skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Couldn't make the big "WELCOME TO FLYBYCHAT" left pane go away, so it felt like there was a lot of screen real state that was left unused.

Also the HN lurker I was chatting with raised a good point: there should be different colors for "You" and "Them", would make it much easier to see the flow of the conversation.

EDIT: Would also be easy to add a horizontal bar, to track the last portion of chat you saw before you switched tabs/removed focus from browser
I think that while these extreme cases certainly exist, there are actually a lot of "normal" companies out there. I've worked for three (two small and one big), and while none were my "dream job", none of them treated me unfairly either. I don't understand why developers stay at companies that treat them like trash, particularly the talented ones at places like EA. However, I also don't get the impression that developer abuse is a widespread epidemic or common occurrence. (Or maybe I'm just very fortunate!)
Startup Metrics for Pirates (Product Marketing & Product Management)
I'm sure this would overlook many things. It would just supply one objective measure, not the only thing to consider.

Also, while there are indeed an infinity of representations of a given expression, there are a finite number of minimal representations, which can be found by exhaustive search if not some cleverer algorithm.
I hear GIMP is good for photoshop-esqe editing.

Inkscape is probably your best bet for vector graphics.

http://www.gimp.org/
Weather’s Swiss Army Knife
PersistJS is 12kb minified. store.js is 4kb unminified

PersistJS falls back on flash and cookies, which is bad (flash slows down browser during page loading, cookies fatten your network requests). Store.js uses localStorage, globalStorage and IE behaviors which do not have those negative side effects.
What would iPhone 4 sales be if they weren't tried to AT&T?
From what I understand, the difference is that JC specifically promised revenue sharing.
Make sure all the co-founders are on the trip. Anyone remember a Unix workstation company from the early '80s named Callan Data Systems? David Callan was one of three equal founders, so one might wonder how it came the bear just his name.

The three founders were all ready to incorporate. All that was holding them up was the name for the company. They were just unable to come to a consensus. After much discussion with no progress, two of the founders went away for a weekend hunting trip. David did not go with them.

When they got back, he told them he'd went ahead and filed the papers, and the company was named Callan Data Systems. I believe he told them this was just meant to be temporary so they could move ahead, and it could be changed later once they agreed on the "real" name--but of course they were never able to agree on a "real" name, so it stayed "Callan Data Systems".
Now if it's ChromeOS fork, one would assume that Facebook wouldn't have absolute control, given that it would be "re-forkable". This might an issue given Facebook's "your data belong to us" attitude (if that's not the current TOS).

Perhaps they'll create a similar thing from scratch.
You can click anywhere on the 'dark grey' to move the bar, including to the right of any tabs or beneath the stoplights. Personally, I think those 15 pixels above the tabs need to go away, too.
erlanger: you can consider the API stable now.
I try to have no more than four addresses going at a time:

1. Work

2. Friends, family, and signing up for free services that I want to identify myself with

3. Commercial transactions (anybody who has my credit card)

4. Anonymous address (which I use with websites that require signup but I feel have no business asking me). I personally use my real identity online for historical reasons, but if I didn't, I'd use this one.

[Edit: to answer your other question, they all get spam]
I think Objective-C is a great extension to C, much better than C++. It does sometimes involve more typing that I would like, but it's very simple and straightforward. Message passing is very powerful and is what makes me like Objective-C much more than the more widely used object-oriented languages like C++ and Java. The biggest complaint I've heard about Objective-C other than people who just don't like its syntax is that on iOS you can't use garbage collection. However, using retain and release to do manual reference counting is pretty easy if you just follow the rules.

