skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Inaccurate linkbait headline... sigh
Mobile App Anti-Piracy and Analytics
Orkut India is incentivizing forum posts with movie tickets
I absolutely agree. I think the trick is realizing that the mechanism is exactly the same for apple as it is with any other "affiliation"; Apple just happens to be particularly effective at it. Democrats and Republicans can get by with painting the opposition as Communists or Facists (who is supposed to be who? it seems to change every other week...) whereas Apple goes with "cool" vs. "lame", or variations of.

Almost universally I believe, the tendency of humans to fall for it stiffles critical thought. I don't delude myself by thinking I can put an end to it (it probably is just basic human nature), but I do oppose it when I recognize it.

Aside: what are your thoughts on the concept of 'hipster'? (the popularity of liking unpopular' things) I would like to think that perhaps it's some sort of "immune response meme" to the phenomenon, but I fear that is wishful thinking at best.
Good call. There's a screenshot of the notification they receive on the next page, but I just put in a disclaimer about never spamming them or posting on their walls.
IPhone App - Cat Burglar
Customer Reviews Very fun by Pipcorn Nice game :)
vim comes with syntax highlighting and file browsing built-in. You just have to enable the syntax highlighting, but it's one command to put into your rc. Yes vim has some sucky defaults, but it's disingenuous to call these simple cases "hacks" or to suggest it takes fighting the software to get it working.

vim doesn't have a debugger since it's outside the scope of vim, which is just an editor. If you want an "all-in-one" philosophy, maybe emacs will treat you better.
What about git repack?
I'm a dyed-in-the wool emacs user (and have played with vim quite a bit) but there's really no comparison between the "completion" vim and emacs offer and that provided by IDEs like VS and Eclipse. They do quite a bit of static analysis and do context-sensitive completion which is extremely helpful when the standard library for your language has a ridiculously bloated API (like, for instance, Java and .NET).
Steve Jobs Has ‘Weeks To Live,’ Says The National Enquirer
> and it was still big bonuses to go around.

IIRC the particular example of this that was lauded around as Wall Street laughing at the common man wasn't exactly what the headlines made it out to be. The company had guaranteed those bonuses before the collapse. They were contractual obligations. Unless the company was in bankruptcy, I don't think there was anyway for them to escape paying them (and since they most likely technically count as payroll, even bankruptcy might not have been enough to avoid those payments). Putting these in the contracts was probably a bad idea, but once it's there, it's there. [Feel free to cite other examples, or refute what I've said. I'm not married to it. :)]
yeah, but then your logs and diffs get messy because you can't stage in hunks. or maybe I haven't grokked how. maybe `git merge stagingbranch -no-commit`?
Just curious, was this not a constructive set of statements?
So: make interaction harder and costlier, and users will spend more time thinking about how to do what they want and less time doing it.

Can someone explain how this is a good thing?
I don't know why everyone is coming down so hard on Apple, he should have just deleted the app from iTunes and used the previous app file, probably still in his trashcan.

Apple is far far better than other companies with software updates, ahem Samsung/Motorola. And at what point can you stop offering software updates for a device and that is acceptable? 3-4 years to me is a long time to continue supporting a now out of date device.

Also: "When Macs stopped getting support for new OSX versions for example, they still worked for years to come, and new apps or software updates simply didn't install/showed on them! But this is a different case! This is a case of FORCEFUL BREAKAGE (as in the case of the remote App Store update), or apps showing as compatible, leading users to update and break them (as in the case of "Remote" app)!"

Fallacy, attribution to malice, which goes back to Hanlon's razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlons_razor

Heavy lies the crown.
Totally agree. I didn't read the paper, but I doubt they have modeled the fact that people have a finite amount of time that they can invest in internalising stuff. IOW, (I presume) they have not looked at the opportunity cost of internalising UI details, and often that time is better invested in other pursuits.
You are actually very confused. Your previous link asserted that Goldman shorted bonds which were about to tank, and this was fraud. (It isn't.)

Your current link claims Goldman defrauded themselves (for the benefit of Paulson and others) on a bond they took a long position on. Also, Goldman wasn't fined for fraud. Goldman paid the SEC to make the case go away, while admitting no guilt.

(The SEC also gained quite a bit from this. While they were making headlines chasing after goldman, the media mostly ignored their porno scandal. http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2010/04/23/2010-04-23_porn_... )
>the stock market is legalized gambling

It is. Buying a non-dividend-yielding stock is a bet that the price of that stock will go up, while selling a share is a bet that the price will go down. (yes, that's simplified) Doing all that research is like counting cards - you have a lot better information than the average investor, but you can't know for certain whether you should hit or stand on that 16, just what the best play is. So the GP's argument is that banks didn't actually know the securities would go south, but they knew it was more likely than the buyers thought.

