skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I don't think we can't judge the success of Microsoft by Windows 7 sales since it followed the Vista debacle.

This article said Microsoft wouldn't go extinct for decades, but it would still be pretty ugly in the meanwhile if it followed IBM's mainframe path. Especially since Windows is a lot less alien that that ecosystem, porting is much more of an option.

As a side note, IBM mainframes were massively innovative in their day. System 360 defined the 8 bit oriented CPU approach, there's virtualization (the real OSes haven't been able to boot on bare metal for a long time), there's something to be said for their channel IO architecture (although they regret not making them full fledged CPUs), etc. etc. And they're rock solid and generally responsible about that mission, something Sun notably stumbled on.
There's also ~215,000 fans on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/KIN#!/KIN?v=wall

One could probably count up the number of comments which mention owning a Kin, to confirm whether 503's lowballing it or not.
Gruber's sources have been wrong before, at least one time I recall somewhat recently. I wouldn't put much stock in it.
If you think the Kin was meant to compete with any iPhone, let alone iPhone 4, you've missed a couple of memos.
It was upon actually seeing the phone, that they got the inspiration to write a song called "The Reeling".
Fletchowns, AppMakr started with RSS because most sites spin it off, . If by "glorified" you mean:

1) app uses location for parsing Geo data
2) app has push notifications
3) app has a media photo gallery
4) app can store content offline, i.e., in subway

... then the answer's yes. But while AppMakr uses RSS as a data transport mechanism, the view layer has gotten pretty sophisticated.

I'd say the app is pretty useful - but give it a go and tell me what you think.
> MS figured there were enough folks who needed the phone but not quite the full smartphone experience.

Yes...

> The Kin was going after the iPod Touch crowd

... but that's not the iPod Touch crowd.
Anyone know if Dalton Maag is making a serif font, as well? Despite the long lived computer love affair with sans, serif is becoming more important with higher resolution screens (think Retina Display).
I don't know about "next", but I can't wait for extremely intelligent personal software agents. I don't have the time to browse dozens of RSS feeds, check Facebook and other networks. An agent that can browse everything I'm connected to, learn what's really important to me and then only give me the digest would be wonderful.

Going further, I want to be able to say to it: "hmmm I should get to the dentist before I catch a movie with Brian on Tuesday" and let it and my dentist's agent and Brian's agent negotiate the appointments.

A personal assistant for everyone.
Not true. Some iPhones don't event support iOS4.
Elliot, thx; tell me what you think about it if you end up downloading both, i.e., the photo galleries, Twitter feeds, Meetup info, etc.
As a shareholder, I certainly hope so.
NYC (SoHo)

Xtify, Inc.

Website: http://www.xtify.com

Cross-OS regular push and location-triggered push notifications and campaign management platform.
We're looking for Java software developers or interns.

More details: http://www.startuply.com/Jobs/Software_Developer_System_Engi...

jobs AT xtify DOT com
The total users of the Kin Facebook app (which requires the device to sign up) is around 9,000.
The Windows 7 Phone OS has been hyping up for a while now and won't be out for till the holidays, so who knows, but it looks fantastic.
Yes, MSFT lacks focus but they are virtually forced to compete across dozens of fronts hoping that someday all the nodes add up to the former glorious whole.
I don't get why every website needs an iPhone app..
I live overseas in an area with spotty wireless reception... any chance I could use a similar technology to improve signal?
In Firefox, you can set layout.css.visited_links_enabled to false in about:config.
Why winphone development?
Hmmm an interesting question. Seems that the culture around RSS isn't set like other mediums are. For example, when you put an RSS feed on your site - a feed that a content site owner made available - you're keeping the user off the original content owner's site too. Interestingly, the RSS feed that I pulled to put content into the app (http://andrewtrusty.com/2009/06/29/readable-feeds/ by Andrew Trusty) has 578,925 "hits" (don't know if he means subscribers).

