skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Haven't quite digested it yet but it seems to be microsoft's attempt at a component model for html/javascript/css.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms531079(v=vs.85).as...
The question then becomes, can a user hire any developer for a fix, rather than being at the mercy of the original vendor? This right not only keeps hourly rates more reasonable, but also takes away the vendor's incentive to use bad designs that lead to customer lock-in.

For a perhaps overused metaphor, I wouldn't buy a car with the hood welded shut.
The hype then attracts the next generation of users and perpetuates the trend. Most users are pulled in by the hype, rather than the rational decision making of the early adopters.
If you were talking to him in person, you wouldn't start you sentence off like that. It's not really needed.
8 Cheap Ways To Attend Awesome Trade Shows
I think this works great in some situations however on a site I was working on it fell down when zooming the page and ended up having to revert to the usual image based rounded-corners.
Can you explain where in the sample code would be beter served by a different data storage solution with equivalent sample code?

IMHO Redis comp-sci data structures provide elegant and fast solutions to the requirements of a StackOverflow Q&A site.
"when people study success stories exclusively — as many avid devourers of business self-help books do — they come away with a vastly oversimplified idea of what it takes to succeed. This is because success is what economists refer to as a “noisy signal.” It’s chancy, fickle, and composed of so many moving parts that any one is basically meaningless in the context of the real world. By studying what successful ventures have in common (persistence, for instance), people miss the invaluable lessons contained in the far more common experience of failure. They ignore the high likelihood that a company will flop the base rate and wind up wildly overestimating the chances of success."

As an entrepreneur this is worth taking note of.
I wonder if this could've happened outside the Bay Area though. This is part of the reason the area works so well as a hub, because it really does maximize serendipity of the life-changing kind, since almost everyone in the area has been in a similar situation before.
I deleted that before you responded, mostly because I didn't want to get caught in a potential back-and-forth. They usually just drag everyone down.
Ask HN: So how do you get alpha testers?
Say you have no friends/followers, how do you get some alpha testers for your app?
I would like to see more local (at the town level) shared networks. Something like cheap wi-fi base stations (really cheap!) that could link up a local area and have a good directory of what material people host to be shared, local bulletin boards, etc.

I live in a rural area and several of my friends are going the self sufficient route and my wife and I are at least putting in enough solar panels to generate about 3/4 of the electricity that we currently use.

The country I live in (USA) is in rapid decline and it would be naive to believe that all utilities and infrastructure will stay online 100% of the time. Having a useful local "localnet" would be a good idea, and could be fun also as a community activity. Perhaps libraires would be good hubs and meeting places to set this up. Even better to also get the local police, fire department and city government involved: something to bring the whole community together.
Finally, a Real Creator is Person of the Year
Disclaimer: I'm the author of the parent link in question (though I didn't submit it).

I started with https://github.com/Sensebloom/OSCeleton to connect to Processing, I modified one of these examples: https://github.com/Sensebloom/OSCeleton-examples
and it worked well. Couldn't see how to connect to OSC to Scratch, so I modified the OSC example to send Scratch variable updates. I can email you Processing code if you pm me an email.
Top 20 Law School is not a real category, in much the same way that top 5 CS grad school is not a real category. In both cases there is a sub group that may change their internal rankings but which are reliably above the others. In CS the top 4 are CMU, MIT, Berekeley and Stanford. The second tier are not playing in the same league.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_school_rankings_in_the_Unit...
The Future of Software System Correctness
Where do you think the "right" place is right now?

The problem I always have is that the right place isn't really apparent until years after the decision about where to be is made. At the time, there're many places that look appealing, and little reason to choose one over the other. And then it's only with hindsight that one of those becomes a big success and the rest become has-beens.

I was thinking about this today when responding to a Reddit post whining about how there're no good high-paying jobs left in this country:

http://www.reddit.com/r/economy/comments/eyu1o/the_unemploym...

