skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Yea, that is pretty niche considering the size of their operation. Check out how far down the list they are and who's above them (US Weekly, Newsweek, Readers Digest, etc). Then there's the web: http://siteanalytics.compete.com/newyorker.com+techcrunch.co...

All that high quality content and the likes of TechCrunch are crushing them one "Twitter is down" post after another.
To cut to the chase, the Engadget's poster isn't a developer (according to ZDNet's poster) and he forgot to mention that the files that we're similar do not ship with Android, they are either used for testing or debugging.

UPDATE: FlorianMueller posted comments on the ZDNet post.
yeah some of my (techy) friends didn't get that you should just type in a single word.

simple solution to this would be gray text in the empty field: "type a word" or something like that.
I was extremely confused at first because I put in two words in the input box, and clicking 'merge' would do nothing. When I see 'merge', I expect that it will somehow merge the two words I've entered. You should change that button or at least add some text so it's a little more obvious what's going on. Or maybe add some code to alert the user that only one word is expected if/when they enter two.
If they use GetSatisfaction or UserVoice, click through to their community. If they have any traction at all, you'll find a bunch of feature requests, how popular those requests are and how they responded.
You just proved the article correct.
And here I was thinking that someone would propose YC founders eat their children.
Problem with your idea: "a place to find out about quality things happening in their community" is not something normal people actually want.

It's something HNers and a small subset of news consumers want, but not the general public. They want to be entertained, even while watching "the news."

Normal people never want something to be "longer" and more "in-depth." That's a niche.
Just serves to reinforce the point made here http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2128038
Sabrmetrics - Learn R Through Baseball
It's not a democrat or republican thing, I am very liberal and progressive and I think this ethanol use is a complete scam. So do many others on both sides.

Now if it was made from switchgrass, maybe as much as 5% would not hurt and E85 for specially designed cars would be fine. But ethanol from other sources is years away and the subsidies for corn seem to be as permanent as the lack of gun control in this country.

But they have laws designed for 2020 in effect now, which is asinine.

Oh and it's not just America, E85 is big in Europe too.
It would've been the better option for the rest of us though...I'd feel much more comfortable (even excited) with Google at Java's helm...
Thanks for the link. Will check it out.
yes, the ide, the staging environment and versioning systems are i guess very important.

also, I find that new projects start to look very appealing because of the lack of that entry barrier and lower costs of making a mistake. Then it becomes a mental barrier to focus.
I did not want want to be accused of link baiting :(
Man, just looking at that site makes me think. I'm not scared of dying; I'm scared of other people dying.
This comes from a bill passed in 2007.
One UI issue we've struggled with is how to tell the user that there isn't a good result for their query. This comes up when we evaluate changes that remove crap pages all the time. For nearly any search you do, something will come up, just because our index is enormous. If the only thing in the result set that remotely matches the query intent is a nearly empty page on a scummy site, is that better or worse than having no remotely relevant results at all? I definitely lean towards it being worse, but many people disagree.
This is why I recommended Clive Bell: for him the subject matter is irrelevant and what matters is significant form - that combination of colors and shapes that gives rise to an aesthetic experience. Many would say that achieving this aesthetic experience itself is the point. Alternatively, others argue that the subject of art (in this case urban life) allow one to get at the capital-t Truth and meaning of a thing or culture. Heidegger's "The Origin of the Work of Art" examines this with regards to Van Gogh's "A Pair of Shoes," also an interesting read. Of course the real point for anyone is deeply personal, and if you're questioning what that point is, for you there probably isn't one. And that's ok too.
Ask HN: Web service for spamming spammers?
Windy Citizen gets a handful of spammers every day who post porno links and other stupid stuff that has to be scrubbed. We block their accounts and move on. Tomorrow we'll get a few more spammers who show up. The cycle continues.

Is there a web service where I could drop in the e-mail address for one of these people and sign them up automatically for every terrible spam e-mail list on the planet? NukeMyAddress.com or something like that? It would be very edifying to do to some of these people.
Considering Florian Mueller has too breathless-and-dubious anti-Google pieces here in the last two days and given my survey of his site (no problem with handing Novell's patents to Microsoft, etc, etc), calling him a pro-patent Shill actually seems fitting.
Wikileaks.com's Registration Has Expired
Blackhat SEO Numbers for 2010 Part 1 
and Part II: http://research.zscaler.com/2011/01/blackhat-seo-numbers-for-december-2010_20.html
Do Nothing For 2 Minutes - think you can do it?
Does HN care about/use Google Reader?
I'm a huge fan of Google reader, so when they announced they were removing the link from Gmail today, I started to get worried that they are going to deprecate the product entirely.

