skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I think that his digs about user experience are based on UI toolkits and following all the Apple interface rules and conventions. His example at the end of the post is the desktop version of Amazon Kindle (bad, because it uses the QT toolkit and its buttons don't line up in an Apple-approved way) versus the iPhone version of Kindle (good because it's "a native iPhone app, written in Cocoa Touch").

It's a pretty standard line: Apple does it better by scrupulously maintaining identity of interface design and conventions; Linux or Android or Windows is less good because there's so much more variety (visually and in terms of what buttons do what). (Please note: I'm describing a common argument, not taking sides on it one way or another.)

So in that sense, he's not really talking about programming languages so much as UI toolkits and I suppose the conventions that go with them. If there were a way to turn Haskell code into a perfectly Cocoa UI, he might very well like it fine. Though, actually, in my experience, he usually finds a way to side with Apple no matter what else is the case...
That's patently wrong.

Until now, you could link to an interpreter, as long as all the code that it running was bundled with the app as downloaded from the App Store. No code could be generated by the user or downloaded from the net, though.

A lot of games use interpreters. ScummVM is used for the official Broken Sword port, the original SCUMM engine is used in the remake of The Secret of Monkey Island, and a lot of commercial iPhone game frameworks use Python or Lua as a scripting language.

That said, I have an implementation of Conway's game of Life on my iPhone, downloaded from the app store. Life is Turing equivalent, and the user can create his own patterns. I guess the app reviewers didn't know about it (or don't care about it since the applications are very limited).
It sure makes for great entertainment, this Apple vs Adobe war we find ourselves in.
Amazon pays partial refund for PS3 sale due to OtherOS feature removal
One of my yardsticks is that when the Economist supports something, it's clear that those that claim that it would be "bad for business/bad for the market" are no longer to be believed.
Doesn't the POSIX subsystem have no network access (I was an NT guy a decade ago and I seem to remember this being true back in the day)?
Why not just tag it with both "Family" and "Kids"... you know... like you can do with labels?
For your exaple, what about putting the following in the "From:" search field:

example.com OR joe@foo.com OR bob@bar.com) AND (after:2007/8/1 before:2008/8/30

Yes, it's somewhat awkward syntax, but it gets the results you're looking for.
The two monad tutorials referenced in the talk and the clojure.contrib.monads source explain monads in the same way:

http://onclojure.com/2009/03/05/a-monad-tutorial-for-clojure...
http://intensivesystems.net/tutorials.html

The onclojure tutorial shows how (let ..) and (for ..) expressions are all about nested functions and how you can construct them yourself with monads. Be sure to work through it to part 4 which shows an elegant solution using monads for the Monty Hall problem, which is about probabilities and distributions.
wdym? proportionally to available computing power, probably yes, malware should be on decline as a percentage. but total should still be growing?

do you mean network overhead? I think funny videos from youtube and pirated material is leader here.
Apple just sues you, if they suspect, and the court will find out.
As an iPhone developer, I'm glad Apple banned cross-compiling
Apple takes stance on consciousness
One of the most interesting posts I've read so far regarding the whole apple/adobe nonsense.
Sweet. I've long held the belief that a good information manager should allow any folder to have multiple parent folders...thus allowing the user to store their information hierarchically, or labelly, or a mixture, depending on what is most natural for them.

As it happens, that's what I'm working on at the moment: a web-based information manager (notes, bookmarks, uploaded files etc), with nested labels + search as you type.
Despite the name which makes it sound like it's only for lawyers, I learned a lot from this website: http://www.typographyforlawyers.com/ .
It could still be enforcable in court.
I agree - all they've done is change how the labels are displayed. The 1:many relationship (which is the power of labels, and where Outlook fails) hasn't gone anywhere.

Some people don't get labels, and use them like Outlook folders. They were doing this before the labels were hierarchical, and they'll keep doing it. But for those of us who get (and love) labels, this just makes it easier to keep them under control.

