skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Most of the sugar we ingest is not glucose. The sugars we eat get converted into glucose plus some nasty crap depending on what sugar is being converted, according to a video that was posted here a while back, but which I can't find right now...
Ubuntu launches the new version of its Linux distro 10.04 LTS
I'd love to see a list of 50 us cities or so with the lowest costs of living so i could pick one to move to.

Alas I searched "Cities in us with lower cost of living than washington dc" but wa didn't understand.
"The idea of undermining the core function of the web to achieve that is detestable."

Bullshit. Whether you like it or not "the web" has come to mean both the original application itself: a collection of hypertext documents, images, etc; as well as the greatest application deployment platform we've seen (and those applications may or may not have anything to do with hypertext)

These two things can coexist. Give me a different name and I'll start using it.
Also one of the most bike-friendly cities in the US.
My experience with "sharing ideas" is that I end up spending so much time explaining, justifying and defending my ideas that I end up with no energy left to actually implement them. Consequently, I don't bother telling folks what I'm planning - except for disposible ideas that I spread just to keep folks from pissing on my leg and call it rain.
If McDonald's somehow misrepresents what's in their double quarter pounder with cheese, yes, they will probably get sued. I suppose that you could argue that McDonald's customers should perform a chemical analysis of their meal before eating it, so they really know what's in it. But I do not think that is the standard that the law applies.

Can we apply this metaphor to the Goldman mortgage backed securities? Well, how many mortgages were wrapped up in those securities? Was there anyway to be sure what the security would be worth under various scenarios? I saw an article that Python was being considered as a language for specifying derivatives, so you could just run the program and know what the payouts would be under various scenarios with no ambiguity. Was there an expectation that Goldman was doing the work of picking securities with a certain risk profile, when in actuality they were picking securities with a higher risk profile?

It seems to me that a general principle of the law should be that a seller who intentionally misrepresents what they are selling has some measure of liability. Do you disagree, or do you feel that no misrepresentation occurred in this case?
I guess it should be taken with a grain of salt but, Wolfram Alpha itself reports 480k daily visitors [1]. Though the graph [2] roughly matches your graph.

.

[1] http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=www.wolframalpha.com

[2] http://www4c.wolframalpha.com/Calculate/MSP/MSP236219abb6ff1...
Well is your brain fixed now? That's terrifying.
Betaworks, a New York Tech Incubator, Has Grown a Following
Show HN: Simple generator for Rails admin panels
A Faster Feed Apart
Group Think (NYTimes Blog on Group Theory)
Which is indeed a definition of "parallel", e.g. in definition 2 here: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/parallel
That is a wide damn trough.
Buffett’s age again issue at Berkshire meeting
Ask HN:Should Facebook Be Paying You?
If facebook is selling your information, would it be possible for them to pay you a small percentage of the information they sell about you? I understand that they don't and wouldn't do that, but would that motivate you to openly social network? I mean its creepy that they sell your info and advertise based on it, but what if you could see a log file of the exact information being sold and where its being sold to. Would this make you feel better about sharing information?
blurry photo of my simple workspace: http://srtd.org/~yan/desk.jpg
Cars, trunks, and personal vehicles, in general, serve the public that exists outside of a city. Yes, there is life outside the city.
Sadly, it is strongly to blame for my not buying mathematica---most of what I would want to do there I can do (with some contortions) on wolfram alpha. I even have a firefox keyword for it (wa).
Yuck. More proof that Google gives "brand name" businesses an unfair advantage.
Is it Sugar - The Bitter Truth: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM ?
Ask HN: Weekend Project - Facebook Privacy Checker
This next weekend is looking pretty free to me, and I've got an idea for a simple app.

The idea is basically an app utilizing Facebook Connect that "dumbs down" the privacy options with Facebook as well as sending an alert to user's email when Facebook privacy options change. Seems "somewhat simple" in my head, but I've been wrong before :).