As far as desktop programming frameworks go, Cocoa is by far my favorite. I've used WPF, Qt, and various Java libraries but none of them come close to the ease of use of Cocoa. Cocoa seems much more well thought out so while it does have a lot of classes to learn, once you understand how a few work you can easily use the rest. It also has classes for almost anything you would want from a framework. It sometimes requires more setup for very simple apps than other frameworks, but once you start building real applications you can see the benefits of that extra initial work.
Why do we get articles about how much Mahalo.com sucks every day here at Hacker News? Why don't we just ignore them? I'm serious, I don't care about Mahalo, I barely even know what it is. Why do people keep posting stories about it? Is it just some weird kind of reverse-psychology marketing or something?
I use semicolons when they're needed (for loops, multiple statements per line), and don't use them when they're not. The code becomes cleaner to my eyes.
The quality of your client experiences ≈ the quality of your professionalism.
I'd never even heard of Mahalo until now.

Why am I supposed to care...?
I concur, people should work hard to avoid being in this situation. This means working hard to maintain savings and postponing having children until you are financially ready, amoungst other things.

With that said, there are ways that even generally well prepared people can wind up in bad situations. The obvious one is being unexpectedly hit by catastrophic medical bills. Another is being laid off and not being able to find more work for longer than your savings holds out, even if it was a reasonable amount to start with.

I have had both of those happen when I was younger and but for the generosity of friends and family I would have been in bad straights even though I had set aside savings ahead of time.
Naming both their browser and their OS distro Chrome was a perplexing decision for me. Would not have killed them to have 2 distinct names. Less confusion.
Tracing memory leaks in Ruby
What would I do? I would:

- change terms for OEM licensees so that they wouldn't be penalized for selling machines with other OSs or without OSs

- remove limitations on hardware on licensing for netbooks, thus removing performance and specification limits that kept those machines less powerful than they could be

- bundle IE 9 and pressure it into standard compliance

- remove any IE-specific HTML rendering code in the user interfaces so that the user could replace the HTML rendering engine with any other engine that implemented the same, clearly defined, public interfaces

- publish all interfaces for HTML rendering and JavaScript execution so that third parties would be able to provide plug-ins to replace or use those services interchangeably

- publish a list of all patents Linux and other notable free software projects may infringe and work with the community on solving the issues, perhaps entering a cross-licensing agreement with the Open Invention Network and donating patents to their pool

- adopt a modern file system, perhaps licencing ZFS from Sun and replacing NTFS

I guess being in charge of Windows 8 would not be enough, but it could be a start.
Top 4 security tips for your Magento store that can be done easily
Honestly, I'm mostly confused about why he stayed. Yeah, baby at home - but he was looking for a job with a baby at home, too.

I'd walk out and keep on looking.
Android also supports installing 3rd party applications, which my guess is Chrome doesn't.

If that is true, then Chrome will certainly be violating the spirit if not the letter of software - "free software" that only allows you to do things on server controlled by someone else...
it's totally not a self-help book, although lots of life problems can be solved through applying influence techniques.

it's basically a series of case studies about how different external factors influence people's decision making. there's chapters full of examples on things like social proof, liking, reciprocity, etc.
Ask HN: If someone else is "doing it", is that a reason not to compete?
I think just about any idea has been tried to one degree these days. I am working on something that on paper is being done by a number of firms. The thing is I have a different angle on several levels for how it can be better and more competitive. But I am concerned about trying to convince investors of this. Given that Facebook came along after MySpace, I'd like to think there is no reason not to pursue something that's "been done" or "being done". I mean, after all there was IBM before there was Microsoft, and there was Microsoft before there was Google.