So I guess in a round about way I'm asking, is taking that existing (awesome) and publicly available feed and putting it into a mobile app for consumption on the go what bothers you, or just the fact that the feed exists in the first place? - DROdio
Book Review: Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
For all the author's sarcasm, it was not much a relief from the marketing-speak that the cell companies are plagued by. But I am still glad they are selling these. To me it is a symbolic gesture that says they actually care about solving the many technical problems that they still face.
Try using this app on the go and see what you think - I've found that I read HN 2x as often by having this app - and it's fast, i.e., I don't have to wait for a web page to load, which makes it so I end up reading more. - DROdio
Not a bad start at all. This could work very well with Kinect if MSFT ever decides to let in YouTube.
I think it's confusing speak for a query language using a rest model that returns data in various formats such as atom/json.
You're right. The Kin was a phone designed to meet the market Sidekicks served. Only one problem... That market hasn't existed for three years. Your teenage cousin already bought an iPhone.

The design team of the Kin either could not envision or stubbornly ignored a world in which true smartphones are sold in Walmart for $100.
Brand Thunder rolls out Personas Interactive extension for Firefox
Wozniak 2.0 wanted
Hey all,

I’m a 23 yo economics graduate looking for a hacker partner to make a startup in the Silicon Valley. I have established ties with the venture capital community and they are ready to support my project. I also have ideas about the future technology, so now I need someone to help me bring them to life. If you’re interested, please contact me at klimchitsky@gmail.com. If you’ve got ideas of your own or even a technology to commercialize, you‘re more than welcome as well. If you’re not interested, please, forward this message to anybody who might be interested or just put it on any mailing lists that you consider relevant.

Best, PK

P. S. People from any part of the world are welcome, there is Skype anyway! But readiness to move to the Valley finally is needed here.
Has anyone been able to get into http://projectmarianne.com , the site about this project?
Dunno, someday I might download your app, but right now it seems like an advertisement for your app makr platform, and I'm kind of busy and happy with what I have.
All things that can be done in the browser, except for push notifications, which are completely unnecessary for a site like HN.
I don't think it's absurd. They've demonstrated several times over that they're willing to accept short term losses for the sole purpose of damaging or killing off competition.

Hell, they even invented the slogan "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish".
I don't know anything about Ives' business skills, but I'd worry that making him CEO would be promoting him to his level of incompetence. He's a fantastic designer, and I'd rather not see him distracted from that role.

But it might be wise for him to have final approval over product designs, the way Jobs presumably does now.
Prince Bollywood
Well, I keep doing things as soon as I came up with them... So far:

1. Collecting changes and sending them every 75-100 ms. Instead of as soon as the occur.

2. Deltas: If the mouseX is 800 and in the next frame is 801, Just send 800,1 and reconstruct the data on the peers side (800,1,-1,2,-3).

3. I the value is 0, don't write it. "1,,1"

These are client side. Now I need to take a look at the server code..
I think everyone in stealth mode is probably making a mistake. The minute people start copying everything you do, is the minute you know you've won the whole ballgame.
Science Commons
Have you tried reading HN on the iPhone? The fact that HN links to each article means you have to wait for each story you want to read to load... downloading it all for quick / offline reading is a huge plus
Facebook To Enter Into Partnership With Friendster Buyer MOL Global
Ideas are not worthless; in fact, good ideas can save you a lot of resources. I say this because ideas are inextricably linked to the market size and market potential. If the market is declining, too small, or non-existent, you are not going to be able to execute your way out of a bad idea.
I think it both saved and killed the company.

It saved the company in that it stopped the hemorrhaging of cash and gave them an actually profitable business model. Without this, they would've gone out of business entirely sometime in the early-mid 90s.

It killed them as a center of innovation. IBM hasn't invented anything worthwhile since the IBM PC in 1981. (No, I don't count Eclipse: IntelliJ idea came out first and better, and yet was eclipsed because IBM could afford to offer their product for free.)

