skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
ApacheCon is Open for Registration
The Windows key has become a lot more useful in 7 (and to some extent Vista), where you have

* win + [left/right arrow] = resize to left/right half of screen

* win + [up arrow] = maximize

* win + shift + [up arrow] = maximize vertically

* win + [down arrow] = minimize

* win + [#N] = invoke Nth-from-left application on taskbar

* win + shift + [#N] = start new instance of Nth-from-left app on taskbar

plus the ability to open the Windows/Start menu and start typing to search.
The V-22 should make for a very interesting engineering story when all of the history comes out. Tiltrotors inherently have a lot of moving parts, plus a very complicated aerodynamic profile as they transition from helicopter mode to airplane mode. It took decades to develop it, at least one fatal accident, and a lot of technology risk throughout, and all the while it was a prime candidate for cancellation. The only thing that saved it was its suitability for the Marine Corps, who needed an aircraft that could carry more Marines a longer distance than helicopters. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MV-22B_combat_radius_in_Ir...)

It's probably not too far from the truth to say that, just like stealth aircraft, we wouldn't have usable production tiltrotor aircraft today if it wasn't for the political tendency to spend vast amounts of money on unnecessary and implausible military contracts. Not an argument either way, just an observation.
> telepresence robot my friend and I have been building

Whoa that sounds interesting - any details you can share?
There is a built-in duplicate detector, but it doesn't work very well. More and more the URL people end up with has loads of feedburner crap and other junk, and that breaks the URL dup detector.

I made this suggestion ages ago:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1012215

The idea is to use just the first part of the URL, and then to use the extracted title. Seems much more reliable - I use it to auto-detect duplications. It annoys me to have the same item submitted over and again, mostly because it splits the discussion. For me, most of the value here on HN is in the comments - often the discussion has more value than the original submission.
I interpreted "I think most of the difference is taxes" as ".ca prices are higher because they include taxes".
I'm not in the U.S. so I can't spend a few bucks on Netflix. But your bad experience with BitTorrent is probably purely a function of using the wrong trackers.

I have access to some trackers where the download very rarely goes below 2MB/s, with 5-8MB/s being the average. Some of these have material like discontinued music and foreign films that I could never get where I live, at least not without significant hassle.

With this setup I can initiate a download for a foreign 720p film, go and make some tea, and it'll be there by the time I come back.

That's quality of service I can't even pay for where I live, no matter how much cash I fork out.
Apple's trouble with TV is that it isn't "all of mobile computing", which is what they're busy taking over. A recent article pointed out that the iPhone is to Apple 2010 what search is to Google. Seems about right.

Apple's strategy with TV seems to be to slow-roll it until they get to a place where they can execute a strategy that will dominate it. They can't do nothing, since that would enable competitors to dominate it. They can't revoke everyone's TV. So they launch a "hobby" product to maintain a certain level of uncertainty in the marketplace.

Criticizing the success of the Apple TV in light of that seems somewhat silly. They actually call it a hobby. I assume they're doing the minimum with it that they can actually get away with; any dollar they spend over that minimum is a dollar that isn't going to total domination of mobile computing.
A simple suggestion regarding the design - change the green term highlighting to something less overpowering (such as #ffc or #ffa). For me, just that small change would make an enormous difference.
NewEgg’s Unempowered Customer Service Failure - A Case Study
I'm talking about per capita public money spent on healthcare by the government.
I watch way more stuff with Netflix than with BitTorrent because getting the stuff I want to watch on BitTorrent would be a huge hassle.
U of Florida giving credits for playing Starcraft
...if you think children's vitamins are sexy.
It was custom built. However here's a good component you might like: http://ianli.com/infinitedrag/
The Art of the Customer Development Conversation
People get tricked into thinking that they're buying something good.

