skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
> If the getters and setters are compiled automatically for you it doesn't seem like you'll be able to change the underlying implementation without also changing the types of the methods.

You can trivially replace the auto-generated methods by manually crafted ones, keeping the same types (since they're a direct consequence of the original object's type: a String member will have an accessor of type `() => String` and one of type `String => ()`). If the compiler sees the "public" member already has accessors defined, it doesn't generate them. Could hardly be simpler.
> . How it goes about that criticism and any unnecessary hostility is another issue.

No, that's the issue. Dismissing that invalidates your entire comment.
Think about this. Who's the person that learns the most from a class? Is it that brainy person that got an A+ on the exam? That person learned a lot. But the teacher, if they're any good, learns more. When you teach something, you can't learn something half-heartedly. You are trying to explain it to the students, so it needs to make sense to you.

Think about this. Who's the person who learns the most in life? Is it that teacher who had to explain it to the students? That person learned a lot. But the builder, if they're any good, learns more. When you build something, you can't learn something half-heartedly. You are trying to actually make it work in the real world, so it needs to make even more sense to you than it made to your teacher.
Pleasing aesthetically, as well as functionally. Good aesthetics always count for something, even with such a cut and dried task.

Anyone printed these out nicely and put them on a wall? I think they'd make good posters.
I'm kind of kidding, but Ruby lets you do things more elegantly than you can in Perl, and with less verbosity (hence the Java comment). It's really a syntax issue that I'm talking about, but it matters a lot for readability and language usability.

Perl:

my $x = 'Apple Carrot Banana';

# sort them into an array

my @y = sort split(' ', $x);

# do we have more than 2 elements? (just a random test)

if (scalar(@y) > 2) {

print "we've got ", scalar(@y), " elements!\n";

} else {

print "insufficient elements. fail.\n";

}

Ruby:

x = 'Apple Carrot Banana'

y = x.split(' ').sort

if (y.size > 2)

puts "we've got #{y.size} elements!"

else

puts 'insufficient elements. fail.'

end

Ruby just seems more elegant to me, more programmer-friendly. YMMV.
Mac users care very much about design and aesthetics. I would turn this around: These developers are shitting on the platform. And sure, I will just not download that app, but these developers should be ashamed for realeasing something so ugly. Do they have no pride in their work?
Since the net is so wast, people feel they have to shout loud with profanity to get heard. Alot of times they are right.
I applied to Kickstarter last night after it began getting all this publicity. Unfortunately, their FAQ states that they need 1-2 days to get back to me after the initial application.

Stay tuned, though. It will be on Kickstarter soon.
Twitter needs to fix posting urls
Yep, and one of them is to apparently make your site load, then disappear when JavaScript is disabled. Classy way to throw away business...
Well, there's no pleasing some people. I bet Gosling's pretty happy with how it went over the last 15 years, though.

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

What other lessons were they supposed to learn according to you, exactly?
I think it's an important point that constructive criticism has a positive intent and it's rarely mean-spirited. Might be hard to hear, but the critic isn't just being an asshole.

(Did have an art-school teacher who used mean similes to teach, but that was the rare exception. And he had a consistent flair for mean, so it was sort of an odd joy to behold.)
I generally only listen to criticism from people that have accomplished something similar to what they are criticising themselves.

There are so many negative people out there, and it's a good way to sort the wheat from the chaff. People who have been there themselves tend to only complain if there's a valid reason for doing so.
JRuby 1.6.0 RC1 Released
After nine months of work, we are proud to announce the release of JRuby 1.6.0 RC1! We’ve added support for Ruby 1.9 APIs, improved performance and Windows support, and addressed tons of user issues. It’s the most important JRuby release yet, and here’s why…
sure, but if you're making money and having fun, other peoples opinion shouldn't really matter.

