skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Anyone else tired of hearing about "the Heroku of x?" However, you can be pretty sure you hit the right combo of good timing and implementation when your own startup is followed by services which are referred to as "[insert your startup name] of x."

ETA: Let's have some fun and play with the tagline they have on their pricing page which is "Like Heroku, but better."

Like Heroku, but without ninjas and rockstars.

Like Heroku, but better, but less cool.
Teach, would love to hear the details!
$4.99 is too much for a movie that you can't keep.
Impact Sensors Slated for NFL Helmets Next Season
Unless it has a door out of the garden, like Android's "install unsigned apps" toggle. It's the best solution to this "issue", but so far only certain Android phones offer it (and all but the Nexus series are locked down in other ways).

If Apple could just hide a Jailbreak button under 10 pages of warnings in iTunes, this wouldn't be an issue. But they don't, so fear of a locked-down Mac is reasonable. But, as you conclude, that isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Ask HN: simple Basecamp-like editor?
Is there a simple Basecamp-like open source editor somewhere that just does the basics? I really only want bullets, bold, numbers and perhaps a few other formatting options. Links and bullets alone would also pretty much do it.
Discussion on decreasing social capital
No one can stream with Blu-Ray quality yet. Consider most blu-ray encoding bitrates are at between 25-45Mbps. Netflix's best HD Streams I think are about 3Mbps, maybe slightly higher. Even if you're streaming at 1080p (which Roku now supports) that stream is going to be smashed to bits to get that resolution out of it.

Also no one is streaming 5.1 surround sound yet either. You'd chew up your whole bandwidth allotment on audio.

Blu-Ray is still a considerably better format for video then streaming.
Absolutely gorgeous. Will be interested to see how our iOS version goes. I'm not sure if it will be of any help, but I have written an interaction "helper" library that is designed to make handling mouse and touch events consistent. If it is something that is useful, then let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.

http://sidelab.github.com/interact/
Google Translate’s ‘Conversation Mode’ Coming To Your Phone
Four: livejournal.com is effectively a social network, although it predates Facebook and the like by half a decade or more.
Tell HN: Facebook's new messaging system is live
Not sure if I'm late on this but I just got a notice on Facebook telling me I could activate my FB e-mail (not that I'm going to use it though).
Why We Quit
I would imagine excanvas would struggle with this... however..

If Yury hasn't already, definitely give it a shot with FlashCanvas: http://flashcanvas.net/ Its performance is somewhere around 33x faster than the vml-based excanvas. (Yes, 3300% better.)
What do you mean by that? Can you provide an example?
On the cruelty of really teaching computing science  - E.W. Djikstra[1988]
I'm not saying this is close to a TI-92, but here's a calculator we did a while back that's easy to use and powerful.

http://www.ecalc.com
100K in 4 months is impressive. Keep in mind that that app was featured by Apple though. It makes a huge difference.
I don't remember seeing these pages. Thanks.

I have bookmarked:

http://directory.fsf.org/category/math/

and

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/FOSS_Education/Research_using_F...

There are a number of other sites dedicated to pre-university level education of mathematics but I was more thinking about my own experience with Maple, Mathematica, and Matlab and FOSS tools of a quality to substitute for these. Having listened to the SageMath intro video I would add Magna to that list I suppose but maybe it is narrower in scope.

I need to know how the tools are categorized. I guess each mathematical field has its own set of tools.

I guess Computer Algebra Systems (CAS) would be the general term for the symbolic math side of things and Automated Theorem Provers (ATP) for the proof theory side of things. Ignoring ATP for the moment I suppose you can subdivide CAS many ways. I wouldn't even know how to list the divisions in mathematics or even if each division had a corresponding type of mathematical tool.
Hunting the hidden dimension
Wow. Take note, people. This is how you present your product. Not with pages of lame marketing copy, show it in action!

Great site! I'm using the "rainbow on black" on my secondary cinema display now. Correct resolution and everything. Thanks! :)
Boston Clojure user group started
I like the idea of hiding features behind flags. You can see evidence of this from the number of command line options in the source:

http://src.chromium.org/svn/trunk/src/chrome/common/chrome_s...

