skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
How to build your own solid, Mac Pro-like PC enclosure?
I still prefer building my own PCs, the only problem is engineering them to be extremely solid.

For example, a few years ago I moved cross country, and naively shipped my DIY PC across country via UPS.

It arrived in completely smashed up condition, as if UPS had put it into a paint mixer on high speed for a few hours. PSU twisted out of its setting, CPU fan broken off and banging around inside, totally ruined.

But that's because DIY parts generally aren't designed to withstand any kind of abuse, they're just designed to look not terrible and provide room for parts and enough airflow to cool them. PSU is attached with two small screws, motherboard completely open, CPU cooler snapped on, etc.

By contrast, if you open up a Mac Pro, it's extremely solid, built with shipping in mind (as are most other mail-order PCs), and nicely organized.

Is there any way to build such a PC case yourself? Has any DIY company realized this is a need that could be filled and provided products to do so? Or am I just better off buying used Mac Pros and installing Linux on them?
Well, first of all the article is just a PR release from Lenovo claiming Lenovo is ahead of their competitors. Not very surprising.

Not to say that they are wrong. But I think the main reason is piracy. Windows has been so popular in China and Eastern Europe primarily because pirated copies of the OS could run on a variety of hardware. Apple OS is designed to run on a rather limited set of hardware. This is also coupled with generally a easier way to download pirated version s of Windows software vs. Mac OS X versions of the same software.

The large availability of Windows then creates an environment for a home grown software market that runs on Windows only, which in turn make Windows even more desirable.

A third factor is perhaps the design. Apple products cost a lot more, it seems, because Apple feels their applications have a much better designed UI. It is true, and I am not arguing with that. But that UI is designed to appeal to American and Western tastes and preferences. Or, rather, Americans and West Europeans would pay a lot more for a well designed UI vs an an with equivalent functionally but without a polished UI. In other words, they are happy running Office in Windows and using Windows' file manager vs paying more to run the same version of Office and using Mac OS X file manager on Apple hardware and software.
this is the type of story that's going to bring out in clear distinction the line between the HN readers who are in their teens or college and the HN readers who are working adults, especially those with families of their own to feed, and/or pre-Internet memories
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Writing good sheet music is very very definitely an art. Even the vast majority of music graduates are unable to do it. Technology will not help with that.

Writing a good book is a serious time commitment. If no one is putting in that time and effort then the quality will decline (it has already, sadly).

The ease of producing media is great and a mark of a better society. But making stuff easy does not make creating quality easy.
Thanks, this is good information to have.
Unfortunately I suspect I know the type he is referring too; I've had my fair share of attacks from them over the years.

And they (you?) are not doing very well at "educating" us. Mostly it verges from amusingly incoherent to downright disturbing :)
Ask HN:  How do you estimate a project timescale and negotiate with a customer?
I've been in the situation recently where I've been asked to estimate a project for contract work. I know my hourly rate, no problems there, but I have huge difficulty estimating how long something will take.

If you overestimate, you may not get the contract, if you underestimate, you end up working for peanuts to get the thing done.

So my question to you is; how do you estimate a project's timescale/cost?, and how do you negotiate with the customer to protect yourself in the event that the project runs over time budget, as they generally tend to?

thanks in advance, and apologies if this has already been asked.

Paul
Agreed, but worth noting that a lot of places that pay more than average also suck your soul away in the bargain. That's of course not true of all places, but banks, for example, tend to be a whole lot less fun to work at than Google. The "is it a fun job" factor should not be underestimated (unless you really just care about money, which is the case for some people - and I'm not saying this as a negative).
This is so spot on. A lot of people seem to have the mental model of: "hey! i love programming!" dot dot dot (several miles of dots) "hey! i want to be rich!" - "i can program my way to being rich!" No, you can't. You need to design, program, market, and sell, minimally, your way to being rich. Actually, you need to OUTdesign, OUTprogram, OUTmarket, and OUTsell your way to being rich.

I get the feeling a lot of people here have built thing after thing they throw on the scrap heap because after they're done building it, it's like "ah crap, I have to like, MARKET this thing now?"

Maybe I'm just projecting...
plus obviously if he has multiple kids, he can afford to let one starve to death because he'll have the other as backup. Cruel man, tormenting poor wittle Eleanor, denying her the free music for her theatre classikins.
Surely the other point is that "wanting to be rich" isn't a good start.

"wanting to be successful, create something useful and have fun" is a far better mindset to have.

Do something because you love it. Not because you believe it'll make you rich.

I don't really agree with the conclusion here particularly, maybe there are some people like that, but there's a sure fire way to be successful.

* Create something that solves a problem
* Get people to use it
* Work out how to monetize it

Seems that the average software developer can do 1 and 2 pretty easily without stretching themselves. 3 may be a little more work, but once you have 1 and 2, it's not hard to try a few models and see what works.

