skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
While Jeff's issues with CSS are valid ones, the post feels like a lot of his, "here is a little bit about a few things both nothing really deep or helpful, click my ads now?".

I guess it's a bit like his business partner Joel quitting blogging, hasn't got a great deal left to say.
Apple makes things people like
What did you expect to happen? A small startup decides it is in their best interest to sell-out to a big company. Google has closed startups. What would you say to the founders? Would you have made the same decision? Sadly, this is the price of being an early adopter.
Anyone know how they deal with apps not designed for the 1024x600 display? Do they upscale? or does Android take care of this automatically?
It is not trivial for "a user" to change their browser.

Watch this video:

http://uxmag.com/short-news/these-are-your-users-read-and-be...
Could also use some simple consistency checks. A great example of this:

“If this clause had been written fifteen years ago, the languages then would have been C, Fortran, and Cobol- and how would feel about being required to program in those languages today? Well, that’s how you’re going to fell about C++ and Objective C ten or fifteen years from now.”

Er... ALL of these languages are currently in use. Cobol is finally be deprecated after decades of deployment. C and C++ are still going strong. Objective-C shows every sign of actually increasing in popularity as Clang rolls out and people realize that Objective-C++ actually does some pretty amazing things for you.

That whole paragraph is not only using bad examples, but it also is contingent on the premise that Apple has locked its user agreement in stone and will keep it that way for years. Who knows if that could be true?

It's simple mistakes like these that magnify the spelling and style errors to near intolerability, for me. I—like most readers, I think—can tolerate a lot of errors and awkward sentences if the message is spot on. That really doesn't seem to be the case here.
This is Carol's "shtick" -- salty language and smug self-righteousness. She uses it to appear confident.

That being what it is, though, her position is a predictable one for her to take re: Google. When you're the loser in the market, you reach for statistically misleading statements like this. She has to make her investors feel good, somehow, I guess.
Regarding whether or not we're sitting ducks: support that argument with evidence. In opposition to your argument, I supply this assertion: our commercial and industrial IT infrastructure is riddled with horrible vulnerabilities. Virtually no penetration test against any entity running critical infrastructure fails.
Maybe economic freedom has nothing to do with how much taxes you pay...
The fact that you won't be joining us will not have a negative affect on the summit - we will sell out and have a waiting list....it's completely your lose!
Facebook Flashcache
Yes, grooveshark is quite fine.
I don't read that patent as nonsensical or spurious at all. Apple already uses "invisible" lights on their MacBook Pro computers to hide the LED next to the webcam. You only see the LED light up when the cam comes on. The rest of the time, it looks like part of the enclosure.

It looks like this patent goes a step beyond, and incorporates touch sensing to make that kind of LED into a virtual button.
Mozilla recently added experimental support for -moz-any() which fixes (sort of) Jeff’s third pain point:

http://dbaron.org/log/20100424-any
Give me some of whatever you're smoking. Talk about assuming/hoping for the best. The conversation probably went more like this "Lala is doing what we want to do, let's buy them and shut that shit down so we can offer our own overpriced solution".
Feds begin criminal probe into Goldman
If you had 5 months of time to experiment/research something, what would you do?
... in terms of technological concepts, not so much business ideas.

Background: I am CS Master in search of a subject for my thesis. The problem with the propositions I come up with is that I think in business ideas (similar to those http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1190974) for useful purposes which (understandably) do not suffice the academic/scientific requirements. However, my department is not really offering any alternatives leaving me in an unfortunate position.

With all the creative and innovative minds present here at HN, I would like to ask: If you could write another thesis, what would you cover today? It would also be helpful if you would share what you wrote about previously. And of course, if your former department publishes their thesis offers publicly, links to that would also be appreciated for inspirational purposes. Thanks.
PCs are not "becoming commodity items". PCs have been commodity items for over 20 years. The difference now is that improvements in speed and capacity are no longer compelling reasons for mainstream users to upgrade every couple of years.
> In this blog, I’ve tried to state my opinions and have taken small risks from time to time, but when I write, I often worry.

