skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Ask HN: Chargify, Recurly and others for a UK Startup
I know this question has been asked before but I would like to know if anyone has any advice as to the best system for taking monthly recurring payments for a SaaS site. In particular though I'd like to know if there's anything specific to the UK market even though we still intend to charge in Dollars. Thanks!
Mullard Audio Amplifier Circuits - Book and Product Description
The Mullard Audio Amplifier Circuits. Special Offers and Product Promotions From AmZ. Welcome to #1 collate and Best Price for Mullard Audio Amplifier Circuits Deals Online Shop. Cheap Mullard Audio Amplifier Circuits Sale Get allowance and Affordable Deals and browse our products list. We have Cheap Mullard Audio Amplifier Circuits Sale the best goods offers. And discrete of Mullard Audio Amplifier Circuits in store.
The probability of a "4-Hour Fame" book is pretty high. After wealth, physique, and sex, fame/status is the next big, universal desire.

The formula works: promise people they too can become a NYT bestseller, speak at TED, and get invited to Davos in less than four hours of effort.
We had to destroy <strike>this village</strike> the internet to save it.
I disagree. Lots of MBAs (and CPAs, etc) start and lead companies. Something like 10-20% of the graduates of top 10 MBA programs start a company when they graduate. And lots of people who do startups don't give a shit about leadership, but just want the easy life they think flipping a startup will give them. I think reality is more nuanced than you've portrayed.
Technical details here: https://grepular.com/Abusing_HTTP_Status_Codes_to_Expose_Pri...

The trick is to identify GET requests that will succeed only if the victim is logged into $SITE_OF_INTEREST, and bury them in an

<img src="https://SITE_OF_INTEREST/more/stuff/here"
onload="is_logged_in()"
onerror="not_logged_in()"
...>

If $SITE_OF_INTEREST doesn't have decent CSRF protection, this is an easy way for a rogue website to not only make a request, but observe the result.
About two years ago there was this idea of a "HN book club": http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=407067

I didn't know if it was realized probably not. But I would be delighted if we could start one! This year I started a book challenge for myself (http://111in2011.tumblr.com) and looked for discussion platforms. GoodReads is not really useful because there are too few people interested in business books. And writing short reviews/summaries about books is nice but I miss the conversations :)

So, if you start a discussion board or whatever, I'm happy if I can participate!
Thanks for reminding me of this. I had a good laugh.

http://themostboringblogintheworld.wordpress.com/2006/09/13/...
Shouldn't the title be (and I know it was just taken from the original) HTML5 and Web Video: Questions for Google from Dean Hachamovitch, Corporate Vice President, Internet Explorer :-)
i didn't think much about this, but couldn't we just check whether we have a string "2.2250738585072012e-308" to parse, and then decide, call the builtin function or not.

at least, just check the input hash against a hashcode[1] of "2.2250738585072012e-308" and then call either custom function or the native one.

normalizing, parseInt, cunstructing a bigDecimal may be a bit more expencive than the native func (don't know for sure)

(and did anyone check whether it hangs on French (?) locale where there is a decimal comma, not dot?)

[1] two hashcodes, with small and big "E"
I went back and forth about the idea of pursuing an MBA for a few years. One day I had a conversation with a very successful small business owner and his response on the subject was "I know a lot of entrepreneurs and I can't think of a single one that has an MBA. Take that for what its worth." My deliberation ended after that conversation and articles like this just reaffirm that decision.
And as we all know, wine eventually turns to piss - and a bunch of stupid stupid txting decisions.
I've actually found Wufoo + Gmail to be the simplest way to handle e-mails. Use a Wufoo form to collect user info, then export the data to csv and import the file into a Gmail group. I haven't done anything terribly advanced (I just notify a list when a new article is posted) -- but it works for me.
It's unfortunate that he has to use techniques like gain 28lbs of muscle in four weeks (or similar hype) to sell books. Clearly that's manipulation because even if he gained that many pounds in a month, he definitely didn't gain that much muscle. He's stretching words more so with 4HB than with 4HWW.

