skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Part of the point of the article was that Steve seems to be acting like he does care. His recent rantings make it look like he's upset with the surging market share that android is experiencing and is trying to paint it as less than it is. If he really doesn't care then why is he talking so much about it?
"The Politician's Fallacy: We must do something. This is something. Therfore, we must do it. But doing the wrong thing is worse than doing nothing at all." --Sir Humphrey Appleby, "Yes, Prime Minister."
The best of both worlds: Boxer Briefs? I prefer Under armour over cotton. But to each his own!
Ok, this computerworld kid has a couple of points but the writing is drawn out drivel.

The personal dig about steve's wardrobe was totally un-needed and unclassy.

Steve Jobs has masterminded the most amazing turnaround story probably in history. Have some respect at least. What an idiot this writer is.
My startup was in the same incubator space as Kik up until 3 weeks ago (we just moved out,) and it's really amazing to see these guys finally take off. They have some amazing stuff in the pipeline that's going to blow everyone away.

Funny thing is, they are literally across the hall from Enflick, which is another IM startup that's wildly successful.
This is well timed, to be honest part of me wants to go there and bid just to ask Paul Graham why we didn't get into YCombinator. But, we are in NYC :)
Agreed that many people claiming "SCIANCE!" don't really know what science is. Most scientists don't, either.

That's not meant as a slam against all those other scientists who just aren't as smart as brilliant ol' me. Interest in epistemology is different than a passion for protein folding, and one can effectively apply the methods without diving deep into the philosophy.

In the New Organon , (wherein Francis Bacon basically invented the scientific method IMHO), Bacon outright says there will be millions of ground soldiers applying science to the world without understanding deeply the epistemology of their actions. He saw that as natural and unavoidable considering how foreign, unnatural, and downright unpleasant the scientific worldview is to a normal human being. Experience seems to bear out his prediction - in fact, all we have is gradations in the ability to apply scientific thinking. Nobody does it all the time.
Whilst fixing that I might also point out that the processor on Beagleboard isn't a microcontroller either. The memory is external, it typically runs HLOSs etc. etc.
Ask HN: Do you think intuition is as valuable as rational thinking?
[This is the first thread I've started here on HN, so I apologize if I made some kind of obvious blunder.]

I was wondering what other hackers' opinions are regarding the value and importance of rational thinking versus intuitive thinking.

By intuitive thinking I mean "going with your gut," doing something because it "feels right," and pursuing something you feel inspired to pursue even though you don't have any rational explanation why at the time.

Rational thinking, on the other hand, would be having a fully realized logical plan and explanation for your actions and decisions.

In the past, I have met some hacker types who think that rationality is the be-all end-all of everything, and that if you can't explain or prove something rationally, then it's not of any value.

Personally, I think that intuition can be more powerful than rationality in some cases, and certainly equally important to train and be able to use. (In my experience, decisions and actions based on intuition usually end up having a rational explanation, I just don't fully understand until later.)

I also think that you can train your intuition, or at least train yourself to recognize when your intuition is good, and then follow it.

Since most people here are trying to think of something new and useful, I imagine that they understand the importance of creativity and imagination, and since intuition and inspiration are crucial for that, I would guess that most people here basically agree with me, but I was wondering what other hackers have to say about this.

What do you think?
Thanks.
I checked it out. So far so good! The only thing that's hard is getting content. People only come when they can find reviews, and you only get reviews when people come. Yelp got started having yelp elite parties- they rewarded the top reviewers with access to hot parties with models. It worked. I think anyone that can figure out a way to incentivize people to come and leave reviews has a good shot at unseating yelp. Good luck and let me know how it goes. I'm in Tokyo but live in palo alto- get more content up on the site, or make it dead simple for me to add reviews.
No, I mean the MS headed by the man who famously called Linux "a cancer” and still operates on the premise the kernel is in violation of MS patents (http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2010/02/microsoft-amaz...)

