skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Just to clarify something that appears to be a common misconception - Apple doesn't ever replace the iPad battery, it just gives you a whole new iPad for $105.95:

http://www.apple.com/support/ipad/service/battery/

As a point of comparison, my Lenovo batteries that always seem to crap about a few years in cost about $100:

http://www.newegg.com/Store/BrandSubCategory.aspx?Brand=1041...

So... that's a pretty great deal. And I think speaks to how comfortable they are with the battery longevity. Or how fat their margins are.
That information isn't all that useful, since UPS and FedEx don't compete (and are forbidden to compete) in the marketplace for mail (as opposed to package) delivery. Regardless, though, I'm making a very modest claim: competitors would take away part of USPS's marketshare if they were allowed to compete. If you feel like there's a natural monopoly on mail delivery such that that wouldn't happen, you need to support that assertion.
Seriously. If Netflix instant streaming and the iTunes TV store supported closed-captioning, I'd seriously consider canceling my cable TV and going with those.

Unfortunately, I'm starting to think the only thing that's going to get consistent CC support in online video is a mandate from the federal government -- that was what it took in the early 90s to get caption decoders included in every TV 13" or larger.
Yes. I run a Python server, so there's conflict between "long_name" and "longName", and even "long-name" (which I think is semantically superior). I'm curious to hear how other people have approached encoding multi-word values in JSON and XML.
3rd San Diego Hacker News Meetup is Tonight, 7:30 PM
Where? http://searchyc.com/submissions/%2522mathpages.com%2522?only...
Law does not make reality. If it did, Obama can tomorrow sign a law saying that Government will reduce spending by 50% while providing more services. Obviously, the real life(TM) will safely ignore the law.

And I don't see a difference between whether USPS is directly funded by taxpayer dollars OR taxpayer are on the hook for unpaid USPS bills.
April fools?

Oh no... it's Java.
Plus most of the mail (bills) get delivered digitally
No one is trying to say that it's anything like a religion. Rather, the statements being made are about the long-term effects on the consumer. For instance, we are getting scarily close to Stallman's Right To Read scenario. As long as closed platforms are preferred to open ones, we have a problem-- not a religious problem, but a pragmatic and practical problem. One may even go so far as to frame the open vs. closed dichotomy in terms of long-term versus short-term goals.
I'm not stuck with them, I just use Haskell.

Just because Java is popular doesn't mean you have to use it.
What happens when Apple decides that the current model of iPad is too old to bother replacing batteries on? You can no longer maintain your own device.

If you have to send it to Apple, you already can't maintain your own device, regardless of whether they decide to keep supporting it.

I would note that Apple still replaces batteries for the original iPod. And as far as I know Apple doesn't prevent third parties from replacing batteries. What is the fundamental difference between the batteries and another component, like the hard drive?
I remember when people used to carry around large binders of CD's. That all seemed to stop after the iPod became popular.
I actually believe that's one of the points of chapter 13 bankruptcy: To stop the accrual of interest on debts when the person can pay the interest for functionally forever, but almost never the principal.

>How long does a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy take to pay off?

>The size of your monthly plan payments is determined by the amount you can afford to pay after paying necessary living expenses (including insurance, mortgage payments, etc.).
Typically, the Plan payments last for 36 months, unless additional time is requested, but in no event will they last more than 60 months. Therefore, if your payment analysis shows, for example, that you can afford to pay $200.00 per month (above and beyond your normal living expenses), you would pay that each month to the Chapter 13 Trustee, who would disperse it pro rata among your creditors. At the end of 36 months, you are discharged from all dischargeable unsecured debts, regardless of how much your creditors have received.

from: http://www.creditinfocenter.com/bankruptcy/chapter13BK.shtml
And yet: Please show me a product or object hailed by the design elite as Good that doesn’t just so happen to be aesthetically pleasing.

craigslist, anyone?
I've tried replacing parts inside Apple devices before, and they're not built for that generally. Does Apple go so far as to embed "booby traps" like those seen in the PlayStation 2 which attempt to punish people who self-repair by breaking their devices? I honestly don't know how easy it is to replace the battery without permanently damaging the device, so I'd say it's not a settled matter that there's nothing physically preventing one from doing it.
Right, and then HTML/CSS ids and classes further muddy the waters. It's usually worth keeping at least your model attributes with the same name, from DB column through Web App to JS. So we do:

doc.set({related_article : 'http://...'});

Even though you might have:

doc.openRelatedArticle();

As a method on the JS model. Definitely less than ideal.
Your followers are each worth a lot more than Kardashian's though. Celebrities and people on Twitter's recommended list are going to have much lower-value followers by a lot.