Does anyone on HN use reader or RSS at all?
I used 3M's Digital Post-it notes. Look like virtual post-its on your desktop. Super simple for me.
Part 2 is also here: http://research.zscaler.com/2011/01/blackhat-seo-numbers-for...
Not the "build my own PC" part.
Who else prefers minimalist UIs like HN and (linked) the original Digg?
The Diskwarrior CD/DVD currently doesn't boot some 2010 Macbooks, even with the latest version. The only way to run it on these Macs is to boot from a SD card/USB key or in target disk mode.
haha, true, true! No, I think this is a more genuine way and better anyways.
same here. I tend to struggle with the visual layout in my head. its easy to see the first version. but addition of features, especially ones that you had not thought of when starting out, makes me struggle with the layout visualization.

managing iterations, to me, is beginning to seem like a big unexplored science and art. big enough for someone to write a book about this as the central topic, I feel.
For people dreaming about staring a business the real question is Will I become an entrepreneur? Everyone's answer seems to be eventually, but, as a rule, the answer is no -- you won't get as far as selling an action figure on eBay.

But, you may one day write an article for the Harvard Business Review.
FWIW, Kohana just recently released updated docs with examples, explanations, tutorials, and the whole lot.

Actually though, I kind of enjoyed the "architect-y" part of Kohana - it encouraged me to actually dig into the source code to figure out how things work, which made me far more comfortable with the framework, and much more able to work with and extend it.
Or really any more recent developments. I daresay most Ruby, Python &c. projects ship with tests or specs.
The exception that proves the rule. I think the Python community is, to a certain degree, split on the usefulness of doctests, and in my experience most devs see them as useful documentation first, and tests second.
This is a little pedantic. Is overarching point is correct. In most cases your test code doesn't get shipped.
> and a US bias

If you'd stuck around you might have noticed that the project is, essentially, European. The main contributers all live there, they receive funding through Eurostars, and I don't remember any of their gatherings/sprints being held outside of Europe.

In the future you might want to watch that knee-jerk reaction, it can put your foot right in your mouth.

Given the history and imagery of "Uncle Sam", it becoming the equivalent of a genericized trademark cracks me up and makes me marvel at the longevity of a well crafted marketing shtick.
W T F!?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florian_M%C3%BCller
Definitely do not hide the fee. I hate it when companies do that - moreover, it may not be legal to not disclose...
Or perhaps shorter: people should be reasonably skeptical in approaching articles like this. That they should be much more wary of a tainted source like TechCrunch does not change that first fact.
How do you measure your own performance regarding spam?

If the measurement system is able to detect spam, why is spam not removed in the first place, before it has a chance to show up in the metrics...?
And the cartoons.
From the "What you can do" section at the bottom:

3. Purchase a unit and/or encourage others who are able, to do so.

Sounds like a scam. Any real breakthrough would be pushing to get major funders on board via trails, demos, etc, and not appealing to a blog reader to buy a unit.
Why the iPad 2 Rear Camera is Likely FaceTime Only
Also consider Kohana. CodeIgniter has something of a problem in that the devs aren't really updating it much these days or considering community suggestions. They've gone a fair ways recently to try to fix this problem, but a lot of good devs have given up and moved on.

Kohana broke off from CodeIgniter long ago, and has since embraced PHP 5.3 (No more $this->something->something_else->some_function() spam all over the place). It's nowadays a pretty different creature from CI, and IMHO far superiour.
Florian continues to comment on the post, posts this link for confirmation of the source files still being in Android source

http://android.git.kernel.org/?p=platform/libcore.git;a=tree...
I don't get it?

UPDATE: thanks for the reply. I thought the WTF was something directly related to this story.
His comment doesn't seem to amount to anything. His contention is that the files are still there in AOSP git tree when the key point was that those are "TESTS" which means they are likely not "shipped" with Android and so the assumed impact if any is not anywhere near as dire as the original Engadget post or Folrian's own blog post made it out to be.

EDIT: Ryan Paul's take - http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2011/01/new-alleged-... . He confirms that the files in question are non-shipping ones.
Wouldn't you say that Android is currently the biggest competitor to the iPhone?

Apple & Google are both pretty big companies and will likely be competing in the same space given the number of products they both own. Apple's iAds are a direct competitor to Adsense on mobile devices, Apple TV/Google TV, etc.
I've always loved content for content's sake, and seen design as a nice to have rather than an absolute necessity. HN is one of my favorite sites because it has highly targeted content, a large pool of contributors, and a wonderful forum of discussion.
it is mentioned.

"pentadactyl".

:)
I like reading the various "Best XYZ Writing 20xx" collections, and the New Yorker is pretty much always represented multiple times in the "Best Science and Nature Writing" anthologies. There's a "Best Technology Writing" series, too, and in both the 2009 and 2010 books, the two publications with the most stories were Wired and the New Yorker. For example, one included piece was on R. Buckminster Fuller, who wasn't a literary figure. (http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/06/09/080609fa_fact_...)
Well, why not throw out anything ending in .com or .net? After all, they're all made to earn revenue...

