skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
This is a great point. I'll need to talk to some accountant-types before going forward with this so I can understand what I can and can't book as revenue in this model.

It seems clear that spent credits are revenue, but unused credits live in a kind of gray area, waiting for something to happen.

There may have to be an expiry, but I'll make it distant enough that it's unlikely to be hit (i.e. a year). If people look like they're going to hit that expiry period, I'd rather tell them "you're giving us money for something you don't seem to use, maybe it's time to cancel".
Yeah, I figured someone would bring that up. First, I could ask the reverse question asking why you assume the 5th position is favored. Next, the requirements didn't dictate a study on the positions. Finally, it avoids the real question: Does it really matter? The placement is random (you can't predict the order reliably before you launch the page), and the options are present.

Does it really matter? No, even with understanding your point, and even thinking that it's an interesting thought that I'm sure we'll see answered.
"But customers don’t buy features, they usually buy something that solves a real or perceived need. That’s the comparison you and your investors should be looking at - what do customers say they need or want?"

What customers say they need or want != What customers need or want.

At least not necessarily. For instance, they might say they want "something like X already offers but better" when they'd prefer something that's quite unlike X (and much more better).
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Also, I am pretty sure there is a standard period "look-back" So unless you can do the transfer and then wait the subsequent time period before declaring bankruptcy, you are sol.
Yeah, that's pretty much what I was thinking - I'm pretty sure there have been "production shortages" for every major launch they've done since iPhone v1.
My life is over.
An uglier aspect of it is this: although people with 150+ IQs, contrary to the nerd stereotype, usually get along fine socially, they'll virtually never be selected as leaders, and always be outsiders. People usually aren't comfortable with a leader who is that smart.

We evolved in small tribal groups of 20 individuals per generation, so we look to the 90th-95th percentile (6'1, 120 IQ) for leadership, but extremes and "giants" frighten us. 99.5+ percentile is a threat-- possibly some other hominid that is going to eat us.
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> If only the advocates on different sides of important issues could learn to adhere to these principles.

This is an idea better in theory, than in practice. You don't know frustration until you meet someone with poor logic skills, who drops fallacies like crazy, and then responds to your (sound) counter-arguments with 'strawman!' or 'ad-hominem!' or 'red herring!'.
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When this one was submitted, that one was already changed, so this one has been a duplication for its entire existence.

If you claim that things are less simple than they might otherwise appear, I'd agree. I still think it's a waste and annoying to have the same items submitted multiple times, and especially annoying for people to change things unnecesarily.

And I've up-mud you for drawing my attention to the situation. Thank you.
Thanks. Not sure how I missed it.
Very nice page. More on her page http://www.tanyakhovanova.com/
I don't know if the distinction between a tested 150 and 180 IQ is meaningful, but that between those levels of intelligence is. I'm in the 150 range; I've met some who are probably in the 180 range (IMO gold medalists) and they are noticeably smarter than I am.

That said, even a 200 IQ won't overcome a lackluster work ethic, mental illness, or social adversity (internal or external).
Apple iPad to be delayed?
As far as I understand from the page:

You only need to include one format - h264. If you then view it with a browser that doesn't support VIDEO, or does support VIDEO but not h264 (firefox), it'll fallback to playing that h264 using flash (No flv required as far as I see).

However, you can also give firefox some love by adding an ogg version.

So IMHO, this is real tangible useful progress. It makes it easier for developers to use cool new HTML5 features without breaking old crappy browsers.
In case you don't know what AlphaLab is, this is from their homepage:

AlphaLab provides funding, hands-on business assistance, access to a network of entrepreneurs and expert advisors, and free office space as part of an intensive program in Pittsburgh. AlphaLab helps companies rapidly develop their technology, gain user feedback from early product releases, develop go-to-market strategies, and move toward successful commercial launch.
I tried to explain to the reporter why Cassandra's data model (particularly that it supports an arbitrary number of columns per row) makes it support denormalization better than traditional rdbmses, and somehow that got turned into "cassandra supports an arbitrary number of rows."

This and a few other poor explanations make me wince reading this. So I don't particularly recommend this article, although I've seen worse. :)

TFA does at least link the original interview w/ Ryan King of Twitter (http://nosql.mypopescu.com/post/407159447/cassandra-twitter-...) which is much better for people at HN level.

My own article at http://www.rackspacecloud.com/blog/2010/02/25/should-you-swi..., although high level, also has some useful links for those who want to drill down for more details.
Honestly I'm kind of surprised the Android numbers aren't higher, since Android device sales so far have presumably skewed heavily toward "geeks" who seem more likely to download stuff just to try it out.

