skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I'm currently developing an HTML5 tablet app for iPad and Android, and so far the biggest limitations are coming not from the HTML5 spec, but WebKit itself. Specifically, there is no way to programmatically trigger focus on form fields, and input fields for some reason do not respond to ontouch events.

Still, I consider it a good gamble long-term. Even though I'll have to degrade gracefully for devices that don't support multi-touch or CSS 3D transforms, it's still less work than trying to maintain two codebases, and I get to use the dev stack I know best.
MG Siegler is such an Apple fanboy it's not even funny. (regardless of this article)
Your entire argument is predicated on the belief that people cannot adapt to their circumstances. History has demonstrated time and time again that people are able to do so when they are forced to.

> There are more 'hands-on' people than 'intellectual' people in this country.

And once upon a time, there were more artisans than 'hands-on' people. When the Industrial Revolution occurred and a lot of artisan jobs were replaced by factory jobs, people made arguments similar to yours. But people have somehow managed to adapt, haven't they?

> I think Germany is a good model. In high school, students are separated into a vocational track or an academic track. Because of this, Germany has a very highly skilled manufacturing workforce today.

But because of their specialized training, the German workforce is relatively inflexible and has failed large portions of the population. There was an article in this week's Economist about this[0]:

> Even so, the system has flaws. Some worry, for example, that a stronger general education is needed to equip young Germans to change trades should demand for their specific expertise dry up.

> A bigger concern is that early selection fails children from poor and immigrant families, who are likeliest to attend the least academic schools and to miss out on apprenticeships. Partly for this reason, there is a large group of students at the bottom of the rankings—which explains why the German average is still below par. “It is a schooling system that has left a large fraction of students behind,” says Andreas Schleicher of the OECD.

0: http://www.economist.com/node/18061710
Thanks for the writeup. Hope to have these problems myself someday soon!

Fwiw, one pain point for me has been using EC2. I started off with EC2 from the start, so that I could learn the system now and scale up whenever I need.

Unfortunately, it seems that the performance of EC2 instances is terrible. Or at least, that's what it looks like for me. After a few weeks of trying to get performance boosts by tweaking code, I decided to try a small Slicehost slice, which performed much better at running the exact same system.

My friend (who recommended Slicehost) did the same test on Large EC2 instances as well, and reported that they also appeared oversubscribed.
Cloud Computing is Approaching Its Tipping Point: Are You Ready?
JQuery Mobile Form Validation
I actually like to work in establishment that is weird amalgamation of coffeshop and rock club. During normal day hours it is almost empty and distraction free, but you can distract yourself if you want to.
I can see where it would help a ton to have that link up there. Very interesting write up!

Loren, just out of curiosity, would you be able to say how much you promised him for posting the link and removing the other T-Shirt links? ...or if you promised him a set amount/shirt at all. If that is coming up in another write-up, I can be patient. Thanks for sharing!
Lisp attracts me just because it seems different to me, and my only experience with functional programming is with Haskell, so trying a loosly typed FP language seems cool. Particularly, I have seen Scheme used in the PL community and some books about that; and Clojure seems to have been gaining popularity lastly, mostly because of it's concurrences features.

I know learning another language of a paradigm I already know is more or less usless, and although you can put Java and Smalltalk in that category, Java has an enormous community, full of different projects, libraries, frameworks, and more, which IMO would teach me a lot. And smalltalk, just for fun :)

About using a language to achieve mastery, I totally agree.
Taxation is at the heart of what makes the state possible, and it's the state, as a guarantor of justice and peace, which makes creating and keeping wealth possible. The wealthy benefit more from this arrangement, and it's fair that they are taxed more as a result. I presume you're not arguing against the existence of the state, or the need for taxation for its upkeep.

Given the need for taxation, making taxation fair requires information about economic transactions. But there's a balance to be struck here: having the state be informed about the details of every transaction, tied to each individual, would probably be too dangerous for liberty. But on the other hand, lack of oversight will lead to evasion and free-riding. So it seems that it's best to put effort in investigation in proportion to detecting potential free-riders.

