skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I'd like to see the results of sales in Australia, since the iPhone is pretty much on every major carrier over here. As the article states, Verizon had that buy-one-get-one-free deal, that would definitely push sales up. And when they have Android on a handset on all carriers that helps as well. All more reason for Apple to drop ATT as an exclusive carrier. Join the rest of the world and get it on all carriers.
Interesting decision. I wonder if this will pay off for them. I'm fine with buying new games if the content is worth it, but many times, EA downloadable content is not.

If they require a new purchase for multiplayer and online franchises, those features better be damn enticing.

Thankfully with Backbreaker coming out, EA will have some competition in the football market before their NFL lockout is over.

I'm all for innovation and I know they are trying to maximize return, but if the content isn't up to snuff they're playing some tough odds.
Yeah, somehow it looks very cozy.
Nice. So the game is $60, then you have to buy XBox Live for $10/month, then you have to buy each game company's online service for $10. A great deal for everyone! Except the end-user...

(Maybe they should add some biological DRM, too. The game controllers should do a DNA test on your blood, and if it detects your friend playing at your house, it should charge you a $30 "game sharing fee". It's a good idea because before, they got $0 from this. Nobody will be upset at all, just like nobody was upset with Ubisoft's phone-home-for-single-player-game technique.)
Asia’s Leading Web Technology Event – echelon 2010
my girlfriend, modern warfare 2 (xbox), hitting the gym, and the occasional night out w/ the guys keeps me sane...but you're right, there's no bigger thrill than the challenge of starting a company
If you've got a solution and need a tester, I'd be happy to test. I'm running MacOSX this side of the GFW.
besides using VPN (we were using anchorshield back then but now it's blocked) I was using gladder. A firefox plugin which allows you to use a proxy only in a tab. Great plugin. Helped me a lot.
It's not the same as walking into a physical store. You get an awful lot of ideas by looking at what's available, kind of improvisation engineering.

I am very happy to live within walking distance from São Paulo's "electronics district" (it's called Santa Efigênia, for the name of one of the streets around which lots of electronics (some of very uncertain origin), component and junkyards abound. Many items carry heavy import taxes and counterfeit items are sold on the street. I tend to go to the adjacent streets where the least mainstream stores are located. Those are far more interesting.

Walking there is always an expedition to a strange land. I usually get the stuff I planned to get, but often with lots of stuff I didn't knew I needed when I left home.

I know physical stores cannot compete with the internet and its zero-friction-commerce, but those places will be missed when they go.
The only way a thread about entrepreneurship can get any better is if a reference to The Godfather is tossed out. Nice. :)
You just make it up.
Same here. Plus, I look at all of these headlines on Google Reader, which doesn't display the submitter's username.
However, are they really extracting more money from their customers if they are charging used gamers for online content?

They don't make money from used game sales, resale stores like Gamestop do.

While this is a very questionable move from a consumer standpoint, it makes business sense.

MMOs rightfully charge for multiplayer access, however they have servers to maintain and use the resources acquired to improve their game and keep it fresh.

One could argue that if EA wants to make this idea appealing to customers, they should offer new content for free for the paying subscribers of used games, or those who paid for a new game.

Then again, they may just charge us for cheat codes and "VIP" mode like they have in the past. Even if one were to buy the game new.
Check out this post from one of the founders at Posterous:

http://axonflux.com/building-and-scaling-a-startup
I like the idea, and may sign up closer to my next planting season. (October) -- However, I don't need seeds as much as I need handholding. I can get a ton of seeds at the local store for a fraction of that price. What I need is expertise. I need somewhere to go past the home depot when the spinach is stuck at a tiny plant and I have no clue why. :)

Besides, other than knowing my zone, what other variables are in place? the alkalinity of the soil, for example...
If think you're looking at the problem the other way around.
The excel graph will take into account those little things. As long as the direction continues downward, the daily numbers don't matter.
Totally agree. Plus, I find that hobbies & activities unrelated to my startup can actually help. I'm a big believer in lateral thinking, and one great way to practice lateral thinking is to shift your mind onto other, unrelated topics.

I was reading this article from the founder of Kayak earlier today:
http://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/12604/Startup-Insights-...
and he mentioned something interesting. Despite being a travel startup, he avoids hiring people from the travel industry. I believe that's because he sees value in having people with different modes of thinking.

And in a way, that's kind of what a hobby does for you. It puts you into a different mode of thinking, which can come back and benefit your startup. :)

Just my $0.02.
Personally, I think Ubisoft's decision with their current DRM techniques to be the most asinine choice feasible.

It is true, however, that game companies do not directly profit from used game sales.

EA is trying to profit from the money that is not being made, (hopefully) without hurting the customers that buy the game new.