Maybe that's the dilemma that Microsoft now faces. They can embrace their mediocrity, cater to their existing customer base, and continue to milk billions a year from their Winoffice monopoly. Or they can try to innovate. But most of their recent projects seem like they're trying to innovate and the coming out thoroughly mediocre, which isn't really a good combination.
U.S. Plans Cyber Shield for Utilities, Companies
Considering my iPhone 3G safari is so slow I only use it in emergencies, I will take your advice.
How GitHub deploys new features
Tell HN: Saved links now keeps going and going (1000+)
I've always wanted to have a database of all the links that I've saved (upvoted) on News.YC. Frequently, I've remembered a story that was relevant to some real-world discussion and sometimes have had trouble finding the elusive story even using search.

I clicked back to around my 1000th saved link before getting tired (no script - saving all the links using Safari save as - web archive) and it looks like it keeps on going (for the time being).

Thanks PG for implementing my most-requested but never requested feature!
Note the window title uses the bold font which it says is unfinished.
I think Microsoft's biggest innovation was not a thing but a process, and it that served them very well for most of their history. Namely "fast follow" - the ability to take a competitor's product and very quickly produce their own, better version. DOS, Windows 3, Word, Excel, MSVC++, Internet Explorer, etc. etc.

Windows 7 seems noticeably absent from the list of stuff the R&D department produced.
I think the most probable succession plan is to put Tim Cook in charge of the company with Ive in charge of design and aesthetics. Who has what job title is hard to predict.
Great & please let me know if there are other HN related feeds or content you'd like to see in the app. I can publish changes pretty quickly.
Ask HN: Why do you hate Quickbooks?
It seems that there are a lot of haters of Quickbooks out there and I am just wondering what it is about the book keeping mammoth that you truly can't stand? Personally I have used it for a number of years on my small family businesses and can't really complain.
The AeroQuad is an interesting implementation.

http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/aeroquadan-arduinopowere...
There is a non-trivial PR bump that occurs when a VC-backed company announces its strategy.

Our company is in "stealth mode". We were funded in April, but we would prefer to have our one-time 15 minutes of fame in October, so we'll be waiting until then to "exit stealth mode".

It's a PR hack, essentially.
Why I Don't Like Pair Programming (and Why I Left Pivotal)
Skype's obfuscated RC4 algorithm leaked; discoverers open code for review
For teens I think the iPhone is more aspirational than actual, which in many ways is worse because you'll never stack up against people's hopes.
MS in 1995 still had many, many years of good work ahead of it. Remember that they won the browser wars, after everyone had written them off as being too big and clumsy to adapt to change. That was also when we got Win2k and WinXP (arguably the best versions of Windows ever) and their Office product matured into its familiar form.

I'd say Microsoft started going downhill after 2002, when they disbanded the IE team and embarked on the disaster that was Vista. But I remember that when I started college in 2001, I hated Microsoft and yet virtually all the software on my computer was by them. It's a sign of market dominance when your customers hate you and yet use your products anyway. ;-)
Ask HN: How much time did it take you to build it?
I'm interested in hearing from people who learned how to code because they were interested in developing one of their ideas. I'm at a point in the development of a Web application where my financial situation is preventing me from moving forward with it, and I'd like to make progress by learning how to code it myself. Is this at all feasible given that I know EXACTLY what I want to do with the Web application?

Can anyone give me advice on the best way to approach a scenario like this? Is there a way for me to scan through the books to find information relevant to my project?
All I really want is a Hacker News app that allows you to vote, view/reply to comments, and formats all content on news.ycombinator.com into a mobile-friendly format. Is there an app that does that?
Yeah would love to put the voting functionality into the app. Would need PG's involvement to do that.
What would be the point of this? Sure, you can come up with a more general purpose visual esolang (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esoteric_programming_language) but how would this match the efficiency of programming in, say, C? This would be meaningful only when the visual element adds some value.

One such place I can think of would be a video/image query language, e.g. for querying Flickr, that allows users to create complicated queries from image primitives.
I see no evidence mobile phones are in any way even close to Microsoft's core competency.

