skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I view the problem of too much information as a detractor. Let's say you go to Netflix Instant View and want to watch a comedy. Most of those are 1 or 2 stars and you needlessly flip through then until you get to something with some valuable rating.

Google fixes this issue with their algorithm based on popularity. Trip Advisor, in my opinion, is a garbage site, very confusing and cluttered. There is a reason people still buy travel guides and now ebook travel guides, because of the unreliability of search results.

A lot of times, especially when traveling, search engines change to local results, which might not be in the language you are looking for. Then you click on the English version and get different results. This is an attempt to standardize recommendations. Hopefully it will be like a living, breathing Lonely Planet guide accessible free of charge on the internet all the time.

Eventually, once the site grows, I will give incentives to the owners of the "recommendation" area access to update the contact information, but not the criticism, which will hopefully allow for more accurate data.

But yes, that is a concern.

I fully understand your concerns and I have wrestled with them over the years too. Yes, there are a bunch of travel blog sites, yes there are a bunch of review sites, but it isn't about who did it first, but who does it better.

Will I? I won't know unless I try. Can I fail? Probably, but that shouldn't stop me from trying.

I know people who made very lucrative businesses emulating existing companies with free data from the US census. On paper it should have failed, but it worked.

I see those websites as portals to information, but not aggregates. Think about Digg. What did they do? Nothing special, just post stuff you read from around the internet from the websites we all frequent. Reddit replaced it as king because it did that better (much, much better actually).

The idea is to improve on an existing niche. Give the people something your competition doesn't give them. Although many travelers use google for research, there is a bunch of garbage that needs to be filtered out. They do a good job, but not a great one. Do I want every hotel or restaurant listed? No, I prefer just the really good ones and provide quality control to steer people towards the must-not-miss for quality, value, or whatever.

One more note. When I started this project, my expectations where for every 100 people, 10 create blogs and 90 come for the information. Out of the 10 blog users, if 2 were consistently active, I would view that as a success. So, the blog section needs 2% active use for it to be a success because my reality is that most people:

1) don't write or care to share
2) view it as a hassle

I am a story teller and want to give other story tellers the ability to do so.
Major respect for that guy.
H264 is an established standard. H264 is not the <video> tag.
It's pretty enough in its own way, but do you know what my first reaction was? I first viewed your site in Chrome, then loaded it up in Firefox, and finally IE because I was convinced that something wasn't rendering correctly.

Two things stand out in particular: first, my laptop's resolution is 1600x900 and I have to scroll down to see the links on the left; secondly, that's a HUGE amount of empty space on the right hand side, and it looks like it could accommodate the "What is Simplton" text quite nicely.

Honestly, I'd advise doing what I do - although I'm not terribly successful, so perhaps you should disregard this advice ;-) Anyway, go to ThemeForest, find a decent sales page theme, and another one for your user area. It'll cost you $30-40, and whilst some will object to what are pretty obviously cookie-cutter themes, you'll find out pretty quickly if people will pay for it.

I was in the same place as you a year ago, with a tool whose design was 100 times worse than yours is, and I was signing up 1 trial account per day. Many months later I bought a design for $15 and an admin theme for $20, and that increased free trials to 20 a day!

Good luck! :)
Was I the only one who thought this would be advice on how to get ready for sleep?

I don't hear "a day" and assume a business day...
thank you, very helpful
Google are not removing video tag support, they are removing the h264 codec. h264 is pretty damn well established and is actually a standard without the quotation marks, and an open one at that.
Thanks for screwing up my HN. Can't I read someone's thoughts without someone feeling cranky and sleep-deprived all over it? Now my high expectations from HN haven't been met. Thanks a lot.
Hey for whatever it's worth, if HFT funds the training of entrepreneurial programmers in markets programming, that's probably a benefit.
It sounds like the result of Amy Chua's mothering is to instill in her children a love of, maybe even addiction to, accomplishment through extremely hard work and sacrifice. And that's pretty much what it takes to do anything truly great.