I don't think Jobs' success is what caused his willingness to openly state his opinion. From what I've read, he's always been that way.

My experience isn't vast, but the most successful entrepreneurs I've known have the same quality. Totally unafraid to state their opinion, even if they might turn out to be wrong later.
+
Rethinking PID 1
CSS variables? Sign me up! (http://lesscss.org)
Having tried to use one for an afternoon I found it gave me hand cramp. I think my problem though is with heavy mice in general, which is why I tend to avoid wireless ones (batteries add appreciable weight).

What I don’t understand is why Apple haven’t done a standalone version of their Macbook trackpads. I’d buy one of those for sure.
The thing I like about ubuntu is that some things you don't really have to tweak to get right, like font rendering under X (such as having to go and use AUR to get ubuntu type rendering).

I liked arch for a little bit but just like ubuntu more, debian sadly is too dated for my hardware and I don't feel like using sid. If you do like arch for the fact that you can start from the ground up you should try doing an ubuntu minimal install (from here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/MinimalCD).
Google's nightmare: Facebook 'Like' replaces links
Whoa. I admire the chutzpah, and I definitely think aspects of PHP could use a Star Trek style reboot (albeit with less lens flare), but I also think the proposed syntax here actually makes PHP less clear.

My specific issues: As others have commented, fewer semicolons equals potential ambiguity. I'm totally not okay with the inline XML or SQL syntax presented here - clearly demarcated, storage-agnostic code makes me sleep soundly at night. That said, the duck typing and inline JSON structures are neat.
Effect of Wind on Stock Market Returns
Ask HN: What library should be my geospatial "swiss army knife"?
Googling around I was having a hard time determining which geospatial library to learn as my "swiss army knife" for data exploration and perhaps some production code. I'm not particular about the language, although our existing infrastructure is mostly C, Java, and Ruby.

I've played with SimpleGeo in Ruby and GDAL in C. I'm looking towards using Java libs with JRuby for other reasons but the question at hand is a broader one: what languages/libraries do you use for spatial data analysis?
Point/Counterpoint - /opt vs. /usr/local
Is there a jQuery-based framework that's similar? I'm aware of GameQuery, is there anything else?
you like Openness so much that when you use “Open Source” Software to build your Mac operating system

Only some parts of it. The bulk of OSX is closed source.

May I remind you that H.264 is not an open standard?

Jobs said H.264 is an industry standard not an open standard
> smoking dope

I don't think anyone mentioned dope.
"A patent pool is being assembled to go after Theora and other “open source” codecs now."

That's kind of scary.
I think this shows a remarkable misunderstanding of what PHP users actually like about PHP:

* We like semicolons. The culture who thinks saving this one character is valuable tends toward a non-pragmatic purity that is completely missing the point of PHP. We like to know when the line ends and to break up lines easily.

* The $ before all variables is a feature, we like this too. It's jarring coming from other languages but we think it adds readability.

* Inline SQL with no special syntax to denote that it is special? This seems way too far off the deep end of preventing an extra character at all costs. Give me a key word or a syntax if you like but don't make it look just like a variable, please.

* No from/to string auto-conversion. We like this too. Having the sense to not overload "+" for strings goes a long way here.

1 . 1 == "1" . 1 == "1" . "1" == 11 == "11"

1 + 1 == "1" + 1 == "1" + "1" == 2 == "2"

Yes there are warts and some paradoxes but we deal with it, and we have to be very conscious of what data could be provided by users, but our web apps work fine provided we know the language. (Yes, there are very many PHP programmers who don't.)
Of course Microsoft and Apple are endorsing HTML5/H.264; they are part of the licensing body that stands to profit from H.264 adoption. See http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1306044
I understand your point, but it's not my term (e.g., here's a recent citation in English http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/28/greece-bond-issu... and there are other articles in Greek using the same phrase).

Their references to that term allude to red tape on a large scale, centralized economic planning, indifferent and unmotivated labor, etc., not the death camps and killing.