Of course that's false. However, when I think about how I got my good high-paying job, the answer that comes to mind is "pure dumb luck". I happened to like computers when I was a teen in the 90s, and I happened to stick with it through the dot-com bust in the early 2000s, and so now that these CS jobs are paying six figures easily, I've got close to ten years experience in skills that are very hot. But I wasn't really thinking about professions or salary at the time; I was thinking "Hey, this seems sorta interesting, I wonder what else I can find out..."
Last time I looked into Python, I was reading something where the guy was going on about how awesome it is to get rid of all the cruft of C syntax, the semicolons and braces.

Then as I started getting into it, and thinking to myself, yeah, a lot of that cruft is just unnecessary, getting rid of it would be awesome... I tripped over the underscores and passing of self in Python.

If the whole point of your syntax is to get rid of old ugly syntax cruft, don't introduce new ugly syntax cruft at the same time.
You're totally welcome -- I'm absolutely grateful to all the people that shared back. It's kept me going this whole time.
>Is there really any reason why a questions/answer site with voting can't provide noscript tags?

Because making two versions of the site is twice as much work?
PlayBook won't hit stores before the first quarter of
2011, but RIM is convinced it has a slumbering tiger on
its hands. "It changes the game because we're making
mobile fit the Web, not the other way around," says
Balsillie.

What does that mean? RIM has figured out a way to squeeze
a full computing platform into a tablet, which is a bit
like fitting the Incredible Hulk into an Armani suit. The
PlayBook will deliver the entire Web at the same speed as
a home computer can, without the need for special apps
that repackage and abbreviate mobile content.

Read: it can run Flash. Unfortunately I'm not entirely sure that is a compelling enough selling point for most consumers. Native apps have grown in popularity because they provide a consistent, polished user experience specifically tailored to the device. One that is generally unmatched by most websites (unless they were specifically designed with the mobile/tablet form factor in mind).
Hey pontifier -- that's great! Congratulations! Be sure to check out clemd973's build thread -- he really worked out a lot of the problems with the New Standard. Link: http://www.diybookscanner.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=...

Also, feel free to email/PM me. danreetz/gmail
"Based on the author's logic you might as well throw up your hands and stop trying to predict anything."

You say this like it proves the author is wrong. This point isn't really that obscure, Nicholas Nassim Taleb sold millions of books making this very point over the last couple years.

"This is like saying when a doctor tells a patient that if he keeps smoking he will get cancer, and the patient gets cancer, he just did it by luck."

No, this is a poor analogy. Its more like saying that if you keep predicting someone is going to get cancer for smoking, eating apples, drinking Coors Light, and playing basketball you shouldn't get any credibility for being right on one and wrong on all the others.

"All the austrians predicted the housing bubble."

Yes, but they also mispredicted a lot of other things, thats the point.
Good point, I was slightly irritated by it so it caused the internet-reaction.
I don't know where you're getting 2 from. To throw one anecdote out there, my advisor, who has experience with hiring committees, has told me that for academic positions, they're looking for a wide range of things - including demonstrated teaching ability. And for professors (even at a research facility), poor student reviews of classes you've taught can get in the way of being awarded tenure.
I wonder how different his story would be if he was still at Google today. I understand that there was a pretty magical feeling at Google in its pre- and immediately post-IPO days, and I'd be interested to hear from someone who lived through that and is still at Google now.
There's definitely luck in being involved with a Google size outcome but I can't believe that someone with his approach to life wouldn't consistently achieve a significantly above average level of success.
Well, the OP comments seems to get rewritten a bit, without adding "Edit:". :-)

Edit: If I should touch your point, too... the OP's complaints are literally about 1990s system administrators, which weren't really programmers. You'll get bad code in any language without coding standards, etc.
Part of it is the customer base; you probably buy a Mac because Windows doesn't do what you want, and so the programs have to be different enough. One way to justify using a different machine is to have apps that put in more effort to be really good.