I'll design and do a bit of FBML for a Facebook interface in needed, any interested hackers got a free day? Even if you're busy, I'd love any feedback or suggestions for how to make this easy.
I agree how much they paid is important in evaluating the purchase (the less they paid, the more justifiable it'd be to buy it just for some talent and in the off chance some of the ideas/tech/IP turned out to be useful). But I doubt it's anything as low as $200k, because they had VC funding of a few million, and presumably the VCs wouldn't sign off on selling for a loss. This article estimates $40m, though they may have just pulled that number out of thin air: http://thenextweb.com/google/2010/05/02/google-purchases-bum...
Tagging the World |
hmmm...this one's a little vaguer http://m.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=relocating+from+portland+...
Compare to New York, http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=relocating+from+san+fra....

Amazing how much more expensive living in New York is.
No, I'm pretty sure that means it's being stupid.

It gives exactly 24% less regardless of what salaries you put in and not changing the "% of total" or anything. That means that it's figuring out the difference in average cost of living first, and then just reduces the salary you gave by 24% to get the equivalent.
It is much more difficult to clone a chip card than a magnetic one.
> There's no such thing as privacy in a network where even a single person is less than 100% trustworthy, no matter the medium.

Agreed. The issue w/ Facebook is that these "identity collisions" (when an aspect of your identity is exposed to a group of your friends that formerly didn't know, i.e. parents find out you're gay) can happen accidentally far too easily.

In other words, it's not about maliciousness... and even if someone did want to spread information about you maliciously, it'd be a hell of a lot more challenging to do so over a mailing list (finding your boss', former co-workers', parents', siblings', friends', etc's email addresses vs tagging a photo or note).
At the bottom of the page, put another call to action. Sure, someone can always scroll up but if they've read through the entire page, a concluding sign up button with another push to sign up should give you at least a few more conversions. Also, I'm too lazy to check, but I believe this is the same site that had review for it's original page a while back that was completely locked down and confusing. If so, this is a HUGE improvement! Congrats!
A Smart car CAN'T go on an unpaved road?

'maybe' a Smart car shouldn't go on an unpaved road, but that decision isn't made for you by the manufacturer, or anybody else.
You're free to take the Smart car you purchased anywhere you want.
Niklaus Wirth on Testing at Google Zürich
How is this a hack (outside of the physical manipulation of the SIM)? Wasn't a big selling point of the iPad 3G that it is "unlocked."
Ideas Are Not Worthless
New homepage. (though I am taking the time to comment on it, so clearly it's not working as well as i'd like.)
I already have a system for arranging windows, but it's not based on tiling. My secondary monitor is for cascaded windows, such that the bottom-left corner of every window is aligned along a diagonal line. This makes window switching a spatial experience. As to keyboard power user, I generally exclusively use the keyboard when I'm using an IDE, terminal, email, Google reader, etc., but use mouse for documentation, web browsing, etc.

Two monitors comes into its own when you need to see more information on the screen at once. In my IDE as it is, when e.g. debugging, I have loads of tiled information displays, between the source, disassembly, CPU and FPU registers, CPU stack, memory, symbolic call stack, watches, locals, loaded modules, breakpoint list, thread list, log, project layout, etc. Fitting all that into 9" would be unreasonable; add in the actual running program in a terminal window, and scanning logs of previous runs in less, and it's hard to get by without two screens.
The Little JavaScripter
http://simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/%22The_Homer%22
There are too many variables involved to compare a couple of types of taxes and call it a day. For instance, property taxes are another large component of the total tax burden.

California's total state and local tax burden in 2008 was 10.5%[1], which ranks 6th among the 50 states. Washington's was 8.9%[2], for a rank of 35.

