skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
They sound better than the cheap $15 earphones Sony or Philips wills sell you. They are much better than pretty much anything that comes with any other device.

They still suck. But they suck less than the competition.
A short article that didn't really say anything new - still upvoted for the nice reminder though.
Shove that idea straight up where it came from. "Startups are overrated."
What's with all these rumours about companies planning to buy ARM? ARM is a famously profitable, 30 year old company that is on the verge of world domination. What makes anybody think that they want to sell?
As for your data (with Dropbox), it's all on your system at the same time it is on the Cloud. I have the 50Gb plan, and one of my slight complaints is that on the same disk, I have the dropbox contents twice (one for my Windows partition, one for Linux) -- so I have to keep 100Gb free total to support them. This is a stupid complaint really (and it MIGHT work if I moved the dropbox to a shared drive, but frankly, I don't want to test out what would happen if two operating systems were using the same dropbox space), so I wouldn't worry about that, but the point is that your files are always your files. If, on the odd chance they do go out of business, all of your files still exist across all of your computers (though they may not be synced anymore), and wouldn't be lost to you.

As for the other aspects of their service, I have to agree that it 'just works'. I don't have to worry about it, ever. I haven't dealt with customer service, so I have no idea how they are, but I've never had to either, and I've been using them since their inception. No lost files, no corrupt files, no strange files, and no problems with version conflicts. It's just... solid.
Perhaps the frontpage could be filtered per account. In other words, if HN shows me the same article on the front page for the 3rd time and I don't click it, I probably don't care, so it could use that slot to show me something new.
The last time I recall the metaphor of the slow, lumbering giant turning around to - at long last - deliver the dreaded fatal blow was when the internet appeared and they eventually responded by delivering enough versions of IE (culminating in version 7) to dominate the market for web browsers.

In order to do so, they had to leverage the ubiquity of their desktop operating system, which they then used to lock in web developers to a broken implementation (a pain that we're still feeling to day every time we need to ensure stuff works in IE6) so they they could further solidify the dominance of Windows, which has has always been their one, true, and unwavering goal: "Windows Everywhere".

How could they do this with phones & tablets? It's not like they can just bundle a phone or tablet with every desktop PC that gets sold, thereby leveraging their existing channel like they did with IE.
Interview: Marcin Wichary (Google Pacman Logo, HTML5 Slide Deck) [Interview]
I'm the writer of the post: I have to ask for forgiveness if someone read it and found some odd white lines breaking the post over. I just went to change a misspelled word, and the new blogger's editor went in the way... I hope it is fixed by now. Thanks for stopping by!
Apple's in-ear phones are indeed vastly better than the default earbuds -- in fact, they compare favourably with similarly-priced offerings from Shure and Etymotic, and are competitive on price.

I suspect Apple's standard "free" earbuds are actually deliberately bad because they're intended to upsell the customer on a better pair of earphones -- and a customer who's buying in an Apple store will of course be exposed to Apple's in-ear phones as a possible upgrade.

(Full disclosure: I use a pair of Ultimate Ears TripleFi 10's which kick the shit out of the Apple ear canal phones ... on the other hand, they're a lot more expensive. In the sub-$100 earphone range, the Apple in-ear phones are fine.)
My brother in law works at apple, he says that the in_ear headsets are terrible plus twice the cost...
> When I am on FB too much, I sometimes get the feeling I am looking through a window at social scenes in which I am conspicuously absent.

Absolutely. You get the distinct feeling that you are watching other people enjoying life instead of actually having fun in your own life. In the times I am on FB too much, I know, at some level, that I'm looking to connect more meaningfully with people. But I'm confusing knowing about someone with having a relationship with that person. It's like pornography for the shy. And, just like pornography, it also feels so...empty. There's a certain social code that prohibits you from simply striking up conversation randomly with "friends" on a status update. I mean, you can, but it is risky.