I mean the IBM which pulled the rug out from under the Apache Harmony project not a month ago to jump in bed with Oracle.

What you're talking about is in actuality a difference of degrees between the three.
I'm not sure how many non-tech companies have been accepted, but here's what they say about it:

Though we fund all types of startups, we're especially interested in web/mobile applications. We've been thinking about that problem longer than anyone else, and by now can visualize much of the space of possibilities.
Don't worry though because neither the UK economy nor the government are really on the brink of collapse.
I'm not sure for everything, but on iOS 4.1 with my iPod Touch (so no, I don't have a modern mobile phone, but this is basically the same) it's much easier to do the things most people do (Twitter, Facebook, email) than it is on a PC. Plus, want to install a game? A couple taps and a couple dollars, and you're ready to play a game within seconds.

Compare that with a PC: find a game online, create an account to download it, spend $20-$50 on it or perhaps just $10-$15 if it's a basic game, wait while it downloads, then step through the installer and if all goes well, you can play your game.

We're all programed to do it, and it's a no brainer for those of us that are used to it, but the iOS model is so much simpler for people who don't enjoy tweaking a machine and just want it to work.
Cool they did it. I was expecting an article on HOW they did it!
Normally you add such things down the back so they look more normal and less distracting when talking to people.
I agree but I would assume it has to do with anti-piracy measures. Being the number-one music vendor in the US has its downsides since all the record companies (and RIAA) have a vested interest in it.

Though I could be wrong.
You've missed his point slightly. It is not that they are literally laughing..

But the point was - terrorists aim to provoke fear and discord; blowing up a passenger aircraft is pretty terrifying, but causing anger, fear frustration and discord on an international scale can be just as good. And all they have to do is get a bomb (even a useless, utterly ineffective one) onto a plane every few months.

Bureaucracy does the rest :)
I don't what the article is trying to say either but I wouldn't say that the economy is on the brink of collapse. It's healthy in some parts, and in dire need of direction and help in others. That's from someone working across a lot of industries at the moment.

I have a feeling the 2 ruling parties will work together until the first results of the cuts will come through before the next election, and then both will apportion blame/take credit in a vicious contest.
Wait, a site got to a million users without being featured on Techcrunch?
Probably because everyone else seems to think that market share is so important. I'm not sure why. Look at Apple's current position as a minority PC vendor.

I think Steve is trying to make the point that the iOS ecosystem is huge, healthy, and a much larger play than a smartphone OS.
RFID Transplantation
Some NoSQL products geared towards rapid prototyping, and not for scalability, like for example CouchDB. With CouchApps you can create entire Web App in Javascript, sitting in CouchDB.
Yes. I've been involved in home automation for many many years. Our house has pretty much all the primary lights and outlets controlled by Insteon devices. A Mac Mini runs a software called Indigo that handles all the logic and macros, the same Mini has our primary audio library on it, and some other media.

Every plasma TV in the house also has a Mac Mini at a minimum, some also have Tivos and Apple TVs.

Intelligent video cameras around the house can detect people or vehicles approaching up the driveway or around other perimeter areas and send me email alerts, video clips and/activate other things via the Indigo/Insteon system.

We have a dual-zone heating/cooling setup. The thermostats are Venstars with an Insteon RF interface. Setpoints are selected based on time of day, outdoor temps, and occupancy (sensed via motion detectors and/or our presence at our other house (eg: if there is activity at house X, we can keep house Y from initiating common events)).

I have a Redeye wifi to IR iPod base station thing for controlling the TV and AV gear we spend most time around. This is mostly accessed through an I* app, but can also be controlled via an http interface.

From a web interface, my iPhone or my iPad I can turn any light on or off, change temperature setpoints, read status of various sensors, or control iTunes, all through the Indigo app. Through a separate web interface I've written, I can see recent events from the security cameras and access control systems, see live video, lock/unlock certain doors and so forth.

