skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Perhaps iAds will work because of Apple's well known approval process. It's one thing to create interactive ads, it another to keep the quality high enough in general that people bother to click them.
Serious limitations and certainly by no means a seamless experience. For example, you can't get updates on SMS messages unless you use a hack (like Prowl).
> Now we weren't the first to this party, but we're gonna be the best. Just like cut and paste.

I'm not sure if I'm more amazed at how something as inane as this basic operation is touted as a huge feature differentiator, or that the CEO of a multi-billion dollar a year computing company, who's been in the business literally from the start, talks about it with breathless urgency like it's the second coming.

Copy/cut and paste is not a major feature, it should be buried among a list of minor enhancements. It's like the equivalent and releasing a new keyboard with a shift key on either side!
I know some game makers, and I'm pretty sure none of them like the current paradigm much either. It's a pain in the ass. Because of the horrendous distribution system, to succeed on the iPhone you have to be constantly gaming the app store, and every hour you spend doing that is an hour you didn't spend making your game better.

This is why we've never touched it. On Facebook, we just have to make our users want to invite other users. We don't have to constantly release new versions and incentivize users to download them just to get ourselves back in the top 20. There are some tricks, of course, but they're less of a detour from the desired path, if that makes sense.

iAds will make success on the platform a numbers game. Every free app will run it because it can't pay worse than the current options, even with the 40% rake. Paid apps will break out the spreadsheet and almost certainly find a CPA below the app's price for a paid one. My totally off-the-cuff guess is that with a really engaging iAd you'll end up paying $1 to sell a $2 app, at which point it's all about volume. Selling a million like that might be doable, and now we're talking money in line with what Facebook apps can make.

Still, the problem will be that the most successful iPhone apps make about the same amount lifetime that the most successful Facebook apps make in a month. But the odds of succeeding may now be high enough to make it a worthwhile play.
> Only in the sense that "property is theft."

Copyright and property are fundamentally different things with different histories and different treatments under the law. Almost all human societies have property or at least a system of possession which excludes others. Copyright is a modern invention.

If I take your car you're out a car, but if I take a song you're singing you don't even have to know.

> How does it rob you of a part of "our culture" if I require that I get paid for any re-publication you do of work that I create?

Have you heard of Google books? It's an incredibly ambitious project where google went and scanned a bunch of library books and put them on the web where they can be searched and read. For works in the public domain you can download the full text of the book and do whatever you want with it. It's like the world's biggest library, except the only books with text are the ones from the 1920s and earlier. Everything else is just a dust jacket.

I've been reading a lot of early 20th century books. When I find a good one I can email my friend a like to a book by Upton Sinclair or H.L. Mencken. But I won't be able to do that for decades with Salinger, if ever.

Creative works don't belong to anyone, but to all of us. We grant artists a temporary monopoly to encourage them. This I can live with, but please lets actually make it temporary.

Why shouldn't LotR be in the public domain? The author is dead. Who is collecting royalties?
What is a use case for multi-tasking on a phone that you want/need that could only be covered by full preemptive multi-tasking of third party apps?
Google has said themselves they think mobile advertising is their future. That is the reason behind the huge android push. It isn't their main cash cow now, but they know it will be and I think I heard they think that within a 5 yearish span.
In what way is the 3GS non-jailbreakable?
Nothing. But likewise, Google's core competence in search doesn't help them at all, while iAd will be baked into the development kit, App Store, and millions of devices.
Looks like Apple is finally catching up to Android.
The Agile Startup Manifesto
Why iPad Will Dominate and How to Beat It
I'm not a jailbreaker (I want my iPhone to work. All the time.) But I don't begrudge you your jailbreak or your opinion.

I'm just reacting to the implication that there is something shady about them not giving the 3G a feature.
Google Maps is clearly necessary on the iPhone but Google Search could be easily replaced with Bing.
"Local notifications (don't require the server)"

Does anyone know if this means any O/S object that broadcasts notifications via NSDistributedNotificationCenter (http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/documentation/Coco...) will now work?

Previously there was no way to receive notifications from any other app or O/S process.
Ah, there's the miscommunication. It doesn't matter if you make them or Adobe makes them, they won't look like Apple's widgets, and that's the important part.
It's jailbreakable but its a tethered jailbreak, which is not very useful...

Imagine having to reboot your phone when you dont have access to your laptop ==> No phone till you get home.

If an un-tethered jailbreak becomes avaiable I would upgrade in a heart-beat.
No More 3rd Party iPhone App Frameworks?
This was detailed in the presentation. Using Google's Admob ads presumably will not be as seamless of an experience for the app developer.

It'll be harder to implement things like keeping the user in the app while viewing the ad or adding video/photos.

