skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Did I miss something or do they not count the expenses for TwitPic?

If they only get $10,000 for 3,2 millions views it seems almost likely that they're losing money, not making it...

Edit: A quick calculation tells me the expenses are actually quite negligible. The picture is 174kb * 3,2m servings * $0.03/GB for amazon cloudfront traffic (which I think they're using) means it's only cost them 16 bucks.
There is a lot of people with the "if it works, don't touch it" mentality. MS would have sold a lot less if they had broke backwards compatibility.

It took me some years to internalize the benefits of "if it works, don't touch it", and I currently apply to a lot of home maintenance problems, which are outside my area of expertise.
Attitude (willing to learn, willing to listen but also not afraid to ask questions and challenge things). Willing to make mistakes quickly and fix them quickly. Not afraid of feedback.
Here: https://profiles.google.com/u/0/connectedaccounts
> Buying Minecraft is not just buying a program, it's a kind of license agreement; the buyer is expecting future updates and feature improvements.

Not quite. Only those who bought it before or during Alpha subscribed to a lifetime of updates, since beta the terms are far more "normal".
Malware decreases, Trojans still dominate
Four New Species of Zombie Ant Fungi Discovered in Brazilian Rainforest
Apparently, keeping your server running is for noobs.

Anyone have a cache?
Sigh. It would seem that Hacker News now rivals Daring Fireball and others in its ability to take a site down with a single link.
Coffeescript makes many of theses things seamless. Reminds me of another article called Scala == Effective Java?

http://grahamhackingscala.blogspot.com/2011/01/does-scala-eq...
The proper way to do this, would be to develop tools for active development of an actual, commercial site.
Surely lost sales must exist... Markus is obvioously doing ok, and pirated copies of his game are aiding virality, but still...

Software, movies and music are now perceived as free. Which is one reason why many developers are now moving to closed platforms such as Apple's iOs where they are guaranteed payment for installations.

That said, I can see the logic behind "going with the flow" when it comes to piracy, especially when cumbersome anti-piracy measures usually only harm legit, legal owners. (E.g. its more convenient to crack Digidesigns ProTools audio editing software and be able to run it on my laptop without any fuss, than to have to insert my legal USB dongle every time I boot the software).

I think anti-piracy measures will work if they are baked into a product from day one. And I don't mean contrived, un-user-oriented measures, I mean doing it iOs-style or cloud-style. In iOs the users love the App Store - its an advantage, not a hindrance. And its the same with Cloud-based or hosted software. Its a selling point - its part of the offering.

Me and some friends have a SaS app that we changed from free to a minimal monthly subscription. Logically, we saw a decline in sign-ups and follow-through by new users, but this was worth it cos we now make some money from the service. If the software had, instead, been a download, then my guess it that we never would have been able to profit of the small user-base that we have. The free version would be out there, and even though it took off we would never have seen any profits.

And then we might not be motivated to cary on creating cool stuff.
Yes, it's similar to a check at least that what I understood from my bank when it happened in the past.
That was a recent addition to the Terms. What that is referring to is additional DLC once the game is complete. Right now it is in beta. If you own a alpha license, you are guaranteed to receive additional updates free. The idea was that they were afraid of a "Everything in the future is free" clause, so just in case; they added that. There is currently no planned 'bonus updates'
Thanks for your interest, but he indicated he's looking for an established developer or agency.
Entrepreneur's Guide to SXSW
No one really knows outside of Google.. We are all really speculating. Meanwhile Apple makes no bones about how much cash iOS is brings to the table
One point though is that if you follow the economic system that produces the greatest technological progress, then at least you get to keep those advances forever, whereas if you count on something that's suppossed to keep the economy steady and fair to all, and then that doesn't work out, what are you left with?

Anyway I agree, 'does it scale' is a totally valid point and I often think it myself when people give life lessons on Hacker News. Social scalability I call it. But like I said, the ins and outs of how to apply the principle to the argument at hand are just too long to get into here.
“Sub-prime credit rating” ≠ “guaranteed to default”.