(And that last phrase reminded me of this: http://bit.ly/bh96ml apropos of nothing).
Now, Criminal Probe Against Goldman Sachs
Now, Criminal Probe Against Goldman Sachs
> The point is, they aren't doing anything special.

Yes, they are. They're the only company that's realized that if you want a stable, integrated experience, you need to control the entire product, top to bottom. They're the only (major) computer company that does this, which kind of makes them special by definition, right?

> The difference is that Apple does it in the only area that end users really see: The end user experience.

But ultimately, that's the only thing that really matters. I hate to be utilitarian about it, but the value a product brings to the end user is the only thing that matters.

> The iPod was, and still is, incredibly backwards in how it needs to load and unload media.

From a technical standpoint, yes. From a user's standpoint, it's _awesome_. I just click a button, and wait a few seconds? Great.

> The iPhone was a natural progression everyone saw from the iPod. Nor were they phones prior to the iPhone that weren't good.

It's true that the details of the phone weren't important, but it doesn't mean it wasn't a truly great phone. Remember the ROKR? That's what happens when non-Apple companies design a phone. That's what pretty much any non-iPhone non-Andriod phones are like. Maybe I'm just too hard on cell phones, but until I bought my Nexus One, I still had a really old 'feature phone' because I couldn't bring myself to buy any of the shitty, shitty phones that are out there.

> iTunes is nothing that hasn't existed in the open source world for a long time.

Same thing. It's not about the tech, it's about ease of use for the end consumer.

> I don't imagine anything I said is new, but it doesn't mean it's not relevant, or incorrect.

I mean, I agree. I'm not saying you should be downvoted, I'm just trying to guess why others were. Hearing the same arguments gets really old, especially in a series of articles like these, which are basically just shouting matches of the same opinions, over and over.

> Maybe I'm just not as easily impressed?

Nope, I think that you're just impressed by things that aren't Apple's core competencies. That's okay, I don't think, for instance, Exxon-Mobil is impressive, and they're one of the few companies bigger than Apple. Different people value different things.

I used to be obsessed with technical details, until I came to the startup world, where I realized it's all about value creation, not about the tech. It's disappointing, and we programmers tend to be an exceptionally meritocratic bunch, but really, even in the tech industry, tech is kind of irrelevant.
Facebook's Like button allows the company to mechanical turk content rankings which could challenge PageRank's authority. Facebook could (and probably will) combine this Like data with their own PageRank-like link analysis, adding another layer of relevance, one which they would solely own. Facebook web-search feature coming out soon?
Their blog is a prime example of why you should keep engineers away from the public.

http://notionink.wordpress.com/

"I have closely observed a different kind of integrations evolving in the consumer electronics domain. Take iPad for example. Most of the people involved in its product engineering have experience in Automobile Engineering. Today you talk about extrusion, milling and drilling in the CE products! Right now, its pioneered by Apple of course! iPod was extruded. There is a lot of drilling in the aluminium Mac Air. And you will see milling as the major engineering exercise in iPad. It’s fascinating, isn’t it! There is even internal “Heat Flow” analysis which takes care that your product doesn’t get fried up!

Automobile engineering will extrude consumer electronics to such an extent, that those who have automobile product engineering will soon become the most sought after resources in CE industry. Here you talk about heat flows, CNC milling processes, extrusion, sand blasting, moving components and what not!
[...]

As more and more products will be made of metals, material and metallurgical engineering will have the most of the fun. Imaging the next generation of product made specifically to give you a 18 degree celsius feel! Imagine the body designed which change colors with external temperature! Wouldn’t it be fun that we can create a “Drum Application” where drummers can practise on the screen of Adam! The time is about to come. It’s nearer than we think. The dawn of innovation is here!"

It's a lot of bizzare wankery about manufacturing processes, with little to no actual content. Definite evidence of kool-aid drinking.

"Designed with best of the features, all necessary functionality and easy to use. Because they have a point here! To give a ‘feel’ you need to take away functionalities (the reason why there is no I/O ports in iPad). How many products were used to made of metals?"

