skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Contrary to popular belief, not all of that $150 you give to Comcast each month (ouch) goes to buying yachts for Comcast's CEO

Programming costs alone are going up about 10% per year while the average provider rate increase is only about 5% per year. Over the next 2-3 years we're going to hit the point where selling linear video service is unprofitable for cable providers. The ESPN 360 model of IP services being bundled with access is probably the future. I could see Hulu, Netflix, etc partnering with providers on this. Apple is probably at a disadvantage because you know they won't be interested in offering iTunes Store access on some cruddy Motorola or Cisco set top box. This makes me wonder if the new iTV could perhaps be something Apple sells through partnerships with cable / telco video providers. They got into bed with AT&T so it's not unthinkable they would do the same with Comcast or TWC.
"Why the author seems to think that apps in the iTunes store are better than apps in other app stores is beyond me. There may be more apps in the iTunes store, but I doubt they have higher quality."

Your language makes it sound like you don't have first hand experience with the App Store apps. As the owner of an EVO and an iPod Touch, there are much better (quality) apps in the App Store. That said, these devices are not just for running apps.
Also: say that radioactive dating turns out to be worthless (which is not the case, even if the results in the linked article are true), that still wouldn’t tell you anything about the age of the earth. You can’t then just privilege the hypothesis that the earth is 6,000 years old.

It’s quite funny actually, if we didn’t have radioactive dating it would make a lot of sense to say that evolution itself is one of the best pieces of evidence for an old earth. It is supported by so much evidence independent of any dating methods that any discovery which changes how much we believe we can trust radioactive dating is practically meaningless. (The obvious exception are results which would indicate that earth is orders of magnitude younger than radioactive dating makes it seem to be. But, no surprise, this is not that.)
How Power Affects Us
See comments from sp332 on http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1629961

"It's exactly the sort of thing RATE (http://www.icr.org/rate/) has been talking about. The main point of the RATE project is to discredit the radioisotope dating methods. Sometimes they just send samples from the same rock formation to different labs and get different results. But they also spend a lot of time finding reasons that radioisotope decay rates might change over time.

This is all from what I remember from a conversation I had with someone involved with the project about 10 years ago. They got a lot of funding and a lot of interest back in the late 90's when they were just starting. I thought some of their research was interesting, but there was so much propaganda mixed in that it turned my stomach, so I stopped following it."
I think that's one of the reasons why VC (from a good 'name') is useful, it gets you press, lots of it. Instantly you're news worthy because the press somehow sees you as 'validated', which means they're no longer going out on a limb in writing about you, everybody will be writing about you so they can't be seen as missing the boat.

Don't underestimate this effect.
I have thought that an algorithm like this could be useful in conjunction with something like zap reader for being able to browse around in "zap reader" mode. I like reading my longer blogs on zap reader by it is sort of a pain to copy and paste the text into the little zap reader box. Some way to automatically identify and process the main block of text on a page would really help matters.
How to Dominate Search Engine Results Working Just 60-70 Hours A Week
Thanks for the numbers. Yes, this did-I-miss-anything functionality is how I was hoping it would be used -- good to hear that it's working!
Doug Engelbart & Ted Nelson come to dinner (video)
Scary movie too in many ways. Especially the bits about water and cattle / news.
'"The media lies" is something everyone should take to heart. It's an astonishing thing to be in a place where the #1 story of the day is happening and not see anything even remotely representing the reporting on it at ground level.'

For what it's worth, that's not unique to international news. Anyone who has been involved with a national scale story can tell you about the disconnect between what the news reports and the truth. My involvement was being home-from-school during a school shooting, and the news reports were seriously doing well to simply spell the names of those involved correctly. Most everything else just came from a pre-canned "disaster in small town" template without any sort of checking for truth or anything.

This was 1993, too. The media hasn't been worth the paper it's written on for a while now, the Internet just let us collectively discover the rot.
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Crunchbase says the 250k round was only 2 months later, so maybe no dilution? http://www.crunchbase.com/company/280-north
Online Coupons Get Smarter
Huh, you are in fact correct. I had stored in my brain the intended effect of the agreement but not the actuality.
His Master's was about algorithms and was entirely mathematical. His undergrad was in electrical engineering, and it involved plenty of hands-on work... but he got both his degrees in the 1970s. There's a pretty good chance Windows was not part of the curriculum.
Sounds like a bunch of horseshit to me. The BBB is a dead org. Nobody contacted them about your site and their fee is robbery.
How Blind People See the Internet
> In other words, what can a co-founder do that an employee cant ?

In principle, nothing. In practice, it depends on lots of things, including the biz, the folks involved, and so on.

Some startups can outsource their web development. Others can't.

However, if you're offering above-market risk, you can't offer at-market or below-market compensation without getting below-market talent.

