skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
>They made an app that was too much like a desktop and got rejected. That seems entirely reasonable.

You're not serious, are you. If so, :(.
Should Startups Pay to Pitch? Damn Right
I imagine hn owes a lot of success to its simplicity.

I was always confused by slashdot's filters and the threads in almost every other forum, with Post #18 replying to Post #7 and Post #27 replying to Post #3, but only 10 posts visible per page. Busy people don't have the time to wade through stuff like that, so all you're left with are the trolls.

hn's nested threads built with <table> are so simple that they're brilliant. No horizontal scrolling, no flipping between pages, just click "reply" and you're good to go.

I have no idea how much time and effort pg puts into hn, but I'm sure it's nontrivial. Something as good as hn doesn't get that way purely organically. Also, I would guess that more of his energy goes into the software, not the site's output. Why deal with an issue once when you can build something that will deal with it forever?

It goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway: thank you pg!
While this might make the actual process of typing in the code easier, it doesn't make the language any better. I still can't imagine choosing to use COBOL over using Ruby or even C#.
Sybase CEO John Chen: Why SAP found Sybase so attractive
DFW has lots of startups, but they don't get a ton of exposure for a variety of reasons. Hopefully launchDFW can continue to grow to be a great outlet to show how active the startup community in the metroplex is.
Are you using your product to test your product? :)
It's cleaver. The last line about how Digg has dugg their own grave also made me chuckle a bit.
Agreed. I'd be ok with, after voting, a new link appended to the status line (1 point by so-and-so...) that just undoes your vote. Even if that is permanent (eg, can't vote again).
That is an oversimplification, in important respects. There are multiple competing options for most of those platforms, responsibility for them is diffuse, and change happens very gradually.

I mean, yes, technically speaking, I am dependent on electricity. But that doesn't mean there is a $8 an hour representative at the power company whose job is to shut down 24 businesses today to preserve the power company's vision for what proper use of electricity looks like, and whose decision is beyond repeal.
Yeah, it seems likely that most modest fortunes (say, single-digit millions) would be blown. The really big fortunes make active efforts to preserve wealth across generations, though--- things like generation-skipping trusts aim both to minimize inheritance taxes as well as the risk that a single generation could blow the whole family fortune.
Mac OS X and Linux are no magic security bullet for Google
Sorry if this wasn't the right place to ask. I am really proud to be part of such a unique community.
This level of ass kissing makes me want to puke.
It seems like they're using the propeller as a combination flywheel / accelerator. If you're allowed to store energy as rotational momentum, why not in a battery?
Pivotal makes me nervous because the usability is horrid (as I've outlined in various other comments) and I wish more companies would use proper tooling - at least those where I get involved as a contractor.

Other than that, no.
These don't go against 3.3.1? If so, I stand corrected.
Technically, Symbian is still the market leader by a comfortable margin.

(The development options are fairly confusing though. For C/C++ development, the only Symbian dev avenue worth considering nowadays is "Nokia Qt SDK", which is surprisingly nice. Java seems to be essentially deprecated, but higher-level options like Python and JavaScript through Web Runtime are available.)
I don't actually do these myself, but if I was a developer I'd do these:

1) start blogging about things in your niche.

That way you'll get a number of people in your niche coming to your site every day and seeing a link to your product.

2) There are a ton of free/bonus advertising coupons, $100 at Adwords, $100 on Facebook, $50 on Myspace, $100 bonus when you spend $30 on Yahoo. etc etc

Focus on long tail keywords in your niche, and you'll be paying 5 cents a click, which will go a long way.

3) Since you are a developer create a few templates for all those blogging services. Wordpress, Tumblr etc. Throw a link in the footer "Web Design by YOUR COMPANY" and eventually you'll have a thousand blogs a) linking to your site and b) showing off your work to thousands of people

4) Volunteer to do design for a few rising stars. i.e. from what I understand Pallian did the early Mixergy's design for free to get his name out there.

