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Right now wealthy white kids and low-income minorities are educated in pretty much the same way. It's a terrible system, but at least it's more or less equal. What Bill Gates et al. are advocating is creating a completely separate system for low-income minorities, with dramatically more hours spent in schools and away from parents/community. If that's something we want to have an open and intellectually honest debate about then I'm all for that once we have the data, but forcing this program on minorities in secret in bullshit.
I think Massive did the in-game ads for Burnout Paradise (the 360 version, at least)- they were fairly tastefully done. Not sure if it worked out for anyone involved, though.
I'm in. Working on a game that I've been dinking around with for the last few years. This should help motivate me to get it out there.

Has there been a decision on where to post status and communicate with other folks who are launching?
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I strongly disagree with the confirmation dialogs' Cancel button: confirmation dialogs are generally pointless and annoying. It's far better to provide a means of undoing.

On the other hand, Cancel buttons on configuration dialogs in non-web contexts are great: they relieve the stress burden of playing with settings. This is something that freaks me out every time I end up in System Preferences on OS X: I have no way to undo what I just did. I have to hunt around and fiddle to put things back the way they were. I much prefer the way Windows does it with OK and Cancel: opening up a dialog is like starting a transaction, and OK and Cancel become Commit and Rollback.
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I recommend everyone see this movie and decide for themselves.

If you don't want to see the movie but do want to learn more about the subject, see the long compilation of links about charter schools, teachers' unions, and bureaucratic fighting that characterizes the modern school system here: http://jseliger.com/2009/11/12/susan-engel-doesnt-get .

I originally started that post as a reply to a particular article, but as I kept coming across more and more information about how the system works, the bulleted list of links kept growing.

If you're pressed for time, read the first two: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/08/31/090831fa_fact_... and http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/12/15/081215fa_fact_... .
"Directly at odds with the KIPP administrators who have years of data and research to back up their work."

As of a year ago when Paul Tough's book came out all they had were standardized test scores. Not sure if there is any new research, but as far as I've seen there are no studies on longterm outcomes yet.

"How else do would they acquire the relevant data without actually implementing the schools?"

Ignoring the fact that the KIPP methodology is at odds with established research on what leads to good outcomes, I'd say that we should implement the schools. But we shouldn't force all schools to adopt this system until we know they work. It's not the schools that are a scam, it's the movement to spread the system throughout the country without properly validating it first.
Previously submitted: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1768989
All my web application's forms have onbeforeunload handlers that prevent you from accidentally navigating away from the page (including the back button) once you've started editing a long form. It's possible to continue to navigate away from the onbeforeunload dialog but the cancel button is a nicer way out. Every cancel button also has a confirmation on it so you can't accidentally cancel the form either.
I agree that the SAT doesn't really test intelligence or knowledge, per se, but a specialized skill set that you do receive from studying for the test. For whatever it's worth, I received a 2350 on my SAT, which is in the same margin as a 2400 (I actually only answered one question incorrectly in the entire test).
I think that groupon should work to build an alliance with yelp or that they should consider a merger. I personally don't use groupon and don't particularly like the discounts they offer (i've viewed their options pretty regularly because i'm cheap.)

Yelp would've been a great fit with groupon because they both focus on local niche markets. Yelp often allows clients to offer discounts if the customer mentions "yelp." A great way for yelp to monetize their huge market and crowd-sourced reviews would be to allow individual business develop groupon like mini promotions.

I wouldn't be surprised if this type of product would help generate an entirely new level of revenue for both companies.

Its ironic that neither company has thought of this.
because "beer" isn't a distraction factor but a boost of creativity.
Personally, I'm not against Cancel buttons in some cases for the simple reason that I'm not sure the site will work fine with the Back button on multi-page forms that are used for almost all payment transactions.

I also tend to use a Cancel button if there's one, or a navigation link to exit the process because I'll be sure to avoid a "resubmit POST values?" alert if I were to click 'Back'.
It's by and large not possible for the state to change the parenting practices of actual parents; if it were, the innumerable attempts from the Progressive era forward would have been successful. It's also not possible to make large-scale systemic reforms and changes of schools without somehow dealing with the problems of teachers' unions: if you don't somehow deal with the problem of teachers who aren't just bad, but who actively don't care or aren't learning how to teach better, the idea that you can effectively implement the kinds of changes you're talking about is improbable at best.