[1] http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/show/443.html

[2] http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/show/486.html
I am conceptualizing a personal home page that is a version of this but it fetches a task for me to do (from gmail tasks or Things) or it recommends me to read my most recently added boomark to delicious with tag todo. Any ideas on how to do this?
Émile: Stand-alone animation mini-framework
Flash isn't the only victim in Apples locked down environment, which is why I pointed at Google Voice. Flash is the only example (currently) where you have a commonly used plug-in which is blocked from being installed, as Google Voice didn't nearly have the reach of Flash.
Ask HN: Vending Machine Business Insight
I am currently in talks with someone to purchase a vending machine on my college campus. The owner claims he is selling it because it is too much of an inconvenience. I think it's because it doesn't make any money. What I would like to do is replace it's current product (ink) with various ideas and learn about this realm of business.

I would love to get some neutral advice some anyone that wouldn't mind exchanging a few emails or if anyone has experience with owning vending machines, please share your comments and thoughts.
I live in India but I have been using Spotify for months now owing to Spotify's feature where you can use it for 15 days in "travel mode" without even having to be in that country where Spotify is available. I just login on spotify from UK proxy after every 15 days.

The latest update on Spotify has made it much more social and I totally love it so much so that I miss not having any friends on spotify. It always had the option where one could scrobble the tracks on Last.fm
Would love more details on how you did this
If there's no source code then it's not open source.
You won't be able to use xmonad to manage normal OS X apps. X11 will just be another OS X application sitting in your dock that you can switch to. However, it is pretty easy to install a decent set of X11 apps. If you have MacPorts installed you can install the packages firefox-x11, rxvt-unicode, unclutter, and 'vim +gtk2' (the +gtk2 variant for PRIMARY/CLIPBOARD support) to get started.

http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Xmonad/Using_xmonad_on_Ap...
So can you give an example of how your behavior was documented by a photo and then you were later embarrassed by your behavior?
Zen-coding - HTML and CSS autoexpansion
Font change could save you money & the planet
Rest in Peas: The Unrecognized Death of Speech Recognition
Speech recognition seems good on a cell phone but accuracy for conversational speech flatlined in 2001--and no one noticed. Computer understanding of language was supposed to lead to artificial intelligence. Now we have need AI to get computers to understand language. Catch 22. We just haven't recognized it yet. (Sorry, Ray Kurzweil.)
Ray didn't expect his predictions to be as accurate as they were. When he made them they weren't obvious to everyone, now they are. They have plenty of substance and are accurate enough to be useful. GPS or genius playlists as intelligent assistants is not broadening it out, it's the change in jargon, the way things would be branded and viewed that he got wrong. People don't call voice commands AI, but he did.

He expected a social backlash to the march of technology, like the anti-facebook groups and then violent sabotage. He expected it to slow things down, but ultimately technology is irresistible. That's not a statement by a person who cares about the details of his predictions.

This whole prediction accuracy threw my point off topic. The point is startup ideas are just as interesting as Ray's predictions about the future. The number of people a company's idea impresses doesn't predict success of that particular company.

The bigger factor is probably the type of people the startup world attracts, the reorganization. They don't think like the people in larger corporations, they're more motivated, addicted to stress, whatever. The ideas they have aren't more amazing than the ideas in big corporate R&D departments, the difference is now the projects are tested out before getting cancelled by people who saw them only in a spreadsheet.

So VCs don't care about ideas, like they don't care about general predictions. They're mostly investing in small companies, not setting up trading strategies. In the current world where VCs invest in particular companies of people, not ideas, it makes more sense to invest in companies that are somewhat functional.

Even if their idea seems dumb or has to change, competent people will make something work. People that bet it all on an idea aren't flexible, aren't a wise investment. That's why investors prefer simple, practical ideas when nothing is built yet. More depends on the people than the idea and a fast to build idea lets people show their important skills, like salesmanship.