What if using Apple's ad network is few lines of code? No library to import, or have a 3rd party dependency on your app.
The people that were actively pointing to reasons why multitasking for the iPhone/iPad were bad for non-technical reasons (screen size, the UI, they didn't need it, etc.)

I guess you'd say I was one of them, but I'm still going to say I was right:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1243742

There are both technical and UI reasons why multitasking as we've known it is hard to do on a mobile phone; those issues constrain what you can do when implementing it, and it certainly looks like Apple's done the best it can within those constraints (which looks pretty good at first glance, by the way).
NoSQL is sticky because people have been misusing SQL databases for things that they are bad at for years. Now people are doing things right, and it feels better.

All the people that show up to NoSQL articles and say, "you should always use SQL" are the ones that happened to use relational databases for the right tasks.

I wish there was a delay between when screws were invented and when screwdrivers were invented so that we could have seen the NoHammer movement. Of course you shouldn't screw in screws with a hammer. But hammers handle nails pretty well.
true but Admod is cross platform, and if Google offers a better deal that could also provide an incentive.
It's not automatically game-over because the magical Steve Jobs thinks he invented advertising
I think you are underestimating how hard it is to implement proper copy/paste on a touchscreen device with no keyboard. I must say that I find Apple's implementation very intuitive and easy to use.
I quit too.
Mobile ads probably need 'bookmark for later' as a primary option, as in: I'm in the middle of something else right now, but that's interesting enough to review when I have time.
Yeah, same here. When they added it to iPhone OS scrolling would constantly bring up cut and paste - I remember searching for a way to disable it.

Android's browser uses a long tap for cut and paste, so never had this problem.
If AAPL goes down after the announcement, go ahead and buy before everyone else figures out what this means.
Apple Announces iAd Mobile Advertising Platform
As has been noted many times, the plural of "anecdote" is not "data". Or more succinctly: "I was able to make it work on my jailbroken phone" does not imply "it would work well enough consistently enough to make the broader market happy".
Really? I had the exact opposite experience - constant unwanted cut and paste dialogs on Safari/iPhone, none at all (but there when I wanted it) on Android.
Well nothing major really, it's just small bits here and there that are telling signs that it's a functional programming language with OO support and not the other way around. Like that you have to put two types that depend on each other in the same file.

No showstoppers, just minor annoyances that add up over time so when I write F# code I try to limit OO code to interfacing with other libraries (and the framework). Maybe it's just me, perhaps other programmers don't find OO in F# tedious at all.
I'm quitting the Internet. Will I be liberated or left behind?
On Facebook, we just have to make our users want to invite other users.

Maybe the App Store needs iAd/GameKit integration of a 'like'/'recommend'-to-friends feature.
You're right, it's exactly equivalent to releasing a keyboard with shift on either side in a world where keyboards don't yet exist. Multitouch is a different world.
Apple's attempt to block Flash on the iPhone/iPad?
The new iPhone Developer Program License Agreement states...

3.3.1 Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).
...and Apple bought a mapping company last year: PlaceBase.
Thanks for the synapsis. I read too many paragraphs of this waste of time before giving up. How does this get upvoted?
"The lack of jailbreak/Android-style multitasking is still a feature."

"The lack of multitasking is still a feature."

You added qualifications for a reason. Because they say completely different things. You seem to want to suggest I'm arguing against the first. I'm not. I'm arguing against the second.
Picking Our Brains: Can We Make a Conscious Machine?
It's a stylistic choice, so opinions vary, but the simplest guide I've found is to simply check the intended pronunciation. If you would pronounce the 's as its own syllable, include it (e.g., "Chris's"); it not, don't (e.g., "Mephistopheles'").
Here's a video of the robot in action. Definitely impressive but squarely in the uncanny valley
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAO_DTeoVm8
This is a huge blow to Adobe...
AltDB and NoSQL are stupid labels. These names put people into the perspective of relational databases and then show them something totally different. The consumer then has difficulty understanding the topic.

These labels bundle CouchDB into the same category as heavier-than-relational OO databases.

A much better grouping label would be 'map cloud'.
Here's the full text of the article (no registration or cost, as opposed to the previous link):

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2772142/
I'm less worried about traffic spikiness and more worried about unanticipated performance implications of changes I make in summer suddenly biting me on the hindquarters come Halloween. (Peak load and also peak sales, and while I think I should have absolutely no problems, I don't have any way to substantiate that and I don't have anything which would tell me I'm incorrect if the server starts suffering performance degradation but all services stay minimally responsive.)
Reading is hard and I hate it.
Or ed having a bosskey that showed an IDE.
Thanks, exactly :)
Has anyone on HN (other than Divvyshot and the other stealth YC startup) used AngelList?

