skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
If you have a single technical person, it seems that'd work best for some sort of product dev that doesn't involve maintaining a live service, wouldn't it? In the two-steves case, if Woz was on vacation for a week, or sick or something, all it meant was that no hardware design got done that week, but servers didn't start to fall over or anything.
Let us hope it is a responsible investigatory body, say the FBI, not Congress that does the investigating. Politicizing this can be another way of burying it.
I live and work in San Francisco, which is basically ground zero for crappy AT&T service.

... this is the reason I'll jump ship as soon as my contract is up.
Man dies of uterine cancer linked to transplant
That's the very definition of assuming.
The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton M. Christensen (http://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Dilemma-Revolutionary-Busin...)
For a minute there, I was actually scared.
I don't disagree, but your phrasing seems odd considering that the linked article is written by the same Tom Vanderbilt who wrote "Traffic". This might imply that it already takes your points into consideration?
In the early days of justin.tv (I was employee #6 if you include the 4 founders) there was almost no overlap in skill-sets. Everything in the company had a bus-count of exactly 1, we were permanently on-call, and I don't think anyone had a vacation for a very long time. It probably sounds painful (and it was!), but it meant we got an incredible amount of work done.

Of course there's often more than one way to skin a cat, and YMMV ;)
Richard Stallman agrees to do an AMA on reddit
Seems like a great idea... I really don't want to click the Fbook/Twitter buttons for fear that they'll publish something. A small disclaimer below that said something simple like "(Note: We won't spam your News Feed)" or something along those lines would be great :)
> a company rips us off to the tune of hundreds of billions that don't even feed any children and he admires it

You seem to think only the 'good guys' are worthy of admiration. Ethics and self-interest aside, I think it's perfectly acceptable to admire an impressive feat or trait, regardless whether it negatively or positively impacts you. Notice, he was not admiring the theft of billions of dollars, but the character trait behind the action.

My favorite quote on the subject is funnily enough thanks to J.K. Rowling;
"He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things. Terrible! Yes. But great" -Ollivander
I'm not necessarily criticizing the article, just voicing my immediate comment on the topic in the title.
Google Adds Feature to Customize Homepage with Background Art
I didn't realize that I could scroll through the hills (using a macbook pro at 1440x900) and accidentally hit my scroll wheel.
My girlfriend and I had almost the exact same schedule!

She's in med school (I would not wish this on my worst enemy) and I'm boot-strapping. Making dinner together and then sitting down to watch Brian Williams and Joepardy! is our most sacred tradition.
Thanks for the advice, I'll try it, maybe getting more feedback from her, but she hates computers and smartphones, I guess, I'm spending too much time with both.
A Conversation with Jaron Lanier
Highest rated comment on other post:

"Even if the rumour is false (I don't know) I don't find it unbelievable at all, because (a) it makes sense (b) this move would be both typically "Apple" and typically "Microsoft", if you look at the history of these companies. Hell, Microsoft started as a programming tool company."

Hate to say, "I told you so..."
Also a quick point on #1 - the images caught my eye more than the text and the images/text seem to link to different places.

If you want to get all 6 of these points across, I'd suggest letting the text live alone where it is then placing the images in a 3 column layout down below and enlarging them.
Do the eggs have to be in there for it to stand up?
I have! I liked it very much. I was using a Perl dos2unix one liner this morning in fact. I love Perl.
Right. It's like they're insinuating that there's some mythical smartphone with an HSM FIPS 140-2 L4 compatible crypto chip. Face it, if someone wants the data on your smartphone they can get it.
Completely anecdotal: a friend of mine moved here (US) from Germany ~ 5 weeks ago, and she was driving my car with me in the passenger seat. Just as I was thinking "she is a safe defensive driver," she approached a stop sign and to my shock did not stop, but slowed down only to continue on her way much like a yield sign. I freaked out a little in the vein of "Stop signs here are not suggestions!" She responded with points simiar to yours (and the articles'): there are way too many stop signs in the US, it is the most expensive part of driving (fuel-wise), and it essentially teaches people not to be thoughtful, cautious drivers. Now while driving I'm constantly thinking "what a wasteful stop sign."
The software to do this has been available for a long time now. iTunes requires devices to be unlocked via a passcode to perform a sync, but that's a courtesy--the AFC service running on the device allows full access to the user partition from the USB interface without restriction.
On type safety and making it harder to write buggy code
Suppose you want to invest in a company you truly believe in. Where will you get the shares from? Unless someone else thinks it's crap and wants to unload it, there will be no one to buy it from.