There is a Russound multi-zone amp and zone selector in the basement ( though we mostly just use the amp now). A combination of airport expresses and rogue amoeba apps allows me to route audio from pretty much any device/point in the house to any other device or room. There are in-ceiling speakers in the bedroom and master bath, speakers in the garage, and on the back deck, all on separate zones.

I've run about 2 miles of cable (cat5 and rg6) throughout the house to create a communications backbone.

I'm probably missing a few things, but the summary of it is that the houses mostly adapt around us for things like lights and hvac. We can listen to music anyplace we happen to be ( there is almost always music playing at our house).

The current incarnation of the system is the result of hacking around with HA for about a dozen years now trying different things to see what works. When I first started doing this my wife was basically like 'NFW' and now she wouldn't want to live without it.
I second pivot tables. But there are also calculations like VLOOKUP and SUMIF that help.
I don't believe I'm privy to any secrets, but I'll do my best not to leak information.

My complaint is with additive models of liability. [In brief compute an independent relative risk for each SNP. To compute the risk of disease, take the log sum of the relative risks.] I haven't seen a model that can take into account epistatic effects.
Wind powered vehicle nearly 3 times faster than downwind
Do you know what was their marketing plan to launch Kik?
Do you believe in a god? If not, you are an atheist regardless of whether you are open to the option of one existing or not.
What you're terming "bag-of-things" languages can probably be more aptly described as languages which have both dict/tables/objects and first-class functions.

While there isn't really a term (that I'm aware of) specifically for the this/self convention, both are idiomatic examples of dynamic scoping (compared to lexical scoping); that is, scope is determined at runtime by the most recent stack frame to define a given variable (ie, foo defines "this", then calls "bar", bar sees "this" as it was defined by foo), rather than at lex time.
JR Raphael: "First, when you say that Apple has more daily activations than Android, your figures include all iOS devices: iPhones, iPads, and iPods. The Android figures we've been looking at so far focus solely on phones."

The actual quote from Steve Jobs on the earnings call:

"Well, what about Google? Last week, Eric Schmidt reiterated that they are activating 200,000 Android devices per day. And have around 90,000 apps in their App Store. For comparison, Apple has activated around 275,000 iOS devices per day on average for the past 30 days with a peak of almost 300,000 iOS devices per day on a few of those days. And Apple has 300,000 apps on its App Store." (Source: http://seekingalpha.com/article/230710-apple-s-ceo-discusses...)

Why is the author rebuking Steve Jobs about "your figures include all iOS devices" when that is exactly what Steve Jobs actually said?

Mr. Raphael even cites an article which has a disclaimer at the top that says "The story you're about to read is not (entirely) true" as evidence that Mr. Jobs doesn't allow the word "open" to be used in his house.

This feels like manufactured criticism.
To programmers, Sun seemed earnest about its intentions. Thats why we adopted its Platform. Could anyone name one guy like James Gosling in Oracle ? Didn't thinks so.

With Oracle, everything they do with Java seems to be slimy. Suing Google, JCP elections ( Hologic ?? ). premium for JVM . I fear this trend is to continue.

There are those who think that Oracle would continue to invest in Open JDK and continue to evolve it. I am sure they also believe that MySQl has an even brighter future ahead of it.

The unfortunate sideffect is that cool new languages like Scala and Clojure could end up as collateral damage as JVM is no longer seen as a viable and open platform.

I just might have to bite the bullet and learn me some Haskell after all !! Or GO programming language.
A name is really important for a startup to take off.

Kik.com kicks ass, instead of 'socialmsgr.im'

My only advice to entrepreneurs is: pick a great name.

Delivering a great product is just mandatory.
Ins key.