The information that the originating banks had that many investors didn't was that the loans were lower quality than mortgage loans had been in the past. So the investors were making their pricing calculations based on historical default data, which would obviously underestimate the default risk, causing them to think that the securities were worth a higher price than they would be if priced with a more realistic default rate in mind. And it wasn't a small difference. It was like a 10x difference in the default rate, which would have made lower tranches nearly worthless and really cut into the value of higher tranches.

Let's use a car analogy. I want to sell my (hypothetical) 2005 Prius, and you're interested. You take a look at the car and it appears to be in good shape, so you're willing to pay roughly the Blue Book value for it. However, I know that the car is actually in need of serious maintenance costing thousands of dollars, and will probably break down on you before it's gone 10 miles. Obviously, I just withheld crucial information and sold you a lemon, with major penalties. Now, had you known it was in need of maintenance and offered a lower price knowing that (because you're a mechanic or something), then that's a different story.
Well.

First up, I suspect this policy won't last long; the most likely explanation for it that I can see is that Apple's trying to figure out what the market will bear. Which, you know, is something they tend to do fairly often with the iOS platform, and sometimes it works the first try and they stick to the policy, and sometimes it doesn't and they change it.

But as far as choosing where to focus money, I think Apple's banking on the fact that nobody else in the mobile space has the kind of integrated platform and distribution channel iOS has. There's a lot of attraction there, especially given that the alternatives (i.e., Android) not only aren't there yet, but aren't even close to getting there.

So right now, if I had to choose where to put my budget, I'd put it into iOS without a second thought; sure, Apple's going to get a cut, but the reduced overhead and relative ease (if I want broad exposure on Android, how many app stores do I have to market my content in? How many carriers do I have to sign deals with to get promoted? etc.), combined with an existing and known-to-be-loyal installed base for the platform, would suggest to me that I'm going to make up the difference pretty quickly.
When I'm moving stuff from work to home or the other way around, I'm usually committing my topic branch as far as I can using "clean" commits (doing one thing and only one), followed by one "temp: moving to home" commit.

Then I push to our Gitorious (not trusting github with company internal code, so preferring a self-hosted solution) which we use as a sandbox and/or for code reviews and discussion.

Then, at home, I pull and continue working.

Once the topic branch is completed, I rebase -i to edit and or squash to finally clean out that temp commit. Once I,'m happy, I push to our main repository (which is hosted using gitosis and works quite like a central svn repository where the whole team has push access and where we deploy from)

This works for me because I'm totally comfortable with rebase -i, add -i, squash and amend now so I can get rid of that temp commit.

If I weren't (some people refuse to rebase even on their topic branches and want to work exactly like subversion), then the dtopbox solution would be compelling because of that ugly temporary commit that I can't get rid of without rebase.
They don't necessarily need to be at the level of the entire internet. They could just be a series of 'dark-nets,' with some people belonging to more than one. It just needs to: 1) allow people to coordinate on a large/massive scale; 2) allow for information to leak into and out of the country with ease; and 3) be outside of government control (as in no central choke-points; obviously the authorities could bust down your down and forcibly take down your node).
It looks neat, though I'd worry about being gypped out of my money:

1. I don't know your or your site from Adam (no offense intended, honestly) and your site hasn't been around long enough to have a rep. There aren't any "trust markers" around to help me decide whether or not to trust you with my money.

2. I'd worry about, for example, some of my facebook friends not responding in a timely fashion or forgetting to do it, and the FAQ makes it sound like one person not responding would prevent me from getting my money back.
Phys Ed: What Really Causes Runner's High?
No, I accidentally pressed the downvote on an iPad when viewing your comment. I had meant to upvote you. I've upvoted this other comment of yours, though, to make up for it. Sorry for the trouble.
I've always hated running and have never been able to get a "runner's high" -- I wonder if there are people with fewer endocannaboid receptors than "normal," and of course, people with more.
I think the take away from this isn't that all user interfaces should be one way or another, but simply that things that are "tools", things that are meant to be used day in and day out for productive tasks, could benefit by increasing their learning curve at the cost of intuitivity.
Posterous search feature is offline without explanation.  WTF?
<rant>
I noticed a few days ago that search wasn't working on my Posterous blog, so I dropped an e-mail to their help desk notifying them of the issue. Later that day, I got the following response:

"This is a known issue and should be fixed soon. Stay tuned!"

Uh, ok. So based on this e-mail, Posterous would have me believe that this is a temporary bug and one that should be fixed pretty quickly. After all, search is a core feature, so it seems reasonable to expect they'd have this problem resolved in no time. To have such a core feature go down is embarrassing to say the least, and does not inspire confidence in the platform or the company.

Well, here it is several days later and search is still broken. So I drop them another e-mail asking them what's up. The response this time absolutely blew my mind:

"We're working on a new search system and hope to have it deployed in a future update. This shouldn't affect searching using google or other search engines."