5) create a bunch of long tail websites, and advertise your services through those.

6) Print a bunch of business cards go to your local town center, and offer to build sites for all of those small businesses. Charge one amount for a template, and a much higher amount for a custom job.

7) Get on those freelancer sites, and start bidding on projects.
Mobile Payments Startup Boku Launches In-App Billing Library For Android
Nah, in October 2010 the first G1 owners' two-year contracts will start ending and they'll get offers for cheap or free upgrades to newer phones. Within a year or two this will happen to most people who bought a first- or second-generation Android device.

At least in the US, the carriers' subscription and hardware subsidy model will guarantee steady turnover in smartphones.
It helps if you can donate some of your time to an open source project that's complementary or related to what your company does.

For example, I volunteered to write the tutorial for Sigil (http://code.google.com/p/sigil/wiki/BasicTutorial) because it's a great alternative to the closed, expensive InDesign product (http://www.adobe.com/products/indesign/).

Tutorials or presentations are also good.

I created a basic overview of how to create an e-book, and presented it at BarCamp5 in NYC.

After the conference, I posted the slides and links on my personal site (http://denis.papathanasiou.org/?p=286).

As a result of both activities, my company's site (http://www.fifobooks.com) gets traffic and business (new registered authors and readers, as well as other opportunities I hadn't expected).
Building a compact low power high performance workstation
Trying hard not to downvote just because I disagree so strongly, I don't even know if it's possible to find some common ground for discussion.

It sounds to me like these developers didn't read the app store guidelines.

I'm getting really sick of that defense for Apple. How exactly do you logically go from "Don't make apps that do what Apple devices can already do natively" to "Thou shalt not make a cool picture frame app"?

Yes, it's entirely the app developers' fault, and Apple can never be mistaken. The allmighty App Store Guidelines CLEARLY spell out for developers what they can and cannot do. They are immutable, all-encompassing, never vague, and impossible to misinterpret. If only developers would READ, we would never see any of these stories.

Argh.

(Have I just been trolled? On HN?)
Starting a Cpanel-like Project for Ubuntu Server
I need your advice on how to start a F/OSS project. Where's the best online hangout to gather devs for this? Where's the best place to put the code as we build it?

I'd like to invite PHP developers (who know a slight bit of Kohana and Bash) to help me build a Cpanel-like F/OSS package for Ubuntu Server. Sure, there are other packages out there, but none equal the simplicity and intuitiveness of Cpanel, and also I want this to be GPLv3.

The first goal will be application security because panels like these are often targeted. Following that, I wish to start on the login and the main page, and make it work in a shared hosting environment among many customers. From there I want to build an easily extended API where one can define panel sections, and then panel icons in each section. At that point, the team splits up and starts focusing on each icon-connected script that does a specific task in an intuitive way.

If you have advice on starting a project like this, let me know here.

If you are interested in joining me to build this, then contact me with either a message reply or PM here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1499853
I am no Lisper - so someone else will have to do that. But it was shown to me on a couple of occasions and Lisp's abilities are stellar!

The problem is:

Replacing functions at runtime in Python is just as easy as replacing them at runtime in Lisp.

Is not the be all and end all of self-modifying code :)

EDIT: this is a pretty good intro to Lisp Macro's http://www.apl.jhu.edu/~hall/Lisp-Notes/Macros.html The code examples on there are fairly simple though (but it starts you in the right direction).

For example one thing Python is currently unable to do is modify a line in a function to do something completely arbitrary (well, theoretically you could code a specific line to be able to do that, but it wouldn't be trivial to make an entire function that could be trivially modified on the fly).

[we are now at the extent of my Lisp knowledge]
I agree with what you said here, and upvoted, but I'm not sure that it's a correct statement. What appears to be the case is that iPhone OS devices will be considered software-obsolete in the third year of availability, if we're extrapolating the trend from the limited data we have.