HOWEVER, he has data to back up a lot of his claims and a lot of the tips he gives are great. So if it takes some of these techniques to sell, maybe it's worth it. His books are a lot more substantial than other self-help books.
At this point your objections have been heard and understood.

I regret posting what I did as this thread has devalued the original posting, and that was far from the intention; however your continued objections aren't helping this tangent from dieing down either. I'll be sure to consider your points in the future, I realize I could have approached it differently - can we let the subject die now and not lose any more focus on the original posting.
I don't think this article is just about having a job that's full of Noise, it's having a life that's full of Noise. Every day, every week, every month, I do things. I walk the dog, clean the kitchen, stay in touch with people on Facebook (ack!), contribute minimally to HN. But all of this is Noise in the same way answering emails, consoling coworkers and contributing tiny fixes are noise.

So many of us live Noisy lives, lives that look busy and productive and in many ways are all of that. But I'm 38 and if I died tomorrow, none of that crap would amount to a hill of beans except that my family would be reasonably provided for and would think I was a super swell, no-nonsense guy. But it takes an immense amount of courage to begin to eliminate the noise and take on more signal. Lots of people say do it slowly but the more I run into the Noise, the more I begin to think you have to "Burn the Boats" as was mentioned in another thread. It's just too easy to slip back into the comfort of the Noise. Because for all it keeps me from doing, the Noise feels good because it helps me avoid the fact that there's almost no Signal in my life.
They're finally displaying the version number on the download button! That was my main gripe with the old site.
If you want a MVP, then daily US equity is probably the place to start. I'd also wonder if your service could run tick strategies in practice. I've never done it, but it seems like tick strategies are all about having expensive co-located servers.

I'd also suggest getting fundamental data for the equities, so your customers have more than just hi/lo/open/close/volume for their strategies. You'll find that making sure none of this fundamental data is snooped is hard. (i.e. making sure the data isn't revised back in time, so it is as it would appear on a given date). That messiness is your good value add if you can get it right. Also, please encourage out of sample testing using some form of cross validation.
>I thought the zones being unknowable was part of the story.

I'm prepared to call unknowability unscientific.

>a cheap way of avoiding singularity issues muddling up the plot.

Yeah, exactly. They weren't an interesting idea so much as a cheap hack.
Ask HN: how to value and sell domain names?
I have a bunch of unused domains lying around; nothing amazing, but I'd wager most of them are worth between $50-$200. I'm trying to sell them to bootstrap a startup, so the price isn't terribly important. But I'd like to get a ballpark idea.

How do I go about valuing these names and selling them? I tried GoDaddy auctions and had no luck. Sedo (if I recall correctly) takes a $50 fee per sale, so that doesn't make much sense. Is it acceptable to throw a posting up on HN and see if anyone wants to buy one via PayPal?

Thanks.
we can all make Carnegie Hall with minimal practice

Well... sure. We can, right?

Step one: Phone Carnegie Hall. Ask them how much it costs to rent the place for a while. They do that, as attested by this rentals page:

http://www.carnegiehall.org/article/the_basics/art_hall_rent...

It is probably quite a lot, but it may be less than you think.

Step two: Find some musicians with actual talent to fill out your program at the Hall. Hint: Classical music students are not rich. And they love to perform. And they're astonishingly talented.

Better idea: There are a bunch of college a-capella groups. There are a bunch of high school music groups. All those folks might love to perform at Carnegie Hall. Especially if it's an event with a bunch of other groups. And their parents might love to come. And their friends.

Step three: Schedule your concert. Charge enough admission to cover the cost of the hall and whatever you have to pay your musicians. Donate any leftover money to a charity. Preferably one with lots of supporters who want to come and fill out your audience at Carnegie Hall.

