skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. This kind of analysis is required for any service business. Having done so for our company, I have the following observations on 'What to do?":

Scale -- Bingo! The goal is to make the fixed overhead (incl employees) an increasingly smaller percentage of revenue. But to handle the increased revenue (ie, workload) you have to concentrate on increasing efficiency/productivity. This has a lot of influence on decisions about process. Obviously, the more routine those processes are, the cheaper (and more easily replaced) the labor can be. Also, if the work is done under a fixed price contract, you can achieve a greater effective hourly rate if you are efficient and manage risk well.

Charge more -- "charging more pushes away your existing client base". This is not such a bad thing if you have your eye on 'scaling' (ie bigger projects). Bigger clients have deeper pockets (although they also have more unique needs, which introduces more risk).

Build a product -- See Nassim Taleb's discussion about 'scalable work' in "The Black Swan". The odds aren't good that this will pay off.
by way of dumping money into the financial and automobile industries,

Um, the UAW bailout didn't benefit the rich much. Most bondholders/etc took a haircut. The primary beneficiaries were the upper middle class UAW workers/nonworkers (they didn't take a haircut).
"Our browser goes to 11"
You know, I started investing heavily in the stock market around the time that "Forever Portfolio" came out in late 2008. By not being frightened about the current economic turmoil and actually investing with a long-term outlook, I'm sitting pretty damn good now 2.5 years later.
SAP isn't exactly implemented in the most agile language ever.
I pay for my digital newspaper subscription. I pay to read stories (McSweeney's Small Chair) online. I use the tip jar on blogs I like and I buy their merchandise. I'm also planning to get into Kindle Singles [1] (I just don't like Amazon's proprietary ebook format, I'm hoping another etailer comes up with something similar using ePub).

So no, I don't think direct sales are dead and I'm willing to pay not to see ads.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=2486013011
But I imagine the people buying and selling those failing bonds still took a commission
Amazon Appstore detail page - a peak before the store goes live
A law prof explains why "search neutrality" is problematic
Ghostly surge sees park ride moved
There's that, but it probably fits better into their development model.

If they're continually adding features and not breaking backwards compatibility on a "fixed" timeline, then the major version jumps that Firefox, IE do etc. seem more pointless than anything.

If I've got this application that we're continually developing on and we're using a 2 month lifecycle for development ... at what point does it make sense to jump a major version? Never? What's the point of it then?

It's the fact that we've become accustomed to major versions representing periods of time.

Version numbers should be representative. If it was the case that they used the minor number to represent their two month cycles, then they'd be at 1.11. What's the point of the 1 in that scenario? It's redundant.

The major version increments fit in better with their development lifecycle, so why not use it?
I guess, but I don't even know what version number of Chrome I'm currently running, and I like to think I'm more tech savvy than the average PHB.
sigh indeed. The article should really be titled "The unfortunate math behind freelancing" because that's what it is.
When I was learning, I got really quite confused by the intersection of floats, overflow and positioning. Reading the spec and actually understanding all of the rules at the same time, rather than just what I could glean from random hacking and tutorials, was really valuable.
That is freelancing, not "being a consulting firm".
The reason they don't exist is that even if they worked for free, they can't offer any "Nobody ever got fired for hiring us" value, so nobody doing SAP implementation will hire them.

Anybody who can afford SAP can afford to pay the full freight, in which case they want the full package including insurance against being blamed for problems.

I was going to add that boutiques can charge the same rate as the big firms, but they do so in different markets. One example: Above I noted that the person buying the service has downside of being blamed but no upside for saving money.

That isn't always the case. When the person making the decision is also under a lot of budget pressure, boutiques can make the same hourly rate by being more productive. That productivity often comes at the expense of insurance against blame, for example you can't have as heavyweight a process.

But if you are working for someone who cares about the money, being more productive can get you the gig and the rate.
Homer’s Legacy
What sort of benefit could you get by "friending" your utility company? How bizarre. Maybe they want to deliver policy changes or energy saving tips more easily? That's the sort of thing I don't mind reading through snail-mail. (Email is too ephemeral, and FB... well, that's mostly noise).
I'm a huge fan of Butler Lampson, but I must confess the thing that most struck me at the beginning were the machine specs in contrast to today's machines. 48-64K of 16-bit words with a 10 MB hard drive, woohoo!

The display size and orientation is a little disconcerting, though. You mean there was a time when computer screens weren't optimized for playing widescreen movies?
So "clients worth having" = big companies managed by people who don't have the expertise to judge your work who also act as if they're sitting on top of an endless pool of money which they sprinkle around freely because it's not even theirs.

