skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
The Apple SQL Server is MySQL or Postgres. The Google Zune is Android. Lots of people still pay the premium price for Microsoft Office but they don't need to. I haven't used it in years. Instead I use Google Docs and OpenOffice.
Your mileage may vary, and I don't guarantee I'm reading your code right, but:

1) You will find it useful to be able to coerce A/B test values, particularly in testing and sometimes (for CS purposes) on the live site.

2) I do not see a convenient method of having Ms. Smith get the same website at home and at her workplace. That may or may not be a problem for you.

3) You may find "control" and "experiment" to be limiting once you start doing this frequently -- they aren't nearly as self-documenting six months down the line when you're staring at your web page wondering "What possessed me to make this button teal?!"

4) I'm pretty sure you have a race condition for creation of new tests. (This has bitten A/Bingo a few times.)
I'm sorry I missed your talk at UBC. Please come back again soon!
I am sorry if I was not clear enough, but my interpretation of other domains was music players, tablets,etc. I agree Sharepoint and SQL Server are huge hits and they are doing good in corporate applications.
You may be mad, but unfortunately this is not the place for it. Let us know if it pans out.
"Way off-topic from the OP, but a great debate non-the-less."

I find this discussion very relevant to the question of whether Paypal is a bank, whether it should be a bank, if we were better off if Paypal was brought under government banking regulations, etc.
You make some good points!

See ... this is why I said I would have benefited from a co-founder with more of a business mindset. I get so gung-ho about an idea that I don't always think about it from that angle.
"Granted, they fixed it immediately when I complained, and PayPal may not"

That seems a rather large caveat.
IMHO, PHP's main flaws are not in the types of features discussed by OP. It's mostly an issue of naming and namespacing. Another thing that is kind of wrong about it is the URL => file semantics (when used as a web framework). Other frameworks do this better which results in clean URL's and more structured codebases.

Amongst other things that PHP gets right is the date/time handling (two functions to go between datetimes and UNIX timestamps, support for timezones).
Has Ballmer demonstrated a particular adeptness with numbers or the nuts and bolts of operating a massive corporation? We know he's not a product visionary, but from my seat he's really a mid-level salesman who is the epitome of the Peter Principle.
What?

a) XBOX usage destroys Wii in usage, games purchased, and subscription fees all of which are better indicators of the platform' success than hardware units sold which are traditionally a loss leader. And oh yah, XBOX is wildy profitable. Meanwhile Wii sales are down 45% since last September!

b) They are JUST launching their mobile platform which has gotten fair to begrundgingly good reviews and is opening in 30 markets supported by HTC, DELL, LG, AT&T, Verizon, etc. You can expect MSFT to be AT WORST the #3 player in an insanely huge and growing market.

c) BING just signed an innovative deal with Facebook, Google's copying features from them, and they're gaining traction while Google has been stagnant and slightly down year to date.

And that's ignoring that Windows 7 is on a tear, and a great product to boot.

2010 has been a huge year for MSFT, if they manage to keep executing at this level they are going to win a couple of these markets.

Microsoft plays loooonnnnng ball and they've got tens of billions in the bank, I certainly wouldn't say they're in trouble.

DATA:

http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/10/15/uh-oh-september-wii-sal...

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/halo3untitledodstgame...

http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/11/microsoft-announces-ten-w...

http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-total-cash-a...

http://siteanalytics.compete.com/bing.com/

http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2010/10/...

http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2010/6/c...
> Sharepoint in particular has been a surprise breakout hit.

Indeed. Tech historians will scratch their heads about that for generations. It's such a horrid product to use that one can only wonder how bad its competition is.
"While the end-result is indistinguishable from "stealing", they at least deserve the distinction."

Sometimes the most straight-forward word to describe a thing brings the most clarity to the discussion. Doesn't pretty much any thief have a euphemism for what it is they do?
Are you planning to release svn write-support in any fashion at any point in the future? git has git-cvsserver, and could really use a git-svnserver.