Step four: Come up with something you can play during your more-than-slightly-comedic opening act. I'm a banjo player, so naturally I suggest the banjo. It sounds cheerful and three chords will get you through a lot of folk repertoire. Fallback position: The kazoo. (But don't overstay your welcome. The joke will get old very fast.)

And you're on!

What have we all learned from this Ferris-esque exercise?

A) Being a concert promoter is not, in fact, rocket science. (Being a consistently profitable concert promoter is a different matter. But that isn't our necessarily our goal, is it?)

B) Oops, by "make Carnegie Hall" we didn't actually mean "stand on stage at Carnegie Hall and play an instrument in a way which entertains hundreds of people". Not just that. No, we meant something much more intangible and ineffable and... well, unobtainable. We want to Arrive, whatever that means. What does that mean? Perhaps we should think about that. And what of all the people who have made it to Carnegie Hall, many times, to public acclaim, but still have found themselves unsatisfied or even terrified? (Did you know that Vladimir Horowitz retired from live performance at the height of his career because of debilitating stage fright?)
Oops, you are right there are nuances.

In my case, I just wanted to start companies. Many MBAs are for managing companies. In this case, MBA is ideal.
A couple of years ago they announced something similar with GPS. On the same day two bits of government made announcements.

1, A massive funding for improved GPS security to prevent terrorists causing chaos by them blocking GPS signals.

2, An increase in the powers of everybody from the port authority to the girl guides to have a kill switch to shut down GPS if there was a threat of a terrorist attack.
A new logo for HTML5: No Flash Inside :)
Dr Soon-Shiong acquires GlowCaps-maker Vitality
Wow, good job, Team Reddit!

Since I think you guy still read HN: Something you all seem to do very, very well is interact with your users. Almost every day I'll see somebody [usually jedberg] show up in a thread answering a question, or responding to something, or even just saying hello.

Like this: http://www.reddit.com/r/blog/comments/fdyyf/reddit_billions_...

That's awesome :).
> I'm really curious what draws people to these two books (and I've read both books and the review).

As far as ADitS goes: it's the epic arc of human civilization over time and also the clash of different civilizations that really brings out the hidden assumptions we make based on our human condition.

Especially memorable was the history of the Qeng Ho, and how the customer planets die off as civilizations rise and fall.
Thanks! We're not quite ready to share screenshots, but I see your point about providing more technical details. Some code samples would definitely help. As for the business model, we're still iterating on that, but the current thinking is a straight SaaS play.
Why wait to see if it's worth a billion when you can hedge it at 10% today?
Woah. Guy Kawasaki was chief evangelist at Apple.

Robert Kiyosaki is the hack who wrote Rich Dad, Poor Dad, a book that advocates highly risky real estate maneuvers and multi-level marketing. His books are endorsed by the newest incarnation of Amway.
I'm sure he and his co-founders discussed that at length and understand it.

Well, from the article:

The decision to turn Google down was not unanimous, according to sources, and may have become what some people are describing as "extremely contentious."

So what is your speculation about what they discussed or agreed on based on?
In-app purchasing finally coming to Android
I really like the simplicity of you app. I have not been "blessed" with a dribbble account either, but I do have forrst and lovedsgn accounts. The problem is, I always end up posting pretty much the same stuff to both accounts, and I find that the people that frequent both sites are pretty much the same, and dribbble as well. I wonder if there is something you can do to differentiate it from "the big three". Perhaps a rating/feedback system that's different than "likes" to captivate useres?

I really like what you have going, I'm just offering my 2 cents :)
I liked your synopsis.