----
As far as "safe" stock market predictions, that's your interpretation since you're interested in money centered economics. His "safe" prediction is that money would change step by step, become obsolete sometime this century. The fancy financial instruments made by quants which screwed up the stock market fit right into that "safe" prediction. It's safe because money is a bad measurement system and as we get more information we'll be able to measure better.
I find using water works really well. Plus it can put you well over your recommended '8 glasses a day'. So its a double win.
Activate Mobile Applications Using Your Eye
Planning and Preparation: Getting Your Ducks in Order
Is "magic variable" the new street name for crack cocaine?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crack_epidemic_(United_States)
That's a very interesting article. I'm really curious how they could get the detailed card transaction statement though... (the one used to find the ATM address) Could they do that simply running a credit check on Evan from their own companies? Or is there some other way?
I've been thinking about moving to Houston. Imaging the difference if you had been in NYC:

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=relocating+from+new+yor...
Both are good things, that shouldn't be avoided. They're just not pleasant.
Highly adjustable. Shifts pressure away from your spine which makes long workdays a lot more bearable. I owned the Aeron before, I like the Embody better. If you have the money, I would recommend it. I bought mine new through eBay.
for a while I used Charles as a system-wide proxy, with a "rewrite rule" that directs news.ycombinator.com to a similar page.

related question - are there mac utilities that can do this during configurable hours of the day?
Melodrama?

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/04/apple-scratch-app/
Anecdotally, I moved to NY from SF just over a year ago, and my cost of living went down quite a bit. I'm not in Manhattan, which is what that chart is for, but Brooklyn is at least as much 'city' as SF, plus Manhattan's just a short train ride away.

Downsides: not as pretty (though plenty pretty in its own way), worse weather (hotter in the summer, colder in the winter), people seem a bit more high-strung.
Such bad writing. "get" instead of "drive"? Sigh.
Absolutely. One large monitor easily beats multiple smaller ones.
I think that's his point.
The big boys have it easy in many aspects, off Google and on Google. The other example of the latter is domain authority which also heavily favors big boys.

I'm not sure it's reasonable to expect Google to democratize internet. They probably do what's more profitable, and it's likely that suggesting familiar brands makes surfers buy-happy.
That's an interesting suggestion I hadn't considered. Its an interesting possibility although historically most bombers don't want a decoy to draw authorities away from them. They seem to favour one bomb to draw in police, ambulance workers etc then a second probably bigger bomb to kill those coming to the aid of the wounded :( It's a brutally efficient method that's been used over and over.
If there's no difference between languages, why not just require everyone to use a Turing machine? It's just as easy, right, because they're all turing-equivalent.
Concentrate might be close to what you're looking for: http://getconcentrating.com

My guess is that you could couple that with AppleScript and an iCal alarm to start Concentrate every morning.
Well, I guess I'm even more skeptical then them because even removing people googling to get to a homepage, I think the numbers are only loosely correlated to traffic/popularity in any meaningful sense.
Deflation is a coin with two sides.

On a micro level, if your wages are deflating and your costs are not, it's bad. If the prices of goods/services required to run your business are deflating and the prices you are able to charge are not, it's good.

On a macro level, good deflation is the result of gains in productivity (e.g. improved technology). Bad deflation is when capital assets are reduced in value.

N.B. This is just my preferred, non-scientific view of the matter, but it seems to apply consistently within most discussions of this topic.

Regarding the OP's question, measure twice before mentioning an idea to someone who is your current equity partner in a start-up. You may be legally bound to share the idea and any work contributed to it, unless otherwise specified in your agreement.
Ask HN: what would you like to see occur in the next 18 months?
This question is about where you'd like to see changes occur in the next 18 months as relating to any aspect of the economy or society including in tech and finance, local or global.

A guy like Bob: http://www.youtube.com/user/drinkingwithbob has his own ideas of what he thinks should happen based on problems he identifies.

So what's bothering you? Where, what and how should and could things improve? There are some things that would be almost impossible, and they're best left out.
Right. The germane thing about the superbowl ad is that you can't put an accurate value on ROI.

I've seen a ton of ads for Snorg tees (for example), and while, yes, that has created brand awareness in my head it's not worth anything until I buy a t-shirt.