Really, Posterous? You have got to be fucking kidding me. That's the best you can offer? What company in their right mind takes an existing feature offline that users have come to rely upon while they develop a new version of that feature, especially one with no release date attached to it?

And what is even more galling is the suggestion that I point my users to Google or "other search engines" to search my content. How irresponsible and unprofessional is that? What's worse is that they have not made any announcement (that I can find, at least) on the matter, either on their blog or on Twitter.

On the flip side, they did just release a new feature giving readers a "new way to like" posts. Woop-dee-fucking-woop. Who gives a shit about "liking" posts when they can't even find them to "like" in the first place?
</rant>
I won't be surprised if Yahoo is to sell its share in Yahoo one day :)
A reason behind Watson's mistakes on Jeopardy
But as it is, this wasn't a particularly surprising or impressive technology demo.

I love these types of statements. Five years ago most experts in information retrieval would have said that this is nearly AI-Complete.

And its hilarious that the same people who will say stuff like this (although maybe not you Pooter) will send me five emails about how incredible it is that the iPad is getting a front-facing camera.

People don't seem to really have a clue as to what is actually difficult or interesting from a CS perspective.
Would love to hear more of your ideas WillyF.

Care to share some of the things that you thought about ? Possible post ideas, section ideas, etc. ?

Oh...and don't forget monetization strategies - aside from ads (which is a given - not too much, but enough to be monetizable).
It's so exciting to see people launching their new sites everyday!

Good Luck.
Yeah, I totally understand. I'm actively looking for ways to increase the level of trustworthiness and to make people feel confident that I won't take the money and run.
I'd be wary of how people pronounce your domain name. My first instinct is to say RAPE-EE-OH. That obviously has a bad connotation.

I think as long as it's clear that it's a rap site, you'll be ok though.
The ABCs of virtual private servers, Part 1: Why go virtual?
1) Find person nearby with a drink that has ice in it

2) Use spoon to extract the ice from their glass

3) Put ice in coffee

Also, you may need to threaten the person with the spoon to get the ice.
Do they even have any left? I mean, if they needed any kind of capital to buy something they probably had to sell a bunch of it.
First, remove your sugar crystals from the thermos of liquid nitrogen...
I'm not saying I agree with Apple's new policies, but I don't remember seeing any outrage when Amazon was taking a whopping 70% of ebook sales, while simaltenously instituting a most favored nation clause which made it impossible for publishers to sell their books cheaper via any other distribution channel.

Unfortunately Apple brings out the fanboy in some, while also bringing out the rabid anti-Apple sentiment in others. I wish the hyper emotion would get toned down on both sides.
You don't need to log in with your Facebook/Twitter account; I was able to sign up just fine with an email address. It's just one of the authentication options they provide. (It also lets them import your contacts from those services, which is handy for people who are big into Facebook or Twitter.)
Yeah yeah yeah, emacs is infinitely customizable :) (and you can even emulate vim), but...this doesn't work out as well as you might like in practice 'cuz there tends to be a lot of friction with various modes that weren't expecting your customizations.

Plus, I'm already not sure if the time I save in emacs is worth the time I lose fiddling with it ;)
Cool. Another thing I noticed is that I didn't go through and actually pick anybody for step 2, and it didn't stop me until I put in a dollar value for step 3. Maybe it should validate right after step 2?
Fined settled your playing semantics, both articles where to show that their was material deception of investors taking place by Goldman. A case was brought against Goldman and Goldman had to pay an amount for fraud. Their is no confusion, they defrauded investors, failed to disclose their dealing at the back of the house and this is illegal. Both articles show that they engaged in it and the latter shows with no doubt that it is illegal to do so. You asked What did they fail to disclose and I provided you with references to show you what they failed to disclose. No confusion, we can argue in circles if you don't like the facts but there they are in black and white. The porn scandal is irrelevant to whether or not Goldman committed fraud.

Specifically from the first article, where the fraud was mentioned:

However, Goldman's limited disclosures in the offering circulars it gave the investors that bought its mortgage securities could cause legal problems.

At issue is whether Goldman's bets against the housing market were so "material," or relevant to investors, that their disclosures could have convinced them not to buy its products. Without purchasers for its risky securities, Goldman's exit strategy would have flopped.
"natural selection/evolution don't provide much pressure for a species to change after it's gotten wildly successful"

Define "wildly successful". Humans have clearly changed overtime. Look at the color of skin relative to geography. The closer to the equator you get the darker people get. That's natural selection. Another example is sickle cell and malaria. Natural selection in action!