If you look at the graph next to the article, the number of sub-prime auto loans being issued is not up to the level it was during 2005–2009. (Unfortunately the graph doesn’t go any farther to the left, so I can’t tell if 2005–2009 was a bubble in the auto-loan market or just business as usual.) And defaulting on a $20K car loan is not nearly as disastrous (for the borrower or the lender) as defaulting on a $200K mortgage.
Android Market APP via CTS for OMEs to get it they have to abide by Android CTS and include google search.

OPhone can go different way because they provide their own Android Market and own Android Market app.

By enforcing some mobile devices having google search google makes money back on ads..$1 billion or more for mobile ads in 2010 and as the Google Android engineer staff is quite small and vastly below the $1 billion revenue figure in terms of costs.
here is the cache: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?sclient=psy&...
The link seems to be down; content is here in the meantime: http://j.mp/hdgrtL.
"In early 2010, Everett and TwitPic announced a goal of three to four million dollars in revenue, with a target profit margin of a whopping 70%"
O'Reilly "Geek Culture" ebooks 50 percent off
You can use WebGL in "2D". You can have 3D on canvas too.
It's nice, as long as no one is trying to use your site from an ipad or other tablet or phone that doesn't support contenteditable well (i.e., all of them).

Others are starting to find workarounds by using a hidden textfield that captures input. I haven't tested them on a tablet or mobile phone yet, though. See the Ace editor and Codemirror 2: http://codemirror.net/2/internals.html http://ace.ajax.org/ (yes I know those are code editors, not wywsiwyg rich text editors, but I'm just pointing to solutions that might possibly work better on mobile platforms)

Another, perhaps kludgier workaround is to use a floating css keyboard for mobile users to enter text.
Also using data in the article, it says TwitPic gets between 3 and 4 million visitors overall per day. Accepting all of the same assumptions they use for Sheen's figures, that works out at about $10,000 per day.

At 70% profit margin, that's a business turning over $3.65M per annum, and profit / margin of just over $2.5M.

Which I've just realised matches neatly with the figures in paragraph 4.
I don't see any pricing information on Rocket Pack on their site. Is it available to the public? Will it ever be now?
So if someone hires me to do some work for them, and I do the work, but they don't pay me, what is that? There is no 'thing' in that case.

Piracy is similar. A band, video game maker, software producer, creates something for an audience with the expectation of getting paid for their work. When the work is pirated, that audience member has just done the equivalent of hiring someone and not paying them.
I can only assume the original commenter had a problem with the terminology. Obviously patent trolls aren't doing anything illegal (at least not intrinsically), considering their business model relies on working within the current legal system.
The Facts Matt Cutts Did Not Tell You Behind Google’s Algorithm Changes
Clearly you mean oracle here. Being an ex RH-er I can tell you RH sees great value in centos. It keeps small shops on the RH reserve even if they don't pay for a support contract - yet.
Oracle has recently tried to position itself as an "enhanced" rhel especially wrt the kernel and this seems like an attempt by RH to make things a bit harder for them. I don't agree with the move though - you don't want to follow oracle down such slippery slopes...
Better smartphones = more browsing = more google traffic.

Android makes smartphones better and cheaper

Android might make smartphones better but it doesn't make better smartphones; that's up to the phone manufacturers. When we say 'better' what do we mean by that? Better than what? Right now, the mobile OS's that are in this conversation are: iOS and Android (and maybe RIM's OS and webOS).

If an iPhone is a better smartphone because it encourages more browsing [1] why go through the trouble of writing your own OS AND writing your own OS in a way that your competitors could backstab you?

-----

[1] I haven't done any research on this. I think it's fair to say that the iOS is a relatively decent smartphone that encourages web browsing. I'm sure there's data to point to the iPhone increasing web browsing.
Why don't all Content Management Systems work this way?

The edit-in-place model as demonstrated in this post makes so much sense. It seems crazy to have a CMS with a separate backend when the backend can be the frontend.

