skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
A problem with this is that he is using two different Kindles in the graph - WiFi-only and cell. The Kindle 3 is available in two versions. One of these, the Kindle Wi-Fi, is initially priced at US$139 / GB£111, and connects to the Internet exclusively via public or private Wi-Fi networks. The other version, considered a replacement to the Kindle 2, is priced at US$189 [1]

So the price of the comparable Kindle today is $189 although the graph predicts $100.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Kindle
"...type system..."

"Weak" and "strong" type system are meaningless terms if you don't define them for your local usage. As I suggested, I don't care if the check occurs at runtime or compile time.

"And even if it is a special case, aren't we talking about how suitable this is for Clojure specifically?"

You may be. I'm talking about it in general.

The reason I brought up "degenerate case of the lisp syntax", since apparently nobody had a clue :-/, is that you complained about the "redunduncy" in

(if (not (nil? x)) ...)

and what I meant is that that may be how Clojure spells it, but Clojure is being very verbose here. On the macro scale you don't pay much for Lisp's syntax with the parentheses because other languages need punctuation too and it tends to just come out in the wash, but sometimes you do get hammered on the micro scale. (And sometimes Lisp says something concisely few other languages can. But you never get pure win in the real world.) If you spell it something more like

if !nil(x): ...

there's much less redundancy. Assuming you mean "verbosity" by that, which I'm not sure of, since I don't see anything redundant in the Clojure example except too many parentheses but generally we don't call that redundancy in a Lisp program.

Again, I'm talking about the principles of managing conditionals in general, not just Clojure. And again, across the several languages I've used that require booleans and only booleans it just doesn't come up as an actual problem that often to actually check for the relevant falsity if you need to. Besides, the real problem is that there is no universal idea of truthiness and falsyness, you should have to say exactly which one you are using. A lot of bad mistakes get made precisely because people don't think about it. How many times have I seen conditionals break because they got passed an empty string when they meant to check for nil/NULL/None/whatever and do something frightfully wrong as a result? I've long since lost count.
I'd actually just like a USB port on my iPad to be honest.
I am curious to see what will happen to the major publishers in the next 5 years. I'm not saying that sales of physical books will plummet to their death (I don't see this ever happening), but perhaps the publishers will be forced to offer the authors a much better deal than the current 30%.

One thing that might happen is that the volume of books being printed will decrease dramatically. Maybe they'll implement a JIT inventory strategy.

[edit: Although such an inventory system would only be plausible online. Print on-demand.]
"Research into stem cell therapies, cloning, and gene therapy technology have
also been greatly slowed by psychosocial concerns."

Dear humanity: you are simply too dumb to have nice things.
Awesome. We're naming our 4th son (currently 20+5 weeks) Adrian. I loved the post and the picture. Sounds like a great man RIP.
Thanks Jeremy. I'll choose to post here as I didn't intend for my original comment to come off hostile, so I'll try and clarify what I meant.

The comment stemmed from frustration at the fact that, for a very long time, CL has been killing all creative efforts to improve or build on it. Mature sites used by millions shut down after years of operation, despite loud user protests[1][2], and those killed in utero[3] have been the norm. I realize that it's easy to point to the TOS and call it a day, but the TOS is neither consistent[4] nor clear.

Friends of mine are running startups that get some of their data from CL, and try to stay under the radar because of fears and uncertainties. They aren't doing anything remotely shady. To them, CL's decision to kill a site comes on a whim, and nobody really knows what's considered okay WRT the TOS and what isn't. I mean, if Craig himself can't provide a definitive answer[5], then surely you can see how this could become frustrating for developers.

I'm not used to any kind of openness coming from CL on the dev front, and your post has been the first one I've seen in that category, so I want to apologize if you caught the brunt of my frustration.

[1] http://blog.claz.org/#post-94

[2] http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/06/08/jim-buckmeister...