But the real problem here is the value proposition of Twitter is that you are getting genuine information from an individual or entity you care about. This is why Twitter is great for individuals and good for corporate PR/marketing, but it falls apart the minute you have sponsored tweets. This not only hurts the individual accepting payola but it also hurts Twitter as a whole as the "others" over time come to associate it with just another annoying marketing medium.

It's probably possible for some celebrities to skillfully walk the line and extra some fair value out it like product placement in television shows, but I think the opportunities are pretty limited.
Mercedes Benz Museum's ventilation system can form an artificial tornado
For me, data passed from server to client is encoded as long_name. The reason here being that I name database columns long_name and thus propagating this structure all the way down makes sense. Most other things are camelCased, except local_variables.
Article Summary:

Bee populations have continued a precipitous decline since 2006, dropping 32% in 2007, 36% in 2008, and 29% in 2009. This not only effects honey but also the $15 billion in crops depending on pollination by bees. The phenominon is called “colony collapse disorder” in is happening all over the world. The cause is probably a result from many factors and increased use of pesticides is likely a major cause. Pesticide use has increased significantly in the last few years in places like Florida to fight a plant disease hitting the orange crops.

http://hnsummary.com/2010/04/02/scientists-stumped-as-bee-po...
Taxes don't really subsidize the USPS, losses are paid for by tax money but they're supposed to run at a profit, which is why they have to cut mail delivery or increase stamp price.

They can afford ridiculously low postage because they have a government granted monopoly on mail so they can price their rates at a level to subsidize Remote, Oregon with profit from Portland. If they didn't have to deliver to the middle of nowhere they could probably lower prices significantly.

Which is why they need the monopoly, if I could set up a mail company in just the top 20 cities in the country I could undercut the USPS and then they'd suffer enormous revenue shortages because they'd still be mandated to deliver everywhere.
Tritium is produced by fission reactors, tritium decays into an isotope of helium.

So i think this is different from oil where oil can't really be produced.

I'm not saying we should crap all of our helium away, but I'm having a hard time being concerned about something that we can at least hypothetically produce.

Also, more on deep earth nuclear reactors:
http://www.pnas.org/content/98/20/11085.full
I think the time I save not having to buy 2 cent stamps more than makes up for inflation, et al.
I agree, but that's a different problem. Consumers need to get angry with carriers and manufacturers that drop the device at the first sign of obsolescence. That carriers are jerks says nothing about the platform itself, but rather that Google isn't successfully strong-arming carriers into supporting handsets for a reasonable length of time.
Debt slavery? Not even close. In America, there are numerous ways still to discharge your sins of a previously extravagent lifestyle funded on credit card. You can declare bankruptcy (the article mentions the high cost of $2000+, but there are free social services that will help reduce that cost). You can refuse payment for many years, eventually settling to pay off 10-20 cents on the dollar for debt. You can choose to work in jobs getting paid in cash, thereby having no records of salary, and pay no taxes, and eventually your debt is discharged. And so on.

Personally I would like to see people who declare bankruptcies multiple times to serve some sort of jail terms.
Now if only they'd port this interface to standard GMail.
Just wondering: how would they handle it when you move?
Whole Foods working to curb Facebook-based scam
And, since we are talking about something as hyped as the iPad, getting a replacement battery will be ridiculously easy as will getting the thing inside the device. There will (literally!) be hundreds of step by step instructions online and there will be more than one vendor willing to take your money for a battery.

I could get a replacement battery for my trusty six year old iPod mini (still works like on day one) right now. Costs $15 and even comes with tools to open the little sucker up. Let’s just hope the iPad’s battery is not soldered in :)
They still seem to have created a model that fit the outcomes. There's no cross-validation here (since there's only two data points).

The real question is whether they can take this fitted model and apply it to future movies.
more detailed spoiler:

Subversion exists to be universally recognized and adopted as an open-source, centralized version control system characterized by its reliability as a safe haven for valuable data; the simplicity of its model and usage; and its ability to support the needs of a wide variety of users and projects, from individuals to large-scale enterprise operations.

A shorter, business-card-sized motto might be: "Enterprise-class centralized version control for the masses".
How-to sell to enterprise customers (for startups)
GAME CHANGER 
PROBLEM/OPPORTUNITY
Most automobile engines retain an average efficiency of about 18%-20% and only about 15% of the energy from the fuel you put in your tank gets used to move your car down the road or run useful accessories, such as air conditioning. The rest of the energy is lost to engine and driveline inefficiencies and idling.
And then everyone who ever reads your code has to look up your versions of the utility methods to make sure they are implemented the way one expects.
Yeah, toughbooks tablets are pretty neat. They're also about 3 pounds and are full blown PC's, which sounds great but most workplaces have to endure much higher costs from maintaining and administering full blown PC's than they'd endure from a more limited device.
I agree with Doctorow's points only when looking at the iPad as a replacement for a personal computer. If you look at it like a consumer appliance (just like the iPod Touch, iPhone, Kindle, Nook, etc.) then the iPad isn't really any different in is approach than any other appliance.

