skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
You may just want to offer an additional piece of hardware that lives on site and does the same logic as the web-based piece (everything's just forwarded to your backend systems for processing), only stores data if their internet is down (with the ability to control how cards are authorized, as in up to $x auto authorize if internet's down and eat the cost later if it fails, or deny all, etc.). I think this would integrate well with the hardware options you have and would provide another sell-point without a large amount of effort. The trick is, they buy the hardware, not the software. The software is still a service that is provided (or you can have a more expensive plan that includes onsite hardware, in which case you own the hardware even though it's at their site).
Bored to Death
Python can do it in one

from past import deathstar
Absolutely, if I will wear turtle neck and blue jeans to office everyday, people will laugh at me. But Steave Jobs can do that even when he is giving keynote in front of thousands of people. The difference is success.
The laws vary from state to state. I'm not going to read them all. Here are the laws in my state:
http://www.kansas.gov/ksbtp/statutes.html
Specifically pertaining specifically to who does or doesn't need a license:
http://www.kansas.gov/ksbtp/74-7035.pdf

I've always thought a phlebotomist is similar to a licensed electrician. (Assuming an MD is similar to a PE)
You're right on target - our typical customer is a small independent retailer that's currently using an electronic cash register.

Market knowledge and research is actually what lead us to develop this. I had been working for a point of sale reseller and we lost more sales to high cost than to any other competitor.

Currently our strategy for backup is recommending a dial-up if there's concern about connectivity, but thats not ideal and I think Gears or HTML5 is the way to go. And you're correct, the backup for CC transactions is phone authorization (same as any other POS when internet is down)

Touchscreen support is important, especially with non-technical cashiers, and our UI was designed with that in mind.
I know people that use a similar approach (albeit) with git. Comments are hosted on Disqus so the entire site is essentially read-only. WPSuperCache is used on a staging server and the actual public-facing website serves up static pages that have been git pulled from the cache. The Apache process on the public-facing server only has read permissions to the public site files.
Wind-Powered Highway Lights Disconnect From the Grid
Or use two factor authentication with a hardware token. Some are very cheap, eg YubiKeys. http://www.yubico.com/
Titular error, should read "Boy Scouts of America".
The App Store: Quality control without the quality
Win Mentoring Session With Founders Of Digg, Flickr, Mint, Ning, Slide Or Zynga
I'm betting majority of farmville players are on work computers... instead of solitaire or yahoo games, there's farmville!
He also makes these points:

* Those usage numbers (50% of mobile browser traffic)
could be a US-only statistic
* People on other browsers might not browse the web as much because
not enough effort is made to making web content usable on those
browsers.

Viewing your argument alongside the second point poses a possible chicken-and-the-egg problem. No one is using other mobile browsers because the experience sucks, but the experience sucks because not enough development is done to make it bearable (or pleasant). Not enough development time is being spent to make the experience bearable or pleasant because no one is using those other mobile browsers.
Amazing what the power of Google's brand can do for press coverage on feature releases.

Yahoo Mail implemented this feature maybe a year ago and has the LARGER user base but got very little coverage.

http://news.softpedia.com/newsImage/The-Email-Battles-Gmail-...
He lets you access the sports stats on his site for free, but he charges for the ability to embed stats in your site. I just wanted to get that out in case you saw the "new" in the title and got excited.

Edit: I just know someone is going to ask for an example, http://www.ibegin.com
Imagining a World of Hardware Mashups
The same way installing plugins without ftp and writing config files; the files that need to be upgraded just need to be writable by the server.
Interesting to think of software-as-a-service similar to the "virtual goods" model economies growing in mobile, social, etc. . .
Hmm. Wiki says this: «I Love the World, also known as I Love the Whole World, is an advertising campaign launched by Discovery Channel in 2008 in promotion of their new tagline: "The World is Just... Awesome".[1] The song used in the ad is a re-writing of a traditional camping song known as I Love the Mountains or I Love the Flowers, sung to the tune of Hoagy Carmichael's 1938 "Heart & Soul", featuring a chorus of "boom-de-yadda, boom-de-yadda".[2]»

But the tune of 'Heart & Soul' ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8CSjDC18b0 ) isn't very similar to the one in 'I Love the Word'. Confusing.