Even pause[break] has a function, at least on Windows, try Win+pause. I map scrolllock to scroll-lock function in emacs.
Even if you are the type who's fine with abortion, like me, trust me, I spent a good day and a half throwing up every 20 minutes while popping codeine while I experienced agonizing cramping as chunks of bloody goo were expelled from my crotch. (I recommend going the surgical route instead for anyone who's considering the medical abortion)

Well when you offset it with that statement, from her own blog it shows an utter lack of personal responsibility. Sex is fun it also has consequences. I am all for free love and lots of sex, but if you are going to chose a lifestyle with a high volume of partners, it needs to be offset with some level of personal responsibility, for the choices you make. I see it no different than drinking. You can choose to have sex or drink and no one should have any say in that choice, but if you take irresponsible action like driving drunk or having sex without the proper safeguards if pregnancy is not the intended goal, then you should take personal responsibility for your choice to drink and drive or have unprotected sex. When you don't it profoundly affect other peoples lives.
I would suspect that as well or by counting relationships instead of actual accounts. Let's ask them: http://www.kik.com/blog/2010/11/zero-to-a-million-in-15-days...
Odd. He claims that almost no phones are running 2.2, when it was 28% back in September:

http://www.androidcentral.com/android-22-froyo-already-28-pe...
Please don't apologize for trying things. :)

To answer your question. I have personally been more right than wrong when i have followed a gut feeling. I also act when i go with it more often than when i dont. When i am 'rational' i often DO NOT act because rationality tends to lead to pessimism. Atleast with me.
the vast majority of unemployed people will not "find work". they will be "given work" by other people who are in a position to take advantage of them

I think you're basically right; it's already happening on a large scale with lower skilled jobs. Over the last few years lots of employers have switched to hiring people on short-term contracts and getting rid of them before they become entitled to redundancy pay.

About two years ago the benefits system was struggling to cope with this. A person would be claiming JSA, get a job and stop claiming, then get let go after a few months and replaced with another cheap unemployed person. They would then have to make a new JSA claim. I think the result was an increased load in new benefits claims and delays in processing them.

This way of conducting business is pretty bad imo - it just screws poor people. But there are some good things happening too - especially with trying to lower the cost of public sector employees (see the example on TV yesterday of forcefully retiring police officers with 30+ years service to reduce high salaries and pension contributions).
Jump into #rubyonrails on irc.freenode.net - it's very oriented towards the newbie, and it's generally easy to find answers there if you ask good questions.
Thank you for commenting on this article.
Wow! What an amazing feeling it must be to know that one of your essays has had a positive impact on a young kid. Nice going PG!
I dont think so, my facebook feed is currently assaulted by friends asking and sharing their KIK ID (and none of them is a geek or an early adopter usually)
Ruby blocks make the top of my list. I sorely, sorely miss them when I'm working in other languages.
Does 50mph in 20mph wind!

Video in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CcgmpBGSCI

(looks like it's right out some post-apocalyptic anime ie. Ergo Proxy)
Intuition + rational thinking = valuable/powerful
I was going to say Bob Miner and Ed Oates but I've just checked and neither of them is a current Oracle employee.

Why is "suing Google" automatically slimy? They're a corporation like any other. In fact they're not unlike Oracle was at a similar age...
That is a good article. I did not see much point to the computer world opinion piece.
I think the best option for the community is to stick to JDK 1.6 and never upgrade. If people get sick of the Java language going nowhere they can just use Scala on JDK 1.6, or some sort of fork of the Java language that compiles to bytecode that runs on 1.6, etc. I really can't see any of the open source projects embracing the commercial feature set.

1.6 is a really great platform. I don't see it being obsoleted, at least on the server side, for at least 5 more years and no doubt code will live on in production that runs on 1.6 practically forever.
Exactly. I'm old enough to remember when Sun's stock ticker wasn't JAVA it was SUNW... W for workstation.
What is Diversity?
I did our home lighting, using Insteon w. a few random x10s still around, using Indigo on a Mini, which is connected to our home ent. system. Hacking is at another level when you need to make sure you don't electrocute yourself or burn the house down!

The best hack, imo, is a simple one - running a HD projector and 72" screen. It's only for movies and sporting events, b/c it's too weird to watch anything non-cinematic on a big screen.