That is, I fully expect that my iPhone 3G will not run iPhone OS 5 and that the iPhone 3GS will not run iPhone OS 6 (or whatever number they're up to in two years). It's still a solid story for iPhone OS development compared to other handsets.

It appears to be one of the lessons that Apple took to heart from the PalmOS example (they were at 160x160 for years, then 320x320 and only a few folks took it beyond that).
I'd be interested to see if anyone has any more information on this. I did a couple of google searches but didn't get anything other than the article itself and some unrelated guff (though this may be due to my inability to construct a suitable search string).
I wrote a little scraper to keep track of the money raised over time. The NY Times article really gave them a boost, which eventually flattened out only to pick up again in the last 24 hours.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=0AqAXxpwe1BqbdE1FbVFs...
If your answer takes you to a different page, then you've done it.
Thanks for filing the complaint. I posted my disappointment with AT&T on our blog at http://gpapps.com .
How do you think I feel? I ordered the 'small' iPad days ago expecting to pay the $30/month and utilize the cloud for data storing and now since it hasn't arrive yet I'll be screwed into paying slightly less for a lot less data and there goes my plan to store my media online. Awesome, fuck you AT&T.
The point is that there is a lot of COBOL already out there, so someone has to maintained it and add to it. What is more, C# is not a perfect language for business its self, neither is Ruby. With good tooling the difference are small. Actually, in my case I would never recommend using Ruby for a commercial project - but that is another discussion for another time :)
Or just don't support it. Most phones running 1.5 are underpowered, and if users haven't upgraded they probably don't care about being on the cutting edge and aren't buying many apps. I'd expect that the effort isn't worth it unless you have huge sales volume.
Just for comparison: in Finland unlimited / max speed 3G costs about 14 € per month (roughly equals $20). Tethering is allowed. We have population density of 16/km2 (32/km2 in the States). I wonder what is the sweet spot of population density for the cheapest possible 3G network? (Edit: the average density is probably pretty meaningless number in this context.)
Not much if the developer stays to the standard UI.
How do i know? First of all, i've written my own android programs. Running on a new version is generally no problem, there may be some minor changes that the developer docs usually tell you about. Nothing fancy that can't be done in a few minutes.

Second, when 2.2 was released most programs ran out of the box on 2.2, there where no app updates for a few days.
Out of all the programs i have installed (there are quite a lot) only one had a minor graphic bug, that has been fixed now. Don't know what was causing this, though.

When you say "OpenGL is for platform independence" you are right. But if you look at all the versions, and _especially_ the vendor specific OpenGL extensions, you'll see that OpenGL is quite fragmented itself. Also, it doesn't abstract away screen sizes and such.
iPhone - Has greed on it's side, good environment, not too open, squanders mindshare

Android - Not the 1st choice of the greedy, too many compatibility issues, very open, makes the right moves for mindshare.

