skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I think Windows Phone 7 really suffers from the lack of unique branding. It doesn't have a unique product name like Android or iPhone; even 'Zune Mobile' would have been better, Windows Phone 7 doesn't evoke anything and just sounds like a technical specification.
Apple's Water
I agree. If Apple sticks to a strict interpretation of this policy, Amazon Kindle and Netflix are gone from iOS. In both cases Apple is only one piece of a much bigger distribution strategy, and a piece they can't afford on these terms.

Perhaps, Apple will allow Kindle and Netflix to offer iOS only subscriptions. These subscriptions will not allow the media to be viewed on other platforms, and will not be attractive for most subscribers. The standard subscriptions would still be usable on iOS, but couldn't be purchased in iTunes. Perhaps the iOS subscription could be slightly less expensive, to appease Apple.

Apple may be willing to let something like this slide to keep these very popular apps, while keeping what could be a very lucrative policy for other subscription services. I'm sure there are many media startups who are going to jump on this. They'll just price in the 30% and be happy.
"Could you say more about why Bump's implementation of network-based queued logging is "hacked-up" while facebook's (by implication) isn't?"

Well, mainly because Scribe was purpose-built to do log aggregation on a large scale, and has nice features to prevent data loss in the event of network and node failure. It's also pretty well-tested at this point, given its origins and community. Check the wiki to which I linked.

I didn't mean my comment to imply anything negative. I was just trying to point out to the parent comment that there's now a better option than rolling a custom log aggregator on top of Redis. That may not have been true when you started your system. Mea culpa.
I think a lot of the benefits of OO reuse have been lost due to platform shifts. If you build a system on NeXTSTEP in the early 90s, then throw it out and switch to Java, then throw it out and switch to C#, you're naturally going to lose a lot of the efficiencies you theoretically could have taken advantage of had you somehow managed to stay on NeXTSTEP or OpenStep all along.

And then, of course, you have mergers and acquisitions leading to code being thrown away or warehoused or merged with other systems, or new management deciding to start from scratch.

Basically, the industry doesn't really have a long enough attention span to really make the most of OO code reuse.
Apple's iPad Officially Passes the Higher Education Test
Now I have a choice. I can get bent out of shape over your highly disrespectful statement (you could have expressed that in a much more civilized manner), I can try to elaborate, or I can ignore you and move on with my day.
Make sure you click the link above instead of typing it through the browser, so we can know you were referred from Hacker News and can give priority access.

URLs in submissions aren't linked.
I'm referring to executing the Groupon "business model" which is what this article is really about. It doesn't take much "execution" to clone and create a landing page for subscribers. But thank you for your insightful knowledge into the meaning of the word "execution" in the startup world.
I don't think that makes a very compelling exhibit, given that "the internet" is not "all things you can get to via a web browser". The internet, rather, is IP, TCP, UDP, etc...and every protocol built on top of it. This includes HTTP & HTML (which iTunes leverages heavily) but also a many other things that are not browser-oriented.

Regardless, I think your exhibit is more easily explained by Apple understanding exactly who is likely to spend money and making them want to be their customers. I'm a huge Debian fanatic, but I have to admit that the linux users are the most tight-fisted demographic I've ever seen.
Well also, it doesn't run iOS so a jailbreak wouldn't be that interesting..
TekPub - High-Quality Screen-casts for Programmers
Consistency Models in New Generation Databases
I agree, I would definitely be interested in a torrent of the data.
Physical Review Journals to offer Creative Commons publication option
What this is basically saying is that the software these companies create doesn't understand the complexities and chaos of human interaction and thought.

Pretty sure people have been working on this problem for a while, and it won't be solved anytime soon.
If the state I lived in only had one supermarket chain, and the only way I could shop somewhere else was if I moved to another state, that supermarket chain would be called a monopoly, yes? Just because I can move to another state doesn't mean that the sole supermarket chain in my current state isn't a monopoly.
Where are you located? People need to know!
If you've got the money, you can pay for developers
They've had that available for a week:

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/inde...

This fixes a number of other vulnerabilities:

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/javacpufeb...
Middle-earth according to Mordor - The Lord of the Rings retold
Does anyone with greater knowledge see flaws with this idea?

Yes. There are cases where the insanity defense is clearly correct, and extended incarceration makes no sense. One example is a man who had become very abusive to his wife and newborn. Medical tests demonstrated the existence of a brain tumor. Removal of the tumor removed his uncontrollable rages and restored his normal state of being. (Along with great remorse over what he had done.) After that, what purpose would incarceration have served other than to derive his wife and young child of much needed income?