Here's Hugh Laurie with his take of it, by the by!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHJRSKvbiXA
I'd say in a pitch, unless you're really good (judging from your question you're not quite there yet, and few people ever are) situational humor is OK, while all other humor should probably be cut completely. If something funny happens during the pitch, it's ok to joke about it. Planned humor usually doesn't go over well.

We had a phrase or two in our pitch (not the slides, but verbal communication) that were a bit humorous, and it happened to work really well. But it's very easy to overdo it, and ultimately, it's unlikely to make much difference.
If it's asking for FTP details, the problem is that Apache does not have write permissions to the files. The UX is pretty bad in that it doesn't let you know that it doesn't have write permissions, it just ignores that fact and presents the FTP details.

Here's where a lot of the security problems arise. As I mentioned, a lot of people are on a shared host and using mod_php. The only way they can make their files writable is to somehow give Apache write access to them. That opens up the possibility for other sites on the shared server to execute PHP that also writes to these files.

If you're stuck in this position, I'd recommend as a hack/workaround, to temporarily chown the files to www-data/apache. Perform the upgrade, then change ownership of the files back.

Ideally, if you're setting up your own server, I'd recommend FastCGI/SUExec:

http://www.howtoforge.com/how-to-set-up-apache2-with-mod_fcg...

You have much finer-grained control over how your PHP can execute. Alternatively, although I have no experience with it, you could try suphp to achieve a similar effect but by sticking with mod_php.
I agree, I have no clue what this is about. Also, checked the website which didn't clarify anything.
Hmm yeah, I think after reading it, I'd describe it as more: let people browse the website for free, but sell access to the API.
The Nokia N900 runs a gecko-based browser.
He could also have a permanent residency card. There are quite a few Canadians floating around the US who maintain Canadian citizenship but have US residency for some reason or another, sometimes via marriage, sometimes for some other reason.
A backup 3g/4g wireless data plan helps.
Has anyone had any success using a framework, then removing the excess CSS with something like deadweight? ( http://railscasts.com/episodes/180-finding-unused-css )
But I'm not selling access to an API. I'm selling exactly the kind of data and content found on the site.
Better Tests with Test Data Builders
You can change your UA in most major browsers. Not really the point.
The only pity is the downfall of Discovery. It makes me so sad to see it airing bullshit shows like 'Ghost Hunters'. That is not science.
Care to share some more details on the company you ended up going with?
Which is great. But I think there's a need for something more generalized, just as memcached provides for caching. Then you could use any database at the back.
This is similar to the revenue model of Spiceworks. It is a free application available to download, but besides just ad revenue it also sells out (gets 'sponsors') for features added via their plugin architecture.

They are basically selling out portions of their functionality work flow to advertisers and giving away the application as a platform.
Wow, I was pleasantly surprised by the questions the redditors are suggesting. A good, intelligent mix of both political and linguistics related questions.
Super Bowl Advertisement Spreadsheet Log
Super Bowl XLIV 2010 Creative Log and Pod Positions
Includes brand, type, advertisement, video, airtime and position.
"Both platforms are much more open and on a mac you have very little trouble with stability or malware or even quality. "

I believe there are other factors that can contribute to this. I think the laptop/desktop portion of Apple still attracts a certain individual that typically requires things to be well designed and stable. Unfortunately the cell phone market is not the same way, especially when you factor in free or extremely cheap applications compared to more expensive OS X counterparts. The iPhone appealed to a wider audience, including Windows users who arguably put up with a lot crappier inefficient software.

I think when originally putting the app store in place, it was a fear to have this crap trickle into the Apple app store.

