skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Yes as a way of consuming content it's great (but so is any $100 screen with 3G - there is nothing iApple great)

The point is that there is a fundemental difference.
The first home computers let you create your own books/fanzines, then they let you make your own websites, then make your own albums and videos.

This is going back to the 50s, you buy the hardware and pay to watch content made by large studios.
To be honest I'm amazed that anyone can be bothered carrying laptops or even netbooks about. To me they're good because you can move them easily from desk to desk, but the prospect of using a laptop 'out and about' and carrying it all day is singularly unappealing.
yep, part of the cost of living in isolation.
Open source php framework, light, secure and higher learning curve - Zend
You can cherry-pick intervals where stamp prices outstripped inflation, and I can cherry-pick intervals where stamp prices stayed well below inflation.

A 12.8% increase (not sure how you came up with 15%) over a period where inflation was only around 7.8% (based on month-to-month consumer price index report) sounds pretty bad, but you seem to have missed the previous four years, where inflation was 10.1% and the price only went up 5.4%. For the interval between raising to 37¢ and raising to 44¢ (an 18.9% increase), inflation totaled 18.7%. If a difference of 0.2 points makes all that much difference, you probably shouldn't be using the first class rate anyway.
No, the essential service is mail delivery under a dollar to anywhere in the United States. That is a fundamentally different service than what is provided by Fedex or UPS.
A package of mine got lost in the mail, and they overnighted a replacement -- cause they're awesome.
> It stops US companies that rely on government provided infrastructure from shirking their financial obligations.

It also stops foreign companies from getting their money out.

If you were a outside the US and considering investing, how would this affect your decision? Is this result good or bad?

I ask because I like foreign investment and recognize that foreign investors have alternatives.
Doesn't this problem basically take the Feynman restaurant problem and replaces meal with woman?

http://www.feynmanlectures.info/exercises/Feynmans_restauran...
> I think the only _great_ dating app is okcupid

While I agree, what makes you say that? I think the biggest draw is that it's free - there's no incentive to not try it if you're trying to find love online. Is it actually better than Match, Chemistry, and whatever else I ignore during commercial breaks?
In short, no. You are calculating the expected value differently in the two problems.
A nice quote in the context of how Google made "big company" mistakes with Google Lively (part 2, ~9m in): "Most startups don't realize that one the big advantages you have is that you have a pathetically small number of customers"
The existence of lots of apps (already, before the device is even available) for creating content completely refutes this absurd argument.

On both a PC or an iPad, you can (for free or for pay) download lots of other peoples' content. And on both there are lots of opportunities for creating your own content. They don't completely overlap (each will be better for different scenarios) and that's exactly why both types of device should continue to exist.

To conflate the inability for one to compile one's own kernel with being unable to be creative on the device is silly.
On my local copy I put in something so that it looks at the second closest object to the cursor. Then only selects if the nearest object is 40% closer than the second nearest. It works pretty well to prevent ambiguity, but still gets a bit confusing when there's a few objects of different sizes nearby. Quite want to try this functionality in a real user-interface now!
The first phase is where most mistakes occur

Even if this were true, which I wouldn't argue against, it doesn't mean that it's where the mistakes of the highest aggregate value occur.

For example, what percentage of first phase rejections try again, as compared with second phase rejections?

But the trouble with that is that, unlike funding, interview slots are constrained.

You could apply the usual interview scaling technique of adding another phase (e.g. shorter pre-screen with a single interviewer) or delegating. This has the obvious disadvantages, which is, arguably, one of the major reasons big company hiring processes are so unreliable.
With the dramatic drop in mail volumes, hasn't the market (businesses and citizens alike) "voted" that traditional first-class letter (USPS only monopoly) is not a "fundamental component" of our society?

No, mail is not the fundamental component I've identified. As I said, the fundamental component is: "the ability to affordability correspond with others around the country".

If we haven't quite reached that point yet, can't you see we will?

Oh, we'll get there. I think it's high time the USPS started providing free email accounts to every United States citizen with no advertisements. The USPS can provide privacy guarantees for the data on their servers that private companies cannot offer. Plus, imagine the optimizations that would be possible in business and government methodologies if every US citizen was guaranteed to have an email address. Hell, in this day and age I'm far less likely to change my email address than my mailing address. If I had a government issued email, it would never change.
pornhub doesnt need flash on the iphone
I also remember this feature on the chess interfaces ICC and FICS back in the mid-90s.

This is an excellent example of an obvious patent with prior art on a business method that should never, ever have been granted by the patent office. Hopefully the Bilski case will render the whole issue moot.
Could this be applicable to search ranking? Say I was doing a search based on an input string, and I had a "closeness of match" heuristic. That expected value for N=100 case seemed so good that I'm considering the possibility that you only partially search any data set and return a result that is pretty much good enough. (At least initially, and then you could asynchronously add better results to the list, in the background. Then you'd get very fast first results, at the very least).
A private contractor would be happy to do that for a profitable price. Postage at a flat fee subsidizes some customers at the expense of others. If you want to send mail to the remote part of Idaho get ready for a very infrequent delivery or a high charge.
So, in a month, after the prediction market reacts to this news and starts incorporating the data, what then?