I've found that new WordPress users are confused as to why, for example, the text they type in the post editor is set in a serif typeface when their site is displayed in sans-serif, or when their H2 tags are larger in the post editor than on the site itself. And those are only tiny examples -- I'd guess that a large proportion of new user (dis)orientation is related to the enforced disconnected backend that the majority of content management systems adopt.

I think WordPress et al could hugely benefit from a pure edit-in-place model, with overlays or sidebars for any non-visible configuration like permalinks, draft posts, and email settings. WordPress 3.1 moved the admin bar onto the front page; perhaps this is a sign that more of the backend is to follow?
It's difficult to say regarding the lost sales. In relation with every pirated book, there are several groups of people:

A) Got the pirated version, but wouldn't buy it if they couldn't get it free

B) Got the pirated version, and therefore didn't pay for it

C) Learned about the book because it was pirated, and then bought it.

I don't have the statistics, but my guess is that most of the people are in the group A). Now the question is, which group is bigger, B or C. I don't know myself, and it probably depends on the book itself. But as I have seen, most anti-piracy proponents include the group A) into the lost sales category, while it clearly doesn't belong there.
> it's really trivial to start with tree A and get a set of differences between it and tree B.

Ok, now figure out which patch each of those differences belongs to, and for extra credit figure out in which order they were applied.

The point is not that it's impossible or something, it's that it now takes up extra time to find out information that they're basically hiding.
Funny fact about US software patents:

- software can be patented

- math cannot be patented

- all software is basically math

(very simple interpretation, but it scales)
CoffeeScript looks great, but doesn't it mess up the workflow to have to compile in order to fix a bug? Or do people typically download CoffeeScript into the browser during development? Or is using it enough of a benefit to outweigh having to do the extra step?
Several good titles in today's list, including "Being Geek", "Hacking: The Art of Exploitation" and, of course "Hackers & Painters". I am trying to decide whether to buy "Land of Lisp," which I've heard good things about.
Dude, you can't just look at any scientific study that points out drawbacks in some social policy you prefer and say "Ah, those scientists must be evil bad guys for arguing against the True Way." In the real world almost every policy has its drawbacks and its ok to still think that marijuana should be legalized even if it has some medical side effects (alcohol has them too!). If you insist that all possible evidence must line up neatly on your side of the scales then you've made the truth your enemy and nothing good can come of that.
You'd be surprised how many 'consultants' are nothing more than human Markov chain generators, spewing out words with an air of plausibility, but with no understanding.
"So the CEO comes to you and is all like “I wanna build the next Facebook killer”, and your all like “Fuck ya! I’ve been waiting for this chance ever since I learned PHP!”."

Ha!

As for the content of the article...

Yes, if you know that you're going to be building some sort of rich Javascript app, then start with a richer framework. This doesn't mean that JQuery is for Noobs, it just means that it's for lighter weight uses. Different strokes for different folks.
For the "current" standards of good looking and for skill levels attainable by people having a life (and/or job) it would be probably something like that (roughly in descending order):

* Basketball (for women tied with Volleyball)

* Decathlon (men)

* Sprint (men - women equivalent would be long and high jump)

* Boxing (all variants but only for lower to "normal" weight classes)

* Judo/Wrestling/BJJ/Gymnastics (lower to "normal" weight classes... maybe to sinew for women)

* Rowing/Kanu

* Olympic Weightlifting (lower to "normal" weight classes)

* Powerlifting (again lower to "normal" weight classes, additionally not at elite level)

* Swimming (men... women a probably higher in this chart)

If you allow "newcomers", I would add to above list CrossFit in the upper third for men (lower third for women) and Kettlebell (lower to "normal" weightlcasses) in the lower third.

Swimming would have been higher in the past, but for today's "standards" it allows a to "high" level of body fat compared to the other sports.

Football (aka. "Soccer") players only start to look "good" at a pretty high level (if they're not doing anything else), the same probably holds true for Baseball.