They do this even for fundamental features of the browser. For example, there's four different process models available:

http://dev.chromium.org/developers/design-documents/process-...

For planning software releases, I take inspiration from Chrome, Ubuntu, and Microsoft. They all have different release cycles, it's interesting to compare them.

Chrome: agile, 12 weekly releases, subtle upgrades, parallel versions with different stability levels.

Ubuntu: fixed six monthly schedule, well advertised schedule (e.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=107E4RXNxYc) means difficult for them not to release on time, it's a selling point. Every 24 months long term support release.

Microsoft: major products released approximately every three years. Heavy marketing efforts around releases rather than features. Service pack releases and patches released on an ongoing basis.

I guess Chrome has less of an enterprise install base, which means they are more able to release on an ongoing basis. Enterprise IT teams like to install known good releases and not let other the vendors manage the upgrades.
That's an interesting way of looking at it. I always thought that the "perfect" mathematical tool should strive for parity with math standard math notation but the way you describe it makes perfect sense from the viewpoint of leveraging existing tools.
You'd be better off going to the Steve McConnel blog entry that this article links to: http://forums.construx.com/blogs/stevemcc/archive/2011/01/09...
Not all of Netflix is streaming is quite an understatement. Trying to find something worth watching that they stream is a task which conjures up memories of trips to the video store of yore.

(Although Amelie was very good.)
Sure they are -- tape libraries are still sold, primarily for backups, eg:

http://www.quantum.com/Products/TapeLibraries/index.aspx

http://www.dell.com/us/en/enterprise/storage/tapebackup_auto...
Great stuff. I've always thought that the way to crack the App Store is to create a brand associated with a number of apps in the same segment. If you can do this with Developer Tools or similar, then I'm sure there is money to be made!
PHP-Sat: Check for common mistakes in PHP source code
We have exactly the same kind of data relationships in our database. Sure it's complicated and in your example sure you'll end up with a bunch of tables if you normalize it all the way to 3NF. But there's a lot of GOOD STUFF you get when you do, for example if you decide to rename a FooType or a FooSize then you only have to update one record rather than searching every document in your document DB for instances of those names so you can rename them. Hell if you have many documents and 24/7 clients this may become IMPOSSIBLE to do while still guaranteeing consistency in your data.

Your example is not that unusual or even that complicated. What is about it that doesn't work on a RDBMS? You can't just say the solution sucks because it uses more tables that you feel it should.
This looks interesting (I haven't used it yet). I'd be interested in recommendations from people who have used it or who can recommend something similar/better.
Considering the price of movie tickets, does that mean you also don't go to movies at theaters?
Me gusta!
Energy & Dynamic Braking - Impressive Visuals
>Regardless the color of the skin, of the eyes, or of any other ridiculous parameters only one thing matters : excellence.

See, here lies the problem. Define: excellence. As I have maintained, excellence is not tied well with SAT scores or GRE scores or papers or citation counts. I think excellence is very personal. If I am a economically disadvantaged student, but held my own in a violent high school in a bad neighborhood, worked a job but still scored good grades; much better than my peers. Did well in SATs without having any money for extra SAT training. If I resisted peer pressure to join a gang while focusing on my studies, I would think I did a pretty excellent job at my life. To compare me with a kid who comes from a privileged background had extra tuitions for SATs and had all the time in the world to spend on his studies and did much better in SATs is probably unfair.

>There are bright people, there are dumb people.

In your mind which likes to simplify things. Not in the world there aren't. If you think you are smart because you are really good at Math, I would like to introduce you to my friend who is an exceptional soprano.

>Trying to impose social equality means working against this natural repartition.

There are no natural repartitions. Only artificial ones imposed by the complex societies. I am not blaming the society, just saying that we could improve it to be much fairer and to aspire for anything less would be unfortunate.

>To me, excellence seems like a better (and fairer) goal to reach.

We agree, just not on the definition of excellence.
Are there any apps that aren't featured get as many sales as the featured ones? Can any apps be considered "success" without Apple's promotion?