Perhaps it's a function of there just being fewer apps available and, of those apps that are available, many may be coming from non-Android Market suppliers?
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>in what's becoming a not-uncommon move.

Or as Orwell put it: "A not unblack dog was chasing a not unsmall rabbit across a not ungreen field."
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Does anyone have a source that explains the results of the report with a bit more scientific depth, specifically why global warming would lead to fewe but slightly stronger hurricanes rather than more?

AFAIK the fundamental cause of hurricanes is the evaporation and condensation of water. Higher temperatures cause more evaporation, so it seems pretty obvious that it would cause more opportunities for hurricanes to form.
I found pages on Bias more useful. They are in the See Also section. Particularly Cognitive Biases: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases

For me they are easier to use in everyday conversation.
I think the OP is asking about graphics software not the development environment. That said, I think they are using the most common tools out there. Photoshop and Illustrator.
It seems like you know a whole lot about this. I once heard a Math professor say that children were able to use more methods for doing basic arithmetic when they first started school than when they'd gone to school for a year, or something of that nature.

I've also been through public school, and I know that the way they teach stuff is not modern in any way. It is almost the same school system that Prussia had, that later was adopted by countires like the USA. A school of compulsion, instituted to teach students the "virtue of obedience" and to make them parts of a bigger machine (like the war machine). So the teaching method of choice naturally became to have the students do simple tasks obediently at their desks. This can be seen in modern American classrooms aswell (yes, I went to one for a year). Think back to American History, what did you do really? Did you copy down, word for word what the teacher said? Was those chores teaching you anything on how to think when it comes to reviewing history? No, it couldn't have, you were just fed words that you didn't even have time to analyze. How could that have taught you anything?

I think the same goes for Math. In Sweden you didn't learn the principles of Math in the first ten years (this is important, since Montessori Schools (atleast those who are run by sane people) are able to teach kids the actual concepts behind Math at a very young age). You had 100 similar problems to solve, and you had the solution on a paper, you just had to do that a 100 times or more and remember long enough to pass the upcoming test, then you could forget about it. This is BAD for problem solving, and I can only thank programming for not stripping of the pleasures of REAL problem solving. So naturally, when a child goes to do an IQ test, which is basically a test in problem solving, he/she wouldn't know how to do it, because he/she would have been used to not having to solve problems.

I think this would explain a lot, I think that IQ can be used to explain a lot of things if the world actually prepared you for them. Am I wrong or do I have a point? Anyway, that's my theory.
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Yeah, sorry. Since HN doesn't let you submit both a link and text, I made a comment about it after submitting. But that comment is currently at the bottom of the page.
I wonder if he's going to tell us to put toilet water on the crops, instead of Brawndo.
This is getting weird and recursive. Are you saying Microsoft didn't abandon one business model and copy Apple's because in order for that to be copying Apple's business model Apple themselves would have to had a previous business model and abandoned it too?

Apple didn't licence iPod to other manufactures. Microsoft did. Then it abandoned that approach and built the Zune in what was at the time a fairly major turnaround for them and instead copied the iPod model.

I don't follow the Zune too closely, but it is still only built and sold directly by Microsoft isn't it? Just like the iPod, and unlike the previous devices in the PlaysForSure family. The whole point of that branding being that the music, bought from multiple stores, would play on multiple devices, made by different manufacturers (notably not including Apple).
When you use RoR and, say, 10-20 gems, you spend a lot of time discovering bugs in those things, fixing them, contributing them back, and hoping the contri's are taken. None of that is free, of course.

Whereas I've used Apache (both the C-based web server and Tomcat), Linux, and MySQL for years, and never once did I have to patch something myself. The quality of the software and updates were sufficient; certainly just as good as any commercial product.

This is what I mean about it being different.

Of course commercial software has bugs etc as well! The difference is there's a place to complain and other developers are responsible for making the fixes. Of course some companies are good about this and others aren't, and the same can be said for OSS projects.

In the end, to SOME extent this is FUD, but specifically in the context within this post, it's not FUD, because the argument is specifically for a company who is CLAIMING awesome support for bug-fixes.

You can't just take my quote out of context and then argue against it!
I think the Mensa tests are made artificially easy, since they want people to pay trhem money.

It's quite easy for people to improve their IQ scores by practisingf the questions. I once took an IQ test from a book (I think it was by Eysenck) and then did another test from the same book a few days later. On the second test I scored 27 points higher, so by definition my IQ was 27 points higher; I doubt if I was any cleverer in any meaningful way.

I suspect that part of the Flynn effect (that IQ scores have been increasing over time) is due to people being more familiar with those sorts of puzzles.