Also, many of the casual svn users I talk to are on Windows using TortoiseSVN. Git's Windows support has grown in leaps and bounds in recent months, but it's still not quite 100% (seems the entire git mailing list uses linux/osx, TortoiseGit isn't as clean/solid as TortoiseSVN, and it's documentation is in broken english). Do you see this as an area GitHub needs to tackle in order to get more Git adoption, and if so, what are you doing about it?
Ask HN: pitch decks for demo day
I am curious if any YC or TechStars companies share their demo day slides.

I am in the middle of a similar seed fund in Nashville (http://jumpstartfoundry.com) and we have a demo day kind of opportunity to pitch a group of investors in a couple of weeks.

I am getting solid advice from the mentors I am working with, but would love to get some examples from companies at a similar stage in a similar program.
Business models on the web
Good points, but let me offer a few counterpoints:

- All three consoles started from nothing just a few short years ago, and in fact the XBox 360 had a year head start on the PS3 and the Wii (launching at the end of 2005 versus end of 2006 for the PS3 and Wii.)

- According to VG Chartz, the Wii has sold 8.97 million consoles from Jan-Oct 2010, while the Xbox 360 has sold 6.8 million and the PS3 has sold 7.1 million. Yes, XBox 360 sales faired much better over the summer, but we will have to wait and see if this indicates a sustainable trend or a blip.

- Yes, Xbox 360 is doing well from the standpoint of attach rates, with an 8.9 versus around a 7ish for the Wii. It appears the PS3 has been gaining significant ground lately with its attach rate.

- In the fiscal year 2010, Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices Division (which includes the Xbox 360) generated $8.5 billion in revenues and just $679 million in operating income. Considering Microsoft's consolidated operating income in 2010 was $24 billion, this $679 million represents only about 3% of Microsoft's profits.

- Ultimately, the Xbox 360, the PS3, and the Wii may be irrelevant given the emergence of connected televisions, thin devices, and cloud-based gaming.
Wilson, a Django-inspired node.js framework
I think this perception is because .NET was developed to compete with Java, and one of the very definite objectives of Java was to make programming "safe" for entry/low-level enterprise programmers.
What software will this 7" iOS device run? iPad software shrunk down 50% in size, or iPhone software expanded 50% is size?

Neither works. Neither is compelling. UI design is fundamentally different between a 4" screen and a 10" screen, regardless of the actual screen resolution.

The only reason people are talking about 7" tablets because Android 2.2 is absolutely ridiculous on a 10" screen (see previous paragraph). It's also a way for these manufacturers to compete on price with the iPad.
I totally agree with you, I always pay what the authors want for the books that they write. I am a visual learner so thanks!
I admit that I've been in situations where I had to find out in what change a piece of code was committed, but on the other hand the code and the comments weren't too great. Also one of the purposes was to find out the author, so that I could pass the bug to him.

I'm curious in what situations would a commit message be more appropriate than a comment. A couple of examples would be great.

By the way, is there something like Perforce's Time-lapse View tool[1] for git?

[1] http://www.perforce.com/perforce/press/pr55.html
"always highest revenue just before the bubble bursts"?

Isn't this a bit like asking why a lost item is always in the last place you look for it?

Of course revenues are highest before a decline starts. The decline has to start from somewhere; some event has to happen to turn your fortunes from positive to negative. Your revenue has to be climbing upwards for anyone to label it a "bubble". Mediocre companies that implode don't warrant the "bubble" label.

This is just misinterpreting a turn of language.
Many languages support "variable variables", but not as directly as Tcl and PHP. Any language that has the ability to evaluate strings as code can do it.

# Ruby
a = "some text"
b = "a"
eval b # => "some text"

# Python
a = "some text"
b = "a"
eval(b) # => "some text"

# Javascript
a = "some text";
b = "a";
eval(b) // => "some text"

I've found the the more "quick and dirty" a language is, the simpler it is to use variable variables. And I don't mean quick and dirty as an insult. Bash supports this, and while I consider it quick and dirty, you can pry bash from my cold dead hands.

