skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
4. You aren't "+3.5 sigma big picture" if you went 2 years without launching anything, you let a dude waste your time for 2 years, you can't determine whether you will launch, you think you have a product that can't launch until you "get it right" and your dream in life is to be an EIR (but you are "completely ignorant about the industry")...
From a visual standpoint, I think the most interesting change is the shading on the search bar, which makes it look raised on the page. It looks a little awkward to me, I'm sure because almost all form inputs are either flat or sunken into the page. I do think being sunken into the page is a more appropriate metaphor... I wonder how they came to that decision.
It is interesting that you don't recommend any languages with a proper type system. Do you believe types are not important?
Get Older Layout Of Google
IPad Developer Makes Thousands Because Apple Didn't Include An Alarm Clock App
Yeah, but YouTube was bought by Google for $1.65 BILLION at a time that they had around 70 employees. So it was at least a financial success for the founders.
More than likely it is a cover story they hope will catch on enough to either cover the panic, or the real reason.

I will tell you what though - someone... someone, made a lot of money from this. Inadvertently, but more than likely otherwise.
The 12th can't roll around fast enough for me, that will be the first major upgrade I'm going to do for a series of django sites built in the last year or so, and I'm very curious how well that upgrade process will go.

Upgrades are the sticking point when it comes to frameworks, I hope that django will show that I made the right choice in that respect.
So... did you ever try a revenue model? Make some sort of premium account? I'm not speaking from any amount of experience, but you have 7000 users, you're about to throw in the towel on the business end of things anyway, I would think it's worth trying to come up with something.
Games Can Be Art
I've been doing the same. I think of them as the "browser of record" and the "accounts not yet tied to my full id browser." I'm thinking that the next steps in the arms race (if needed) are along the lines of putting one or both of them in virtual machines, having one or both use some different proxies.

I like better the idea of a greasemonkey script that would block sites from reading my facebook id.
I doubt it's a person that made money. Usually individual investors lose big time when stop loss orders are activated, it's the institutional investors that win.
mille mille vs. mille mille mille? http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1321405
The article is about which language you should learn first.

And it's not a very serious article to begin with.
Qt is an excellent platform for building things, this is another demonstration of that.

More people should look at it. Even the datastructures are pretty much a joy to use.
Now I only visit facebook in an incognito chrome window.
If they decide to drop the price someday, they'll be able to make all those sales too.
They can always lower the price if they think it will increase sales - or better yet profit. Either way it's nice to have and extra 250K in the bank. I wonder what the dev costs look like for this and other larger ipad/iphone apps.
Summmary:

- a million irrelevant paragraphs to make this guy seem like someone you can relate to

- guy driving on wet road

- picks up phone

- looks up and sees he's about to crash into another car

- swerves across median into oncoming traffic

- head-on collision with a Chevy Silverado

- more irrelevant stuff about what goes on in those microseconds of the crash to try to scare you

- explanations of what you should do in inevitable crash events

Editor anyone? Interesting read anyway, but I probably read every 3rd or 4th sentence.
Receiving contributions to your Github project
I'm in Tokyo, and I have lived here for 12 years. The paper is quite interesting, and I have no major disagreement, but of course it is not the full picture. As I see it, the main problem Japan has is that the education and work culture is good at iterative learning and refinement, but bad at picking up and acting upon ideas that are far from how things are currently done. This is a consensus society, and things have to be broadly agreed upon in the group/company to have a chance. If there is a risk of disagreement the idea will either be buried in endless meetings, or simply dropped without discussion. This makes decision making slow and unimaginative.

Software is a good example. Most software and home pages in Japan look like they have been designed by committee, where every person in the room has a pet feature that has to be on the front page. This leads to software that is cluttered and hard to use. There is also little innovation; most new software seems based on designs already in use.

However, there is one aspect where Japan shines. People care about visuals, and graphics and icons are often pleasing. This at least is an advantage in game software, where Japan is not lagging as badly as in business software.
Project management for programmers
HackRelay is an idea that we think could revolutionize the way programmers think about their projects. Our idea is to make task management as easy as chatting with a friend, while providing programmers with contextual information about the task at hand. We are launching a beta version soon and have put up a page where users can sign up for it. Have a look at our launch page and blog, and register with us for early access.

We would like to know what frustrates you about the software and methods that you currently employ.
I was under the impression that it was good practice to use those marks, primarily to make sure people know you're presenting a trademark (registered or not). Obviously Google's big enough to not need that. Legal hounds: Is there a time when one does or doesn't need the ™/®?
Section of a major US interstate missing from Google Maps
CDS report: It’s getting worse…
That doesn't necessarily mean they would have netted more money though, their turnover would have been twice as high, but their support costs would have been 10 times as high.