If her kids enter college with that mindset completely internalized, then I'd say odds are they'll be less likely to get distracted by the low-priority frivolities their peers may.
The big problem WebM has is that there are hardware decoders for H.264
Whatever bro. WebM isn't and will never be a browser standard so I'm not sure what you're getting at. None of the codecs will as stated in the HTML5 Specification.

If you don't think de facto standards are important then you are clueless about the history of the internet and technology in general.
"Just Do It" Is a Terrible Advice
> homeopathy that invented evidence-based medicine and drug testing

I'll need a citation for that. Homeopathy is one of the most blatantly nonsensical, improbable, and unproven "disciplines" I've ever come across.

Edit: For context: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeopathy
Challenging the gag order was a win-win for them. Were they to lose, they'd have to comply with the gag order, but they could at least benefit from having put up a fight. Because they won, they get to be the champion of the people.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad they did, and I'm extremely proud of them on principle, but it was the logical way to respond.
I'm the go-to guy in my office for html5 video(audio) and this just made my job that much harder. Shit, today I just found out that our videos arent playing on android devices now this
My response was too long, so I wrote my thoughts here:

http://russell.ballestrini.net/response-to-l-theanine-a-4000...
So are we going to get third party Chrome distributions that backport the missing H.264 functionality?
I really hope this year is the year iOS also gets a refresh too. Apple has really let it stagnate and let their hardware do the talking. Windows Phone 7, I think, is a much prettier interface. Android has some killer features, like Navigation. Apple has the apps, which I guess is a perpetual motion machine for them, but iOS feels old. I worry that that won't change, as Mac OS has stayed fairly stationary from a UI perspective since 10.3, despite obvious and continually complained about problems, such as Finder.

I think the thing that turns me off is that Apple don't really want to make a communicator or a dumb terminal, they want to make a small computer. That the notification system has been so broken for so long, and the cloud integration has been non-existant, shows that Apple really aren't all that interested in the "phone" aspect. I think that's a real shame.

Android does it right: "What's your Google Account?" taptaptap "Oh hey, great. Here's all your contacts, all your email, all your calendar appointments. Good thing the Internet exists. Have fun."
Scott James Remnant Leaves Canonical for Google
"Standard" has more than one meaning. In the phrase "de facto standard" I think the meaning is more in the direction of "something considered by an authority or by general consent as a basis of comparison."

Or to put it another way, standards bodies do not, as you seem to be implying, have a monopoly on the word "standard".
Personal risk, yes. Malpractice is covered by insurance. Bankers risk their clients' money, not their own (for the most part). As long as they perform their job competently, there is little risk compared to an entrepreneur who has had to quit their job and invest their personal funds into their venture.
Awesome. You should partner with UberCab: www.uber.com
WebM is a relatively new entrant into the encoding field, Only getting opened up in the last 8 months. Ogg has always been a fairly significantly worse codec then H264. "Even the 1mbps Ogg Theora clips are not on par with the 468 kbps h264 clips."[1]

Considering that MS and Apple have been working in video for a long time now they chose the codec with the best available experience for their users (who aren't the ones picking up the licensing fees).

[1] http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2010/02/ogg-theora-v...
OMFG - this is the worst seo book ever - and i know because i'm propably the only one who ever read it front to cover (during my sabbatical on a beach in mexico) there are four authors which republish their old blog posts mixed together by an editor who was obviously overwhelmed with the task. but it is not only mixed (with no way to find out who wrote what) it is also repetitive (the same topic up to 5 times) and unstructured (soemtimes there are refferences like: read more about that in this chapter, but then the whole topic is discussed again nothingtheless) ... oh yeah some of it is factually false, with refernces to blogposts wich talks about something completely different.

the truth is: this book stands for everything that is wrong with SEO as a profession. SEO as a profession is 80% bullshit and 20% actionable knowledge. this book celebrates the 80%.

the biggest letdown is, that its published by oreily but way below their quality standard they are known for.
Also, Apple used to be fully behind royalty-free standards for the web:

http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-patentpolicy-comment...