What has your experience been like, and would you recommend it?
buy on the hype, sell on the news
Lack of bad multitasking is a feature.
The have done this before, when MMS came out they did not include it for 2G phones when they are perfectly capable of sending MMS.

Someone else pointed out that in the case of multitasking they cannot guarantee that a 3G can handle the general case, that may be true, we shall have to wait and see.
Subtle elements of the design may not rise to conscious awareness but still have an effect on how people perceive the experience.

Right, the desk orientation may have subconsciously influenced people, for sure - I'm quite ok with that claim. But nobody knows if it did. Hell, it might have negatively influenced people for all anybody actually knows.
They don't have a monopoly, though.
Video Website Reviews for Startups
It may be Adobe that creates it (or it may not).
This could almost be an Onion article. Almost.
Apple introduced iCal on July 17, 2002. Now guess which date the default icon shows :)
I tend to remember this contextual demonstration:

"It's" only "it is".

Even though, it ignores "it has", and would more precisely be:

"It's" is only "it is".

The rule that possessive pronouns never have apostrophes is handy, too.
Ask HN: Default command line software in Mac OS
Hello! I haven't owned a Mac since the pre-OS X era, but so many positive comments around here are making me think about it. Do you know of a list with all the shell commands available by default? I know there is macports, but still I'm curious.

Thanks!
I believe it is that Quebec requires registration and fees from contest organizers. As a result large contests routinely exclude Quebec.
Search engine is a competitive market, Pure astroturfing would not work if they are not truly awesome.

I myself appreciate this "advertisement" and will give it a try, but if the search sucks, it's easy enough to switch back.
Live Demonstration of Mind Control of a Computer using Non-Invasive Technology
A Finn here. I noticed a couple of mistakes there.

> "Primary and secondary schooling is combined, so the pupils don't have to change schools at age 13. They avoid a potentially disruptive transition from one school to another."

This is exactly contrary to the truth. Nearly everyone does change schools at age 13 and it is disruptive.

"Teaching is a prestigious career in Finland. Teachers are highly valued and teaching standards are high."

Yeeaaah, I don't know. Most teachers (even comprehensive school) are MSc or BSc the very least. Their pay doesn't reflect that.

> "Children in Finland only start main school at age seven. "

What?! You guys put your kids into schools earlier than that? But why?
"I guess you'd say I was one of them"

Do you think the lack of multitasking is a feature? Apples introduction of multitasking... harms the platform?

"but I'm still going to say I was right."

Apple disagrees. Multitasking is a feature. The lack of multitasking wasn't.

You seem to be caught up on the implementation, not the results.
Yeah, having used iPhone and Android for a while, the Pre's implementation blows them both away.
I agree 100%. We've even been having this exact discussion here on HN in the last 5 days! It's basically been the instant litmus test to identify a rabid fanboy from the rest of the population.

The "discussions", if I can be generous and call them that, have been ridiculous and transparent and usually runs like this:

Normal Person: The i<product> has no multitasking, this is a sorely missing feature

Rabid Fanboy: This omission is actually a "feature". Since Apple never does anything wrong, it's clear that this is actually just better for us. Besides nobody uses multitasking anyways, what could you possibly want to use it for?! Only crazy people want a computing platform that can run more than one thing. Besides Apple needs to keep the user experience perfect like it is (oh it's so orgasmic). And double besides, it already does do multitasking, Apple just uses it for their own things and keeps outside developers (who don't know what they are doing anyways, those idiots) from mucking up the precious user experience and draining the whole battery down in 5 minutes.

Normal Person: That actually doesn't even make any sense. There are plenty of examples of mobile platforms with multitasking that don't have any of the feared problems you are talking about, Palm, Android,...

Rabid Fanboy: THOSE SUCK! SUCK! <hits own head with closed fist over and over> <pause and takes a deep breath as if trying to explain some critical thing to a 5 year old> None of those platforms are the iPhone. NONE OF THEM.

Normal Person: Again, that makes no sense. By all appearances, the fact that this feature is supported just fine elsewhere, and not on the iPhone actually makes Apple look a little inept.

Rabid Fanoy: <head explodes>
You are getting tangled up because there are two features we are talking about here.

The first feature is an app ecosystem that doesn't require me to babysit processes.

The second feature is the ability to do things in the background (or, more precisely, do things with more than one application at a time).

I don't care what you call them, but that the iPhone has always had the first feature, and talking it up isn't crazy. I don't think that it makes up for not having the second feature, but I still recognize it as something that makes my iPhone experience better.
Wait a second.

