skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I don't mind beating dead horses, and this strikes me as being quite civil and interesting, so I'm all for continuing.

They're artificial barriers, certainly. And I'd love an open App Store, though I understand their reasons for keeping it locked down. The worst barrier they have right now, IMO, is the single-carrier barrier, which I really think is flat-out wrong. But the USA is rather backwards when it comes to cell phones.

As to the WalMart / other contrived analogy, which I admit my comment was rather lacking in content, lets try another comparison. The DS only plays DS games (especially with the DSi now, which loses the GBA slot). However, not only is that the same restriction, it's even worse because getting permission to sell your game is an absolute nightmare if you're not big, and the development tools are far more expensive.

To make the comparison stronger, and the App Store's position worse, the DS has sold three times as many units than the iPhone, though probably not as many cartridges as apps. But that's physical vs digital distribution for ya. How often do you hear about the DS and its far tighter distribution chain, as opposed to the iPhone? Granted, the App Store has been changing lately, but the criticism hasn't abated since day 1.

For WalMart in particular, I'd say it's closer to buying a DVD player from WalMart, and having it only play DVDs sold at WalMart. It'd certainly suck for people trying to sell things, but they carry 99.9% of what people buy anyway, so most of the buyers won't mind (and it may be worth avoiding the huge amounts of porn that might appear there otherwise). And there are other options, like Android phones, Blackberry / PalmOS based phones, etc, which match other retail options.
Slides are a crutch (but I use them too) Much better if there are very brief (3-5 page) documents with clean multivariate visualizations as appropriate. Then discuss (This is what Tufte recommends). A nice multivariate visualization method is RadViz. The real metric is "Does it add value to the viewer?" If it is more of a presenter crutch, then get rid of it or boil the slides to the bare minimum. I tend to favor white boards and markers and ask the audience questions. But that is just my style.
> Every two weeks, he held all-hands meetings to beg people to work, unpaid, for another two weeks. That went on for two years.

What's really astonishing is how long he managed to keep this up. He must have been an extremely good motivator and hired lots of incredibly dedicated employees. If he didn't get his eventual lucky break, these people's lives would have been wrecked.

There must be a lesson to be learned here, though I have some doubts if it is repeatable.
The article never lists which twenty-six nations were surveyed. Of the fifteen or so mentioned, only a few aren't safely within the modern "first world."
MySpace Founder Set To Make 3 Investments in The Next 30 Days
He can always go back to high school in 2011. But if he lost this opportunity to get funding and iterate fast to turn his product into a next-facebook, the opportunity is lost forever.
I couldn't agree more. Lebanon, specially Beirut, is utterly sleazy and one vacation I will happily take back. There isn't much "organic" nightlife there; if you want to rub shoulders with juiced up muscle heads and trafficked prostitutes, Beirut is the place to be. For casual middle-eastern night life you're probably better off in Damascus, Cairo, Tunis, or Amman.
If Google put a little more thought into not only the visual design of its software, but also whether its software actually has a purpose (http://twitter.com/stevenf/status/10004051966), people might stop referencing them as a company with bad design that is successful anyway. I eagerly await that day. (Nothing personal, this has just been bugging me for awhile.)
Slightly editorialized title. Full Text (reference to astrology in item two):

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, by the House of Representatives of the Eighty-fifth Legislature of the State of South Dakota, the Senate concurring therein, that the South Dakota Legislature urges that instruction in the public schools relating to global warming include the following:
(1) That global warming is a scientific theory rather than a proven fact;
(2) That there are a variety of climatological, meteorological, astrological, thermological, cosmological, and ecological dynamics that can effect world weather phenomena and that the significance and interrelativity of these factors is largely speculative; and
(3) That the debate on global warming has subsumed political and philosophical viewpoints which have complicated and prejudiced the scientific investigation of global warming phenomena; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Legislature urges that all instruction on the theory of global warming be appropriate to the age and academic development of the student and to the prevailing classroom circumstances.
This should be an easy job. Just photoshop an image of a black hole with a giant pile of nearly a trillion dollars falling into it.
this idea has been around for years there are a ton of sites doing this. Google around, I'm sure you'll find one selling the brands you want.
Maybe you buy more expensive stuff than I do, but mine would always end up getting holes near the seams just from washing them (yes, hot).
The problem is they hired a teacher, and teachers can be viral. So, in a sense then it may backfire on themselves.
> The buddhist's nirvana is the absence of desire and while they believe in reincarnation, they see it as a curse to those who are too much anchored to their wealth and earthly delights.