Apple believes
that it is essential to continued interoperability and development of
the Web that fundamental W3C standards be available on a royalty-free
basis. In line with the W3C's mission to "lead the Web to its full
potential," Apple supports a W3C patent policy with an immutable
commitment to royalty-free licensing for fundamental Web standards.
Apple offers this statement in support of its position.

It's powerful and persuasive stuff, worth reading in full. They only removed this statement from their website about 6 months ago.
I used to journal for years and stopped. Then I messed with OhLife (a YC startup) and kept going with it. I'm not connected with them other than being a user, but if you're online anyway, it's a pretty handy tool to keep a journal. http://ohlife.com/

It's also a good example of a clean design and user experience.
Sega Brings Gaming to the Bathroom With Urine-Controlled Video Game
I don't think anyone is going to say "don't make your website search-friendly because you're heading down the path of SEO" or anything like that. SEO has a negative connotation because of all the jerks associated with it, not because some of the SEO stuff doesn't make sense or isn't worthwhile.

For example, to the world at large, a "hacker" is "a bad guy", whereas here on hn, it means precisely the opposite. SEO is sort of like that. To be a self-described "SEO"-person or something means you're probably one of the jerks ruining it for everybody. That doesn't mean SEO, or at least parts of it, is a bad thing.

Edit: Above post was deleted while I was writing mine. It basically defended the link saying "SEO is a necessary part of any startup."
This is incorrect. They are still retaining and serving h.264 to mobile devices, since WebM has zero mobile hardware support.
No, it's not that you do do that, it's that you have the option.
Real Blogs Don’t Buy Ads On Google
That's a great idea I'll email them. I've also thought about approaching delivery-type services like Dominos.
To be honest, I haven't really surveyed the competition recently. I'm currently using the HTC/Droid Incredible and aesthetically, I love it. It's sleek, I love the feel of it in my hands and the durability is great. HTC Sense is also a nice sheen on top of Android, but I hate waiting for updates while HTC battle tests the new versions of Android. I could stick with Android and get a vanilla install on a Motorola, but I haven't seen one that I like the looks of yet. Maybe I should look through the latest offerings from CES as you mentioned, but the original Droid, Droid X and Droid Pro just haven't peeked my interest.

Even though I'm a programmer (web developer), I'm not one to tinker with my phones so rooting and getting exactly what I want out of my Incredible doesn't appeal to me too much.

I suppose I'd be lying if I didn't add that there is a small protion of me that is an Apple Fanboy as well. I know their products are overpriced; I cringe at paying $100 for an extra 16gb of RAM instead of being able to pick up a cheap SD card. I also know that iOS is inferior in ways to Android, but Apple just sells it to me better than Google does somehow.

Realistically I don't have enough reasons to justify the switch, I really don't. But sometimes you know you want something and you just can't reason as to why.

I will, of course, do some more research before I decide to make a purchase. I appreciate you reminding me to check out thew new stuff that came out of CES. Any device(s) in particular you would suggest taking a look at?
You can't pay more - it's illegal (see RegNMS). You must buy on exchange B before buying on exchange A.
Then if you were, your second paragraph doesn't make any sense at all, and frankly, is pointless.
If your hypothesis was correct, the response rate from asian females to asian males would be much lower than the asian male average.
Announcing DCWEEK 2011 Rallying The Digitally Creative & Socially Innovative
It's all well and good to focus future effort on alternative technologies that you have a preference for.

But to remove a feature you currently support that works well...that's a poor decision that doesn't help your users or the web in general.
then why didn't they do this for the Verizon iPhone 4?
The 1.9.2 interpreter is YARV, not MRI: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YARV
Chronicles of a Serial Failure: (Failure can be defined as any outcome that does not meet or exceed expectations.)

