skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
HTML Email Format Testing and Previews
User coondoggie's only activity on HN is posting large numbers of links to networkworld.com, about one per day. If their scores are anything to judge by, this is not found very helpful by the HN community. They pretty much all seem to be low-added-value articles, each summarizing content found on another page somewhere. (HN FAQ: "Please submit the original source. If a blog post reports on something they found on another site, submit the latter.") I guess coondoggie = Michael Cooney, the author of all those articles.

All of which seems rather unhelpful. Although the individual articles themselves don't seem to me to warrant flagging, I'm flagging the most recent 10. This comment is here mostly in case some HN deity is curious and goes looking to see why I did it :-).
Yes, they do. Sometimes they'll even spark when they're just sitting there with something plugged in.

There is a mechanical/electrical machining process called spark erosion aka electrical discharge machining. Every time you have a spark a tiny bit of the metal of both contacts evaporates. Of course that's when you want it to happen, in sockets with plugged in loads you really don't want it to happen.

Over time this process accelerates and it has been the cause of many house fires in the US.

The fact that such sockets are placed in walls made of mostly wood placed right next to an upright stud does not help either.

Sometimes they're so bad you can actually smell the ozone.
It's been a while since I lurked on 9fans (after all the late adopting minimalist tiling window manager fanboys started coming in in droves), so I can't give you any links to recent comparisons.

First of all, the comparison would be pretty unscientific if you include all the different variables. So let's say you want to test common server performance, then you'd probably do something like an apache bench for a web server. Now comes the problem: Apart from the kernel issues (memory management, ethernet driver, scheduling), you'll have different web servers, compiled with different C compilers.

The GCC port for Plan 9 is ancient, and I'm not aware that e.g. Apache is running on it.

Yes, you can simply test page loads/second with any technology available to any platform, and if you buy into the fact that everything you're doing is wrong (so not just Plan 9 vs Linux, but also gcc vs. 8c, apache vs pegasus etc.), well…
I'm still unconvinced.. the way overloading usually causes fires is heating cables till they short and cause sparks/fire. But that is by the by, my main issues:

If all of the mini-sockets are low rated there is no danger, because of how the socket is set up, if you use the other socket for something with a big draw (i.e. if you have a dual socket and plug one of these into it next to something with a big load it will not overload it).

If you overload this device or the socket it will trip the circuit breaker. Same as if you plug all the devices into different sockets on the main.

Heat is unlikely to be an issue, even with contact resistance it is related to the device it is powering - and I contend that this is not a plug you would use, rate, recommend or legally allow for high power devices. If you're powering three laptops it works out to about 1W for the whole device (rember, while the cable goes to each socket the pins are part of the device circuit, the parallel branch, not the main series).
Don't forget 95% functionality to programmers :)
I think this is a very extreme case, but it’s interesting how the logo in this case becomes more of a concept than an actual design. Indeed if I asked you to draw the batman logo most people would probably design a different one because there isn’t only one.
Going from free to charging for a real estate listings web site
I wanted to get the Hacker News' opinion on transitioning my web site from free to non-free

I've got a small real estate listings web site based in a large city in South America we provide sales / rental leads to the agents.

I've been trying to comercialize / monetize it over the last 18 months through tertiary services (finance, insurance, appraisal leads) - without much success.

To be honest the commercial day to day operations (dealing with real estate agents) aspect of the site is not something that really stimulates me.
I'm interested in the development of the site and the strategy and tactics that drive that development to improve our standing amongst our competitors.

I've had to put much of the day to day development of the site on hold, which is starting to show - as the site is now looking very dated and the enjoyment I get from doing the site is diminished.

I'm coming to the conclusion that the best way to monetize the site and allow me to focus more on the technology and the core utility of the site, would be simply to charge the real estate agents directly for the use of the site. Up until now the use of the site has been completely free.