The world is not static.
He also totally nails the resistance to testing caused by fear of what testing will tell you.

I cost myself a pile of money on Facebook ads this week, trying to do an Easter promotion. That happens sometimes: new initiatives don't pan out, it is inevitable. What wasn't inevitable is after I had evidence of it not working -- and not just a little off, I mean nuke-it-from-orbit-its-the-only-way-to-be-sure monstrously off -- I decided that in spite of the evidence the problem was probably not Facebook users or my ad campaign but my stats code. ("What do you mean I'm paying $30 to sign someone up for the free trial? It costs me twenty six cents sending AdWords traffic to the same page. Clearly this math is incorrect!")

So I spent two hours rewriting my stats code to fix the "bugs" that must have been happening, then let my ads run another day. I might as well have taken $70 out of my pocket and set fire to it.
Agreed. The late 90s really presented an opportunity to the USPS, in that the postal service could have launched an ISP service to profit off the mail that was beginning to be sent online.

Today, most of the companies that send me bills or statements encourage me to get e-statements instead of paper statements, which saves the companies money -- money that used to go to USPS. If the postal service had innovated and come up with smart business solutions for sending secure, certified email to customers, they'd still be capturing that money (and possibly more.)
The problem is that bulk mail subsidizes the rest of the system. Now, you might say, then the system is flawed and perhaps a private solution would be better!

The problem is that the post office exists mostly because most rural mail costs more to deliver than the price. It is in the government's interest to make sure that it can send and receive mail to and from all pieces of the country (for taxes, the census, and for general commerce for rural areas. )

As such, bulk mail is a subsidy.
B2B Revenue Management
What's a "Universal" iPad App and How Do You Use It?
"Adding a passive delay" is very nearly a synonym for "adding latency". Not quiet. But close.
The title is off. This is a wife-selection algorithm. If anybody has real ideas for optimizing a wife, please post.

Also, if you do apply this method, don't tell your perspective wife. She will drop you like a rock.
Yes, because that strategy has worked so well with cable and broadband providers. I have a heck of a lot more faith in the USPS than Comcast.
I doubt taxes would be raised for that since the USPS is a quasi-independent "federal corporation" and therefore doesn't use tax dollars to sustain itself.
This is going to happen soon: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/04/01/business/AP-US-Be....
Why did this remind me of the "Ten Women" game?

http://www.davidlouisedelman.com/uncategorized/ten-women/
There were plenty of options for playing music otherwise. I think playing music while on the road is useless.

Except maybe for some commuters on the train. But I don't think most buyers were commuters.
The USPS by law has to be profitable. It is not funded by taxes.

(Although when there is a budget shortfall the government helps pay its bills.)
Yep. And OmniGraffle (think Visio) and Brushes for painting and Evernote and on and on. Somehow this meme got started that this device is only capable of consumption and it just doesn't make a bit of sense.
Keep in mind that they also have a government-granted monopoly. They probably wouldn't be a big otherwise.
Um, did I hit a nerve?
You are off the mark. Plenty of Fish's ad inventory is in high demand due to its self service platform and ability to target users very precisely.
1 person can only deliver to so many houses in a single day.
I did read this post, but as a warning to others, it says nothing that you didn't already know Doctorow would say about the iPad.
If there were no bulk-mail discount, though, there'd be no way to get them to follow the USPS's constraints. The discount is what gets them to presort their mail, put bar codes on it, etc.
The display may be clever, if a bit long, but clicking on a tag just seems to take one to a list of articles for that single tag.

I was half-expecting the turn-filter-on (or off) available in some of the neater e-commerce sites ...
Measuring ASP.NET and SharePoint output cache
Gotcha. I would argue back that the "under $1" isn't even a legitimate path of arguing, because the post office doesn't deliver mail for under a dollar either; you'd have to factor in the cost of the taxes that subsidize that under a dollar price.
Why do you say I can't create a book or a fanzine on an iPad? What about Pages would keep a user from making a book?

Mobile devices like iPads contribute heavily to websites by uploading text/photo content. Are they the best way to start from a blank new .html file and build your whole website by hand? No, but why do they need to be? We've got computers for that.

There will be a ton of content created on iPads. I don't know why the fact that one of their main usages is likely to be for content consumption (seems like there's a hell of a lot of that going on on "computers", too) makes you think that's all they can do.
This is a huge problem, and we need to shift the power balance away from unions. The original purpose of unions was to compensate for the imbalance of power. I don't have a problem to the extent that they merely divert executive pay down to the workers, but where they significantly increase the cost of doing business, unions are economically inefficient.

