skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I love the app switch animation that I got when I upgraded my 3GS to iOS 4. It makes it seem faster, even though the hardware is the same.

If you have registered as a developer with Apple, check out session 103 "iPad and iPhone User Interface Design" by Jay Capela and John Geleynse. John is the Director, Technology Evangelism and User Experience Evangelist at Apple.

Session 103 was one of the best at WWDC10. Geleynse talks about how hard it was to decide how to animate things in Keynote for iPad. For example, how long it took them to come up with the right animation for rearranging slides in the navigator - they ended up with a little "bump" animation as you moved a slide up and down.

http://developer.apple.com/videos/wwdc/2010/

While you're at it, Session 104 "Designing Apps with Scroll Views" shows you how precisely Apple engineers their own UI code to be efficient and elegant.
Ask HN: Software patents?
Is there an economical option for preparing and applying for a software patent? There are many lawyers that offer the service, but their rates vary so greatly that it's hard to tell what's legit and what's not.

I don't have a college degree and all of my best work will never be visible to the outside world due to contractual agreements. I would like to have something that sets me apart from all the other coders who've been locked up in corporate world for their entire careers. I know open source is an option, but I don't have a lot of free time available to adequately maintain a project.

I've developed some unique technology / processes and spoken briefly about it with a few friends who do patent work at a BigCo near me. They seemed to think that it would be worth pursuing, but didn't have any useful advice on the process since they have different IP needs.

Frankly I don't care if the patents are air-tight enforceable - is there a way they can be assigned to an organization like the EFF after they're granted? I don't want to spend the time or money trying to enforce them. I just want to include "patent holder: patent #" on a résumé.

I'm sure many HN'ers have been through this process before, any advice would be most welcome.
This way they don't need to work around the schedule of a busy major airport, which I'm guessing would probably be unwilling to accommodate them. Pleasure flights and pilot lessons are usually out of small regional airports for similar reasons.
Evidently you've never tried to write something like "Rear Light" one-handed on the iPad keyboard. Or, you don't have ogre fingers like I do.

More seriously, the pen is pretty fantastic for things like reviewing papers. Having used tablet PCs for years and now having used an iPad for a while, I can say it takes significantly longer to annotate PDFs via iAnnotate or goodreader and either my finger or the iPad keyboard than it did with Acrobat and the pen+tablet pc input panel.
Actually, I kind of do, but not for $800. Not everyone likes the constraints of iOS, you know.
Indeed, I was just wondering whether there was any practical reason for it. But since "sounds cool" is a more-than-sufficient justification for any Virgin activity at this stage, and since "building a spaceport" was really just "buying an old airport in the middle of the desert and putting up a new sign" I guess I'm not too surprised.

Plus, given time, we may see a vicious hive of scum and villainy grow in the surrounding area.

Albuquerque?
Reading comments and stories about it yesterday made me think Apple came down and removed Java from every Mac in existence

Right. Don't those people know that even if you're running Linux, you still have to download and install a JVM?
Quite a number of newspaper websites employ exactly this technique.

At the site I work for, we call it "bozo-ing." We've had users who have been in their own Troll Fantasyland, as you call it, for many months without realizing it.
Thanks for the promo link. It appears their target audience are people who need to write things while having a full blown OS. I teach math and tablet PCs have been a great help. People simply do not type math or read typed mathematics well. I'm a heavy user of Captivate and Camtasia and this is the sort of tablet I need.
I actually want to do this in reverse.
I want to do a careful read of the Baroque Cycle trilogy by Neal Stephenson and make a note of the location of every major character for as fine of a time period I can. Then I want to load it all into Timeline (http://www.simile-widgets.org/timeline/)
BSaleBGone
"In absolutely no way is it a stretch to say that and I'm terribly surprised you have any upvotes. Are you aware of how many services Google provides for free that make my life (and probably yours) better?"

Not free. All of those things are paid for by Ads. Google is a for-profit company making billions of dollars.