[3] http://techcrunch.com/2009/12/01/craigslist-yahoo-pipes-flip...

[4] http://www.housingmaps.com/ -- one of several that has been up since 2005

[5] http://romy.posterous.com/dont-be-evil-craigslist
I'm not sure what I'm missing here, but I'm pretty sure transparent LCDs have existed in commercial production for decades. For instance, back in the mid-90s (and possibly still today) they make displays that emulate TI-8x calculators and can be placed on an old-school overhead projector, for classroom use.
We are about to add something that states that on the home page. Sorry about that our intent isn't to spam just to spread the app.
I donated money AND sweat to half of these projects in addition to several others personally, before I went and started my startup.

I hope people contribute outside of their 'corporate profits' both monetarily and with some elbow grease.
Thinking On Your Own
Her Kindle books are $3 per copy, not $9 as the article states. But no matter how you slice it, she's making north of $1M per year.
What's the technology that measures the value of an exposure to an ad?
How do I get past the menu? I'm using epiphany-2.30.6-1.fc14.x86_64 which is powered by WebKit.
It's much easier for Google to ban BMW when they don't run AdSense than it is to shutdown Demand Media and directly impact Google's bottom line.
He also officially quit blogging a couple of years ago, too. Quitters never quit.
Case-in-point:
"For eight years, government officials turned to Dennis Montgomery, a California computer programmer, for eye-popping technology that he said could catch terrorists. Now, federal officials want nothing to do with him and are going to extraordinary lengths to ensure that his dealings with Washington stay secret."
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/us/politics/20data.html?_...
I thought all LCD's were somewhat transparent. They have backlights behind them, after all, and LCD projectors are clearly transparent.
Per this article, in about 9 months she's sold 185k books:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tonya-plank/meet-mega-bestsell...

At $3/each, with 70% going to her, that's $388k. Not bad, but not >1M.
+1 -webkit-crisp-edges or crisp-edges

See -moz-crisp-edges @ https://developer.mozilla.org/en/css/image-rendering
I am reminded of a story..

One upon a time someone had the bright idea to close the first Mac in that no one could open it up and customize...

PCs came in at a lower price and less features and in 2 years time Apple was losing..

So which vendor infrastructure is now acting as wintel?

Every OEM/Mobile Operator combination that did not get an iPad deal is gunning to beat Apple..no one tablet has to out compete iPad..the sheer number of choices and volume of those choices will..
It depends on what you do. Personally, I'm a pretty meticulous filer, I keep lots of paper and digital records, filed in filesystems so I can figure out wtf happened 3 or 5 years ago. (I'm a manager in a large IT organization)

Ancient email is often important to establish the context surrounding decisions that have multi-year impact.

Also, many folks use email as an ad hoc general filing system. They rely on search to find information, and email is often the ONLY system available with reasonable search ability.

If you're in a small company, this will sound insane. But in a mega-sized org like the one I work in, its essential.
To be precise, what you would like is a USB port and software support for what could be a subtly wide range of peripherals. A USB port brings the expectation of seamless software support for all of the following:

- removable storage

- wired networking

- audio speakers

- scanners

- printers

- cameras

- keyboard

- mouse/trackball

- joypad input

- any of a million other HID inputs like fingerprint readers, graphics tablets, biometric sensors...

I can understand Apple wanting to avoid opening that Pandora's box. Do all those device vendors really want to write and support iOS drivers in addition to all their other platforms? Does Apple really want to be involved in vetting and approving driver code for all that? Does Apple want the inevitable support burden for when those devices don't work?
Correction appended. Sorry about that.
This was Apple's line back when the iTunes Music Store opened, but I'm not sure it's still true (especially with respect to Apps + App Subscriptions).
What magical solution do you have in mind that's better than PPC? I mean it's an open bidding market where advertisers pay for specific results. It's pretty damn fantastic for calculating exactly how much each customer cost and I only pay for a result (click).
Not exactly related directly to article, but interesting thought...