As a sidenote, I know Buddhism is quite popular in the West these days, but after spending time in Asia, I don't see it as superior in practice to the Western religions. The best of Buddhism, the most interesting and enlightening concepts make it to the West. But they have just as much silly superstition, social control, religious rank and hierarchy, and warriorship/violence in their history as the Western religions. Actually, some of the finest fighters of their era are the Shaolin and Honganji monks of China and Japan, who were at times much equivalently brutal to crusdaders and jihadists.

As for me personally, I think struggle is a good thing. I think all the most important and valuable aspects of life are struggle - living, thriving, growing. Childbirth, one of the heights of human experience, is a brutal struggle. Farming is struggle, hunting is struggle, cooking is struggle. Training to dance or sing or play an instrument is struggle. I'm with you on non-materialism as accumulating stuff isn't particularly effective, but I (personally) reject the notion that struggle is bad. All the best parts of life are a struggle or the fruits of struggle. I embrace struggle, I embrace suffering for worthy causes - suffering in exercise, in farming, in hunting, in cooking, in dancing, in having and rearing children. It's all struggle - I don't want nirvana, give me this world and its struggles and sufferings, and I'll embrace it fully.

> There is something wrong with you if you think that life needs to perpetuate violence for thrill's sake.

This I agree with, but I think the original commentor's point was a bit more nuanced than that. I think he was saying conflict is necessary at times for life, and he was also noting that people do enjoy observing conflict and drama playing out. Myself, I've got mixed feelings on this - you know, I much prefer baseball to American football for instance. I played linebacker in high school, but watching a 6'6 220 pound receiver catch a pass in the air and get destroyed by a 6'4 260 pound safety while he's largely helpless makes me cringe a little. The strategy aspect of American football I quite like, the brutality of it not so much. So I'm with you on some points, less so on others.
I think Iceland is open.

Or do we have to wait for the army of clones first?
Here's the funny thing - at any point in time most of developers should be happy with the culling - it makes survivors more noticeable. Until they themselves are culled, then it's a tragedy.
This can get complicated quickly. Businesses are generally licensed by state and local gov't. Most however don't require sole proprietors to register since they would generally be subject to the same tax as an individual.

My instinct would be to get started now. Complicating factors may include: product/Svc liabilities, IP rights/protection, your bookkeeping system, local rules & restrictions.
The RadViz Approach to Visualization
Hm... this is a very interesting argument. I'm up at UCSC, and so this is a relevant comment for me. I'll bring this idea up at the University Café tomorrow. (Kresge Town Hall, 6:30)
Well, you choose how you want to name your function. That you code in a functional style, or in python or in haskell has nothing to do with that. And the fact that you use high-level level function based on maths is still a choice of yours.

What I say is by using a functional style (might it be in java, c++, haskell, scheme, python, or whatever), it makes testing, threading and understanding things easier.

For instance, it's easier to test an immutable class since once it is created, it will never change.

Threading is also simplified since you don't have to think about your object being corrupted by 2 threads mutating it.

Understanding is simplified in the sense that it's easier to quickly get an idea of what an object is doing because it only has 1 state at a time.

But please, don't think I didn't understand your point about obscurely named function and bad code.. Often when people show functionnal code, they try to show how short the code is so they make it practically unreadable for the novices - which is indeed not the best way to show the vertue of FP.

"you'd be much better off writing it in Python." => Nothing stop you from using FP in python :)
Wow, Carrey's site is truly one of the more amazing
things I've seen on the internet in quite some time.

Like music playing without being asked for and interfering with the one you are currently listening, like content crammed into small area with custom scrollbars so usual scrolling with a trackpad no longer works, like insane amounts of pointless graphics which take forever to load so you must wait ten seconds till you can see two paragraphs of text buried somewhere?
No, thanks, I have had enough of it elsewhere already…
Using QuickTime.
Maybe in TeX, but my experience with LaTeX had been a little different because the packages and interdependencies between them changes with the time.

I mean, if you take a non-trivial document using several packages from several years ago, and try to compile now, a likely result is the compilation fails with some obscure error or the original result can be different in unexpected ways.

