skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
An interesting thing I noticed was that all cell phones were completely useless for a pretty long time following the quake. That's normal, but one difference this time, compared with several years ago, is that most people I know no longer have a landline phone at home. People were queuing up for like 20 minutes to use the one old green plastic coin-op pay phone accross the street.

At first, I didn't think to use a phone, since I was sitting at my desk and email worked normally. I could email a colleague in a different building back and forth in neartime while the quakes were happening. About 15 minutes later it occurred to me to try my (naz)iPhone and see if it was useful. It was not--could not make or receive calls, and the test text message I sent did not arrive in a timely manner (took more than 30 minutes).

Just as a data point.
You can replace (\x -> (length x, head x)) with (length &&& head) if you import Control.Arrow to make it fully point free
93% of Steam Users Born on January 1st
I wish I had enough karma to downvote you.
VIM, too!
Raison d'état and raison d'être both exist; they just don't mean the same thing (at all), and what the author meant was raison d'être.

Also:

1. raisons is plural, so they GO away and not GOES (except if you consider that the subject is "a lot", which may be grammatically correct but not semantically?)

2. raisons d'état can't "go away" because they were never there; they are invoked as a (feeble) justification by the perpetrator of the action (they are kind of a lie).
Like I said, in general, I agree with the message (of the article) which is in a nutshell: git is newer and uses a different paradigm than svn which helps in many ways.

Like I also said, I didn't like the tone of the article which was "svn is dead and you should be moving along".

I also think the article has a point. I just don't think it was written in most productive (dare I say fair?) way.
I use Windows 7 because I have to use ms-office, but my main text editor is GVIM.
Some amazing images on Twitpic:

http://t.co/szbTX4V

http://t.co/nK0p50d

http://t.co/5zfUh6b

Some tags to follow:

http://twitpic.com/tag/tsunami

http://twitpic.com/tag/earthquake

http://twitpic.com/tag/japan
Google And Netflix Strategy: Use Partial Responses To Reduce Request Sizes
Dude: you died twice, were in a coma, learned to walk and code again-- you should be giving us advice.

My question: do you have a scalable customer acquisition model? Put another way-- if someone dropped a chunk of money in your lap, do you already know (in detail) how you would spend it to increase traction and revenue?

If so, sink as much of the 15K/month you are making into that.

Oh, and apply for YC.
Japan Hits by Larg Earquack
The most efficient way to improve an SQL statement is to eliminate it
This seems like a more developed version of what Perceval had mentioned. Using German Tank Problem-based estimates would involve assuming a uniform distribution from the beginning.
Well my point was more that Instagram exposed enough data such that RJ Metrics were able to get access to enough information to extrapolate the cohort retention rates.
I don't see the point in punishing the affiliates or how the tax law makes any difference in how the affiliates get paid for generating sales.
As oil prices go up, who you gonna fly?
I like this. I wonder if there's a google-killer in targeting ads at the quality, or type, that suits you? It would build brands both ways, as the article says. Of course, it's not needed at the high-end of BMW et. al., because they already have full-time staff for this stuff; but there's a huge middle-ground between that and the weight loss ads. Now, how to make it convenient and low-cost enough, to bring those benefits to the next tier, who are presently non-consumers of this service, but would love it (like lionhearted here)?

aside: low-cost in this article happen to also be unpleasant; but they needn't coincide. Most disruptions are low-cost (e.g. PCs). They are indeed low-quality, but only with respect to users who already have something better (e.g. mainframes). Google text ads are very low-cost, but also pretty good, especially when related to what you're searching for anyway - this is the idea they copied from (and paid off) overture.com (was: goto.com, now yahoo owns them). I think this was a fantastic idea, even better than google's search, because it aligns everyone's interest, even as it optimizes profit (the auction part).

Re: "needing the money": I recently negotiated my highest ever deal (by a significant integer factor). I did it by pretending I didn't need the money. But I really, really did, so this was... stressful. At the last, I gave in; but I estimate I could have gotten an extra $50,000 or so. Oh well, I still did really well. I prefer the article's plan of not actually needing the money. Fortunately, that deal is very close to putting me in that position.
Is the cell network still down/overloaded?
Why don't they fight in court then?

