skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Now impossible for new websites to break into the big leagues ?

Now impossible for new companies to break into the big league ?

The difference is, it's no longer 'free'. Nothing is impossible, but it is just as much hard work to establish a new, quality blog as it is to establish a website or a new corporation versus the time when there landscape was bare and every new thing was interesting and an instant hit.

Except of course all those that failed...

The mark of a real entrepreneur is that he or she does not shy away from competition, but rather learns from it and uses the competition as a benchmark, something to be improved upon. If you do that you'll find there is still room for new entrants.
Agree on the iPad for airport use. Most of the time my MBPro stays packed in my bag & I just use the iPads on planes these days. One thing that is a bit silly though is when you're reading an eBook & then during take-off/landing you sit around twiddling your fingers while everyone else continues reading their paper books.
The Dirty Truth about Electric Cars & Hybrids
Really? I thought the same at first about the stereotypes, and I still do, but the article was just really really funny. Maybe no intellectual curiosity, but sure gets a +1 for humor from me.
It has been repackaged for Arch Linux here: http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=38846

Read the build file [1] to find out how to build it for yourself on whatever system you're on ;)

[1] http://aur.archlinux.org/packages/spotify-x86_64/spotify-x86...
Part of that is that fiction generally gives a very immediate, close-up view of events, whereas you get history as a biased summary of a vast amount of indirect reports.
Not to mention the aircraft carriers made out of ice, the campaign to firebomb Japanese cities using bats with incendiaries tied to them, or the brilliant idea to starve out Japanese island garrisons by airdropping pigs onto them in the hope that the pigs would eat the grains before the Japanese ate the pigs (failed).
How is being able to use any character you want as a value for an ID attribute a bad thing?
I can't log in with either my 'free' or 'open' accounts. The client outputs something like this:

12:53:03.051 I [ap:1387] Connecting to AP B2.spotify.com:4070
12:53:03.054 I [ap:937] Connected to AP: 78.31.8.17:4070
12:53:03.073 E [ap:3280] Connection error: 404
12:53:03.576 I [ap:1387] Connecting to AP B1.spotify.com:80
12:53:03.609 I [ap:937] Connected to AP: 78.31.8.15:80
12:53:03.629 E [ap:3280] Connection error: 404
12:53:03.810 I [ap:1387] Connecting to AP B3.spotify.com:443
12:53:03.840 I [ap:937] Connected to AP: 78.31.12.9:443
12:53:03.913 E [ap:3280] Connection error: 406
12:54:25.855 I [offline_authorizer.cpp:156] Unable to login offline: no such user
My point is that there isn't one "big league"-- there are a zillion niches, most of which are invisible to people on the outside.

You grandmother or landlord probably don't know about TechCrunch or Engadget, and certainly wouldn't consider them "the big leagues".

If you're really interested in Tech Blogs, though, you should take a look at Technorati's Top 100 (http://technorati.com/blogs/top100), and run whatever analysis seems interesting to you.
Because I didn't catch the original tweet. Thanks to this a couple other people who would benefit from the book will read it.

And Tim and Paul will make some money out of it.
> Canadians have a blind spot about praising ourselves for how tolerant and inviting we are.

That's true. For big cities the situation is better but not nearly as good as it could be. Technically Canada is 'colour blind', but in reality it definitely isn't, which is a pity.

I'm not even sure if it is better than all of the US, both countries have enough variation that some areas are ahead of others in both countries.

As for it being inflammatory, I think it's perfectly ok to outline the shortcomings of a country as long as its done in a realistic way without an agenda.

My own (current) country, the Netherlands has gone from being fairly tolerant to being outright hostile to foreigners, especially those of Maroccan, Turkish, Romanian and Polish descent (for a variety of reasons). In the last elections the ultra-right scored the biggest gain of all parties, a full 15% of the electorate now backs them. A very scary development.
And to lots of people in Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq, the Israeli and American leaderships are as close to pure evil as has ever existed.

"Evil" is a concept useful for propaganda and little else.
Upvoted for daring to raise the issue of history-rewriting.
Historians locate King Arthur's Round Table
This is the effect of telling the histories of nations as if they were groups of 5 people. It's convenient to say sentences like, "Germany then instigated the Battle of Britain, causing Churchill to say X and beginning a lengthy battle," but anything like this is a gross simplification. When nations take action, the whole org-chart needs to move into gear, which takes extra planning and arguing and wrangling and doubting. It doesn't seem realistic because we're told the results of decisions and battles as if they were they were made by anthropomorphised countries with a leader and some generals. But it's always more complicated than that. Trimming facts off at the first few levels of details makes everything feel, well, oversimplified.
That's true, but not at all what he means. He means:

<input type="text" name="foo[bar][]" value="yaw" />

will result in:

$_POST['foo'][0] === "yaw";

In other words you can have a form create multidimensional arrays.
Lunch bag: California innovations. It's big, so I carry inside that a water bottle, knife for apples, and keys.