By this analysis, Android seems to be on a winning trajectory in the long run.
I haven't figured out what two things in 8 are supposed to be.. at least the obvious thing doesn't make sense in that context...
True, I thought it had features similar to the Dashboard app, but apparently not.
I agree -- that ATS stuff is hard on the eyes. The goal is laudable, but the medicine is worse than the disease with the way they implemented it. The MS approach is a lot easier to get people on board with, I think.
They're all C++ or Objective-C. It's one of the insidious points of 3.3.1 that you can't used alternative languages (and it's questionable whether you could even use grammars or other code generators), but pure Obj-C or C++ libraries are all okay as long as they're statically linked.
Another alternative is running in a VMWare virtual machine for them, or allowing them to upload it themselves to cloud providers.
I would love to see _why's Potion implemented in PyPy. You could call it Pytion.
Better & simpler solution: Bigger buttons on touchscreen devices, preventing mis-clicks in the first place
"If I have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants." -- Sir Isaac Newton
EDIT (because for some reason my only option is reply): The other cool thing about TrueSkill is that it can handle multiple players on multiple teams. So, if anyone decides to add the capability for 1v1v1, 1v2, 1v1v2, etc, TrueSkill is ready.
Yes, the issue is most of us don't wish to use the unlimited plan every day of the year. We want to use it the 2 months we travel somewhere and don't want to worry about internet access. That's $360 a yr vs $60 a year.
Tell HN: A profitable health care startup looking for Product Manager
Looking for an Super Product Manager for a leadership role in a profitable health care startup in the Nashville Area, if interested please email gosuri{at}gmail.com
Nobody knows. I imagine that both Apple and AT&T have enough money to afford lawyers who make such contracts really painful when another party wants to dropout. This is usually the case for most such contracts.
My guess is, that Steve is currently balancing the benefits and tradeoffs of dropping out of the contract. Will Apple have to pay too much? Or will Apple lose too much to Android while staying with AT&T?
Or could simply modifying the UI solve this problem? Putting the downvote arrow to the right of a news item (maybe just on mobile devices) would prevent fat-fingering, and then votes can remain permanent.
This wasn't previously available on the iPhone.
AT&T dramatically revamps data plans, kills unlimited bandwidth
They can ignore it and pay damages if there is no cancellation clause. It is highly unlikely a court would enjoin them from doing some as pro consumer as opening their platform to another US provider.
That's what I get for making fun of Arc, I guess.
Feel like I've got a very reasonable looking answer for 8, but it won't accept it... some special trick on how to submit?

Edit: Turns out you can make big errors by guessing small details... on to 9.
All it takes is a few people to stand up for themselves with some help from a great organization like the EFF and suddenly those expensive lawyers are racking up huge costly hours.= and these lawsuits look less attractive.

http://www.eff.org/about/contact

"If you're in trouble, you can contact us at information@eff.org."
Here's how I read what he's saying: "Platform = Middleman. Don't be a sucker, be a middleman! They outsource the risk and get it all in the end."
Tjoozey Labs Keywords May 2010
Econophysicist Accurately Forecasts Gold Price Collapse
Self-reproducing programs in Ruby
One thing that is different here is that this site does not need to generate (ad/any) revenue, so many of the irritating things that will be common in other forums will be absent here.
Don't forget the bugs! Apple in particular has done exactly what he's accusing Google of doing: They ignored GL bugs in older versions of OS X, since they were fixed by the newer versions. They go as far as to delete (or hide?) discussion threads from the public Apple forums that talk about bugs they don't want to fix.

In their case it's more evil, though: They actually profit by ignoring older bugs, because they sell new versions of the OS to people who get sick of things not working. But as a game developer, we've had to still work around their bugs so as to support the people who haven't upgraded.

Story's the same here, except now it's not even an option for the consumer to upgrade (short of jailbreaking their phones in most cases).
bring back memepool plz
"... and if you can't build what the platform provides -- give up!"

That's not actually my point at all.

The reason GameComm failed is that it wasn't a web app. It was desktop software. That's just a whole different ballgame and something I definitely wasn't familiar with.

Is Spencer suggesting companies should attempt to build their own iPhones? Build their own Facebook? Build their own Twitter.

In an essence, yes. You should make sure you build all of your core functionality in-house and not rely on other platforms for it. If you don't then you're going to run into similar problems that I had and others have.
I like the permanence, because sometimes I upvote an insightful comment, then read an insightful reply and upvote it too. I think if votes were impermanent, I might be more tempted to null or downvote the original point if the second one is better - not because of evil, just because of the natural human desire to be very consistent. So I like the permanence thing...

...but I understand the misclicks. Maybe an "undo" button for a short time, like 10 seconds or until your next click that just nulls your vote?
downvote please
That is an oversimplification, in important respects.

It's not so much the fact of a platform. It's the nature of the ecosystem that lives on that platform. How open is it? Is it subject to whims and sudden change? Are these alternatives? Are there open standards? Is there competition between implementations?
IRobot Warrior 710 Gets Rocket Launched Parachuting Explosive Rope
Honestly, I'd love too see android be a viable competitor, but until it is, Apple is going to continue reigning.