Additionally some positions in American Football (e.g. Receiver) and some Skiing variants would be ranked quite well.
> So if someone hires me to do some work for them,
> and I do the work, but they don't pay me, what
> is that?

Breach of contract. It's not related to property.

> Piracy is similar.

It's not. The dynamic of contract violation is not at all like the dynamics of rape, pillage or intellectual property violation.
This is the only reply that I've seen so far that makes sense to me.
There is nothing wrong with sub prime loans. When sub primes are priced as if they weren't, and then sold around the world with staggering leverage, then you have a problem.
Donated! Trumpet Winsock was the gateway to my first internet experience. Thanks Peter!
14 examples of data visualization on the web
The HN community contains many such candidates. More information about the opportunity (e.g. location) would be nice to have : p
I don't know. Oh, if this was true, I'd feel great. See, I've never applied for a job, but I've been working in software for 10+ years now. I've never submitted a resume. It's always been recommendations and companies coming after me and trying to recruit me. Hell, my current job I got by being recommended to one of the partners by some other guy I never met who apparently worked with something I did!?

Point is, I don't feel like I'm in the top 1%. Oh, I'm good at my job, and I know what I'm doing, and my domain knowledge, I think, is solid, but I know so little. There is so much I don't know, and so much more to learn.

Or maybe I'm just taking the 1% part too literal? Or, maybe, I'm just underestimating the size of the 99%.
Help with day job: Algorithmic staff scheduling solutions?
At a gross level, the problem is simple: schedule an army of staff for one-person-per-day coverage, at any given day the staff is split into 3 pools, each staff has a vacation requirement, each staff has at most 2 shifts per week, etc.

I'd hate to do this manually as it has been done at my organization for centuries. I'd love to do something cool like genetic algorithms (eg http://www.sersc.org/journals/IJAST/vol14/1.pdf).

What has everyone here found useful? Open source / free alternatives are a big plus. This also sounds like an optimization problem, can I fire up C++, R, etc to plug into some optimization library for this?
I, for one, consider that a positive.

Now, we have added HN to the list of communities which can slashdot a site.
Basically, there's a spectrum people fit into. On one end, are those who follow instructions to cover their ass. They fulfill the letter of your instructions in such a way as to make a good case that they were obedient and they tried. On the other end are those who are goal-oriented. They interpret your instructions as a kind of goal, and they fit that goal into the general aims of the organization they are a part of.

Give people small tasks, but with only general goals and leeway for initiative. See what they do. The goal-oriented people will get things accomplished. They may not be exactly the things you pictured, but if they are smart, you will find the result useful from some perspective. Hire those people, especially if they already share your perspective.

The problem with references, is often you don't know what end of the spectrum the referrer is on. Maybe they value lackeys that fulfill the letter of the request. Smart goal-oriented people who see things your way are much better to delegate to, IMO.
> Detect location on load

For quick and dirty, free geolocation APIs, not as restrictive as the popular ones, you can check out:

http://IPLoc.info/api
Visibli Raises $500K To Give Brands And Companies A Way To Personalize Links
OK, so piracy is breach of contract. Still against the law and immoral, no?
Ashton Kutcher’s Twitter account hacked to verify a point | Technology Rekor
Independence / self-direction. Searches google / manuals for answers instead of asking you every few seconds.
Show HN: Invite to try fiesta.cc - effortless mailing lists
Before reading the post, i was thinking "dude, this is a troll post."

after the first 5 paragraphs i was thinking, "dude, he has got a point. i think TL;DR is : 'tools doesn't make you a good programmer use whatever you want."

but after the "dojo" section, now, i'm thinking "this blog post is for trolling."

there is no god damn one tool to make you a good programmer. not a web framework, not a ide or anything. the tools are nothing to do with your skills.

you have to learn programming without program anything at the early stages. learn programming fundamentals, algorithms, design patterns, best practises and so on.

i'm not giving a shit about which tool you use. if you are using MongoDB because "it's new and everybody talks about it" i will kill you. use a tool only if it does the job.
I compile CoffeeScript on the fly while in development mode. In production, I cache JavaScript. Debugging JavaScript and writing CoffeeScript doesn't bother me much although it can get a little awkward at times. I simply consider CoffeeScript a nicer, less painful way to write JavaScript and nothing more.
Demon internet used this, and I think maybe still do: http://echannel.www.demon.net/helpdesk/technicallibrary/sdu/... Funnily the images on the page actually show that they are using an evaluation copy!