Luckily, there is a machine out there willing to sell it to you. An evil evil machine.
Yeah, I'm already using this, she wish a 50 m long swimming pool, so I just use to say, if you really need the pool, you know, I have to work hard for that, it's working for not complaining about me spending too much time behind the computer, but not always.
My iPad has never generated much heat at all on its own. I've received temperature warnings when I used it in direct sunlight for 20 minutes, but it never even gets warm to the touch with regular use.
If nothing else, Apple could raise the bar on apps a bit. This would only lower it.

On the contrary, if Apple had more apps to choose from, then it could afford to be more selective. The only thing is that they're already in a position to be more selective, and they're clearly not! (Perhaps too much work.)
Smart, greedy people are never going to let emotion get in the way of making money. That's just the way it is. We're never going to return to an era where a significant amount of people make investment choices with a significant basis on how they feel about the company. It's not a rational way to meet the end goal of making money.

Sad, though, yes.
When I drive I look as much for shape and color as the actual words.

To sell me on the idea of a new stop sign, you'd have to demonstrate that not only was the new design objectively better, but it is objectively better by a large enough margin to offset all the additional errors caused by drivers who aren't trained to look for a different design.
For the most part, I wouldn't trust encrypted disk hardware. The relevant standard for this sort of thing is NIST FIPS 140-2.

Edit:
You'd have to disable the 4 digit PIN decryption if more than 15 or so attempts in a row fail.

On second thought, there are numerous ways this could be vulnerable to a side-channel attack.
It's pretty much standard operating procedure for many sites that cover Apple news. Some of them even repost with a "we think this is bullshit, but we'll run it anyway" angle to try and cover themselves. When then thin shred of possibility the original rumor was based on vanishes, they more often than not then write posts about why it was clearly not in Apple's interests for said news to happen. Rinse and repeat.

9 to 5 Mac are the worst at this behavior, but to be honest I'm embarrassed for them all.
Apple, please don't encrypt stuff on my iPhone. It's hard enough to copy music to/from it from my Linux machine as it is.
First of all, that interview was after TWELVE years of living in the US, completing high school, completing college and working in the target language environment. Any highly motivated learner should have an excellent accent long before that.

A serious language learner can get to a very high level of proficiency in a couple years' full-time effort. Some of them have fun, too!
I'm planning on getting one of these as soon as I can get a US-model, configurable one with the 1920x1080 screen (it's currently only available with the 1600x900 screen). Looks like an awesome dev laptop!
Predators pick body parts for balanced diet
Next up: One Tablet Per Child — for $100
Thanks for the reply. I am now at peace and can continue the tutorial.

But a question. I guess I don't fully comprehend Rails sessions, but if you try to spoof user 17, wouldn't Rails notice this due to the cookie checksum?
The Trillion Dollar Vision of Dee Hock
The thing is, none of these comments are ever unique to the iPad. People are realizing that a portable tablet is a complimentary computer. Personally, my laptop and my phone span all of my computing needs. If I ever felt that I had the cash on hands or use-cases that demanded a tablet, I would consider it; but on a matter of practically and experience with both platforms, I'd certainly be choosing an Android (hopefully Tegra) tablet.
That and the fact that the speed was sustained for a longer period with this test vehicle than with previous vehicles.
Canada is spending $1 billion on security for the G8 and G20 Summit
Florida has the advantage of a huge population of senile drivers with poor vision.
By the way, this blog seems to be a gold mine of good thinking about how to reimagine academic publishing.
The Problems With Collectives, Both in Development Shops and Agencies
Some recommendations from an HN article a month ago: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1279087
A great rant IMO. I've never understood how a dev group would succeed as a collective and maybe it's because they don't.
The Problem With Storage Growth is That No One Is Minding the Store
It would still make it more difficult than plugging the device into a Linux box.