1) Made an Iphone App called Obama McCain Polls. A polling application tracking Smartphone users polls by state, gender and other categories. Was supposed to be launched 15 days prior to the Elections. Apple delayed it and launched it on the eve of the elections. Made 500 users in 5 hours but the election ended and so did interest in my app.

2) Feeding off the 5 hour stardom effect, created a new application called Intimate Secrets. Again a very interactive polling based app to cater to users of all age groups, marital statuses and interests. Getting polls on questions that usually don't get asked. Had amazing success the first two days where the application was displayed on the most recent app page on the app store. As soon as app went to the third page downloads dropped again. Try to run a marketing campaign on Google and partner sites spreading awareness of the app. But the only successful way to market an Iphone app is to market it on the App store and there was no way of doing that back then. So the list of failures grow.

3) Switched focus from smart phones back to the web. Created an interactive portal on facebook to merge Social Commerce, Affiliate marketing and E-commerce. App was called CareToShare. Where the user will receive affiliate earnings by sharing their purchases on facebook. Friends will get promotional discounts and the companies will get more sales. Thought it was a win-win model. Presented it to companies like BestBuy and shopping channel. They weren't that willing to change their marketing campaigns or I wasn't convincing enough. So CareToShare remained in sandbox and didn't see the light of day.

4) Latest Venture Social Genie (http://www.sgenie.com). A Facebook app that provides you an interactive tool to make a wish and share it with your friends. Your friends can make contributions through PayPal. The app also allows you to see all the wishes made by your friends along with list of contributors, comments statuses. With this app I am competing with major players like FundRazr (lets users instantiate fund raisers) that have already stroked partnerships with PayPal. PayPal is promoting their app to all their users and are heavily investing in the company. When asked PayPal for similar support for my app, so far all the inquiries have been ignored. So I guess another failure on the way.

What went wrong? The fact that I am a social outcast and need to make connections with the right people to support/market my business. Entrepreneurs like me struggle to find innovative ways to solve problems within contained niches while all the big players use their monetary assets to create new demands with little or no productivity.

Would you try again? Yes unfortunately this exercise keeps me busy and focused. I don't have a better way to spend the remaining years of my life. Just the hope that one day I will lead a successful online business keeps me going.
One they can get away with because nobody cares. The other would kill the browser immediately.
If working remotely and video calling become that pervasive, I have no doubt that various filters on your appearance will become commonplace. You could answer a call in your pjs and appear to be in a suit for a business call, or in jeans and a t-shirt for your friends, etc.
Sounds to me like he just failed to find any great men that didn't keep a journal. It's by no means a common trait among them.
FYI, the "You should follow me on twitter _here_" link at the end of your article is broken, just pointing to http://russellbal/ .
I just read through 10 or so posts on that blog, and nothing seems terribly out of line... His criticisms were for the most part legitimate. That's just his style, and, while I don't prefer that and think it's quite immature, I've got to say, I did agree with most of the things he pointed out.

Amusing how you're calling for respect of other's work when you've shown to not give a shit yourselves and put an end to the work of a competing service that many seemed to enjoy temporarily -- HuddleChat.
Adobe has not yet shipped a version of Flash which supports VP8, or WebM for that matter. They've remained silent on that matter since their initial announcement at Google IO last year.
Kudos to you not only for a great piece of work, but for calling it a "project" and not a "startup".
yeah you open it one page which tells you you should care about x, but you do not like x, so you open it on another random page which tells you to do y and you like y better so you do y.

seriously this book is shit, if you see an SEO mention it as his reference run for cover, take your business with you
> People should really blame MS and Apple for only supporting their own video codec here.

H.264 is not Apple's codec, nor is it Microsoft's. Both of them have to license it, just like any random company off the street would. Apple does own one or two of the several hundred patents involved, so might get a very slight discount on their license.