I'm sure some software developers do fall into the trap of developing something that only solves their own problem, and no one elses, and maybe that's the 'procrastinating' bit.
> Those are two pieces of software which would be trivially easy to port to OS X

Not really. QQ login requires QQDoctor which is a ring3 level driver. Thunder has it's own network stack to speed things up.
Who accredits investors?
All I can say is that I am surprised at how un-surprising this is. There should be more of an outrage. News outlets should be broadcasting this. But somehow, everyone just expects this to happen anyway.

Being inside the beltway (figuratively speaking), between the govt. and its many military contractors, one can really see how corrupt the system is.

There is rampant nepotism, favoritism and waste going on. Those usually are proportional to the cost of the project. I am sure the same thing goes on between the legislative branch, the financial sector, and K street lobbyists.
Now if only every Mac also comes with talent pre-installed. And hard work and focus. And years of experience. Oh wait.
Check that link [...]

Read the last message in the thread:

(Quinto Horacio Flaco (65-8 B.C.), Latin poet)

Re: the confusion of 'll' and 'y' in Mexico and elsewhere:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ye%C3%ADsmo
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I have submitted a bug report, but I'm not sure if I can expect much response.

As far as I know, these sites are already 'misbehaving' by scraping the App Store info, and Apple seems to turn a blind eye - will they bother plugging security holes in an interface which is already being abused?
I strongly disagree. I think some forms of religion, Christianity included, are very good at explaining how to understand the world and the forces (especially good and evil) at work in it -- and it encourages its adherents to change the world for the better.

I also happen to think that these religions' interpretations of the world are wrong.
I think "please pay me for the sheet music so my kids won't starve" argument is much better than "pay me because it's immoral not to pay me and you'll go to jail"

Begging better reflects position in which technology puts artists today. It is same situation that was throughout all history but last hundred years. You quickly get used to good things so now people think that they are morally entitled to being paid for what they created. As a programmer who had bad experiences with salespeople it's hard for me to say this but creating stuff does not bring money, selling does, and selling became much harder if the only thing you know how to sell is service of providing copy of some (your) work and value of such service to your potential consumer thanks to recent developments dropped to zero.
dude, this whole discussion is so Bizarro World for me I can't tell when somebody is being serious or being sarcastic anymore. Yes, being greedy because he wants to be paid for something he created and this other person is benefiting from, who has circumvented the payment mechanism. Because she "deserves" it. Hilarious!
I practice Zen, but since there is no concept of God or other supernatural "magic" I can also accurately describe myself as an atheist although this might be better categorized as "it's complicated".
Just to name some companies:

T-Mobile, Google, Sun, Microsoft, Digg, MySQL, HP, Facebook, Zynga, namealmostanysuccessfullitcompany here.

Of course it works! Its just about how many ppl underestimate complexity of getting it done right.
I also lost a wife, a job and the house in one year. You kinda define yourself as where you work, who you're married with and where you're living. Beeing forced to change everything in one year is... interesting.
You cannot tell religion till it is unpopular, and oftentimes till it is persecuted.

Great point. It's hard to tell if someone really believes in something when professing belief in that thing is universally expected in society.
I see. The Bible is the Word of God because the Bible says so. There's no logic to follow here. So how can people be so sure? As I said, it's because they believe deep down in their emotions, not in their logical mind. You can't be convinced; you have to be converted.

EDIT: What I'm trying to say is that Christianity isn't meant to be intellectually satisfying. It's about flesh and blood, as you can see from the Holy Supper. Christians ritually eat the Messiah to be united with Him.
Who or what is an accredited investor.
I'm pretty sure it was mentioned a couple times in there that he asked her and she gave permission. The fact that you would criticize that element and not on her attitude about not paying for his work frankly blows my mind a little.
How to lose $120K.
Or you left the hardest part for the end. The hardest here does't necessarily mean the most difficult to figure out, it means the hardest for you -- the one you are least motivated to work on.

It could be the most boring or the least interesting. It could be lots of UI tweaks, or adding a feature you are just not very excited about. Objectively you know it should be a 4 week job, but unconsciously you drag the time along because you just seem unmotivated by your work. Conversely, the first 90% goes fast because you are motivated and put a lot more mental effort and time into.
The SEC: http://www.sec.gov/answers/accred.htm

Feel free to discuss here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1487724
What site are you using to view the unreleased app info?
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Some people would argue that they would be lost anyway by choosing an MBA.
They both fall for the common fallacies and null arguments common to this sort of dispute.

It is still an interesting read though; and I think they both come off well (less so the "obnoxious young men" :)).