In practice, though, I've heard that those who are found to be insane will, on average, wind up incarcerated longer than those who are not. True, it is a mental hospital rather than a jail. But the effect is similar to what you indicate. With the twist that discharge happens only after medical professionals judge that the person has improved, rather than having the discharge happen according to a guess by the judge.
As a longtime Zune user and appreciator, I'm hoping that the Zune-Pass will be rolled into something else and that existing devices won't suddenly lose access to the Zune-pass service songs ($15/mo for unlimited (DRMed) songs and 10 MP3 Downloads was generally great).

Further, if the Zune software becomes the "WP7" software, I won't really care so long as it still works with my existing devices.

If, on the other hand, my existing Zune stuff is ultimately gone and no longer supported, I guess it's back to Amazon MP3 for me.

I love my Zune, even when it came out I would say things like "Microsoft products generally suck, except the Zune is a pretty sweet device - they did that right". My opinion of MS has changed for the better since then, and it started with the Zune.
Not yet...but I'll let everyone know if I do :)
Code organization aside, how is OO any different from procedural programming with regards to concurrency?
> As for companies that are engineering oriented from top to bottom, I did get hired by Google. You don't get much more engineering oriented than that!

Do you think your more business-oriented format helped or hurt? What business people would your resume have to pass through at Google before getting into the hands of technical decision-makers?

I've worked at another large company with an engineering culture (NVIDIA). There I was referred by a personal acquaintance who was already on the team. But if I had applied for the same position through their website, the only other handling of my resume would have been by HR staff. All they do is play buzzword bingo; an unfamiliar resume format would probably subtract points with them, if anything.
>>I've got the money
http://www.odesk.com
Compiling a few libraries is worse than rolling your own log aggregation service? Really?

I'd rather spend a day compiling libraries than spend a week re-writing a piece of basic infrastructure.
If you honestly believe that "Apple is providing the most compelling user experience with which to enjoy [Amazon's] services", then you evidently haven't used a Kindle.

The Kindle was designed to provide the most elegant and compelling user experience with which to enjoy Amazon's services and it succeeded wildly.
wrt "why dont they just say": Apple prohibits "links" off-app subscription sites. It likely they'll take a dim of plain text too (obviously clickable links are not allowed).

I can kinda sorta understand Amazon charging the Marketplace guys (although 25% seems excessive), since they're targeting the long tail who would otherwise be invisible.

Obviously, I think Amazon charging publishers 30% to reach Kindle owners is bullshit, just as I think about Apple.
new feaures are always good

but this new restriction-lightning-bolt-from-the-blue is for
me "straws[final+3]" why I have decided to never make iOS apps whenever I can help it, strongly preferring web apps, where I have considerably more freedom and stability combined with more efficient tools and less bureaucracy.
2 oz of alcohol to 5 gallons of syrup, and syrup is diluted further.

That said, basically all liquid flavorings are alcohol solutions. The 1 oz vanilla probably adds as much alcohol as the 7X does. And I suspect that the Mormons and Muslims are okay with vanilla extract.
The Innovator’s Dilemma in Higher Education
Good point. But: The library records will have an actual eye witness, though. In that case a real person can confirm that the 'bad guy' got the book personally. That is not the case with online search.

The problem I see is that it makes people easier to frame if 'soft evidence' suddenly becomes 'hard facts'.

Here is a highly constructed unlikely case as an illustration:
Suppose, someone sneaks into someone else's house. He performs a few searches on fundamental religious topics and bomb building and plants some large quantities of questionable substances in the garage. Then the intruder tips off the police anonymously. How do you think the home owner will get out of this?

I don't know. I'd be at least a little bit worried.
While I don't dispute anything you're saying, I can also say that in lawsuits like this, it's pretty typical for the plaintiff to generally trump up the role/abilities of the defendants in the suit to try to maximize damages.

That happened to me. I was involved in a suit during the dot-com-bust (I followed my former manager to his startup - they wanted to shut us down), and my role was inflated from worker bee who wasn't on any projects to a senior level manager type with fiduciary responsibilities. That was news to me, because had I actually had that type of role, I probably wouldn't have left in the first place.

Like the blog author says, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle.
I stand corrected. Apologise to those who might take exception to the error.
All taxes on corporations are passed down to consumers (including Apple's).
If you've got the money, honey, I've got the time...
Debunked by Snopes. Coca-Cola already had HFCS five years before New Coke. Here's the link, and also follow the "Cokelore" link at the top for the whole category.

http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/newcoke.asp
Except that it would have to $13 even if you didn't use it on the iPhone. The rules specify that the cost must be equal to or less than the same subscription through other channels.
I've asked this before, but what is there to keep Netflix from creating an iPhone version of their site and directing users there? This would let them cut Apple out of the equation completely, and still provide the same functionality, unless there's issues with playing videos on the iPhone that I am not aware of.
You said it better than I could have! :)
That's a completely different matter, though, in that it's not permissible to ride a bike on a sidewalk pretty much anywhere (here, we must use the bike path although I'd prefer the street which is the case elsewhere). It's reasonable to be upset at people breaking codified behaviour (law, even) – similar to a pedestrian walking down the road instead of the sidewalk.