# Bash
a="some text"
b="a"
echo ${!b} # => "some text"

Having said all that, using variable variables is a great way to piss off whoever has to maintain your code, so use them sparingly, and only when appropriate. There is little or no opportunity for context with variable variables. To add insult to injury, variable variables can result in gaping security holes as well. Think of the implications were an attacker able to substitute the value of the variable variable in any situation where the output is sent to the client. The attacker could randomly guess at variable names, dumping all manner of information. Anything in the global scope. Yikes!

There are far better ways to do this in modern languages. For example, use a hash or dictionary construct. A Ruby example:

# Ruby
myhash = { :a => "some text" }
b = "a"
myhash[b.to_sym] # => "some text"

A Python example using a dict:

# Python
mydict = { 'a' : "some text" }
b = "a"
mydict[b] # => "some text"

A hash or dictionary gives you the opportunity to give your collection a meaningful name, scopes the evaluation to that object (so you can't arbitrarily retrieve variable data), and provides context.
Yeah, but generators have been done much better. Look at Icon, Lua, or Prolog.
Why Extending Through Subclassing (a framework’s classes) is a Bad Idea
Python equivalent: locals()[somevar]
CL Studio Live - GPU Accelerated Video Effects
We are working on a new project using Windows 7, DirectX 10.1 and DirectCompute. Would love HN's comments on the software, pricing and concepts.
He could charge the cardholder/user a nominal amount like paypal does to verify their identity and then refund it to them. A forum owner who then uses Truyoo pays out to Truyoo 25c for every new member who signs up under the system and goes on to make a certain number of posts, say for instance at least fifteen. The new member will by that stage have added value to the forum and is worth the cost, as they haven shown not to be a one-question drive-by costing the forum owner.

The system would have benefits for forum owners as it prevents both spammers and trolls and makes it harder for people to make shill posts using aliases thus increasing the signal to noise ratio. I don't agree that one mark against a Truyoo member should disqualify them from ever entering any other Truyoo enabled forum, as arguments arise on forums readily. Moderators can be punch-drunk on power and ban users flippantly even though they might have been in the right.

Rather, it should go on their record like a credit rating. Other forums can choose whether to accept or deny them entrance. Truyoo users should be allowed to explain themselves too in comments on their profile against any mark. They should also be able to choose to set different user names for each forum for privacy. Their true identity and aliases should also be kept secret from forum owners. Perhaps they could pay a premium for this - the $2 or you could add a zero.
Call me loony but I see nothing surprising here. It's just indirection... I guess I've probably got some Elder Thing blood in me.
CL Studio Live - 8 Cameras + 8 Virtual Displays
We are working on a new project using Windows 7, DirectX 10.1 and DirectCompute. Would love HN's comments on the software, pricing and concepts.

In this video we showcase 8 cameras in use on one host machine. The results are rendered to the screen (8 display outputs) in real-time.
Which language would be the best to learn if I am going to college and wanting to be a Software Developer?
He makes a good point, although I'm not necessarily sure I agree that it's a bad idea on the whole. My takeaway from this is that choosing the proper interface before freezing the API is absolutely essential, because changing it later is hard.
can we recruit that cat from reddit to HN? I want that guy around here.
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=338622
What?!

Xbox is wildly profitable? xbox (original + 360) has lost MS tens of billions of dollars in its history (not an exaggeration). The fact that its just now (the last 2 quarters, an no more) pulling in profits in the hundreds of millions means that they'll break even in 5-10 years.

If you gave me $10, and I gave you back $0.50, would you consider it a "wildly profitable" venture for yourself?
http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=masklinn
Apple Has $51 Billion and a Shopping List. Is Facebook On It?
Please stop downvoting this post. My sentiments are not the same as kenjackson's, but his are valid and well-expressed. Reply if you disagree with him, but there's no reason to downvote.
We already do support writing via the SVN bridge: http://github.com/blog/644-subversion-write-support

Windows support for Git is ok, but it could be a lot better. We absolutely intend to create first class Git/GitHub experiences on every platform.
I started using PHP in the late 90's, back when it was pretty useful in the sense of being able to embed code directly in web pages, so I liked it in a very general sense. Then I started building larger apps, and I started to get the kind of attitude about it that leads very many programmers to declare that "PHP sucks" or "I hate PHP." Then, I started building even larger apps, and I cursed PHP for every line of code I had to write.