It's even possible that if their average cost to support a user is high enough that they would have lost money on the larger volume / lower price combination.

If they have little or no cost to support a user though, then they likely missed an opportunity.
Drawing software seems like an enduring fit, even after the hype wears off. The iPad niche?
Don't feel so glad to be in the UK. We're almost as stuffed as the Greeks, but we're not really going to know about it for a few days while the results of today's general election are digested. Just wait for the emergency budget from whoever wins. :-(
I'm still unable to download the PDF, can you post the link to the dropbox copy? Thanks!
In the world model popular in a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOO, almost every object has its own unique set of "verbs" (methods), which each destructively update the world in manifold unpredictable ways. There are no real "classes" of objects, per se, as having more than one of a world object that acts in exactly the same way ruins its "mystique" or "sense of fun"; instead, objects are created first through prototypical inheritance (cloning), and then by defining singleton methods (and adding mix-ins composed thereof), each of which may have originated within any other object. Objects survive mostly by memetic transmission (see an object you like, retain a clone for yourself) rather than some sort of unified architecture.
http://www.hackrelay.com
It's interesting how one has to take on good faith the description of a patch provided by a closed-source software provider.

What if Oracle, SAP, Microsoft, IBM release a patch with a misleading description that induces a costly error? Are they liable for any damage a wrong patch description causes? If they mislabel a patch that takes down your servers for a couple hours (say, one that changes the underlying file format of some big and important tree) as extremely critical, causing undue downtime during peak hours, are they liable for that?
No error message. There is no submit button. Facebook login didn't work. Tried using latest versions of IE (9), Chrome (5), Firefox (3.6). See screenshot here:

http://rookery9.aviary.com.s3.amazonaws.com/3860500/3860743_...
Google's New Look (Video)
Though Zuck may be right about "changing social norms", that doesn't mean that he understands what those changing social norms are.

Though we may all (or most) actively contribute to the web, we do that on and with web properties by our choice, and that we are familiar with and comfortable with.

He doesn't get to make that choice for us.
NASDAQ cancelling some trades made today between 2:40 and 3:00 EST
Seriously?

As far as I know, the USA is the exact reverse of that--members of Congress can send as many free letters as they want, but you have to pay to write to them.
The site was slow and if you read via RSS you couldn't get to the article without going to digg first.

That alone drove me to Reddit.
maybe it's a bit late, but i have to agree. try and put yourself back where you were a year ago, where 7000 users was a dream.

also, no offense but the name is godawful. there is simply NO way for my brain to remember it. ive seen it probably 5 or 6 times now and i still dont know how to say it, much less remember how to spell it to go back to the url.

thanks for sharing your story, but don't give up yet. a year aint that long to not be profitable.
Facebook Adding Location Features This Month
So You Need a Typeface? (Infographic)
google's pdf viewer: http://docs.google.com/gview?url=http://synaptify.com/wp-con...
What is most interesting to me is how unsophisticated myspace users are compared to the other social sites.
No Matter How Good Your Business Is...
"./manage.py test" is your friend. Deploy the update on a separate server (or your development box) and run every conceivable test. Update your test fixtures with data that resembles production data and use it for testing. Do stress testing on a regular basis and monitor your machines (I love Munin for that) closely.

Also, remember to make tests that are performance-dependent, so any relevant change is flagged (you can kind of self-scale your test timeouts by using "getting item A does not take more than twice as long as getting item B").
Ask HN: Recommended Tools for Teamwork?
If you work in a team of people in different places, what are your must have tools? Peldi's post is really enlightening:

http://www.balsamiq.com/blog/2009/10/30/tools/
I think the author does a good job of picking out what has caused Japan to fall behind - not moving away from manufacturing, but didn't pick out the why so much. Yes the DJP is stupidly risk averse despite coming into office on the message of change, yes Japan has been slow to take advantage of the value of their culture, but there are deeper reasons.

One that sticks out to me is the use of IT and software in daily life. When I was a student here in Japan back in 2004, I had to enrol by filling out a form using pen to paper. My Australian university was already doing everything online without a hitch. If I want to organise a monthly cash transfer to pay for a gym membership, I have to fill out a paper form and stamp it to allow for the gym to take money out of my account. Again, back in Australia I can set up a monthly payment using Internet banking, or just get them to charge my credit card. In other words, in the field of applying IT to everyday life, I believe Japan is lagging other countries badly - and I feel that the main reason for this is that PCs did not spread as widely here as they did in Australia. I would guess that most people here primarily access the Internet using their mobile phone.
It's perfect if you find yourself having to access an heavy site on a low bandwidth (or just spotty) connection. Using it on WiFi is pretty pointless.
That's true. I might add that it's also possible to strike a deal where the whole thing is stricken from your record after x years, but we're taking this a bit too far at that point!
...we asked about the relatively weak Android sales. Rohit blames it on Google's lame Android Market, "Google does not provide web links that we can link to app -- they have no web store"..