Having said all that, I suspect that being able to learn from experience (and therefore get higher scores on similar tests) is a pretty large factor in intelligence.
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Illustrator and Photoshop.
No major American political party (okay, there are only two of them) will even entertain the obvious solution that everyone else has settled on, albeit via a variety of paths.

Say what you want about reasonable people disagreeing with each other; the absence of any institutional support for universal health care is a big red flag that your system is broken.
I wonder how many people watch video in their browser and disable JavaScript. That certainly seems likely to be a tiny minority to me.
If you login to Authorize.Net's tools and can see the transaction properly listed/labeled, then the bank is most likely the source of the labeling problem. It sounds like their handling of "pending" transactions may provide less informational context than "cleared" transactions.
It also wont say anything about sqrt(-1) :(
I didn't know he worked at Wolfram Research, that's interesting.
We are in violent agreement ^_^.

A lot of it depends on context:

In Cambridge, MA I followed the "modern" approach.

In Arlington, VA, the threat from assailants was vastly lower and I was almost always armed. So putting myself on the street side provided protection from the most likely problems and in the case of an assailant would have given me more time to draw and employ my handgun.
Maybe this is like admitting I logged into ReadWriteWeb instead of Facebook, but I was genuinely confused by this post because I assumed at first that it was written by Mike Pinkerton.

I think I subconsciously mistook the tweet and username as blog title and byline.
autotest for ruby will run your tests every time it detects a file has changed ;)
"... there's really no correlation between high IQ and performance. After a certain IQ, I think it's 120, the rest is about emotional maturity and how deeply your understanding goes."

Carl Friedrich Gauss. General life "performance" at popularity and piling up money may (may) top out at 120, but there are some jobs where performance means being able to see through a brick wall of symbols like it is a window pane.
I used the Safari library subscription for several years while I was in school. While it was really handy to have all those books available within several clicks, it was slow, and their search needed help. If you could index their library on a paragraph level, I'd be willing to subscribe to their service again.
NEWSWIRE: Continued scientific research updates predictions. Slightly less devastating storms predicted. This is normal for science. Deniers try to use process as wedge for false-dichotomy argument.

Aside, this exact same story from a different news outlet already flooded through here last week and got no play. Why submit it again?
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Written in Python... That changes my perspectives on what is a 'new' language.
I'd start with questions or answers within a certain level of points. I'd also suggest for high point questions, pick the top 3-4 answers.
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It appears so. I guess my main point was that MS seems to be trying to do what Apple does (limit hardware, make tough choices), but when you have vendors and partners that strategy is pretty rough on them.
Startups should make something people want
Kevin Costner is full of sh*t ... when it comes to startups at least. Build it and they will come. I implore you, do not listen to this man! This line of thinking is out in left field (har har).

I have to admit, I used to subscribe to this tag line. A few years back, I felt that if the idea was there, all that was barring a venture from success was time, effort, and determination. As a result, several of my early projects were drastically over engineered and tragically under utilized.
So what? It's easier to lie saying only the truth and omitting some part of it, or not even omitting anything, but not saying it frequently enough.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_of_silence
Feature checklist dysfunction: Twitter vs. Google Buzz
A lot the research that goes into truly innovative treatments is already funded by the government. See what NIH pays for. The big companies look for stuff that they can market and sell fast (eg. Viagra in new rainbow color). In a lot of the pharmaceutical companies spent more on marketing than research.

Especially for things that are not profitable (eg. flu shots, or malaria vaccine).
Does IQ correlate with leadership ability?
No, these principles are an excellent distillation of lots of stuff I've seen elsewhere and gleaned from talking with founders and CEOs.

(DISCLAIMER: if you're assuming a scale business like Facebook or Twitter, these are indeed terrible ideas. This is for business that make money by charging their users.)

1) "Anything given for free should only give a taste, at a clearly limited scale. Not all features should be given out in the free version." - this is important because you don't want to cannibalize your paid users. If someone likes your product enough to pay for it but everything they need is in the free plan, they're not going to give you any money. The reason airlines make coach seats so cramped isn't to make more $$ off of coach tickets, it's to ensure that highly profitable first and business class customers pay a lot of money to avoid uncomfortable coach seats.

2) "There should be a 'recommended' plan." This makes buying easier. Don't buy the el cheapo plan and regret it, don't get ripped off by the big one. Happy medium, no thought, bingo.

3) "There should be a 'cheap' plan for the skeptics, that includes all of the essential features but at a limited scale." Some people just don't need what the recommended plan includes. For Wufoo, the middle plan includes multiple users, unlimited forms, and payment integration. I just needed a fourth form so I took the $10 plan. I love Wufoo so much I had no problems paying that.