It says a lot about America that our most popular school reform movie is targeted at people who don't read books.

I read books and haven't watched the movie, but in effect if not intent you're arguing for the status quo. You can't change the status quo without changing the teachers' unions. You can't easily negotiate with them either, so charter schools are an imperfect but useful way of isolating the problem to the extent possible.
Would you mind explaining why it affected you so? What exactly are you thinking about? Are you trying to solve the issues it discusses?

I haven't seen it yet so I can't comment much (though I watched the NBC specials and have read quite a bit about it), however from my understanding it covers just a thin sliver of the real problems within our schools that have existed for some time already. In addition, I haven't heard that it offers much in terms of solutions, other than one that isn't especially exhaustive or touches anywhere near the root of the problems. Instead, it seems to shift power from one bureaucracy to another and shift teacher focus even further from student development and learning to surviving evaluations on the teacher and student fronts.

Anyway, the movie isn't out yet where I live but I am very curious to watch it and see if this is true for myself.

On another note, do you think we'll see a spike in Y Combinator funded education related startups as a result of this? :)
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Smartphones are remarkably similar. I can run Android on my older Windows Mobile phone with almost all the functions working (WiFi, phone, bluetooth, etc) because the hardware isn't vastly different. There are only a small number of mobile chipsets. Considering the huge variation of hardware a PC OS must handle, mobiles should be much easier.
Python is fairly conservative; as far as languages go, probably not the most interesting, which is exactly its charm.

I would group Python with Pike and Icon, as 2-week programming languages. It takes about 2-weeks of practice to start writing useful, sophisticated programs in them. Icon is the more interesting one of the three, it's a modern SNOBOL dialect with generators.
Have you tried Oakley gloves? Some are fairly waterproof (and yet breathe), and they seem durable and well fitting, at least to me.
Completely agree. While the cancel button might be useful, the reset button is such an invitation to disaster, I don't know why it was even invented.

If I spend time filling out a form, why would I want to clear it? If I make an error, I'll correct it - not start anew. When I see a "clear form" button nowadays it's a big red flag that the owner of the site is still stuck in the 90s usabilitywise.
Great way for Yahoo! to confirm what everyone else thinks about them. That they are lost.
I use Cancel buttons for pop-up forms all the time. It usually just hides the containing div, so re-opening the form will show the data as it was entered previously. Making the Submit button 2-3x longer than the Cancel button helps mitigate the risk of accidentally hitting the wrong thing.
Everyone: Please use <label> tags for the descriptions of your form fields. This is good for Fitt's law, accessibility, and semantics. Thanks!
Couldn't agree more. The cursor should be the default for an element unless you've overridden the default behaviour as well (for instance, when a plain-Jane hyperlink becomes an AJAX button, the script that overrode the link behaviour should also override the "pointer" cursor).
Yahoo physically reminds me of the comedic fool wandering about in a field of rakes, continually hitting himself in the face. Yet again, up comes the rake...
With OS X, every change is immediately visible so you immediately know what to undo. With Windows, nothing you change takes effect unless you click OK or Apply, at which point the Cancel button has no effect and there is no Rollback. How is this better than OS X? It just adds three superfluous buttons.
I'd argue, in an individual case: yes, in aggregate, you're subject to the common thought and culture of the group, which is open to change over time as outcomes present themselves.
If 50% of the people who try a new product decide to keep using it, how is that a bad thing?
I completely agree with reforming the unions. Ideally we would just eliminate them. The only problem is that will never happen because schools have a 100+ year history of being extremely abusive toward teachers. The unions prevent any real change for the better, but they also keep a lot of bad stuff out of school as well.
http://officialblog.yelp.com/2010/09/new-york-new-york-deals...
You can also team Firebug up with Yahoo's fantastic benchmarking utility YSlow.
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Doesn't make it less true today.
that fool had a net income of over $213M last quarter.

http://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ:YHOO&fstype=ii
No, didn't even made it out to beta. I don't know if that count as deadpooling though.
In her most recent interview (http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2010-10-08-bartz08_CV_N.ht...), Carol Bartz called Yahoo! "the largest media company in the world." What does local commerce have to do with media? Focus, Yahoo!, focus.
I know nothing about photography, but before I drop a couple hundred bucks on a camera I'm going to learn about it and compare its features to other models. I don't know much about cars either but I spend the time researching the details and making comparisons before I make that kind of purchase too. I'm not passionate about photography or cars but I am an informed consumer. I'd like to think that most people are the same.