Facebook is vanity, pure and simple. It is your personal PR machine. Ideas are not valued as they are, they're always filtered by what your "friends" think of you. More anonymous sites, such as HN, fare better in this regard. The demographics of the users also have a huge effect. FB will be abuzz with something like football teams winning/losing, but few will put up anything you wouldn't find on a generic, boring web portal, such as MSN. The "Like" feature only reinforces this lowest common denominator conformity.

I regularly question my use of the site. In subsequent stages of life I can easily see myself not having an account at all. I can only hope their walled garden approach fails somehow, because my generation is not smart enough to wake up from the always-connected narcotic that is web 2.0.
I don't know how much panicking Apple would do; Jobs and Ellison are good buddies.
Anecdotal : move to a really far away country (the remote outskirts of Indonesia, in my case, but I imagine the highlands of Cameroon or tea plantations in Eastern Bhutan would work just as well), bring nothing but your father's (!) old children's books (on account of which I know to this day that to operate a home built radio receiver one must "scratch" at a "crystal" until one gets a "signal") and wait what happens). While there is enough to do there in the way of outdoors-y activities ("let's climb that there volcano!"), intellectual stimulation will have to come not from the internet, computer games or even television (you would not believe how little worthwhile there is to see on television channels aimed at the remote parts of third world countries) but from good old fashioned books. As a result, if you (that would be me) have been subjected to such a regimen in your childhood, you will always, always, continue to hold good old fashioned books as belonging to a quite, quite dear portion of your heart.

To make it a little less anecdotal, by the way, I've seen a similar love of books in others who have grown up in this way.
Hide your kids, hide your wife http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlZOfHCpFFs
I Had No Idea a Ctrl-Alt-Del Button Was So Ridiculous
America's Best Young Entrepreneurs: Aged 25 and Under
How are software patents different than non-software patents? It seems to me we should encourage the USPTO to stop issuing silly patents, software or otherwise. Or we should resist all patents. But, if a patent system is a worthwhile thing for a society to have, then software patents are as legitimate as any other.
Well, they are charging up to 10 times the regular price for worthless domains. The guy could have registered the domain names himself and would probably want to go through his existing registrar and would definitely get a better deal if he added domains to the DNS hosting service he is already using.

Also, you apply for a trademark through the government in the countries you operate. Although, I think they are supposedly selling a service akin to AOL keywords. I doubt it exists, but every person to be redirected by keyword would need a specially configured browser or custom DNS lookup servers provided by their ISP.

If you sign up for their service, you've already been scammed, and once you are involved with them, they probably have other ways to extort money out of you. I doubt you will ever have secure ownership and control of the domains.
While I was working at IBM (in California), I tried to get clearance for one of my personal projects [1], the IBM lawyer had this to say:

"No, according to California Labor Code 2870, even if you use your own time/equipment, your project still belongs to IBM if your project relates to IBM's business, or actual or demonstrably anticipated research or development.

So if you think that your project is not close to anything that IBM is or will be involved in, you can tell your manager about it, and if they agree with your assessment, then you can tell me your project and I will try to get it cleared for you. In my experience though, it is hard to get clearance because IBM is involved in practically everything, esp. in the software field."

My manager was ok with it, but the IBM lawyers wouldn't clear it. I doubt they would have pursued any legal actions if I continued working on it, but I figured I'd rather not chance it and let it go.

[1] It was a FOSS Firefox add-on called Map+. IBM had a team somewhere that worked on Firefox add-ons, so even though I wasn't on, near, or had access to that team, it was a no go.
Acceptance is the first step towards wholeness.
Thanks for the vote Ixiaus. I knew I didn't say anything new, but it was also intended as a reminder for myself (I usually write longer posts, and try to 'say more', but I don't succeed always). I always struggle to get working on my fundamentals right, even if it is the right thing.
You're spot on in that we're in a system that is seeking equilibrium.

