skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
A quote about the inventor (found here http://www.webventionllc.com/about_the_inventor):

"Dan Abelow is a prolific invetor and an expert on website usability, ease-of-use and assured user performance. He provides ongoing high-level consultation services to large corporations, and improves website usability, ensuring a competitive advantage for his clients."

But then look at Dan's website:

http://computing2.com/index.htm

It's hard for me to believe that someone who promotes himself as an expert on website usability would have such an awful website. Is he somehow just a front for this patent trolling, or maybe he just got lucky with one very valuable patent?
ARel 2.0: Active Record Performance in Rails 3.0.2
I think they want to make it happen all the time.
I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. I see home robotics as the natural progression of computing into the home. A world where your iPad, your phone, your computer, your TV and your home robots are all connected. It's very limiting to think of home robots as just a vacuum cleaner. The vision is for a family of robots taking care of you and your home — doing chores, providing entertainment, doubling as a security guard, keeping an eye on grandma and making sure she's taking her pills. The iPad makes all this so much easier than pre-iPad, because it can be the face and brains of the robot, and you just need a chassis to attach it to. There's so much potential just waiting for somebody with deep pockets and vision to get it done.
It was easy for us to say this 15 years ago when a super-compact binary protocol just seemed to make oh so much sense, but now I'm not so sure.

The IRC protocol does exactly what it sets out to do, and there isn't really much over-the-wire overhead for client connections. The only information that's repeated unnecessarily is user hostmask data; everything else is mostly 100% useful.

It could really have only been a bit better if each event was described in a JSON- or YAML-like notation, but this was 1988, not 2008.

Compared to tons of other legacy protocols in use today (FTP!?), IRC isn't all that bad.
http://www.cloud9ide.com/ and https://bespin.mozillalabs.com/ come to mind, although the former seems more like an IDE. there used to be a vanilla Eclipse IDE running in a web browser that was built on top of qooxdoo, but i can't find it right now.
The author didn't really elaborate on what makes this really troubling: the tens (hundreds?) of millions of existing shortlinks out there in the wild right now that would be worthless (or worse, directed to spam or abusive sites). Generally, it's bad, but maybe not the end of the world if a startup loses their domain. But this seems like it would be an unmitigated disaster for a service like bit.ly. I hope they're aggressively working on some kind of strategy to get away from that domain name ASAP.

And this, kids, is yet another example of why URL shortening services should be avoided. They've single-handedly put ability to break the functionality of a growing chunk of the internet into the hands of one demonstrably unstable dictator in a developing nation.
However he said it, it seems quite out of place.
I'm the author- The book is printing as we speak and should be hitting the stores late Oct/early Nov. Around that time a lot more info on the book will also be available at my new site landoflisp.com.

I'm really happy with how it turned out and I hope the new site (which I don't want to launch before the book is truly ready) will entice more folks to learn Lisp!
Dropbox. They have an awesome product and it generates a lot of revenue. I believe they will be the first mega exit for YC. At least $100M and probably closer to The Big B.
Well... I can read Java decently and browse javadocs just fine, but the parent was explicitly talking about writing Java, which I've never done and would probably be pretty bad at. I think this is quite common among Clojure developers.
Traveling salesman solution, please?

Here's your input: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&#...
do they support hetzner.de?
The article fails to take into account the different role of government in Europe compares to the US when it comes to ensuring civil rights.

The US approach tends toward creating a civil cause of action for civil rights violations, and then leaving it up to the victim to enforce the law via a lawsuit.

Most of the rest of the world tends toward having the government deal with civil rights enforcement. Your employer denies you a promotion because of your race, sex, or religion? Complain to the appropriate government agency and they deal with the problem. Landlord won't rent to your kind? Take it to the bureaucrats.

Lawsuits are almost always risky, even if you have a pretty good case. If we had a loser pays system, that would greatly discourage the poor (and probably much of the middle class) from pursuing litigation when their civil rights have been violated. The potential monetary losses are just too great.

A lower pays system might work, if coupled with a rewrite of all the laws that were written to rely on private enforcement were revisited and revised appropriately to ensure that those who are not wealthy would still be protected in fact, rather than just in theory.

Or get rid of civil rights laws. "Reason" is a libertarian publication, so that would probably be their solution.
As far as I remember it (it was something a STIM representative said in an interview, can't find it just now), it was about how the revenues from Spotify had increased significantly.

Also, one should remember that, AFAIK, the initial idea was the free account type and Premium came later. It is all about competing with piracy, making something that is easier and more convenient for the user while still giving a revenue stream to the rightsholders.
I like Keynote a lot and use it all the time for presentations, I think it's better than Powerpoint. Also, compatibility isn't that much of an issue here because I just present from my Macbook all the time.