There is nothing evil about doing legal things to pay less taxes (large public corporations are practically required to); but that doesn't mean that the government shouldn't fix the exploit. If i'm paying 30% taxes on my minimal salary, i think Google can cough up a bit more than 1% on its billions. (Billions which are made possible by government infrastructure, research, etc).
From what I've seen in the demos, WinPhone7 is going for the same feeling of aliveness through responsiveness of UI elements to touch input. It's amazing that Apple has developed this level of detail awareness in their UX technique and design. (This stuff is obviously all over desktop OS X as well.)
Perhaps something related to it's design goals, like "grains", url getgrains.com (ie. lots of tiny grains of sand on the beach)?
I'm a heavy user of Captivate and Camtasia and I teach math. I need digital ink for my classes. It allows me to markup graphs and all other documents. I would be a user of this tablet. I think the greatest shortcoming of the iPad is the lack of digital ink and native pen support. Also, screen recording apps.

From the promo videos it seems that this device is targeting vertical markets.
Home Made Chocolate in Bangalore
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Wow, it lags when zooming a picture (0:17), in their promo video. Not inspiring.
The future music platform & music startups’ imminent success
You should definitely speak. It's marketing. It's like writing a book: you hardly get any money for it, but it's great marketing.

However, you should never pay to speak. And you should limit your conference attendance to places where you can speak (don't just go to a conference without speaking there, unless it's really important).

Yes, you should speak. Running a business and being profitable isn't just about spending time coding, it's about promoting as well, and speaking at relevant conferences is a great way to do that. One of the best.
I actually laughed out loud when the doctor zoomed in on the x-ray and there was visible lag and tearing as the screen refreshed. That's the best shot they could come up with to show off zoom!?
Somewhat tangential, but does anyone on HN actually use FogBugz over something free like Redmine?
There's a Thai restaurant in my town (Alameda) that claims to have "Largest Longest standing Carrera Track in the United States". I go for the tasty food but my kids are enthralled by the cars.

http://www.homeroomracingcafe.net/ (warning, their web page will offend any and all web design sensibilities)
Wouldn't any halfway smart person cover the camera?

Just saying that a confirmation email will be sent is likely not much less effective than a camera - in either case, the owner will find out that someone did something nasty.
The Open Source Developer's Marketplace
I think "clutterbox" sounds better (perhaps because of its similarity to "chatterbox") and has better associations (perhaps it's a UK/US thing, but to me "bin" strongly suggests throwing stuff away permanently, which suggests a mere disposal service). In the UK there seem to be a company called Clutterbox (providing resources for primary-school teachers) and a product of the same name (a garden shed!), whereas Clutterbin seems not to be in commercial use anywhere.
A Rubyesque interface to Gmail
You can try to contact other European startup groups.
They may have some people willing to go to Copenhagen.

In Belgium there is http://www.betagroup.be
If this spreadsheet management is really something that people need, then I wont mind making an app for that. However. I think all of us should contribute in deciding the features needed.
I just tried typing "Rear light" on my iPad with one finger of my right hand while holding the pad itself with my left hand. It took about 2 seconds. On my iPhone, with only my left hand holding it and using my left thumb to type leaving my right hand doing nothing, I can bang that phrase out in about... 2 seconds. In the promo video, it took the guy just about 5 seconds with the pen.

Not that this matters a whole lot - just adding my own data points to the discussion. :)
I can predict the market response: "meh".

EDIT: I figured I should add that I have looked at the large touchscreen PCs as sold in Best Buy, etc. and while the concept looks very intriguing, playing around with them for even a few minutes shows why they would be frustrating in practice.

The UI requires too much precision - for instance, to close an application you have to stab precisely on the X in the upper right corner - there should be a modification that is either more forgiving or the X should be larger, etc.

Further, higher resolution (which should be nicer) is just as bad if not worse - as the need for precision increases.