The iPad doesn't strike me as a device for any sort of creative type (producing code, documents, photographs, etc). Instead, it is a device for media consumption, just like a television or set-top box. People who want to create things will buy a PC. Just like having a PC connected to a television is useful, having an iPad that syncs with a PC might be useful to some.

In short, the greatest danger here is letting people think of the iPad as a replacement for the personal computer. Hopefully the public at large will agree.
Indeed. I think the OC was illustrating the converse situation, which is that unfunded mandates to the private sector are untenable.

In either case, I agree that the two go together. Perhaps there's just too much ambiguity in the term "privatization."
Daring Fireball: The Kids Are All Right
I've outsourced my snail mail spam handling to a mail forwarding service called St. Brendan's Isle (there are others like Paperless Mail). They shred and recycle junk mail for me automatically. I never even see it.

I tried going through the process of unsubscribing and opting out of everything I could find, and while it slowed for a few weeks, it eventually picked up again (just like email spam, when you make use of "opt out" options). J. Crew were the most damnably aggressive spammers...after repeated attempts to opt out, they were still sending me two catalogs a week. I'll never make the mistake of buying someone a gift from J. Crew again.

Anyway, I needed a mail forwarding service, anyway, since moving into an RV, but this turned out to be an awesome bonus and I wish I'd set it up years ago. I will never be without a mail forwarding service again...for less than $20/month it's just too convenient to have someone else sort and scan my mail, and get rid of the garbage.
There is nothing wrong with thinking one thing today and changing your mind later based on new information. He made good points and clearly thought about his arguments. I think he's mostly right. I have been on the fence about getting an iPad it for all the reasons in the article. But I can agree with those points and still feel like there are enough advantages that I'm willing to accept the disadvantages. Obviously, not everyone will feel that way.

People generally don't buy products because they're perfect. They buy them because the good things outweigh a few blemishes.

There is no doubt the iPad will be a better product a year from now. Some of the flaws might be fixed or will be out shined by new features. There's nothing wrong with finding enough good later that it changes your feelings from a year ago.
Wow, it is great to see this second order ripple, good job!

Scale Well was itself inspired by The Awesome Foundation (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1040599) which has grown from our original Boston chapter to include Providence, NYC, and SF. Two more cities are ramping up: Ottawa and Philly.
I get the sentiment, but I think you're exaggerating a bit. The device does allows you to install content creation tools and it's nowhere near as locked down as you imply.
It's dubious to rely on a company's electronic records for your statements imo. They can delete or change anything they want. They can easily make an accusation that your e-mailed statement was forged. It'd be harder to make the same accusation on mailed statements, especially since most use paper with special watermarks or letterheads.

I still get paper statements because it makes things less scary!
This resonated with me: "Is there more influence in the tail than in the head? If you talk to 100k people who talk to 10 people each, do you get more bang than talking to one person who has 1m followers?"

And I'd say the answer is emphatically yes. I'm far more likely to listen to the opinions of friends and family (especially knowledgeable ones) than a celebrity whose celebrity is derived solely from being a celebrity.

I've actually been building a product over the last month that taps into these sort of long-tail recommendations, which I hope to launch as soon as this weekend. We'll see if it proves more valuable to its users than a $10,000 tweet from Kim Kardashian, but I'd be shocked if the answer wasn't "yes."
The guy in the park with the "Jesus Saves" sign thinks his protest needs to be loud, too.

The point is, Cory Doctorow is in a small, small minority. The minority isn't small because people don't know what he's saying -- it's small because they don't care. He's protesting the very philosophy that gives Apple products the quality that people who buy Apple products desire. And honestly, making the openness of Apple products your raison d'etre is a bit like getting furious about the mechanical details of your favorite brand of dishwasher. The answer is always the same: don't like it? Don't buy it.

Cory is more than welcome to continue to post these sorts of rants on his blog, of course, but let's not turn them into more than what they are: one guy, forcefully advocating an opinion about something that really doesn't matter that much to most people, and that he can't really change.
The issue here is if most parents buy their kids and IPad instead of a real computer. They would probably be less hackers/engineers in the future if this happens.
No contributory infringement from eBay sale of Tiffany's knockoffs
> however, that the world should have open computers and not closed ones because that creates a better experience for consumers in the long run.

I'm pretty neutral about the iPad at the moment, but just wanted to point out that the world has had "open" computers for nearly 30 years and so far, I would argue they have not been better for the consumer.