The intra-sidewalk issue of various pedestrians wandering around aimlessly, stopping randomly, walking inexplicably slowly &c. is the studied topic.

I must admit, I get quite frustrated with the above though not to the point of being angry let alone enraged. I've always imagined that city people are better at passively taking others into account when moving but that might make an interesting study as well.
> does not try to force anything down your throat.

It forces me to relinquish a host of assumptions about most programs. This is a huge source of bugs.

> I use it daily and am very productive with it.

Meaning, you write lots of code? Or you solve lots of problems that weren't introduced by C++ in the first place?
Huh? The solution to missing features is to stop using the product?

My 18-months old is getting really good at several puzzles on my old iPhone. He also deletes apps constantly, because there is no lock mechanism/parental controls. The fact that the iPhone is exclusively his to play with is irrelevant, as is its price.

"Show them the money" is equally irrelevant. By definition, you cannot measure how much consumers value something that's not there. I'd love to show Apple my money but I can't magically pay for a non-offered feature.
Indeed. Valve seems to legitimately care about the quality of their games and about the enjoyment of players. They spend more time refining their games rather than just putting out what they think will make money for a few weeks. And then they continue updating them and adding new content. This shows through in their Steam platform as well.

They've built an enormous amount of customer trust and goodwill, and this has been paying off immensely as more and more people use steam as a go-to platform for game purchases.
Yes, but the problem is that it's just one approach out of many, so when using other libraries and APIs, you have no consistency. (For example, you'll have to wrap their classes in your refcounting scheme, and unwrap when passing them back in.)
your best hope in this case is that you'll be tortured and still wouldn't be able to provide the details on the questionable substance - that will prove your innocence.
Plus, there are many apps our 1-yr old uses, but if she pushes the wrong button it enters a settings mode or something where she can't get back to the main app.
i happen to think that's the ideal government. it requires a dictator with the right qualities, and they are rare. Thus, what is possibly the 2nd best government type: democracy.
Apple’s Next Greedy Move: Exclusivity
Where is this advice coming from? I.e. have you done this or do you think it's the best idea?
They can't even let:
body and/or element {
width:100%;
height: 100%;
}
which is css 1,
behave properly.
While chrome, firefox en safari behave as I would expect it to be.

Example @ http://www.gamenull.com/
:-(
>Apple tolerates these [native] apps, but just barely, and offers the web as the way out of their walled garden.

Geeks wanting native apps, and Apple reluctantly going along may have been the case when the iPhone & App Store first began, but Apple has long since realized that the app channel is very valuable to users and to the platform, and that control over that channel will be hugely profitable.

If Apple really wanted to have webapps be first class iOS citizens, they would provide Phonegap capabilities standardized in the native browser (http://www.phonegap.com/).
FYI: Arizona does not allow the insanity defense in capital crimes. If he's mentally fit to stand trial, he faces the death penalty.
Ask HN:What Web Stack?
If you were going to found a web based start-up tomorrow, what stack would you develop in? I hear alot of discussion here and there of various web stacks on HN, but I haven't ever seen a comprehensive debate on their relative merits.
How Open Data Initiatives Can Improve City Life
People have tried this before, but not as a tech solution and not built on Facebook and LinkedIn.
Here: http://www.fabricegrinda.com/personal-musings/a-superangel%E...
This entire article is just a bunch of moaning and bitching about how things are not like they used to be back in the olden times when stock brokers could make easy money without being too smart or working too hard by just answering the phone, executing orders and taking bribes for "research." (Note that stockbrokers can and still do make a lot of money nowadays, they just need to be much smarter and trickier about it.)

There's a lot of wrong things in there but let me point out the most obvious. He talks about the abundance of 10 million ipo's in the 80's and 70's and the dearth of them today without even mentioning inflation. Let's take the only concrete example he provided: that of Intel which had an 8 million ipo in '71. In 2010 money, by using the CPI, this is 43 million (and note that the CPI tends to underestimate inflation). Are there 40 million IPO's today? Yes there are.

This small list listing only the most recent IPOs on the NASDAQ shows at least two 40 mill IPOs:

http://www.nasdaq.com/reference/IPOs.stm

So a mere cursory examination of inflation completely destroys the only concrete example he provided.
My antenna is currently a coaxial cable screwed into the back of my TV and extended up to my curtain rod. It looks like I'm getting curtain-rod cable.
I would say that procedural code is less inclined towards both immutability and encapsulation than OO; I would say to a first order approximation that it tends to be worse than OO for concurrency.