Lastly, the focus by the big manufacturers still seems to be "stack em deep and sell em cheap" - leaving little $$$ or motivation to improve the UI to a level as good as an iPad.

I think that NotionInk.com is on to something, though when shipping product will arrive, I don't know.
Yeah, let's implement this, and now everyone has to think twice before buying an app because they see a dollar bill leaving their hand rather than some abstract number.

It'll be great for sales!
New to HN, Overloaded by Information
I'm an outsider to the development community. I enjoy thinking about software and media, however, and came up with an idea that I've been working on for a year now. I started my own LLC and began contracting with freelance developers. As a recent applicant to the YC winter session, I'm told to participate and post on the forum to give the YC crew an idea about how I think.

There's a big problem though: I don't know the language of the profession well enough to contribute my input to the vast majority of content I see on the forum. I feel like attempting to participate in a discussion in which I know %40 of what is really going on only sets me up to look woefully incompetent.

Any help out there for guys like me who are new to the culture of developers?
You get the natural language toolkit also.
The separators are always translucent, but I love how the new one pushes the old one up and out of view. I play with this a lot, even though I only realised it when you mentioned it.
Its inexcusable if the original Zune doesn't have a track scrobbler like all media players are supposed to but WP7 doesn't.
I think ez77 is pointing out the irony that Scott just published Steve's email response for the entire universe to see, but the footer message on his original email indicates Scott would be none too pleased if Steve did the same to him.
Lot of respect for the guy. In an industry that is slow to embrace the impact of technology, he loves being at the forefront.

I think his tweet from this morning epitomizes what the guy is all about: "Don't be thirsty. Be Hungry" He's also as humble as they come.
Get the one esoteric developer to develop a layer of indirection (or API) for the other two developers to work with.

That way, you may be able to utilise all your developers fully.

As the saying goes "all problems in tech can be solved by an extra layer of indirection"
Technically the back arrow should slide in as well, but it seems the author put in a custom left button on the navigation bar to go back instead of letting the navigation bar do it's thing. I don't know his reasoning why but it's annoying if you are going to talk about how cool their transitions are and not do them correctly.
Simple and useful. I like it.
Why the Kleiner Perkins sFund really matters
I think it's a great idea, but doesn't an abstract representation of cash also benefit the merchant, because it makes people more likely to make spur-of-the-moment purchases? Making this process much more concrete and emphasising the "taking your money away from you" aspect might make everybody less inclined to pay for things and thus might make a payment system based on this idea unpopular.
I wouldn't want to play an MMO when I get old. Seems like such a waste of time when one's already short on time. Factor in that every MMO will have it's fair share of abusers... that's not something my grandparents would've enjoyed.

If one wants to play and relax, MMO is the wrong kind of game, in my experience.

What games one prefers largely depends on the person. My grandparents wouldn't have played any computer game, because they preferred poking around in their garden, or doing something productive.

Knowing my father, he'll play something like farmville. Knowing myself, I'll play nethack.
Nokia boosts Qt commitment, changes Symbian strategy
i'd like to say the domain name swap thread/spreadsheet moved to http://hntrades.com/
Actual site:
http://wlf1ring.blogspot.com/
True, but there is a JVM for them to download and install. At some point, when there are new Java/JVM updates, there won't be an Apple to get them from, and there likely won't be anyone else to get them from either, unless Oracle steps up and starts providing it.

I've said it before - Sun was stupid for focusing so publicly on "JAVA" (ticker symbol, etc) yet leaving the implementations up to other vendors. But now there's not even a Sun to complain to, so... :/
That's nifty! One thing I find annoying about colour pickers is that they show a TINY preview in a small rectangle. When you fill a big chunk of screen real estate (like for a background) it looks totally different (to my crappy design eye).

This picker might not be practical for everyday kind of professional use - but it's a great alternative for trying to pick a new colour when you don't know exactly what you're looking for.
Grouspawn.com: What if
AMD could get there. Apple uses ATI parts and has the OpenCL optimizations for them. I don't really see it likely.