Both extremes are really bad, so let's work on things that determine where the line between being a caveman and being a Borg is. It's fine if people want to set their own boundaries, but we shouldn't let the system itself determine where they are. Nor should we let societal pressure. Nor should we let commercial businesses hacking the limbic system just so they can make a buck.

One could make the case that biological entities aren't really very interesting or significant in the universe, that until you find the balance and evolve into some kind of symbiotic being you're really just so much carbon-based noise. Don't know if I'd go that far, but it's a fascinating thought.
Thanks! The application is actually written in Java and uses Swing.

Not the sexiest thing to use, but Swing is very customizable, and I wanted to ensure that it was cross-platform from the get go. In addition to that, we also have an ActionScript-based player/engine and invoke the Flex SDK to compile auto-generated AS3 source into a SWF.

The app also communicates with a server-side webapp to provide the resource sharing, so we've got a little bit of everything in our technology stack. ;)
Definitely agree that Quickbooks is the standard to beat. We (Profitably.com) just launched small business analytics that work on top of Quickbooks, and we keep hearing that lots of owners feel more comfortable with a well-established accounting suite. What other pain points are there for you? What would make that easier?
I can't say enough good things about Dropbox. Cross-platform, fast, easy... the little guy just works.
I've been under the impression that despite being advertised as such, I've never actually had unlimited data with my plan on Verizon. Been limited to 5GB.
I do not recommend the Apple in-ear ones. I got a pair of $15 in-ear headphones that sound much, much beter (compared to the $70 for the Apple set). The Apple pair sounded tinny, which for the price really isn't worth it.

Now to find ones that sound good but have a mic+remote...

edit: them cheap earbuds that sounded better IMO - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000I68BD4/
I agree with you that Facebook usage patterns do not follow a power law, but he doesn't imply that all of Facebook's 500M users are directly connected to the superuser group. He doesn't rule out the possibility that many users won't derive value from the them. There could only be 100,000 superusers (although this strikes be as an obscenely low estimate too) but have only a subset of Facebook's engage with their content.
TarSnap if you like security, are comfortable with the commandline, and want to write your own automation scripts...
+100

This also applies to the 'entrepreneurs' who hang around, wanting to make it big but lacking any ideas about anything useful they could do.
Vacuum Burglars: sucking 500,000 euros straight out of a supermarket
I think the idea of an atheist becoming religious is unlikely to happen.
What's brilliant about just making up a bunch of stuff?

"This phone has a 50mp camera, built in cinema-quality projector, Blu-Ray player, and 1TB storage. As well as an insulin monitor, sink, and magic pony."
Video: DIY Coilgun Turns Voltage into Kilojoule Projectile Power
Most excellent solution.
We are making web browser aware of gestures (http://api.alii.tv/, http://pprevolution.com). For now it is still a plugin based technology (only works on Windows and Mac), but we do plan to leverage Native Client to make it more accessible.
http://www.java-tv.com/2010/06/29/funky-java-objective-scala...
Why is this here at all?
Yes, I've noticed that it is harder to get things on the front page.

I've recently submitted a few links that I thought were HN worthy but they barely got any notice if at all.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1714743
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1696933
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1714334

Perhaps they're not interesting or maybe with the current system more things are getting overlooked and lost. Don't know.

Usually, I tend to only look at what's on the New page when I submit something (since it automatically redirects you there). So, I'm as guilty as the rest. However, at that time, I'll check out the other posts and upvote other submissions that I consider quality material.

I probably need to spend more time looking at the New page than the front page to help with keeping the quality up.
Whatever the motivation, this is a good thing and I think we should isolate this action of charity from a movie.
Notice how he admits that the group is guilty of bitching about deal structures with entrepreneurs, while drawing attention away from the greater crime of collusion. My thought is that this is an attempt to draw attention away from the real crime here by throwing up more distraction.
This actually puts out a mildly confusing picture. Rubinius uses LLVM to implement the JIT compiler only. LLVM does not provide a performant interpreter, and even if it did, the instructions in LLVM are incredibly lowlevel which would mean even lower performance. For this reason, Rubinius also has a bytecode interpreter, of which the bytecodes are highlevel and associated directly with ruby semantics (send, push_const, etc).
Actually this is the biggest problem that the internet faces now. The number of quality signals that people send is much less than the amount of content that's out there -- one consequence is that it's easy to "game the system."