There's an opportunity! Someone get an Android app-store going, quick!
On the "Privacy Settings > Applications and Websites" page, there is a "What your friends can share about you" listing.

This is the really fun thing about all this... they seem to know how to put just enough controls here and there in the labyrinth of settings so that few specific complaints really stick. While, at the same time, they never unify the intent of the controls into something that the user can see all the implications of their settings and then set them the way they want.

To me, this just cries out for some visualization. Maybe some nested circles (each circle representing a friend group) around the user in the middle, arrows (representing the types of information that is shared) radiating out to the furthest circle which can see that information.
As a member of a small group of friends, venturing into the possibility of our first start-up, seeing the failures of others can be really eye opening.

I suppose I haven't thought too much about a revenue source, however the first major thing we're going to do is an Android app... If you can call that major.
This is not what it feels like to fail. You've got an active, committed community of 7000 users - that is not even close to failure.

When I built Despammed.com in 1999, I peaked at around that. Donations were plenty to keep the site running and even paid for the mortgage once or twice when things were tight. You've got a much more committed community there, and while you're not going to be the next YouTube (because learning a language is hard, while watching TV is not), you've built a useful service that can run in perpetuity and that, my friend, is what success feels like.

I think you need to move on to your next idea; let Lenguajero run for a few years, try to think of a premium version of the service in some way, but mostly just let it ferment and grow organically, and get yourself engaged in something you'll find fun. Keep yourself moving.
This is actually very interesting. It may have been led by China. Chinese market fell on Monday due to reserve requirements change (though the slow decline actually started quite a bit earlier), and it was widely reported on Monday night. Commodities followed on Chinese news and European debt on Tuesday; Europe continued falling on Wednesday on Greece and Portugal speculation, then this went around the world one more time and was reported at about 3am today (emerging markets decline), and then later in the day as decline continued. Speculation on European state debt compounded the issue (witness the Spain rumours). Then at 13:10pm El Erian was reported to have said that there is a possibility that European banks will stop lending, at which point the US markets hiccuped and went into accelerating decline (look at Russel, SPX and Dow from noon onward).

I will try to add links when I get home later. Clearly it was much more complicated than this, but this pattern of falling dominoes going around the world is at least suggestive.

Update:

China reserve requirements:

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-05-04/china-s-stocks-d...

Commodities, etc.:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jpti0ArQEl...

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/markets/global-mark...

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-05-06/corn-soybeans-wh...

Emerging markets:

http://www.livemint.com/2010/05/04214121/The-Chinese-contagi...

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100505-713490.html?mod...

El Erian - the best I can find is this. The lending comment was attributed to him when I saw it, but here it is a "trader speaking on condition of anonimity".

http://www.cnbc.com/id/36992469
Interesting thought. I suppose if computers were originating from China that would probably be the case. I doubt though that if they wanted to sell it to some other countries, the buyers, e.g. US, Europe consumers etc. would accept that increased complexity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingua_franca
Thanks Ricardo, that's much appreciated.
I also feel that perhaps a name change (I have difficulty recalling it, even now) and a revenue model, perhaps capitalizing on the most loyal users, and word of mouth advertising, could really gear the website forward.

I wish I would have known about it when I was more into Spanish.
Around the Twin Cities and down the highways. Can't really speak for other parts.
Lenguajero is a pretty bad name. It's easy to pronounce in Spanish (and is actually kind of witty) but is terrible in English if you don't know Spanish.

I'm the other co-founder of Lenguajero.
isn't even really that funny.

Yep, this one was better: http://james-iry.blogspot.com/2009/05/brief-incomplete-and-m...
I'm gonna take a guess and say he has been programming for more than 2 years and realizes that types really don't matter.
Define 'proper' type system; C is a static, strongly typed language, with the important feature that the type system is simple enough for an inexperienced programmer to understand and be capable of implementing.
Sounds "open" to me؟
SpringSource buys GemStone for Java data management tools
By "proper" do you mean mandatory? Otherwise, people are going to yell "CLOS" at you.
That's a long list.

For us it's IM, Polycom, git and a bunch of people who want to do the right thing.
Can somebody explain to me how this HFT stuff works? I mean...is there a stock exchange API? (That is a joke).

Aren't there actual real people executing these trades or is it really just computers?