The comments here are that version numbers are some insignificant detail that nobody cares about. I don't think the version of Android your phone runs is an esoteric detail -- it's pretty fundamental to the capability and enjoyment of the device. I'm not sure why people comparing Android phones to purchase wouldn't consider that a detail worth knowing about.

Now this is a recent development; it used to be that the latest phone in existence had the latest OS. You didn't have to think about it. But Google is pumping out Android versions very quickly and new phones can run anywhere from 1.6 to 2.2. So now it is a point of comparison where it might not have been for old Nokia phones.
Yes, I wouldn't made a custom UI only for Android just because the checkboxes have a bad design. I was just pointing out a pet peeve with the UI.

It looks like the action is checked, but you can't uncheck it because it has disabled colors.
If they downgrade from a DroidX to a Samsung Galaxy, and it sucks, are they going to blame the OS or the phone?

Put another way, are you more likely to hear "My phone sucks" or "This lower version number of the OS I was previously happy with sucks"?

The market will drum out the bad apples who try to leave their Android phones stuck at ancient versions.
It's simply not true that every change is immediately visible; only for appearance preferences is that the case. It isn't the same case for behaviour configuration.

It's hard to understand how uncomfortable it feels when you're used to having this safety net, and it's taken away. It makes changing the preferences (for most applications, not just System Preferences) a much more cautious affair, in my experience. Even something as simple as changing the default font used in an application - once changed, it can take a lot of hunting to get it back the way it was.
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I can't see yours either. (not sure if you had set one, though, could be a bug?)

I'll just throw it out then: andrus@epic.ee

Let me know which communication method would you prefer, so I can reply to you with Skype or MSN Live initials.
Talk to a broker. I've always used http://www.pacifichealthalliance.com/contact.html for personal and my previous startup's insurance needs

(I'm not making any affiliate or any profit from the above, I just know he's a good guy who understand tech startups)
Since you asked, I do tend to do very well on standardized tests. I actually did get a perfect score on that particular test. SAT scores are an excellent example to examine. The SATs are notoriously coachable, and there's an entire ecosystem around gaming the test. Last year alone, the industry took in over 4 billion dollars. I didn't get a perfect score my first try, but it wasn't a question of my understanding of the material. The questions I got wrong were "trick" questions, and all I did to get a perfect score the next time was buy the giant book of practice tests and do them every weekend, one by one, which helped me recognize the trick questions.
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The state may or may not be able to improve the parenting practices of actual parents, but it definitely can wage a decades long "war on drugs" that disproportionately ensnares the poor and minorities in the legal system and follows up on that by imposing disproportionately severe sentences on them. By doing so, it can help tilt the balance towards bad parenting in such communities by ensuring that more children in those communities only have a single custodial parent, at best.

But please, let's continue to act like we can solve the problem by demonizing the teachers unions.
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Well that depends on your level of expertise :-) I start to have unsolved problems around #60, but found I had to start getting pretty clever long before that. The highest number I've solved is 112, and the one before that is 102. YMMV.
Could you give examples of options that should need a second confirmation? I think the instantness and not having to Apply is great - but maybe I'm not setting the same options as you.
What if the user really want back? You just broke the back button and moved it's functionality to Cancel.
Count me in. How about we -200 rep everyone who doesn't deliver?
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I understand what you're saying, I'm just suggesting that your message might get more traction if you phrase it differently, or consider what his motivations might actually be. The guy has donated $1.5 billion to fund scholarships for minority students in the U.S., $750 million for vaccines in Africa, and many other initiatives that I can't remember right now. The idea that he is a white supremacist is laughable. He's practically Robin Hood - extracting wealth from mostly white, mostly corporate America via illegal means, in order to give it to minorities who are poor.

On an interesting side note, Steve Sailer has said something like what you're saying about this topic, although I imagine he's coming at it from a different angle than you: http://isteve.blogspot.com/2009/05/todays-universal-preschoo...
The unions are easy scapegoats, but as you point out, there is a reason they are what they are.