When I go to a coffee shop, a lot of times I'll sit there with some of my friends and work on a project at their tables, or I'll use their internet, or read a book, or whatever. The $2.5, or $4 or whatever that I'm paying for a cup of water run through ground up beans is mostly paying the for a barrista to ask me how my day is going so far, and for the table. It's like a day-hotel; the table is my room, the person at the counter is the front-counter clerk, and the $4 is my room fee.

This is fine, I'm more than willing to pay $4 for a coffee when I'm going to be sitting there for 5 hours working (in fact, if I'm staying this long, I'll usually buy more than one cup of coffee even though I don't need it.). The $4 is insane for a cup of coffee, but I'm buying more than just coffee.

Starbucks is the same thing, but a bit more interesting (I think). When people go into starbucks, they're paying $4 because they want to feel like members of the cool kids club. The coffee has names that you have to be a member of the little club to understand, the interior is very starbucksy, there is obscure "art" on the walls, etc.

This makes sense. Yeah, you could go to the gas station across the street and get something that tastes about the same, but then you wouldn't have access to the cool kids club. The $3 difference between a gas station cappuccino and a Starbucks "coffee flavored milkshake for adults" is the membership fee.

The trick here is that Starbucks (as well as their competitors) now also runs coffee shops where you can't even go inside. You can't stay there, there is no obscure art, no atmosphere, no nothing. You drive up, get your coffee, and leave. You probably even finish your coffee in the car before anybody has chance to see the familiar logo that means "cool kid".

So why do people still go there and pay the $3 membership fee to a club that doesn't exist?

Because they've been tricked into thinking that they're buying coffee.
PS3 Jailbreak Exploit Detailed
Why would I want to use job control when I can use screen instead?
I use both StackOverflow and Quora every single day. I think StackOverflow's approach of staying on topic and building a community around a topic is great for bootstrapping. But in the long run I think the Quora approach is better.

I like seeing startup topics and then serendipitously seeing topics about motorcycles. I don't think I'll ever see a StackExchange topic on motorcycles.
Hey Sunir, those are all excellent points you make. Let me see if I can clarify what I was initially going for on my initial rant.

The mistake I made in our early days, and one that I still see amongst early-stage entrepreneurs (of course always easy to see in hindsight!) is that they put too much weight in how much somebody else can help their venture, particularly in those embryonic stages.

Let me pick on myself here, which is pretty easy to do. I had a lot of misconceptions about what made startups successful. I thought that building a great advisory board could take you to the promised land. I thought finding the right angel/VC could do it.

Which goes back to #1 that you point out above - the sell side - in the very early stages of Chrometa, my sell side value prop was not strong enough. You hit the nail on the head.

Hence, I wasted a lot of time trying to "sell" potential partners and such - when I should have been focused internally. These people were kind enough to take a meeting, and kind enough to act interested - that wasn't their fault, it was mine.

I got a little fired up here - partners are of course important. What I learned early on perhaps is don't get your hopes up on partnering before you've got your own house in order.
Just crashed: http://talkMiner.com
I get an Error 503
Using heroku in pre-alpha meant we couldn't use websockets. Since we were very used to Heroku, we figured we'd just accept this limitation and work around it (with PusherApp). Turned out to be a great decision since we never would have had time to implement websockets I don;t think. It's definitely not hard with Node, but it does take some thought and configuration.

For server->client event triggering, PusherApp has got to be the easiest possible solution out there. Also had really nice documentation with a quick getting started example.
Apparently not. Before the bureaucracy engaged in coercion

The democratically elected bureaucracy did what they were elected to do. It's not coercion. It reflects the society because society felt that something needed to be changed, and did the research to come to a conclusion on what to do.

Are women so much worse as parents than men?

The policy encourages fathers to share their leave with the mothers. I believe that a children being cared for by both parents will be better adjusted.

not being immunized creates a harmful externality

Again, we're drawing the line in a slightly different place. The lack of a benefit to society - especially those we once had and have since taken for granted - can also be viewed as a "harmful externality."
The minor variations are a matter of not infringing on Hasbro's trademark or their copyrighted board (oh yes). And when it comes to trademark usage (unlike copyright or patents), quickly bringing these matters to the courts is proof of the trademark's legitimacy, so yes, there will be a C&D.