I've sent them an email referencing this story to see if they step up and at least make a donation.

Would be great if some more people could email them as I don't see them taking a random email like I've sent seriously.

EDIT: Demon internet is an ISP based in the UK.
Big Pay Day For Big Data. Teradata Buys Aster Data For $263 Million
"[Rocket Engine] is the only fully integrated solution for plugin-free browser game development."

Interesting! That's exactly what my startup side project is: a HTML5 game creator IDE:
http://www.scirra.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=8468

Nobody's offering me $10m, too bad :P
Sitecore (proprietary, .Net CMS) has had Page Editor, a in page editor, for years now. They've been adding to and improving it.

http://www.sitecore.net/en/Products/Sitecore-CMS/Editorial-T...
I share the frustation, but I'll explain why I think it's important not to let an issue like that slide.

A lot of the time the copyright debate is fought between people these world views.

1) Copyright opponents define propert as being like a car - something which one person has by denying it to another person.

2) Copyright advocates think of property as a "bundle of rights" enforced by the state. i.e. property is whatever a judge says it to be.

People who insist on calling it theft are steering the debate towards the second definition - that theft is whatever a judge or politician says it is. It's crucial to knock back attempts to do that. That worldview believes the whim of the state is the root of philosophy, and fundamentally correct in its judgement of right and wrong.

Property predates the state. It exists even in states that try to outlaw it. It's a strong algorithm that is useful for the efficient allocation of resources. Intellectual propert is neither a strong algorithm, nor a mechanism that leads to an efficient allocation of resources. It is not property. Intellectual property violations are not theft.
I would definitely never hire someone who's never coded at all. These days it's trivial to install PHP, or even dabble in some browser Javascript.
I'll be around here to answer any questions about fiesta. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!
Robert Soloway Exits Prison, Disavows ‘Spam King’ Ways
> Protection of private property exists to the extent it's judged useful to society.

I agree with that view, but I suspect this issue comes up a lot because many people don't agree with it. A common view is that private property is a natural right of some sort, merely recognized by society, rather than a convention created by society.

If you took that view, then whether intellectual property is legit turns largely on whether it is or isn't part of this natural-law category of "property" (which is what you find debate about in libertarian writings on IP, for example).
I use a watchr ruby script to keep the js constantly compiled. It is publically avaible on github (the project is https://github.com/danielribeiro/EaselBugTracker). Look into the Rakefile, coffeecompiler.rb and compileall.rb

Using on the browser is a possibility, but it is experimental (and experimental on a experimental language can get really crazy). But coffeescript is rapidly moving from a experimental language to a more stabilished one.

And if you are using Continuous deployment, the compiler step can be used only explicitely on the deployment fase, while keeping the js compiler on the browser only. I however find usefull seeing the compiled js even when developing (the emacs mode for coffeescript also helps a lot here), as chrome and other browsers still only debugs js (there is some work in allowing it to debug compiled languages).
This is a correlative study, so nothing can be concluded from it other than "voluntary cannabis use and psychotic symptoms have some direct or indirect covariant relationship".
Also note that 'v' in German is hard (like an English 'f'), whereas 'w' is soft (like the English 'v'). There isn't really an equivalent of the English 'w' sound in German. (thus the correct pronunciation of 'Volkswagen' is closer to 'Folksvahgen' when applying the [unreliable] English phonetics)

The confusion works both ways, German speakers often pronounce English words with too hard v/w sounds, English speakers pronounce German words too soft v/w sounds. It's phenomenal how deeply ingrained these habits can be.
And protection of slavery existed because it was useful to society. How it can be argument for or against slavery?
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