In Canada, we have a huge union called CUPE. They support an incredible variety of workers (including health care, university staff, airlines, public utilities, non-profit organizations, etc.). Each division contributes to a "national strike fund."

In my mind, this allows unions to act as a cartel. It doesn't make sense for workers in one company to be able to offset the cost of a strike in a completely different one. Of course the workers will always be able to afford a strike as long as they do it one company at a time, and wages will slowly be pushed to unsustainably high levels.

If I'm wrong on this, please correct me, because although it seems completely unintuitive, it is my understanding of the situation (Article XIV of the CUPE constitution outlines revenue collection).

They also discourage innovation to the extent that they limit businesses' ability to fire unneeded workers. There is little doubt in my mind that the transit system in Toronto uses human fare collectors because they are not allowed to replace them with machines. These folks can cost up to $40/hour. We wouldn't have had the industrial revolution if we couldn't fire the people who were no longer needed.
Wow, are the metadata of Tarsnap that demanding?
Stephen Colbert Rubs His iPad in Your Collective Face [video]
You're mistaken... The mere fact that you've done this, and gone public with it, guarantees that you'll be single for the rest of your life ;-)

Just kidding. Nice work!
Through the Dark Forest with a Critical Mind: Evaluating Information
Ordnance Survey opens UK geographic maps and datasets
"If you want to write code for a platform where the only thing that determines whether you're going to succeed with it is whether your audience loves it, the iPad isn't for you."

How is this different from writing an app for say the web? Or Linux?

What if your only audience is yourself. Or a very small group of people? Which is also perfectly possible for iPad/iPhone developers?

How does he define success? Financially? Making it available? Being able to open source it?
All the maps and datasets can be browsed here:

http://data.gov.uk/data/publicbody/Ordnance%2520Survey

Data includes postcode to GPS co-ordinates (http://data.gov.uk/dataset/os-code-point-open) and locations of all bus stops and train stations (http://data.gov.uk/dataset/naptan).
It's funny he notices the shit. I always notice all the Rosemary bushes in SF. Not implying anything just pointing out what I see.
you would think they would catch on that physical media is easily copyable where the instant downloads aren't so why not do instant for everything first then DVD.
Wolfram Alpha Announces Wolfram Alpha for ebooks
Ice Road Truckin’ In a Smart ForTwo
Doctorow is apparently philosophically opposed to:

* Devices he perceives as dumbed down

* DRM

* Old media

* Vendor lock-in

* App store models other than "bazaar"

Most of these have pros and cons; the iPad is not going to be everything to everyone but rather the result of a highly opinionated design process. If "it just works" and "tons of apps available for $10" fit your usage profile, so be it. There are plenty of cultural and usability benefits to a consistent experience even though it comes at the cost of some user control.

If this market isn't for you, there's always an Eeebuntu box with your name on it.
Both root comments so far complain about the UI changes - I really don't get it. I've switched between OSX, Win, Linux, and the button issue is trivial (OSX has top left buttons). I couldn't give two shits about whether to yank the mouse to the top right or top left to close a window. Mostly I use alt-space or ctrl-w/q for window control anyway. Foreign languages have slightly different keyboard layouts and it takes about 30 seconds to adjust (motor memory ftw).

What I care about are the fundamentals - hardware (sound, brightness, video driver support, battery life). The availability of quality software and ease of installing/removing it (cleanly) - mostly great.

The same people who learn arcane vi/emacs/cli syntax complain about moving their mouse to the opposite corner - please!

I've been running Ubuntu 9.10 exclusively for a while now, and besides hardware support issues (nvidia driver crashing X), shitty sound (midi, and the kde vs. gnome way of handling sound), and Adobe Flash/Air suckage I haven't had any complaints.

Win7 feels far worse. In fact, just install kubuntu and be done with it. UI-wise: KDE => like Window, Gnome => like OS X - pick your poison.
Funny, but the reason my relationships have gotten better over time has just as much to do with how much I've grown as it does with my partners.
The story reminded me kind of the old "bean jar" experiment http://www.jstor.org/pss/4479031
Isn't it amazing that you can effectively estimate all kind of information by people randomly guessing, as long as the sample is big enough?
Scientists are just starting to tap into the data of social networks. In a few years our twitter / facebook profiles might be able to predict the economic growth, or the stock market.
Actually, my claim is not that the cost would be more than a dollar, but that private carriers would flat-out refuse to deliver to many locations in the US (and with good reason; it wouldn't be profitable). We already see this problem with the lack of internet connectivity in many rural areas.

