skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Suppose there is no electricity. Suppose you're a tyrant ruling over a massive empire that spans a continent or two. For military and economic reasons, you need an official communication system, but the obvious method of having someone physically carry the messages sucks. It's slow. It's terrain-dependent. And your messengers can be captured or eaten by wolves.

Suppose you have really good telescopes, and can construct watchtowers that are tall and easy to defend. With two watchtowers 10 miles apart, a sergeant in one tower can wave a red flag or a blue flag, which the other tower can see with its telescope. With some convention like Morse code, you can relay information between the two watchtowers.

Suppose now that you build a massive network of these towers. You want to enable communication from any tower to any other tower. Clearly this is possible, but there are issues. How do the towers agree to relay messages? How do they deal with congestion? How do they recover from small errors?

So you assemble your finest engineers, give them a large military grant, and they develop some common conventions (protocols) for the tower operators to adopt. They develop Imperial Protocol (IP), a system that gives each tower a unique address and lets any tower try to send a small message packet (a few sentences) to any other tower. But IP does not ensure that the message will get through.

With IP in place, they then develop Tower Channel Protocol (TCP), which operates on top of IP and ensures reliability. Basically, the source tower and the destination tower strike up a metaconversation, notifying each other about how many words they've received so far, and resending IP packets that got lost in transmision. TCP offers a reliable point to point communication line.

With TCP in place, they develop Hannibalesque Tome Transfer Protocol (HTTP). When a general wants to send a large report, the tower operators first send some headers (like the headers on a fax) describing the document that is about to be sent and mentioning how many words long it is, then the words themselves. This is all done over a TCP connection.

When a general in province 7 wants to get the report http://province13.empire.mil/report/OPERATIONAJAX.pdf, the tower operators find the tower named "province13.empire.mil" and send it an HTTP request asking for the document named "report/OPERATIONAJAX.pdf". That tower gets this request, and sends back the report as its response.

So HTTP is built on top of TCP which is built on top of IP which is built on top of red and blue flags.

Replace Tower Channel Protocol by Transmission Control Protocol and Imperial Protocol by Internet Protocol, flags by cables, and towers by computers, and you have the internet. Replace Hannibalesque Tome Transfer Protocol by Hypertext Transfer Protocol, and you have the web.

Note: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semaphore_line
Note: Are we actually seeing a practical application of the Slashdotesque "TCP/IP over *!!" meme?
Completely agree that it is a matter of personal preference.

Could you explain what you mean by tabbing together groups of windows, and focus on mouse? I definitely prefer macports to fink and apt to both.
"GNOME is also the only GUI I've found that lets you type the whole filename to jump to a file/folder rather than jumping to the filenames that start with the last letter you typed."

Mac OS X's Finder does the exact same thing.

"It's also trivial to install programs thanks to a real package manager"

I find installing programs to be trivial in OS X since it requires nothing but dragging them to anywhere on my computer.

"I suppose my biggest annoyance with OS X is that it doesn't let you actually have control."

OS X gives you plenty of control, it just hides most of it in the terminal. For almost every use case, this is great, because for the 1 or 2 things you actually want to do, Apple has made it drop dead simple. The rest of the time, if you really need to do something complex, there's usually a way to do it via the terminal.

It sounds to me like you're main complaint is that OS X doesn't work like linux. This is true. If what you're looking for is a better linux, OS X is not that. Linux is all about being ultra customizable. OS X is about getting out of your way. In my opinion, Linux sacrifices usability and simplicity for customization, and for me (and I suspect most people) the trade off isn't worth it.
sounds spot on to me :)

so, next question.. almost warrants another thread, but i'll ask you it here for now: who are the best product guys in the UK/Europe? are they on the list of official "product expert" mentors? http://seedcamp.com/pages/mentors
This is true, but a lot of OS X programs now require an installer as well, and offer no way for easy removal. The simplest examples I can think of are Microsoft Office and the various Adobe products.

Certainly many applications can just be dropped in the Applications folder, and I admit this is a great feature. But I still have to go out and get updates to those programs, and not all can be installed or removed as easily as moving the application folder. With a package manager, it auto-updates every program for security updates and sometimes bug fixes. If I add the repository for that particular application, it automatically gives me new versions when they come out. Everything is in one place. Furthermore, I can search for software that does a particular task and be presented with several choices that are just a click away.

I'm glad OS X works best for you, but for my needs and uses, Ubuntu is a far superior choice.
This reminds me of the Doctor Who episode where the Doctor tells the Prime Minister he could destroy her with six little words, and all he does is whisper to one of her aides, "Don't you think she looks tired...?" It becomes a rumor that she's unwell and turns into self-fulfilling prophesy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Christmas_Invasion
I got a laptop with a glossy screen because it makes things much more interesting when you show other people, but connect it to a matte display for development.
Cory Doctorow jumped on the bandwagon of what he thought was a movement away from Apple, and in reality, these are basically the only two people who left. I doubt many at Apple were sad to see him leave.
Hosting content that users submit, that is actually the property of massive media conglomerates, is not my idea of breaking ethics.

