skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
> What I don't understand about all this is why there isn't a way to use these clearly failing schools for experiments in alternative styles of education.

As a resident New Yorker, I can answer this one: entrenched interests. There are a lot of people who have bought a lot of influence to achieve the status quo, and they don't really see what the problem is.
> Or, in short: I wish I was smarter about it and more business-savvy.

Here is a non-solicited biz-savy tip: Tell us the names of your plugins.
Malcolm Gladwell Book Generator
Khodorkovsky film vanishes again
When I read that headline, the first thing that came to my mind was http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_of_the_Four_Emperors

Presumably, the course of Firefox will run a little less bloody. =)
But if the FBI still believes they are competent

Excuse me?

The FBI can't be that dense, can it?
Sort of a 4chan version of Mechanical Turk.
Reproductive health services is a euphemism for condoms and abortion a clear way to lower the population. Vaccines have been used to sterilize people before and maybe in the name of saving the environment they will be used again.
I must respectfully disagree, for a few somewhat related reasons.

First, for a democracy to function, the voters need to be at least sufficiently educated to understand the issues.

Second, for an advanced capitalistic society with heavy automation to function, the work force needs to be at least sufficiently educated to handle nontrivial jobs.

And third, minors, lacking in experience, often make decisions that their older self would regret. Right or wrong our society tries to protect them against at least the worst of these bad decisions. This is precisely why we permit minors to rescind contracts (under most circumstances).

Now, with all that said, I think our society might benefit from offering trade schools/apprenticeships more readily and earlier in the educational system then it currently does, given consent of both the minor and the gaurdian. This may prove more useful to many of them then an academic course that is largely geared towards the college admissions process.
I agree with the gist of what the article is saying.

For example, I can understand if a person from Tibet is upset about the Groupon commercial, but a person from America? You're not upset! You just want people to think you're upset. You're not even from Tibet! Get over it. (If you are from Tibet and found it tasteless, then you have the right to be upset.)

People are too involved with other peoples lives, and are always trying to find something to complain about.

The commercial was funny. Life's too short to get all pissy over a commercial.
I don't agree. Spending a year building a technology for an unproven product is not MVP :)
Amazon adding 'real' page numbers to e-books
I'm sure you would appreciate "Guido la Vespa" which would sound in english like Guy Wasp, but is also italian for "I drive the Vespa (a kind of scooter)".

An approximately 50 year old joke.
Very respectful, and awesome closing off of the world temporarily.

Another 'use' I find - in areas where you know you'll have no signal. With the cell radios screaming to contact a station, drains the battery worse than more or less any other part (unless you have the display on 100% brightness as well as on all the time)
No diss to VWO, but that article just reads like an advert.
جول فيرن
Yammer is commonly cited as an example of a company which does this. As far as I know, there's no public data on how well this particular tactic has worked for them, but that doesn't stop every hacker/product entrepreneur from citing them in pitches to dodge questions about how they are going to recruit and manage an enterprise sales team.
Why Minecraft Works
You're welcome! Actually I was a bit reluctant to answer "ESR". While he's surely the best libertarian hacker who's work I know of, he's also very high profile and therefore quite possibly busy. Best of luck!
Update: Calendar seems broken- wouldn't you know, the day after our discussion. It actually does push to google calendar, it just says it isn't. Hmmph.
The lesson is, to me, that if you garnish an obvious point with sentiment and a dash of high tech then it's compelling for a mass audience.
What would you say you do here?

+1 for the (extremely subtle) "Office Space" reference.
Maybe it works as a cost-effective way to eliminate occasional counterfitter-wannabes.

Reminds me of: http://lesswrong.com/lw/f1/beware_trivial_inconveniences/
Take it easy and enjoy life.
It's international but it still only allows me to select an airport about 20 hours drive away. I'm not sure what their logic is in self-selecting an airport in a country that is outside of my usual area while I'm traveling?
Without looking at the page/video (And after what everyone else has said, pleeeeze don't tell me I have to?! ;), does this sound anything like that Chandler project[1] they wrote about in Dreaming in Code[2]?