Haha. I had to smile at "Contrast, Repetition, Alignment and Proximity and don’t be a wimp." for Robin William's Non-Designer’s Design Book. I brought up CRAP in a meeting and I swear everyone thought I had three heads. I would have settled for two :-)
Given what we know in the realm of complexity theory, I see no justification for arbitrary thresholds in computing power based on space. Nanomachines can change matter but they can't change math, and the fact of the matter is we know a reasonable amount about what we can compute (and how long it takes) and what we can't. Either P = NP or it doesn't, for example; we don't know which, but we're pretty sure the answer doesn't change dependent on where you're standing. Leaving the galactic plane isn't going to enable me to solve the halting problem.
Infinity Inbox
New Merchandising and Billing Features on Android Market
Path Raises $8.5 Million For 2 Million Shared Items... $4 For Every Share
Another counterexample here. I've loved everything of Vinge's to date, and even like the stuff Charlie wrote before he got published (it's pretty damn freaky stuff for idea density). Don't like all the Culture books, but I do like many of them.
I just tried it. It sounded like a very neat idea.

But it didn't really worked. It wasn't able to connect a single contact with its Facebook profile. In one case I checked more details: It seems that he used another mail address in Facebook than I got from him via GMail. So in GMail, I added this other mail adress to the contact in hope that Rapportive could now connect it. But it still couldn't -- it only seemed to check the mail address of the mail but not the other possible addresses of this contact.

What I always missed was some way to manually connect it (in a way of course that it would remind/save that).
This or That: Caught in the act of "faking it"
Put me down as tentatively interested in that if somebody organizes it.
I totally agree with you, and I think the simple explanation is that it starts at the top. You're building software with Microsoft tools on Microsoft platforms. You're in "commercial-land" right out of the gate. You're probably building software at a big company, or for a big company. Paying for software is common, and not a big issue. The cultures are just different.

It's not a reflection of the quality of the software or the quality of the engineers - it's just a fundamentally different culture.
Original lengthy discussion http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2139107
That's why I like it, I remember reading about Google Translate on HN (on my desktop). I got out the phone and searched, but linking to https://market.android.com/details?id=com.google.android.app... would definitely improve the conversation (and conversions).
Egypt Unrest and the Social Web [infographic]
This seems to be mostly ad-hominem arguments in the classic definition of it: "You're wrong because there's something bad about you," rather than addressing any particular point. I don't see how questioning Google's motivations for uncovering this is doing anything to "set the record straight."

A useful post would have addressed at least 3 things:

- What are the specifics of the mechanism by which they ended up obviously copying google's results?

- Do they handle clicks from google differently than any other clicks?

- How different would their results be if they didn't use clicks from google's search as a signal?
no. just no.
No, because people would get it's a South Park reference.
Offers like this really reinforce the conventional wisdom that your best bet to make it big is to strike out on your own, build something that a big company would like to get into and then sell it to them.

No employee pushing a social network idea or design proposals within Google is going to get compensation anything like this.
Consider it confirmed. The device I received (admittedly, over two months ago) was plain jane Gingerbread.

My previous device was a G1, so I can't really compare it to anything more recent, but it was most definitely vanilla, to the extent that I chucked when I found myself installing the 'T-Mobile My Account' app.
No offense intended, but "citation needed". My intuition is that server side Linux is a lot less visible, but outweighs desktop use by a good margin. Eg. I run desktop Linux on 2-3 computers at home, and 200+ servers at work.
Fight Club Facebook Fans A Bit Like Tyler Durden: Thrill-Seeking Non-Conformists
That's the default on any function you create in JS. This prints 'true':

var f = function() {};
document.write(f.prototype.constructor == f);

This alone isn't perhaps a very important reason to keep this invariant, but it makes some basic reflection possible. This is (among other things) useful for debugging. It's just sometimes useful to be able to check the problematic object's "class", or at least something as close to class as you can get in a classless language.
The author has a sequel to _A Fire Upon the Deep_ coming out in the fall -- Children of the Sky. Set in the same universe.
This discussion is lame because it has no context. Here's what I know. Dave's already independently wealthy. His girlfriend is something of a big deal at Google. He killed it for Facebook spearheading the Facebook Platform. Google is losing at social and it really cares about it.
It was interesting to watch the level of protest and feigned outrage from Google. One wonders what brought them to a place where they would level these kinds of accusations.