After seeing the headlines of Google decimating companies when it finds they used evil black-hat SEO tactics, I wonder whether one could use evil black-hat SEO on a competitor, artificially increasing the sites rankings for a few months, and have the wrath of a Google ban-hammer upon your competitor o_O

Very evil. I wonder if there are companies doing this currently :P

Thoughts?

Sorry if this has been discussed here previously. If so, links please :D
I thought about it... but their stock went up.
I get kind of annoyed with these smug, pseudo-contrarian articles about, what boils down to personal preference.

The right answer is: Use the right tool for the right job.

* If it's a simple brochureware template, you might be able to knock it out in HTML from the start.

* If it's graphically complicated, with a lot of rich visuals, starting in Photoshop or Fireworks may be your best bet.

* If it is an application with numerous cases and a potentially complicated interface, starting with a clickable modeling tool, like Axure, might be the wisest approach.

* Roll your own approach for a particular interface problem. Axure sucks for modeling mobile application interfaces, but hey, some dude figured out how to make a usable wireframing model with Keynote.

I've used all three methods, and each has their advantages and tradeoffs. Personal preference often dictates how we work, but the project requirements may force us to re-evaluate these preferences in favor of a more efficient means of completing the project.
I must be alone here, but some of the articles in eHow were helpful (ie, how to form an LLC in some states). It was very basic, but it was on the money.

Sure, it's a "content farm" but if the advice is good and succinct, it sure beats trying to navigate through a particular State's LLC requirements.
They used to use them in PDAs. They're called transreflective LCD [1] displays. They're nowhere near as bright as a backlit LCD though, and only look good when you've got a good light source.

1 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transflective_liquid_crystal_di...
to paraphrase John C. Dvorak: the internet is a finicky group. People will leave facebook when the next-big-thing arrives.

At one time, MySpace seemed too big to fail.
Google would sooner shut down all of Adsense than compromise its search quality. The former would decrease revenue, the latter would be an existential threat to the company. (Look at Google's quarterly reports if you don't believe me.) Even if you don't believe that Google is trying to do more than make money, it should be sufficient to look at the numbers.

"Revenue" is not a metric used to decide whether ranking changes launch. Period.
> I would like to hear how would you design this kind of site without PS?

Not speaking for anyone else, but my usual design process goes something like this:

1. Identify the structure, in pure information terms.

2. Get a basic idea of the layout, often using just a pencil and paper, or a quick mock-up tool like Balsamiq.

3. Implement the basic structure using HTML, typically as a set of divs nested in some reasonable way.

4. Implement the basic layout using CSS, just enough to position the divs in the right sort of places.

5. Add a bit of placeholder text/images and start styling the details as necessary.

The answer to your exact question, however, is "I wouldn't". I think the page you cited is horrible on just about every level, and if that's the kind of result you are looking for from using PS, you're welcome to it.
I agree, and I do the same. I'm not a professional designer (or a very good one at all), and CSS is great over Photoshop because I don't know--and don't have the time to learn--how to use Photoshop's vast library of features. It's easier to just use a CSS reset, open up Firebug, adjust elements until I get to something that looks alright, and take it from there. And if I want to adjust something later, it's a simple matter of changing a property in Firebug and the entire site changes instantly. No messing with layers or what have you.

For super serious designers with lots of non-CSS-able elements, Photoshop is great. But for someone like me who wants something presentable done in a way that I'm already familiar with, HTML and CSS iteration is the way to go.

Edit: Downvotes? I'm not being sarcastic, I truly find this method useful.
http://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+play+guitar

Looks like more of the same to me...
Isn't that sort of thing more in the realm of Fireworks?

Photoshop has never really been designed to support web graphics. It just happens that many people are familiar enough with it to get decent results anyway.
> I had a Facebook-like idea around the same time that Zuckerberg did

That's a bizarre worldview. You might have come up with this idea. But Zuckerberg never came up with it. The Winklevoss twins did.