So if you believe that this sort of communication is a fundamental right for all citizens, than the service needs to be provided by the public sector. It's impossible to build a profitable business in the private sector out of it.
Who cares? The site is a site for ranting, and you are upset that he is ranting there? If you want to see "real valuable content", try to submit something yourself. I see you have 0 submissions.
The difference in this case is that you can't switch back to a woman you've already "sampled." With Feynman's restaurant, we can sample ten dishes, and choose the fourth dish for the rest of eternity. With the wife selection algorithm (a modification of the "Sultan's Daughter" problem) we're only allowed to marry the current candidate, or take a pass on her. Exes are off-limits.
Apple now controls 89% of mobile developers' mindshare
Where Android SDK Outshines iPhone SDK
I hadn't heard that, got a link? I guess that points to that PR failure I was speaking of though, I have been following this and I haven't heard that once.

I will say though, having heard that, it doesn't sound like a very good reason for the switch.
Here are two other articles from Boing Boing, found by clicking on the big picture links at the top of this anti-iPad article:

"Apple's iPad is a touch of genius"
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/03/31/a-first-look-at-ipad.ht...

"The Elements for iPad: Hands-on review"
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/04/01/the-elements-for-ipa.ht...

I'm confused now. Is it good or is it evil?
Twitter Links Loading Malware
His point is the exact opposite of what you're saying. He's alluding to the fact that Apple's application review process has as much, or more, to do with your success than whether your users love the app or not. If Apple decides to reject you, or reject a needed update, or even just delay it for an extraordinary amount of time, you're out of business.

This is the exact opposite of a web app, or a linux app, or even a desktop OSX app. You write it, you distribute it, and it's on you to make it successful.
I can't recall where I've seen this before, but it's http://mathworld.wolfram.com/SultansDowryProblem.html, the Sultan's Daughter problem.
Here is what I hate about the USPS and spam. I opened a PO Box to receive rental payments on some properties I owned. The only people who got this address were tenants. It wasn't used for anything else. I'd check it once a month and it would be crammed full of ads. By crammed I mean seriously tightly wedged full of junk. I'd have to pick through it all to try and find my rent checks and not throw them out with the ads.

That was a pain but here's the question: How did they (advertisers) know this box was open and active? If mail was going to it before I opened it, what did they do with it? I tried complaining but got the "we have to deliver every piece of mail regardless of the originator". My best guess is mail was being sent there from a previous user and while it was vacated they just threw it away or something. Once the new user (me) opened it back up I just started getting it all.

At one point I just let the junk accumulate to see what would happen. I'd get the "real" mail but the junk (which could no longer really fit) stopped showing up. Then I got a note that I need to clear it out more often or they would close it though :(
Taking it too far.

All I said was that in a professional setting, pointing your feet at the other person is not a clever gesture.

As for your other list of gestures and social expectations, they seem to reek of your own identity issues with being Indian in a foreign setting, not mine. I have eaten beef, pork, cohabited, called elders/boss by first name, smoked, and counter-argued. None of them are offensive and most of them are actually personal things.

>> Will you refuse to work with someone trans-gendered, as would happen "instantly" in India?

Huh, don't you think it's a rather bold and unforgiving assumption that simply because one is Indian, he/she would have an issue working with a trans-gendered person?
This review was so good that I was able to watch it with the sound off and yet it left me with no additional questions.

The reviewer flipped through most of the out of the box functionality of the iPad in real time with decent editing and no flashy graphics or bulleted lists.

Thanks, PCMag!
The iPad needs its Hypercard
Doctorow is completely missing the point of the iPad, IMO.

He spends nearly the entire article arguing against the iPad's ability to impact journalism / magazines which, I sincerely doubt, has anything to do with why most people are excited to get their hands on one . . .
I think you did. Around here, I think that many people see the iPod as the kind of success that they would love to emulate. The iPod did something simple, play music, but it wasn't useless. In dash vinyl record players did that as well, but the iPod did it really well. Apple created an elegant device that solved a simple, but very common task. They combined this with great design and brilliant advertising. For this they were rewarded with truckloads of money from satisfied customers. This is something to be studied and emulated, not derided by calling it useless.
Did you notice when you posted that that you also fried the entire premise of the linked article? Work still beckons, email still beckons.

If it is left up to the user to not permit those things to beckon, well, gosh, I can do that right now on any machine I choose, there's nothing special about the iPad.

There is no such thing as "work machine" or "personal machine". There are only computers. Turing machines. A computer is what you make of it. In fact I'd fight anyone who tries to hide this fundamental mathematical truth, because they're probably trying to lock me in a trunk. Which in fact Apple is. (The metric works!)

http://www.scripting.com/davenet/2001/08/01/bigBlankMachine....
The most common navigational mistakes we all make (LA is east of Reno)
I'm doing the exact opposite of this: telecommuting.

I can't imagine myself spending 3 hours a day in the car. I'd die of boredom and frustration (not to mention feel guilty about burning all that fuel just so I can work).