But I prefer Word & Excel over the Apple/OpenOffice counterparts. Here compatibility also matters, as I routinely send Word & Excel files to lawyes, investors, etc. You don't want your files looking like crap with those guys =)
It actuality, it was the other way around: Microsoft dropped support for the Itanium because it was widely considered a flop with dismal sales figures years before Microsoft ceased development.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/windowsserver/archive/2010/04/02/...

and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itanium#Market_share
Take off the blinders for a second and keep in mind that your view of patent abuses is very much limited to that of the software realm.

Patents remain relevant and valuable in fields beyond software, where product development and basic R&D costs a hell of a lot more than it does in our little field.

I was trained as a mechanical engineer, and have some experience in that field - and I can say with great certainty that bringing even a simple mechanical contraption (or electrical, for that matter) to market is a lot more expensive than what we do. In fact, for the vast majority of software, the only substantial cost is salaries, and maaaaybe hosting. We don't deal with regulatory fees, testing so extensive as to cost tens of millions of dollars (if not more), and prototyping costs more substantial than a bunch of bits on a platter.
I'm involved in the healthcare (EMR) space. I might be able to give some useful feedback.

EMRs are a difficult product for lean-startups b/c Docs are always pretty busy. That being said there are techie docs which like to discuss the latest and greatest. Have you come across any avenues to reach a broad range of physicians? ImedicalApps (imedicalapps.com) is a pretty good site for this. I have done some guest blogging on their site.
Not to hijack the thread but I also ran across http://www.opengateway.net/ , an installable (as opposed to SaaS) recurring billing solution. Was wondering if anyone had tried it or had feedback.
The obvious way to implement this project would be a wiki. I googled a little and found a specialized wiki that already has the beginnings of such a project:

http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Patent_trolls

So those of you who really want to help the world could go there and participate.
Horse collars invented (int China) before 500AD, Europe didn't adopt until 1000AD.

!wiki horse collar
The way to beat Google is to create a product with a superior user experience.

Two notable examples:

1. Facebook beating Google's Orkut.
2. Youtube beating Google Video.

In addition, the fact that some of Google's products launch with ugly or complex user interfaces creates a clear and present opportunity for startups with good design skills and a focus on usability.

For example, I created Trafficspaces simply because I felt Google Ad Manager and OpenX were both a royal pain in the ass to use.
Server Hangup?
Maybe I'm being patronize and you know all this all but I'll just note that a protocol is about one level of abstraction above a class library.

I'm biased because I'm working with c++ but I'd suggest the protocol be developed like most protocols - in a language neutral fashion. This involves writing it in a fashion akin to an abstract language. Normally, such a protocol spec simply say what byte means what and where each byte goes. Then the protocol can be implemented in any language.

For example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Http

Also, I'd suggest only creating a new protocol for things that really can't be done existing protocols (such as Internet mail). You always layer your application on top of an existing protocol if it serves your purposes.
It's potentially extremely dangerous for bit.ly.

Most other foo.ly startups can happily rename themselves fooly.com, but for bit.ly, there are so many existing links out there, and shortness is so important, that the transition would be much more painful.

That being said, no serious investor would have put $10M on bit.ly just because it's 5 characters long. The analytics or something else is where the value is, and that doesn't depend on the domain name being in Lybia.
For the average developer, I think that C# is more similar to modern languages like Python or C++ than Obj-C, and there's less boilerplate syntax that you have to write.

For example, things like making lists with custom tiles are really straightforward and quick (just draw out the template visually for each type of item and use bindings to bind to properties of the object). You can get away with writing a lot less code, except for the actual details of your app.
I'm Annabelle, and here's how my iPhone app was born after a girl's night out
Hey all,

I'm Annabelle and I wanted to hear what HN users thought about a little project I've been working on for the past few months - it's an iPhone app called 'Dating: Ask a Girl', starring me.

So a little background info regarding my idea - I was at a friend's 21st party at a London club and had an overload of guys coming over and trying to 'chat us up'. Seriously, the attempts were awful, nothing genuine. Any decent guys we saw turned out to be too shy to make any moves. Such a shame.

A couple days later, my friends and I wrote out a few points to help guys approach girls, understand girls and better still, avoid making an arse of themselves. We passed these sheets around Uni for a little laugh and ended up creating quite a bit of a buzz around campus.

As a big Apple fan girl and with the help of two guys I know, I got serious with the idea of creating a video-based app to help guys out for the reasons above. So, a few months down and my app is finally out! There's a free lite version with 3 videos and a full version ($1.99) with 10 high quality clips, summaries, etc. I'm also going to be taking questions submitted by guys and producing more videos to include within the app. The reason I've included a paid version is to cover for the huge student loan that I have to repay.

I was wondering you all thought about my app. I've uploaded one video from the app to YouTube, which you can watch here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeRIP_-mxYQ

You can also see more videos on my free app here: http://bit.ly/askagirlfree and even more on my paid app: http://bit.ly/askagirl

Hope you like my app and find it useful/interesting.