My main use-case for this: I don't care about emails related to income tax for 51 out of 52 weeks. I label the messages appropriately, archive them, and search by label when I'm doing my taxes. I can now take that label - as well as the others like it - and hide them all under one "Infrequent" label and clean up my "More Labels" view.
I agree with you. I was pointing that out, regarding the title of the article, "Feature checklist dysfunction". Basically I'm critical of the very system of "checklists" for products or as a mean of comparing products.
I think Apple will like the joke and work on making it real.
"This is what happens when you let Java people write apps for your platform" :)
Tech Entrepreneur Peter Gabriel Knows What You Want
You like your physical properties to be protected right? If I stole something from you, would you consider it normal for me to get away with it because you haven't made me sign a contract? WTF dude ?!?

It's not a question of whether IP should be protected or not, it's only a question of where to draw the line. If I create something I want full rights on it, regardless of the ease with which it can be copied and my desire to be in control of the results of my work should supersede your desire to get free stuff ;)
He's happy basically because Apple has raised barriers to entry against some of his (potential) competitors.
Java Deployment Toolkit Performs Insufficient Validation of Parameters
User interface, user interface, quality of hardware, and user interface.

"Quality of hardware" boils down to user interface... just at the hardware level.

Their UI ability is the secret of Apple's success. Everyone else treats UI and design like an afterthought.
I've been working in Smalltalk since 1998. The most important points:

- Companies developing in Smalltalk were screwed up at the time
- There was an arrogance to the Smalltalk community
- TDD never really became a part of Smalltalks culture

I just got a vendor to pay attention to an (admittedly subtle) bug in GUI event processing that's been around for 12 years, causing mysterious unhanded exceptions at every company I've worked with since 2003. Their theory before this: delusional customers.

Heed this man's advice.

Your developer culture is more important than your technology! A good culture will help maintain good companies and good public relations.

Smalltalk is not dead, just hiding in niches. I plan on starting new projects soon.
In creative work, tools don't matter. In engineering, they do.

You can't build a F1 car or a space vehicle without amazing tools, but you can draw a striking picture or play beautiful music with the most humble of implements.
In real life you have a lot of information about your audience. You can guess whether jargon and equations will help or hinder communication. You are probably not reduced to guessing, you can go and ask your audience. They may come to you. This is probably not the first time you have written for them, you probably have valuable knowledge from last time.

Today's audience is not your only audience. Although you have valuable knowledge it may be in a bit of a jumble, with considerations that apply differently to different audiences clearly labelled as to whether they worked but not so clearly labelled as to the particular audience that delivered its verdict.

This deficiency is likely because high school essay writing has no audience, which trains you to ignore the most important question about writing: who is this for?
As long as I'm "selling" IKEA stuff (I wish, I just give them money ;-): in their kitchen area, there's a Dralla "cutting board". This is a pleasant piece of flexible matte plastic, a couple of millimeters thick, about the size of two sheets of paper, with rounded corners; I've seen it in dark-gray, blue and red.

I use the Dralla as a writing pad, on the desk; some people seem to like it as a giant mouse-pad. (Not in the photo, the red thing is a thicker, smaller, unused mouse-pad.)
NekoVM / Neko Programming Language
Add London to that list as well.
What Apple really has down about UIs is sparseness. "Exterminate features." I loathe clutter, both in real life and in technology.

When something on a mac looks like it should be able to be frobbed, dragged, etc., it usually can and in exactly the way that it seems like it should.

This is not the case on Windows, Linux, or anything else.
Tier 1 (which replaced the HSMP) is normally the visa most programmers use to get into the UK. Tier 2 is mainly used in professions where you can't get a Tier 1 visa but for which there is a shortage of workers in the uk.

Although if any if your grandparents were from EU countries, then that's probably the best route as you can get citizenship as opposed to just a work visa.
I feel slightly bad about phrasing it in a snarky way now. Thanks for updating it, though :)
Actually, yes. My employer caters to the enterprise market, but we use, say, Ocaml and Python, and are experimenting with Haskell.
It's quite possible to create responsive Java desktop apps. It's just that it takes an experienced Swing developer who has learned all the hard lessons about building that type of app.