Large amounts of money held in opaque arrangements abroad would seem to me to have a high probability of abuse; and with the numbers of people involved being small, the instrumental loss of liberty in having these arrangements investigated seems to me small compared to the free-riding risk.

I also object to the argument you've used; it gives me a slimy feeling reading it. You've tried to drag in this notion of privacy and respect by association with "professionals", attorneys, priests and spouses (!), to what amounts to hired thugs protecting a box of valuables. Banks spend a lot on appearances because they need to give their customers the impression that they're safe places for their customers' money, but at the end of the day, they're out to extract as much of that money as they can. Banking isn't a respectable business, particularly these days. They're a necessary part of the economic infrastructure, a bit like water supply and sewers are to cities.
WRT legality, fake testimonials are illegal in Europe (astroturfing and what have you), there was specific legislation to this effect called the Unfair Commercial Practices directive, eg http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/12/08/eu_consumer_protecti... which in turn links to http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/rights/docs/Guidance_UCP_Direc... and http://www.out-law.com/default.aspx?page=9050.
Why a stylus makes no sense for iPad owners
Wael Ghonim: Tweeter, Google employee, Facebook aficionado—revolutionary?
Or hiding money from the Nazis... secrecy is agnostic, but the ability to keep your affairs private lends protection to people who get unfairly persecuted. When a benevolent government knows everything about you, that's fine until they start acting non-benevolently...
This article seems light on facts but heavy with opinion. "My sense is Groupon’s popularity and star power has peaked even though sales may continue to grow for awhile..." That's an interesting theory, is there any evidence to support this?

Further, the headline is misleading, as they're talking only about groupon and nothing about how this might impact the tech economy as a whole.
The basic idea is called wireless mesh networking, and the Wikipedia page[1] lists a lot of relevant research. The big problem with getting it deployed, though, is getting the software onto the phones. (Also, if you really do mean chaining signals across the border, you're going to need signals other than WiFi or Bluetooth to deal with expanses of untracked wilderness or desert between borders and population centers.)

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_mesh_networks
Apple looks for market segments where they can sell things at high margins, and abandons the segments where those margins are no longer sustainable.

Dell laptops start at about $400. The MacBook starts at about $1000. If you only want to spend $400 on a laptop, Apple doesn’t want your money. If you want to spend $400 on an MP3 player, on the other hand, you can get a very nice iPod.
Sounds like a good plan of attack. Thanks!
This might have something to do with America's schizophrenic view of banking. The founding fathers were very suspicious of banking. Throughout American history tension existed between most of America (up until recently heavily ag and industrial) and the "New York Money Interests".

The "New York Money Interests" were represented as early as pre-revolution America( see Alexander Hamilton). The anti-banking interests (epitomized by Thomas Jefferson) were mostly those indebted to the banks (like Jefferson).

So I theorized that much of the lack of privacy has to do with populist concern over wealthy colluding with "big money interests" (banks).

However, I'm just explaining why I think the law is like it is.

I whole-heartedly support more personal privacy especially in financial matters.
I'm going out on a limb here, but has anyone else noticed that HN has a tendency to hate on Groupon?

We see dozens of articles like this reach the front page predicting Groupon's doom, always citing the same dissatisfied coffee shop, always attacking imaginary business models. I'd like to see someone refute Groupon's value as an advertising tool, or even compare it to existing alternatives.

On top of that, a class of hacker news user exists who spells "Groupon" groupOn. It seemed liken impossibly childish insult, to mangle something's name, so I assumed it was an accident or maybe that's how Groupon used to be spelled when it was a startup. Well I looked it up, and no.
I used to be a somewhat good ANSI C programmer, I've never used third party libs, so the applications I have done where fairly limited, but I liked it.