It would be a lot more dignified and profitable if Microsoft acted like a mature business rather than unsuccessfully chasing the latest trends.
Motorola CHARM Android Smartphone Announced
To clarify: "Timing" of a "surprise" implies that the competition's ignorance is to your advsntage. This implies, by proxy, that the core idea has value.
I can't believe I was such a dick in that comment above. Must have been a bad day. I still don't like the service, but I shouldn't have taken that karma police tone on.
I think a lot of Microsoft's problem is that they succeeded in their mission statement. "A computer on every desk, all running Microsoft software" was incredible hubris in 1974. It's reality now. What can Microsoft do to top that?

It makes me wonder about what the world will look like in 15 years. Google's mission statement is "Organize the world's information, and make it universally accessible and useful." Right now, I'd tend to think that Google is safe from many of Microsoft's woes, because I couldn't imagine how they could possibly finish their mission statement. But I would've thought the same thing about Microsoft in the 1970s.
True, but I have found that many teens in fact have iPhones.

Once the decision is made to buy an internet-capable phone, the main cost is the service plan. Most teens can make up the difference in the fixed cost of the unit through a part time job, a birthday gift, or daddy's money. After the price of the 3G was lowered to $99, even these small differences in cost became nill.

The Kin was a ten year old concept, executed with five year old technology, and competing against gadgets from the future. Put simply, it was a mistake, executed poorly.
>> Even paypal is 1.9% - 2.9% + $0.30 USD for the bulk of transactions.

Actually, we use PayPal's micropayments service, which is 5% + $0.05 USD. This is only $.10 out of every dollar to the merchant processor.

https://micropayments.paypal-labs.com/
Full disclosure: I love MongoDB and use it in a few projects.

Having said that, I must ask. Do the "unchecked" writes, configurable fsyncs and multi-node writes exist in the currently stable version of MongoDB or are these features still in alpha or beta?

While I do disagree with the article, he clearly pointed at the current version of Mongo.
I've run into a lot of children and teenagers who own an iPod Touch. It's much easier to get parental funding/permission for a one-time cost than $30-50 month changes to the family phone bill.
Play Rise of Nations and its expansion.

You go from Stone Age to Information Age in about 45-50 minutes with awesome multiplayer. It is my 2nd favorite RTS behind Starcraft. Still can be very competitive and requires decent APM and multitasking, but its on a much more Macro strategic scale.
Well, this is the problem. Microsoft can fritter away billions of dollars on these projects that do not have to have a return. This is why there stock price has not been doing well, because people do not see them producing any more winners.

There attempts in search reek of desperation, paying people to use Bing. Xbox is just now starting to pay off. They have lost mobile. They are losing market share in their webserver and development tools.
Here's a really good blog post series using that book and the related MIT lectures: http://catonmat.net/category/introduction-to-algorithms
This article assumes microsoft will never improve its management structure. This may be true but is pure speculation on the authors part. A lot can happen in decades and MS had the cash to spend while working it out.
Heh,

So they all have the same range... Provides signal for data and voice up to 5,000 square feet and none of them want to admit it's ~40 feet from the base station. (40^2 * pi > 5000)
That's part of the problem, it wasn't significantly cheaper, the majority cost is the cost of the plan. When you can buy an iPhone 3GS or a Droid incredible for a mere 10% bump in cost over the standard 2 yr plan it makes absolutely no sense to buy a Kin, which is why nobody did.

If your feature-wise competition is at a price point you can't even touch, then you made a huge mistake. If your price-comparable competition is at a featureset you can't even touch, then you made an even bigger mistake.
Microsoft's vision was a computer on every desk and in every home. They accomplished their vision, and they're a mature company collecting massive amounts of rent on the software that runs on most of those computers. They don't lack vision so much as they gain illusions--illusions that they can still be a young, growing concern with one foot firmly planted in a mature business.

That's not how business ecology works, though. Microsoft's shareholders are not well served with stock in a company that's half mature, dividend-paying, high-market-share titan and half scrappy innovator. They're probably better off having stock in a Microsoft comfortable with its maturity as well as a separate, younger, scrappier company. The entire economy would be better off with that.
You know, Jobs keeps insisting Siri is an AI company...