Some stats:

monthly uniques: ~ 600k
number of agents actively using the site: ~ 1.2k
monthly new listings: ~ 7k
monthly leads: ~ 60k

We're roughly number three in the market in this city, the other two players are owned by large national media companies. I've got two full time employees. I've been told that many agents use our site because we're the free option.

Competition - these I've split into three categories:
Agregators: Trovit, Mitula, many others.
Classified Ad Sites: Vivavisos, OLX, Craigslist, many others
Direct competitors: We're about number 3 in our market the other two are owned by large national media companies. # 1 has over double the traffic that we have and #2 has about 800k uniques. Our competitors charge a subscription and then extra for prioritized listings, their subscriptions start at roughly $80

My question is what is the best way of doing this? Specifically:
What factors should I be taking into account, to minimize loss of users, agents and maximize revenue:
- How to minimize Loss of agents => Loss of listings => Loss of utility of the site / Loss of SEO traction
- Communication of the transition. Several months in advance. explanations, surveys etc
- Structure of the charging / Stratifying the payment structure according to number of listings / Number of leads
- Billing Strategies, most people in this country are uncomfortable using credit cards online so we're looking at systems for printing off cupons and going to a "bill shop"
- We also provide the service to individuals, what should we do with this aspect of our user-base, given that I'm proposing to charge the agents.

I'd be really interested to hear from anyone who has had experience either directly or through investments with this type of situation even more so if it's in an industry with a similar structure (commercial agents of some kind).

Cheers
Simon B
Ask HN: Code for America
Would you do it? Do you think it's worth the 11 months and 35k USD stipend?

http://codeforamerica.org/
I think the problem is they didn't ship a browser based on WebKit, and from what I can see in my testing, it doesn't necessarily try to be WebKit-like in its rendering.

This means that website owners who have already written advanced web interfaces for the mobile browsers on iOS, Android, and BB 6.0 will have to re-engineer their code base for WP7. That probably isn't going to happen until Microsoft establishes an impressive user base.
Clickable: http://codeforamerica.org/
This one fails for the simple reason that URL's are stored in the browser history. So now if you don't clear your history then anyone using the same browser after you finish logging in with your "unique" url simply has to open the history to get your credentials.
Um, isn't that the point?
Mastercard's logo has gone through a number of iterations. But the red and orange spheres remain and are easily recognizable.
After 15 minutes of jogging or so, I just go into autopilot mode so I can concentrate on other thoughts and problems.
No contest, American plugs are under-designed.

The fuses in these devices can do whatever the one in the wall does, how can we tell by looking how it works?

As for moving parts, I wonder how that interlock in the wall-plate works. Also, seems like my two-year-old can stick a fork into the ground pin just as easily as any other. And current flows thru the ground, yes, that's why its called a circuit.

Dangerous - yes, if not keyed. That's kind of a cool idea, if its not easily defeatable like the ground on 3-prong cords in the US- they actually sell adapters in every hardware store that simply ignore the ground!
There are several ways to update programs on Windows without needing admin rights:

- You could do it as Chrome does and have a per-user install. I don't think Mozilla wants to do this.

- You could install a service or a scheduled task to do the work for you.

- MSI updates can be installed without admin rights if they're Authenticode signed, and Mozilla does have a valid Authenticode digital certificate.
MS with IE6 had a cavalier, take-it-or-leave-it approach to features/standards and sought to subvert/control the web/web browser-market.

MS with IE8 (an IE9) are actually trying to make their browser standards compliant and while we might not like the pace of the behemoth, it's moving in the right direction and this is a good thing.

2010 is a much different landscape than 2005 as far as the browser market goes as well; MS/IE are no longer the dominant juggernaut that can attempt to dictate standards.

More than anything IE releases are tied to MS's OS releases - IE8 has become the largest slice of the IE pie because of Win7, not because of features or any push by MS. As MS increases their release cycle of both browsers and more importantly, OS's, the likelihood of a IE6 repeat with IE8 is extremely thin. MS can't sit around on any version of a major product like they did with both XP and IE6.
I've gone through an 'alternative operating system' phase at some point and played around with all kinds of them.