Look at myspace -> started as a full blown illegal spam operation.
facebook -> supposedly started sending spam to get initial users and a stolen database. + privacy issues.
slide -> "spammy as hell" apps, plus was recently caught posting fake reviews.
youtube -> massive trademark infringement.
microsoft -> don't even get me started.

The list goes on and on. I don't even consider posting up "baseball" games to be unethical at all. Look at Sean Parker. Would he of gotten in with the facebook crew early on if he had not founded Napster, which was just basically a user friendly warez app? He's doing quite well these days I'd imagine.

The majority of startups out there do some shifty stuff, especially in the early game, before new funding cycles, and end game. From purchasing Chinese traffic before a funding round to prop up growth, to spamming for initial users, to pirate content, there is a lot going on out there that you might not know about.

I'm not promoting unethical practices in anyway, just pointing out that pirated content is not especially gruesome as you make it out to be, and also point out how wide-spread such activities are.

About 99% of the people here would do the same thing in the same situation.
"OS X gives you plenty of control, it just hides most of it in the terminal. For almost every use case, this is great, because for the 1 or 2 things you actually want to do, Apple has made it drop dead simple. The rest of the time, if you really need to do something complex, there's usually a way to do it via the terminal."

I agree that for some tasks, OS X is drop dead simple. The problem is that the other complex tasks don't involve just using the terminal. I have no problem using the terminal, and in fact usually prefer it to the GUI. It isn't that OS X is different from Linux, but that it's different from the Unix way. Program configuration files aren't in the places they're supposed to be, and in some cases the programs don't respect what's in those configuration files. The example I can think of off the top of my head is TFTP.

I first learned Unix on OS X. In the earlier versions, it was great. Panther was very much like a traditional Unix but with a nice GUI. Tiger went a little further away, but was still OK. Leopard, however, is where I really started having problems, and is what caused me to move to Linux.
Solved: another common site review problem
I wouldn't call wanting to be able to get at your own data a "political" reason.
As you stated above, the Shoghi Effendi quote is close and he doesn't mention computers. I think the definition doesn't explain how, just what and would get bonus points for why.
I discovered that newer LCDs hurt my eyes due to their intense brightness. I causes me to squint, and if I do that for a whole day I get intense headaches.

My solution:

1) turn down the brightness

2) change your editor to a black background

Especially step 2 did wonders for me.
I have an OS X system that I use occasionally, but it's never been my primary desktop.

Personally, I just prefer the way the Ubuntu desktop feels -- but everyone's different. If you feel really at home with all the aspects of the Mac desktop, Ubuntu's not going to feel right -- which is how I feel on a Mac desktop. There's nothing wrong with the Mac desktop (other than that virtual desktops were a bit borked, last time I checked), it's just a question of what feels more comfortable to you.

Also note that Linux gives you a wider choice of desktops, ranging from Gnome and KDE at the polished end to lightweight desktops like IceWM to funky tiling desktop managers like ratpoison and xmonad. But again, if what you really like is OS X's desktop, at best you can customize a desktop into a second-tier knockoff of it.

The other consideration is what apps you care about, of course. My main apps are Emacs, Firefox, and a terminal window, and switching those is pretty easy. Personally, I like Open Office, InkScape, Gimp, and other Linux productivity apps just fine, and I greatly prefer Amarok to iTunes. However, everyone is different, so you may find something you can't live without from OS X. And if you're wedded to something like Cubase or Final Cut Pro, I doubt you'll be satisfied with the alternatives.
The only story here is that the New York Times believes the United States can compete in China better than major domestic manufacturers by leveraging some illusionary strength in "branding". Huh?

How about a reality check: Nike and Li-ning are in fundamentally different markets. If the COO of Li-ning thinks that branding gives them maybe a 10% boost in sales he probably knows what he is talking about. As far as growth opportunities go, I'd much rather be in Li-ning's position in China than Nike's.
Demonoid is Back
I had two of them running side-by-side for several months now: I've been struggling to make a decision between MBP+OSX vs Thinkpad+Ubuntu and ended up with both.

Over time I find myself glued to Linux more and more: the software I like tends to be native on Linux and somewhat foreign on OS X, and yes - I know about Macports and I don't like it: too limited and too awkward compared to apt. All in all, OS X just isn't particularly hacker friendly: it always took me longer to do something on a Mac, the recent case was Python/Pylons stack with some libs: I was done under a minute on Ubuntu while Mac took some googling and IRC'ing to accomplish the same task.

