skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
The choice has been made by many places to simply use h264 video via the HTML5 tag to hit the iPhone/iPad and then fallback to a Flash video player which can easily play the h264 source video. Content producers would rather encode videos once, which is why they moved to FLV in the first place. There's no incentive to use anything else here.

This hurts users. I am all for standards, but not for hurting users. And like it or not, content producers are using H264 because the devices people like to use can play that video back.
What's the win to society to "mitigate" an "incentive"?

The main incentive is reducing time and energy devoted to a zero sum game.

A hypothetical: imagine a sunken pirate ship is discovered. Now suppose 10 crews of divers get into a race to retrieve the pirate gold. It's useful to society to bring up the gold. It might be useful to society to have a race between 2 crews to bring up the gold, to make sure the first crew doesn't dilly dally. The gain to society is $GOLD - 2 x $DIVER_COST, or perhaps $GOLD_AFTER_LONG_DELAY - 1 x $DIVER_COST. On the other hand, having 10 crews of divers all competing for the gold is pointless - the gain to society is $GOLD - 10 x $DIVER_COST, which is 8 x $DIVER_COST less than if 2 diver crews chased the gold.

HFT is basically the same situation as the race for pirate gold - a lot of smart people in a race to create a fixed amount of alpha. We might be better off if they were creating new alpha elsewhere instead of all simultaneously chasing after the same alpha.

(That's not to say I'm advocating a ban on HFT on this ground. A certain amount of effort devoted to HFT is certainly a good thing, and I doubt the government would get things right. I just don't think the market is getting things perfect either.)
Rising rents mean that the gap between rents and mortgage payments is narrowing. That will tend to slow the decline of home prices.
I can't claim this with authority, but I would imagine that in most cases you would get better garbage collection performance from a JVM than from the MRI runtime, as the various JVMs have almost certainly been subjected to a greater amount of attention and work.
Why the (US) Rich Are Getting Richer
I really like the "about" page and the twitter banter. Very clever. I enjoy when web apps add some narrative elements to their product.
An open solution isn't the best interest of the users?

Surely this is just like Apple not supporting Flash in the hope that people go create HTML5 stuff which is open.

Both companies have taken strategic and gutsy moves that will temporarily inconvenience users in the hope that long-term it pays of to both the companies and the users.
I guess my response would be, "So?". The question is whether the JVM is a reasonable, safe, and reliable platform to build upon. While Oracle's actions vis à vis various projects haven't been what many would have preferred, AFAIK they've stated their intentions for OpenJDK pretty clearly -- and the recent folding of IBM and Apple into that project is no small endorsement. As for control of their VM, yeah, I'd expect that (the Google issues are entirely separate from the JCP drama, etc, which is SOP since long before Oracle came around).

FWIW, I say most of this to reassure myself more than anything else, given my investment in the JVM. If there are real substantive reasons to be concerned – essentially, indications that Oracle has likely just lied about their plans for the JVM, or something more than the vague warnings I usually see – I want to be the first to know.
For full compatibility, yes, but realistically there was no reason to use to WebM. With h.264 you cover the following:

1) All browsers with Flash players
2) Any "web connected" set top device/TV
3) About 50% of HTML5 video compatible browsers

With this move by Google #3 falls to 25% or less. And they're looking to add WebM support to #2. At some point consumer demands you support both because their shiny new Macbook Air/Chrome OS tablet/TV doesn't play video. Good move by Google to justify their $125M investment in On2, but end users will end up being inconvenienced as the splintering continues.

This is just going to feel like a regression to most end users who really don't give a crap about who holds what patents.
No, but it's in 4.0
> Well, there's no pleasing some people. I bet Gosling's pretty happy with how it went over the last 15 years, though.

Sure, if his goal was to create a super popular enterprisey language, to create the son of Cobol and to bring mainstream language improvements to a shrieking halt for a decade, he succeeded admirably on all counts.

> Personally, I think throwing out templates is exactly what should have been done. And Java has generics.

If you can't even be arsed to read what you reply to, I don't think there's any point in me continuing.
You are a funny bunny,

but

" Going forward, the Go-oo project will be discontinued in favor of LibreOffice."

so

http://www.documentfoundation.org/download/

---

By the way people, I installed OO.org 3.3 beta for Mac from Oracle, should I nuke it for LibreOffice or is OO.org cool for now? Thx!
Mobile Broadband Users Hit 1 Billion in 2011
AT&T is converting Alltel's network in the Dakotas to UMTS. You can see the coverage at http://www.att.com/network/ (just click on the coverage tab at the bottom). Alltel had served rural western markets well for many years and the network will likely be stronger than Verizon's once it's launched (likely later this month).