Hardly anybody is viewing "new" queues, making links to interesting web pages, or otherwise doing the work to discover what's new and good. They make it too easy for spammers and voting rings to do their evil work.

Also there's a general "burnout" effect that happens in social media -- if a particular forum isn't all that excited in your content, you'll find that it gradually gets less and less traffic because people see your URL or your name and decide to move on to the next thing. This can be overcome with real or imaginary 'social proof' (lots 'o votes) but then you get into the fact that the populations of people who are looking at the "new" queue and looking at the front page are entirely different.
Would it really?

Since the signal:noise ratio on the /new page is pretty darn good right now, I don't think that featuring one of the new submissions on the homepage would change that much.

Also: this proposal would only lead to more impressions for the spammer if the homepage received more than 30x the traffic of the new submissions page. That may be the case, but how would a spammer know that?
> "boys who are shunned at school"

Oh boy, where to begin? OK, let's get the kids the video games and let them watch the TV shows. Hopefully they are wearing the right jeans. That's OK, we'll buy those too. Hopefully they have the right hair style. That's cool, there's a Hair Cuttery right down the road. Hopefully they are good at sports. That's OK, we can hire a personal trainer. Hopefully they are not too ugly because all of this other stuff will be moot.
Shove that idea straight up where it came from
Machines that can daydream and free associate...
Load random new stories on the homepage (top 2 or 3 spots) with markup that makes it clear that this is a new story
Things such as community websites almost always "fail". Esp from the perspective of early adopters. At time passes and things grow they change, their "goals" change, their "community" changes. These changes are often seen as failures of the original "vision" believed to have existed by each "generation" of users.

But, yelling fail from asp.net is hilarious as ASP is almost guaranteed to fail when MS needs some revenue or market leverage and gets everyone to dump ASP/.net dev stack for MS's latest "greatest" acronym.
Try looking at the newpage with 'showdead' set to 'on'.

Right now I count 8 'dead' links, but it's not rare at all (especially when it's quiet) to see 15 or more.
Despite the string of successes mentioned, MSFT is still in need of a breakaway hit to translate to shareholder value.

The successes mentioned (outside of Windows 7) barely show up on the MSFT revenue chart:

http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-microsoft-op...
I believe they reserve the right to delete your content (on their side) for their free service level. Another current problem is the lack of group drop-boxes. A dropbox can be shared, but each consumer's dropbox limit is affected by the shared-data size. So a group that wanted to share a dropbox would need one dropbox master account and a same-sized account for each user.
It was clever at first but they definitely got carried away.
LOL: Enough said.
How Did One Man Contaminate Half a Billion Eggs, and Why Wasn't He Stopped?
$2 million for Khan Academy is one of the best investments for improving education ever made.
Some good points, but I think you're exaggerating.

First of all, just wading through the out of office, change of address, and bounces probably costs 10-20 cents each.

Just like spam, if it's costing you 10-20 cents to filter out these emails, you're doing it wrong. A well-trained bayesian system would probably correctly identify 99.9% of these emails. Sure, you might miss .1%, but you're missing 100% now.

But answering a real customer email with a real person probably costs $5-$20 depending on the kind of company you are.