I don't even think minix is a micro-kernel (Tanenbaum thinks it is), but QnX definitely is the real deal.

There are some very interesting concepts in Plan 9 that linux could have taken advantage of though.
I see the biggest problem being SEO. How can you guarantee top placement (as your example shows) in search results?
No tradeoff needed. Let me try it with fake data without registering. Which is exactly what I planned to do. Until faced with the registration page, whereupon I fled like the morning dew.
Gotta remember that pricing is the hardest part of running a SAAS business. More often than not, you're going to get it wrong the first time, and maybe even the second time.

As much as Chargify's new prices are a turnoff, I understand their reasoning. I also understand the outrage. Any uptick in pricing is going to result in unhappy chatter on the Internets.

As someone working on a SAAS project, I'm doubly interested in this news.

1 - for keeping an eye on the competitive landscape for companies like Chargify and Spreedly.

2 - for looking at the side effects of pricing changes and the negative marketing impact

I have this feeling that when I finally release my product, I should price it slightly higher than my gut tells me to ensure that I reduce the risk of any price hike negativity resulting from unforeseen operating costs.
VirtualBox Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat Repository
Ryan's talks change the way I work. Glad to learn all these at the early stage of my career.
Totally understand the reasons not to offer this, but we feel it is pretty important the ability to call your billing provider 24/7 and talk to someone as well as a NOC that is staffed 24/7 monitoring all systems. Collecting money is what makes a business work, sending an email that someone might get to the next day just is not good enough for us.
And another, which is the most exciting to me: http://about.me
How 23andMe saved my wife
Tom Mitchell is on a roll. He also got press for the fMRI mind reader: http://singularityhub.com/2009/04/24/devices-that-read-peopl...
In Defense of Chargify
What I just discovered recently that has made all the difference is: Keep your feet flat on the floor. It makes it much easier to sit up straight; or, perhaps, sticking your feet out in front of you or tucking them under your chair makes it much easier to slouch.
Thanks for the feedback. What could be done, in your opinion, to make it less obtrusive?
I'm Homeless And This Is Why I Have An iPad
Naming is in sequence alphabetically and there is a release every 6 months. Maverick Meerkat was released recently. A B C D E F G H I J K L M... so that means... (13-6 releases) * (6 months/1 release) * (1 year/12 months) = 3.5 years
I like the pdf; they should run this program at the Chinese university I'm at. It'd be a complete graph. :)
The decline of travel agents overlaps closely with the rise of Yoga studios. Mid-skill retail entrepreneurs will find a way to keep busy.

Not only that, but they probably enjoy their job a lot more.

I've never taught Yoga, but I have taught martial arts [1]. It's far more enjoyable than booking airline tickets on a computer, and I'll bet money that teaching Yoga is as well.

[1] Only to total beginners, I'm entry level myself.
> How much time are you planning on spending worrying about whether or not you'll be invaded by barbarians today?

That seems to be a primary concern of the Arizona state legislature: http://www.google.com/search?q=arizona+sb+1070
Right you are; thanks for the quick correction.
It's extremely common for identity rules like that to exist for a company. In my experience a company hires a hotshot, really kick ass design firm to design their identity and branding. And the end result is pretty much a tome of rules and examples on how the branding can be used in just about every conceivable situation. From there the internal design teams take it and utilize it.
Jobless America threatens to bring us all down with it
A bit of both?

I really don't rate the Android logo. To me it seems to be saying: this phone is the domain of geeks, and it has no heart.

(Note: I count myself as a geek -- it just seems like a rather limiting brand statement).
> "Go [rising intonation]"

That would be "Go?"

I think you want: "Go [FALLING intonation]".
Apple Vs. Microsoft? What Would Warren Buffet Buy Right Now?
I don't think that Apache would start porting existing projects, but do you think that there will be many new ones? Or how many existing projects will have any significant effort put behind them?