At least it's refreshing that there's not a complete sense of naïveté about it like Tris or Scrabulous had. The PR will only raise their profile and they have little to lose.

Man, who knew the Node Knockout would be this, I want to say, historic?! I've seen such great entries and am really impressed with the creativity and skills on display.
Rumor: Windows Phone 7 will use Courier's "tuck-and-paste" in post launch update
Tips for Entrepreneurs Who Are Their Company's Only Salesperson
10 suggestions for growing a business when you're the only person who is selling, networking, negotiating, and closing deals.
YC doesn't insist on anything, beyond the initial terms you agree to when you accept YC funding. Which is why there have been a huge variety of company endings (from quietly slinking off back to college, to selling to Google, to returning remaining investor money and shutting down, to turning into a profitable growth company with no short-term exit plans, etc.).

Anyway, the terms they offer don't give them any way to demand anything. They are a common shareholder in the company with 2%-10% of the shares and no seats on the board. They can't steer the boat, they're merely passengers. So, it makes sense for them to choose companies that the most obvious outcome is one that will be profitable for them.
Keep updating it. There is a lot more to the situation than the numbers.

Why are they bad? Why are they good? How can they misincentivize bad behavior? The situation is complex
My soul weeps for their beauty
I'm also not good at spot-on answering questions I haven't considered previously. Luckily, I have thought about most things people want to ask me about. But I've learned stock answers when I get ambushed, even when it's unintentional. "When do you need the answer by?" is one of my favorites. It causes them to prioritize. But the only lesson I had to learn was to have a snap cover answer at hand.

More often than one might expect, the ambush is intentional. They want to appear smart, or to improve their position at the expense of others. To be prepared for anything is impossible. That's why most public figures practice being ambushed, and not freezing. It took me a few times to get the hang of it, but it's well worth it in the politics of corporate life.
Not all HTML and CSS happens in a browser. Many interfaces are written that are rendered by webkit, and in those instances this is awesome.
I'm curious as to why he didn't use regular buttons. That would degrade ... (haven't checked the code tho)
When my daughter was born, I took a six months paternity leave. It was great fun and it allowed me to get a lot of things off the ground for the web app I am now selling.
> I can point at three quarters of my interests and trace them straight back to books I picked off the shelf when I was 10.

But that's largely because of your particular character another child (as you were) would have benefited little from the same books and been disengaged and miserable. Instead they might benefit from a bench, tools and materials that would lead them to gain skills that could bring them later into construction or engineering or something practical.
I missed the part that says it's not ready for production when I first read it. Here's part of the quote from the end:

> This is just a demo and not meant to be used on your next project that targets the average internet user.
i don't doubt that, why would ragel generate Ruby code if nobody used it? I just doubt mongrel used ruby ragel-generated code.
adblock, autopager, pendule, tabjump, window resizer & delicious
you don't use git, do you? :P
Don't complain. Here in the Netherlands it's around $7.6 per gallon.
You mean they are not? I thought gold is the perennial "hedge against economic downturn" and non-financial specialists treat it as such.

I hear friends and family talk about gold whenever the economy is sour.
To get access to those trackers, you generally have to be "cool enough", or know the right people, which for me is impossibly daunting.
Coding is not my primary role in my job (although it is what I spend a good portion of my spare time doing), so maybe I'm strange.

My best "my god it is full of stars" moments have all been while sitting in noisy areas with headphones on. For some reason, all of the extra commotion going on around me really helps me concentrate.
Kona released: Open source K3.2 [screencast]
Agreed. After reading the following paragraph:

"When Microsoft delivered Windows as its copycat, competing version of the Mac desktop for DOS users, it simply mapped the standard key commands Apple had originated - including the familiar Command S, Z, X, C, V for save, undo, cut, copy, paste - to control key combinations on the PC. This was another shortsighted PC mistake that would become an unsolvable annoyance for users."