"Hey virtual Steve, should we add this feature?"

"Get rid of it."

"Should we keep this feature?"

"Get rid of it."

"What do you think about--"

"That's shit."
The original Woz 1.0 is still out there - why not ask him?
I really don't see Flickr's (or Forrst's) approach a "trick" or feature. I think most deployment techniques come out of a desire NOT to deploy like Flickr(or Forrst).
Yes!

Draft for talent, not for needs.

This has been proven time and time again that people that grab the top talent in a limited talent pool (rather than trying to address their perceived needs) are the most likely to succeed.

The best analogy is sports. In (American) football, the Colts' Bill Polian regularly uses this strategy in the draft. In football, ManU's Sir Alex has a strategy to acquire what he calls "characters." While you may not like either of these teams (I love them both! :) you cannot deny that they have been among the most dominant franchises under their managers.

The real challenge is to somehow identify the best talent! :)
Is that actually the best book on basic algorithms or just a book that is virally recommended?
Is that because you're digesting the data through RSS? Scraping would get you the data you need to provide full functionality.
What's going on with magic jack's femtocell device? It was getting hyped this past January... based on the PR, it's a femtocell that can hijack nearby GSM phones and bridge them to magicjack's VOIP network. seemed bizarre.
Why Your Friends Have More Friends Than You Do (1991)
Not anything internet related.

Personal robotics. Fully autonomous robots, cars, trucks, planes that can operate in the personal domain (cities, houses, roads) not just factory floors. No guide wires, etc. Autonomous agents that can pick up pizza, drive me across country, do any task. The app store will be for task enabling. It's 10-20 years off, but will lead to massive, widespread, disruptive, innovation.

Somebody needs to sort out liability issues so technologists can get to work.
China Property Market Beginning Collapse
The best way to handle risk: hedge funds
But, again, those are not the Sidekick-user type of users Microsoft was going for.
I find the use of "yield" a little strange. In Ruby yield, yields the execution to the block that was passed in as an argument to the method being invoked. In this proposal it would replace the "return" statement inside a lambda.
Ask HN: How to deal with anonymous rants about your project
There are thousands of open-source projects out there, so lots of maintainers. Who among you has seen this problem...

Basically, a user downloads your software, and finds a bug; but, instead of actually telling you about it, they angrily "go public" and rant somewhere. If you're really unlucky, they'll choose a place with enough pageviews that your project's reputation is quickly tarred, and others wonder why they should even bother to download.

What's really insulting about this behavior, is that these are people who have sent no E-mail, filed no bug reports, and donated no money, code, time, or anything else. The bugs can be obscure, and even hard to reproduce. These people feel entitled to shred your years of work: they spend a few minutes clicking on something, and head straight for the forums.

How do you deal with this?

I can tell you as a maintainer that it hurts, but I still try to suck it up, and I respond to even destructive criticism with action. If I can figure out what problem the person is referring to, I fix it, even if I'll never be able to tell them that it's fixed (and they probably wouldn't care if I did).

But sometimes I think people need to be educated again. Clearly anonymous posters feel invincible in a way that wouldn't translate to real life. Imagine coming to my house, receiving a wonderful free meal, and then throwing it in my face while screaming how horrible it is because it's missing a dash of salt?
Yes correct re: digesting via RSS.
At least he is offering the option to buy the source for some 'fee' while he figures out how he can recover some of his investment. He will also release the 4.1 version without 'activation' so that it will continue to function even if the company shuts down. I think that's reasonable if not an ideal situation.
High Frequency Trading primer
The Garduino has been garnering interest with gardeners in my city: http://garduino.dirtnail.com/
VVVV is probably the closest you'll get:

http://vvvv.org/tiki-index.php?page=Tutorial+Hello+World
Sure! Cell phone repeaters and boosters are widely available. http://www.google.com/webhp?#q=cell+phone+repeater
So Steve Jobs walks into a bar…..