4) "there should be a 'hail mary' plan" - see #1. Wufoo and 37s have both said they make most of their money from the high end plans, even though there are very few of them. If those customers could pay 75% less and still do what they wanted, it would kill the business.

5) "customers should be able to take any of the paid experiences for a trial run." - this is good marketing and accepted practice.

6) "There can be 'filler plans'" - see #3.

Another point from my experience. Unfuddle offers source hosting + issue tracking + wiki, etc. Here are their plans: http://unfuddle.com/about/tour/plans . The micro plan would have been fine but I wanted SSL since it's for my business. It's important enough that the extra $15/mo was not a problem, even though it's a blatant pricing tier move.

If you're really creating value (as opposed to your users creating the value like in Wikipedia, HN, etc) then people will pay for it. Unless you give it away for free.

PS: A good article on what to offer in your pricing tiers is http://www.sachinagarwal.com/setting-pricing-for-a-startup-t...
Is it possible that the higher the IQ is at birth the faster the brain degenerates? Not just from a built-in process but also from stress due to lack of social acceptance. This algernon process could imply that by 25, a physics PhD at 16 can only manage civil engineering.
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It's top 1%, but quite under-impressive compared to how talented and impressive he actually is, which establishes the very low utility of resume evaluations.

I worked at a hedge fund and we rejected people with more impressive resumes, and it only takes about 6 interviews before you realize how low the correlation is between how someone looks on paper and how smart they actually are.
Anyone have a verifiable citation on this credit to Dyson? Initially my spider sense tingled when something so perfunctory was attributed to a CEO of Coca Cola (a common theme to chain emails).

Some quick Googling credits a 1996 Commencement Address at Georgia Tech. However, another source says it's from the book, Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas.

Does anyone have a source at Georgia Tech that can confirm/deny 1996's commencement address?
I appreciate the software and I think it's cool.

But really guys? I need jQuery to do this? You really couldn't write it without jQuery?
"help advance the species by building an engine to travel to the stars or solving the unified field theory"

But why? Technology is a means, not an end, so unless we've got our ends right, there's no point pouring all our effort into the means.
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Any privacy mavens Google care to leak Google's Global Criminal Compliance Handbook? I would dearly love to see that.
> There's a myth that "more features are always more complex," but that's just bad user interface design.

It's true that you can have a bad user experience with less features, but it's much more difficult to create a good user experience with a complex piece of software. I like what he says about hiding features that aren't in use, but in reality, every feature that you add to the product increases its complexity and cost, and makes it that much harder to create a satisfying user experience.
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The incentive is that they will have coverage when they need it. Everyone will need coverage eventually because everyone gets old.

That incentive can't exist as long as insurance companies exclude people for pre-existing conditions, change rates, etc. Noone wants to pay into the system that they know is setup to not pay out.
> When the app store chooses not to carry a software product, you can always go to ??????

... one of the other mobile platforms. The OP listed four alternatives.
I'd like to know how you do precision/recall testing. I've spent a lot of time doing pairwise testing of SOLR, sphinx and ferret (haven't tried Xapian), checking which hits one indexer misses that the other gets, stopwords (increments of 0, 50, 100, 175), combinations of token separators, etc. I don't really have to worry about UTF8 to ascii conversion with my data.

I haven't really gotten a rigorous methodology or a good number that says precision and recall are acceptable, aside from lists of (a few hundreds of) test queries per topic where i record numbers of hits i expect.
What a misleading title. The actual article is a trite cautionary diatribe that websites can fail to scale and that this is very risky for startups.
It bothers me that people seem so angry at flash. It's been the only way to do so many things for more than a decade--and the technology to replace it isn't even really ready yet.

It's now more than a decade old. Of course it's going to be replaced at some point. But let's keep in mind that the open source/standards complaint alternative is fourteen years late to this market, and give credit where it's due.
you're absolutely right, and that is the real problem I see with much of what Steve Blank professes.Particularly when talking about under-developed markets.

However, in this instance re:competitive analysis, I agree with Steve. If competitive analysis is focusing on a feature for feature comparison, I can understand why that doesn't jive.

It is the entrepreneurs job to interpret hearing what the customers want into something that they didn't know they want, but must have.
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he didn't mention anything about the morals of it. Just that your plan is likely to backfire.
I think they are allowed to make a profit on the baseline insurance, they just usually don't in order to attract people with low rates. On the website of the Bundesamt fuer Gesundheit and on Wikipedia I couldn't find any mention of such a regulation. It wouldn't make a big difference anyway, as you say, the profit comes from the extras (and from having an efficient administration!).