I do wonder if AMD got bought would they still be able to keep the x86 licenses (not sure on what final settlement was).
What about running a command prompt from within emacs? I spawn one in my .emacs file with: (shell).
This is absolutely genius. Please expand to Belgium pronto. I'd have no problem with a commission as high as 30%.
Can't see this doing well:

- Uncompetitive price.

- No 3G.

- Odd quilted effect on rear. Nobody's going to buy it because of that, and it will only look tacky in the long run.

- Distracting HP logo at the edge of the screen, looks bad when held vertically.

From the video linked to by BigZaphod, a lot of it is a guy working on a spreadsheet or presentation everywhere he goes. It's not exactly an inspiring scenario - there have even been cases of people choosing holiday locations for their lack of BlackBerry reception.

http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/lawyers_wrestle_with_...
Yes, but they look so sleek. Seriously, people will judge the trustworthiness of your company by the appearance of your boxes and the quality of your branding. I don't know the costs of the cardboard boxes you're looking at, but I suspect that the price difference might be worth it. Add a simple logo and you'll be golden. ...I like the 'redboxaway' because the color is the brightest, and because red and box are the same number of letters it leads itself to more logo options. There is a possible name clash with a popular video rental business though.
>As someone who has already asked this kind of question on HN, that type of cookie-cutter advice really isn't helpful at all

The problem, then, is that every time somebody is seeking this advice, they use a throw-away account and talk about their business in vague generalities.

It's impossible to give specific, actionable advice when you have no idea about the specifics of the problem.
i've heard of new companies doing that when ordering checks.

though strangely i've also seen other companies refuse checks below a certain number, as some sort of measure of credit worthiness.
I'm planning on launch by the end of November (cross fingers). My marketing strategy is mostly going to be organic SEO, and some folks with pre-existing relationships in the market want to white label it, which is not difficult for me to offer.
human progress was never a result of religious fanaticism. sticking to one language because it is the "one true language" is a lot of crap.
Maybe. If he was, it wasn't clear, especially with "Your tables almost always have a better unique key." I took that as meaning using some element of the record.

Regardless, you make a good point. =)
Do you really think so?

I believe that many people would be willing to pay more...
It’s very different from an iPad and there will probably be very, very few people who will want it but there will be some (i.e. it will be about as successful as all other tablet PCs of the last decade).

If HP wants to beat the iPad – that’s how Ballmer framed it, HP doesn’t seem to see it that way – this is an unmitigated disaster. The HP Slate has potential to be a nice niche product, not to beat the iPad. Or, to put it in another way, the iPad and iPad-class devices have a shot at changing the future of computing, this has not.
Cash4Gold is a terrible investment. you can nearly always get a better price at your local pawn broker (or hell, eBay.) They may not technically be a scam, but they are still perceived as such and have a terrible reputation amongst customers.
Online community helping one of its members off the street
Jared Huggins lost his little savings, partly while playing poker. He became homeless, and desperate.

The community of poker players 2+2 gave him support, ideas to go forward, and countless donations. Now he's got a home again, and this is the thank you video to that community. Here's the main related thread: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/54/poker-beats-brags-variance/hu-vs-drooler-lost-my-roll-jared-huggins-story-715623/.

This story tells quite a lot about social interactions.
The one on my Vaio pulses similar to my wifes Macbook.

Not all PC makers are clueless.

I've long thought Sony to have the finest industrial design this side of Apple.
Ask HN: How to learn Design?
Hi,
I'm engineer by education but I'm very much passionate about design. By design, I mean visual design. How do I get started?
Apparently it's an ancient idea:

http://ask.metafilter.com/117775/What-was-the-first-website-...