Thanks,

Annabelle
Paul, I hate to disagree with you, I always enjoy your comments, but Wikipedia says (and it may be wrong) that while 2008 supported IA-64, both Vista and W7 do not support IA-64.
Yep. I totally agree. I guess I've always thought of exploratory work as being a distinct part of analysis projects. That's why I tried to say that I think this would work as a great exploratory tool.
Not at the moment, but you can always add machines from providers we don't support with https://support.cloudkick.com/Setting_up_Cloudkick_with_Phys...
I wonder if, even if Libya were a stable country with no reason to cause worry, if it would still be a bad idea to invest $10 million into such a simple product.

Unless there's a long term plan, I don't see where the monetization of this service can come from. I always thought after the last dot-com bust, we'd be sensitive and conservative in respect to questions of profitability and revenue, but this investment in bit.ly gave me a bit of a sense of deja-vu, and it wasn't a good feeling.
I'm sure proteins do unexpected things but that alone does not make your argument very plausible. For instance, wouldn't any strange biological mechanism be more prevalent with more exposure? If one's exposed to more toxins, coal dust or ionizing radiation, it's more likely it is for adverse effects to be apparent. Microwaves have been around for quite a while and exposures to levels far beyond a cellphone have occurred many times. Would those mechanisms have been triggered then, with statistically noticeable effects? 'Proteins do strange things' is pretty much 'the dragon is kinda shy and quirky'.
Not quite the clean and simple process I was thinking could be made! Was thinking of something more like what Favstar does for favourites.

Not sure re restrictions on API access, but I guess an external service could retrieve a list of whoever they were following, then run through that and get a list of recent tweets, and then combine them all in date order? Surely someone's done it already? I've always been surprised that you couldn't just do it within Twitter itself.
Any plans to release the book in electronic formats (pdf and epub)?
Recommended. We monitor about 30 servers with them (Rackspace Cloud). I consider them to be one more piece of the sysadmin replaced with a SASS solution. While you certainly could setup Nagios or whatever else for monitoring all of your machines, it's incredibly easy and far less maintenance to let CloudKick handle things.
Keep it simple -- be honest about your skills and willingness to learn. It's great learning on a job but you need honest communications with your new team. Make sure you know enough (or trust you're learning process enough) to give the company value or not get in over your head for something mission critical.

Once you've gone through the interview process and they've hired you, trust them! Don't second guess yourself. At that point, tips are:

* Be prepared to spend time outside of the job getting up to standards on the code base or things you don't understand, especially the first few months. You want to make sure you can also deliver what you've contracted for.

* Are you willing and comfortable asking for help from other people? If you have good sources to go to and you go to them frequently while you're learning, that'll help a ton.

Anecdote: I've seen folks (it doesn't sound like you're one of them though, tho) who kind of hold their breath and hope folks don't notice what they don't know. That's toxic: bad for the company and for the person (it stops them from being able to learn b/c they're so afraid to admit they don't know.

As long as you trust you can learn, work hard, and deliver -- go for it! There are always going to be new things to learn and jobs that are "just beyond us". It's finding the line between "way over your head" and "a good stretch" that's important.

Good luck!
svn up

simple.

priceless.
Thank you for the reference. I hope that the publishing date is still October 2010... as it was foreseen already 1 year ago.
This has to be Yahoo! Frontpage's first downtime in over a decade. I know we're not supposed to be posting articles about sites being down but: wow. I worked at Yahoo, and I firmly believed that it was literally impossible, at the architectural level, for frontpage to be unavailable.
The study also found that love increasingly makes you ignorant of what decade it is and where you put your hearing aid.
Wouldn't that be small boots and rocket powered bootstraps?
Considering the publisher, it should be available in pretty much every digital format (I think all of their books are).
There is a reviews section on both sites that have pretty decent contributors. I've looked up many a component/bike there to get a good idea on what's worth it and what isn't. Some items even have photos, and some people have posted how much they paid and where they bought it from. I wouldn't count them out as "spam". There's useful information buried under a site from the 90s.
Here We Go Again Dept: Chargify removes Free plan, called greedy and evil
Only if it can be shown to be an abusive case.
What's the point in putting domain names under the control of a country these days anyway? I understand that Lybia or some organization therein collects a fee from people registering .ly domains, but it would certainly be possible to still pay them the fee without giving them the power to "turn off" domain names without cause. They could even retain the right to refuse to sell domains to people, but once you've bought the domain it needs to be yours in perpetuity, as it is with other property. This is a completely artificial problem based on archaic rules that has a straightforward solution.
"AdGrok and 6 other startups" -- can someone expand this list?
I've always wanted to do a DIY ECU. The interrupt rate you have to service at full revs would probably overload anything running Linux, but you could use a dedicated microcontroller running an open firmware with a USB connection to a Linux system for system tuning (like BeagleBoard, Sheeva, etc.). If for some reason you couldn't legally make it open, or couldn't get it off the ground, you could change to licensing to kit car manufacturers and race teams.