But also, it's a matter of copying what you see. When learning to program for the first time, a developer seems to do most of his or her learning on one platform, and copy that style for the most part (both the good and the bad, in everything from the design of GUIs to programming APIs). Regardless of what you think of either company, is there any doubt that Apple is better at coming up with good examples of design, than Microsoft? I consider Windows to be mediocrity breeding mediocrity; while this isn't 100% true, it's true enough for me to hate using the average PC.

Diversity is also a good indicator of quality; the more methods a programmer is familiar with, the more likely a program is to be well-designed. As a single platform, Mac OS X is pretty diverse; it comes with lots of tools, and is influenced by many different roots (Unix philosophy; NeXT/IBM with Objective-C/Smalltalk; classic Mac OS GUI elements; etc.).
>"poor user interfaces"

http://www.militaryfactory.com/cockpits/imgs/f16.jpg

Interfaces designed for experts tend not to hide important information and high performance features.

This Mac based product (http://www.publicspace.net/ABetterFinderRename/) apparently doesn't allow search and replace operations at the same time as sequential numbering even though it almost certainly allows both.
What we offer is simple, yet very effective.
>>We are going to end up with something sooner or later.

I think this type of attitude really hurts in a democracy. Every year people push bad ideas, and we must fight back against them.
Verizon to Offer iPhone Users "Unlimited" Data
The USA is in rapid decline? Let me guess, because teenagers use Facebook, spell "you" as "u" and house prices are not increasing as quickly as 5 years ago?
Mac programmers programme on Macs, Windows programmers programme on Windows. Any other differences between them are not related.
The effective intensity of a laser falls of as the range squared, so you need a pretty hefty laser to dazzle someone at range. The intensity of reflected laser light falls of with the fourth power of the range, making reflected light not much of a concern for the crew. Its quite possible for the pirates to put a mirror between them and the ship, indeed it should be quite possible for the pirates to just turn their heads away from the defending ship.

The problem for the pirates is that its hard to effectively attack something you can't look at, however. Red glasses might be an effective countermeasure, though, as other people have pointed out.
That's certainly one leading theory, and probably the most likely. However, that happened earlier in the summer, a month or more before he actually shut everything down. There are other possible theories, eg, in his last tweets he lamented about feeling left behind by the progress of open source, or the theory that he planned it all along based on the Poignant Guide's ending.

No matter which of those reasons it was, it's pretty baseless to claim that he took down all of his websites, comics and open source software in a variety of languages including one he created due to some mysterious, unmentioned, irreconcilable beef the Ruby community, especially considering he was one of the most influentual people in defining that community.
It's a fantastic book, and probably the one I've recommended most this year. I used it (the online version) to both learn about the new technologies and also to prepare curriculum to teach other folks about them. I love how his writing style combines narration and humor alongside the technical topics. Read it! :)
How much did he cash out for?
I think the idea is that having a lead early versus late gives the opposition a more clear goal with the time to come back.

Basketball games and seasons are very long. Players won't be focused in the entire season or for entire games. Having a deficit to come back from, with the time to do it, gives them a clear objective to focus in on.
There are so many places. Given that you are limited on your budget, be prepared to contact anything tech-related you can find and submit your site. [Self - promotion - we'll entertain you - and feature you if you would like to submit yours at StartUpLift.com].

Goodluck with whatever you are building!
It depends which graphs you look at:

These graphs tell me

1. Perl is slightly faster.
2. Perl uses much less memory on average
3. Perl uses less code.

http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/u32/benchmark.php?test=all...

http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/u32q/benchmark.php?test=al...

However, on Ruby18 you do have a substantially bigger problem:

http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/u32/benchmark.php?test=all...