If the latter...WTF!? D-:

Any links that explain this?
It had a back-end that communicated with a web based front-end. It was something that would be sold to companies that had the specific need the product addressed and the web component was essentially the GUI. Some clients would communicate directly with the back-end with their own or with modified interfaces. You could tickle the backend as a web service.
I'm having problems even beginning to imagine how I would pronounce Lenguajero. I definitely think you had a big naming problem and might want to consider persevering.
Six companies, including owners of Sam Adams, traded today at $0.00 per share
Thanks Vivtek. I appreciate the feedback. While we do have 7000 users I would say that really our "committed community" is much smaller. The site does pay for itself, and on average makes $100-$150 a month in profits from ad revenue. But, I certainly could never count on it to pay for a mortgage.

We have no intention of shutting down, and will definitely keep it going as a hobby (and yes, maybe a premium version, or some other revenue model will come into existence in the future.) Until then, I'm looking for a new project to start, which isn't so bad. ;)
Maybe a landing page with a single link saying "More details on the blog" should actually have a link that goes to an actual blog?
I really don't think that you have a failure on your hands.

You should stop to think that way and start to think about how you are going to monetize your users, one way would be to literally ask the community: "Hey guys & girls, this is going great but I need a living, what should I do for you to throw some money my way" might be a good start.

Most small scale bootstrapped start-ups would be trumpeting their success from the rooftops if they got a dedicated userbase like that.
I'm building a DNS service at the moment. Geo-aware DNS won't be a launch feature but it is something I intend to add in the future. The implementation I'm looking at doing will allow for returning different record data based on country-code (as determined by Maxmind GeoIP) and will be configurable via both a web interface and JSON over HTTP API. I'd be interested to know what features you'd look for in a Geo-aware DNS service and what you'd expect to pay — if you could drop me note (see profile) it'd be much appreciated.
Thanks for this resource, whoever compiled this is a godsend. Extra plus for wanting 0 benefit from it (besides maybe Hacker News karma?).
Yes i've tried Freshbooks and was impressed with the overall experience, but it seems more geared up towards time and materials based charging and invoicing, rather than expenses and general business accounting.
Since you mentioned donations, I figured I'd ask you this. I've got a site I'm working on that I want to commit to full time, potentially without any other source of income. When you say it was "enough to keep the site running", do you mean enough to maintain servers, or enough to maintain your refridgerator and roof as well?

Also, is it ok to have a donation based site if you eventually hope to profit significantly from it? Or does that tend to imply that it's a "community" or "non-profit" sort of thing they're putting money towards?
I think it's a great idea. Are you sure you want to give up on it ? Why do you call it a failure ? I wouldn't call having 7000 users a failure. You have plenty of room to grow.

Let me know if you want feedback. One reason a lot of people trying to learn a new language give up is because of lack of motivation after a while / not finding people to converse/practice/learn with (and I talk from first-hand experience)
Rabble. Not even funny.

The first language learning question is a though one. (1) Probably the best would be anything which goes out of your way to concentrate on the important concepts behind it. (2) It depends on the way you want to teach it.
Seriously, whatever happened to sanity checks on input?
Facebook's open graph is seriously scary. Since I joined Facebook (circa Sept '07) I have defended their privacy standards, I thought were doing a great job, considering the shear size of the problem.

Not so anymore. In the last two months, I've read more articles about their antics than in the last 3 years. Here are the significant problems I have with them now:
1) Defaulting to public for user posts
2) Open graph - any web developer or rogue person has much more power and access to my "personal" data, where's the opt-in instead of opt-out?
3) Random and chaotic code glitches, e.g., live chats being visible, private messages getting delivered to the wrong person. As a web developer, I know it's hard. We're humans, we make mistakes, but these are inexcusable. Even remotely decent testing would have uncovered them.

To sum it all up, Facebook has a great thing going, 400m users, $1b valuation, large app database. But if they want to keep their dominance and users like me, they need to seriously review their stance toward privacy and user's rights. It isn't up to par.
We tried a couple of different ideas, neither of which gained traction. The most promising was offering a paid tool to Spanish and English professors, who could sign up their classes and then monitor how their students were using the site.

We actually had about 50 universities sign up for a free trial, although only about 10 actually used the site actively last term. I think the biggest problem with this idea was that most university students who are studying Spanish don't really care about learning, and are just doing it for credit.
I would recommend Alex Kerr's 'Dogs and Demons' book about Japan. It is kind of old (2001) but it is still a great read about what have been some of the specific problems from Japan these past decades.
less verbose, really? People are giving Java crap for having to do string1.equals(string2) instead of string1 == string2, but what about [string isEqualToString:string2]. Also concating strings in Objective-C makes my eyes bleed. I still like the dynamic aspects of the language (selectors etc.) though.
Hire this man immediately.
The Complete iPad Design & Development Toolbox