But I guess I would like to hear thoughts on this. And now, what I'm doing is not on the scale of those companies, but I don't think that matters to the discussion.
Sandboxed installation would encourage app usage a lot, so I second the idea. Here are some others
a) Microsoft seems to be the only one selling dev tools at this point. Releasing free versions of visual studio for developers would be great.
b) Have something like synaptic/ports which allows developers / users to easily install apps / libraries with dependency resolution.
c) Rethink their backward compatibility model. There is a business line of business that requires backward compatibility back to 1990, and theres a consumer line that doesnt care much about it. Right now the business line and the consumer line both hold each other back. eg business user - why do i need a graphics card to fully use new windows versions.
d) Leverage integration between the OS and their online services. I think they can do this safely now without fear of antitrust issues now given google and apples sizes
> - remove any IE-specific HTML rendering code in the user interfaces so that the user could replace the HTML rendering engine with any other engine that implemented the same, clearly defined, public interfaces

How many Windows users do you think would do this, or even know what it means, as a percentage of the total?
HackersDigest, June 28
Why does showing up in the AM matter? Is there something that has to happen in the AM vs. the PM? If he puts in his 12 hour day starting at noon does it really make any difference?
Am I the only one that thinks that a merger between Facebook and Google would be a juggernaut in terms of being a one-stop shop for unified online user activity awareness and advertising?
I may have the story wrong, but I believe that a relative--involved in the court system, not medicine--took part in one such experiment, and reported that the patients had no difficulty in distinguishing the pseudo-patients.
Thanks for the info. I should have noted in my initial post that I come from a C++ background (have been using it for more than 10 years) and I do strongly prefer C++ syntax.
[side topic]

The last-linked "additional information" mentions rotated 1/2-circles with black & white halves to define greyscale images. There's an easier way, and it'll scale to as many layers and colors as you want:

pixel(r,g,b) = ((r1^r2), (g1^g2), (b1^b2)). (bit-level xoring) More layers just add in their values. Until you add all of them, there's no way to know what the final value for a pixel will be.

As for the "general access structures"... maybe this can be tweaked, haven't looked closely enough and my brain is tired.

---

edit: fixed algorithm. wrote quick ruby script. first attempt at something like this, glad it works.

edit again: and for those interested, the last linked "additional info" article describes how to make multi-layer images like the one in the main article. It's kinda interesting.
Microsoft already has free versions of Visual Studio, there are Express versions for C#, C++, VB.NET, etc...
No. They're not doing it the same way, for the same people, with the same marketing slant, etc etc. More broadly, competitors are great -- they provide validation that people will pay for your service, and every day they're in business they create folks who are let down by their inadequate and inferior offerings and who wish nothing more than to jump to your new hotness. (I'm not sure how much I believe that last bit.)
XXX Domain Is Nigh, And the Net Is Sadly Better for It
http://www.amazon.com/Biology-Belief-Unleashing-Consciousnes...

This thing?

I'm not for pseudo-scientific garbage.
On the whole, I'm willing to risk hindering innovation to preserve the principle of presidential control of the military.
High-speed trains will transform Europe
Five Best To-Do List Managers
It's called VMWare and I don't agree.
Exactly. Am I the only one that doesn't see the attraction in becoming employee #20,000 and having to conform to The Google Way of Doing Things?

Smart people: yes that's nice.

Look good on resume later: sure.

Zillions of employees and a big inherited culture/system and heirarchy with skads of established products and infrastructure that you parachute into: no thanks!
The system should be completely modular. HTML rendering should be a service and any provider should be able to plug into the service infrastructure to provide it.

I imagine faster engines could be easily developed by the market, provided there is the opportunity for competition. Companies could also roll-out in-house developed, specific components that would plug into the system and provide added/reduced functionality in accordance to their needs.

Of course, that would sabotage the whole standard lock-in Microsoft employs to retain market share. I don't care. That's what I would do. And that's probably why Microsoft would never hire me ;-)
You'll end up finding that a lot of your competitors are incompetent, or don't have the same ability to execute your idea quite like you can. In most cases I would say don't let competition discourage you. Let them show you what not to do.
Growing a Compiler (2009) (1978)
Who decided on that obligation, and was it agreed to beforehand? Sounds like something the partners have to discuss and work out.
Poverty will always exist, because poverty in its truest form is the perception of inequality.