[1] http://chandlerproject.org/ Looks like they finally made it to a version 1.

[2] http://www.dreamingincode.com/
This would make for an extremely useful API. You wouldn't be able to make any money off it, but as a "side product" to keep people thinking about your search engine it would be a good idea. I'd use it.
That must be fake. No sysadmin would possibly bite on such an exchange ("is our root password still ...?"). And not in a "security firm", of all things.

I'd elaborate further but gotta run for now, a prince from nigeria just contacted me with an important transaction.
The observation you make depends on the DNS configuration for any particular domain, but ok, lets not worry further about that.

Assuming that we wish to start again with a flat name space, I'd be interested to understand:

What rules would be put in place to govern the names that would be allowed? Do you believe you should still be entitled to the domain “pedro”? Or are you willing to accept Pedro-Kostelelec-DateOfBirth ? Or some other (likely more complex combination) that is a unique distinguish-er for you globally?

Do you believe there should only be one company globally with any given name? Or is it acceptable to have a “BurgerKing” company in one country that operates restaurants, and another “BurgerKing” in the same / different country that makes BBQ's? How do you allow for those to coexist, noting the rules we already decided on in the previous question?

Personally I don't believe having a flat or hierarchical domain name space makes any difference to the underlying challenge: users need to enter the exact domain name of the business they wish to visit, if they fail to do this the result may not be what they expect. The fact that so many people choose to type some arbitrary text into a search engine and visit what ever site is returned, is fundamentally an error of understanding that should be corrected. I don't believe working around this misunderstanding by modifying the name space used serves any useful purpose in the long run.
Ask HN: What happened to SixthSense source code release?
http://www.ted.com/talks/pranav_mistry_the_thrilling_potential_of_sixthsense_technology.html
At the end of this talk Pranav promised to release software driving this demo. Was it actually released?
Recently I worked on a website with a lot of forms, and decided to use HTML5 form validation to make my life easier, with a JS fallback for older browsers. It turns out that Webkit added support for HTML5 form validation, then found a problem, so they switched off the implementation without switching off the exposed API. So every JS fallback that tests for the presence of the HTML5 methods on form elements will assume that HTML5 form validation is implemented, and leave the validation up to the browser... which doesn't actually do it at all.

That means server-side validation, which of course one needs to do anyway. But it's not to hard to imagine somebody making a site during the brief window when Chrome supported HTML5 form validation, and then discovering their site broken in Chrome a few months later.
Rap today is a mashup of old lyrics, over-engineered (and unnecessary) beats and a sad use of Autotune. I used to DJ for years and couldn't stand where the music was going, but the classics are considered classic for a reason, in my book at least.

Listening to, and I mean really listening to the lyrics of true rappers that started and built the movement up is inspiring. Much of it is the obvious "Hoes & Cash", but there is almost always a reason they bring it up. It was either about what they strived to get to, or the rewards of their hustle and struggle to break out of the streets they grew up on. It truly is a unique form of expression that very few other music forms can touch.
Ask HN: My app's been copied.  What do I do?
We've had a very successful iPhone app on the market for the past 2.5 years. We've been planning on releasing an Android version within the next 4-6 months. However, today we found out that somebody in the Android Market has copied our app almost identically. They released it about a month ago. It copies our layout EXACTLY, our functions, our look, even graphics look similar. Now, this isn't a sort of copy, it's almost an identical copy. If it was just 60% of our app that was copied, that's one thing. But it's 99% of our app that's been copied. I'm concerned that our iPhone users who switch to Android will be confused that we made the app, and also that it will hurt our future Android endeavors. So, what can we do about it? Can we send a cease and desist? Are there any laws to protect us?
I actually made it for myself over two years ago :)
I don't know, I went last year, and was heavily disappointed about how nontechnical all of the talks were that I went to. The whole place was filled with a ton of tech-reporters and a limited amount of actual developers.