Because of the way cellular licensing was done (two licenses in each market and 700ish markets in the country), it meant that many carriers were left with large holes in their networks over the years. Sure, later on a bunch of other license were made available, but something like a 1900MHz license isn't useful for rural coverage because the signals don't travel as far as lower frequency signals. So, in most rural communities you got the choice between two carriers. Now, some rural communities only have one real option due to mergers and the relaxation of the rule that no company can control both cellular licenses in a market.

Suffice it to say, Alltel's network in your area will soon be running UMTS/HSPA under AT&T's ownership. AT&T really couldn't enter the market without buying their way into the 850MHz licenses in the area. Alltel and Verizon owned them. Now Verizon and AT&T own them.

If you really want to see the state of rural wireless improve, write to the FCC or your state utilities commission and tell them that you want to make sure that one or two companies can't control all of the low-frequency spectrum required for rural coverage. Right now, AT&T and Verizon have merged their way into becoming the only two companies with the licences needed to provide rural coverage. Even looking at the 700MHz auction, it's clear that the situation won't change much. AT&T and Verizon took the majority of the licenses with smaller bidders getting some scraps. So, the far-penetrating spectrum is being concentrated in the hands of two carriers. If you'd like that situation to change, demand that new low-frequency spectrum go to carriers other than the big two. It's one thing for Verizon and AT&T to say that they need more spectrum in major metro areas because they have more customers. It's another thing to say that they want to have an oligopoly on the spectrum that can serve rural areas.
Do you use Boks (http://toki-woki.net/p/Boks/) with your Blueprint CSS framework? I've found Boks to be a great way to bring some of the benefits of mockups to HTML prototyping. I still start from pen and paper first, because I find that I have to know what I'm going to put into Boks.

(I'm a developer, not a designer, but I've found myself doing more front-end work recently for myself and clients)
If anyone is interested in monitoring internal infrastructure and cloud monitoring as seen by your end-users, shoot me an email - prakash@cedexis.com

Gabriel wrote about our services on his blog http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/2010/12/testing-cdn-perf...
I need not take a bit of a cow pie to tell you that it will taste like shit. I can tell from where I'm sitting.
PHP Fog Raises $1.8M, Looks Like Heroku of PHP
Chiming in as the guy who developed the blip.tv HTML5 player: This sucks, even though we were planning on supporting it in the future anyway.
Update on Greasemonkey script that highlights new headlines on HN homepage
That's a great app. I have wanted something similar for android. It combines the ease of text messaging without the commitment and participation required for Latitude or the like.
Never have - looks interesting though. We'll have to try it out!
That's slippery slope logic. If the pricing is right at
1s, why pour money and talent into getting it right at
100ms?

I'm saying there are negative externalities[1], which are known to cause market inefficiency. Negative externalities typically look like "slippery slope" arguments, when in reality there is an appropriate level of penalty/tax/etc that restores efficiency.

Meanwhile, you're effectively vouching for a comment
that models the markets as a closed system of people
dividing up a single pot of money. Isn't it plain that
such a model is wrongheaded?

I'll concede it's not zero-sum, but surely you also will concede diminishing returns to liquidity. I'll also concede that my original "money sink" comment was hyperbolic & inflammatory.

[1] http://economics.fundamentalfinance.com/negative-externality...
The quackwatch article you cite is extremely intellectually dishonest. It makes a couple points which would be interesting if true, but the overwhelming about of BS makes me highly skeptical. The author seems to have a complete inability to just point out any errors Weil has made and explain why they are wrong. Instead we get sentences like:

"The leaders of the establishment believe in the scientific method, and in the rule of evidence, and in the laws of physics, chemistry, and biology upon which the modern view of nature is based. Alternative practitioners either do not seem to care about science or explicitly reject its premises."

Not only is this intellectually dishonest because it has nothing to do with what Weil has actually written, but it isn't even true; it was homeopathy that invented evidence-based medicine and drug testing in the first place.
I think Jenkins is a much better name. Even after seeing a Hudson demo and seeing the butler character I quickly forgot what "Hudson" was supposed to evoke.
That list might be how people assume it happens, but it doesn't reflect reality.

Most early employees never make it anywhere near management if they weren't management employees to begin with (and with venture-funded companies, those usually get replaced; Steve Blank wrote about this I think). Ditto for getting your company acquired (how many acquired YC alumni ended up quitting right after acquisition? something like 99%?). Meeting the right people also doesn't have as much to do with it as you'd suspect - a lot of CxOs are found through searches, and may come from companies in a completely different sector of the economy. As for entrepreneurial drive, that's the reason we're all here reading HN instead of being content with working for an "entrepreneurial" manager.