As timwiseman said:

>With that said, the close tie in to material wealth is your place in society. A good hunter-gatherer might have none of the luxuries we take for granted now, but he probably has the respect of those around him and looks around and sees he is well off compared to his comrades. He is likely to be happy, and to feel that his work is paying off.

Imagine a world where every citizen was equipped with one spoon. They only needed one spoon, and they only ever used one spoon. Now say a few citizens acquire _two_ spoons. They never use these spoons, and they don't need them. But suddenly, everyone who only has one spoon starts to feel inferior.

If we woke up tomorrow and everyone had the same amount of wealth, it would be necessary to redefine poverty. The feelings that accompany poverty would still exist, albeit for a different perceptible difference between people.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/3315638/Rela...
I can't find the original study, but this article references it.
you should make links (sent over chat) clickable
An earlier version of this talk was given at Stanford on March 4, 2009. Video at http://ee380.stanford.edu. The work is based on Doug Michels 1978 undergraduate thesis at UC Santa Cruz.
An analysis of WebM (VP8) and its patent risk
Are you saying that these things have X10 hardware baked in? If not, that would be really killer.
I think there's a lot of schadenfreude when it comes to Calacanis' more recent tribulations (starting with his Digg clone on Netscape).

This is especially true in New York where he's known as a grade-A douche bag (even by New York standards -- and that's saying something).
There's one thing that made it a hit for Apple that I'd like to see Microsoft emulate - Simplicity. If they can make it simple for the end user as well as the developer this will take off and be very useful.
Mind Performance Hacks
You make your own eval for the lambda calculus, so that's not entirely accurate ;)

Edit: (Yes I know the difference, and I changed the he to 'you')
I think for the most part Mahalo represents the growing problem with Google and aggravating anyone doing SEO work.

To many searches on Google turn up a first page full of optimized pages focusing on advertising rather than the content. Sites like Mahalo make it very difficult for the little guy to optimize and get value from Google. Kinda like trying to get anything on the Digg home page.
This company is dooming it self a little more every day. Bravo to them! Time to make a competing product and fill the void they're about to leave.
Very cool. From a quick test it looks like JSRS uses a hidden IFrame; in the case of POST it's the target for a scripted hidden form submission. The response is embedded in HTML though (as a textarea no less!), which doesn't make much sense to me.
http://gomockingbird.com/ is also quite good if you want to do wireframes
Relighting Photography
Ask HN: Can you guys recommend a good script to manage ad inventory?
I want a script that can manage regular banner ads (skyscrapers, squares, etc.) of many different dimensions and sizes (mainly clickable images).

I would like to be able to track the clicks and generate reports. I would prefer if the script is something I can install on the server, and open source is best. PHP or Ruby, preferred.

Thanks.

P.S. If it can do other stuff that normal ad inventory management software should be able to do, that would be awesome.
Do you ever use your college one?
Turkey in Crisis
If you dont care, why read/comment?
>- adopt a modern file system, perhaps licencing ZFS from Sun and replacing NTFS

Long time windows and Linux user, recently bought a macbook. The first thing I noticed is how smooth application running is (mine doesn't have SSD). In windows you can actually "feel" an application opening or when you are doing search for files. Nothing like that on Mac/OSX. I wonder if it has something to do with the file system. I have been told that NTFS is supposedly a superior file system than HFS+. I have no idea if its true or not.

Edit: Also no defragmentation on OSX!
It seems like they stretching the definition of cloud a bit.

What happened to the cloud, it is almost meaningless now. I should say it means everything, which has no meaning.

It is like the new version of Multi-Media. It has pictures and text so its Multi-Media.

I'm going to go play on my personal cloud Multi-Media gaming platform now.
OpenX - http://www.openx.org/
School Uses Video Games To Teach Thinking Skills
HN: How can I make my brain/mind sharp again?
When I was a undergrad my mind was really sharp, I was clever and great at solving programming problems. Though it now has been about a year since graduation, and while doing other non programming work my mind has gone cloudy. I know it sounds funny, but it feels like their is fog or sand up there. Even looking back at past clever solutions I made, today I don't really even understand them. It's as if there is a mental block there, as if the nerve routing goes to the right place, but the signals just cant make it.