Who is right though? It's a morally difficult question because this is not like, say, a big film producer or an indie game developer (representing the two main extremes). This is a girl who (supposedly) wants sheet music for her school production. On the other hand Jason arranges music exactly for those sorts of scenarios; and at what point do you say "this person is now deserving of having the music for free".

Thinking this through there is a fairly easy solution; Jason should offer his music through schools and other youth organisations for free (or free loan). Thus allowing teenagers such as this to put on their shows and practice their art. Then there will be no need for such people to trade the music.

Solution, no?
There are several ethnicities (Ashkenazim, Sephardim, etc.) which are historically Jewish, just as there are several ethnicities (Irish, Hispanic, etc.) which are historically Catholic. When someone says they are ethnically Jewish it generally means they belong to one of those ethnicities, and grew up with the associated foods, festivals and other cultural influences.
> I hate myself for being such a grammar nazi, I really do.

You'll make more money, be productive, and have a happier life if you just process the information and shrug. The point of language is to communicate, not to obey grammar. That sentence isn't pretty, but you get all the information - google employees, on reddit, answering questions.

Most of the wealthiest people I know use bad grammar because the extra 10% of time to clear it up doesn't add as much value as doing more stuff. Sure, edit carefully if it's going to be something timeless or very important, but some people are being cool and answering questions random strangers on the internet ask them.
"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people."
She clearly stipulated that he only had permission to reproduce some parts of her work, and he goes out of his way to mention that he breached that license. Why on earth do you think that copyright law should protect him and not her?
I know what you mean. I have similar issues. I tried to put together my advice in a series of articles titled "Hyperbrain user manual", some time ago. Hopefully you'll find some useful techniques there:

http://inter-sections.net/2008/08/28/hyperbrain-owners-manua...

http://inter-sections.net/2008/09/01/hyperbrain-owners-manua...

http://inter-sections.net/2008/09/05/hyperbrain-owners-manua...

http://inter-sections.net/2008/09/11/hyperbrain-owners-manua...

http://inter-sections.net/2009/02/23/hyperbrain-owners-manua...

Hope these help!
> For all the perks (http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/clz1m/google_empl...) I believe I can 'buy' them myself for <$10,000 year (expensive lunches, gym membership, pay someone to wash my clothes, etc). Given that Google only pays average wages, this means that so long as I am working somewhere that is paying me over $10k above average salary, then I'm doing better than a Googler.

That is totally true, if your goal is strictly money & material goods.

Google offers the perks mostly as a way to build community. And in this respect, it seems to work. There are lots of employers in Silicon Valley that will pay me good money. There are very few functioning communities - particularly in Silicon Valley, where it seems everybody's out for the gigantic payday.
The problem is that Eleanor is not a special and unique butterfly floating inside her own private quantum singularity. Instead, she's just one person among millions out there who could use the same frickin excuse she's using. "I'm special. I can't afford it. (Well, not that AND my iPod AND my cool clothes AND..."

Also, technically Jason's reason for contacting her originally was not to accuse her of taking a free copy for herself. It was to ask her to stop making it free for others. Because strictly speaking, if she only took a single free copy for herself, and if the only alternative to that if a free copy was not available was that she would have to buy -- and if she literally could not afford it or would not buy it -- then yes in that circumstance she could argue reasonably that she did not deny him revenue. But that's not the argument. The argument is that she's making free copies further available to others, some of whom would have otherwise bought copies. Whether there is or is not a stimulative effect leading to more copies bought from him is not for her to reason about it -- it's literally none of her business, and not her right to decide -- only his. He created that frickin music. Let him decide, and honor his wishes. Not much to ask, really.
I think you're being too generous to this kind of argument. I'd say it's "the only religious argument I can't immediately dismiss".

One way of proceeding to argue with it, for example, would be to say, "how do you know you're not mad?".

[Amusingly half way through writing this comment, this radio programme started: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/pZ-Jq-iaTOia... It's about an object that apparently people used to use to talk to god!]
I have a MacBook Pro from last year with the Intel X-25 SDD and I can attest, on real life (not benchmark programs) the hdd grows slower (more noticeable on Spotlight and Safari). I even have a ram disk for most scratch operations (compiling code for example) but even so, after a few months of use, the sdd needs a good wipe (hdparm does the trick).
I don't think #1's easy at all. I think identifying real problems is actually incredibly hard. Sure it's easy to dream problems up ("you know, I think my pet needs a microblogging service...) But to identify real problems requires a reasonable amount of domain specific knowledge. For developers, their primary domain tends to be ... software development. And at least for me, there's something strangely unpleasant about work that's so meta/recursive. Not to mention, you might be up against open source, if you're trying to build a saleable product.