Imagine, if you will, that there were no Apache. What would the Java landscape look like today? If Java at Apache flounders, the platform as a whole will also diminish. Java has thrived for so long in a Microsoft dominated world thanks largely to third-party open source efforts. If a (the?) major contributor of open source code in Java goes away, which direction do you think Java will go? "Thriving community" is not how I see this turning out.
For all we know it could be running on an Ubuntu server using Mono. They had Miguel DeIcaza on their podcast once and said they would make sure it can run on Linux too.
Why do you think Google picked Java in the first place (and not a "really" open language like C++, Javascript, or Python)? To appeal to as many developers as possible on Day 1.

Further, Google as a company seems to have drunk the Java Kool-Aid (e.g., Closure compiler is written in Java, GWT uses Java as source language, and I hear Java is one of the three "blessed" languages (others being C++ and Python)). Personally, I think C++ would have been a better choice for the first project, and Python for the second one.

It's highly unlikely they're going to stop using Java on Android.
Yeah, it seem they donated the theme, too.
Ask HN: CouchDB... database of the web or not?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of backing my website with CouchDB? CouchDB and other document-oriented databases have been touted as databases of the web in the future, but I've hardly seen (or know of) websites powered by it.
Banned in Iran
Don't Get Duped by LinkedIn Spam Scam
> the fuses in these devices can do whatever the one in the wall does, how can we tell by looking how it works?

Based on this image:

http://www.iconeye.com/images/news_july_09/choi_uk_folding_p...

The contacts on one socket protrude in to the next. Which is also the most logical thing to do (otherwise it gets too thick). So no fuses between sockets, just three wires 'down' towards the consumer one of which is fused (the little red tab on the left).
Peter Arnell: Pepsi Logo is “Bullshit”; Tropicana Is “Not My Brand …"
they use a ceiling/pedestal fan to circulate the air. ACs are too expensive to own and operate.
Its my understanding that their electrical outlets are designed similar to a token ring network setup.

That uses way less cabling than any other network.
Not to mention the fact that the button to delete an entire "conversation" is relatively big, and right at the top of the working area, while the control for deleting one message in a conversation-- a far more common operation-- is buried in a pull-down menu.
Why are the keyboard scan codes for digits off by one?
Better way to comment.. code it.
I don't think it's fair to characterize that as the "new tactic." Liberals were complaining that it wasn't enough while and ever since the Recovery Act was passed. Krugman himself was yelling pretty loudly about it, cite: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/06/stimulus-arithme... At the time, liberals were advocating a $1-2 trillion stimulus made up primarily of government spending, which is obviously not remotely what we got.

Funding safety net programs is not really a "misuse of funds;" it was built into the legislation. (Maybe it's a poor use of funds, but that's Congress's fault more than the White House's.)

If you want specifics on how money was distributed, just go to the source: http://www.recovery.gov/ It looks like a bit more than a third of the money allocated actually went toward "contracts, grants, and loans," which is the category that one would expect to be creating jobs.
Some Great Tips on How to Stop Smoking
Simple Winter Skin Care Tips
Minecraft creator earns $350K in one day
Very similar concept to Borge's short story The Library of Babel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Library_of_Babel
Australian plugs carry 15A at 240V and are nowhere near as horrible.
Probably reddit. It's hard to find any thread on a front page subject that doesn't have a pun sub-thread.
Still- there's nothing really stopping an artist from getting a publishing company (for commercial deals), and joining a performing right society like BMI, ASCAP, etc... which takes care of licensing and such for radio.
OkTrends: Gay Sex vs. Straight Sex
What the great HIT companies can teach us about starting a startup.
The difference between him and you, if I can make the generalization, you spend like a north-Indian, he spends like a south Indian.
My problem with this design is that it doesn't provide coverage for the pins making it less safe. A similar design which included the shield but tilted the pins could retain most of the safety characteristics of the standard design without being vulnerable to (say) kids sticking fingers near partially inserted pins.
things that will get you downvoted include statements like "wtf, you apparently don't know..."