How can I get my mind sharp again and fast? What are some good but difficult problems, which will keep me interested but also work the heck out of my mind?
If I just click the Go button without signing in it just spins for a while (~5 mins) so I shut it down. Not sure if this means you have to be signed in or not.

Using Firefox 3.7 nightly 20100627
Sr Java  Engineer
Seeing Interactive (YC W10) Raises Seed From Baseline & Lerer Ventures
Well, the Nasuni product is aimed at the business, not personal users. There's a variety of cloud-gateway products aimed at home/personal users.
Karelis seems to describe a psychological condition known in animal and human psychology as "learned helplessness":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_helplessness

The key insight is that poor people feel that they lack control over their condition. Thus, any marginal effort is perceived to be 'useless'.

If you don't feel like checking the above link, read the following excerpt and draw your own analogies:

----
In part one of Seligman and Steve Maier's experiment, three groups of dogs were placed in harnesses. Group One dogs were simply put in the harnesses for a period of time and later released. Groups Two and Three consisted of "yoked pairs." A dog in Group 2 would be intentionally subjected to pain by being given electric shocks, which the dog could end by pressing a lever. A Group 3 dog was wired in parallel with a Group 2 dog, receiving shocks of identical intensity and duration, but his lever didn't stop the electric shocks. To a dog in Group 3, it seemed that the shock ended at random, because it was his paired dog in Group 2 that was causing it to stop. For Group 3 dogs, the shock was apparently "inescapable." Group 1 and Group 2 dogs quickly recovered from the experience, but Group 3 dogs learned to be helpless, and exhibited symptoms similar to chronic clinical depression.

In part two of the Seligman and Maier experiment, these three groups of dogs were tested in a shuttle-box apparatus, in which the dogs could escape electric shocks by jumping over a low partition. For the most part, the Group 3 dogs, who had previously "learned" that nothing they did had any effect on the shocks, simply lay down passively and whined. Even though they could have easily escaped the shocks, the dogs didn't try.
----
None of these things would help Microsoft at all. Basically, what you'd do is run Windows 8 for the benefit of all of Microsoft's competitors. That might be noble, but it's pretty dumb.
Kindle for Android
If the laws of economics predict that you shouldn't buy that video game, then you're not foolish -- they are.

The laws of economics make no such prediction, and they make no corresponding prediction about lottery tickets. That's the point.

There are places where the laws of economics don't work, I just don't believe that your previous post (or Karelis article) identifies any of them.
IIRC, NTFS was over-designed/future-proofed and Windows actually only supports a fraction of it's functionality.
No its not. Google has said that in situations like this, use a 301 redirect to properly tell them where the actual content is located. Using a 403 is an error page that will tell the spiders that that page doesn't exist anymore, and that can have a negative impact on your rankings
Which one is that, btw? I've been sticking to my guns of WRT54GL's forever with DD-WRT, but now that N is more mainstream I'd like something new, that also has usb ports for some NAS goodness.
Get a job?
these might help, from last week:

http://cdixon.org/2010/06/26/competition-is-overrated/
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1463677
Sandboxes have some nice advantages, but I think they would need to be really careful with the implementation. Too little sandbox and they are mostly useless, too much and you end up in the Disneyland-computing that is the iPad.
Besides that, one of the defining things of Windows, for better or worse, is that applications can do anything they want if they dig hard enough and there are lots of legitimate cases for that type of application.
Most things already work. Most things can be improved.
Strongly disagree; app launch feels much snappier to me on Windows than on OS X, where it's click - bounce - bounce - bounce - bounce - display.

NTFS is a much more modern fs than HFS+, but that doesn't necessarily make it faster.