That said, yes, many Java developers write bad code, but so do developers who write in other languages. Java just gets a higher profile because unfortunately the Java community has a tradition of writing libraries and APIs that sacrifice usability for flexibility (that's the kindest way I can put it, anyway).

Slightly off-topic: Am I the only one who feels that Eclipse is the IDE equivalent of a hair shirt? I find its UI sluggish, its insistence on imposing its ideas about project management on you irritating, and to be generally overcomplicated. To me, NetBeans, former versions of IntelliJ, and VS are much nicer products (mind you, half the time I still just use an text editor though).
they will not drop HTML, they will invent 'objective HTML'
If Apple wins, Adobe will be forced to target HTML5. And Flash will wither away. No other company is positioned as well as Adobe and has the intellectual capital to build a world-class HTML5 integrated development environment. However, Adobe really makes a lot of revenue from selling the servers (Flash Media Server). It is doubtful they will eat their main product line, as they are technology vegans.
It does make you wonder about Apple's commitment to supporting HTML5 web-apps. When they were an underdog it made sense, but now that they're in a position of strength you are relying on their good will, not their self-interest.

After all, if you read through Gruber's piece on the change, everything he says applies just as much to HTML5 webapps e.g. no lock-in, lowest common denominator, vague sense on non-nativeness etc.

He specifically says "There is no platform vendor for the web — and Apple has complete control over WebKit, its implementation for the web." but that could easily become the Adobe Flash or Microsoft line of "Standards bodies move too slowly for us".
Its not bad but I wish they remembered the position of opened or closed. It sucks I have to manually expand them each time I go into gmail.
Exactly this - the points he makes in the article are all correct, but they're all related to monopoly. His point is merely 'Anything that prevents others making better products is good for me'. That may be, but it's bad for the consumer.

It's like if Microsoft made it harder to write Office software for Windows, it would be good for sales of MS Office, but wouldn't be good for the consumer if it prevented people developing competing, better software.
IPhone Application Development Company
Who is SocialJitney? To start, we're not just a cabal of programmers! The members of our various teams have interests as diverse as their backgrounds and locations.
Then don't, thank you!
I think there should be grounds for anticompetitive behaviour.

Whether I bought my iPhone outright, or whether I'm tied into a contract for 18-24 months, there isn't a sense of competition because I have no reasonable alternative to purchasing from Apple's App Store.
What about the case where a large amount of apps are in the store. This is bad for both the consumer and the seller.
The Administration has also given NASA the go ahead to start reorganizing and reprioritizing Earth science missions in a sane manner. I happen to work on one, and the proposed changes we're seeing at the program level are like a breath of fresh air. They might actually decrease the amount of bureaucracy. Here's hoping Congress doesn't put the kibosh on them.
Reduce wasted efforts... [software dev]
It wasn't funny then, either. And, I'm not sure I get it in the "today" context.
I think the Linux comparision is apt. While you don't have to pay money for enthusiasts--their efforts are still a limited resource.
You don't achive quality without control
Deploying Django on Apache with multiple domains
This post is about how to deploy Django in a quick and easy way on a server which runs Apache with mutiple domains using mod_python. This is a good way for you who assign domains dynamically instead of adding each domain as a separate virtual host tag.
Ask HN: The Walled Garden vs the Bazaar - is Apple dead?
Proprietary Unix vs the Bazaar (Linux): the Bazaar wins.

Proprietary APIs Browsers vs the Bazaar (Open Web Standards): the Bazaar wins.

Proprietary Web Servers vs the Bazaar (Apache): the Bazaar wins.

In many cases, the more open, democratic Bazaar has won against proprietary closed systems.

Apple seems to be turning their mobile platforms into proprietary closed Walled Gardens.

Has this achieved a short term increase in quality (allegedly) but consigned Apple to long term failure?

