skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
>In fact, looking at this SBU makes me appreciate my legs more. They can, for example, go up stairs.

it looks fairly easy to carry one of these unicycles up stairs, or take it on an escalator, or ride up a wheelchair ramp

>And jump over things.

Easier to jump over stuff than with a bike or segway

>They can even be used as a weapon.

One word. Jousting.

>I don't have to worry about locking them up somewhere because they're with me all the time,

I think you could take this unicycle just about everywhere - walking it alongside with you inside a building for instance. Much more doable than a segway or bike. It's more like a skateboard.

>and although they're not particularly fancy, they don't make me look especially uncool either. ;-)

It's the person that makes the gadget cool or uncool. If you're a cool guy, you'll still look cool on a unicycle. If you're a dork, you'll look dorky either way.

Utility drives coolness. If this proves to be useful it will be cool within a decade or two.
Shouldn't it be more like 'the client is going to pay me on Friday'?
I understand that it helps Google crawl, but this sure is an in-elegant solution from the perspective of end-users & URLs. Not cool.
Honestly I can't think of any kind of transport that's dorkier than a unicycle. Segways included.
> are there a handful of people sending 10,000?

You bet; some people use texts like a mobile IM client.
And factorials!
You might want to check up on that: does your MacBook keep playing music if it's "ram-sleeping"? If so, it might not really sleeping as hard as it should. I've kept my MBP's in "I shut it and put it away" mode for days without noticeably losing juice.
Great thoughts. I'm not quite sure if it's the same app as Paprika, but there are aspects of it I would love to incorporate.
Design Blogging Terms We Can Probably Live Without
The ultimate list of fresh, sexy, and inspiring words to use in your headlines so you can be a rockstar ninja blogger.
Regardless of the content of the movie, what's the deal with linking to a Hulu page which offers little more than a player for this 2 hour and 24 minute movie? The entire "description" on this page is a single sentence and there's no supporting information on who made this film or why it's being linked to on HN.

Can the OP or anyone who's seen the film share their opinion of it?
If I remember correctly, there was an officially sanctioned torrent of the movie, a year or so after the release.

(P.S. I'm not sure if hn readers who haven't seen it would like it; I thought it was two hours of high gloss propaganda, and I am undecided on the issue in general.)
Show HN: Twitter Oauth bookmarklet experiment.
So this past week I decided to try an idea I had and play around with the twitter Oauth api. I made a bookmarklet for posting to twitter from in the current page. I had seen some twitter bookmarklets around (including twitter's own) but all of them had one or several things "wrong" with them in my opinion. Some just opened a text box, or just shared the current link, etc. I wanted to create a fully featured twitter bookmarklet. I mainly just wanted to play around with the api though. This is much more secure then most twitter bookmarklets, because it doesn't store your password in the bookmarklet, or on our server. So without further ado, Chirplit:
http://thingscosmomakes.com/chirplit/
Ask HN: why nobody talks about game development any more?
I wonder why nobody is talking about game development in here?
I am not complaining about that I am just trying to understand
the social, technical and financial reasons for something like that.
For example in the book Hackers by Levy a number of chapters were
just devoted to game development.
It seems that the big thing nowadays is the web apps and Iphone applications.
What are your thoughts on that ?
McDonald's Happy Meal Unchanged After 6 Months On A Table.
The movie is very popular in some circles, enough so that I can understand why the OP did not add more of a description. (I assume he wanted to just tell people that it now exists for viewing on hulu.)

The movie is an indictment of the corporation as a "legal person." In my opinion, it conflated a lot of general adverse phenomenon associated with collective action and the consequences of corporate personhood.
This is why I don't give programming problems as questions. I've written numerous database applications and I really couldn't tell you off of the top of my head all of the parameters to make a proper database connection. When a mathematician writes a formula, it's a communication from one mathematician to another of intent. When a programmer writes code, it's primarily instructing the machine how to perform a given calculation; as such, it's an exercise in tedium and not very appropriate for person-to-person communication.

So, that's why I ask design problems. I ask candidates to draw diagrams of databases that meet a certain need. I ask them to draw flow charts and state diagrams. These are much more conducive to human communication. I need to know that they can think before they can program. I'd hire someone with no experience in Python to start a brand new project in Python if they showed they had excellent problem solving skills because the hows of writing Python code is just going to be one more problem to solve for them. They'll figure it out and do what they need to do.

When was the last time you know everything about how to program something before you started on the project? If the answer is "ever", did you stick around for the end or quit because you were bored?
Answering several questions in one reply:

There are no shelves people can browse to stumble on your eBook, so owning your metadata for discovery and SEO is vital. Don't let someone assign one. They then own the metadata and can bork you, intentionally or accidentally.