Inside pockets: wallet, crappy LG phone, and my ipod so I can ignore others on the train.

I usually get the daily newspaper to occupy my time on the train otherwise.
Ask HN: Please review my startup Pretty Graph
Hi guys,

Last year, after getting inspired by a lot of you here on HN and dreaming for a long time, I took the plunge and started my own startup Pretty Graph - http://prettygraph.com. It is a simple web-based tool to make graphs. It is aimed at a number of different users, as I'm still trying to figure out the best target market. I'd much appreciate any feedback.

Thanks,

Hrishi
And I'm still trying to figure out why its on HN.
As I mentioned before, not only do the Nazis have an urgent plan to conquer the world ASAP, but they also have super science weapons research. Stealth bombers, cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, and jet planes. Yet, at the beginning of the war, they faced cavalry charges! There are real life super-scientists engaged in real-life super-science intrigue to keep nuclear secrets out of Nazi hands. And on top of that, these guys are worse or on a par for atrocities with anyone ever, real or imagined. And to cap it all off, they're running around doing this stuff while wearing outfits designed by Hugo Boss.

It's like the Nazis escaped from the pages of fiction and invaded reality using a time machine.

EDIT: Turns out Hugo Boss didn't design the uniforms. Still, they were quite stylish.
Fun fact: in Compiz, the Spotify window doesn't wobble like other windows, with wobbly windows enabled.

I wonder how they managed to create windows like that, since all other windows on my systems are wobbly. Even VirtualBox running Windows XP!
IPhone moms turn ideas into kid-friendly apps
But Churchill remained the awful strategist he had always been. Outstanding organizer for the Navy, inspiring leader, but: Norway, Anzio, the Dodecanese...
Pair programming, the agile bet and downsides
World Cup Predictions Verified
Video of this talk is available here: http://blip.tv/file/3621377

This article also has some details: http://www.royans.net/arch/mongodb-migration-from-mysql-at-w...
I bet it can also be an XSS attack vector. Imagine that there is some piece of jQuery-based code that evaluates selectors based on the ID attribute of a given element (e.g. for this element find all the related ones):

$('.' + div.attr('id')).each(function() {
$('body').append($(this); // Moving elements
});

Now imagine that I give the id attribute the following id: 'nada,<script src="evil.js"></script>'

I suppose this is a bit contrived but still fun.
Agreed. I am "reading" my code, a page/method/block at a time, but not with an internal dialog. And I'm certainly not "arguing with myself" in words about what it does. So the thinking is occurring below/behind/between the words.
HN is a stomping ground for startups, so I would have to imagine there are many of us who wear both hats.
It's completely modular

If they are not building systems that are modular, then you are most likely nickle and dime'ing you development strategy and getting junior developers when you need seniors. This will always result in spaghetti code and the famous "we need to rewrite this" to any system they did not write.
Bias put aside, you get to detect certain patterns about the articles after you read BBC's online news service for a while. Most of the time, they seem to lack depth as well.

If you're familiar with their articles, you've probably seen a pattern where articles of ~4 paragraphs come up on the site when a breaking news occurs. You get the sense that they're only concerned with speed rather than accuracy - contents in those 4 paragraphs will change throughout the day, while they'll add about 10 more paragraphs containing some background information and/or interviews. So unless you don't read the "finished version," it's likely that you didn't read the most accurate information.

The way the BBC writers work gives them hardly any time to check facts as well. They're expected to write news tickers, e-mail the news desk about newly written stories, and make a post on Ceefax service as well (hence the 4-paragraph rule). Then they are also expected to harmonize their articles with news from other BBC outlets (e.g. BBC Radio services, BBC News Channel, etc.) so the writers multi-task and constantly have to keep an eye on those services.
When I watch my niece gleefully play with sand, dirt, and water, I love it because she is as engaged or even more focused then when she is watching some Nick Jr. show.

I think the new Google tools are an important first step from pre-teens mindlessly playing/texting with their mobile devices (consuming) to making something, even if it is a toy app (producing). And maybe they'll get a bit of the ego boost that comes from making something other people like/want. Maybe it will become cool to make your own little apps. Imagine if Seventeen magazine had a monthly contest for best app. This could be more than a technological shift, this could be a shifting of cultural attitudes towards programming / IT at the subsurface, tectonic level.