I found it interesting that almost all App Store success stories mentioned their sales went up when the app was featured by Apple, which indirectly makes me time that getting Apple's attention is the #1 priority for an app developer.
>Incidentally, I decided to add to my original comment and address your other points. I'd love it if you had the time to respond. If you prefer, I can move those points to a separate reply.

Replied above in a separate reply.
Two Centuries On, a Cryptologist Cracks a Presidential Code
Turning Tweets Into Essays
This is really cool. Props. I live in the city but work in Burlingame, otherwise would love to try it.
I think the true controversy actually lies in how many of those advantages are even still advantages, or how much longer they will be.
Hopefully.

But making an 800 on an SAT has to be tricky stuff: The first-cut explanation is that it is more than 3 standard deviations above the mean in a Gaussian distribution. I can't believe that the test is very accurate much above 700 (in the sense of classic 'reliability'). So, getting above 700 is not so tough; actually getting an 800 has to be partly a craps shoot.

On both shots, I was over 750 on the Math SAT and never studied for it either. I finished early, checked my answers, and still had time. I didn't see any of the questions as very difficult and can't imagine I missed much. With such a short test, it about has to be that one question can mean dozens of points above 700 or so. So, the test 'reliability' can't be very accurate above 700.

In the end, what was valuable for me in college and grad school was interest, talent, 'environment', and some relatively independent work. That nose to the grindstone stuff played no role.

If you didn't burn yourself out in high school cutting through AP nonsense, SAT prep, etc. and still got into Cal Tech, then good for both you and Cal Tech.

But, ugrad school is not supposed to be so challenging that determined students "could not make it". Again, it's just ugrad school and not some one step before a Nobel prize. So, "could not make it" indicates something is wrong as I concluded.

If want to make a big splash in academics and get a Ph.D., etc., fine, but nearly all the big splash part is grad school, not ugrad. So, get a four year ugrad degree with a good background in your interest areas and then pick a good grad school. The ugrad school doesn't have to be Cal Tech. If in grad school the Cal Tech students are way ahead, then that just means that at Cal Tech they really deserved a Master's or Ph.D. but only got a Bachelor's.
I know that languages evolve naturally, and words get repurposed all the time, but hustler? Really?.

hustler

n 1: a prostitute who attracts customers by walking the streets
2: a shrewd or __unscrupulous__ person who knows how to circumvent difficulties

It also happens to be the title of a porn magazine that would make Hugh Hefner blush, while you won't often hear the term 'hustler' used in reference to a female prostitute, you will find it heavily used among gay men to refer to male prostitutes.

Perhaps repurposing 'hustler' without negative connotations will work, but this is a word with a lot of ugly baggage, and the first thing I thought of when I saw it used in reference to startups: dishonest businessmen.

[Addendum] For completeness, a dip into the modern lexicon:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hustler_(disambiguation)

Hustler is a monthly pornographic men's magazine
and general brand of Larry Flynt Publications.

Hustler or hustlers also commonly refers to:
- A practitioner of confidence tricks
- Someone who deceives others by hustling, usually in sports
- An American hip hop slang word for a pimp,
drug dealer or male prostitute
> Don't bother polluting this thread with facts. HN is clearly dominated by Keynesians. Your dissent will not be tolerated.

This really isn't a constructive comment. It really possible to discuss different measures of inflation without sticking a general label on people who disagree with you and saying that they live in an alternate universe.
Compared to, say, Santa Cruz (just over the hill from the Silicon Valley) with yearly average ranges from 39-60 (Jan), to 52-76 (Aug), with most of the days from the spring thru fall in the high 60s, low 70s, which I personally think is ideal.
I also appreciate that when I close a tab, its memory is returned to the OS. My safari process tends to need killing once in a while, after it's been mean to my VM.
If you watch the stock market news in China on TV, a stock highlighted in red means it went up, and green means down.
Netflix doesn't have "extras" like: multiple audio tracks or subtitle tracks (for commentary or foreign languages etc.), alternate endings, or behind-the-scenes footage.
Tired or not it's not a bad way to make value proposition clear and in hindsight is pretty handy:

- "Youtube is the flickr of Video" - http://slashdot.org/articles/05/08/14/1320217.shtml

- "AdMob is the doubleclick of mobile" http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/techbeat/archives/200...

etc
It's been said, but I can't help but write my own comment. Excellent execution on this project.
Fckeditor? Or whatever it's called this month
Interesting that Android edges out both iPhone and iPad. This would be a nice resource for students looking for skills that will land them jobs (mobile web yes, UNIX rockstar no).
Not necessarily. NFC isn't really necessary for mobile payments to work. The product I'm working on is a good example of why.

http://www.facecash.com
nice work!I hope to use it when I can get an account. I just hope it is as easy as they say.
I graduated from Caltech in '08. White, female, 3-sport athlete, SAT scores M 660/V 730.
That's not a typo, I scored a 1390 on my SATs

In my application I wrote about my experience in high school athletics and I obviously wasn't put in the reject pile. I also expressed my desire to be at a college where everyone was focused on learning, unlike at the underachieving public school I attended. That's the type of student Caltech is looking for: passionate about learning and STEM. While that usually translates to perfect SAT scores, an 800 in math is not a requirement.

The author stresses numbers because those are measurable and easily comparable, leading to the easy critique that numbers aren't everything. As in my case, Caltech admissions agrees, and the result is an incredibly diverse population considering how focused the school is academically and how small the classes are. A guy in my class designed and built a bridge in his home town. I knew kids who were home-schooled and who were champion ballroom dancers.

BTW My junior year we broke the women's basketball team's 10-year losing streak. One win of that magnitude trumps any winning season in my book.
Mashed Code Magazine
The forward motion idea is very interesting. I wonder how it plays out in a student's mind. A main issue with regular grading is that a lot of students end up caring more about the grade and their performance rather than what they are learning. It sounds like the forward-motion model is a better representation of the learning process. Dropping from an A to a B doesn't cause you to lose what you have learned, while being up 10,000 XP points (B) instead of 12,000 XP (A) is still up 10,000. Is this differentiator enough to take focus off the grade and cause more students to focus on learning?

I guess an important question could be: What would the feedback from a teacher mean to a 10,000 XP student who is desiring an extra 2,000 XP?
I think it is still actually on invite/rollout.
Someone either invited you
or
Your place in queue when you signed up here http://www.facebook.com/about/messages/ came up.
The data here is likely going to be biased towards the people who actually DO check HN all the time even if there are more of the once in a while folks unless you factor in the likelihood each group in seeing this poll before it gets buried.
LEDGERABLE
Austin isn't Houston, it's not that humid.
Feed them ads with affiliate codes in them.
Sure, but wouldn't it be better if you could make that proposition from your own presentation without having to refer to other services? If PHPFog is the Heroku of PHP, then what was Heroku the Heroku of? ;)
Tell HN: Please consider using a larger font size on your websites
Here's an example. A great post on the front page, but the text is painfully small:

http://www.metamorphblog.com/2011/01/speakertext-hustlers-wanted.html

I know I can just hit Ctrl++ or use Readability, but surely it's better to have a sensible default size. Here's the page compared to the New York Times:

http://i.imgur.com/uezEh.png

Just my two cents.
It is in the morning:

http://www.cityrating.com/cityhumidity.asp?City=Austin
New API for Google URL Shortener
Just like most things, it's not that simple. For example...

Cassandra is good for 'big data' if you're ok dealing with the repercussions of eventual consistency, and questionable performance characteristics. Not to mention the mediocre community support.

Redis is a fantastic choice, if you're ok with a limited data model and no diskstore option(coming soon though!)

Picking a datastore that fits your data model, access patterns, support needs, etc. can be a daunting task, and simplifying it to this degree just leaves too much out of the equation.
Although Not Supported, You Can Remove the Mac App Store
If you're coding, you're in the air conditioning when it's 95°F and out in the mornings/evenings. I spent 9 months in Austin starting in February and it's not that bad. I grew up in Atlanta (85-95°F and 80% humidity) and summertime was about the same but the winter was nicer.

