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison_abolition_movement
I'm in favor of this, but I think it's unrelated. "Prison" should not even be in the same line of thought as "possessing books".
I'm saddened that you didn't write that in bold, italic caps.
Interesting and, at least somewhat, related post today (2/14) over on TechCrunch: "TED Organizer Trashes Speaker, Fails Social IQ Test": http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/14/ted-organizer-trashes-speak...
16 Key Augmented Reality Business Models
I really like this idea.

What if site like the Wall Street Journal adopted it instead of their current paywalls? You had to "flattr" to access the content but the price you are paying is then determined by how much big your monthly flattr allocation is and how many other sites you've flattr'd.

It's like digg/reddit/hackernews but with cash instead of karma.