But there are moderating factors. Procedural programs that don't enforce strict modularity conventions tend to be bound in size by their complexity, a complexity that works against the level of understanding necessary to make things both concurrent and correct. Meanwhile, procedural programs that do enforce strict modularity will probably be using conventions that emulate a different paradigm, and will inherit that paradigms' costs and benefits WRT concurrency.
So it's now "Java for Business"...
From their perspective, of course they should be against it. It vastly improves the value of their infrastructure. Same market, more profit.

In this case, they're sacrificing the "user experience" part of their market.
Useful Typography Tips For Adobe Illustrator
Netflix uses drm on their players (through silverlight in a browser). HTML5 video doesn't have hooks for drm at the moment.

You can restrict access to content (by using a TTL or encrypting the video with Apple HTTP Streaming) but someone could still capture the stream. Their stream using silverlight is encrypted and offers the kind of security that makes content owners happy.
We could have all kinds of debate here.

I assume that we can all agree on the slavery part, but I'm not so sure about the reverse engineering one. Your personal feelings may differ, of course, but I'm having trouble constructing an argument against the signing-away of reverse engineering rights, from basic natural law principles.

Here's another fun example: clearly the right to free speech is fundamental, at least to those in our society. So how is it that a court can uphold, e.g., an NDA?
> That "definition" includes eight distinct meanings.

"Performance" itself, and many other words, have lots of meanings [1].

> not one of the on- or off-line dictionaries I have just checked recognises any similar meaning of the word "performant"

True, but we have many terms in computing where our intended meaning is not captured by mainstream dictionaries.

> when there are clear and unambiguous alternatives available

Did you honestly find that usage unclear and ambiguous? The standard use of "performant" is so rare that there can be no doubt what the original poster meant. What are the alternative words you prefer? I think "performant" fills a gap.

> This post has been brought to you by the "ironic parallels with the topic at hand" department.

Nice observation! (perhaps not coincidently, I think I come down on the other side of the issue from you in both instances :)

[1]: http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/140783
I envy you guys. In the Philippines we have 2 mpbs for $47.
Thanks for letting know! I took care of it.
Thanks! This sounds a great advice. Will work on this.
You don't need to move to another state, just use another phone. You can't argue that the Honda Civic alternator won't work on your Mercedes, and the part is only made by Mercedes. When you bought the Benz, they locked you in. You can go somewhere else to get service. But guess what, that mechanic will have to purchase the part from the Mercedes supplier. That is true lock in. Same with servicing the on board computer software. You want the updates? Sorry, only available through Mercedes and Mercedes suppliers. Oh sure you can go to Joe Bobs Auto Service, but then HE will have to order from Mercedes or a Mercedes supplier.

OP was right, this model has been around a while.
Predicting Future Employee Trajectory
Freeloader demands what he thought he paid for, dammit!

oh wait
I honestly don't think that was his argument. His argument was more like: "You started off with a cool idea that no one wanted, accidentally found something people were willing to beg for, then got rid of what people wanted to work more on the cool idea."

It would have been just as valid to stick with the idea people begged for/made money and add features that made you happy. Wouldn't it have been valuable to test/market View to thousands of customers with the need they were trying to solve?
A better news story linked on that page is how four loko is being recycled into ethanol, lol

http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/01/07/four-lokos-silver-lining...

I'm against ethanol (because of corn welfare for millionares) but it's still an eye opening story.

ps. What's up with Time trying to be "hip" to the Reddit/Digg crowd?
I've got a gazillion dollar idea! Eye implants that shoot laser beams! Just need someone to build the prototype for me....
Startups in stealth mode need one piece of advice.
Wait it is my fault the route planners made the routes such that the path from one train to the next, goes through a choke-point, but did not consider the travel between trains could be delayed? Seriously, lots of places where you buy tickets have time limits on the transfer where you must make a specific train (or bus or whatever) or you forfeit your fare. You are going to tell me that if someone blocks the route and causes the transfer to be missed it is my fault for time mis-management? What instead should I have done? My travel is screwed up whether I arrive at the destination late or on-time. I may have lost money because of the situation. But it is all my fault? I may have had a part in it, you know going that route or whatever, but you are seriously playing blame the victim here.

Inside my control or outside my control doesn't matter. I don't care when people do things that don't have negative consequence to me. I do care when I am responsible for doing something that has negative consequence to me. The common denominator here is not my control, just that i don't like the negative consequences.

I understand now... please let me hear how you would use this to troll the rape victim that it is really just her self absorption that makes it a problem, she shouldn't have been so narcissistic about her genitalia. Or the family of someone murdered, and how they really just should have spent more time with him, instead of missing him now. It is unreasonable in both cases to thing that life would have gone perfectly and they may have lived their life without rape and murder.

Your style of trolling is actually pretty good dark humor, now that I get it.
Taken together with his other points, I think the author is under the impression that it was the "Boiler Room" operations peddling penny stocks that were driving IPOs. Trading in eights was probably good for brokers skimming money from transactions, but I can't see how decimalization can be considered bad for investors.