Other than pandora, which I agree will be awesome in the background, what in that use case requires multitasking?

Open Maps, see a place, click the link to switch to Safari to see it's website, check reviews in yelp. Nowhere is more than one thing happening here. Ditto with googling something, answering the phone, switching to email, switching back to Safari. Everything here is saving state so when you launch it it comes back to where it was.

THIS is what people mean when they say that 90% of use cases are covered currently. The background services are great for pandora, etc. but let's not make them out to be more than they are.
"Synopsis" is the word you're looking for.
Well, when I say "multitasking", I mean the ability to switch out of a network app without it disconnecting. I wonder how persistent network connections will be managed that aren't IM or streaming audio?

One huge annoyance with the current platform is that remote desktop or ssh apps disconnect when you switch out of the app. It's one of the reasons i'm thinking of holding off on the iPad for another year (another OS release).

Given Scott's comment about how there is no "close" in this pseudo-multitasking world, I'm a little worried that the iPad will stay useless for me for the foreseeable future :-)
No. It doesn't/shouldn't work that way. A bad feature is bad. A bad implementation is bad. But you're getting caught up with the implementation. Those arguing for multitasking wanted multitasking done right. They didn't care how it got done, as long as it worked without degrading the rest of the experience.

There were, however, people arguing against multitasking as if their was only one way to implement it.
I said England specifically because I don't know of programmers who have moved to other parts of the UK, but you make a valid point. I hadn't considered the other countries of the UK.
You oughta be -- they're pulling the strings.
I can smell a new iPad OS (or at least a new variant of iPhone OS) coming this fall.
Sure - just like the iPad isn't going to kill off the Kindle overnight. Still, when a competitor can put out a product that halves your market share in its first week on the market, you sit up and take notice.

Everything Google's done in the last few years has seemed bent on extending their search ads monopoly to mobile devices. If success was counted based on devices shipped, Android was doing pretty well. iAd is a serious setback if it turns out to be more profitable than mobile browser ads.
If you're an individual, and you plan on buying a company, you can accumulate stock in it first without doing insider trading. That's what I mean when I say you can do that as an individual, too.

with whom would Google break it's duty of trust if they bought half of Rackspace just before announcing a large deal?

This may be accurate. I was under the impression that insider trading referred to possessing and using information that would have a material effect on the stock price. i.e. nobody's "duty of trust" is breached if a cab driver overhears his rider talking about a big deal, but I'd assume that the cab driver could get in trouble for acting on the information. If it's really about trading based on information obtained through a breach of trust, you end up in an odd situation: either any breach makes all trades insider trades (i.e. executive tells information to his secretary, who leaks it to a journalist) or any non-duty-bound link in the chain obviates the trust issue (X tells it to Y who tells it to Z--who is overheard by A, who sells the tip to B, who makes the trade.)
IPad Case Moleskine
This is especially true when the iPhoneOS has typically used around 100MB since the beginning. 28MB is not much to keep multiple apps around.
A coworker and I were discussing this yesterday. Our Rails processes take about 50MB of memory each, and can handle only one request. Since our site hits a backend DB that is sometimes slow to return results, requests can last minutes. We could build an out-of-band process to query the backend service and return results asynchronously, but that seems like overkill. However, it's easy for a handful of users to eat up all the connections quickly, if they are all making long-running requests.

It seems silly to have an entire Rails process tied up blocked on results from this backend service. And it seems like a rather severe limitation of Rails' architecture to require 50MB of memory per connection-handling process. How do large sites scale Rails?
That's not a fact, it's a prediction.
It's all the basic UNIX stuff + programming languages like Java, Perl, PHP, Python, and Ruby.
The video is highly impressive. Within a few minutes the test subject learns to rotate a cube on screen and also make it disappear.

More info is available on the official website:

http://emotiv.com/
SETI@iPhone.
فيلم ادرينالين اون لاين
Interesting. My grandfather died about ten years ago at 86. He was in the Navy during WWII, and was among the first Americans in Tokyo after Japan surrendered. And after the war, he worked on the UNIVAC that was used for the census. We still have all of his UNIVAC programming manuals.
Professional footballers in Germany (soccer players for you Americans) also still have to be straight for social reasons.

Contrast that with a gay mayor in Berlin and a gay foreign minister.
Yes, I am calling it a basic feature. Like tires on a car. Every car has them, but rubber and tires are actually pretty complex things.

No, I'm not saying that it doesn't have certain considerations necessary to make it work well. We can't even get proper clipboard support in Ubuntu these days. So I'm not saying it's really that simple.

Yes, I am saying it's not a big feature. Again, it's like VW coming out with a new Jetta, and one of the specs they touted was "Now with tires!!!"