And in the university (CS student) I have to face all the time with C, C++ and asm, so I don't know if it would teach me that much.
Spoken like a true novice.

If you want to completely throw out search engine crawlers viewing your content, 508 compliance, and 5-10% of your visitors with Javascript disabled, then sure ignore Gracefully Degradation. Not to mention that Graceful Degradation is frowned upon to begin with, you should be Progressively Enhancing. Starting with a site deeply entrenched in spaghetti Javascript code and trying to make it work without it takes a ridiculous amount of time compared to just building the site without a single line of Javascript written to begin with, and just provide all the fancy features after you have a full, working site.
Nokia accounts for about 1.6% percent of .fi GDP.

http://www.helsinkitimes.fi/htimes/domestic-news/business/10...

Also, I don't think Nokia currently attracts the best and the brightest
around here, or has for some time.
fun toy. suggestion: do it with some fake animals with legs and all
Have been building something similar, if you're at all interested in talking:

- http://cl.ly/0p193Q2c190s2R3W3C0K

- http://cl.ly/233P0K3n2P0B0n0X0e2p

- http://cl.ly/0N0S2d25003z283T463g

- http://cl.ly/0h2N36100z2o3J1C443L
suggestion 2: guide more the mutation to avoid spawning for hours without success
That's a position I could see someone taking, but in this case, he's being imprisoned on exactly the opposite legal theory: the court ruled that he had a legal duty to break his secrecy sooner and more comprehensively than he did.

He revealed tax fraud that was taking place, which he was partly involved in. The government alleged that he: 1) should have stepped forward sooner, and since he didn't, was guilty of willingly continuing to participate in tax fraud; and 2) had not revealed all the information in his possession, so was guilty of still partially covering up the fraud. Therefore, he was convicted of conspiracy to commit tax fraud.

Of course, that's the official story, and it's possible it's not the real reason he was prosecuted.
Could a system such as a national sales tax, provide privacy _and_ revenue at the same time?

We need to collect data b/c the gov't has to know about your income, your investments, etc, etc. But how about a (hypothetical) system where you only pay taxes when you purchase goods. There wouldn't seem to be any fundamental reason to keep information on _who_ purchased what. Just the fact that the transaction occurred.
interesting fighting about computer science etc.

i'd say, not to store phone numbers in integer field require just one advice of an experienced colleague, no need in 5 years course (assuming a guy doesnt put boots on his head in other parts of his work)
I've just reread your original post, and now I understand what you mean by "doubting". When I first read it, I thought you were discounting it because it was so different, now I see that it is one of your options.
I thought this was a balanced and nuanced comment until you bring up "a slimy feeling" and "hired thugs", which is probably not conducive to clear and rational discussion.

That said, it's certainly possible to run an orderly taxation system with information that's publicly available - the more you require people to report their affairs to the authorities, the more chance of abuse you have. I'm personally of the belief that the sanest form of taxation is taxing assets held in a jurisdiction - then you're paying directly for what's protected. So tax property, and owned stocks and bonds perhaps. If you need someone to report all the money they have outside of your jurisdiction, everywhere, well I think that gets kind of scary.

Anyways, good discussion - armed thugs doesn't make for smart conversation, but good analysis overall.
Are you sure SHA-1+salt is enough for passwords?
I for one never get tired of this evolutionarily challenged little vehicle. Wee look at the little guy go! Or not as the case may be after 65 generations or so...
I'll repeat it again:

> With regard to whistleblowers: those who seek to be treated as true whistleblowers need to know they must come in early

> Late as he came forward, if it had been the truth, [...] he would have been entitled to whistleblowing protection

It seems you are drawing a conclusion that isn't warranted by the quote.