Also, Apple has a vested interest in the success of applications in the app store whereas it doesn't have as much direct benefit from applications released and sold independently for OS X.
I'm sure you're not unfamiliar with the signaling aspect of diamonds: a costly gesture and sign of commitment, since it can't easily be repeated to other mates, or done at all if one doesn't have the wealth / position / etc. And the signaling utility of diamonds is helped, rather than hindered, by the lack of a secondary market.
VDI: 5 signs it's not for you
21 Creative online portfolio sites and applications
Yes, but that is your implementation of the freemium model. There are other sites, including my example, that allow free access to their data on the site, but then sell the data (in one form or another). You use embedded stats, iBegin uses datasets, other companies might charge for their API.
Apple Surveying iPhone Developers’ Happiness With The App Store
Ask HN: I love Nethack. Are there other great terminal games?
For bonus points, post your favorite Nethack hack!

Example: Polymorph into a Xorn for easy shoplifting.
Om Malik is not sad
It's worth highlighting the difference between Rackspace Cloud Servers (aka Slicehost) and Rackspace Cloud Sites (aka Mosso). The former is pretty good and reasonably priced. The latter is not.
Hooray! Congrats to the team!
I haven't read all comments, so apologies if something has been covered. I think you could make some serious cash if you execute this correctly as well as heed customer feedback. For the website, several things... The site looks great, but needs tweaking. I'd get rid of the Flash. The loading is irritating and so is the auto changing between tab views. I want to click to move when I'm ready. The animation is overkill. It really serves no useful purpose except to say you can design a fancy site. I'd stick the animation in the video, but make it actually show something useful - like larger screen walk-throughs. This brings us to the video. I don't like being tricked; when I click a video reading "view video" I expect something to play immediately, not link to another page. Next, the video is too long and boring. I'd use the homepage video to answer these 3 crucial things (applicable to all sites) as quickly and concisely as possible: 1. What is it? 2. How can I benefit from it? 3. What does it take from me? Lastly, I'd put "A Complete Hardware and Software Solution" up higher in the larger green font, as that is an important point to know. That should get you started, but you've got a great thing going I think. Good luck!
Yes, you could buffer writes. Tokyo Cabinet does this for instance as does Redis. There was an article on the mysql performance blog about Tokyo and how fsync()ing at 1Hz didn't adversely affect performance; there are other issues with TC but that's not my point.

I suppose a system where data could be lost if buffered in RAM for up to 30s could replicate to other hosts in the cluster with the (perhaps naïve) intuition that the probability of > 1 hosts going down within the same 30s interval is low -- "someone's got the data somewhere!". Of course, if they are on the same source of power... :)

One could use a consistent hashing scheme as employed in Riak and others for read operations in such a setup and thus be a bit more fault-tolerant (hand waving a bit).

This is without any hard-earned experience with this other than reading... Thoughts?
idk, I think a ton of bored housewives play it. It'd be interesting to see demographics.
Since, I'm running on Linux, I don't have a native IExplorer 6/7/8 installed ... fortunately other people thought about virtualization and emulators.
I generally advise founders of web startups simply to ignore universities' supposed IP claims. If you're really worried, rewrite all the code; it will probably turn out better. But it's about 1000x more likely that founders will hose themselves by not delivering something users love than that they will and their university will then crush them with a lawsuit, so if you're going to worry about something, worry about the former.

Previous employers are another matter. They can be adversarial, so you want to be more careful about IP with them. But universities are not going to sue you about software IP. I can't think of a single case of that happening.
"a tendency towards social pathology that rewards 'overwork.'"