I hope the point is clear -- "to earn revenue" isn't an appropriate test. But your point is well taken. I'd prefer a search to turn up the site made by the guy in the garage who is passionate about the subject rather than the $4/hr content farm content.

I think if we're to continue complaining about spam we have to actually define what we mean by spam. And I have this strange feeling that not everyone will agree...
If you want to stay legal and use OS/X you'll have to forego that part.

That's not how I would like to see things but that is how Apple wants you to use their software, and if you abide by their terms of service that is how you should use it.

That you ought to be free from such restrictions is something that I agree with but if it were ok to run OS/X on 'foreign' (i.e. non apple) hardware then the apple clone factories would spring up like so many mushrooms.

And I'd expect that to not just be limited to the mac and OS/X but to be applied to Ios in a heartbeat.

Apple has chosen not to license their software separate from their hardware and that is their right. So it becomes our right to either buy apple hardware or to go elsewhere.
Our energy (electric) grid is mostly coal.

So all you get (for now) is an extra level of indirection away from the burning of fossil fuels (and therefore a loss of efficiency through transmission).

You end up with what is (effectively) an oil powered car (in most states; certain states it would be nuclear, oil, hydro or natural gas).

Of course, I agree with you, we should expand electrical infrastructure and remove corn subsidies. But electric cars don't inherently save us from the detrimental aspects of burning fossil fuels. You have to change the source of the energy that we are putting on the grid as well.

Here's a neat visualization I found of the energy grid:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1109973...
I think he's being genuine. Remember, he isn't limiting this to the US. Half of current accelerators are outside the US. Projecting 250 by 2016, and the active participation of universities, it's not unreasonable to suppose 500 global accelerators in the foreseeable future.

Now, as alluded to above, the value of YC and the like lie not in their process, but in the experience and expertise that they bring to the table. I honestly doubt there's enough dedicated people in academia with extensive entrepreneurial experience to support jason's vision. It'd be nice to see accelerators at most of the major business and tech schools, but I don't think it's feasible to suppose it will be a ubiquitous phenomenon.
Allow users to upload screenshots of projects. This is especially important for designers.
The nice thing about open source is that the public can investigate what exactly is happening here, which is exactly what I am trying to do.
Consider the current iPad TV ads which show a medical app displaying vital statistics. That segment conveys the idea that the iPad can be adapted to interface with medical devices. It implies a hackablity and flexibility which isn't really accessible to the end user in the sort of setting where such an application would be useful.
I turned my friend on to this, Lawnmowers and chainsaws die if ethonal gas is kept in them over the winter. So he picks them up on craigslist free section and rebuilds the carbs to resell them for a profit.
Yep, I use Google Reader every day. I can't imagine that they're going to remove it. RSS is not as dead as everyone likes to shout.
> For what it's worth, this still at least looks like it's mostly code from test frameworks...

Actually it doesn't look that way according to what appears to be Florian Mueller: http://www.zdnet.com/tb/1-92456-1762392?tag=talkback-river;1...

Quoted from the link above: "However, the functionality contained in those particular classes is related to security, not to unit testing. Also, the Wireless Toolkit (the 37 other files I listed) isn't unit testing either."
I feel like the content says "we don't see a problem."

We see a virtually unbounded number of problems with our search results, and we're working constantly to fix them. Most of the people I talk to who work on search have the attitude that Google is horribly broken all the time, it's just also measurably the best thing available.

Google as a company, and search quality in particular, does not rest on its laurels. The people who hate Google's search results the most all work at Google. If you think you hate Google's search results as much as we do, you should come work for us. :)
Try DuckDuckGo. Gabriel has been doing an aggressive job about removing unsavory domains and I've been fairly impressed. I think that Google probably can't be nearly as aggressive for political reasons.
The article is clearly talking about the subset of techies who feel it necessary to repeat themselves -- ad nauseum -- any time the word "Apple" enters their orbit.

And their actual actions and discourse is easily as tiresome as the imagined annoyance from the strawman "macolytes" they conjure during their rants.

Which is to say: I know exactly one type of people who unwaveringly watch what Apple is doing, opine loudly on every move they make and proclaim a singular truth and vision.

They are a subset of techies and they are absolutely not Apple fanboys.
joe_the_user: "calling him a pro-patent Shill actually seems fitting."

Wikipedia: "founder of the NoSoftwarePatents campaign."
There's a book I read long ago, whose title I've forgotten, that argued all companies compete along five axes: Price, Quality, Experience, Access and Service.

Every company dominates one axis, excels at another and is at par with the rest.

One might argue that Apple dominates in the experience category and is above average in service with everything else more or less at par with the competition.