I think because people are measuring CPC/Ms, conversions, and basically using this as a lead generating tool, they should be trying to work on that aspect of it.
Salli also appeared in The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. I vividly remember Andy Richter proofing one... and the genital jokes.

These originate from Rautalampi, Finland. Just over 40 miles from where I live.

I'd also recommend trying before buying.
It wouldn't have been noteworthy at all if I didn't sit down here to finish coding...
I think the ipad had to be hacked to send SMS. There's no access to the baseband AT interface without jailbreaking.
Investment Guru w/ Algorithms = Used Car Salesman w/ Loud Plaid Sports Jacket
"Betaworks, he said, will focus on five to 10 companies a year. The company has taken on some investors, most recently raising $20 million. The New York Times Company invested in that round of financing."
How does it handle mouse hover events?
Chairs with wheels make it easier for me to lose any ergonomic positions I had found, because of the wheels.

What chair do you use at home?
CAPTCHA Advertising Coming Soon To A Website Near You
But now Apple wants to put a stop to it and enshrine a few decrepit languages with flaws most of us escaped a decade ago.

Your opinion of the languages does not trump the reality that the overwhelming majority of iPhone OS applications were written in them, as was the OS itself, even when it was not a requirement. Trying to make it sound like recent changes to the App Store agreement are the only reason people use Objective-C is a big stretch.
i did a campaign just to get a feeling for it. 18000 impressions and no clicks. it may just be that i suck as an ad writer,

but i'm marketing something to a VERY specific crowd that should be interested in what i have (at least i think)
Do we all make mistakes? Of course we do.

Should we be critical of mistakes? Sure, that's how we learn, and constructive criticism helps us to improve.

This doesn't mean we can't also understand that nobody's perfect, and that while to err is human, sometimes so is to forgive. I doubt we would want to live in a world without this counter-balance.

However, intent matters. Doing something wrong by accident is still wrong, but I don't see how it is unethical if there was no understanding or ill will. On the other hand, betraying the trust of millions of people by deliberately taking actions that break earlier promises and violate their privacy over an extended period... Well, I'm sorry, but I don't see how that is an accident, and I will condemn it accordingly.
Ah, sorry for misreading you.

While I think these changes are great, they'd actually be a kind of anti-founder's visa. Entrepreneurial foreign students would be encouraged to take normal jobs to get the green card, rather than start startups. (In general you can't have a significant equity stake in a company that's sponsoring you for work, as it's considered a kind of "self-sponsorship".)
Surely it has to be possible for a good person to do bad things (at least occasionally). I think it would be going a bit far to eliminate the distinction entirely.

>How are we to judge a person fairly, if not by how they conduct themselves?

That is kind of the point. Arguably, you just can't judge people fairly, because you never know what's going on inside.
That doesn't mean that you can't criticize people's actions, just that you should be cautious about making more fundamental judgments about their character.
Also, the body can convert both fats and proteins into glucose if I'm not mistaken ...

Funny how there are both essential amino acids and essential fatty acids, which means that humans can not survive without dietary protein and dietary fat. There is absolutely no physiological requirement to consume carbohydrates though. (I'm not trying to say one should not consume those at all, just noting the fact).
I don't entirely disagree, but I think some of the ones you mention weren't talent acquisitions. My guess is that, despite the founders leaving, Google is still happy with its Blogger and Feedburner purchases, and they at least sort of integrate into its larger web of services (and data collection).
RescueTime comes with a Focus mode and a pre-seeded but configurable list of distracting websites: http://www.rescuetime.com/tour

You don't set hours of the day, but you specify how long you want to "Get Focused". And you can't close the utility via the GUI to keep you honest; it takes a manual SIGTERM to close while in Focus mode.

I've found it very useful, though unfortunately browser support can be flaky. It seems like every major browser release breaks the website tracking and blocking functionality and it takes a few weeks to a few months for the RescueTime utility to catch up. If you don't like using uncommon OS/browser configurations, you'll probably have better luck, though.