BTW - There's an interesting sampling error here. We're more likely to crappy ideas from tech folk because they're more likely to launch. Biz folks can't launch without money or a tech person who drinks the kool-aid.
But my god is it difficult to get an adcenter api key from Microsoft. But that's a completely different rant (why do all the major search engines make it so damn hard to spend money with them?).
Now you made me blush.

At least with such short competitions your involvement is limited. Constraints work both ways: deadlines are liberating when they pass.
"I believe if your goals are firm 'distractions' hold no appeal"

How I wish that were true!
Among a generally critical-minded crowd like HNers, Trader Joe has not gotten a single bad comment.

I am impressed.
It's certainly more than that and I have a lot of code to prove it.
Actually, it is a hybrid. I have my own index and do my own crawling as well.
We'd really appreciate your feedback! Check us out at http://getzazu.com. Also, if y'all stop by #startups on irc.freenode.com I'll give you an invite code :-)
Ask HN: How does GotVoice's Silent Delivery service work?
GotVoice has a service they call "Silent Delivery" (http://www.gotvoice.com/silent_delivery.php) that allows you to leave a voicemail for someone without ringing their mobile phone (there used to be a demo on the site but I don't see the link anymore - it definitely worked for AT&T and Verizon cell phones).

I'm trying to figure out the exact way they do this.

For AT&T and T-Mobile, you can dial a special GSM code on your phone and get your current voicemail backdoor number. You (or others) can then call that number, navigate through a menu of options, and leave a voicemail in your mailbox without calling your phone. I can't imagine GotVoice is doing this since there are tons of different backdoor numbers and they're subject to changes. Also, the menu systems of the different voicemail systems even on the same carrier can be different, so automating that seems impractical.

Even if they were using specific backdoor numbers for each user, that doesn't explain how they're able to leave messages for Verizon or Sprint that, to my knowledge, don't even have these backdoor numbers.

There's also SlyDial (www.slydial.com) which seems like they place two calls at the exact same time to get one to go to voicemail and after immediately drop the other line (sometimes the called phone half-rings). GotVoice's system doesn't cause the phone to half-ring, so they've gotta be doing something differently.

GotVoice claims they can do this regardless of carrier:
"GotVoice has a unique technology platform that navigates voicemail systems and bypasses the normal call route, which enables the audio content to be dropped directly into the voicemail system, regardless of the carrier."

I'm trying to replicate this functionality on an Asterisk system for a project I'm working on.

Could some telephony guru chime in and tell me what could possibly be going on here? I'd really appreciate it. Thanks.
Another approach is to create a BASIC to X translator, where X is some language with a future. I did a Pascal to C translator a long time ago and it was not a huge task, certainly less than a full blown language implementation. I would pick Python as a target language, because of the large libraries and the development activity in the language. Alternatively you could pick Java or the JVM.
There is a Billy Connolly joke in here somewhere ;)
Computer Guy generally translates to "this cat could fix my computer sometime." I'm a Network Administrator by day and I don't do any end user desktop support. Telling them I'm a Computer Guy automatically sets me up for "Hey, so I had this problem on my computer..."

I just tell them that I'm a Network Administrator and when the inevitable question comes up, I tell them that I manage the equipment that computers use to talk to each other. If it goes beyond that, I simply tell them it's kind of like telecomm and try to move the conversation to something they're interested in. I rarely tell them that I do software development on the side, that just furthers the confusion.

I remember an article a while back (I wish I could find the link) about a software developer that had the same problem. "You write programs? Oh, great, can you get rid of these viruses?"
Another aspect is that I don't have to travel to the other side of the world to learn about other cultures, necessarily; I just start talking to my neighbors or coworkers. Is it the same? No, but it's not worthless and you can get up close and fairly personal. I won't learn enough to blend in with that culture by any means but that takes months anyhow.
Idiot’s Guide to Understanding Today’s Annoying Marketing Catch Phrases
I've found my software as cracked download on Internet, what to do?
I don't get why Apple didn't buy them.

Read point six in Steve's "Thoughts on Flash". Apple isn't interested in actively developing web platforms because, as Jobs said,