Android is still ultrafragmented, and none of the tablets are out yet (nor will necessarily be that good when they come).

Half the iPad development I'm seeing looked for is for B2B apps, not consumer apps.
My G1 auto-updated to 1.6 a long time ago; it's other phones that haven't been updated from 1.5. Or non-US G1s? I'm on T-Mobile here in the US.
I got stuck on 8, here is what i got so far:

(Ruby-Ru) + (FoxPro-Kung Fu Panda-XX)+

(Python-K-T-(hay-A)) + S

(CD-PHI-XX) + (JAVA-XX-J) +

(XX+H-(G))+Te+R+XX

where XX is what I don't know
Startupshovels
I thought I had a good idea but, after sobering up, I just realized that I don't. What i'm left with are two names - startupshovels.com and startupshovel.com. Anyone working on something that'll fit?
I could not agree more.

I am also dependent on a single platform and am acutely aware of the fact that this is not a good long term (6 mo +) investment of my time. However, building for a popular platform is a good way to make some quick cash without having to worry about anything but the quality of your product (ie. getting discovered, marketing, payment processing, etc.)
My point was that China was transmitting stolen documents over TOR, not stealing documents transmitted over TOR. Although they probably do that as well.
You don't need to figure them all out. I was able to guess based on parts. Like I have no clue what the hand is supposed to be or that mountain looking thingy.
Or could simply not feeling guilty solve this problem? The up/downvotes are to give an aggregate view of the community response to a comment, not to give a precision karma score.
Language! But that said, the popularity of MMOs, with game dynamics all too similar to slot machines and resort casinos isn't a good sign. (I say this as a former Eve Online addict.)
The article summarizes with one unemployment number an overall characteristic. The reporters conclusion is to simplistic and I don’t agree with the observation.

Sure the increased number of unemployed contributes to the increased level of startup, but that might not be all the reason.  Why are there so many 35-44 starting their own business? Not because the majority got laid off, but rather they lost the trust to corporate and know major changes will come. Too many have seen with downturns what can and often will happen to people with advanced age level.

If you fall into that position you have some serious problem, because the severance package for 10,15, 20 or more years of service is not a real help. It helps out a couple of months, but than what. What do you have? I am one of early 40 pool and decided not to wait, but rather take action.
Symbian had no fragmentation control..at all. Even within Nokia different teams would randomly change public API's in the most insidious of ways. The real issues on Symbian weren't different models/screen sizes (hell, S60 phones had more or less standardized feature sets). It was the lack of any real control over the platform itself. As a developer you had to constantly deal with functional side-effects changing (and Symbians lack of coherent architecture, design, and quality meant there are a LOT of functional side-effects).

So the situation is definitely not Apple-to-Apple's. I really think you need to start thinking about Android in two generations. 1.x was all about getting competitive with the iPhone. From 2.x onwards I think we're going to see much more platform stability. Fewer OS releases and a higher emphasis on maintaining phone compatibility. We've already seen that in the first two releases of the 2.x series.
Thanks for posting this. Yes, you are true that people want to know what is the catch before they sign up. In fact, I am a big believer of not concealing or hiding things. Earlier on our pricing page we used to have free trial above the pricing page. Even though we got relatively more number of sign ups for trials but it doesn't help us because a lot of those users won't be able to afford the service.

So, we are trying to be transparent: telling visitors what the tool does and then what it costs. No gimmicks :)
It's especially egregious given that the presentation slide for the unveiling read:
"BREAKTHROUGH DEAL WITH AT&T": http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2010/01/apple-...

So the "deal" was "epic bait-and-switch"?
Why are Bing and Yahoo not viable alternatives? Is it because your competition will out-market you using the better Google platform?
Stock vesting: Why is four the magic number?