It seems to be popular at the moment to laugh at Justin Beiber online and say how much you hate him. But he's the one making millions out of teenage girls...
NYC Startup and Dim Sum Enthusiasts
Apple Soon to Launch iOS 4.2.2
GoAhead Joins Linux Foundation
GoAhead, a provider of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) solutions for network equipment manufacturers is now a member of the Linux Foundation.
Building a location based iPhone App: from idea to my first users
A blog post discussing my latest app release and some of the technical and design issues I had while building it.
I don't think the tech industry wants to kill RSS. I think the tech industry wants to get pageviews by proclaiming it's dead.
The price of Early Tech Adopters
Hi Friends - I love NYC, Startups and Dim Sum so I have combined all three into a meetup. If you are in NYC or will be in the NYC area, please come out on Feb 05 for our inaugural meetup. Thanks!
I truly hope this is the case; however, the telcos have been at this monopoly thing for a long time. It would not surprise me if they managed to regain control somehow, maybe through government legislation, their favorite way to maintain power.

Of course, Apple is very rich and powerful too, and more importantly they seemed to be one of the smartest company around. I keep expecting them to make a major misstep - like google thinking the no customer support idea on the Nexus One was smart - but so far, they've managed to avoid any truly huge errors like that. Closest one being (in my mind, so far at least) the EULA/Flash debacle over the summer, but at least with that error a simple update to the Terms solved it.

So we'll see. I'm optimistic - as other have pointed out recently - the future seems to be more open and unpredictable than ever before. A very good thing indeed, esp for us tinkerers.
It's true, even in the act of creation, there has to be some selection. With that said, if you spend all of your time critiquing, you never end up building anything.

It's all in the balance...

There's also a difference between "I'm working on critique to improve my craft" and "I make a blog specifically designed to talk shit on people." You can critique in a few ways, some more abrasive than others.
all on one page: http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/12/ff_collarbomb/all/1
I think HTML prototypes are vital to the success of a web app. That said there is a true danger with an HTML prototype that looks too good. Customers often have a difficulty understanding that this is a mockup and it doesn't work. Non savvy customers think it looks like it works even though the guts of the application which takes up the bulk of the development time hasn't even begun.
So in the near future to use the <video> tag, you'll need an H.264 file for IE and Safari, OGG for Firefox and, WebM for Chrome.
From Ars Technica[1]:

Apple’s own Phil Schiller assured the press that Verizon would not be loading up the device with crapware, too. “We want the experience to be the same for every iPhone user. So there are no special Verizon Apps preinstalled,” Schiller told Ars. “AT&T offers customers some apps via the App Store. I’ll let Verizon comment if they are working on anything for that.”

[1]: http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2011/01/pics-of-the-new-an...
No, SMS is different, you can receive a text during a phone call, or during a data session.
there's at least one legitimate reason: it's getting him a ton of traffic!
What's all this about forking the browser? That is WAY over complicating the matter.

Both Chrome and Firefox extensions are essentially Javascript. So while they aren't 1-to-1 compatible they could use 95% of the same code.

The real problem is there's seemingly no money to be made off the suggestions he gives and it will take a lot of effort so no one wants to do it. I don't know how to fix that problem but if there's someone out there who does want to put the effort into this they should know it wouldn't require forking a browser to do it.
A big step backwards for HTML5 video adoption and premature IMO. Other than Android there isn't an existing consumer device out there that plays WebM that I know of. Certainly there is no hardware decoding. Now content creators who host their own video will have to double storage costs or be relegated to Flash and the smallest of the big browsers.
Up-And-Coming Startup Hubs Around The World
LunchTree - Lunch networking for the startup community
I think the proposed solution to all entries would be "Do it with the HIG in mind".
The next version of Firefox will have support for WebM[1].