Moreover, I keep hitting OSX limitations on less exotic stuff all the time: the terminal is retarded by default, Finder doesn't really do FTP properly (in 2008! WTF??), windows are resizable only by bottom-right corner, font rendering is worse than Ubuntu is capable of, Mac "spaces" are dumbed down version of Gnome workspaces - the list goes on and on. The only area where OSX destroys competition is their window management: I find myself Alt-tabbing a lot less on the Mac.

Also OSX is too commercialized: people are selling freaking screensavers for god's sake... So I am on Ubuntu most of the time now, the only thing that I am envious of is nearly instant ruspend/resume on my macbook and, as mentioned above, Macs window management.

But hardware plays an important role too. MBP+OSX wins head down against an average disposable Dell/HP/Whatever, even Ubuntu powers can't help that junk, so Thinkpads rule.
> With a package manager, it auto-updates every program for security updates and sometimes bug fixes.

Yes. That and dependency management are the towering wins of package management. Installing an app when you first get it is generally the easy part of managing it.
Its not that hard to talk to those people. Those who really want to, will. I had no problem last year, and got to meet a lot of the speakers as well.

Hint: don't approach a "huddle", or even wait for a "huddle" to form. Its a trap. Find other ways/times. Get there early. Go to other events and gatherings before/after startup school.
given Nike's market share and public perception even in China, I don't think the strength of branding is "illusionary"
I asked first!

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=152335

Anyway, thanks :-)
Hmm. I'd suggest you try dual-booting (if you aren't already). If you think you might want to switch completely but aren't sure, you could try using most of your disk for Ubuntu but keeping a partition just large enough to hold OS X just in case you change your mind.
When I do solely server work I like to boot my mac into Gentoo linux, but I am considering to switch to Brownix because I'm starting to think that Ubuntu is what I want to run the servers on as they grow more plentiful. I run the wmii X11 window manager, and it's fantastic for my productivity. Totally get's out of the way.

When booting OS X I still have most of the terminals in wmii on the crappy Xorg that comes with leopard. I still have to have a few iTerms because it's a pita to copy and paste to Xorg. Periodically I do a lot of graphics work and then I need to be in OSX. Working with large number of files in for example web projects are great to do in TextMate too.
Wow! Talk about surprises. I've never thought about writing in that way. I think if I had I might have really enjoyed it. Hey, I think I might go write something that I've been thinking a lot about lately... now I just need to find out what I've been thinking about. haha Thanks for the insights.
Window tabbing started out in (I think) Fluxbox, where you can group a bunch of application windows together and switch between them with Firefox-like tabs. So you can have, say, all your windows related to one task grouped together. Support for this is now in Compiz or as bolt ons for several window managers.

There is a video of Compiz Group Tab here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nK4_cH5sbM&feature=relat...

Focus on mouse comes in several flavours, the best seems to be sloppy focus with raise-on-focus disabled. When you mouse over a window it goes active so you can type in it. Because it doesn't come to the front unless you click on it you can leave your IM window/IDE/whatever half under a browser window and still type into it. Truly a killer feature, especially on laptops where space is limited.
Readmore, definitely send me an email if you incorporate any new elements: danhaubert [at.....] gmail (dot) com
"These cooks probably start finding roles for themselves..."

Nicely put! I agree.
Package management is so poorly grasped by folks who've never spent some time with the real thing, that they often think that what they're used to (an absolute lack of the capability--Mac OS X has, effectively, no package management, merely package installation, by a very loose definition of "package" and "installation") is superior in every way.
By saying that the affiliates create a physical presence, I would assume that Amazon would need to know each affiliates physical location (might not be the same as their mailing address) and need to know the local tax code and apply the local taxes as well as the state tax. Because of this, New Yorks law will probably fail in court. New York cannot make Internet companies apply only some taxes and not others it would raise a basic unfairness to the locality of the affiliate..
Totally agree but:

>But hardware plays an important role too. MBP+OSX wins head
>Down against an average disposable Dell/HP/Whatever, even
>Ubuntu powers can't help that junk, so Thinkpads rule.

Running linux on a mac is fantastic, the hardware is well supported, only caveat is the one-button touchpad. And it totally pisses of Apple Freaks!
Invention of Zero and Brahmagupta
Would multiple desktops in ubuntu/spaces in leopard be comparable to the window tabbing?

The Focus on mouse software sounds very cool though. When you first said it I thought you were implying Ubuntu developers had more of a focus on mouse actions which was why I didn't just google it. :)
Have you had your vision checked recently? You might need glasses.

Another issue is that you need frequent breaks from looking at a screen. At least every 5-15 minutes, you should take a break and look at something further away and let your eyes focus on it.

I also have an Ergotron adjustable stand for my central monitor. That way, I can move the monitor backwards and forwards every so often to let my eyes adjust to different focal lengths throughout the day. And, I can change position in my chair.
i'm developing using and iMac 20", it's great, and I've added another monitor where I run consoles and log viewers all the time (20").