Then, something happened. Yes, the language matured, but I also started using application frameworks in PHP, which addressed many of the issues I had with PHP, and then I built an MVC framework from scratch, based on what I'd learned.

Now, I just don't care. I'm not going to defend PHP as a good language, not even it's creator will do that, but when people go on about how terrible PHP is, my first thought is "well, then use it more, and eventually you'll stop caring."

I stick with PHP, specifically for open source, because of it's install density, because it is extremely flexible, and because I know all it's weird quirks and inconsistencies so well that they no longer bother me. I wouldn't mind switching to a more structured and consistent language if it came up, but I don't see PHP as a limitation for anything I want to accomplish, and haven't for a very long time.

And anyways, terrible code is terrible code, and when I think about having to delve into projects that are spaghetti, or procedural, or have no separation of concerns, I don't blame the language for my frustration.
Thanks for the link - interesting.

"There are many things that I still want to do to improve our implementation, but can't find the time to write."
- so you did the main part of coding on Gazehawk?

What I did was quite a simple stuff - I combined opensource GazeTracker (http://www.gazegroup.org/downloads/23-gazetracker - that uses OpenCV) with FaceAPI from SeeingMachines. I also experimented with accelerometer module instead of FaceAPI and second webcam but that was a dead end :) In the end after calibration I managed to get about 1-2cm accuracy on 2 test subjects. After my dad came with his smaller eyes and accuracy went dramatically down - I gave up :)
How is this an argument? You personally don't use a product, ergo it's dying?
Languages that don't provide the flexibility to easily build enough layers of indirection to screw you are generally limited in ways that require heap tons of boilerplate garbage code that screw you more subtly.
The timing inaccuracy across similar projects is due to the internal inaccuracy of the JavaScript timer methods- setTimeout and setInterval; not because of the HTML5 audio tag. If you notice in my app, the keys of the keyboard can be tapped to play sounds. The bass drum and snare are generally on the left, and hi hats/cymbals generally on the right so you can tap out some pretty funky beats. You will notice the timing is very accurate when tapping out beats. I tried a few html5-specific solutions to produce rock-solid timing, but the spec is simply not there yet, and variances between browsers are unacceptable. I have been playing around with the FF4 beta apis a bit, and there are definitely some promising enhancements coming.

Keep me posted on the progress of your project! :)
It's not even really indirection. Variable variables using strings is a useful feature for quickly getting functionality up and running (although there are usually security trade-offs, especially if you accept user input as the string to be evaluated).

Edited for clarity
Good for you, sincerely.
In fact if I was MSFT and you gave me $25.82 (current stock price) I'd give you back $0.64 a year and a share of my stock (current dividend price).

And in fact, they've made that sale 8,650,000,000 times so far (current outstanding shares).

http://www.dividend.com/dividend-stocks/technology/applicati...

EDIT -> You're ignoring that the division DOUBLED profits over the last year, what if they maintain that growth rate?

Or 1/4 of that growth rate?

Either way YES, that's a solid return on investment.
Definitely, but I think that's a situation that should have been addressed by that company, and I don't know if it translates into an argument against a clear career/salary path. They were always free to create new positions or levels.
interesting, I just submitted "tldr" as one of the ideas to yc application in answer to the question "If you had any other ideas you considered applying with...":) I call it cogist (I was thinking of using mturk to do it since my nlp skills are outdated/non existent - "co" gist:)
Steve Jobs Says 7-Inch Tablets Are ‘Dead on Arrival’
Based on my experience, there are a few cases where automated responses are the right thing to do. But it really depends a lot on your specific situation.

Out-of-office messages are, of course, a type of canned response that can be used well in scenarios where people you don't interact with on a daily basis may contact you and need to know when to expect a response or who else to contact.