The Bazaar seems to win nearly all the time.
30 million cellphones to be disconnected across Mexico this weekend
Circle Covering Points Problem
I don't like it when they write "April Fools!" at the end. It ruins the fun. Imagine if you punctuated all your jokes with a laugh and a loud "Joking!" ...
If I own a chair and someone take it without me ok:ing it first, then it obviously isn't ok, since I wouldn't have any chair left.

If, on the other hand, I had made a chair and someone looked at it and made a similar chair, then I would think it ok. This since I would still have my chair.

See the difference?
Sorry, but "I'm glad because I don't have to learn something new" just isn't a convincing argument to me. If something is useful and worth learning, the short-term cost of learning something is repayed many times over in the long term.

And I think that Flash and other cross-compilers are worth the time in the long term. Using just one programming language exclusively is like having a hammer. The thing about hammers is that when they're all you have, every problem has a nasty habit of turning into a nail.
Yeah I would so very love, if MS make IE the only supported browser on Windows, All that testing and all would have spared.
Dick
How about "buying native support for partitioning and hash joins is cheaper than hacking it up in MySQL"?

I regularly work on DBs of 10s of teras with NO sharding or any of that nonsense.
How is that bad for the consumer? Lots of apps means lots of supply, which means lower prices for the consumer.
Given that email doesn't have markup, this opens up the possibility that formatted text will be ruined by the MUA.
This is an outstanding audio essay on the state of copyright in America:
http://www.negativland.com/news/?page_id=16
Maybe standards do move too slowly for Apple. The reason they're not like Adobe or Microsoft (to answer your implicit comparison) is that neither Flash nor Silverlight are open standards, whereas Webkit is open-source. In that sense every progress Apple makes is accessible to everyone and not in Apple's control. So I don't really understand your fear (or your comparison).
The lowest price is already mandated by Apple. There is no lower price possible. Lots of apps means a big discovery problem by the consumer. They can't find the good apps then.

So prices stay the same and the customer does not find what he wants.
Ask HN: Meeting other designers & Dribble.
As a designer (and developer in a secondary sense) - I really enjoy design based sites/galleries etc. That said with the launch of dribbble.com (twitter for designers which is invite only) - I realized I didn't know many designers at all. I know a boat load of developers, but where are the designers.

So my question is to my fellow designers, as well as developers - where do you go to network with designers? (online and offline)

if you are a designer - please post your twitter, or linkedin - I'd love to get some networking going!

my twitter: http://www.twitter.com/nasherasher
There was a rant here recently that, in passing, noted that there's more blacksmiths alive today than ever in history and that more people are making neolithic arrowheads today than at any point in history.

The point of the article is that we're living longer, but the headline stat is probably mostly due to the fact that there's lots of us about.
If you steal a bike from me, I have lost a bike. If you "steal" a design from me, I am still free to write code from that design, but with the added benefit that if I don't want to bother, others can do so also. I don't want to have to sign a waiver every time I give some advice.

Yes it sucks that you got ripped off. But you should have had a contract before undertaking a paid project. There's a reason it's called contract work.
You seem to think I want to get rid of copyright. What gave you that idea?

I'm just saying that on this issue, the reality is very different than what people are allowed to acknowledge in public, and that's stupid.
It's important to note that this is just the appeal against the original ruling that the words meant something he didn't mean to say. The libel action itself is still alive and well, but at least now he doesn't have to defend something he never said and doesn't believe. Instead he can defend what he did say and does believe.
Or: "I've found a niche! Don't let other people into my niche, they might do it better/cheaper/faster!"
Do you mean take a view of the website, like http://www.websnapr.com/ does, or do you mean a view of the whole screen?

I'm sure I've seen the whole screen version but can't find it. There are several screencast creation programs - this http://alicious.com/2010/online-screencast-tools/ gives a roundup of a few.

Also aviary and pixlr have plugins for FF that allow you to take screenshots; as mentioned in that link.
Using a cross-compiler is like having a hammer and using it for nails, screws, thumbtacks etc.

There is this myth that any programmer can learn lots of new languages. That just is not true. Most programmers are good in just a few languages - the rest they are not good in.
already posted...