But they certainly don't sell experience.. they sell computers, mmkay?
be careful with your phrasing i'm semanticklish.
you can't be such a cavalyricist.
2.5 Gigabytes in a Radio Wave
Show HN: My weekend hacking project, Mugshot Wars
Let me know if you have any suggestions!
This is more of a methodology than a tool, but I uninstall Starcraft.
psh whatever

jk, i added it, per your request ;)
Wait a minute. The TechCrunch coverage on Larry Page replacing Eric Schmidt is a simple 4 paragraphs of editorial. It also simply states facts and doesn't include conjecture or spun opinion. See for yourself: http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/20/google-ceo-change/ It may not contain the same level of information potency, but it's not drawn out gossip either.

Also, the other post sort of on the topic simply includes the author's account of development of the story, about how he was going to break it beforehand. Similarly, it's pretty straightforward without a lot of unnecessary fluff. It's here: http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/20/techcrunch-interview-with-e...
Florian's whole shtick comes from supposed free software cred. But he does have a somewhat spotty history when it comes to supporting Microsoft and spreading FUD about GNU/Linux. It is a tough call what his true motives are, but things aren't always what they seem.
Arguably anyone who uses Craigslist.
NFL Football: Correlations between Team Offense and Defense
Clue: Go up to the support directory and click the HEAD link and notice the difference.
wordmanteau is clearly wrong
Unit tests still is code used for dev., this time copied code from Java?
Public speaking.You need to be able to convey yourself clearly and effectively when you need to the most.

If you are a well-spoken engineer among a pack of average engineers, you will stand out.
Except no one knows how to spell portmanteau or its derivatives.
I think Florian was looking at Froyo, while the author was looking at master. The offending source files are not in Gingerbread:

http://android.git.kernel.org/?p=platform/libcore.git;a=tree...
The Mythical Man Month, although old, has some great tips for estimating software engineering work.

http://www.amazon.com/Mythical-Man-Month-Software-Engineerin...
Ask HN: any good resources on space Harvest,Build,Research,Explore game theory?
i'm looking for resources on game theory for [space based] Harvest, Build, Research, Explore games, know any?
That's why I asked the question - I genuinely wanted to know what other people valued in this collection. Just because I asked doesn't mean I don't have my own reasons for valuing/not-valuing it. I encourage anyone reading to say what they liked about it. Even just a poll of 'do you like them for the content' vs 'do you like them for the prettyness' would be interesting: sometimes it's just good to know what other people are thinking.
The 'cars' population is pretty small too. Generic algorithm needs large population to have a good result.
though it does have Lacy, Carr, Gilmore

Yes, but they can't touch Auletta or Hersh. Not even in the same universe. TC, Mashable et. al. are out for maximum ad impressions and that's why churning out weak gruel is part of their mission.
I suppose being white I don't see it.

I guess thanks for being open to the possibility. I meet so many white men in the US who are immediately skeptical of my personal integrity when I tell them of these comparatively mild forms of discrimination. Do these guys really live on the planet? Racial hatreds are involved with documented cases of lynching in the South, they were recently part of the ideological basis for regional conflicts, some where mobs of people cut human beings down with machetes in public. In a world where all that happens motivated by race, are a few racially-based onerous and idiotic preconceptions/presumptions really all that surprising?
Ask HN: Why more Scala posts these days than Clojure?
Is this a sign of HN going main stream or an indication of shift in tides of HN interests between the two languages.
The elephant in the room question is why Kottke never writes anything original? Every one of his posts (including the linked one) is a quote or an embed. Yet this hasn't prevented him or TC, etc. from having a widely read blogs. He is an aggregator or a curator. We need less curators and more writers.
His response seems to be along the line of "how do we know the unit test code didn't get put on a device and shipped?":

For this one as well as quote #3, what's missing is an analysis of the code actually shipped with Android-based devices. There are many such devices. Some may be more security-oriented (hence more likely to make use of the "acl" and PolicyNodeImpl type of classes) than others.

So we're talking about a totally unsubstantiated claim here. There may be build scripts, and some files may not be in them by default. That doesn't mean that no maker of an Android-based device actually decided to build them into a product, especially if Apache license headers appeared to allow it.

If this scenario did in fact occur, then isn't it the device manufacturer's fault and problem, and not Google's responsibility?

Which party builds/packages the Android distributions for the actual phone devices that the OS will appear on?
Is it enough to upvote this post if we agree, or must we comment and make our voices heard?

I love minimalist designs. And <you'll all kill me and downvote me for this one cringe> I hate javascript, most of the time. 99 times out of a hundred, javascript is used to make things "pretty" or "neat" or "flashy" or "cool" when all it does is make things slow and add bloat. I'm not saying it doesn't have its uses, but you REALLY DON'T need that 500kb library to move text around the screen or change an icon. But I'm a systems developer and I code in C and ASM, so what do I know about web development..