The $10 for the online fee might be saved if you're buying it used, then you pay $10 for the subscription and, used prices low enough, still save money off retail.
For example, EA SPORT GAME N is $60 new, online features included.
EA SPORT GAME N is $45 used, $10 for online features, total is $55, a net win for the consumer, and EA makes some money back too.

I do think it's a questionable call, but it's an understandable one.
They don't have an offering on Verizon and some others because they don't have a CDMA version of the phone. With the networks soon moving to whatever 4G is, there's not much point in Apple making a CDMA phone now.
I love the 'something went wrong' page
If all non-Chinese servers rejected any requests from China, would this be counter-productive? Basically if everyone else banded together and said "You can have all of it or none of it, but you can't pick and choose." would this force open China's hand or would it just make things miserable for people that actually care. The number of people that actually care is a very very small percentage; most of my Chinese friends don't care about accessing material from outside China. They're interested in games, chatting, and watching movies.
I think everyone's looking at this the wrong way. EA already has countless flaws which people have been whining about for a long time. The further out of touch with their customers they become, the better chance other game studios have of taking a piece of their pie. I'm hoping someone capitalizes on this opportunity to show customers that at least some non-indie game studios are capable of not screwing their customers over.
Me too. Any chance this would happen? Or are import/export laws too restrictive to make it feasible?
My hunch is that most of the feedback is from technicaly inclined people and most of them are expressing the 'coolness' of the infinite scroll rather than a coginitive-usability perspective. Maybe try doing a feedback round with non-technical people, possibly with something like usertesting.org. Also, the infinite scroll is a pretty old paradigm and Google would have definitely run it through its user tests, but htey obviously dont find a lot of value in it.
I guess, to me, there's a difference between what you're saying and vigilantes calling you out because they think you're a link spammer. To a degree, it discourages growth in the community because it scares people off.

And it does feel, to a degree, double-standardish. For example, the dude from The Oatmeal submits tons of his own links but seemingly nobody bats an eye.

http://www.reddit.com/user/GiantBatFart

Just sayin'.

But either way, that doesn't get away from my original point, which is that you shouldn't freak out over getting upvotes.
Nice script! Another good practice when preparing CSS files for production, other than concatenating them, is to minify them too (strip out comments & whitespace).
Is there anybody even close to Nielsen in the industry? He is pretty much the Edward Tufte of UI.

However, here is a contradictory article from an insider:

http://experiencedynamics.blogs.com/site_search_usability/20...
I signed up for a free account, and now I can't figure out how to upgrade to a paying account. You may want to add a big button that says "Upgrade Your Account."

The price seems very high. Your small garden plan, for example, costs $40 and includes six varieties that will fill an 8' bed.

For $50, I can get a "Garden in a can" with 16 varieties that will fill a bed the size of two basketball courts:

http://beprepared.com/product.asp?pn=FG%20S200&name=Gard...

Are your seeds an heirloom variety? That makes a big difference, because if they are, I can harvest my own seeds and plant them the next year.
Truly wonderful - hoping the best for you.
Hey, thanks. Saved me a bit of reading :)
This dude is obsessed with finding news clips for YouTube
I think its fine entering into an established area as long as you are providing something different which it seems like you are.

I think a clearer tour or overview page with some nice examples or showcases of bands using the service would help users understand how you are different.
I forced myself to learn vim because I wanted more power than nano would give over ssh, but this is what got me to replace my gui editor with gvim: http://vimeo.com/8569257
It's a classic story of management by managers. You just can't hire any generic executive and expect it to work. If all the manager knows is management, all the manager will see are numbers. Some things are the soul of the company.

We don't expect a psychiatrist to be able to run a restaurant.
Agreed. Best thing for me so far has been climbing. Its physical, social, is relatively cheap, involves problem solving and I have fun doing it — a great combination for me. Feeling myself grow with something that is so different from my work is also pretty awesome.
Solving the “marketplace” business model
How Yahoo Boosted Its Search Market Share With Pictures
A pre-money valuation of 1m or 2m would imply that you are selling 33% or 20% of your company respectively in an equity financing.

At the level of investment you are talking about you may want to consider convertible debt rather than equity. Here is a good comparison of the two:

http://venturehacks.com/articles/debt-or-equity

Regarding control, things like board seats are negotiable and will largely depend on the type of investors you raise money from. Lots more on that topic here:

http://venturehacks.com/archives#board-of-directors

It sounds like you don't have any customers or revenue at this point. If you can get traction on one or both fronts before approaching investors you will likely increase both your chances of securing investment and your valuation.
Upvoted for how relevant this solution is to my own cable needs. I definitely don't miss the cashier trying to convince an electronics entrepreneur with engineering in the blood that 6' $80 HDMI cables have a noticeable quality difference. Still, I haven't found a good source for prototype project boxes in Radio Shack's price range.