[1] http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/beta/features/
> I see how HFTs cut out the middlemen who used to profit from volatility

One current big controversy among economists is whether the HFTs themselves have an effect on volatility (there are studies claiming all of "increases", "decreases", and "have little effect", but the evidence for any of those conclusions is weak, and it depends on exactly how you define volatility). A liquidity provider who provided added liquidity on very short time scales, but at the expense of increased volatility at longer time scales, wouldn't necessarily be advantageous for longer-term market participants. That'd be essentially trading one kind of noise for another one--- less millisecond variation, and more occasional giant aberrations, if indeed things like the May '10 "flash crash" were caused by HFTs.
Microsoft, Apple, Oracle, EMC Patent Consortium Plan Withdrawn
Murder victim's father: random bad acts are the price of a free society
> he's not adding any value

The point of the blog, from what I can tell, is to make people laugh. Let's lighten up.

Honestly, if I had an app in the store and it was featured here (with a handy backlink) I'd probably send him a thank you note for the free advertising and feedback.
I agree that customers don't always understand why it doesn't work when an HTML prototype looks too good. However, I think that's more of a project management issue than anything else. Presenting it properly can help customers understand what they're doing... and then they love that they can test usability and flow before it's too late to change without a change order.
Doesn't Firefox support WebM already?
I see this a number of posts here arguing for/agaist this with an unsaid dichotomy where the choices are

1) don't critisize, create instead
2) Criticism is good, even if is kind of mean.

But I think this a false dichotomy. Words and tone do matter. If you put the object of your criticism in a defensive position, you are unlikely to effect any change at all. This is not some new insight; it's been well understood at the very least since Dale Carnegie. You might acheive the goal of making yourself feel good, but then that certainly isn't worthy of any external respect.

What's the difference between:
1) You app is ugly and it fucking sucks. If you used abc to do xyz, at least I wouldn't be vomitting.

and

2)Nice effort on your app. You might consider using abc to do xyz. It might improve the aesthetics and usability some.

Some might say it says effectively the same thing, but the there is a world of difference in the way the reader reacts to those statements.
The process of a Magic Quadrant
BP blowout:  serious IT failures
Good to hear. Now need to get WebM into the average web video production workflow.
Well, here's a situation where it can't happen:

Exchange A: Price you can BUY ACME Co. = $34.50
Exchange B: Price you can BUY ACME Co. = $34.45
Exchange B: Price you can SELL ACME Co. = $34.40
Exchange A: Price you can SELL ACME Co. = $34.35
Totally agree - other than relevant images (the shoes, in this example) we try to avoid using much in the way of color, icons or other design. We use variations of gray shading, unstyled buttons, Helvetica across the board.
Well, both Firefox and Chrome will be able to do both Theora and WebM in the future, but the problem stands. Notably, the lines seem to splitting along who are licensors of H.264 and who aren't.
Top 20 Robot Videos of 2010
The irony being of course that the critics themselves should start by reading a f*ing English grammar book and learn to capitalize the beginning of their sentences.
I like it and I'm scared for you. Here's why:

Like because: Design, interface, potential for information gathered there, potential use. You know all this.

Scared because: You're creating an information portal when Google does a better job. You need a massive amount of users to give you all this information when there is really no incentive for them to do so. Say I am in Amsterdam and want to go to a club. I go to google and type in "Amsterdam club". I will then get lots of information, reviews, photos, etc from a wide variety of sites. The very first entry is a map of a bunch of clubs linked to reviews. Fantastic! It's open, accessing every site in the world, and filled with info that is relevant to me. Your other problem that I foresee is accuracy of data. Clubs/restaurants/hostels close/renovate/change owners all the time. You need your listings to be curated and current. As soon as you fail once you lose that user.

I haven't backpacked in over a decade (1998) and when I did I relied on Lonely Planet books to get me places and then locals to steer me towards the good stuff. You get nothing more current, fresh, and accurate than locals, local zines, and lamp post billings. As for hostels there are many, many, many sites now that have traction and offer me more value (again, I just googled it). Trip journal sites abound (and offer many revenue possibilites like book journal printing). Restarant review sites abound, as well. User generated travel content sites have to be one of the toughest markets to crack. And with all the niches you're trying to combine into a walled garden I just don't see a clear path to success.