Usually that can be fixed with the use of a new option or calling a different command or little things like that, however the point of compatibility through many revisions of many packages (and its interactions) in LaTeX is something to be warned about.
i wish he wouldn't, as long as he stays out of mainstream, he has a chance to really bring something new
Fair point. I've basically resigned myself to the fact that Apple, Nintendo, etc. are happily raking in the green from developers who are willing to play by their rules and consumers who are content with living in their walled gardens, and that their relationship with developers who desire more flexibility should be left at a healthy mutual disregard.
| There must be a lesson to be learned here, though I have some doubts if it is repeatable. |

I'd love to see a Mixergy interview!
Did they maybe just mean astronomical? They seemed to want to rhyme their -ological's and maybe fell into a trap.
This stuff reminds me of ShapeLock (aka Friendly Plastic):

http://www.creatrope.com/blog/make/friendly-plastic-shapeloc...

http://www.lonestarairsoft.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8822

http://www.micsaund.com/2006/03/13/plastic-you-can-mold-in-y...

The differences seem to be that ShapeLock:

- requires some heat to get it in to a moldable state

- is firm, not rubbery when it sets

- is not sticky

- is reusable (just heat it up again, and you can re-shape it)

Here's something made from it:

http://www.xrobots.co.uk/android10.htm
These days I just use Google Doc. Nothing beats it for what I need it for. Fast, collaborative, no need to send it to emails 50 times, versioning. Perfect for me.
Bambgoo - The Bamboo Car
And next week, we try to insert a footnote in a table (the footnote's text should be displayed at the bottom of the page) while we have no Internet access.
In 2011 he will be drafted into the army.
When you combine the super-fast UI with a 10 hr. battery life and a $500 price tag (not to mention a $15 / month data plan without contract), you get "compelling".

This ad is focused on speed and capability. Perhaps future ads will put it all together.
That sounds plausible to me. I wonder if anyone would have noticed if they slipped "theological" in there, just to continue the trend.
How to Teach Yourself Programming
Viagra Abuse Endemic Amongst Argentinian Youth
Homme qui pose en porte jartelle gratuitement - Videos
> The insights into Japanese company-culture are fascinating.

For me, the most fascinating part about the Japanese society is the pastiche of mannerisms, catchphrases, and behaviors -- all copied from somewhere and never coming from an individual. There is a constant checking and double-checking that one is acting accordingly. These clues, on how to act, what to say, how to say it and when, are provided by tradition (easy defaults), television show hosts, celebrities, everything and anything external except from within.

At first it might seem that yelling something is a subjective show of raw, emotions, something very personal and unique, a show of anger or excitement, but in reality it is just a formula that is repeated many times, probably accompanied by a total inner apathy.

> From what I've read, and from the few movies I've seen that deal with Japanese culture, it _does_ seem like there's something about it that forces an distance between people that is hard to bridge.

It seems that both parties know they are participating in a formality theater but nobody wants to be the first to say "ah, fuck it, this is ridiculous".

Because of this drinking and participation in drinking if _very_ important. That is the only time when formality is allowed to be suspended and some semblance of real thoughts and feeling come out. It is the only time when you might find out what your perspective client really thinks about your product, or how loyal your employee really is.
> In March 2004, he made his 348th pitch seeking backers...

I'm surprised he had so much difficulty raising VC after that. You'd think a story like that would get around. Many entrepreneurs have proven track records of success, but few have proven they can persevere against all odds.

...348 pitches!
Homme avec   des petits   seins
homme au féminin
What's with introducing female engineers and designers as "lovely"? That's generally speaking, since it's probably just precious copywriting in this case.
There's a big difference between the earthquake case, where it's really unlikely that there's a dude who will actually set off a bomb, and here, where it's guaranteed that over the whole internet, there's at least one dude who is going to DDoS you. The fact that someone in particular actually sets it off and is therefore morally responsible for disconnecting all those users doesn't remove any blame from Ubisoft, who was releasing into the real world where the DDoS was guaranteed.
Ca sales tax 2010 - Google Search
Yes, it really was a thesis. I don't know how interesting it is if you are actually experiencing these things on a daily basis. As a complete outsider, however, this small window into Japanese work culture was very interesting. Don't know how well I could handle working in such an environment.
I've found a lot of music through listening to Pandora. But I'm not their ideal customer -- when they took away the pop out mini player I hacked together an Adobe AIR app to replace it, mostly just cropping the pandora.com homepage. For some reason it eats a lot of memory though.
"Authentification" appears to be a real word: http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/certification