I worked for a magazine where we accepted article pitches from readers via email. We had a response to acknowledge receipt, link to guidelines, and tell them what to expect (we'll take a look and get back to you later).

Acknowledgement goes a long ways toward building good will with customers/partners/audience in a lot of situations. Easy to overlook, but "I hear you. Thanks." makes people feel good, even if it's a canned response.

I'll admit that these kinds of throw-away emails can contribute to the firehose of information and inbox overflow, but I'll deal with it. A lot of times a simple "Thanks, got it" email from a colleague lets me know I don't have to follow up later and can move on to the next fire drill.
That's all well and good, but managers often have a different incentive structure than normal employees; a manager might command a significantly higher salary, but be out on her ass if her group doesn't meet business performance targets that depend on every member of her group and her own business judgement. An extremely common example in services companies: managers are often responsible for their region's number.
What makes it possible to launch 10% faster? Is it familiarity with the language, tools, libraries, and frameworks? Is it that the language is more dynamic and requires less to accomplish task X? I would say yes to both questions.

Now with the first question, familiarity with the language, lets discuss Python. Python is my language of choice. I know it, I use it, I pay attention to what is happening with the language, the community, etc. I organize a Python User Group. If I were to work on a new project, I would choose Python. I believe I could launch 10% if not 50% faster with Python than with Ruby. Does that make Python a better language? No. Just that I don't know Ruby, Rails, Sinatra, etc.

I think the second question about how dynamic the language is plays into this as well. Java is not very dynamic. Some tasks in Java are downright ugly to work with. If you want to prototype fast and spit out a product fast, you might not want to use Java. At that point, there are several great languages to choose from like Python, Ruby, Groovy, Scala, Lisp, Smalltalk, Javascript, Closure, etc. The list just goes on. You could also argue that .net is more dynamic. But Java has some good points to it as well. You have less risk of bugs due to it being statically and strictly typed. You can build off some great libraries. You get the benefit of the JVM and JIT, which are amazing. Maybe you can't launch faster with Java, but maybe you can launch with a more robust stable product. First doesn't mean best; remember the article about Wasabi and Mint?

The way I read Peter's comment was you don't want to spend you time finding the best language. Instead you want to just grab the most convenient language and spend your time creating the best product. Think through your architecture, work on your design, test the hell product, study the market, your competitors, work on your marketing, and on and on. The list of things to do never end, and if you were still debating about which language to choose, you won't launch.
Interesting. I dug down into one of the actual officers close to the last page. In 2008 he made a total of $156,703.56 and it breaks down like this - Base pay: $75,782.22, Overtime: $2,572.98, Other:$78,348.3

Does anyone have an idea what they mean by "other"?

http://www.sacbee.com/statepay/salary-details/?firstname=Gra...
Also, this is a must-read article about the financial and actual state of bing:
http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-is-trashing-us-for-...

Essentially, for every 1% non-reoccurring market share (worth $150 million), MS is spending $500 million.
1) as far as I know, 5-day workweeks are the norm. I don't know companies that require you to work 6 days. The boss of course doesn't mind if you come in the weekend, but it's not required.

2) we have quite a lot of holidays. Everyone has the national days off + some annual holidays that you can use whenever you want.

I'm a programmer yes. I took part in an innovation contest, got the job that way. Was lucky :) Working in a Chinese company is not easy, it's better if you first learn at least some Chinese.
Example: "Gathered & cut this code from files A, B, and C, because Client X changed their mind about situation Y, and now we can drop those special cases." Anything involving moving / deleting a lot of code. Adding comments to explain deleted code in several places really doesn't make sense.

I don't know about the viewer, but I'm going to look into this soon. We've used p4 for years and are strongly considering switching to git, and if so, I will be doing a lot of helping/explaining during the transition. I really dislike p4 as a VCS (though it was probably the best choice at the time), but agree its diff-viewing tool is actually quite good.
I like the app so far. Interesting take on video conferencing. Would be fun to see Twitter integration soon...