I mean if you've done your homework on #1, #2 should flow from it, minus bureaucracy/long sales cycles/etc. And so should #3. If you've really solved a real problem, people should see your value.
Those niggling last little bits of a project
One side-effect of this is you can also give out promo codes between the app being approved and being released.
For an individual investor it is defined as someone with a net worth of $1 million or an income of $200,000 for the past two years and the expectation of same income the year in course.

http://www.sec.gov/answers/accred.htm
Hmm. I should stop using "ease" and especially "duplication" when writing about this particular issue. Its too easy to get stuck on.

You are right. It has nothing at all to do with duplication or how easy it is. One of technology's greatest and most subtle tricks is the elimination of scarcity. Its not that I can take one for myself (no matter how easy or hard it might be), its that when I do, I don't take yours. It up-ends the economic apple cart in a way that is very non-intuitive and difficult for the human mind to grasp via "common sense".

Its easy to comprehend a lower and lower marginal cost per unit but once that cost reaches the zero limit, it seems that the formulas that our current economy depend on become undefined.

Technology doesn't invalidate the rights of owners/creators, it forces us to completely reevaluate what ownership means. How to "pay" the author might not even be a meaningful question in the economy that results.

We are fortunate that we get a long trial run on things as frivolous as music and moving picture stories before rep/raps bulldoze us on their way through to Star Trek replicators.
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Are you scared of bugs? If not, you should be. If you want to know why, read this article.
Yeah, it uses minimal matching and backreferences to test divide the number by everything from 2 to whenever the regex parser gives up (probably around n/2).

It was really confusing to me how this would work correctly on 12, 13, etc. until I read through there and realized that the program rewrote the number in unary (i.e. 2 -> 11, 3 -> 111, 4 -> 1111, etc.) before applying that regular expression.

From there, it does a quick test to correctly handle the zero and 1 case (empty string or a single 1), then it goes into the backtracking pattern, which tries to divide it by each number less than it until the parser succeeds or gives up. Anything matching is composite, anything not matching is prime.

Incidentally, whatever site he originally linked it from appears to be dead now.
The author links to his wife's blog post of a year ago in which she says a major part of the problem is the lack of an easy, legal way to access the material in question. He later links to a site where he says his work is available for instant purchase.

When you visit that site, the first thing you see in Chrome is a giant 'missing plugin' block and an invitation to download the 'Scorch' sheet music plugin, which it turns out is available for IE, Firefox or (on Macs) Safari. JOY.

Further down, you get the following message:
"We advise you to check your printer setup now before you buy. You will only get one chance to print your music after you have purchased it. If you have difficulty printing, please see our print problems help page."

WTF? OK...let's have a look at the print problems help page:

"=== It says Printing To File Not Allowed ===

"Copyright law prohibits us from allowing customers to store image files of the scores on their computers. Therefore, when you buy from us, we only allow printing to paper."

No. Seriously?

The takeaway for me: not only do these people not get filesharing, they don't get computers and their attitude to those who do is one of xenophobia.
Yeah. In other news, thinkpads are the best laptops ever.

(not sarcasm. There's a need for some lenovo fanboys, too.)
Entropy can be reversed: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluctuation_theorem

It just happens with very low probability. But even very low probability events have to happen sometime, given enough time.
the author doesn't have the right to any profits [from the sale of his work]?!

"people like him"

ok, I can't take this Bizarro World discussion anymore.
plenty of gems here:

http://news.ycombinator.com/best

Personal favorite is RiderOfGiraffes series on coding up a simple function.
Yeah ok, not easy, but doable. Anyone here could start a "community for fish tank owners" and make a ton of money from it.

The problem can be fairly mundane and not even unique. You just have to do it well, be enthusiastic and put your all into it.

Also, it's fairly likely you may need to try out 100 ideas, maybe more, before you find one that is good.

It's way easier to try 100 ideas until one succeeds, than doing a comprehensive 'on paper' analysis of ideas and assessing the risk of each one, building the one you've chosen, launching it and finding that it falls flat.

I seriously shy away from "saleable product", so my thoughts are purely from a conventional ad supported website model.
What's the reasoning behind implementing a ring3 driver for an IM Client and a custom network stack for a torrent client?
10. If God exists but denies your existence then what does that make you?

A stance of mine is: try not to talk to people who believe that they have a "rational" or "empirical" proof of God's existence for no bigger fool will you find.
I figure there would be a lot more small wars than there are right now.

That said, the UN could be a lot more even handed than it is today.

This letter by Einstein is quite an eye opener:

http://neutrino.aquaphoenix.com/un-esa/ws1997-letter-einstei...

It's from a different era but surprisingly accurate even in todays environment.
The Fields Medal is awarded every four years on the occasion of the International Congress of Mathematicians to recognize outstanding mathematical achievement for existing work and for the promise of future achievement.

A candidate's 40th birthday must not occur before January 1st of the year of the Congress at which the Fields Medals are awarded.
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