I can see the attraction in that. I've seen it up close. It's not worth selling your soul for. Broken systems that lack accountability will destroy your soul, one way or another. You might even be warm, fat, and happy all the while it's happening.
This announcement doesn't say anything about versioning for the underlying mozilla platform (which moves from 1.92 to 2.0 between Firefox 3.6 and 4.0). The versioning for the platform only changes when the api changes and breaks binary compatibility for people who use binary components in extensions. Authors writing pure JavaScript extensions can code them to be compatible across multiple Firefox versions.
Im a little confused. Does basecamp mean a business that is valuable but doesnt generate any revenue? Eg: Twitter.

Or does it mean a company which does well in a niche of a particular industry but is not the dominating player yet. Eg: 37Signals for CRM?
Apple AppStore LoopHole – Paid iPhone Apps for Free
As an interesting aside, the algorithm for multiplication is algebraically identical in both methods.
A License to Shampoo
"Jim Arnold, of South West London Paranormal, said results were picked up immediately, with orbs, ghostly images in photography and ouija reaction results being strongest around the site where Storm Surge was to be built.

He said: "The results were so strong, we felt the only explanation could be that an ancient burial ground or settlement was being disturbed, prompting the extra paranormal activity.""

So, you know, their approach is quite scientific, with specialized equipment and all.
Jamieked | TeachingEnglish | British Council | BBC
This is also part of why MS were obsessed with using calendar years for version numbers, windows 95 and so on. It makes things seem obsolete automatically with the passage of time.
When you're on your deathbed, you're not going to tell your grandchildren "I sure wish I had upheld the strict letter of copyright law on the internet more." But you might say "remember that time I saved the BBC from itself?" And like Big Fish, it will be almost true.
"60 years ago some people could afford a middle-class lifestyle, but cannot do the same today."

This is completely orthogonal to the fact that a middle-class lifestyle today is better than it was 60 years ago.
Thanks for the info. You might want to consider adding some to your 'startup kit'
I think Mozilla is also aware of the problematic perception that this particular release generated among onlookers. They've already spun 10 betas and are going to make at least two more betas before the release candidates.

It seems like the Firefox 4 project simply got out of control, there was no clear cut-off, features were added willy-nilly throughout the beta process, and the browser (for a while) seemed stuck in perpetual development. It doesn't look good, and doesn't make Mozilla look like they can ship without the temptation to add more or tweak more.

Fx1.5 and 2 both had two beta releases. Fx3, 3.5, and 3.6 had five beta releases each. Fx4 is scheduled for at least twelve betas.

They need a significant change in their project management, and setting a fast-paced roadmap is probably an aspirational way to force themselves to ship.
Had I not been a writing teacher when I read this book, I would not have appreciated it as much as I did. In particular, the "Itty-bitty rules for itty-bitty people" line (while he is at the U of Chicago) resonated with me.

You're right in that not much was particularly revelatory, as all of the discussed elements are discussed in multiple other places, often with greater depth.

But it's rare to see it all come together in a way that is almost immediately pragmatic and sensible.
I dont think 95% of users care/know what version their chrome is..especially considering that it updates automatically.
The article comments with respect to Python: "What is surprising is that several factors might have argued against a break-out year for Python: Two incompatible versions of the language and the uncertain fate of the Unladen Swallow project."

The two "incompatible" versions of Python, presumably Python 2 and Python 3, is really an indication of the strength and foresight of the Python developers and users. Python 3 has new features, new libraries, and is missing some of the cruft of Python 2. I see this a sign of vibrant growth and long term viability, not of weakness.

The article did not mention the PyPy project, python in python targeting performance on a par or better than CPython. It's Python 2 compatible at the moment, and a lovely piece of work. There will be a webcast Stanford talk by Armin Ringo, one of the developers, on the PyPy system on March 2, 4:15PM Pacific. http://ee380.stanford.edu.

And, frankly, I do not see how the "uncertain fate of the Unladen Swallow project" has anything to do with the acceptance of Python.
That was a feature that was supposed to be in Firefox 4, but got pushed back at some point.
Fantastic. With stuff like this I can see web-app interfaces surpassing (Mac) desktop applications. You might argue they already have, visually, but here the responsiveness is particularly impressive while the complexity is ramped up a bit.
The few boutique SAP shops that exist generally charge twice what Accenture charges, since they are staffed by top people with a proven track record of getting the job done after Accenture have failed.
I wonder if anyone would be able to calculate the amount of data created in the last two millennia... and if so, how.
Put Stuff in Your Windows Azure Junk Trunk – Repository Base
Alright, so the title is rather stupid, but hey, it’s fun! :)

This project I setup to provide some basic functionality with Windows Azure Storage. I wanted to use each of the three mediums; Table, Blob, and Queue, and this example will cover each of these things. The application will upload and store images, provide a listing, some worker processing, and deletion of the images & associated metadata. This entry is part 1 of this series, with the following schedule for subsequent entries:

Part 1: Today (this entry)
Part 2: The Junk Trunk ASP.NET MVC 2 Web Application (Publishing on February 10th)
Part 3: Windows Azure Worker Role and Storage Queue (Publishing on February 11th)
Title aside, schedule laid out, description of the project completed, I’ll dive right in!