Can anyone recommend a low-cost rapid-prototyping plastic case manufacturer?
https cert shows up as not being trusted
The valuation fundraising question is a really really hard one. Tons of ways to go about it, but here's how I like to think about it:

1) Total up your monthly burn rate (include a 20% premium for shit happens expenses) for the bootstrapped seed stage <= 300k works for most. Multiply that by a range of 9-12 months. The 9 month period is the lower bound of what you raise and the 12 month period is the upper bound of what you raise.

2) Hopefully you can give up <= 10% of the company. It depends on a per company basis. Try to find someone to lead the round at that valuation. If someone leads at that valuation, it's easier to get others in line.

3) Your goal over the next 9-12 months should be to knock it out of the park and find a groove for customer acquisition/product market fit on a small scale.

4) In 12 months you should be making good money that covers the burn rate you've had over the past 9 months that helped calculate your seed round, but now you want to lock up the market. This is where the very purpose of venture capital comes in- you have a model that works and you want to grow + lock up the market.

5) Raise the money and grow in a calculated manner. Rounds beyond the Series A I won't cover here.

Hopefully this helps some. It's just one of many strategies to look at. To some it may make sense and to others it may be absolutely wrong.
One more... I just got my first email telling me about this week in the garden... October 4-10.
Did you come across a project named Boson (I think), it allows aliasing of commands, and various other options.
Check this: http://tagaholic.me/2009/10/14/boson-command-your-ruby-unive...
Jison: An API for creating parsers in JavaScript
Is this just for the numbers? I doubt , there's any kind of revenue growth from this.
That's actually what made me ask. I don't normally even check but I had just read an article that I thought was borderline and I noticed that it was posted by jacquesm, someone who I recognize as a regular, and voted it up. It's an almost sub-conscience bias but I think it's interesting.

Also I tend to up-vote a-lot so it's probably more significant for me.
That's what I meant..
Sooner than you may think [1]. And we all have printers in our home, but even now go to specialty shops for our more exotic or higher volume jobs. Why would it be any different with 3D printing? And since, in this vision, they'll also be stocking all the electronics prototyping hardware, they'll be a one-stop shop for the emergent DIY robotics scene. Radio Shack should absolutely be planning for this now if they have aspirations in this direction.

[1] http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=3d+printer+cost+dro...
Mine is running. You don't have to do much prep, and you can do it anywhere. It's great because it works well in groups like a running club or a race. But it is also amazing to just take off and clear your head all by yourself.

I've met a surprising amount of founders that run.
With Starcraft 2 imminent, I can add one item to the hobby list.
I don't play console video games, but this makes me kind of angry. I know a company has to make money ... but the recession isn't the time to spring things like this on consumers (if ever).
Programming Is - A New Short Book
>Not going to be a popular move for EA but it's a smart business move.

If I'm misreading your post, I apologize, but how is something that pisses off current and potential customers a 'smart business move'?
New anti-piracy software blocks illegal content from displaying on your monitor
I found this article interesting to explain a bit more [1].
Then I was still not happy and tried it myself. Basically it is a tool that lets you choose what frontend you want to use e.g. w3m, lynx, firefox etc. and gives you shortcuts to certain interesting pages [2] you might want to access on CLI. That shortcut again has also a help page - very interesting for scripting. It's sort of like the "dict" command but for all kind of webpages.

I played around...

surfraw -browser="dlynx" translate -from=fr -to=en la verite vous liberera | head -50

> Will show the proper translation

surfraw -browser="dlynx" piratebay 2012 | egrep -i "\.torrent" | head -1 | sed 's/^[0-9. ]*//g' | xargs -iin wget in

> Will download a torrent file from piratebay

etc.

[1] http://crazylazy.info/blog/content/scrapers-surfraw
[2] http://surfraw.alioth.debian.org/#elvilist
The Hacker's Diet accounts for this by encouraging you to look at a moving average of your daily weight, rather than the number itself:

http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/e4/signalnoise.html#Fa73
There's some non-serious names that also aren't too nebulous, like Ask Jeeves. But I guess it's not a great example of a massive success (though it was successful enough that for a time most internet users had heard of it).
This is a really bad move especially for sports games. They don't tend to have the lasting online community of FPS, RTS or RPGs. People move onto the new yearly release quickly to get updated rosters. I don't think a $10 fee is going to improve that situation at all. It will likely make it worse. The people who do spend $10 are going to be very disappointed to find out few people are playing a -1 or -2 year old sports game online anymore. Finding compatible skill/pings/maturity is tough with a big user base. Nearly impossible with a small one.
This is cool man.
Dr. Barski,

I will be back in D.C. mid June. Is the monthly Fringe meetup still ongoing? Would love to meet.
Great, now I need to add a third dimension to http://github.com/texel/Effect.Circle