Would the side channel attack work if you only had access to one particular iPad on one occasion?

EDIT: One side channel that would be nasty - the greasy fingerprints on the keypad! (Perhaps the keypad could move to random locations?)
yeah and the iPhone gets Windows Mobile 6.1 and the iPad Windows CE
Paul, I beg of you, pleeeease implement a "merge stories" feature, before it's too late...
This "forced to figure out" stuff is all good if you assume safety is the only important thing when it comes to driving. I have enough things to figure out in life, and there is only so much figuring out that a person can do in a day. I'd rather take greater risk and relax while I'm driving. If this will make me and countless others more productive when we're not driving, then removing this opportunity will kill people by slowing down civilization.

Incidentally, this is a pattern underlying many such European innovations--put a lid on the obvious problem without acknowledging the more insidious and possibly much worse problems that the solution creates.
This could possibly lead to an early election, thats how bad the situation is right now.

For the love god, keep all these G summits at the same venue every year, or lease the UN building.

What is wrong with these politicians? We are spending more on this summits security (which is only 3 days) than we spent hosting the Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
>Their mobile API. This would be a great offering to iPhone devs.

It would, but I would also expect to see Dropbox for Android decline quickly.

It would be a great thing for Apple to acquire Dropbox, but it would also be a horrendous outcome for all non-Apple users.
Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship – book review
I'm a little puzzled why this is being downvoted. If I've made an error, could you please point it out?
Like blackberries?
http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/STM/cmvp/documents/140-1/1401val...

edit: I'm no expert and read too quickly the level 4 you mentioned, but at least isn't overall level 1 better than iphone's overall level 0?
How are you making the lives of your customers easier?
Yes, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chartreuse_(color)#Chartreuse_i... Chartreuse would:

Since about 1973, a sort of fluorescent chartreuse yellow has been adopted as the color of fire engines in parts of the United States and elsewhere. The reason behind this is that chartreuse fire engines are more visible on the streets than the traditional red fire engines, especially at night...

However, everyone is conditioned to a semaphore scheme of GREEN go, RED stop, so I guess that can't be conditioned out.
NYC isn't much better. Union Square, Midtown, Downtown; full bars and I can't connect to a web page or sitting by a windowsill and dropping calls. My iPhone/AT&T is done as soon as the contract is up.
I suppose we can agree to disagree then. Naming a "leader" early on does not mean that leader has to exert any kind of authority early on -- as I think we both agree, decisions should be made by consensus early and often.

To say that establishing a basic understanding on who will be taking the leadership roles early is somehow detrimental to the startup? I couldn't disagree more. Most companies I've seen out here (and I've seen quite a few as part of YC) have clearly defined who the "CEO" will be later, and it hasn't hurt them one bit, as long as that person is actual worthy of the position (and doesn't act like an idiot early on).

Your example that "Having a 'clearly defined leader' is as good as having a single founder and a bunch of employees" almost proves my point. If your team's motivation relies on them all imagining that they are the "CEO", you're going to have problems down the road. A good founding team should all understand their eventual positions from the get-go, and have no problem with that.

I think you're confusing someone being named "CEO" and someone behaving like "the boss". They may sometimes happen together, but I would not say they are correlated.
Ask HN: Has anyone successfully developed a large GWT application?
So my real job wants me to be a GWT developer. Any advice?
I've always found Dell to have decent hardware at a reasonable price. They also have an N series which comes with FreeDOS so you don't have to pay the extra MS tax.
> Steve Ballmer not speaking at Apple Dev Conf. Nor
> appearing on Dancing with the Stars. Nor riding
> in the Belmont. Just FYI.