I didn't bother signing up this year, and saved myself the money and time by doing so. Maybe it was better in the past, but I hope they change the conference to actually promote developers and developing.
As soon as my head hits the pillow, my iPhone goes into Airplane Mode.
"Is this something that would be appropriate for the adult world?"

Yes. We call them police, but instead of paddles, they have guns.

(Well, I guess in the U.K. they have a grown up kind of paddle?)

The fact that order is ultimately enforced with violence is an unpleasant constant of human societies.
Is this something that would be appropriate for the adult world?

Uhm, yes, except we call it the death penalty or, alternatively, life in prison.
There is a notifications profile on BlackBerry that is not visible by default but can easily be turned on that does exactly that- it's called "All Alerts Off" - WAY more silent than the "silent" profile which still blinks the little red light and pops up calendar alerts.

I have seen similar notifications profiles on other mobile OS as well, perhaps called "Do Not Disturb." In any case it would be a good one to create yourself and have.
this page will convert terribly
Yes, that too. But even if not for the explicit mention - rapid development of a certain platform is usually a sign of a strong and lasting ecosystem of applications for that platform. And browsers are certainly an important component of the web platform.
Apple has "given away" stuff in the past. I seem to remember iSight cameras were one. It is a once-in-a-blue-moon thing though.
From the title, I expected something much more clever...
These Animals Are Older Than You
WhatGFX - an easy and convenient way to choose a new graphics card
The timeout is set pretty high (10 sec), but it could timeout and then get cached. I'm seeing karma for your username now though.
I agree with the author. The problem that's unstated here is that schools have become state run low security prisons for children and adolescents. The idea that academic acheivements are the current focus of public schools is false. It's compliance training.
If anybody is interested in learning about the roots of hip hop (more specifically of DJ culture), this is an excellent documentary on it:

http://www.amazon.com/Scratch-Afrika-Bambaataa/dp/B00006AL1G...
you're not measuring how busy a place is, but rather matching demographics between foursquare users and the various museums.

I wouldn't be surprised to find that foursquare check-in's is a very poor proxy for this kind of venue. For bars/clubs and coffee shops maybe, but you're measuring with the wrong stick. Having said that, it does seem to confirm common sense (that most places are busiest on the weekends and mid-week is quiet).
There's a business opportunity here: Make me look busy. Now somebody tell me its already been done.
Surprising that it has an integrated CDMA/GSM chip, but useless without a SIM card and the proper amplifiers/antennas.
Git seems to be torn between centralization and distribution. For large projects you always seem to fall back to the SVN style single repository even if Git allows effortless decentralization.

There are projects like Google's Gerrit [1] which tries to push towards a centralized usage of Git. On top of being a useful code review tool it's currently used to manage all the contributions to the Android source tree.

Then there are projects like this, focusing on pushing Git even further away from centralization.

One of the stated advantages of GitTorrent is intimidation due to "centralized" Git repos. Services like Github have essentially enabled trivial forking of "centralized" repositories, so I don't think GitTorrent holds a strong advantage there.

[1] http://code.google.com/p/gerrit/
Sprint announces first dual-screen Android phone, the Kyocera Echo
If the copyright owner doesn't allow anyone else to retain a copy, and they delete all their copies, then how will the work ever pass in to the public domain?

Just because virtual book burning is easier than hunting down and burning real books doesn't make it any more acceptable.
Interesting. I thought Airplane Mode only turned off the cellphone radio. But, nope, I just tried it and it does turn off the WiFi as well. You can, however, manually turn WiFi back on, leaving the cell radio off.
Correct. It displays 25 covers.

http://malcolmgladwellbookgenerator.com/images/1.jpg

http://malcolmgladwellbookgenerator.com/images/25.jpg
* Not actually a generator, but a randomized collection of prepared images.
I visited NYC on a regular basis from 1987 to 1990, to see friends in Brooklyn, NYU and northern NJ. It seems hard to imagine now, but I95 had abandoned, jacked cars on the shoulder, right in the middle of the city. At some grim housing estate visible from one of the train or aboveground subway lines, I remember seeing thick trail of garbage a hundred feet long covering a wide stairway going down an adjoining hillside to another street. Lots of people sleeping rough in Penn Station, and aggressive panhandling. Natives warned me not to take the subway past a certain time.