Putting Stuff in Your Junk Trunk

Create a new Windows Azure Project called PutJunkInIt. (Click any screenshot for the full size, and also note some of the text may be off – I had to recreate a number of these images)
Assuming they were all purchased at retail prices, that was about $8/trade (typical bond face values are about $1000). (In reality, it was probably on the order of pennies.) I.e., not very much.
> Long term, a society that values 100% employment over technological progress will be stomped by the society that allows its industries to automate themselves.

Yeap, but assuming you're a country with 20% unemployment that has a very high level of competitiveness, how do you deal with those young, unemployed people (they're mostly young) roaming the streets with nothing else better to do and with their pockets empty? What if they decide to topple the government, or to steal, or to do anything anti-social? They don't have anything to lose anyway.
It's a bit ironic that this isn't being fully disclosed, yet Google devs seem to believe that full disclosure is the only way to go...
GPS Community Feels New Telecom Interference Threat from LightSquared
glad you are out, welcome back
In what way? Seems alright to me, but I don't use it that often.
The figure I've heard is that the data generated doubles every year (here, "data" can mean web pages, logs, transactions, etc.) . Therefore, it follows that every year we create as much data as in all the previous years combined ( sum_i 2^i = 2^(i+1) ).

If we created X amount of data in 2003, then, 7 years later, we're creating 128X as much data; which roughly works out to X every 3 days.
In every one of my business ideas, I look at the bottlenecks. IE: What will prevent me from making more money (my time, etc).

This is why I love software and services. Your time isn't directly related to your money, which is the only way to get rich.
The single and dual core thing is technically ignorant. It is exactly the sort of "detail" that people add to fabricated stories to lend legitimacy to them, but when they reach beyond their abilities it just sounds dumb.

We all know that Google is working on the next version of Android. Making up some inside sources, though, should not be rewarded.

My inside sources say that they like grilled cheese.
Pepsi, Papa John's kick off mobile augmented reality experience via Super Bowl
you can structure your agreement with IBM/Accenture/etc based on deliverables. If they don't hit the deliverables by a certain deadline, they take on the extra costs. That's why they charge a lot up front -- as an insurance policy to guard themselves. At least that's my experience with IBM.
It could be better now. I seem to recall using it around the Snow Leopard launch and experiencing lots of crashes.

But like I said, it could be better now.
The article doesn't say you can't make money. Nor does it say you can't scale. It simply points out that there's no such thing as a free lunch, and that once you start hiring employees you're going to have to charge more, which in turn is going to make sales harder, which in turn means you will need to work more, not less, than you did before you had the employees.
Natalia Oberti Noguera Building Community for Female Entrepreneurs PtII
I have 21 different add-ons on AMO right now, and while it's kind of annoying to do so, it only takes me about 10 minutes to update the maxVersion on all of them every time a new version of Firefox comes out. Of course, the problem isn't that it's hard or takes a long time to do; the problem is that developers forget to do it.

Maybe it's time for Mozilla to move to using minVersion only, like Chrome does.
Accenture employess likely put in a lot more than 2000 hrs/yr, if it's anything like it was when they were called Andersen Consulting. 60-70 hour weeks were the norm for staff consultants. When you were on a project you were expected to be at work before the client arrived and work until after they left. Generally that was roughly 7am - 6pm.
They don't exist because a certain deadness of the soul is required to do SAP implementations. Anyone who has done it will understand what I mean.

Your information about what share of revenues individuals receive is wrong in my experience. They way this business works is that a project gets staffed with a few who know what they are doing (and are often not employees), who may get 100% or more of their nominally billed rate, filled with the 1/3 to 1/8 people you mentioned whose main task it is to look busy and not say too much.
True. But my metadata needs exceed simply who wrote the article, I also have things like tags, pubdate, update, etc.

My system actually allows for the metadata to be embedded in the main article file, but it ended up being simpler for me to split the files most of the time (the editing app I wrote does this for me, so I mostly forget about it now).
Yup, that's what my company does!
Interesting statistic: It has been said that 78% of all statistics are made up.
I kept trying to explain to Olivia why disappearing for even a few days would kill my momentum and lead the world to move on to other people, other sites, other things.

I really admire your sense of urgency Andrew, but it would take a lot more than a few days to kill your momentum.
Motorola Xoom Android Tablet coming to Best Buy
What about Basic Authentication, the default authentication protocol for web pages. Credentials are passed encoded as base-64, hardly better than plain text in the open.