We know from painful experience that letting a third party layer of software come between the platform and the developer ultimately results in sub-standard apps and hinders the enhancement and progress of the platform. [...] This becomes even worse if the third party is supplying a cross platform development tool.
Brad Silverberg: Flashback - What it was like to launch Windows 95
MessageParty (YC S10) Ties Location With Chat Rooms
Super press Zachary, congratulations!
Thanks a lot - I learned more from that than from 6 months of reading console blogs!
I would be all over a basic cable/basic internet/hulu/netflix bundle.
Could this new particle be the Higgs boson?
Study: No Link Tying Disaster Losses to Human-Driven Warming
You're not really the typical TV watcher. The average person watches nearly twice as much video in a day as you do in a week. There was a NY Times story a few days ago examining cord-cutters showing the numbers just don't back up the hype. People actually aren't cutting the cord. They might be scaling back (who needs 30 HBOs?) but for the most part they're willing to pay for linear video services. I agree the future of cable / telcos is being an IP pipe but I don't think they'll be dumb pipe providers. They'll either be selling the IP services or cutting deals Verizon/Google style to maintain control of the network in other ways. Think about it from the perspective of Hulu -- wouldn't it make sense to cut a deal with Comcast if they were willing to make it very difficult for their subscribers to download illegal files? You'll end up subscribing to Hulu or Netflix the same way you subscribe to Comcast's digital premium expanded gold package or whatever they call it. Just another line item on your Comcast bill.
I have had those problems. If someone only watches a few shows, this could be a good deal. Also, I could never see my dad using bittorrent. It would be way too complicated for him.
It is $600 thrown away, their model relies on scarcity of information, the Internet has staked the heart of companies with scarcity of information as a business model and it is why they have become irrelevant for most online companies. Your local plumber may benefit from them, but you most certainly will not. Take that $600 and put it in ad-words and you would serve your business better.
I can't help thinking that Gosling is very likely to get roped into this thing as a witness, and all his public statements are going to be grist for the two mega-companies' legal mills. If I was him I'd be taking a vacation somewhere without telephones right now. For a year.
IngBoo Powers Facebook 'Like' with Search, Tag and Feed Syndication
No, you insensitive clod. (pardon the/.)

I find no problem highlighting an underrepresented minority in any profession. It serves to give encouragement and role models. "Outstanding Male Nurses" would probably be equally justified.
Is it not normal to respond to only parts of a comment? That's why we developed quoting methods, right? Because, y'know, we may not have something to say about everything?

We have this fantastic thing called threaded discussion. There is not a direction for a conversation, but many, as is evidenced by the deeply-threaded messages on most technical boards (think Slashdot, not Digg).
The Misleading World Of Atari 2600 Box Art: Part Two
Is 3-D Dead in the Water?
Y Combinator’s Biggest Demo Day Yet Draws Throng Of Investors
Why I like comments
I think HN proves that skepticism + optimism = entrepreneurism!
Skepticism in using critical thinking to question everything, including the standard way of doing things.
Skepticism leads to new insights in improving the way things are done (wrongly or rightly). Optimism kicks in and the HN'er runs off to build the new tool that will facilitate this new insight.

Alas, entrepreneurism!
Is this YC's biggest exit?
There is Toyota and there is BMW
Is this similar to C#/.NET "using" construct ?
I would amend your statement to say that ignorant Americans believe their country is supreme, because the TV tells them so. Ignorant Canadians receive the same messages, but don't have much to counter them, and thus default to such spite and envy.

I'm a Canadian and I've lived in the USA for years. This has made me acutely aware of how different our cultures really are, and how they both have different virtues.
For a less explicitly "pro-Singularity" take that still studies it seriously, the main North American AI organization (AAAI) recently convened a panel to look into which potential major societal effects of advancing AI should be taken seriously by AI researchers, and what (if anything) should be done with regards to those possibilities: http://www.aaai.org/Organization/presidential-panel.php
But rebuttal, esp principled rebuttal, really doesn't add anything to a comment thread.

Ever wonder why Winer's purportedly popular blog has so few comments? Now you know!
If The Rumors Are Real, Apple's iTV Will Be A Runaway Success
Now that we’ve been hearing about a revamped AppleTV – dubbed iTV – for some months now, it seems safe to say that something is coming down the pipes.
I still think the pay-per-episode model just isn't going to work in the US. We just watch too much TV. If you're an average American who sits down and watches 4-5 hours of TV a day that's going to be at least $150 per month in rentals. That's just for one individual too. A household of people watching different shows at a 99 cent per show fee could rack up a $500/month bill pretty quickly. Rental prices would have to be much closer to 5-10 cents per episode to be economical for most people to replace cable/satellite.
Should I laugh, cry, or cheer about this 'Windows in the Cloud' story
Rabois is joining Square
How would you ever get a statistically significant number of people to agree on anything if each person relied on those sets of statistics to assert their point?
"That’s a description dad. I wanted an explanation."

It might be helpful to explain that a description at one level is an explanation at the next level up. For example with gravity, the description of the force between masses (etc.) is (part of) the explanation of the observed motions of the planets (etc.). At the very bottom, at the most fundamental level, we might have only description.
Except that most Moby Dick projects started out as little fish - Twitter and Flickr spring to mind.
id Software was sold?
Headlines That Teach You Something
But if you have developed something truly ahead of the state-of-the-art, disclosing it gives your competitors a leg-up.