> I am fully behind the decision of Mozilla, Opera, Google and others to support open and patent unencumbered video formats.

WebM is probably patent encumbered. We just don't know who owns the patents yet.
I can't say I really care for the name! But I guess this is better then if they'd chosen "Jeffrey" as their Butler name
Gruber has made definite predictions based on Verizon's ability to move iPhones (one example among others):
http://daringfireball.net/linked/2010/12/09/verizon-iphone

In that case, either they sell a million on day one or they don't (this presumes that we are ever told or can divine a semi-reliable sales estimate). His opinion doesn't enter into it.

I'd say part of the reason he is and remains popular is that he pretty consistently tries to present the data or line of reasoning behind the opinion, and on occasion adjusts to fit the new data...and but says so when it happens.
I really don't understand: how is this article different from the story posted on http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2089570? (Apart from being slides vs no-slides)
Show HN: My first iPhone app "JustRemindIt" is released
I just launched my first iPhone application - “JustRemindIt”! It's a part-time project so I'm super excited about this accomplishment, so wanted to share this joy and app with HN and receive some valuable feedback.

It's an application to send Voice (phone) call based reminders to your friends, colleagues, clients and yourself. Check out the homepage http://justremindit.com for more details like what are the benefits of Voice call based reminders, who is it useful for, etc.

This was basically a class project for my wife’s iPhone programming class. When she demoed it in the class, everyone was impressed by this concept. We showed it to our friends and colleagues, and they loved it. Then I showed it to my lawyer, my dentist, and they wanted it too. So finally we decided to commercialize it.

Then she continued with her Masters, and I started working on commercializing this app. It took more than 6 months in part-time (actually part-time of part-time since I already work on my other part-time project, and this is my 2nd project) to make it at par with commercial apps in the App Store. Finally, it's available to download here - http://appsto.re/JustRemindIt. App is FREE to download, and comes with few free reminder credits to play around. After that you can recharge your account with pay-as-you-go model.

Please download the app, use it, and let me know your feedback - all kinds of inputs are welcome. If you like the app, I'll really appreciate if you can write review as well.

I'm super excited about this first step and looking forward to real challenges that will begin now. I've lots of plans for future versions, like support for recurring reminders, SMS or Email reminders, seamless integration with Contacts and Calendar, Group reminders, etc. So please let me know your inputs, they will help me to work on the right features.

Thanks HN! You've been a great source of inspiration throughout this journey! You helped me to not quit the part-time efforts in the middle and helped me finish the first step.
Once Adobe adds WebM support in Flash, it might happen the other way around.
You rarely gain much unless you let yourself hurt a bit first and reap the benefits later.
That is pretty absurd. Find the most complex thing you have ever programmed and go teach it to someone. Just because you made it does not mean you can explain it. Further, while explaining there is a pretty good chance you will find some bugs.
Of course there is. It's called trolling, and it gets attention. For example, the modern news media is built on trolling, as is most of 37signals's fame.
Sarcasm? Not Sarcasm? Purposefully ambiguous?
And just because you're working doesn't mean you're working on the right things, or the things that will have the most effect, or working towards the right goals.

Which is what this post is all about.
The rage is directed at the people that put forth time and effort into releasing applications in the App Store, as well as at Apple for enabling these people to publish apps that offend their delicate sensibilities.

I can see where he's coming from, and I can agree that it's a little childish and or obscene, but looking through his examples, there are some really terrible apps in the store, and a lot of them are unnecessary (insofar as they duplicate functionality from existing OS X applications that ship with the os).
Statins side effects | Statins Side Effects
and capital gains
Clickable links:
Homepage: http://justremindit.com
App Store link to download: http://appsto.re/JustRemindIt
1.) The referenced is taking a somewhat tongue-in-cheek approach to advocating the Apple HIG.

2.) I find 37s posting something like this humorous. DHH "shits all over" other people's work all the time.

In summary, lighten up.