So much for what I thought was an original idea!
Coding patriarchy into IT
Team Fortress 2 Modders Make Nearly $50,000 Apiece
One of the very important reasons why it got built in New Mexico is that the White Sands test range has restricted airspace to infinity, which is unique out side of like the pentagon. As a result the air/space space right next to it is nicely uncluttered so they don't have to worry about space debris nearly as much.
I agree that the keyboard on the iPad is hard to type on, but from the looks of the video, the latency with pen writing would be even more annoying!
You mean the "top of earth's atmosphere" or maybe "high flying planes" port.

SpaceShipOne/Two does NOT go into space!

It barely exits the mesosphere. Space starts 73-76 miles up.

Virgin doesn't have any craft that goes above 68 miles.

The USA set a far lower standard for political reasons at 50 miles to make-believe and call people "astronauts".
With the Galaxy Tab and now the HP Slate priced the same or higher than the iPad, I wonder if the "Apple tax" meme will give way to a "non-Apple tablet tax".
I submitted this, and not the original source (http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2010-10-22-valves-user...) because it requires (free) log in to read.

Here's the full text of the original source:

Valve's user-created content store earns modders $50k
Royalties from the new in-game user-created content store in Valve's multiplayer shooter Team Fortress 2 have approached $50,000 for some players.

Five modders, who won a competition to have their creations featured, earned five-figure sums from the in-game Mann Co. Store - which opened just a fortnight ago.

Creators keep 25 per cent of all item sales, with the rest going to Valve. The highest-revealed royalty payment to date is $47,000, meaning Valve would have taken approximately $140,000 from the sales of just one modder's content.

"It was completely mind-blowing, the size of the return that we're getting on these things," modder Spencer Kern, one of the top two earners so far, told Gamasutra.

Valve flew Kern and another player, Steven Skidmore, to its office to present them with their money first-hand, as payments had exceed Paypal's permissible limits.

Said Valve boss Gabe Newell, "It benefits us because it grows the community, right? These [content creators] benefit, but we benefit too.

"Once people realise this is about their community, and that the right people are getting the benefits... after a while, they'll say, 'This is really how these kinds of communities need to work.'"

Valve will also sell its own content on the store, but plans to significantly extend the range of amateur contributions. Prices for items currently range from less than a dollar to $17.50.

"What you really want to do is create per-person pricing, or per-person monetisation or per-person ways of creating value," said Newell. "In a sense, asking 'could you support a game entirely with just this as a monetisation model?' - you could."
The Beginning of the End – Mac Appstore Guidlines
Of course they did it's New Mexico, home of Vagina O'Keeffe.
NeXT to developers: With OpenStep you can write once and run anywhere!

Sun to NeXT: yeah, let's do this!

Sun to developers: "With Java you can write once and run anywhere!"

Sun to Lighthouse Design: Come to daddy!

Sun to NeXT: buh-BYE!

Sun to OS vendors: "Hey, we just promised developers they can run Java on your platforms. Now you go make it happen!"

Apple to NeXT: come to daddy!

NeXT to Apple: Avast ye swabbies - prepare to be boarded, arrrr!

(...time passes...)

Oracle to Sun: Come to daddy!

Apple to Snoracle: "... you!"
I thought it was well-known that the universe is pixelated at the Planck scale?
It's much closer to Roswell...
I just like to add a little contrasting experience, note our paths start out similar:
- I left a (very) high paying consulting position
- I'm not in the US
- Coded up a great product & launched
- Nothing happened, very little attention on blogs
- Several very well funded US competitors appear, get lots of press
- A year later I'm still adding features, starting to gain a little traction, but making barely enough to live off
- Two years later, I'm making a lot of money and product is doing really well, representatives in 6 countries, triple digit growth

I think the main think I noticed was that OTHER startups getting funded was actually good for ME, since it validated the product and people started to google around for alternatives. They made the beginner mistakes I already passed. Only sales I did was $10 a day on adwords, just to get some traffic going.

So: don't give up too soon.
Decrementing from there would be more fun.