As for teaching logic, I think it really comes down to how the person is wired internally. Some people just think that way.
Just like motion pictures killed photography, right? After all it was just the same as still photography, only 24 times per second?
No. No dialog. Unless I'm composing something to say to someone, no words going on. Just ideas.
The idea of a graphical programming environment is interesting, but I have never seen one that is good.

I used LabView in college and it was okay. I interact with another graphical programming environment in my current contract and I hate it. I probably wouldn't hate it if I didn't know how to read and write code.

I don't see these things as good training wheels either. They obfuscate the details that are required to be a good programmer. It would probably be more daunting to a newcomer to lift up the hood and see miles of code that they can't easily relate to the graphical version.

Im skeptical, but if it does create more interest in the platform, that is a good thing.
It's been a while, but iirc the rewrite of Netscape's browser started soon after they opensourced it, when they were still a going concern. Later Firefox came along and repackaged the core code.
Linux is for computer specific hackers.

Mac is for hackers in general.

Besides, I'll get a MBP (you can't beat the hardware quality) and put Linux on it. So who's to say they don't have Linux on it?
Sir, Your Liver Is Ready: Behind the Scenes of Bioprinting
Last year I got busy with lots of small organizational things that were overwhelming. I read and implemented GTD and it helped me out a lot. Lately, I'm not quite that busy so I don't rely as much on some GTD things like the weekly review. I think it's worth going through and organizing everything at least once. Then you'll find some things that work well for you and others that don't. I still use a inbox/outbox system for my desk and a filing cabinet for everything. Overall, the busier and more fragmented your schedule, the more you'll get out of it.
Luckily, Monster Quest, Ghost Hunters and all those other shows should satisfy any desire for fiction on the History Channel.
it's worth pointing out that not only does apple not have an app like this but they have actively prohibited anything like it.

remember when they appealed to the education market?
Some preliminary data from Facebook ads experiment
"The greatest generation", indeed.
Marathon Monks of Japan
Sure, but in the end Stalin says "Yes" and that's it. Really. And Roosevelt says "Ok, Peace" and the shooting stops. It really happens like that sometimes.
pointless saying you're a designer without at least linking to one thing you've designed. just saying. :)
And Shakespear is just a bunch of cliche's strung together.

Every think this stuff is cliche BECAUSE of WWII? Or am I just dense?
And then, in a sub-plot hardly ever mentioned, we have this superhero-like guy with the weird name of Audie Murphy! Who is too young to even be in the war to begin with!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audie_Murphy
From a design perspective, your fonts really don't degrade well on Windows. Your Lucida Grande just degrades to (very) BIG old ugly Arial without a line-height or size set. Also, your Avant Garde "See Plans and Pricing" defaults to Times New Roman.

EDIT: Also you have spelled Marketer: "Marketeer".
Ask HN: What's your computer setup?
Personally I have a self-built AMD dual-core, 4gb ram, archlinux & gnome/openbox (looking into using awesome wm, any suggestions?), a 17" and a 19" monitor.

What do you hack on?
The Beta is now live: http://beta.bbc.co.uk/news/
He recognizes it seems naieve now, good for him. Now how many of the rest of us are still saying "When I get to that point, I'll become a great marketeer/fundraiser/communicator by reading a couple of blogs"?
In some music, you clap on the downbeat. In some music, you clap on the upbeat. In some music, people clap on both the upbeat and downbeat and in different patterns, taking different roles in a division of labor to produce complex accompanying rhythms.

A part of the trick is to know how one should clap for a given style of music.
Microsoft's Ballmer: Windows 7 slates are coming this year
I fail to see his point as to why the site would need to maintain a low PageRank. The only time he even addresses that point is with the following:

By purposefully maintaining a low ranking site, which has good on-page SEO (titles and headings), you can create a regular stream of small posts relevant to your subject matter, without having to create extensive, high-effort articles that your site/brand is known for.

But how does the PageRank of the site change your intentions for the type of posts you write? I would have just played it off as trying to make the post more popular by giving it a counter-intuitive theme, but then at the end of the post, he writes:

...please don’t link to it! It needs to maintain a low ranking to serve its original purpose.

So unless I'm misunderstanding, it sounds like he's saying, create a site full of trivial posts, but make sure that it maintains a low PageRank, so that it doesn't become popular and hurt your brand.

Why would it hurt your brand? Because you're not actually contributing anything useful. But if you're not contributing anything useful, then no one will link to it.*

The corollary is that if a lot of people link to it, you must actually be providing something useful. So you really have nothing to worry about.

* One caveat to that is if you write a meta-post about that site explaining its purpose and then a bunch of people link to it for that reason alone.
It should be free. Spain did win the WC after all. Just sayin'
I already have the site bookmarked ;)
Thanks for the heads up on the font.

I believe Marketeer and Marketer are both acceptable.
Hi Arturadib, Jason here.