...it was hard not to read this in the voice of the comic book guy. A short-sighted mistake AND an unsolvable annoyance? Really?

And yeah, I'm also a fan of the context menu key. I picked up a Logitech Illuminated keyboard last year and was very disappointed at the absence of a dedicated context menu key.
>From what I can remember, I generally read the required textbooks, fill out the workbooks, and by mid December and was left to my own devices the rest of the time.

Required by whom?
Facebook blocked API access to Ping, Apple removed feature after launch
I've been getting a lot more Aw Snaps after upgrading to Chromium 7.whatever on Linux.

It happens all the time when I'm searching for things on google.
I knew that this was the position the administration would have once chose Joe Biden as VP. Frankly I'm amazed that they haven't attempted more to date with copyright enforcement.

See http://www.betanews.com/article/Where-does-Joe-Biden-stand-o... for a quick overview of Biden's background on copyright issues.
If you're saying it's "DRM-like" to have a problem that requires software protection to try to solve, I understand this comment.

But if you're saying that Twitter's OAuth scheme is inherently DRM-like, no, it isn't. It makes perfect sense for web apps, and it's been shoehorned into native apps, but the core problem Twitter is dealing with (how can we shut off malicious clients) is totally orthogonal to OAuth or DRM.
To expand on his comment, look at online gambling sites and how they advertise. They can't advertise online gambling. Same goes for tobacco.

Sponsorships might cost less, but garner more view depending on what you are sponsoring.
Ah yeah... "The Lady".. :D

Instant flashbacks to Jan-Michael Vincent .. Ernest Borgnine .. Alex Cord (and his cute assistants ;D) ... jeeps ... Valley of the Gods ... eagles .. a cello ... and of course that awesome and super long intro of the first episode with that lizard falling/rolling from the front wheel of the helicopter when it takes off.

As you can notice, the show did make an impression on this 5 year old in the 80's. ;D

Thank you for bringing back the memories! :)
It seems like once more people are using tablet devices like the iPad, these apps will skyrocket. Understandably, there aren't many right now because owning a tablet isn't yet a necessity.
Yes. Exactly my point.
As always, correlation is not causation. I was unschooled, and a lot of people get into it precisely because school is simply too slow for their kids. It isn't surprising that these kids would go on to be very bright.
> No one walking out of a Walmart with a stack of Richard Marx discs under his arm would be subject to such penalties.

Penalties are higher because piracy is easier to get away with?
ok, yes, but that is not the main point of the debate, though. What are the proper ways to deter and punish the crime? Up til now, the main weapon wielding by RIAA is to sue petty theft with gigantic financial penalties, which most people don't have the means to defend themselves against. It gets so bad that law firms are now basically blackmail people into submission, eg. "the Hurt Locker" case. This only infuriates others and aggravate the problems.
I keep telling myself, this has to be better than if we'd elected McCain -- right?
How to turn your Wordpress Website into a Social Network
So, that should be X plus Y above. Apparently plus signs are HN-ese for italics.
I think teaching your kids the alphabet isn't asking for too much. And whatever you do, don't mix up the letter order.

I was unlucky enough when I was a young kid (5 or 6) to be enrolled at a school for a few weeks during the start of the year while my parents were moving. (We were staying with family in a different town than the one we were moving to).

The teacher started the year by helping us learn to read. I could already read a little at this point, some of the other kids couldn't yet. She went through this process by teaching random letters from the alphabet. x, b, and k one day, and g, p, s the next.

This confused the hell out of me. It also did no service to the other kids who were trying to learn. After a couple of weeks of me telling my parents about it seeing my reading comprehension actually getting worse, they pulled me from the school for the last week until we moved, if I remember correctly.