Reward in what way?
Brain-wave marketing
This just underscores the importance of social networking within gaming, especially for the older demographic. You want to play with your friends that are online at the time, not with a bunch of strangers (who are younger, better, and more immature). The recent revival of small-team coop is also along these lines (l4d, borderlands).
The SLASHEM variant of Nethack has a lot of added awesomeness - rolling a Doppelganger monk is particularly rockin'.
Causation? Did they really have a large enough sample size of bored people who otherwise took great care of themselves to show this?
I think it's worth noting that games, which have driven the virtual goods business model, are essentially software as a service. The value you receive from the service is entertainment.
I've done some work with restaurant point of sales (in terms of third party tech integration). They are definitely ridiculously difficult to configure, and the APIs (if they even bother to expose one) are terrible.
"What’s there to loose except for the feeling of powah?"

30% of every dollar that goes through the App Store.
Changing the url allows you to see what other results people got. now that was a waste
We need a data API for the web
I didn't look into prices for natural diamonds, but the ring I bought was just under $1800 including shipping for a three stone ring of .34 ca, .22 ca, .22 ca, all with very good clarity. They also resized it for free + shipping.
It's mostly a brilliant manipulation of public expectations. The article illustrates it beautifully: the creation of the matrimonial diamond ring in America and then Japan, the manipulations needed to sell small diamonds one year and big diamonds another.

As I've heard it, when synthetic diamonds arrived on the market, it turned out that they had fewer impurities than natural diamonds. The cartel's advertising changed to emphasize the uniqueness of natural, "genuine" diamonds (which presumably have just the right number of flaws).

A 2003 Wired article on synthetic diamonds:

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/diamond.html
FWIW

We do not keep any servers unused, all servers are recycled
and added to queue so the customers have equal rights to get
them... and we cannot keep them reserved because of the costs...
instead you should consider leasing them for longer periods
so you have them available.
I don't think the cast willingly participated. I think they're just clips taken from interviews and so on that just happen to fit.
You ought to give CyanogenMod a try; it's breathed new life into my G1. I installed it yesterday after my home screen's several-second rendering time pushed me over the tipping point.

It's easier to install than it seems, noticeably faster/smoother, and the Browser and Gallery apps both support multitouch.
I'm an app store developer, and if Apple opens the doors, let me tell you what will happen :

First of all, there will be hardcore porn immediately. Boob apps will flood the store, because that's what makes money. If apple implements a flagging mechanism, then you will be one click away from opening a website to purchase hard core porn (I'm looking at you On The Go Girls).

Lots of people will create apps with 5 pictures and call it "Celebrity News". For example Britney Spears News, etc. Apps will be rereleased every single day so they are always visible on the app store new releases page. People will upload apps that do nothing but just have a title people will search for. And of course, apps that call a pay hotline somewhere.

With the amount of money people are spending on the app store, and the fact that people are looking for cheap entertainment rather than useful tools, the app store would be a heaven for spammers and scammers.

If Apple ever unlocked the gates, it would be the absolute end of the app store.

I have a phone number of a reviewer and I talk to him every now and then. They get a lot of crap. The gate is not to QC an app, it's to prevent the app store from being a crapware and spammers paradise.
I wish the Spreadsheet would have included some pricing information like how much company spent on development of the ad and how much they spent on air time.

PS My favorite was the Doritos with Kid and dating Mom.
Pancreatic Cancer Linked to Sodas?
I don't remember the name of the company off of the top of my head as it has been a few years but I'll see if I can find it and post it here.
Targeting your user testing
Should you target your user testing?
The main app is free (and he plans to sell advertising on it later) but downstream services (like an off-site widget) are premium. That's a successful business model to be sure, but hardly novel.
> While coding languages can be learned through study and practice, having an eye for design is more of an innate talent

Good design can and should be learnt through study and practice.

> the technical expertise it takes to engineer a basic back-end framework is at a much more accessible level than it was in years past

knowledge of basic design techniques and guidelines are probably more accessible too.

Sounds like BS written by a navel gazing designer.

You don't want your product to be ugly (design) _or_ broken (engineering). Either is damaging.

I wish they would quit with the us vs them attitude. Design and engineering are complementary, not competing, activities.
If your mate actively doesn't want the signal, then what's the point of signaling?