I think you'll find when reading the individual posts on each topic that it's not contradictory.

Also there's a distinction between seeking things like competitive advantage -- which of course you have to do -- and going ahead and doing something regardless.

That is, "just do it" is the prime mover, but of course you have to be seeking things like happy customers, competitive advantages, ability to describe what you do in 30 seconds, etc., as you go.

Also remember this is in the context of pitching investors, at which point you do need some ideas -- you can't pitch "I'll just try stuff."
Well the main point is that the history of WW2 is full of 'plot holes' and hard to believe stories (if it was a TV show)
Technology’s disasters share long trail of hubris
agreed, looks like a great way to quickly hack a simple app
That's a nice idea, but that way you effectively limit the surfing speed to the upload speed of your internet connection at home.

Also, hardly any mobile phones, let alone the iPad, provide a VNC client.
All of the essays from the book are available at http://paulgraham.com/essays.html, though with some differences. (Some have different titles as well.) It's a great opportunity to use Readability,
photography won't be dead. I heard same opinion when digital camera emerged. One day you see that beautiful liquid "photo"stream, but at same time you can still feel the beauty of gelatin silver print as great "photography".
Could be hard to get into the grocery store/movies/mall with that stuff. Coffee shop, not so hard depending :)
Only because we believe, because of the movies, that largescale event SHOULD behave as if orchestrated by a logical, sane author.

History is just, all of us, doing things selfishly.
Shame we're not doing great. Just look at Rwanda. A genocide in the mid 1990s
Well I'll be. I've never seen that word before in my life but it appears in dictionaries!
I am hiring a freelance designer located on the East Coast of the US for Blueleaf.com to start immediately. (Restriction due to timezone and a need to have someone familiar with the basics of the particulars of the American financial services market. Sorry!)
I have been running spotify on Wine for quite some time on my Ubuntu machine and it serves the purpose pretty well. The only glitch I have encountered so far is that when I click on ads no actions is taken.
http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail164.html

and

http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail657.html

also.
Scientists expected Obama administration to be friendlier
amusingly I used to work where you're working now :)
A program ... enabled a phone to send an emergency message or make a call, if someone fell. It used the phone’s accelerometer to sense a fall. If the person did not get up in a short period or press an onscreen button, the program automatically texted or called the person designated to receive the alert.

The text above, quite adequately describes the functionality of the app. If someone gave a programmer the above description, the programmer would have enough information to write the "backend" code for the app and leave the UI and details (like the length of time before sending the text message) to be filled in later. It's sort of a shame that you have this two-sentence sufficient description of the app and then need to spend months to create the code to implement what took you 10 seconds to describe.

This question may need its own thread, but I always wondered if there would come a day when you could describe an app like the one above, in English, and a "compiler" would create the program for you, leaving you to decide things like themes, button locations, etc.

I call this artificial intern-level-intelligence: You describe the app in English, and the intern (or AI intern) creates the code, and asks questions about details like the theme, the images, the length of time before the program sends the text message, etc.

Do you guys think computers will ever get close to artificial intern-level-intelligence?
thanks for both info. There is also Paris LeWeb10 in Europe
Yes, I've wanted an "authoritative" directory of web pages for some time. Every since Yahoo gave up on it, I've had to learn clever ways to tease the right pages out of google.

How about a search engine that ALWAYS returns the canonical page for any techinical/commercial/copyright/patented term FIRST! Instead of somebody's dog named "rfq" or a car for sale by a gal from Concordance, OR.
I actually think that if you're getting a free book out of it, the publisher should be able to get at least one marketing e-mail to you before you decide not to see any more of their offers ...
You want a historical "yeah, right" moment, then take the sequence of events that start WWI. If it was a tv show, you would be thinking the writer was on drugs.
I had to check out that Hugo Boss one: they were one of thousands of manufacturers; they didn't appear to have "designed" the uniforms (they manufactured police and postal uniforms back then). They didn't do suits til the 50's http://www.nytimes.com/1997/08/15/business/hugo-boss-acknowl...

tschild's two comments here summarize my thinking: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=257389#...
Too Good to Check
I know this article's focus is more on the technology but this specific camera is going to look incredibly old in a year or two.
Supposed 'Proof' Of SCO's Infringement Claims Against Linux Seem Lacking
I stand corrected. Still, the Nazis were pretty stylin.
Mamiya New 33 Megapixel Camera 
Mamiya New 33 Megapixel Camera
When I've seen professional photographers at work, they seem to operate by taking a LOT of photos, often manipulating the shutter as fast as it can go, in the hopes that one of the pictures will be just right.

Isn't this the logical extension of that practice?
Sure, give it a design award. Lots of awful devices are explained by "it must have won an award"