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=623823
for the discussion
When I was in university, that was pretty common. I think you're right, they're trying to get you back. Like the coke dealer who tells you the first one is free...
Come on - lighten up. It's an article which lampoons the behaviour of Apple.

Apple are engaging in protectionist behaviour - the development of iHTML would be the extreme conclusion of this trend.

It's relevant today, because their recent (anti-Adobe) behaviour is a nod towards the extreme behaviour described in the piece.
It does make you wonder about Apple's commitment to
supporting HTML5 web-apps.

It does not. iAd demos yesterday were HTML5 apps.
And frankly, if anything even remotely looks like iHTML in the original post, it's Flash.
Jobs Ban of Non C Libraries is an Insane Restraint of Trade
I mean just from website, something similar you mentioned, but with higher resolution. It also offered a layer where user can enter some details for the screenshot and then press "send" button to send this screenshot with his/her comments to the help desk. Thank you for your suggestions.
Just yesterday, I ran some calculations based on a different assumption, just on raw economics. It goes like this:

1) Suppose that "intellectual property" (IP) is taxed, like real estate. Say at a T = 1% rate, to keep it simple. This pays for the property protection service the state provides.

2) But the holder does not actually pay tax. He just accumulates back payments to the state, at an interest rate R per year.

3) When the state is owed 100% of the value, the IP reverts to the public domain.

This has the advantage that the property value does not matter - it can be 1, 100, 100k; nothing to haggle there. It is just assumed to be constant for the period considered.

Run your own calculations. Mine were that with a T=1% tax rate, and a R=5% interest rate on unpaid tax, you get 37 years. (26 years for R=10%, 47 years for R=3%.)

P.S.

I got curious, and just checked with a lower tax rate T=0.5%. R seems to dominate T. Here is a little table:

R=3% R=5% R=10%
T=0.5% 66 50 32
T= 1% 47 37 26
Control brings certain benefits, but there's a trade-off. The trade-off is less innovation on your platform in the long term. I think Apple made this choice deliberately. They'd rather have more control over image and UX and let everyone else "innovate" features in software, then follow with their own slick version.

They remind me of the old Mercedes in this regard.
It's more: I'm glad more people are not coming into my niche. If they did, devs will adapt, but if they are being kept out - well, that's good news.
No. All the "Bazaar" is is "Pop Culture". Lack of taste or long term effort, immediate satisfaction and everything else needed to boost your own little ego irrespective of the value you bring (or not) to the world.

Quit complaining, quit whining! Start your very own Apple, and then come back and tell us about the walls and what not.
http://www.screenshotsite.com/ is that it?
If "the cloud" becomes an important export, people in Notamericastan beware: Screw with us, and find out your data is subject to American law, subpoenas, and courts.
I don't know the author of this blog, but am I the only one here who thinks his post was satiric?
Understanding Sales People at Startups
HTML5 isn't an official standard yet.

Will Apple end up defining what becomes part of the specification due to early (premature) adoption?
Money is freedom.
Groovy++ v0.2 Small version number but huge milestone
It is true, a programmer can learn lots of new languages. It is mastering all the libraries and infrastructure which is time consuming. And you guys are all forgetting that writing large portions of your code in c++ is at the moment the most portable solution. It works on IPhone, IPad, Android NDK, PSP, Xbox, PS3, PC, Mac etc. The only thing you need to do is to hookup the platform specific gui code to your app logic.
this video made me a day thx for posting.
Choice is an Optional Feature
That's incredible. This video shows just the transmission:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwwPFJzIJhE
I think this is quite appropriate in many situations. Why?

- Unless it is during the first few weeks of April, I (and I imagine many others, too) pay no special attention to the exact date a news item or blog post was written (the year: yes, month: maybe, day: no).
- Almost everything we write on the Internet is going to be archived for future generations to read.

If topics such as this become irrelevant/non-topical in 10-15 years time, someone coming across this article for research purposes may be drawn in by the ruse.

Just a thought.