Another problem with patenting it is that it gets more expensive to maintain each year (there are increasing annual fees), so by the end, the total expense would be enormous; hard to justify if there is zero revenue coming in. [I'm going by Australian law here, assuming US is the same] Hmmm..... I wonder if this means that many patents "on the books" have actually expired for this reason, before the full 17/20 years?
Neither is the SmartPhone. (though it is effectively owned by only a small handful of telcos in the US)
Your underlying point is that he isn't credible; andreyf's point is about profiteering. It's possible he wanted information on credibility, rather than the stated profiteering, but your paternalism has yet to supply any actual answers.
iTunes makes money on music, which you can download online, so why can't it on TV?
A legal framework for invalidating other people's independent discoveries? Sounds like a great idea.
I'd like to address some of your statements if you don't mind, since I wouldn't want them spreading and used in place of actual thought...

First, let's do away with this "Rapture of the Nerds" business. It'd be funny if the comparison were at all valid: http://www.acceleratingfuture.com/steven/?p=21

Your first paragraph hints that you're more partial to Hanson's idea of having already undergone multiple Singularities that tremendously boost the economy.

> We dont even know what intelligence really is, so we cant predict what super intelligence is or will do.

Paraphrasing from Yudkowsky, an intelligent system is that which implements its goals. If a superintelligent entity has goals even remotely recognizable to us, we can predict what it will do quite easily. Even if you have no idea how Chess works, just by knowing it's a game you can predict both sides will try to win.

I'm with you on brain-machine interfaces that augment our intelligence, though I would definitely say I could think faster, if not better. Just with the example of an internal calculator would help tremendously; somewhere around the order of trillions of synapses fire if you try to multiply two three-digit numbers if your head.

> So the optimist in me sees a future free from meaningless work, where even the average Joe will have an IO of 200 or even 1000.

What do these figures even mean? One of the goals of a Yudkowsky-defined Singularity is that the AI (hopefully quickly) gets around to helping us augment our own intelligence, moving us along the path so that we can become something like how we presently are to ants, but with present us as the new ants. Not just all becoming Einstein.
Maybe he looks at himself as having an activist role through all this - one where he has to influence public opinion and generate enough momentum with the public and Sun's customers to actually force Oracle's hand. Thats my reading between the lines based on the last few blog posts he has made.
Last year to ZeniMax Media http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZeniMax_Media
Isn't it ironic that the original iPhone vision was for everything to be a web app?

Apple was probably on to something, but realized that there was no money to be made. Motorola, on the other hand, wasn't making money on software anyway. So this approach could be good for them.
You forgot to ask if I have a smart phone or not.
San Diego's 8th Hacker News meetup is this Fri at 7:30pm (free but need RSVP)
For this among other reasons, I tend not to use "what do you do?" as an opening query (though that doesn't help you if someone else does). I prefer something more like, "what kinds of things are you interested in?" For some people it's the same, but I've met plenty of people with boring day jobs and interesting projects, so if I don't already know the person I'd rather let them decide what they find interesting to tell me about themselves.
Perhaps they did not have a cool enough accent? 'EARRRRRLang'

Kidding - I would be very interested in more on why Scala failed as well. Both Scala and Erlang are implementations of the Actor model and should theoretically be very well suited to this.
I love this app. I can't wait to use it during the trailers at a movie, or in between bands at a show.
It looks as though Apple TV is going to do what the Roku Player has been doing for well over a year now.

I got my Roku box for $99 (it's even cheaper now), and at the time it only did SD streaming from Netflix, but they have done several software updates since then, and it not only does HD from Netflix (and works beautifully), but it also streams from Amazon's VoD service, which is where I get most of my content when I can't get it through Netflix.

They've also added "channels" which allows any streaming video provider to hook into their API and stream to the Roku box, including the handling of paid subscriptions. Every day it seems like there's more. You can even get live baseball games and UFC fights.

I dropped my cable after the Roku. And to the above poster that said internet would barely be cheaper without TV, I have ATT U-verse, and it's $65 a month for internet-only 24mbps, but if you want an inexpensive option, I believe it goes all the way down to something like $25 a month.

I used to use torrents for some TV, but now that it's so easy to just stream stuff from Netflix, Amazon, etc, and watch it on my TV the same way I'd watch something on a Tivo, it's just not worth the hassle anymore.

The cable company's days are numbered here if they don't adapt to this new business model. I could never imagine paying $100+ a month for TV ever again.
Facebook has some great notes on their use of Erlang in the Chat node.

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=51412338919
Also, http://unsuck-it.com/.
They really think Yahoo will last 10 years?
I guess "manage"? some content at times, manage writers, site direction, revenue opportunities (banner ad/affiliate stuff), just finished getting an iPhone App done (I didn't code it, I hired someone) for one of the sites. ask/coordinate programmers to implement new features I want on the site. have a couple of sites in the wings that I'm working on getting off the ground.