To add... as someone said, people just don't travel all the time. I used to be a member of a travel blogging site about 6-10 years ago. Haven't been back to it since and completely forget what its name is/was. It was a big one and very popular. Google replaced it for me.
What the hell? It's sad that Google's corporate strategy is starting to override what's in the best interests of it's users. Web video is finally, after so many years, actually encoded in H.264. Who besides YouTube uses WebM or Ogg? I'll be going back to Safari if this happens.
I'll agree that 100ms to 10ms difference probably isn't a social good, but if a certain amount of money is due to a group of people for their role in providing liquidity and they choose to collectively wast a fraction of it on cutthroat zero-sum competition with each other I'll say thats sort of a shame, but I don't really think its anything I need to worry about.
Dear..., it's spelled OpenOffice.org, not OpenOffice.
Wish I'd had this info 15 years ago, would have saved me a lot of trouble
Would be more apt to call it the dark age of the carriers.
It hurts me deeply that HN has become a stage for the SEO circus. Wasn't "Spinh" enough?
And exactly who does this end up helping? I'm all for open formats, but I'm more for compatibility.
> if I were a student in the class, I don't think this scheme would really do anything for me.

Maybe it would. Maybe it wouldn't. Whether it does or not is irrelevant. It's whether it get's more people to put effort into a system they normally wouldn't (something that is proven time and time again). Branding something as X might not be important to you, but for the vast majority of people, that brand categorizes it in their mind.

It's easy to dismiss this, but I think if you look at what choices you make in your life, you'll find areas where the brand something is given impacts your choices, even in the slightest ways.
I am reminded of 'Fargo': a convoluted scheme which comes to no good for anyone and causes a great deal of hardship along the way.
I had exactly the same experience while trying to cook up an ad hoc test utility at our startup. I spent two days bumbling around with MRI Ruby and various gems and C libraries -- two days of utter frustration. I eventually realized that I could easily talk to any database with a JDBC library if I switched to JRuby, and that's what I did. Like you, I was up and running in minutes.
Alan Perlis: You think you know when you learn, are more sure when you can write, even more when you can teach, but certain when you can program.
The key difference is that http://www.whatthefuckshouldimakefordinner.com/ and the like aren't using vulgarity in the service of an attack on other people's hard work.

And I tend to agree with the article's argument that a criticism of the design without using the design is pointless nerdrage.
Seek Investors Aligned With Your Interests, Not Their Egos
I thought Chrome came bundled with Flash Player
http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/25/google-chrome-flash/

...which supports H.264 in an MP4 container...

http://diveintohtml5.org/video.html

....so I'm not clear on what's actually happening here. Is Chrome going to just stop handing off MP4/H.264 from video tags to the bundled Flash Player even though it's there and can play it? Or will it stop bundling Flash Player? Or bundle a crippled Flash Player? None of the above?
Site’s currently down (8:24 PM GMT, 10th) due to massive bandwidth. It is just a shared host and it suffices for 99% of the site‘s uptime. Google cache here: https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttp...
Bourgeois Pig has a decent selection of teas, including the Theanine heavy Gyokuro, but they don't sell in bulk. Their baristas might be able to tell you where they buy from though - assuming it is local.

I've purchased some decent Silver Needle at Coffee and Tea Exchange in Lakeview - but the prices are a little high.
"AT&T struggled to keep up with the load iPhone users placed on its data network, taking most of the PR hit for failings that may have had as much to do with the iPhone’s immature hardware and software as with AT&T’s network."

Come again? There's zero evidence that it had anything to do with the iPhone, outside of the fact that iPhone users actually, you know, used their data plan.