I think outside the US, ISBNs are free or low cost. Here, RR Bowker has a monopoly and prices them unreasonably high (to be fair to them, they are used to dealing with businesses, not writers).
http://www.bowker.com/index.php/supportfaq-isbn

No one will want to read your book, so don't push it on them with emails asking them to review it. Everyone already has a huge backlog.

I don't know what your subject matter is, so what Tucker Max just wrote about might not apply, but some might:
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2010/09/28/tucker-max/

Don't join social reading sites and befriend people only to pimp your book. People hate that.

There are really only two formats for eBooks: Kindle format and ePub. Both are based on HTML, more or less. PDFs are another matter and are suited best for desktop, notebook, and possibly tablet (iPad) reading, but aren't considered eBooks per se. For PDFs, it's also good to customize them for eInk devices so people don't have to do reflow. See Sony's guide here, but there are now eInk devices with 5" screens, so keep that in mind too.

Direct PDF link: http://www.sonystyle.com/wcsstore/SonyStyleStorefrontAssetSt...

Check out also Self Pub Review and Publetariat.

http://www.selfpublishingreview.com/
http://www.publetariat.com/

Stay away from all the "services" that charge. I think HN readers have the skills to do all that themselves -- and better.

This all I can think of at the moment. I'm battling a cold and am groggy. Hope it helps.
You'll also notice that numbers often get edited out of the start of titles (e.g. "10 Ruby Tips and Tricks" will probably become "Ruby Tips and Tricks"). Someone is definitely watching us :-)
But they do invest in the platform. All the customization stuff means they have something invested in the platform.
THAT is a very good explanation, thanks!

p.s. If this happens to me, I expect I will extend my experimental Javascript view-controller framework so that it runs inside node.js. That way I could serve exactly the same content whether I was running in the browser or in node and I wouldn't need two sets of view logic.
An old, overlong bit of socialist propaganda that has little place on a site dedicated to entrepreneurialism.
Hmm I had that feeling for a long, long while with Java, but if you take the time to learn the shortcuts in Eclipse, really learn them so they are on the back of your mind and you don't have to think about it, Java stops being a language that you have to force, and it becomes a language that flows a lot freer from your fingers.

In addition, Android development uses Java, but it has replaced almost all of the apis, so there are less warts.
Neither of those even works out of the box with the Android Market. Even with wishing and hoping and squinting, it's not credible to put them in the same product category as the iPad. A some-assembly-required golf cart can't substitute for a two-seater sedan.
The Screenreader Experience Part One: What Twitter.com Sounds Like
For what it's worth, I think MBTs are great. I first tried them a few years ago, before they were trendy and available in mainstream stores, while I was having some therapy for a recurring knee problem. My physio had suggested that the cause might be turning out more with one foot than the other, and since MBTs encourage a better walking action, they seemed like they might help.

I can't say whether it was the specialist physio exercises or the MBTs that did more to help my immediate problem at the time, but I can vouch for many of the claims that MBT marketing tends to make. They do reduce that nasty impact on each step (which you probably don't notice until you have another problem, but then you really do). They did encourage me to walk with both feet aligned properly, and on the odd occasions that I've had a similar problem again over the years, switching back to MBTs for a while has rapidly cured it. You definitely feel the more active use of certain muscle groups when you first switch to them, but in my case I found that after using them for a few days, all kinds of minor irritations that might be explained by relative weakness/imbalance in those muscle groups started to clear up.

They are expensive shoes, but if the pairs I've had are at all representative, the quality means they last way longer than expensive-but-not-that-expensive regular shoes anyway. I always have at least one pair in good condition now, and at the first sign of any irritation in my legs (usually if I haven't been doing much physical training for a few weeks and I'm getting out of condition) on they go.

The only major downside I've found is that because of the curved sole, MBTs aren't particularly comfortable to stand around in for extended periods. These shoes are made for walking, not standing (or running/sports).

For the record, I have no commercial interest related to MBTs, I'm just a very satisfied customer.
And the new Apple TV is an iOS device. Who cares? The OS in both cases is an implementation detail. Neither the ATV or the Nook remotely exemplify the features people associate with "iOS device" or "Android tablet".
And if you don't wear shoes, you end up with cuts from glass and stones.

Pick the less of the evils.
I like that.

However, the reason I'm currently visiting mine is that it's great to see how the front page looked merely hours ago. I'm familiar with the "top 30" and stuff can fall off of it so fast. A site like yours is okay and the info looks nice but it's a "different" thing to the HN front page, less of a facsimile.
I'd be interested in The Rails Way, but I'll let you know in a week. I haven't yet figured out a way to swap with guarantees that I'll actually receive what I wanted. Now that I know someone is interested in it, I also decided to take it off of the bookshelf and see if I should actually read it.
it is also not available outside the US :) (thanks Hulu/NBC/Fox/etc!)