Yeah, no i/o connectors! Like the dock connector, or the headphone jack, which aren't on the ipad at all!
Is it real? I am no fan of Apple or Jobs, but it almost sounds too evil.

Edit: in reply to a "tweet" of mine, he posted the headers:

http://hugoroy.eu/jobs-os.php

It's really hard to believe they'd be such arrogant jerks as to go after something open source like that.
US Supreme Court to Review CA Law Restricting Sale of Violent Video Games
Laid Off - One Reader's Personal Journey
I wonder about the timing of it; could it be, in fact, a result of Google featuring Lala songs in web search?

I don't know if anyone else noticed this, but in the past few weeks when I would Google a song, a Lala box would be at the top of the page allowing you to stream the song. Obviously now there is no way to stream the song directly from the Google search page.

Now that it's war between Google and Apple, I can see this bringing Lala to Apple's attention.
Electoral dysfunction: Why democracy is always unfair
Worse, it's like diffs for congress without any version control:

"Title Blah Section BlahdyBlah(c)(4) shall be amended as follows: by striking 'shall not' and replacing it with 'may, phase of the moon permitting', and by striking 'foobars' and replacing it with 'all foobars, foreign and domestic, and any bazes and quuxes appertaining thereto'."

The language of the Constitution and its amendments is wonderfully tacit and accessible. Why can't statute law be so? Oh, right, because then it would obviate many uses for lawyers. Can't have that...
Hospital Orders 100 iPads – Is it the Doctor’s Pad of the Future?
That's one interpretation. Another is that some other entity is gathering patents to use against Theora.
His argument really hinges on it being rediculous for Apple to dictate what language people can program in. Comparisons to any other company are just a rhetorical device. I actually think he overstates the effects of the Windows monopoly, but even if you think he understates it that doesn't make what Apple is doing ok.
The Big Green Print
I upgraded to 10.04 (server) on my Wind PC last night, which I use as a print server and torrentflux box. Everything seemed to handle the upgrade fine (samba needed an additional service restart, but I digress)

For those of you not happy with your upgrade/download speeds, just use a local mirror in your sources.list. An impartial list is available here:

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/1004overview

Or you can just google for "ubuntu mirror <name of nearby educational institution>" For example, I picked MIT
Flash 10.1 handles multitouch events:

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/FlashPlatform/beta/reference/act...
I'm not taking sides yet, but . . .

"why CSS needs no variables"
http://meiert.com/en/blog/20090401/why-css-needs-no-variable...
He didn't say Apple was assembling this patent pool.
Confirmed: Flash Coming to Android Phones in June
Ask HN: A good and cheap secure certificate provider?
On a quick google search I see prices from ~ $13-$50/year provided by GoDaddy, register.com, Verisign etc.

I'm hosting my site currently at Dreamhost but I might migrate to other places.

What to look for when purchasing a certificate? Encryption strength, portability, price?

Any good recommendations?

Thank you.
Part of being a high-output blogger is cranking something out even if it's not a revolutionary idea. I appreciated the post and I know where to go if I need deeper insights on LessCSS or SASS.

Sometimes connecting the dots is all a blog post needs to do.
What is wrong with CSS is the same thing that is wrong with HTML and XML. We are trying to use these things as DSLs, but they lack a core aspect of a language: means of abstraction. As a result, modern website work generally involves using somebody's favorite layer on top of this web data that provides that missing aspect. Jeff's favorite ruby gem is one approach.

I personally like the ideas behind languages the Lisp community is developing via Weblocks and UCW (on top of yaclml or cl-who) -- and the similar possibilities provided by perl's Catalyst::View::TD -- where you approach page design from the perspective of widgets combined on a page.

Here is what is forced on us with this flat data approach: The server bears the weight of producing the flat data, and the network has the burden of carrying that large flat data from the server to the client. The client must render all that flat data. If the data had means of abstraction, the server would not need as many intermediate layers to convert it, the network would have less to transfer, and the client browser would be able to take advantage of optimizations for abstractions and parse less data.