What would you propose as a better solution? Is there a difference in the level security you would want for a site like TrendMicro and the level of security you would want for your Bank Account?
I like how they don't know what is going to be in Firefox 7, but they know they are shipping it this year.

Reminds me of a quote from years ago:

I don't know what we are building yet, but we are building it in Sybase with stored procedures. – I think ultimately every man, woman, and child in the US lost $0.50 to that project.
Wasteful?

I'm an ex BBC Online employee. Most people don't realise quite how few people are involved in the creation and update of the BBC website. When I was there it was generally 2 people per site (and each person was on more than one site). We had a dozen staff looking after a hundred sites using old and borrowed tech and the occasional independent flash developer.

The BBC was never wasteful. Don't believe what you read in the anti-BBC press. They have their own agenda.
Sure...and how many people want to actually use minimally viable products most of the time? It would seem to be that some of the reasons the startups can be so nimble in a weekend:
1) lack of technical debt
2) lack of integration to the rest of the process (big builds, QA, communications to the support staff, etc.)

That's why it's interesting when bigger companies give people a couple days to tinker and scratch their itches. Once can see the potential of things they built and can then take the time to integrate them properly, etc.
Here's my very opinionated view on the alternatives.

Daisy Disk - Very pretty, but requires too much interaction to find info. Sunburst charts aren't very readable to me and I feel they throw out a lot of valuable screen real estate.

Grand Perspective and Disk Inventory X - Visually confusing, whats the story with the harsh gradients in both? Both are focused on files and not the parent child hierarchy.
His breakdown is applicable to service work in general.
Usability Issues:

When I first went to the page, "Tate Modern" is the H1. The 'logo' at the top says "When should I visit Tate Modern?". That's great... except I have no idea what 'Tate Modern' is. Needs better separation of your general site/'pitch' from each individual attraction. Your homepage is currently taken over by some random museum, when I really want to search for the British Museum or whatever, and that's driving me away.

Similarly, that 'logo' link at the top has the attraction underlined. That makes me think it individually is a link, to the museum website, wikipedia page on it, etc. Instead, when I mouse over it the entire sentence turns in to a link back to your app's homepage... when I really wanted an outside link to the thing that was underlined. Don't inject the current page title into that logo, unless you're actually linking to it's official page or wikipedia or etc.
i've got too many clients

There is a curious form of homeostatis in consulting, where both "too many clients" and "I'm too tired" are signs that you are not charging enough money. You should charge more until they cease being problems.

The scary part about this advice is how freaking hard it is to actually chase away clients by raising prices, if you have a habit of delivering.

Rand Fishkin, whose SEO consultancy used to get up to $1k per hour (and was almost certainly underpriced given the class of client they worked for by the end), has a very instructive comment on the post about how they kept walking up rates without chasing anyone away. Basically, there is an unknown "true cost figure" in the client's mind which includes both your bill rate and risk of the project going totally haywire. As you lower the client's perception of risk, you can capture more of the "true cost" before getting "ugh, too high" feelings from the client.
Unfortunately some mice/trackpads output a stream of scroll events. There is a limiter here to prevent unintentionally streaming all the way through a publication. Thanks for your feedback, maybe we can adjust the limiter a little.
Honest question, can you possibly expound on how you got that message? Does it mean web apps are necessarily better than developing for browsers via extensions?
For an absolutely terrible service/product. This will catch up with them eventually. My company is in talks with someone who is experiencing this pain right now actually.
I think as the author, i have been looking for a long time for a magazine/bookmarks like page to use as home/newtab page and i can never settle because there is no great answer.

Anyway, I dont think his proposal is the solution, but its probably the way to go.

If anyone knows alternatives would be great to try them out
That may or may not be true, however it is still copyright infringement. It doesn't matter incidentally if you copy it solely for personal use - stopping a rights holder from being an idiot is not a given exclusion.

I assume that the downvoters can explain how this is not infringing or how I'm not adding to the thread by noting this fact that some may not wholly realise?
Very nice! It's a more up to date version of http://razorjack.net/quicksand/
Hear, hear.

I've been using Chrome / Chromium exclusively since its release, primarily due to the simple, uncluttered UI and blazing speed. It was a breath of fresh air, and I switched readily.

But something changed with the recent Firefox 4 betas. The browser feels fast, again, and the UI seems more reasonable. I find Panorama useful. And slowly, Firefox is winning me back. In time, I think it may win back other developers, too. And if it does, I could easily see a fairly stable equilibrium developing between the two browsers.

Firefox needed the competition from Chrome, and in many ways, it's starting to meet that challenge.
The site is intercepting the click event, whether ⌘ is held down or not, but not right click (and maybe also not ⌃ click). When you ⌘-click, the “open in a new tab” behavior never fires, but when you choose the menu option, it does.

It’s annoying, but not inexplicable.