Surely you understand that Facebook was sued by the Winklevosses, successfully and multiple times, because Zuckerberg breached a contract with them and stole their intellectual property, and then repeatedly. So after their idea was stolen from them, your response is for them to suck it up and come up with another one? If not ethics, I thought the rule of law was still valid in Massachusetts.
Nah, don't put cat5 or 6 everywhere. It's spendy, even if not terminated. And you're not going to use most of it. What you do is: put in conduit/flex tubes in the walls in every conceivable location and run them to a common distribution frame. THEN inside the conduit, you place pull string. When you need a drop, you simply tie the wire (and a new piece of poly pull string) to the existin pull string, pull the cable through, and terminate.

And you're not limited to cat6. You Can drop coax, cat3/5/6, fiber, or whatever.
This is exactly what SOAP tried to do. I suggest sticking to HTTP Status codes.
The line break disappeared when I posted. With the line break, it was:

Average US salary in today's dollars:

1930 - $ 250,000

2010 - $ 50,000

So, no, it's not good. When adjusted for inflation, the average American has about 5 times less purchasing power.
I have no doubt it happens all the time.

It's common practice for "grey hat" SEOs to test on a competitor site first, before using it on their own site.
12 months ago they were open as I did follow the trend of what happens in atypical Mahalo JC pivot before and after..
Good going guys! It's great that something you worked on at such a young age did well. While it is true that you should keep scaling in mind, dont waste too much time or money worrying about it before you need it. That's what makes cloud services awesome. By the way, how much did this end up costing you with bandwidth?
From 2006/2007.
Yep, the first thing I do on a new install is go to that Mac Rumors post and fix it!
I find it interesting that I've upvoted almost every comment in this thread, pro-Google and con. I guess Google search means that much to me. And I would love to see Demand Media punished.
A couple more gems copied from Buffett's Memo to Berkshire Hathaway Managers at the end of the letter:

"If you see anything whose propriety or legality causes you to hesitate, be sure to give me a call.However, it’s very likely that if a given course of action evokes such hesitation, it’s too close to the line and should be abandoned. There’s plenty of money to be made in the center of the court. If it’s questionable whether some action is close to the line, just assume it is outside and forget it.

As a corollary, let me know promptly if there’s any significant bad news. I can handle bad news
but I don’t like to deal with it after it has festered for awhile. A reluctance to face up immediately to bad
news is what turned a problem at Salomon from one that could have easily been disposed of into one that
almost caused the demise of a firm with 8,000 employees."
I just can't imagine how this can end well for Demand Media when they are an update away from losing a vast majority of their traffic.
This is so humbling. It also makes one wonder what are good input tools for people with handicaps. I can think of two projects: (i) Dasher http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/dasher/ discussed here http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2142934 and (ii) Emacspeak http://sourceforge.net/projects/emacspeak/ authored by T.V.Raman who himself is blind.

My family has a history of retinal detachments, and I have a tear myself. But I have never given it much thought, because these are always things that happen to others, not you.

Are there input devices based on Braille, wondering if it would be faster ? As an aside, there used to be code in the Linux kernel which on certain kernel panics would communicate the error message through Morse code using the integrated speaker.

Edit: About Braille, I was thinking more in the lines of a small 6 button or a similarly limited device.
Ask HN: How *hard* is Stanford CS?
I'm in the CS program at a university with a top-20 CS program. It's actually been quite easy, and I only have two CS classes left to graduate (along with a bunch of others).

I'm thinking hard about transferring to Stanford. And I'm worried.

How difficult is Stanford's CS curriculum, really? Will I be prepared for it with just my handful of (not so hard) C++ and Java classes? Am I smart enough?