Finally, it's not a hack, but i'll throw in a plug for the Logitech Harmony remote - it's the best we've found for set up and control of our HT system. I can't really comment on it directly, though, because my wife is in charge of setting it up;)
Just my 0.02 cents - the site looks great, and I understood very quickly what you do. I also now have the urge to buy some lasers!

It looks like you already implemented some of the suggestions, just though I'd let you know that, as of now at least, it looks great. The path I took was reading the headline ("we sell rave gear..."), not being sure what that meant, but then seeing "Green Laser Pen". Soon as I saw that, I understood what you're about and started reading products.

So anyway, good job!
Yeah. Same here as well. Google-esque slow roll?
The 4 Salesmen
Ask HN: Can I legally sell iPhone apps on a J-1 visa in the US?
Hi all,

I am a long-time reader who never submitted, and now I have an issue that I don't know how to solve. I am from Europe (non-US citizen), and I am about to accept an offer for an internship in the US. For this internship I will get a J-1 visa, which is a non-immigration visa. The internship in itself has a large educational part, which explains the J-1.

So here it goes. I have developed several iPhone apps that I am about to release, and given that a J-1 visa does not authorize its holder to work in the US, will I be legally authorized to sell these apps while I am in the US, or will this be considered illegal work?

Thanks.
if the iPhone had infinite color models, he would probably highlight that every chance he had, but that doesn't make it a priority in their strategy. But of course if you are passing a company like RIM that represented the concept of smartphone for years, that's something you want to tell people about.
>the vast majority of unemployed people will not "find work". they will be "given work" by other people who are in a position to take advantage of them.

That's of course, when only industrialization is the only factor. When you factor in all the other technological factors and social trends, the picture will begins to look different, if not radically so.
True. So difference between hacking and just using is sometimes a question of time... Cavemen hacked tree branches into sticks to beat eachother up. Today's version of cavemen just buy baseball bats.
P.S. That was a nice black turtleneck you had on the other day. You should really consider wearing those more often.

Well played, JR.

[EDIT: Wait a minute: That classless hack makes a vacuous ad hominem attack his punchline, and I get voted down for pointing that out?]
When teens text thousands of times a week and texts cost $1000+/MB, are you surprised?
Awesome improvement! Wattvision began as a hack -- getting data from my electric meter without altering or affecting it in any way, and making consumer install super simple. You can get the TED -> wattvision uploader from our site, too. :)
Exactly. We as the technology community need to make sure it's not a "dark alley" for anyone, for everyone's sake.
Rational thinking can sometimes be like a wall...

Intuition will sometimes lead to ludicrous solutions...

Guess you have to use rationality to filter out the ridiculous ideas you can come up with intuitively...
This week’s new books in Business and Investing
My girlfriend and I use Kik, for us it was a BBM alternative after I got an Android phone.

And we've been using it longer than 15 days, so to me the headline/graph is misleading. They just released a complete overhaul so they reached a million users on v2 of their software, but how many did v1 have?
Ok so I just read every article I could find about these guys online - could somebody explain why a user would install kik over standard text messaging or IM?

There must be something to it, I just don't know what.

If it wasn't for the buzz, it is a product website I would just brush past without a second glance
How do you store the words? In memory or do you use something like redis, mysql?
John Chambers on U.S. Jobs, Innovation, Growth and Investment
I'm in another startup that moved out of the AC a few months ago. We've never really been sure what Kik does or what they're up to, but they always seem to have a lot of people in there working round the clock. Nice to see the fruits of it—and good for them.
I got a txt from a friend about kik signup yesterday. Not sure if he knew that was sent or not.
The wrong stuff
Note: I didn't use a more descriptive title because it would be a spoiler.
I believe that the author was implying that Steve Jobs carefully chose data to support an argument when other data would have better suited the comparison that he as making. Disagreements about whether he was trying to conceal his choice in data don't seem very relevant to me.

EDIT: You are probably right about the author. He does seem to have an axe to grind. But I don't think it make his argument (in this case) less correct.