Cutting their affiliates lose looks really low; they should stand for them instead.
Free with Lion, or free by itself?
For interview, are we coming to you or it can be done over skype?
Holy cow, I've been on Hacker News far too long:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=422043
> They have to pay a shipping tax ... that eliminates Amazon's competitive advantage.

Not really because Illinois based businesses have to ship their goods into the state as well and then have their customers pay Illinois sales tax on top of the shipping cost reflected in the sales markup.
While the long-term value and the use/abuse of AngelList is highly debated (see http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/26/angelist/ among others), one purpose of the site is to provide exposure to people with great ideas who don't necessarily have the connections to get them intros. It's at http://angel.co, probably worth checking out. Good luck to you!
Do they shut off the warnings at some point, or do they have to listen to this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfZkdIVcfEA) for the next 5 hours?
Hmm wow, apparently yes. , I still cannot make a call. Press call and it goes directly to call failed. (SoftBank iPhone 4)
From http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqinthenews/2011/usc0...

"The March 11 earthquake was preceded by a series of large foreshocks over the previous two days, beginning on March 9th with an M 7.2 event approximately 40 km from the March 11 earthquake, and continuing with a further 3 earthquakes greater than M 6 on the same day."
I know this question is unpopular among PL researchers, but what is the biggest program you've ever written in your language?
Perhaps because fighting in court is costly and long, while asking your affiliates to petition their representatives to change law may be cheaper and quicker? And suggesting to the representatives jobs will be lost (still a big no-no in today's post-crisis mentality)?

Never mind the tax paid to the state actually goes into improvement of local infrastructure, services etc.
Yes. I've heard softbank sms are starting to go through just now.
I love Vim, too, but I think the method outlined in the article does not work for learning Vim at all. The method basically works because every IDE has a similar standard set of actions, only organized differently. Vim on the other hand has its very own set of actions which does not map to any other application at all (with the possible exception for Emacs).

Thus, whenever a non-vimmer is watching a vimmer he only sees magic happening, but not understanding why or how. It takes an experienced vimmer to learn from other vimmers. This has happened to me a lot, but has not enlightened anyone yet. (Does this imply that IDEs are plumbing and Vim is magic?)
10 to 12 percent of Japan's entire population lives within Tokyo. 25% of Japan's entire population is within 30 miles of Tokyo. This is why.
Google Person Finder: 2011 日本地震 (Japan Earthquake) - Japanese and English
Gah, line noise. Imagine using that + jQuery:

3.times(#(){ $("#some_id").attr("href").hide(); });
Whirlpool bathtub manufacturer wholesale
Modernspa.com has become even more attractive with a number of wholesale bathtubs and bathroom accessories with their distinctive style and versatility to provide all range of bathroom items for every customer according to their choice and preferences.
I don't understand how this is "almost identical" ...
Anyone else annoyed by how the scroll bar in the Instapaper iPad app never seems to behave like you would expect a scrollbar to behave?
I disagree. Consider the following sequence of examples:

1. I have a store in Oregon, a US state with no sales tax. You live in France, and while on vacation here, you buy a trinket, and carry it home in your luggage. Clearly, I don't have to pay French sales tax. You might owe some import duty when you bring it home.

2. Suppose instead that the trinket is big and heavy, so rather than putting it in your luggage, you have me mail it to you. Its still pretty clear I shouldn't have to pay French sales tax.

3. When you get home, you like the trinket so much, you want a second one. You know that your cousin will be visiting the area, so you give her money, she gives it to me, and I mail you the second trinket. You probably still agree I don't have to pay French sales tax.

4. Suppose your cousin, and nobody you knew, was going to be near my store. So instead you hire an agent to deliver me the money instead. Now perhaps its starting to get a bit murky, but I don't see that the agent is morally different from your cousin, and the use of an agent should not avail me to French sales tax liability.

If that agent is named "the postoffice", then what we have is a typical mail-order business. And I think you can make a good case that online business should be treated a lot like mail-order business.