And: if you've attended or are attending stanford, what's it like?
So is there a way to invoke a completely 10.5-esue Expose? Proportional windows but NO windows/app grouping?
Somewhat ironic: AllBusiness, which is #25 on that list, has a relatively high-quality (non-content-farm) post that praises this exact change: http://www.allbusiness.com/technology/software-services-appl...
If you don't want to "quibble" about it the why do you keep posting? If you think this thread is immaterial, you are free to leave.
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Whiteboard – Powerful WordPress Framework
Her books are a mix of .99 (35% royalty rate) and 2.99+ (70% rate).

Also she sold something like 450k books in January alone.
JAL is my favorite airline. If I can, I always fly JAL. Sounds like bad ad copy, bu† it's true.
"Search, as I see it, is an arms race."

Search is not an arms race. If someone provides content of a better quality than others they ought to prevail. So if gaming the system is by producing better quality content, then fair enough.

If, however, gaming the system relies, as it does currently, on simplistic rules, such as keyword density, keyord in H1, and bold, and italic, and within the first few sentences, and all these other rules, then yes it does become an arms race and it proves really that those awfully talented people and bright aren't really much of either.

Rather than getting into an arms race which is damaging for everyone, google would do better to sit back, and ask a simple question, how can intrinsic quality be determined? Links are one way. Another way may be the language level which google has recently announced about websites. On that point, if google is able to determine the level of language a site uses, that is high level, medium or low, then surely google is able to determine the quality of the site?

Maybe, google is just too stuck in one paradigm and cant bring itself back and actually focus on the question that matters, how do you determine quality, rather than make some small tweaks which took the seo industry a grand one day to determine.
An intent to 'spread the app' without notification is spam
That's the key. A XOOM is $800 and an iPad is $500. It is the old Dell versus Apple thing. The cheapest price unit sticks.
There was a big discussion about this on HN a couple of years ago when 37signals weighed in on the topic: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=828544 (worth reading)
OK, I read her last blog post and ... she just doesn't read like a serious writer. Maybe I'm bitter but I've read comments in hacker news that have a better literary style.
Microsoft Research had a project called Lucid Touch which showed this concept.

http://www.patrickbaudisch.com/projects/lucidtouch/index.htm...
it's worth noting she writes young adult fiction, so she has a different optimization target than what a typical college educated adult would call good.
Good points all, but I really just want to be able to hook it up as a peripheral via usb, not the funky and extremely proprietary iDevice connector.

Hooking up my Android devices to anything and everything as a peripheral via usb has proven useful numerous times. In several cases it has literally saved the day while my colleagues sat there in silence brandishing useless (for that moment) iPhones and iPads.

Not using a standard old USB port on iDevices has mystified me since they iPods first started coming out.

(oh, and since I'm wishing here, SD card support would be super great too)
Isn't Radiohead doing something innovative with there next album (besides the music)? I've heard that they will release it almost exclusively on iTunes/online and then charge north of $50 for the album but the cover art will include original works. I think the print world will probably go the same way (i.e. the Kindle will capture the low end and print will be left for the high end). Only time will tell.
For what its worth, jakarta's hourly wage number _does_ claim to be adjusted for inflation.

I'd love to see references from both of you on the hourly wage numbers.
That's already common for small press (usually via Ingram's LightningSource[1]). As for brick-and-mortar stores, there are already a few that are printing books on demand in store, with an Espresso Book Machine[2]; there'll probably be more now that they are available through Xerox.

(My local bookshop, the Harvard Book Store, has had an EBM for a few months, proudly placed so you can see it in the windows. They're doing a pretty steady business --- mostly self-published stuff, but there's also a steady run of academics ordering obscure out-of-copyright stuff through Google Books.)

[1] http://waltshiel.com/2011/01/17/your-book-investment-marketi...

[2] http://www.ondemandbooks.com/hardware.htm
Actually, while I can't remember the name, there are machines that have been built where you could basically tell it "I want book x" and it prints you a copy and you pay for it right there, in a reasonable amount of time, if it's in the machine's system.