Has anyone made any real headway on getting a replacement for HTML browsing? a movement away from "pages" and more towards "gateways" or "portals" to the graphical net?
But the whole point in this debate is that Flash is also, for better or worse, an industry standard.
Didn't see that one coming (sarcasm).

It will be interesting to see if Apple & Co. do a reversal on their "flash ban" if this begins to dig into sales in the future.

If they do reverse, it will become a PR fiasco well planned out and orchestrated by Apple.

Apple will look like a hero by "working with" Adobe to bring this experience to the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch and Adobe will do something to "open" flash and embrace the idea of free standards.

Just a little Nostradamus tech prediction for you.
Yeah, but if you can have a variable hold more than declarations than just a color value, then that's a lot of space saved.
The TV show has already been done - 14 years ago:
http://www.ukgameshows.com/ukgs/Wanted
This is The Innovator's Dilemma, of mainframes to minis to workstations to PCs... when a small portable device is "fast enough", its other benefits enable it to beat a desktop (even though a desktop remains more powerful - just as a mainframe does). And there's a changing of the guard.

I have my doubts about multi-touch; but always-connected-portable-devices is definitely the future IMHO.

I think Steve loves the idea of pioneering and owning the new computing UI (multi-touch). Maybe he sees this as an end-game, as he has a family, gets older and has had health scares... but insofar as we're reading minds, I don't think he really cares about owning it in the long-term. He'll go off to develop the next new technology, because that's where he enjoys making money. If the iPad isn't a huge hit (or if it is), I bet there are a bunch of other projects in the wings... for the future.
Steve has been quite busy with his email lately. I don't remember him ever doing this much correspondence via email.

Very interesting.
I'd be curious to hear how PHP devs would contrast this with something like HipHop from Facebook (which requires a specific coding style and some restriction of PHP features).
Well ... how about "not all of the country's targets are sitting ducks"? There has been a variety of hardening, in part due to the many attacks that have already been made by a variety of actors.

Part of it is that the defense will be active and I have some faith in our ability to respond to and recover from attacks.

But what you're saying and most especially implying could well be true, but we won't really know unless and until we're seriously attacked.

I do say that we won't start to get serious about this sort of thing only after a particular software bug or vulnerability kills thousands of Americans.
Upgrading my eeePC 1001P right now. Hopefully my funky wireless card will continue to work fine with the nidswrapper.

Something I appreciate is that I don't have to go to a "store" somewhere and get a "disk" to install and do an "upgrade". Update Manager is pretty nice at being no-hassle.

Overall my opinion is that Ubuntu is roughly equal to OS X for the little to no-hassle OS department.

I used to run Gentoo years ago, and then I got a real job and didn't want to spend time configuring and compiling and wanted Photoshop, so I switched to OS X. My PS needs are much less now days and I'm quickly drifting back to Linux and liking Ubuntu.
Reminds me of Ghost in the Shell:Standalone Complex robots.
Xen Unconcerned about Getting the Red Hat Boot
Hedge Fund Data Site (13F filings) - love your ideas what to do with it
This will carry on until the elections, I don't think we'll see much come out of it (and we shouldn't)
Presumably it would be the holders of the putatively infringed patents that would be assembling the "pool". I don't think Apple is in the Video Codec patent-holding business. As a major licensee of H.264, you'd have to presume Apple be in a position to know if someone else was rounding up the usual suspects.
I had the same thought. I think its because he wants to get "Sent from my iPad" on the internet on as many web pages and into as many minds as possible. Its a marketing ploy.
It's a pretty fair trade.

You get a bag full of free samples, they get a potential lead which may convert to a full time user of their product.

I don't really see any privacy issues with it personally.
Opera Acquires FastMail.fm
Though the title says 'The real reason why Steve Jobs hates Flash', he talks more about overall industry dynamics than Flash. And he is definitely right about one thing: the PC industry needs to re-invent itself or it will die. I have been using Windows XP as my work laptop for all my career and I still don't know if MS has any good replacement.