Possibly relevant: MISRA-C, the automotive standard for firmware written in C: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MISRA_C
antiword (http://freshmeat.net/projects/antiword) works well for Microsoft word documents.

Are you trying to create an index/search utility for documents? If so, maybe we can combine efforts. I was planning to build one, wrote a small amount code, but then got busy with other stuff and the project fell through the cracks.
We are trying to create a new way of doing things, right now we have a lot more on the monitoring side of coin; however, projects like cast are some of the next generation of tooling for CK. http://github.com/cloudkick/cast
That's an interesting point, and my question is why is there a distinction to be made between a hardware company and a software company in terms of management? I think that for various reasons related to barriers to entry and maturity of market, young people aren't founding hardware companies today like they were in the 80s, it may be difficult to compare. However it's pretty clear that young entrepreneurs command much more respect today from investors and boards than they did even a decade ago.
well Novartis isn't exactly known for being open source
Already done.

http://en.swpat.org/wiki/List_of_lawsuits
Node.JS: Ryan Dahl's slides from Strange Loop [pdf]
That's what I thought of immediately as well, but I'm not sure it's even pseudo-context. Pseudo-context would be "if Hermione cast 5 spells yesterday, and two today, how many in total did she cast?" This is just math drills (another 'technique' that has its supporters and opponents) with a coat of shiny paint, hoping that the paint is pretty enough that a kid will pay attention to it in spite of the math.
You Have No Idea How Big Africa Really Is (But This Map Does)
Well, it's a chicken and egg situation.

You need time and money to minimize technical debt. In a startup, both of those are in short supply.

Unless your company is well funded or has other sources of revenue, prepare to be uncomfortable for some time.
"... we had to learn to make products the way the Japanese wanted products. We were assembling products in Singapore and sending them to Japan. And the first thing the customer saw when they opened the box was the manual, but the manual was turned the wrong way around – and the whole batch was rejected. In the United States, we’d never experienced anything like that."

My employer learned a similar lesson years ago, securing a fat citrus contract in the process. Before the Japanese buyers arrived to inspect our packing facility, management insisted that every crate on the floor be opened, and the top tier of oranges all turned stems-up. (The packers thought that management had lost its mind. Who cares about presentation of a crate of oranges?) But when the buyers arrived they selected a random box for inspection, saw the fruit arrayed neatly, and nodded their approval.
You don't need to find oaks that don't produce acorns in order to measure how many acorns an oak produces. And, yes, if you measure 1000 acorns on a tree, you actually do have an idea how many acorns are on that tree.
I haven't read the book yet, but presumably you can get a taste of it from his blog: http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/
As someone else pointed out, this site exists: http://endsoftpatents.org/

Does that cover your idea?
Yep. Been there, done that. :-D

I didn't mean that exploratory analysis is not important, just that it's a distinct part of data analysis and only the beginning.

That paper sounds cool. I'm looking forward to checking it out.
The ultimate in usability - games that use just one button
I can't tell if I'm writing so unclearly that I'm being interpreted to say the opposite of what I mean, or if you're accidentally or willfully misunderstanding me, but my argument is not that there is some cryptic biological mechanism for this.

My argument is that, though there could be--and you wouldn't even have to invoke magical dragons to get there, because biology already has EM transducers at its disposal--all evidence suggests that there is not. My argument is that cell phones do not cause cancer. Hopefully that is clear.
For the most scenarios the maximum number of connections between the same client and server will be smaller, because an unbound client socket would reside in the ephemeral port range:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephemeral_port
Luckily all bit.ly links are the sane for j.mp. Telling people to change them will be harder though.
The one time I tried food shopping online (not very popular or affordable in Australia) it was such a glacial process to spend 4-8 clicks just to track down each item.

What if you started with a textarea, in which you added an item per line. You could be specific ('500g Barilla fettuccine') or vague ('pasta'). On the next page, 6-10 search results would each be presented in a vertical DIV (like a shelf of books). Instead of each click holding up the whole process, each DIV/IFRAME could be dealt with independently until resolved/ordered. The more specific items could be resolved and ordered quickly. The vague ones might need a bit of drilling down. Any resolved (ordered or cancelled) item would be replaced by the next thing on your list.

Partner that with shortcuts to things you order regularly and so on and I think it could speed up online shopping somewhat.
I remember reading that nic.ly or their agents made some effort to contact vb.ly's owners to discuss their concerns with vb.ly, but received no response. The author attempts to paint nic.ly et al as being capricious, but it seems to me there were some attempts made to resolve this amicably.