Lies, Damned lies.
Snitches get stitches.
"But the world is changing, and Time's 2010 Person of the Year, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, is creating that change. While politicians stand in the way of progress, entrepreneurs like Zuckerberg make it. While governments operate in secret, Facebook embraces transparency. And while governments' use of force and monopoly leads to unwanted associations and tensions between various groups, the nearly 600 million people on Facebook choose whom they want to be friends with."

My emphasis. There's even more praise in the article.
تحديد يوم الاباضه
In Flatland, all women are portrayed as line segments
When looking at these stories i always wonder if my computer science bachelor degree will really help me when i get in 2 years...

My time spent learning algorithms and mathemathics that bore me with lack of practicality could be spent working on my own projects...

What do you think, is a degree in CS important for someone who is able to employ himself and (soon) others?
YC. Of course I'm biased, but on the other hand I'm betting on it :)

Even companies that don't make it often lead their founders to other great opportunities (e.g. at other yc companies). I also believe there's something surprisingly powerful about witnessing success first hand.
As recently as last year I was reasonably scared of Apple because they appeared to be accumulating a market power that was transforming the industry itself into something I didn't like.

Fortunately, however, Google came to the rescue with Android and I'm now far more relaxed about it.

A lot of people claim to be scared of Google though ...
Over a two-week period, I left messages on every single voice mailbox I could get at that company. I was never able to get a human on the phone or get a call back

I thought this would be about Google
He discusses counseling but not medication. If the latter was never tried, I find this even more sad.

Talking about suicide is a taboo subject. And doctors and others in caretaker positions are legally required to alert the authorities if they suspect someone may harm themselves. If it is discussed, there is a reasonable chance the person discussing it will be sent to a mental institution, the experience of which may be less appealing than suicide.

I wonder what would happen if physical suicide could be replaced with social suicide, administered by something analogous to the witness protection program.
Ends Don't Justify Means (Among Humans)
StartUpLift.com, duh? :-)

I'm working on this http://alpha.beepl.com:8889/
Ouch! Pricing: Our tiered pricing structure at $35, $50 or $80 levels
I'm looking for something that cost $0.
It will end terrorism and drug abuse.
The price of 12 or 16 ounces of coffee didn't change, just the label on the cup changed. Making up all numbers here, it is like this:

Ounces Size Before Size After Cost
12oz Small Extra Small $2
16oz Medium Small $3
24oz Large Medium $4
128oz N/A Large $15

Notice cost/ounce for a particular number of ounces never changes.
I'm saying that the principle is a good idea, makes sense and that's why it'll happen eventually. The problem is the implementation. I'm happy to fight bad ideas. Here in the UK we managed to fight off the first bad implementation they tried to push on us.
Make sure the Tesco you are near has these (maybe phone up or paste up the branch and I'll do a quick check for you). Not all Tesco stores are created equal - there are Tesco Metro stores are really only food, Tesco Extra carry pretty much everything (food, clothes, TVs, laptops, mobile phones etc), plain old Tesco stores might have an aisle or two of AV/electronics.
I am aware. But I appreciate the gesture!

When I said that I'm not a fanboy, I didn't mean to say that I don't use functional languages, but rather, that I don't use purely functional languages, and certainly purely functional languages exclusively.
If the mirror is wider than the cone of the laser (1 meter in this case), then irradiance still falls off as the range squared. Reflecting the laser back at its source only doubles the range.
> Give me an interface as nice as Gmail's, and I'll consider it.

Roundcube is getting there slowly but surely:

http://roundcube.net/
Own 50% of cashflow from iPhone app if you help complete it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSff61nrtqY

Above is a marketing video we produced (one of many actually).

Some friends and I designed an iPhone app with the goal of making it safer to make calls while driving. The app is called SafeLane and is basically a dynamic "favorite" list that you have on the native phone app. Users can add/edit/delete items on the call list in the app or using the web.

The two use cases we wanted the MVP to support were:

(1) User knows they have a 1 hour commute later in the day so, while in their office, using the web interface they add 5 calls to their SafeLane call list and they then make those calls while driving.