That's just what 'they' want you to think! Steve Ballmer is going to do his entire speech while demonstration the iPad's new text-to-voice feature! So he won't be speaking at all!
Absolutely right move Google. User interface has been one of the weakest part of Android. Looking forward to see totally revamped UI in 2.3!
@winthrow

Overall Level: 1

Edit: To those who downvote, please read up on the full FIPS 140-2 specification. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIPS_140-2
I agree with everything after your first sentence completely.
So much for the idea that only humans waste.
The owners of the startup I worked at were lawyers and it worked out pretty well for them as the company was bought for nearly $200 million. We did e-discovery and they knew the space well and had a lot of good contacts in the industry that got us in the door where we would have had no shot otherwise. I can't say I thought they did everything right by a long shot but they way it turned out for them its hard to argue otherwise.
I get that you want to have one device to work on, but even a 17" laptop is a huge compromise on screen real estate relative to two (or three) high resolution 24+" monitors. My 15" laptop is somewhat portable and has a high resolution 1900 x 1200, but that just means it's a barley acceptable development environment. Yet, it's still way to large to take snowboarding or just traveling around when I am not expecting to use it.

Now chances are I am not going to want to start coding on the slopes, but I may want to double check a weather map check movie times etc. And the simple fact I keep my phone with me all the time means I use it for those casual questions. I could go to my car and boot the laptop, but because I have a more than one tool available I get more options and save time. Think of it in these terms, I rarely want to use GPS so I did not think buying a device would be worth it, but while slightly less useful than a dedicated device I am often really glad I can get basic GPS functionality on my phone.

PS: I don't have an iPad but I can see it could be vary useful.
I think the web satisfies both 1 and 2. But if you want an intelligence enough like ours that communication is easy, then it might help to have it embodied and thus have a similar perspective and hence consciousness. I doubt it but who knows.
Industrial efficiency and the kitchen
Channel your Inner VC to Understand Startup Valuations
It seems Microsoft's tweet has taken Twitter down. It's been unavailable for the past half-hour!
Google Gravity
Gruber, "If true, Google may be serious about taking the ugly stick out of the Android development process. This is a seriously big hire."
http://daringfireball.net/linked/2010/05/27/paczkowski
Reddit has managed to arrange some pretty cool interviews. I've enjoyed many of them.
Internet addresses in short supply
I was totally amazed at the super advanced, sophisticated machinery until I saw, on slide 6, that they'll be using a "junk shot", made up of tyres, rope, and golf balls as a last resort! One more use for all those balls that end up in course ponds, I guess.
Note that it improved both safety and traffic flow. I doubt that paying attention when driving will lower your productivity so much that you want to spend more time in your car instead.

Not to mention the effect on pedestrians, bicycles, etc.
If you're worried about civilization slowing down and increase productivity, minimizing time stuck in traffic seems like a good start.
This could possibly lead to an early election, thats how bad the situation is right now.

Nonsense. Why would the Liberals and NDP force an election which they would lose?

We are spending more on this summits security (which is only 3 days) than we spent hosting the Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

It's all a matter of what you count. I imagine that this $1B includes a lot of capital costs for equipment which will continue to be used for decades.
That sounds about ideal, a gradual and natural transition to formal roles after building up a track record.
If our perception is scaled logarithmically, wouldn't that give us an intuitive sense for exponentials?
I have to admit I'm suddenly just a bit worried about the future of WebOS. Not for HP/Palm's loss of one (or possibly more) smart UI designer, but for who or what will replace him.

If Duarte's shoes end up filled by some HP design committee and not a strong UX leader who can earn the respect of his teams, there's trouble brewing. WebOS is far too immature right now to be left to grow in that kind of bureaucratic environment.

I really hope they treat this search with the gravity it deserves instead of just dumping a suit in the seat.
As tempting as it is to jump on the Android bandwagon, here are some of my reasons for sticking with my iPhone 3GS.