I mean, mine would scream bloody murder if I gave her a $2000 diamond next week. Hardly worth it, huh?

For our wedding, we went with a nice ring that has two modestly-sized Tanzanite hearts in a silver ring. It costs a mere fraction of what a diamond would have cost, has better symbolism than a single diamond, and, oh, it also looks nice. Frankly I think fully transparent gems lack personality. Only downside I was worried about is that Tanzanite is quite a ways down the Moh scale, but it has not proved a problem; if your gemstone is getting scratched your finger is probably getting torn off. This does not happen often.
The apple review process is not to enforce quality. It is to enforce control.

Apps will look like X, behave like Y, and we will nix anything we wish to.
hunt the wumpus ;)

the infocom stuff.

hhgttg and others.
Yes, but you wouldn't have to use tilt scrolling in those conditions. Tilt-scrolling would be disabled by default. When the conditions were appropriate, you could opt to enable it simply by holding your finger on the screen for two seconds. (Touch scrolling would always be enabled.) Maybe a quick tap on the screen might turn off tilt-scrolling so that if your conditions changed, you could disable it before you lost your place.

If you were in a train that was accelerating, you could choose not to use the feature, or you could just use it while the ride was smooth and quickly switch to touch-only mode when necessary. For slight accelerations, you could also adjust for your environment's movement intuitively much like you naturally tilt a cup of coffee slightly as you move.
If Apple did away with the review process, there's no reason they'd have to keep funneling all apps through the store. They could allow/force the cesspool apps to be distributed through the Web.
IPhoning my way to retirement $.70 at a time
I think that's pretty unfair.

Wordpress didn't just magically "Become massively popular", it got so because it served many people's needs (there were plenty of alternative free/OSS blogging engines all along). Its developers put in thousands of hours' unpaid work before monetizing became an possibility.

Providing supported/hosted services based on an open source solution, while continuing to release your work as open source, is about as noble as a business model can be, IMHO.
Not sure about death but I have observed one common behaviour among my relatives and friends that once a person retires his/her health starts deteriorating or in other words they starts complaining about health problems more.
Wow, I can tell this is a touchy subject for you. I'm not claiming that I know of any unknown security flaws, I was simply proving to you that there have historically been quite a few critical security flaws. Are you claiming that the current version of WordPress has somehow transcended its track record of critical vulnerabilities, and surely, this one will be the one for the ages?

I don't know of any current zero-day exploits in Windows either... Does that logically mean that Windows is a rock-solid platform?

Also, there are no better alternatives to WordPress? A hundred startups and blog platforms would disagree! There certainly are quite a few more secure alternatives. I personally use Bloggart on App Engine. :)
I couldn't agree more. When I started out I was budgeting the whole thing based on being able to make $0.50 ECPM, that seemed to be reasonable since I can't seem to be able to buy it under a dollar.

This still gives me the feeling that I'm being screwed royally somewhere.
Silicon Valley: You & Some of Your VC's have a Gender Problem
I don't see anything new here.

Actually, it reminded me of an example from an audiobook I listened to a few months ago about the Freemium model.

There was an example of one of the first Gillette's marketing campaigns. Basically, they gave away blades for free but to use them you had to buy a razor.
Does your sports data provider get a cut from this? It looks like you are reselling their data.
This is basically the "semantic web" dream in one form or another, isn't it? Not that that makes it a bad idea, but it's been slow going.
The best compromise would be to trust a given application after its first (or first few) review(s) and allow its developer to update it without going through the review process afterward. This would keep the gate for spammy applications and establish a relation of trust between the devs and Apple.

Of course, this is unlikely to happen as Apple is using the review process to make sure the apps are not calling private APIs or violating whatever rules Apple decides to apply. But giving up this last layer of "security" for Apple to allow for better developer AND user experience would be the best move Apple could do to improve the whole App Store frustations from developers.