IMO, there is no way to give the whole truth about any situation. That edict is disingenuous and always has been; it's easy to elicit more details by drilling down, and it's similarly easy to interpret words in a way that they weren't meant to give the wrong impression - selective quoting is an art mastered by tabloids everywhere. And also, it's natural to be reticent about implicating oneself in a crime - in fact, there are laws permitting silence on risk of self-incrimination for very good reasons. It seems that you suggest whistleblowers should be denied this.
OP's analogy could be right but did he consider that
You are more likely to be hit by an oncoming train than by an oncoming rocket !!

HTML5 will rule !!
I agree that it depends on the type of business you are developing. The success of our start-up requires someone with my specific knowledge which is non-technical.

I can tell you what I am bringing to the table so maybe you can understand why someone who is non-technical is helpful in a start-up.

1. I came up with the idea and keep generating ideas.
2. I have Specific knowledge of the market we are targeting and what they need. I forecasted where the market would go and I am comfortable that I will still be able to do this in the future.
3. I am not afraid to approach anyone about anything.
4. Happy to do work outside my comfort zone.
5. Writing and researching and design skills.
6. I hack things outside of technology.
7. Entrepreneurial background. I know what I am getting into and what it takes to succeed.
8. Business experience on three continents giving me a global perspective of what is needed by our users in different areas of the world in relationship to our project.
9.Graduate degree that saves our company money.
10. Ego in check.

So that is what I bring to the company. Find someone like that and you will be super happy because you will be able to focus more time on the stuff that you love doing which is technical.
I actually Like that option, of giving them something 'useful' for now as opposed to cash. Other people like CEOs, entertainers etc, I'll give the cash option to which I'll then funnel to a reputable charity.

There are a couple other ideas I had toying around in my head, but after reading the articles you linked and what you're showing me I think I'll tread really carefully and see how it works out.

:)

Will DEFINITELY be in touch with you!
I do not want to be dishonest when I comment. A large portion of the motivation for me replying was the emotional distaste I got from reading your argument, and I didn't want to deny it as a bias by pretending to some kind of intellectual distance and objectivity.
Statistical analysis of the best boxes in a Super Bowl pool
The Lady Gaga figure is not relevant. It was for the first months of public Spotify, before they had any real revenue. Since the payout is revenue based and not fixed (at least as far as I've heard), the level of revenue impacts the payouts a lot. Also, AFAIK, no official figures are released for how much any artist gets from Spotify currently.
...or MeeGo, and I guess Ubuntu and Debian are also possible. That is one part of the phone being truly open.

Here was the original announcement:
http://flors.wordpress.com/2009/08/27/software-freedom-lover...
If you seek out English speaking peer groups, then yes learning German will be harder. Luckily(?) for me I am one of only two English speakers in my company, so none of my friends are English speakers. My wife, on the other hand, has an almost entirely Anglo peer group, making picking up German casually near impossible.
How do you license software on virtual desktops?
"Hypothetically", in Italy, lots of cash transactions with no receipts happen because of the VAT, which is something like a sales tax.
It's somewhat fanciful to think the government, upon receiving this windfall of 'reappropriations' will turn around and put them toward paying the national debt (or at least reducing the deficits). More tax income doesn't reduce the individual 'working man' tax burden, spending just increases to cover the windfalls.

BTW, this is very revealing:

"I'm going out of my way,” he said in a prison interview. “Risking my career. Risking my reputation. Risking my life. And trying to unfold the largest fraud in US history."

versus

Birkenfeld's attorneys argue that he's entitled to a percentage of all the tax revenue recouped as a result of his whistleblowing.
This is correct. So long as the plugins themselves are using jQuery's own $.ajax() method (or one of its derivatives that in turn call it), then anything in ajaxSetup will be reflected in those requests.
Taking on a fiduciary duty of loyalty and confidence, and then breaching it... that's serious.

Even when that fiduciary responsibility entails doing things that break the law in the jurisdiction in which you operate (the US) and in which your clients live (the US)?