And if this is the case, you're also doing it wrong. First of all, probably less than 1% of people are going to respond to these emails, especially things like order and shipping confirmations. Of those that do respond (and assuming you've already filtered out-of-office, bounces, etc), you can probably put the rest into one of three buckets:

1. Emails where no response is required
2. Emails where a simple canned response is sufficient
3. Emails that require some kind of action or lenghty response

I'm willing to bet that the majority of emails would fall into bucket #2. The best way to handle this would be a system where the CS agents can see the email and select a pre-defined response with a single click. This is going to cost you almost nothing. Again, bayesian systems would help with suggested responses. Canned responses aren't ideal, but they're better than nothing, and they come from an actual human being who can deal with further messages if needed.

Responses to emails in category #3 are where you're right: it would cost $5 - 20 to handle. However, these are customers who need real customer service. Your proposed alternative is to bounce their messages and leave them frustrated. That's exactly what we're trying to avoid.

Finally, even if Facebook does make $2 / customer, losing a customer costs them more than $2.

PS - Your point about monopolies and legally-required notifications is a good one, though more as an example of why government-sponsored monopolies and arduous regulations are bad ideas.
ARM is really ubiquitous in any device that isn't big iron or a personal computer, so you can bet the FTC would be all over any attempt at purchasing ARM Holdings, no matter who is buying.

I think the only reason we haven't seen serious antitrust litigation against ARMH is because they're very good about licensing all the technology they produce to anyone that can pay and generally avoiding anti-competitive behavior. The FTC is going to be very nervous about that liberal licensing scheme going away if someone does purchase ARMH.
Encrypt it, individually or with a loopback filesystem.

I keep my password safe file on DropBox. The rest of my stuff, personal, confidential. I don't bother encrypting as the loss of connivence is greater than the risk/cost of exposure.
They're still not in the same category. AMD designs chips that are fabbed by GF. ARM designs cores, then hands them off to TI/Nvidia/Samsung/etc. to design into chips, which are then fabbed by yet another company.
To be taken like that once, I can see that but multiple times is a bit stupid.
i had to laugh when he mentioned Christie as his inspiration, since he was the one who took a huge chunk out of the education budget.

Frankly, that money(well it's $100mm in facebook stock) would have been better spent on Donors Choose. At least, then you'd know the money was going directly to the teachers.
if you are concerned about security, you can use tarsnap. http://www.tarsnap.com/ .I don't think it is as user friendly as dropbox
What is the difference between ww and something like justin.tv?

I am fairly addicted to ww(particularly, the pet deer).
There's also MultipleIEs (http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE) -- I have it installed on a VirtualBox to run IE6 beside IE8. I mostly use it to test jQuery/JavaScript code and it suffices.
People often say "I could do that" when seeing a Jackson Pollock painting. The key is they didn't, Pollock did. Hindsight is 20/20 and skills in executing are a dime a dozen. I'd be willing to be the vast majority of HN users could have coded up Youtube Instant. The differentiator is Feross actually did it.
how about for the first page display a random subset of N pages worth of new submits, for a small N? Nobody scrolls past N pages anyway.
Two reasons, both invalid but sympathizable:

1) Everyone else is buying DS's for their kids. I almost feel like I'm judging people to not get one for our kids.

2) Parenting in America is playing defense, reacting to kids boredom, whining, and manipulating. Defense only lasts so long before surrender.
Myself, and very rarely for customers, usually long time friends that need helping out in stuff that I'm comfortable with (backend).

I love optimizing code and fixing things, front end stuff brings out the worst bouts of procrastination imaginable.
There are a LOT of ARM processors in use. It would be interesting how much money ARM gets from the smartphone use compared how much it gets from all the other applications.
> "One obvious problem with the SweetFarts philosophy of education is that it is more suited to producing a generation of barbarians and morons than to raising the sort of men who make good husbands, fathers and professionals. If you keep meeting a boy where he is, he doesn't go very far."

> "Whom would you prefer to have shaped the boyhood imagination of your daughter's husband—Raymond Bean or Robert Louis Stevenson?"

I'm surprised how the article emphasizes being a 'good husband'. What if it said "good wives, mothers and professionals"?