Look at modern domesticated dogs. They've all evolved from wolves in a fairly short time frame.
I agree, I used to have my working copies in Dropbox folder, but I observed some occasional conflicts. After those, I switched to having the bare repo on Dropbox.
String theory is finally testable to some extent?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolysis is a chemical process that can be used to separate out elements -- picking that as a codename for splitting up tabs into processes seems reasonable.
After 'Jeopardy' win, Watson starts its new career in hospitals.
In Hammerbacher's technical talks, he's clear on the lineage of Hadoop. It's just the limits of the interview medium.
Ask HN: What's the next big thing after IBM's Watson?
Grah... I was very interested at first, because out of the corner of my eye, I thought this said "... Behind Corvette". Curse you, disappointment.
Offer HN: Does your startup need a place to stay for SXSW?
If you're a starving tech startup coming to Austin for SXSW on business (not vacation, I want to help a startup that can use a little help) and you can't find or afford a hotel you are welcome to stay at our office. We use a small townhouse as an office. We can offer some of the comforts of home: An air mattress, bean bag chairs, a small kitchen, a shower and Socks, a friendly cat with a gimpy leg.

We're in north Austin, a fair distance from downtown, so you will need to arrange for your own transportation.

No charge (but you might have to entertain Socks the cat.)

My email is david at-symbol metadatalabs period you-know-the-rest.
|Yes, fighting a monopoly is often a losing proposition

Do you even know what a monopoly is? Because based off your comment I don't think you do.

"In economics, a monopoly (from Greek monos / μονος (alone or single) + polein / πωλειν (to sell)) exists when a specific individual or an enterprise has sufficient control over a particular product or service to determine significantly the terms on which other individuals shall have access to it.": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopoly

So tell me what product does Apple have a monopoly on? Laptops? No. Cell phones? No. Mp3 players? No. App store? No: https://market.android.com/

There are alternatives to Apple, you just don't like them.
There is the overhead of maintenance. Dropbox makes backups automatically. Also, sharing repos is very easy with Dropbox, even to a new member. You don't have to open an ssh account for another team member.
I only wonder why websites who use it themselves, break other shebang urls when you post them - try sharing a twitter url on facebook (always have to strip the #!/ manually).
The point is, they spend less time overall by thinking about it first, than they would spend by poking at all the options the program provides, hoping one of them will be close enough.

Of course, you can't spend all your time thinking about the distracting minutia of every-day life (hand-encoding assembly instructions to program the microwave oven, or change the channel on the TV), but if you're actually trying to get something done, an interface that gives you a broad array of tools with complicated interactions can be better than a simple tool. Compare Vim vs. Notepad, or Photoshop vs. Paint.
What is happening with the books in the stores? That's what I'd like to know.

I'll have to wander over to one that is closing tomorrow and ask.
A ponytail ain’t a brand
Interesting linking style used in this article, especially considering the topic.

Isn't it a bit of a step backwards to start using footnotes on the web? I'd rather see the links to the past papers worked into a sentence, with links for each per topic for instance. That's what is so great about the web, I can hop instantly off to check on something that catches my eye.

I suppose it could be argued that using footnotes will keep the users from getting distracted, but I consider cleverly working in links to be one of the joys of both reading and writing on the web.
> If I have JavaScript enabled, and send my friend (who has
> JavaScript disabled) a "Hashbang" URI, he won't load the
> content!

> You're right. This is the primary drawback of an
> approach like this, and you'll need to figure out if
> that's acceptable for you.

Simple answer: "no".
It's not acceptable for me in any way. Not as a user, who disables JS by default (for speed, security and annoyance avoidance), and not as a site own either.

So, these URLs are still as bad as I think.

Do you know the old joke about Java where people can't by hammers anymore, but need to buy a HammerFactory to produce hammers for them (and then HammerFactoryFactory etc.). Requesting a page that then requests the right content from the server just feels like an unnecessary Factory step.
I made
http://www.trackthisnow.com

http://www.glerts.com/beta

http://www.readevery.com

http://www.bettermylist.com

http://www.dealzfull.com

http://www.teampinch.com

http://www.newsgrasp.com

all on app engine
a few comments after using it for a couple of days (not on my primary account):

a. The privacy policy should be a little more clear about the data (if any) being accessed from Gmail. Email is something around which people (or just me) take privacy seriously. The privacy policy is well written (not canned legalese), but does not cover issues around what kinds of data is collected. Rapportive (http://rapportive.com/privacy), also a YC startup has a very fresh approach to privacy policies.

b. at least for me, one of the best things about gmail are the keyboard shortcuts. Sparrow (http://www.sparrowmailapp.com/) does a great job of respecting gmail shortcuts.

c. Maybe they already have keyboard shortcuts, no way to know as there is no help or manual or faqs. (Not sure they need one either)
Right, if you are to learn to use a tool in novel ways you need to understand its behavior at a basic level: it is better to experiment with it from the outside until you understand its "Tao".

On the other hand if you need to achieve a task whose outcome you won't rely on to reach other ends, like say buying airline tickets (ha), its probably better if you can offload the thinking to some other entity.