I honestly am having a very hard time understanding your point here. You seem to be arguing that "duty" should trump legality. It does not.
downvote? not sure why as i was only trying to provide context. :/
Interest in 3D animation? Get Messiah Studio Pro for $40 ($1200 retail value)
Sure it is, after reading a little about it in the book The computational beauty of nature ( http://bit.ly/fEJ8Cn ), I've been quite attracted by it, and Scheme and Clojure are the dialects which seem more promissing to me.
Thanks! And yes it does. We're working on it ... we'll have an update later today or tomorrow about the next step at http://getfisaright.wordpress.com/
Fair enough, but both sides can play the "armed thugs" card, and then we wind up in a "screw the man!!!! the government is just thugs with guns!" "no dude screw the corporations!!! the banks is just thugs with guns!!!" discussion... which is bad.

You can characterize any political position you don't like with emotional language, but it makes it harder to get to truth. You did write some really good points, that's why I thought it was a shame that the emotional language comes in... it's possible to do without it.

Most people feel emotionally about their politics, but emotional language rallies your side at the expense of alienating the other side, and then discussion breaks down.
I have my computer in English, but all my Google settings to Spanish. I know the layout well enough that it doesn't hinder productivity and getting a new error message always leads to learning a new word.
Privacy with your banker is fine. Just pay your taxes.

Just like your medical records are private, but if you are HIV+ you must disclose that to unprotected sexual partners.
To be honest, I had absolutely no idea how the shirts would sell so I didn't make any promises or mention a specific number up front. At the time of the initial email (a few hours in) I had sold a handful of shirts.

I ended up giving him $25 and a free shirt, which he gladly accepted. After all, he did only spend a few minutes uploading a photo and adding the link, so for his effort, I think it was plenty. Like I said before, it's hard to quantify how many sales came as a result of his effort. About 8 hours after I started marketing is when things really picked up and went viral, which I think had little to do with the event itself and more to do with so many "shares". The events were a good launchpad, however. FWIW, my profits for this project (after costs of shirts, shipping, paypal fees etc) were in the low 4-figure range over a couple days. Some were estimating I made upwards of $100,000, which is obviously nowhere near accurate. I am ecstatic with how things turned out, considering it only took a few hours to build and I am now covered for 5 months rent (yea, cheap college apartment).
Obama supporting Feinstein's S.289, which is even worse than the House bill that just went down. On this issue, his policies haven't changed at all from the Bush Administration. As you say, disappointing. Back in 2006 he was on our side on this issue. Sigh.
Nassim Taleb Says No to Big Corporations and No to Big Government
I don't think in general coupons are a good deal for people. It is mostly clueless people who fall for it. As JoelOnSoftware wrote somewhere, collecting coupons is like working for 7$/hour. With Groupon, even if you save 50% on your Sushi, maybe you spend 2 hours getting to that Sushi place, rather than 5 minutes to the one around the corner.

However, there seems to be an infinite supply of clueless people, so the whole thing might still sail on forever.
Well that changes things. I thought the article would be about how a failed Groupon would trigger a tech bubble implosion.

Copy and paste error or link-bait tactic?
The Momentum Manifesto
The proof has been checked and it contained errors. See:

http://mathoverflow.net/questions/38049/what-exactly-has-lou...
Short Stroking Hard Disks for Performance
Why is that a "versus"?
In relation to North Korea, I think there wouldn't be enough people with computers or other devices that could actually use the internet to let it make any difference. Sad, but true.
Personally, I tend to hate it because I am convinced that coupons are evil. It is just a way to control people's behaviours and turn them into consumer sheep, which I resent from the bottom of my heart.

I root for startups that empower people and open up new opportunities, not for ones that have found a loophole in the human psyche and exploit it to the maximum.
Steve Jobs’ First TV Appearances
What does it mean to have a negative number download count?
Which school did you attend?
He's not entirely a disinterested party, concerned for the public good etc...
Nothing against Lua (it's one of my favorite languages), but unless you're dealing with complex data structures, wouldn't it be more straightforward to just write a small pipe-style C program and skip the bash-to-Lua step entirely?