The bottom line is that the iPhone outcome caught ATT on their heels. It's really easy to look at the success story of the iPhone now and consider ATT to be fools for not having prepared, but when the iPhone launched, it was a $500-$600 unsubsidized phone. This was something that virtually no one was doing in the US. There were serious questions as to whether Apple would be successful when executing in the face of what looked like a complete violation of conventional wisdom. I'm sure that more than one ATT senior exec thought it would flop, or be business as usual.

Apple sold a couple million in short order.

The author does make a good point about how Apple has hacked the carrier model though. By rolling the phone out with no subsidy, Apple placed a bet on its own horse. Once it was proven a success, other carriers rushed to jump on the bandwagon. Now carriers are happy to pay high wholesale rates to Apple for their phone in exchange for a lock in on rate plans that are higher margin than a straight voice plan.

Consider also that the cell phone market is saturated. There aren't a large number of subscribers coming online. That is to say, most people who want a cell phone have one. The majority of users have feature phones, however. These phones don't require a data plan, so moving subscribers to smartphones is the last revenue expansion frontier for the carriers.

It all adds up to a very sweet deal for handset manufacturers who can distinguish themselves and command high prices.
Haven't the CFTC, the SEC, and the exchanges all basically absolved high-frequency traders at this point?
They aren't supporting h.264 in the <video> element anymore, meaning there won't be anymore HTML5 video players that use h.264. As for Flash, who knows?
Apple to embed chip in iPad for Verizon network access
How Pixar Bosses Saved Their Employees from Layoffs
U of Rochester Tech Entrepreneurship & Management MS
We do pillory film, literary and food critics who are caught basing their review on a publicity still of the work in question.

It is not unreasonable to expect a critic to watch/read/eat/use the film/book/food/UI in question before calling its creator a "fucking hack".
One of the biggest criticisms against Microsoft over the years is that they suffer from Not-Invented-Here syndrome.

Is it just me, or does Google seem to be increasingly heading down this path? Granted, Google tends to go down the open-source route, where Microsoft has tended not to, but I'm not sure that excuse holds up well over the long-term.

Either way, I'm genuinely curious if anyone else feels this.
I was responding to the bottom half of the article which makes the argument I referenced separately.
Some of these don't make sense, because some people cache their front pages. Has nothing to do with how responsive the actual app is.
This is not an issue. 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? Pretty open. What's the issue? Just some inefficiency. It means that all videos have to be encoded in a few formats in the backend and a browser detector to tell our server which video to play. As long as the end user isn't harmed I don't see the big deal with Google supporting Google's own format (that they have opened up with a protected royalty-free format).

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).
Wouldn't you already need to encode everything twice due to Firefox's lack of H.264 support?
This makes <video> about as useful as <audio> now.
Great details on how to be a great mobile location app.
Eh, it's like Regretsy, the site that makes fun of atrocious items placed for sale on Etsy. Even Regretsy has wound up boosting sales of the mocked items. They've also harnessed their traffic for good with occasional charity appeals, and helped a little boy with cancer raise $100,000 or so to pay for his treatment.
Yes! And praising the stuff you love is so much more constructive than flaming the stuff you hate. Hurray to the lovers!
Fantastic. Much as I enjoyed Burn All GIFs back in the day, I don't think Burn All H.264s sounds nearly as catchy or fun. Glad Google is doing the Right Thing on this front -- however convenient or entrenched they might be, hairy patented messes like H.264 have no place on an open web.
Most of the apps reviewed are beyond salvaging. At least the Delta site had a decent base to work off of.
Of course I am. If a new release of Gnome broke some code of yours (that sticks to documented APIs and worked fine on the previous release), you would file a bug, regardless of the fact you could have downloaded and built everything from their version control on a daily basis to test, even automatically. Why should we treat Microsoft any different? Even if I detected the problem in the first public alpha, I would file a bug.

If the code sticks to the API rules and a new release of the OS broke it, it's the OS that's buggy, not your code. If the OS maker doesn't fix the bug using the "you should have tested" excuse I question how much it respects its users and developers.
Haven't been able to convince ourselves to use Comic Sans though :)