I recommend reading Sharon Voros' The Road to CEO - it describes the typical public company's executive officers' background pretty well. The basic idea is you have to work your way up the management chain of command and build up a solid resume (spending time at a prominent business consulting shop apparently can act as a short-cut for this). Personal qualities related to making good first impressions seem really important at the high level - the author spends a couple of chapters on things related to grooming and appearance. I don't run in CxO circles, but that seems an accurate impression from the senior management people I've encountered.

Bottom line seems to be you need to get into management and work and charm your way up.
Bookmarklets for mobile: Mobile Perf and Page Resources
"Rents hit a national average of $1,319 by December, up from $1,181 in January 2010, according to HotPads.com. The figures were calculated from a sample of one million active rental prices on the website."

Someone generated a statistic based on an arbitrary data source and posted it on the internet. It must be true!
If you don't want to encode twice, you can fall back to using Flash on Firefox to play the H.264 video.
That's 'cue'!
Sad move, the web take years to more or less standardize on H264. Ain't WebM an inferior alternative at the moment? The reason cited "our resources directed towards completely open codec technologies.", so we can expect Flash to be removed as well? I can see next up in the horizon: YouTube to remove H264 support.
Google's assumption: People will add WebM encoding to their already complicated video workflows

What will actually happen: Chrome will get served h.264 wrapped in Flash.

Lose all round, then.
I suspect they think forcing open standards is in the best long term interests of users, much the same way Apple has chosen to support HTML5 by shunning Flash.

Also, keep in mind that use of the HTML5 <video> tag is quite limited at the moment. The impact is quite minimal.

If Google didn't make a move like this, WebM might not take off the way it needs to to challenge the closed alternatives.
I love blank books. I feel like there's so much potential to fill it with random thoughts, ideas, doodles. Most of all, I have a greater appreciation for just being able to exercise my handwriting. I feel like that is the one skill I have taken for granted since school. Granted it's much faster to type down my thoughts, but I take greater pleasure in trying to decipher--if not improve--my handwriting.
I was living in Erie when this happened. My roommate worked in the same shopping complex as the bank, in fact. I still feel sick to my stomach every time I think about this. This is the reason why I won't ever become a pizza delivery person.
> As it is right now there are probably several elements toyour site that require different rendering depending on the browser (IE6 I'm glaring at you).

There's a big difference between an additional CSS stylesheet and encoding and storing every single video on your site twice.

> We currently face the same inefficiency of having to encode videos in multiple codecs today. Want your vid on iOS? H.264. Want your vid on other platforms?

Most companies do not encode their videos with multiple codecs. They encode with H.264 and the video will work with an HTML5 player in IE9/Chrome/Safari on the desktop and Safari/Android on mobile. Fallback to Flash is available for older browsers and Firefox. Companies will continue to use this scheme, it just means that Chrome users will now be stuck with a crappy bug-ridden flash player as opposed to a native player.
CityVille's Viral Growth Hooks: Levels 1-3 Deconstructed
'Uh, no. No, you don’t understand. It’s uh– it’s very complicated. It’s uh– it’s aggregate, so I’m talking about fractions of a penny here. And, uh, over time they add up to a lot.' -Peter Gibbons
Interesting. YouTube must be a mess with all of these competing formats it needs to support. I assume it will eventually switch to WebM for both HTML5 and Flash by default and just use h264 for compatibility. Still, it must be horrific.
Apple has posted a page in their store for checking upgrade pricing for those already on Verizon: https://buyiphone.apple.com/WebObjects/IPACustomer.woa/wa/IP...
If you think about it carefully the emphasis here is not on if he should complain or not, the emphasis is on the way he should complain.
I dont think the open web is up for compromise, I was happy to see mozilla take a stand on h264, glad to see google follow suit.

Sure this hurts users in the short term, but a single standard format has not been settled on, this could be much more disruptive if google had of left it in
so is Google going to re-encode all their Youtube content to WebM videos now? and i wonder if Android will continue to play h.264 videos or not.
Looks like Mozilla wins this one.
You forget HTTPS. The SSL handshake adds a significant delay to the connection time.
The alert has a "Do it!" button.

Reminded me of : http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&s...
How long does it take you to read a 500+ page technical book?
Flash will support vp8, that should level the playing field. IE can be extended to use vp8 also, google chrome frame should be a required install everywhere ;p
You're deriding Google for only supporting open standards that everyone can use instead of supporting closed formats that require you to pay money to a bunch of patent holders?

Yeah, they sure are evil. I hate freedom, especially when it means I will have to add a command-line argument to my video encoding process!
Square raises $27.5 million
Still not quite sure I see the big deal.

Firefox has something like twice the browser share of Chrome. If you were OK sticking Firefox users with Flash video, I don't see how that's hugely different from sticking Firefox AND Chrome users with Flash video.