I still miss the food. I can get the quality here in NYC in a restaurant near the barrio but not the prices.
Determine how much value does your product delivers to the customers. Let's say if it saves them $500/month, you can easily charge/they will happily pay at least $100/month.

Regarding what type of plan, you should think about what do your customer demographic look like. If they are same type of people with same type of needs, give them one price. I tend to support one-price only, because that reduces troubles like different settings on the backend, have customers to decide, and communicate the differences clearly, etc.
Ask HN: How do you create wireframes?
What is the best tool to create wireframes for iPhone/iPad/android apps or websites?
Which tool do you use?

I've just started to use http://keynotekungfu.com/, but still looking forward to better ones.
http://keynotekungfu.com/
clickable.
You do realize that "The Heroku Of PHP" is not a line from PHPFog right?

It's how TechCrunch is explaining what the site is.

http://www.phpfog.com/
Killing NVIDIA's chipset business seems to cost Intel a few bucks...
I tried to vote at the bottom but the button doesn't seem to be working.
GOOD.

Of course, a Cal Tech star prof was Feynman. My understanding of his time in grad school at Princeton is that he mostly was on the floor of his dorm room talking and thinking about what became his approcah to QM. GOOD.

The frosh students at Cal Tech are ready for a LOT and should be encouraged to take the freedom to pursue it. Heck, they about deserved a Bachelor's on the day they were admitted, so after that, let them do their best relatively independent work and not sweat trivia.
Don't really get this one. First off, PHP doesn't have the deploy/run process of Sinatra/Ruby/Node/etc. Second, 1.8 mil isn't much money; that's probably the amount you could bootstrap with some past success. And the business-plan-like graphic doesn't reveal that there's anything interesting in their tech approach than any commodity hosting.
Ask HN: What do you remember about the "Top 100" websites?
Help us out by taking these 5 sec tests (results will follow).
"Market features, not versions," but to be sure this is Chrome's most important feature. It also mirrors what's happening in the development of HTML. http://www.mail-archive.com/whatwg@lists.whatwg.org/msg23160...

If IE had been engineered in the same way, we never would have gotten into the IE 6 trap and when all browser manufacturers adopt this strategy, web technology will move much more quickly.
There are many reasons why a person might have a C average besides "they hate school". Just as there are reasons why someone might score less than an ACT 36 / SAT 1600 besides they are not a brilliant thinker.
Before reading the article I thought it was going to be about catching thieves.
I'm going to do this, but instead of having photobooth open, I found a command line app to capture an image from the isight: http://www.intergalactic.de/pages/iSight.html
I moved down to Austin (for school @ UT) from Arlington about 5 years ago and haven't left since :)
Also, no state income tax!

Is living in california worth over 10k a year? (assuming you have a reasonable salary)
One note: there's a slide that mentions zero salary. There may be minimum wage laws implications to having a non-founder take no salary. Be sure to check with a lawyer before doing that; you don't want to wind up having a terminated employee/commenter hit you for unpaid wages etc.
I'm finding the shift+mouse isn't working (using Firefox 4 beta 7 on Linux)
You never had your VCR eat a VHS tape? Definitely happened to me a few times. And the whole having to rewind thing was kind of annoying too. I'd take a DVD over a VHS any day, even if the picture quality was the same.
> The standard interpreter is many times faster than Ruby and Python

http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/u32/which-programming-lang...

No it's not "many times faster". Standard Lua is just a little faster than CPython.

LuaJIT2 kicks everyone's ass, though.
It's good to know that I'm not totally spewing bullshit, and that's the way it should be done.

In this case, I would have less than 200 types, and probably under 1000 Foo records total. Updates wouldn't have been a problem. The pain was much bigger than the upside. Especially designing the forms that would end up creating those rows...

It's not that it doesn't work. It's that it's not a 'this always fits' solution.
Part of the promise of a theater is a movie before it's on DVD or streaming, and for most people the picture and sound is perceived to be better than what's in their home.