And to put this all in perspective, I have always been a voracious reader. There was barely a moment growing up that I can remember not being with a book. In school I was always at least 2-3 years ahead of most of my peers when it came to reading, language, etc. I'm lucky I didn't have to keep that one backwards teacher.
Why use the command line at all when you can use a GUI?

Understanding how your system works is a different level from choosing the tools in the first place.
Newmark shouldn't beat himself up over failing the trial-by-media-fire. Lyon probably had the story written before she even approached him. Most of us (including former reporters like me) would be no match for a media pro with a particular slant in mind.
What I Believe (about Markets and Morals): A Reply to Jerry Coyne & My Critics
I remember watching the original interview on cnn.com [0] and thinking it looked like the reporter wasn't really interested in getting good answers or giving an accurate story to her viewers, but was just going for a "gotcha".

She seems to have the same strange misunderstanding of large-scale websites that people sometimes voice regarding youtube or google. At one point he asks if she reported an ad she's questioning him about. She says "why do I have the responsibility to report this to you when it's your website? You're the one hosting this online." It's as if she's completely unaware of the scale of the system, and expecting Craig to hand-verify each and every ad.

[0] http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/crime/2010/08/03/cra... - during the last half of the clip
Yeah, I think I agree with this more. My guess would be that those with profound intellectual abilities gravitate towards fields with more "concrete complexity"- the math/science type careers that demand a considerable raw intelligence to have a good chance at making contributions.

Fields like business/entrepreneurship don't necessarily require this sheer brainpower because it can be sacrificed for (and one might argue necessarily requires) things like street smarts/people skills, creativity, etc.
Using Windows as a technologist is like farting in public. Still embarrassing.
>I've never met a home-schooled kid who wasn't social awkward.

The few I've met who are I've tended to find a bit autistic. I know kids from several families (I'm not in the USA) that homeschool and the kids tend to interact a lot better than state-school kids with different age groups - toddlers through to adults.

However, none of those I know are single children AFAIR.
Mocks Aren't Stubs
You can do cmd+c/cmd+v to copy and paste a file. What you can't do is cut and paste (with cmd+x/cmd+v)

I agree that this is somewhat weird (though I'm sure there's a reason/opinion behind it) but it has never been a huge problem for me though.
Ask HN: How do VCs behave when you fail?
They treat you like you're the best man on the planet when you're making them money right. But what what do they do when things go south? What is the best way to deal with them?

Do they force you to sell every asset? What about IP? What about virtual assets? source code? Will they make you take pennies on the dollar?

I have heard horrible stories about this, so I am curious about your stories.
Biden was one of the few Senators I knew by name before he was VP. I was also concerned about how his views on copyright would affect the stance of the current Administration.

Here's more on the history of Biden's pro-copyright campaign.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10024163-38.html
How to hand-craft your own presentation slides.
I agree, I bet that many children would benefit a great deal from that. Eight hours less at school is eight hours more time to expose a kid to as many cool things as possible.

That said, I think that encouraging a ton of reading of something is almost definitely going to be a good idea. Everyone with a mind should be reading.
The Apple TV is so close for me now. If it had a more wide range of supported formats I would be all over it, but I'm relegated to the world of WD TV Live Plus right now. People say that this is a techie-only feature, but I highly disagree. Apple built it's reputation on "it just works" and being able to play any format follows that. If it plays everything, customers no longer need to figure out which formats it does or does not play, "it just works."
One thing I do a lot, inside of a screen session, is:

$ cd workingdir
$ vim conffile
(edit, then within file press CTRL-Z, which suspends)
$ start_program
(notice errors or misbehaviours based on bad config)
$ fg
(edit config file some more, open different buffer)
** repeat untill things are happy **

This is a minimal use of job control, but it is nice.

Other uses include juggling several programs at once, sometimes screen gets too annoying for simple progress monitoring of several processes at once. (One window per command for say 20 commands, makes it difficult to switch through to find the one vim one, or the sql prompt... 3 on the other hand is fairly easy).
Lesser of two evils! Woo hoo!