Apparently it is one of a zillion synonyms for "certification", along with "verification".
J. Paul Getty on should you give discounts or not
My boxers become pretty much shredded after 6-7 years.
The Important 4 Tips in Planning Your Upcoming Website
So you've simply replaced crappy DRM with working DRM?
Honestly, my biggest concern is that its form factor means I won't really able to take it places. Large clamshell devices transport easily and you don't have to worry about damage to them. The iPad seems like it's going to be a strictly bathroom-and-coffee-table device, which is great for what it is, but it feels like it should be so much more.
I happened to be playing with R today, so I took a stab at making a chart:

http://tinyurl.com/hnrank
I've been a Pandora fan for so long, this article surprised me a bit because I've been so accustomed to them being on the edge of collapse. I remember making donations years ago. I'm glad they're eating "truffle-infused Kobe beef burger[s]" these days.
Videogame makers racing to develop iPad games for Apple Tablet
This is why you should archive the packages along with the source for your document. This way you'll maximize the chances of being able to regenerate it at some point in the future.
My counterargument to this has been that the iPhone succeeded so wildly because it was so many devices or references that you'd otherwise carry. Phone, camera, GPS, MP3 player, map, contact book, and who knows what else. It consolidated a lot of existing things-in-your-car into one pocketable device. The iPad (and tablets in general) don't do that. They are, at worst, really big iPod Touches, and at best, underpowered laptops that are relatively hard to type on. They don't really address any gaping holes in the user market, except "I'd like my phone to have a bigger screen when I'm reading a news article on the john", which is an awfully narrow use case for a device that expensive.

I'm sure it's going to sell decently, but I really don't think it's going to become integrated into our daily lives like the iPhone has. It'll sit on coffee tables and bathroom reading shelves and be useful there, but it's not going to become the extension of our connected lives like our smartphones are. Even if it's meant to be an in-between between a tablet and a phone, I'm not sure what problem they're trying to solve. It feels like they're inventing a problem, wrapping the solution in shiny Apple plastic, and marketing it as a world-changer. Remember the Apple TV?

The most revolutionary thing about it is the battery life for a device with a display of that size. It'll be interesting to see how it actually holds up in real-life usage; if Apple has managed to actually crush it out of the park like they're promising, that technology is going to get a lot of use. I don't think this application of it is going to be quite the revolution that some are hoping it'll be, though.
I grew up as an expat in Central America for the first 14 years of my life. My parents worked for a religious NGO and part of their job was to help other incoming expats acclimate and adjust to the new culture. There's an entire branch of psychology devoted to culture shock, enculturation and acculturation. It's a pretty complex process. Becoming bicultural is a long, long process. A lot of monocultural people, by definition have little frame of reference, and it's hard to understand unless they've gone through it themselves.

Having been through it, and having watched hundreds of other people go through it during. I have no doubt that part of this rant is due to culture shock/enculturation difficulties.

As a rough generalization, there are several stages of enculturation (adapting to living in a different culture). The first stage is the actual culture shock. It generally takes 1-12 months to get over the initial, "OMG they eat Foo!" or figure out what end of the chopsticks to pick food out of the serving bowl with or how to buy groceries, or what side of the cheek to kiss as a greeting, or how low to bow to what people.

After the initial culture shock, there's generally a honey moon phase where everything is seen as wonderful an exciting and so much better than in the old country. That phase can last anywhere from 6 months to 3 years.

Frequently from year 2-6, post move, the honeymoon fades. The "flaws" in the new culture become increasingly apparent, and people get critical and frustrated at their adopted country. Cultural differences are seen as stupid, or backwards.

Slowly, after 4-6 years, people tend to get more accustomed to the new country. They start to adapt, and adopt the new culture as their own, and they feel a lot more at home. Some families I grew up with never made that transition.

I spent the first 14 years of my life living in Cost Rica and Honduras. I've been in the US for over 20 years. And, now, after being, "home" for 20 years, I'm finally starting to feel like I might belong in the US. Moving to the Bay Area, where there's a much bigger multi-cultural vibe helps. Had I stayed in the rural Midwest where my parents live, I would have gone apeshit. Still, after 20 years, some things about the US drive me crazy. I could have written a similar rant at many points the last 20 years.

I'm a lot of geek immigrants/expats could write a similar rant about their host country. Just ask your coworker engineer friends about the US immigration process. :) I know my parents ranted from time to time about life in Costa Rica or Honduras from time to time. They lived down there for 20 years. And, even though they got really pissed off from time to time, it didn't change their love of either country.