If you want to support all modern browsers, you used to have to do two encodings. After this announcement, you will still have to do two encodings.
SwipeGood Now Supporting Chase, WF, BofA, Amex
The message is that Google is serious about making VP8 competitive. It won't be removing H.264 support from Android and YouTube anytime soon, but this certainly changes the HTML5 video codec battle.
I think a screenshot is probably more than adequate if you're judging an application's visual appearance.
I'm a MobileOrg user, and I completely agree. I would pay good money for an app that presents an iOS user interface for editing files with org-mode markup, including creating org-mode files on the fly. Unfortunately, MobileOrg offers neither of those features.

MobileOrg is free software (https://github.com/richard/mobileorg), but it's so far from what I'm looking for that it might just be easier to start from scratch.
OK, great. Another "Gee, Whiz!" article about aerospace technology. What about a little context? How are the current drones used that these new drones constitute an improvement? Without this information, all we get is the "Gee, Whiz!" part, and have no way to judge for ourselves.

Also, what about other uses? Military tech sometimes trickles down to the rest of the populace. Sometimes that trickle has good effects, sometimes it has bad effects. Does the US as a society want to fund things that might ultimately get used to make the society a less good place to live? These drones certainly have that possibility.
Nope. It was stored as h264 before they released webm (and then flash played it). When they released Webm, they started to convert all that stuff to VP8 (my guess is they should be through by now), so it's only VP8 now (via HTML5 or flash). End of story.
People should really blame MS and Apple for only supporting their own video codec here.
I am fully behind the decision of Mozilla, Opera, Google and others to support open and patent unencumbered video formats.

Can someone just look at the table at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5_video and really tell me that this mess isn't the fault of MS and Apple in the first place? Ogg is ready to play a big role and WebM is catching up. The only blocking factor here is Internet Explorer and Safari, not Chrome.
That's not what I meant. Just take it as face value. I'm saying that 1) these pathologies are real 2) they're not unique to any one culture 3) there are powerful forces that keep them from our everyday consciousness.

Thanks for revealing your biases so cheaply and easily.
Question is, who is ready to pay the price?
Why doesn't Apple just include WebM support? It's an open codec...
Sure, but what would the people paying more be getting? Less volatility? More assurance that their price is closer to long term averages? How is that possible?

Is this possible because the market maker ensures some kind of buffer from the HFT shops in exchange for a bigger spread?

I'm not in this field so I ask from ignorance.
If the developers who made these apps were, instead, writing novels of similar quality, their work would have been coldly rejected by publisher after publisher after publisher after publisher.

1. If you're going to create, you need a thick skin for rejection and criticism, constructive or otherwise.

2. Everyone has a certain amount of shitty work that they need to work out of their system before they get good. If nobody tells them their crap work is crappy, they'll probably keep making it like that and won't improve.

3. Even successful novelists can get to a point where they stop being edited, and their work from that point tends to be flabby, overlong, and not well-regarded compared to earlier work that actually was edited.
AMD's CEO resigns. The Search for a new CEO starts. What do you think about it?
Yes, Google has an enormous reputation for NIH. Great technology companies often do.
> An open solution isn't the best interest of the users?

An ubiquitous solution is in the best interests of users. My parents could care less about whether the video is encoded in H.264 or Ogg. They just want it to work on their iPad.

> Surely this is just like Apple not supporting Flash in the hope that people go create HTML5 stuff which is open.

It's not the same at all. Google, through YouTube and Chrome, helped make H.264 the defacto standard it is. Now they are trying to pull the rug out from under it. Apple never had support for Flash. Not to mention that Flash is a POS and doesn't work well on mobile devices anyways.

> Both companies have taken strategic and gutsy moves that will temporarily inconvenience users in the hope that long-term it pays of to both the companies and the users.

Long-term this isn't a game that Google wins. They've inconvenienced their users and the web will go on with H.264.
That depends on what you mean by "mansion" and "yacht." Outside of NYC and the Bay Area you can definitely afford a mortgage on a nice house, two good cars, and a decent-sized sailboat and manage to feed a family of four on that income (assuming you don't send the kids to private school).
So this argument makes a lot of sense, but you see that it's not the argument that's being employed against HFT in general, right?

What I see are a lot of people arguing that the HFTs are getting an unfair edge on other traders, as if some main street stock picker was actually in competition with an HFT prop trading shop.

My sense of it is that many of the people making this arguments believe that were it not for HFT's, people would have frictionless access to a real efficient price for any instrument they wanted to buy, when in fact they'd just be dealing with a much clunkier and less reliable set of middlemen.
'Fail fast' advises LinkedIn founder and tech investor Reid Hoffman
Since when has Apple supported open standards simply because it makes sense to do so? Apple almost invariably chooses closed over open.
I'm looking forward to Google remaining consistent with their words and removing Flash from Chrome in the near future.

You know, for the good of the users.