(I've seen it previously and it has a point)
If you haven't do try to walk barefoot in the snow, just a couple of steps.

After that you will be glad you did it, and you will be glad that you have a pair of shoes.
Yes, I didn't want to editorialize and I've never seen this available online before.

Everyone is free to think what they want.

The privatization of the Bolivian water supply was the most poignant moment for me.
I was going to suggest reading the source code, but I just checked myself and title changes like this are in an unreleased "scrubrules" directory.

The unconditional capitalization of the first letter in submission titles makes "IPhone" and "JQuery" look pretty silly.
Web Apps and iOS/Mobile the popular platforms right now. While large commercial games require huge development teams and budgets, mobile/webapp games are commonly done with one or two people. Minecraft, for example was one guy for a long time and seems to be quite popular on here.
Ask HN: How to make paid (non-game) iPhone/iPad apps more viral
What are some ways to make a paid business / education app more viral and create a network effect?

Some of the things I can think of
- Referrals
- Twitter and Facebook integration

Would it make any difference if it was free?
That was a very interesting article, thanks. One question, if I may: When using a reverse proxy, it makes no sense to have keepalives on for Apache, correct? The proxy takes care of the keepalive and leaves Apache free for other requests?
There is an IMBD link: http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi1301021721/. Although it just looks like an embedded hulu player.
Amen.

Honestly, I don't see Google EVER making a product like iPad/iPhone. Come on, they're an advertising company after all - one that can't just stick their software on some phone from a Taiwanese company, it'll work but you know...

Apple's products operate completely on another level.
The most information we've gotten about profits is that it's in the "tens of millions". Now, to make the math easy, let's say they have profits of $33 million. That puts their P/E ratio at 1,000.
As someone currently battling cancer (stage IV nodular melanoma) i've been reading a lot about it all lately, and i've seen multiple sources saying that it was the Egyptians themselves who actually first documented cancer.

Eg: http://www.abc.net.au/environment/articles/2010/09/03//30018...
I'm curious, has there ever been a talk of a failed entrepreneur? So far, the talks that I have heard are ideal discussions of how a startup grows and succeeds. Sure there are rough patches that are described, but I am not given a sense of the reality of starting your own business (besides credit card debt).

How does a person handle a pitiful situation of being broke? When you are having difficulty of bringing your idea of a business to fruition because you are stuck in a rut? When someone screws you over? Or some unforeseen consequence that you weren't anticipating when you entered the startup world?
Nope. It belongs to Tim Ferriss, author of 4 Hour Workweek. He's pretty famous among hackers and freelancers.

It was the only site that came to mind that naturally used 'ww' at the end. :)
DailyD (Groupon competitor) raises 5M
Why I downvote "tl;dr" comments on Hacker News
it's a well reasoned look at framing the observable results of corporate behavior in the context of allowable human behavior; this is an important issue in light of the the law's assertion that corporations are legal entities in as much as humans are.

watching the corporation is an excellent way to better understand the way our world works, whether or not you agree with the sentiment that corps have a moral obligation to anything.

it's a bit of an intro-level look at the issue. for more of the same i can't recommend adam curtis's series of bbc documentaries.
A Look at 8+ Free LaTeX Editors
You need to work on the visual design.

I didn't have time to figure it out but its not clear if the percent is the 30-day change or the percent of relevant users that liked a certain candidate.

Some of your calculations are off. See Nancy Pelosi.

That being said, old voters have the highest turnout rate and they will be underrepresented here. But I like seeing new innovation in political web apps.
don't know about 1. and 2. The 3rd - Facebook - from what i read about it (bug in cache invalidation/update, herding the db) as well as recent problem at Foursquare (uneven sharding on MongoDb overloading a shard), as well as the production problems i have faced and resolved personally, have nothing in common with interview questions i've been asked so far in my life. Not even close, not even in the same Universe.
ASE doesn't allow you to build fully featured applications, only simple scripts that can interact with the Android APIs.

On the other hand Ruboto[1] looks very promising, it's a project that brings JRuby to Android application development.

[1] http://ruboto.org/
Not many people build their own these days. But it's not uncommon to add RAM after purchase.

At the moment, you can buy RAM anywhere, so you're not limited to the vendor's overpriced offerings, if they even sell RAM upgrades.

But if Apple came up with RAM units that included on-board Flash backup, they'd be the only source for it, so adding RAM later would depend on Apple's inclination to sell upgrade packages, and would be priced higher than current RAM prices.
They said last year in November that Chrome OS will launch 1 year from then. Why were you expecting it earlier?
This ties in well with the Scott Adams blog post that came up recently.

"Wireless Voice Calls Are Obsolete"
http://www.dilbert.com/blog/entry/wireless_voice_calls_are_o...
This is a test. [http://google.com]s noun.
Ask HN: Any HTML5 dabblers?
OK this site (http://mrdoob.com) has finally convinced me that I can have a pretty good time in HTML5. I've just now decided that now is a good time for me to start getting acquainted with what it (and JavaScript) can do.