If you can't defend your actions, attack the messenger.
Not really, since you can come up with lots of ways to express 2.2250738585072012e-308 as a string: 0.22250738585072012e-307, 0000000.22250738585072012e-307, 0.222507385850720120000000e-307, and so on. As long as it's the same double, it seems like it should trigger the bug in the same fashion.
OKCupid responds: http://www.observer.com/2011/tech/okcupid-we-didnt-censor-ou...
Except that Google doesn't need to incorporate your clicks as a signal for search results... they already have that data.
I wrote another post with OKCupid's response: http://www.observer.com/2011/tech/okcupid-we-didnt-censor-ou...
Good point. I come from advertising industry where insights are/should be fundamental. Imagine reading briefs produced by strategists with Insight form filled with customers expected behavior. Seams like a silly misstake but it's common habit. Guess it's not only technical people that seam to believe in wishful creativity.
I think your point is so intuitive it's not even worth discussing, but it seams to nail down long expected trend in new business approach to consumers.
In this book you'll find 7 key steps in new business creation:
http://www.amazon.com/Flipped-Bottom-Up-Co-Creation-Replacin...
If anyone needs an Insight Specialist feel free to drop me a line :)
Google, Google. Stop crying. Just continue copying Bing. Infinite scroll images. And large image backgrounds on the search page. Copy the Maps features, too.
You get punished for being an honest customer.

I bought a game a while back. It refused to install because of some broken StarForce DRM. Sure, I should've researched the game first to avoid that notoriously bad DRM, but it was an impulse buy. That's another way they're killing themselves; it's a real pain to have to research everything instead of buying whatever looks fun.

Alas, the only good brands I know of these days are PopCap and GoodOldGames, which are great, but that really limits what you can buy.

So I wasted a lot of time for nothing by trying to pay the artists. And no, I didn't pirate the damn game even though I should've been entitled to, I just wasted a ton of time.

Punish people like that enough and you won't have any customers left. People respond in kind. They don't care about your beef with the pirates, but they do care about getting hurt in the crossfire.
H.264 is readily available on Linux.
Ethics aside, I think this was a savvy move by Google, regardless of the outcome. Even if they end up looking petty and getting some minor bad press, they still end up looking like the "authoritative" source for search.
Number three is nearing publication - this year! (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1706449)
Agreed, we believe there's a huge amount of value in aggregating and cleaning fundamental data.

To your point about back testing, would you want guidance as to what the in-sample and out-sample time ranges should be? Tools to help you make sure you're not overfitting? Or something else?
Reddit is an amazing site and an amazing community - there are a lot more factors that go into its success.

However, I think quality has suffered slightly recently based on the amount of content that is FFUU comics and just plain pics.

While I have been a user for 4+ years, and I love the site to death - there are some improvements in the UX tat could be made -- the most specific would be to allow further tags of images/image types. Since a fair chunk of the % of content is now images, I would be love to be able to unsub from specific image types.

E.g. FFUU/rage based comics, regardless of their content/message, I just personally dont prefer them. Cute pics, etc...

Reddit is king of my online content experience, but I am starting to need further granular control that is better that just /r/subreddits.
This whole debacle is dragging both companies down. Overstatement and intentionally framing the story by Google, vague answers and changing the topic by Microsoft.

Though in the end, Google probably gets a net win cause they got "Microsoft copied us" headlines from some major sources with probably little follow up from the average reader. But the whole situation could have been handled better.
This doesn't answer anything! Did he seriously accuse Google of participating in click fraud? Wow, every response from MS is lowering my respect for the Bing team. Google may be wrong in their findings, and Bing may not be directly copying results, but now we're down to just mud slinging instead of just being up front about what probably happened.