(2) User's assistant adds 5 calls to user's SafeLane call list from assistant's office using web interface (think sales person driving between meetings).

The reason SafeLane is safer to use than the native phone app is that the user/driver has only to select a few (larger, easy to glance at) options instead of scrolling through emails, or worse, their address book. The graphic design of the app accounts for this and has giant buttons that are easy to use at a glance.

The iPhone app is 80% complete and alpha versions are working on actual phones. The website is about half done. We spent some time/money creating a nice looking website and produced a marketing video. Check it out here http://www.reserver1.com/safelane/content/home/home.aspx (IE only right now).

If you're interested in helping finish the app (I'm guessing about 40 hours of work for someone who know what they're doing) then we'd cut you in for 50% of the free cash flow. This isn't a business but it could be an interesting app that makes a little money and (hopefully) saves some lives.

Thanks for reading.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSff61nrtqY

Above is a marketing video we produced (one of many actually).

Some friends and I designed an iPhone app with the goal of making it safer to make calls while driving. The app is called SafeLane and is basically a dynamic "favorite" list that you have on the native phone app. Users can add/edit/delete items on the call list in the app or using the web.

The two use cases we wanted the MVP to support were:

(1) User knows they have a 1 hour commute later in the day so, while in their office, using the web interface they add 5 calls to their SafeLane call list and they then make those calls while driving.

(2) User's assistant adds 5 calls to user's SafeLane call list from assistant's office using web interface (think sales person driving between meetings).

The reason SafeLane is safer to use than the native phone app is that the user/driver has only to select a few (larger, easy to glance at) options instead of scrolling through emails, or worse, their address book. The graphic design of the app accounts for this and has giant buttons that are easy to use at a glance.

The iPhone app is 80% complete and alpha versions are working on actual phones. The website is about half done. We spent some time/money creating a nice looking website and produced a marketing video. Check it out here http://www.reserver1.com/safelane/content/home/home.aspx (IE only right now).

If you're interested in helping finish the app (I'm guessing about 40 hours of work for someone who know what they're doing) then we'd cut you in for 50% of the free cash flow. This isn't a business but it could be an interesting app that makes a little money and (hopefully) saves some lives.

Thanks for reading.
...or you could use the mail.
One Year In Two Minutes
Robertson screws are not flat head screws. They are a type of screws that is particularly popular in Canada and that requires a square screwdriver. Look it up on Wikipedia... it's an interesting tale of intellectual property guarded too zealously for the inventor's own good.
That is a really interesting observation (about skipping dead-end technologies). I wonder how many business opportunities there are like that that are unexploited, even in first world countries.

I've added it to my brainstorming list. Thanks!
I've only seen the movie, in which they're not. Given the Victorian origins of the book though, that makes sense.
"Facebook embraces transparency."

lol
The PC App Store – coming soon from Google, Amazon or even Microsoft?
What is software quality anyway?
In addition to what steveklabnik said, it's also nice that you can integrate all of the Google App services into your system and quickly and conveniently work online and share things via Docs and Calendar by company domain. It makes it super convenient. While there are some certains on privacy, I don't feel the threat outweighs the benefit. It's not like Google is sniffing around to know what you do via your personal email and stuff. They are using that data to target ads. And to be honest, that doesn't matter to me as much.
Ask HN: help with English copywriting?
English is my second language and I want to be sure that my site is well written.

The site is rrrewind.com and I need:

-TAGLINE
"Popular links archive"
"Social content archive"
?

-WHAT IS THIS?
"Rrrewind saves everyday the most popular stuff from many social sites, this way you don't miss anything."

I'm open to suggestions, not just to corrections. I'm looking for the perfect copy, not just an ok copy (kind of 37signals attention to detail).

Thanks a lot.
If Facebook is among "man's most delightful and most sublime experiences," please shoot me now.
Version 0.7.9 of open source Facebook alternative "Appleseed" released.