The iMac LCD is amazing.
I am in freemium in the used cars ads, the big dogs charge money, but without a name is hard even when the ads are free. But my sites brings some bucks at the end of the month, just to go catch a movie, but anyway is ok.
Here's an interesting 1-year post-mortem from Mark Pilgrim on the benefits of Linux regarding package management.

http://diveintomark.org/archives/2007/06/02/one-year-with-li...
I actually just switched in the other direction. I ran Ubuntu for 2.5 years both at work and play and loved it.

However, the hardware, GUI, and software offerings of a MBP were too much for me to bare. I made the switch a few months ago and have never been happier.

Sure Terminal.app sucks but iTerm fixes that. OS X has a few killer apps that Ubuntu can't compete with. Quicksilver, Skitch, and Textmate to name a few.
Say you are working on a pair of spreadsheets, both of which require the same supporting data from a variety of places. That is when window tabbing becomes really outstanding, since you can tab together the two spreadsheets.

The advantage over just bringing forward the work sheet you want each time is that as you move one around and resize it (to cater for fitting the source data on the screen), the one you aren't currently working on changes with it saving you some clicks. It sounds like a stupid little thing but taking a frequent minor irritation out of your environment can be surprisingly beneficial.
Y Combinator's 2005 Summer Founders Program: A Complete Dud
I think both are very productive platforms. I use both, but for me Mac OS X is better.

The big reason for me is that there are apps I rely on that run only on Mac OS X. Keynote and OmniGraffle are the two biggies. Also, I find things "just work" on OS X.

I spent an entire morning configuring my dual monitor setup on Ubuntu, for OS X there was no setup. Also the instant sleep is a killer feature for OS X.
Finding structure when you have no boss
It's a bandwagon he was destined to jump on -- he's an activist for openness, for heaven's sake, so moving to an open platform is hardly shocking. One might wonder what took him so long.
I don't find it to be especially powerful for that.

This was what was in my Facebook feed just now, at 4:20pm on a Saturday:

6 "has joined the group..." or "has become a fan of..." messages

5 miscellaneous profile updates (added photos, became friends, etc)

4 facebook spam (a facebook ad for facebook ads, "Top Books in Boston, MA network" etc)

1 application message (somebody added a "bumper sticker")

My theory is that, since it's the first beautiful Saturday we've had this year people are outside enjoying the weather without bothering to update facebook beforehand. There are probably people going out somewhere tonight, but haven't decided yet and aren't using facebook to figure things out because text messages are way more reliable when everyone is scattered around actually doing things.
Yeah, that was the impression I got from some of the earlier PG essay's (replete with "top coders", "top CS departments", "top schools"). I remember thinking while reading that, "how does that prove the person can build a product, or do anything other than what they have been told to do?"

Later on I think he toned that down a bit.
It's possible to use OS X without locking any of your data into their horrible apps, I do it every day. That's a reason to switch away from Apple apps, not a reason to switch off of the platform.
"that's an easy comment to make that very much fits the zeitgeist" .. "'build it and the money will come' strategies fail"

Hold on - the point I'm making was not the cliche "build it and they [customers, users, investors] will come. The point is that in the very specific micro-seed stage of companies, which is what YC/Seedcamp are dealing with, the first thing you need to spend time on is the product/core business idea. If you work on this, you'll have something tangible at the end of the 3 months, that you can then show people to get to the next stage.

If you don't build something (doesn't have to be a launched, fully funcitoning, customer-ready product) then how can you expect to achieve anything more than more seed funding, this time having demonstrated that you may not deliver in time?

"The YC-like approach could be caricatured as 'shotgun'"

Curious metaphor, but yes, this is the point. Find out as soon as possible what's going to work, and avoid wasting time on stuff that doesn't. If what a team does first doesn't work, they've learnt a whole lot about what to do same/differently with the next idea.

"but copycats don't deliver these [value added factors]"

Yup - correct. This is the big problem. But notice that the things that e.g. Seedcamp lacks are things that have been earned by YC over time, mostly down to previous success. You can't solve these problems by organising more theoretical lectures for the teams.

"The key is to make sure both launch-drive and business training/mentorship are provided in equal amounts"

No. This is the whole point. Having received micro-seed-funding, you need to get somewhere, fast.

Seed funding like YC/Seedcamp is about raising enough money to get to a stage where you can raise a proper angel round/series A. Spending 50% of your time "learning business" will definately benefit you as you go though life, but won't give you any deliverables to make your company succeed in the short term.

Either decide you want to learn business, and then study that before starting a company and getting funding, or concentrate on building your product and then learn about business by doing it for real once you have a real-life case study to work with.
Taxis in the Sky
10 Ways To Manage Firefox Tabs