Thanks a lot.
4G is not really a replacement for CDMA. You don't need a 10/1Mbps connection to send highly-compressed voice, and even as 4G is rolled out, the networks are not going to decommission their 3G equipment. (Consider GSM, where you have HSDPA/UMTS, EDGE, and GSM all as the "same network". WiMax will supplement CDMA, not replace it. And I assume the idea is to move bulk bandwidth from CDMA to WiMax so that the CDMA network has more call capacity.)
Innovative billboard campaign to fight homelessness
Nokia E52 Smartphone in India
+1 to running -- I used to run with music, but find it more clarifying to run with only the distraction of being where ever I am.
Clickable: http://sproutrobot.com/
Autonomous sliding parking
Weight lose is super simple, I am down 25kg since Jan 2010 following the primal blueprint guidelines: http://www.marksdailyapple.com

No gimmicks, no hours of pounding the pavement, no stupid exercise machines, no processed crap food, just eat the right healthy and natural foods and your body will naturally drop down to the right body fat percentage. Plus I can eat heaps of bacon and steak and not feel guilty about it anymore.

This video is fantastic, well worth the 90 minutes to watch it, explains in detail what happens to carbs in your body: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM&feature=playe...

This is a fantastic movie also, highly recommend you get a copy: http://www.fathead-movie.com
I will throw my 2-cents in. My wife posted the name CCP on the Chinese version of Twitter and received an immediate message. Scared her enough to quit for good. For those who can read mandarin: http://twitpic.com/19h81p

We need to push our representatives to call foul on WTO violations. These are unfair business practices as web-based companies need to be protected too.

It's all about "block and copy" so the west is losing precious resources and hard-earned IP.
Salad Recipes, Summer Recipes: Easy Healthy Salad Recipes
So poignant a comment, I wish that I could do more than upvote.

Regards.
Well, familiarity is the first cognitive bias, recognition is easier than cognition. And the assumption that past good behaviour indicates future good behaviour is a heuristic that will work most of the time.

That said, I do hope most people read the linked article before voting.
Here's UF's:

http://identity.ufl.edu/identityPlatform.pdf

It even includes how logos on school trucks should appear, and letterhead margin requirements
I don't think we've any of the major Android phones apart from the HTC Desire since the Magic. No Droid or Nexus one. So the results would definitely be very skewed towards the iPhone. I just hope the Australian carriers wake up to what they are missing out on.
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Lucid dream: Ars reviews Ubuntu 10.04
Just to post an update, as I had thought...the US gov't & EU gov't would never let Greece or any of the other troubled neighbors crumble:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601010&sid=alxK...
My interpretation of the definition is that it's about being unable to recognize the benefits of something you're unfamiliar with.

> By contrast, when looking at a language that is less powerful, this is usually obvious.

You mean like how when I look at Python, its deficiencies relative to C# are obvious? Or are you talking about how when you look at C#, its deficiencies relative to Python are obvious? The blub paradox goes both ways.
Is it too early to start saying "I told you so" yet?
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Hm... You'll know who is planting what, where?
I'd love to build a local produce exchange on top of this!
If suckiness of existing players is any indicator of what market is ripe for innovation, then game publishing seems to be the frontier market. I dont know of any other industry that works against their customers interests with as much precision and passion as the game publishing industry. Between Ubisoft, Activision and EA its hard to decide whom I hate most.
I loved your my_dict tip: ci' - new to me. Thanks.

Here's my favorite:
http://rayninfo.co.uk/vimtips.html
Thought you might find this interesting.

When you have a baby, various stores encourage you to sign up for monthly emails. Because the store knows the date of birth, they can send accurate developmental updates. e.g. "Your baby is X months old. You may notice she is starting to pay more attention to the world and is able to hold up her own head..." (etc).

This is fascinating for the parent due to the timeliness of the message. It is also a great sales opportunity, as lower down the message it suggests things the user might want to buy.

You could do the exact same thing. Don't just send a message saying "plant your seeds now" but send (opt in) periodical follow up emails that explain how the garden should be doing, common gotchas, and so on.

If you ever add any social aspects to the site, it might make sense to expose the 'age' of the user's garden. People at a similar stage of growth have something in common and may want to interact with each other.

Good luck with it!
I'm traveling through the US South this week and the Publix grocery stores have scales in the entryways. (I assume for this purpose.) Great idea.
i don't know much about how this works, but why cant people just bypass this by creating a separate account for every game they purchase and then pass on that account's details to whoever they sell the game to
3D Effect in Photoshop
If you want your text in Photoshop gave 3D look, or you want to make the depth of anything, then this tutorial will help you alot. Very simple technique, I’ll be using Text in this tutorial.
Survival of the Fibbest - Why We Lie So Well
The output depends if you want to use e.g. w3m, lynx, firefox, etc. etc.