Where did you start? I'm gonna assume here (http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec-author-view/, http://diveintohtml5.org/); suggestions, examples, blogs, resources, insights, blah, blah are appreciated as always.
Interested in reading (or, seeing) this, however, the link is broken.
I guess it is rewarding to feel that you have developed something on your own. And feel that your skills is the limit, and not a whole company. But at the same time google or facebook are also quite big companies and they seem more attractive than the traditional game companies.
An other issue that I am curious about: what about the tools that are used in the game industry? There is a lot of discussion about the web tools that are used in Web apps or iphone applications.
I see that it quite difficult - close to impossible for somebody to compete with the big game companies. But at the same time I think that games will be with us for ever and technically seem more challenging. I am not 'devil's advocate' I am just curious.
The last question was interesting.:)I am assuming the monetization strategy is to provide links to amazon/itunes as referrals.

Kidding aside, a simple app would be great. Having lots of unnecessary feature would turn me off though.
"The touchscreen on the iPhone is state of the art, with my N1, I need to touch something once or twice, which never happens with iPhone."

Apple didn't design their touchscreen (nor do they design their processor, RAM, display, wireless chipset, etc.). The Nexus One, it is very well known, has a weak capacitive touchscreen that is outclassed by any number of competing Android phones. This has nothing to do with Android versus the iPhone.

"Same for keyboard on the iPhone, it's light years better than any of the dozens implementations for Android"

Disagree entirely, but I suppose that's subjective. Then again, I can't stand touchscreens keyboards altogether. My preference is strongly weighted towards sliders.

"Also compare the Facebook app on both phones. Android's is not there yet."

But it's getting there. Quickly.

I've been using Android phones since the G1. The quality improvements over the last 6 months have been incredible. Over the last 3 months has been exhilarating. Over the last 1 month has been unfathomable.

Apps for Androids used to be an afterthought. Now anyone who thinks they're an afterthought is a fool -- they are now front and center (and, as a sidenote, it leveled the ground for competitors like Blackberry as well. Being an "iPhone only" mobile solution is a loser's game now, smelling as ignorant and backwards as being an IE-only website). They are rapidly evolving into a decent platform.

Yeah, a year from now Android will easily match any fit and finish of the iPhone.
http://github.com/jcs/halfmoon

it's light on documentation and i'm still fixing bugs and adding features each time i use it for another project.
In many non-US countries, iPhone is available on multiple carriers. My understanding (though I don't have numbers readily available) is that it's quite successful in many of them.
Actually, the real battle will be between Apple and Microsoft for spots #3 and #4 in the mobile market, as explained here:

http://beust.com/weblog/2010/05/22/more-on-android-and-the-i...

Android is already #2 and poised to become #1 in the next three years. Apple and Microsoft will soon not even be in the same league.
I bought some Vibram Five Fingers recently, and I have to admit that they are ridiculously comfortable, despite being essentially toe-socks with a thin-but-strong sole. I've been walking around inner-city Saint Louis in them, over broken glass and gravel, and my feet hurt less than when I was wearing my previous lightweight walking shoes.

It's honestly a little weird, getting rid of all those things like arches and padding that seem so necessary, and discovering that they're actually doing nothing for you.

Edit: Of course, in a few weeks I'll have to switch back to big waterproof boots for the winter. Alas.
Errr, I believe these "tax breaks" he's referring to are not taxing money earned overseas until it's repatriated (I know there has been a big push about this from Team Obama and it's the only "tax break" I know of that they've talked about that would fit what he's saying now).

If US multinationals suddenly have to pay US taxes on all they do overseas, even when it, say, never touches the US (e.g. mineral extraction, processing and sales, almost entirely with foreign staff) ... well, I suppose it's consistent with our unique policy of taxing all of our expats (the lucky ones are in countries with which we've signed a tax treaty).

Our corporate tax rates are quite high by world standards. I don't know anyone I respect who thinks its going to help the US economy. For instance, how many of these companies will follow all those oil service companies who've already moved to Switzerland by doing the like (maybe not to the Cantons of Helvetica ... but it's a generally good choice).
The demo doesn't appear to work for international numbers (I'm assuming this is in the US, I'm in the UK (+44)). Not to say this isn't impressive.
That's really interesting. I think JS is better for those constraints. Seems like a classic disruption: something perceived to be a toy turns out to take over the universe. Some people may cling to the idea that Batman is the "serious" alternative... meanwhile Robin is installed on approximately every fucking computer in the world. It took 10 years to figure out how great the DNA that made it into JS was, but this is what makes web apps possible. We're extremely lucky to have it. Thank you!