1) impolite.
2) your comments should concentrate on what you can add to the convo, not what others haven't.

I mean, it also doesn't help that your statement was incorrect (P-system as mentioned), but being rude in what is ideally a civil forum dedicated to a stated purpose is not helpful.
Just off the top of my head - putting a link next to each feature is cumbersome and messes with my design. Is there a better way? Maybe work it into good error catching system. Provide a way to have the report a problem thing show up on an error page of some kind.
Maybe it's not too obtrusive. I can't sit around at work and watch full videos (especially one with lots of random stops). So I tried to make some guesses about the toolbar.

One thing I would certainly do is get some audio in the video and remove the pauses.
I ran into Acorn installed on some digital cable set-top boxes I was working on reverse engineering a few years ago. Very impressive that your friend is still composing using such an ancient machine.
I've seen first hand how someone can be falsely accused of plagiarism because they had a solution that just happened to be similar to another student's solution. Two high school friends in my CS program had learned programming together and had a very similar coding style. They were put in the difficult position of having to prove a negative -- that they didn't cheat -- before an ethics commmittee.

Anyway, seems a bit unfair to post these usernames publicly.

(That said, the people defending their actions with phrases like "working together" and "helping each other" probably need to reread their department ethics policy)
The L+N pins are insulated half way down so you can't touch any metal part that is in contact with the supply.
The supply terminals are also covered by shutters so you can't put anything in them when there is no plug in the wall.
I didnt say it sucks, or that there must be something wrong with it

Actually you did, almost word for word: "there must be something wrong in there" :)
> I love Excel and wish more people would actually spend the time to learn the nuts and bolts behind it. Most people think of it as a band-aid solution used by people who don't know databases

Excel is a powerful tool and it is super useful when you use it within its domain.

At the same time it is used as a band-aid solution by those who don't know how to use a database. I recently had a fellow employee come and ask me if I knew how to expand excel beyond the 70,000 row limit. After asking him a few questions I came to the conclusion that his issue was not that excel doesn't support more than 70,000 rows but he needed a database and wasn't using one.
Know Your Brand: Stephen Hawking
You may want to check your use of apostrophes.

For example, "to let" means "to allow": "The product lets you do stuff."

The word "let's" means "let us": "Let's install this today!"

To build trust, grammar and spelling should be impeccable.
And don't forget OpenJDK derivatives are only patent-proof for patents owned by Sun at the time of its licensing.
As opposed to now? I couldn't find a good article to link, but I think it's relatively common knowledge at this point that for a while now money has been flowing from the middle classes into the coffers of the rich. I recall reading that the top 1% have 4 times as much wealth as they had 30 years ago.
The Worst Parts of Meatspace
It depends on the founders' perspectives.

Not all large companies are like Google. Any acquiring company would probably lock in the founders for ages.

The mind numbing bureaucracy and command-control type of management that is part and parcel of being in a large company are not ideal environment for entrepreneurs.
Enterprise Linux rises rapidly:New Report
Facebook page takedowns require no verification and have no appeal process (?)
I find infrographics like this fascinating, anyone know what app this was made in?
Most people will see it as C++ with a somewhat nicer syntax. That does not provide a lot of incentive to switch to D. You need more than marginal benefits to cause a huge shift.

Additionally, it doesn't help that D is torn. There used to be the Phobos/Tango split, now there is yet another split: D1/D2. The second is definitely a more serious competitor to C++, but there is no up-to-date fully open source compiler available. Digital Mars's D2 compiler has a proprietary backend, gdc (a GCC frontend) is outdated, and ldc (LLVM frontend) does not have usable D2 support.

Oh, and if you want a 64-bit D2 compiler, even proprietary, you are out in the woods (yes, work has started).

Even the average Scheme compiler is in a more usable state ;).
How Facebook is using HTML5 today
The link is 404, I don't understand why aw3c2 was downvoted.
One Riot Ditches Realtime Search for Ad Network