Just look at Linux on the desktop. :)
Very well said. This is why I keep telling my family about how closed a platform the iPad actually is. I honestly don't mind if consumers make an educated decision to buy an iPad. I may buy one too (probably not, but you never know...). But the fact that most people don't know much about what they are actually buying, and the fact that Apple won't inform them of the downsides, means that those of us who do know have to make up the difference.
App Inventor sounds like it was designed to do that:

http://sites.google.com/site/appinventorhelp/

(Fun fact: Hal Abelson is now working with Google on App Inventor. That would explain why it has some Scheme code underneath.)
Simply because it's different doesn't mean it's essential. Is there an inalienable right to mail delivery whose rate structure ignores distance? Why doesn't the same right protect people from paying a premium for mailing heavy objects?
"Will want me" is a necessary criterion for my ideal wife!
Ask HN: Are there any hackers in Montreal?
Is there any hackers meet-up or startups near of Montreal?
I didn't say I agree with him. I just said I don't agree with making up a straw man argument and then burning it down.
"Duis aute irure dolor iPad in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse CEO Steve Jobs dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Windows 7 ha ha ha."

Indeed.
Exactly. Enterprise IT doesn't want "computers" for it's employees. They spend so much time locking down, reconfiguring, managing etc. PC's in the workplace. Build the few in house apps employees need as iPad apps or web pages and freakin be done.

iPad with a keyboard and maybe bigger screen will be the netPC et al, done right.
Thanks. A wallflower is not always a wallflower. I can talk about the topic of democratized self-expression for hours, in person, to the point of nausea.

My brother-in-law had a PC laptop for years. Kids used it mainly for Brainpop.com (warning addictive site for kids). He used it for email,

Then he got a MacBook Pro. And, suddenly, he's authoring photo slideshows and videos in iPhoto, iMovie. Producing content that is of very specific interest to him (his family) for a very specific audience (his mother, father, sister).
I understand what you mean but I think presenting it as 20% is misleading imho.

One might conclude that it's doesn't matter if you choose a nice, good-looking, smart etc. person vs another poor choice. Because with your figures (40 and 80%), you could still "optimize" the person later, in theory.
> what you have is a work computer

The 20+hours/wk playing games would beg to differ.
" It's a consumer electronics device, not a religion."

To be fair, it pretty much is treated like a religion, as it is hailed as the new kind of computing that will take over the mainstream.
This happens regularly in business. The established players completely miss huge opportunities that later overtake the market. This is also why businesses must be allowed to fail and new enterprises must be allowed to be formed.
Linux on the desktop is still irrelevant (although I do love it, so it's been great for this consumer). But what fraction of the web wouldn't exist today if not for Linux servers and Apache? Are you willing to say consumers aren't better off because of those open systems?
And this is opposed to the threat of having mail that needs to be signed-for turn up at your house only on a weekday while you are at work. Currently I can tell USPS to just deliver it again when I know I will be home (on Saturday).
Reading this it just seems to grant the congress the right to create a Post Office. Is this the same as a mandate to provide this service?
Kids are all right!

http://daringfireball.net/2010/04/kids_are_all_right
This was interesting, but could definitely use some exposition on how they decided to set it up this way and why it works for them.

As far as I can tell, it sounds like they just stumbled into a working configuration, which I'd like to believe is not the point at all.
Raising prices by ~4.5 percent will probably reduce the flow of mail.
Go figure: by counting how many people are excited for a film the week before it opens, you can estimate how much money it makes. Even if the model is perfect and works everytime, it is not giving you any useful information.

If the prediction can be moved from one week out to a month or more out from the release of the film, there may be actual applications. For instance, helping theaters decide which movies to show and on how many screens, or how many weeks to run a movie for.
Probably because console gaming had always been closed and the introduction of x360 didn't really make things any worse than they were.

Also the game developers who would like to see open gaming platforms are probably outnumbered by the people who are now worried about a more closed general software industry => more noise.
Indeed, it is bizarre that the courts allow creditors to continue charging 25%+ interest even after garnishment has begun. High interest rates like that might be considered "fair" while there is still a high chance of default---but pretty gratuitous once the person is already being forced to repay.
True.

In my mind I was imagining a person who shows off Ubuntu would know how to do such a thing, but these days that's probably not (necessarily) true, even if it were, it still doesn't matter if the person they're showing it off to wouldn't be able to easily do it too.
Google Maps Street View in 3D
"Jesus Saves" isn't backed up by any facts. Consider this as more of an educational campaign, to proclaim loudly the facts about these devices and why alternatives might be more attractive.
I think you're right. I'm not impressed with the "competition". Most have crappy battery life and make the mistake of equating your finger to the mouse. It's really quite frustrating. I think the iPad's interface presents a lot of interesting opportunities but you have to ask Apple "Mother May I". Until someone like Google or MS presents an alternative and workable standard other manufacturers to follow the situation won't improve.