Let's also not forget that the good old days of American schooling depended on a society where slightly over half the population had severely limited opportunities in the workforce. Even with the unions, teachers wages were depressed, and the entire profession devalued because other careers and jobs weren't open to women.
If a change is not immediately visible, how would a Cancel button help? Preferences dialogs on Windows are modal, if a change is not visible you can't see the difference until you have committed the change. Especially so if a change requires a restart of the application or reboot of the OS, both of which would remove the Rollback button and the dialog it was attached to.

Also, the default font for an application is an appearance preference.
Which is exactly why the "don't optimize now" and/or "wait until you have users before you worry about capacity planning" crowd is simply clueless. You need to think about your data and how it will scale from day one!
Check out kaiser permanante.
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It doesn't matter that the tax takes effect in 2018. The "premium" plans are increasing their costs as soon as next year in anticipation of that eventual reality. Companies which have open enrollment coming up soon are seeing these increased costs and dropping plans or reevaluating the type of coverage they offer.
oops meant http://www.fantasymonsterapp.com
On a Windows 7 system, right-click the desktop and select Personalize. Here, you can change the desktop background and window colour theme; changes are previewed instantaneously. But there are two buttons at the bottom: "Save changes" and "Cancel". So you can muck about with full screen preview, but still cancel at any time.

It's not a second confirmation: it's an ability to undo what you just did.
Is there something special about U.S. that makes schools abusive towards teachers?

Because there are many countries without teacher unions that don't abuse teachers.
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A Story before bed (http://www.astorybeforebed.com/) already does this. It's a webapp but also has an iOS app for mobile reading and playback. They don't offer receiving the stories as a podcast, though, but you can play them back online or on your app forever.
that is the worst attempt at the groupon implementation i've ever seen. i would never read the yelp blog and wouldn't be surprised if more than 90% of the users are similar to myself. if you're going to try to give discounts you'd clearly place the coupon within the actual review...
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This would be really, really great. The biggest challenge would be to get people really using it, but if it was as widely used as UserVoice is today, it would definitely get attention. And webapps that would change society for the better would be really exciting to work on.
What startups have been started by former Yahoo employees?
The chart excellent for visualizing one's contributions against and general activity. Would it be possible to generate a similar graph for other mainstream languages, gcc, and linux?

Wonder if the post-2005 spike would be similar for all interpreted languages, or just python.
> However, if you have thousands of disks that would all

> need to be upgraded to SSDs to save your 20%, it might be

> worth looking into software optimization.

However the margin is still quite high. I've replaced twice big EMC SAN arrays with 8 SSDs, and the performance gain was 300 to 400% (different customers, different applications).

SSDs envelope is usually quite narrow, but if you hit the sweet spot it's such a game changer than it beats everything else.
Amen. How long will the dialog box drive people's thinking?
Woah, that looks nice. You need to make a TotalExplorer for Windows 7 that has all those features ... I guarantee you it would sell!
I've only been programming for a few years, but this has to be one of the most successful methodologies I've added to my arsenal. Instead of an actual anthropomorphic figure, I use a chat window with someone. Mostly they ignore it, but I still type in that window what the code should be doing. More often then not someone might reply with "wtf why". Which is great because the duck in this case can provide feedback and thought.

I know of a few places like THQ in Australia which promote this idea of rubber ducking.

Also paper and pencil works well for when your only option is to printf debug (embedded devices with no support).

I just hate those times when you've misunderstood the API and you expect certain functionality which isn't its actual defined functionality. You live, you learn.
My point about the font is that even when it's an appearance preference, and you have a nice preview, it's still a pain in the neck to get it back to the way it was before.

There's also another aspect to settings. Many settings are logically tree-shaped: certain settings only apply if a dependent setting is in effect. A very simple example: Firefox's popup blocker has some settings - the Exceptions. But the Exceptions only apply if the popup blocker is actually enabled. You can't fully explore the configuration space of an application most of the time without running into these things. But you don't want to have committed to changing these settings just to explore the configuration space. The Cancel option on the dialog lets you explore without commitment.

Now, you won't get an argument from me that the Apply button is useful. I think preference dialogs shouldn't be modal where reasonable, and that changes should be previewed across the application. That's not always the case in Windows, and it should be better. But on topic here is the Cancel button, and that's what's missing on OS X, and where I believe Windows has it trumped.