Despite this environment -- or because of it -- there was also a lot of interesting cultural activity taking place in the city. Someone mentioned hip-hop originated there; it was also where American punk rock got off the ground, not to mention all kinds of art and theater activity. The food then, as is now, was excellent.
boo hoo and 2 second google search:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/475318/how-do-i-get-httph...
Do they use your name?
ComScore: Android Passes iOS For Overall U.S. Smartphone Subscribers
Why are people always feeling "honored and humbled" these days? I think they must be confused. Just feel honored and get on with your day.
Appbistro Announces Appstores.com White-label App Store Platform
I went to a public high school less than ten miles away from Richmond High (http://articles.cnn.com/2009-10-27/justice/california.gang.r...), I may have a slightly skewed perspective. But on the other hand, I don't think corporal punishment would ever be an issue in richer school districts.

The part that scares me the most isn't the students though, it's the `adults'. The amount of evil and incompetence from the school board level down is astonishing. I wouldn't trust those people to take my order at a fast food restaurant.
I've been using Reason since it was released (Dec. 2000 I think, so 10 years) and was using ReBirth prior to that. Actually, Propellerheads released an iPhone (and maybe iPad too) version of ReBirth that while not entirely functional on the iPhone form factor, is still fun to muck around with.

Main point: have to agree that Reason's approach to emulating hardware is a great deal for the home producer/hobbyist/traveling musician. I have a number of MIDI controllers which have all worked seamlessly with Reason... literally plug in via MIDI or USB and then you're physically manipulating the knobs in Reason.

Also one side note on the quality of Reason UI. About 5 years ago I was doing some work in Reason on a flight from Pittsburgh to Boston and and I got a tap on my shoulder. A member of the Fedora UI team just "had to know" what was this "incredible looking software?"
Design the data format (API) first, then the user interface later. You have the cart in front of the horse.

Rather than decide how it looks and works, decide how you want the data structured then come up with a format to represent it. This sounds like unstructured to minimally structured document centric data - something like a Markdown with additional tagging or an XML format would probably be ideal.

This way, eventually when your design changes or someone wants to shift the data into another format (say mobile use, or transformed into LaTeX for publication), it's a matter of writing a fairly simple converter, rather than trying to scrape the site or do other PITA stuff.
10 seconds is quite low for Reddit.
That's true, but mixing daycare and schooling often shortchanges the latter.
Heh, I created that site ages back only so I could boast about my position in comment karma, but now I've fallen off the top 20 after deleting my account :( I wonder if the guy who took over ever rewrote it, my code was truly awful.
22-25
Matrix!
Other trick to make the other person feel special when getting a phone call: pick up the phone and, after identifying who it is, say "hold on, I need to get rid of someone on the other line", put on mute for a few seconds and come back.
You can get a VPS really cheap these days. Less than 200 bucks a year. I highly recommend it. It costs more than shared hosting, but the complete control makes up for it. I've been using Linode since Oct and have been very happy.

For cheap shared hosting, I've had great luck with nearlyfreespeech.net.
the ign.com redesign was very well welcomed. slightly irrelevant, but an example of accepted redesign. this actually works on a tablet but feels like an app. in the browser, the experience is quite horrendous and slow. i have to mouse wheel to scroll articles and clicking on the link refreshes the page when it should be ajaxy. it makes me not want to come back.
Tiger Mom is Memristor Inventor's Daughter
I think the challenge with Facebook, is that a large number of people using it don't understand what they are sharing. What they share about themselves is really none of my business. What I do need to be mindful of is:

A lot of people, including those who get paid to work in IT roles and are supposedly of a technical mindset, don't understand what information they are sharing about themselves and their friends when they interact with FB applications

This is different from real life, where most people will evaluate what they share about you with 3rd parties. In the case of FB applications, many people don't understand what is happening, and thus the evaluation phase is completely bypassed. Even if you would put your life in somebodies hands in the real world, you have to apply a different set of criteria to that same person / decision in the virtual world.
Having hotkeys onscreen is a great help, but being required to use them is still a terrible cognitive burden if you have lots of them and they impose modal effect(which DF does in spades). When you're "browsing" for actions to perform, it's easier to click on something when you see it than it is to see a keyboard binding and then find the key a second time on the keyboard - and it is a "find" on the keyboard because the muscle memory is going to be different from regular typing.

As well, the visualization style has fundamental limitations. The 3D structures are hard to understand well with flat 2D. You can learn what the icons are, but embedded within them is a small pile of properties that have to be enumerated separately. No health bars, status effect overlays, etc. This obfuscates a lot of the game's mechanics.
I personally didn't find it that offensive.

If you were aware of Tibet's long running predicament, then you could appreciate the absurdity. If not, then hopefully it would prompt you to find out more about Tibet.
It wasn't a generator but a few of the images were pretty funny.
Contact a lawyer. I'm not one, but there are laws that protect you (probably... Do you have any trademarks, patents?). Also, You have intellectual property rights to your app regardless of patents or trademarks. If its a blatant copy, you probably have means for suing them and getting some $$ back.

Again, not a lawyer, I could have said something completely wrong, but as far as I know what I said above correct.
Lack of internet & information freedom is ruining lives.
People aren't. Obnoxious bloggers are. and this guy is particularly bad.
I use FF extension called DblClicker which lets me double-click a link into a new tab. It also closes (or duplicates) open tabs with a double-click.

Started using this when the middle-click on my mouse broke from too much use.
Thank you for your feedback!

We went with only 64 bit OSs to:

1) limit the number of choices available to the customer (simplify choices -- make it easier to decide)

2) lower the overhead of managing OS templates.

We've included a kernel in every domU in hopes that most 64 bit issues we've seen with VPSs won't be problematic for our customers.
One of the things that's kind of interesting to consider w.r.t. Facebook vs. Asana (where Asana is assumed to be some kind of unholy amalgamation of a wiki, exchange server, basecamp, MS project, and ... Things, say):

Facebook is kind of an _anti_-productivity application. Taking the Facebook approach to developing a "live in it" productivity application would be something of a disaster. I've been using using Facebook (fairly lightly, I'll admit) for years and still don't understand its structure. E.g. when I'm told "so and so" has made a comment on my wall or replied to a post or liked something -- I'm not sure where those things are to be found.

In the end, most serious people "live" in their email inbox to some extent or other (modulo some kind of discipline for not checking it too often or whatever) and anything that doesn't wrap around email is essentially a waste of time.

A tool that wrapped around email, [shared] calendar, [shared] to-do-list, [specialized reddit-like forums, and a wiki might have a shot (is this what asana is? I have no clue). This seems like something "easy" for Google or Microsoft to do (since they have pretty compelling email infrastructure) and impossible for anyone who isn't able and willing to do something 80%+ as good as gmail to do.
The nokia E-series E72 has the neatest feature. If you put it face down it silences all alarts. Nokia had a great ad campaign for real face time using this - "Somethings are more important than email".

The iphone and android badly need these features.
Nick Denton wrote an interesting piece about it late last year: http://lifehacker.com/#!5701749/why-gawker-is-moving-beyond-...

I agree with a lot of the thoughts behind it, but in execution I don't enjoy using it.
It's 2011, I am in shock that I'm still reading articles like this.
I think a lot of us fall into the Adwords or nothing trap. I'd love to see a write-up of the different advertising options available on the web. I've looked around in the past, but too many of the write-ups are geared toward the affiliate marketing crowd.