* I don't live in the San Francisco area bubble, so I get great service. The only time it was crappy was the one day I was on vacation in midtown Manhattan.

* I still have over a year left on my contract. But even when it's up, I'm going to stick with my iPhone until it dies. The only thing that would possibly get me to switch is if my monthly payments would be at least $20 less than what I pay now for the same level of service.

* What I really wanted in a smart phone is a good web browser, which the iPhone has. I do use a handful of apps from the store, but they're not essential to me.

* My whole family uses at&t, so free minutes. I talk with my brother in NYC for hours each week and no minutes are eaten up.

Saying all that, I'll probably won't be buying Apple products for a long time because of all the usual complaints.
Microsoft, Google: buyers. Yahoo, Netflix: buyees?
meh. Build a bigger gas-tank. :-)
Bet on engineers? Do that one better and bet on something even more powerful and absolutely amoral: Bet on basic physics, biology, and math. (Yes, there are ways you can do this in the stock market.)
Sounds like extra complexity - maybe just have a textarea field when submitting/modifying a story to reference other stories (a list of links, one per line, which the HN engine translates into each link's title as a clickable link)
I stop at signs because of people like her.
This brings up a point about people who provide solutions instead of just listing potential problems. I think this can apply to any field, and those who do it are much more valuable.
Look, I'm as uncomfortable with the physical world as anybody here, but I just can't see why you would have something called a "blowout preventer" that doesn't also have a freaking valve somewhere along the line. Turn valve, oil stopped. Is it really that hard? There's like 50 different places water from a city water tank and your sink can be stopped. And again, if you don't like that "Plan B", ask the BP engineer in line at WalMart with 50,000 boxes of X-out titleists what his solution is.
Great if you can find several multi-skilled people. obviously got to be better than having the same people, but take some skills away from some of them. But good luck finding more than one engineer-marketeer-manager.
Ehrlich was a jackass who made hysterical predictions. In the 70s, he was predicting an imminent Malthusian disaster - like this - http://www.paleofuture.com/blog/2007/7/18/the-population-bom...

That's a long way from Bartlett.

Don't take Ehrlich as a spokesman for anybody who believes in limits to growth.
I think Joe missed one of the crucial considerations in valuation... How many doors you close with a high valuation.

If you close $3m on a $10m post-money valuation, you're signing up to build a $100m company (see http://www.angelblog.net/VC_Mandatory_Moonshot_The_Unwritten... ). If things aren't going great (i.e. growth has plateaued), you MIGHT be able to sell for $50m.

This is especially true if you take money from a BIG venture fund (who has $500m under management and needs to see BIG exits to move the needle).

Looking at the chart here ( http://redeye.firstround.com/2007/07/the-unintention.html ), the vast majority of exits are under $100m... Which means that committing yourself to be north of that means a long road and a lot of risk.
> As the cloud is moving in (gmail, google docs, etc) and
> slowly replacing more and more of our traditional applications.
> What can we do in order to free the web from closed source
> systems which we can't just use, share and adapt as we like.
> Can free software compete with this or are we forced to live
> in the last century where everything is hosted on out own
> computers?

I know it might go against the grain here on HN (with all the Web 2.0 buzz that goes around), but why is running applications on your local computer now considered 'old fashioned?' While things like Google Maps/Earth are really awesome, I'm not about to say that we get rid of locally stored maps (or turn-by-turn directions). What happens when we don't have cell reception or and Internet connection?
In the UK we often have smaller roundabouts, called "mini-roundabouts", they're designed with a small hump of circular horizontal cross-section that can easily be driven over by large vehicles. It's part of the design that trailer towing vehicles or wide vehicles can simply drive over the top if necessary.
Will.i.am Uses WePay to Collect Donations For His i.am home Foundation… | WePay
Eat Bacteria to Boost Brain Power
Interesting. I use SizeUp right now to do split screen from keyboard shortcuts but I'm wondering if there was anything better with more fine grained control.
his fans keep twitter spamming me, often mistaking me for him.