* * *

Now if we repeat those examples with my store in California and you in New York, there are two differences. First, California has sales tax, so in the first example, California sales tax would unquestionably be owed. Second, at some point along the way to the last example, we became engaged in inter-state commerce. The United States constitution forbids states from regulating inter-state commerce. This has been construed to mean that mail-order business is interstate commerce, and as such, neither the state of the seller nor the state of the buyer have a right to impose sales tax. Online business has, correctly I believe, been treated the same as mail-order. Most states have a "use tax", which requires a tax be paid on new goods brought into the state for use in the state. The problem is out of state sellers can't legally be required to collect it, or even report enough details for the state to reasonably enforce it.

Legal issues aside, allowing inter-state commerce to be used as a sales tax evasion scheme doesn't seem like good public policy. But the obvious fix - collecting sales tax for the locale of the buyer - is not logistically simple: states, counties and cities can all impose their own sales tax, so across the country there are thousands of different government authorities to which sales tax must be remitted and thousands of different tax rates which are constantly changing. Requiring every online seller to keep track of that - and exposing them to audit liability from all these different authorities, would not be beneficial to public policy either.
> Pass a law that each state can specify a single tax rate for any shipments into that state. Then all retailers everywhere would have to collect that tax and pass it on to the state.

At that point states would be able to set higher rates for shipping than for in-state sales tax. That would create a protectionist economy for their in-state businesses which is precisely what the founders feared would occur if you allowed states to control inter-state commerce.

States have a bias to their own businesses because their business owners/employees are also voters.
This is particularly ill-timed for the rebels in Libya.
We do get out of bed for less than $10,000 dollars per day
I think close cooperation between private companies and the government has been a trait of Japanese society for a long time. Instead of a single governmental alert service, you'll get the government, NHK, cell phone companies, transport companies, etc., cooperating to get the information out there quickly. For example, the weather service website was being hammered and rather hard to access, but you could see reports on the NHK and Yahoo! websites while the quake was still going on, including tsunami predictions - it's automated, very fast and effective.

The siren systems are also automated. The signal is relayed by governmental offices.
I really like: the up-front-and-center screenshot of what the interface looks like, before I even sign up.

Personally, not a fan: forcing me to Sign Up before I get to see any more information. Why only one page? I looked around briefly for a pricing page, About, or FAQ. Couldn't find any. Maybe it's intentional - that's a different discussion I suppose.
In fact, many hurry to close the blinds only to turn on artificial lighting on. Why???

Screen glare?

http://dilbert.com/dyn/str_strip/000000000/00000000/0000000/...
Crowd funding music label Spidart.com post-mortem [in French]
Deal.

Unfortunately the company I work for dictates how much of the fee goes into my pocket, so heres the deal: I'll give you 5% of my own commission if the candidate you recommend gets the job.

Lets say for arguments sake that the salary is £50k and our fee is 25%.

My company gets £12.5k for placing the candidate.

I get 15% of the fee: £1,875 in my pocket.

You get 5% of my commission: £93.75

Where do I sign up?
I live in L.A. and I've kept my landline for precisely this reason.
Translated to English by Google Translate
http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&h...
Tsunami watch issued for SF bay area ~8am Friday
Be careful man; thought I should post this:

What to Do During an Earthquake

http://www.fema.gov/hazard/earthquake/eq_during.shtm

What to Do After an Earthquake

http://www.fema.gov/hazard/earthquake/eq_after.shtm
Here is a stream of images from Japan: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=twitpic+near%3Ajapan+with...
Haha, if I remember correctly they sound them when they issue a warning, then they sound them again something like an hour before it will hit and then maybe again after that. It happens enough that it's well coordinated, usually there are police on Kalanianaole Highway making sure everyone heads up into the valleys up until about 15 minutes before it's supposed to hit.
Ask HN: Options to display weather info for world-wide locations?
http:getLocalNe.ws - our new site has individual pages for about 9,000 locations across some 240 countries world-wide. We wish to display current weather info (buttons) for as many of these locations as we can.

We've already implemented AccuWether's code for all US locations (which appears to be working fine) and they do have a coverage of around 150 countries. We're already exploring this as well as a couple of other options.

Can HNers with some experience on this suggest some alternatives that we could look at?

Thanks in advance.

ps. If you're up to it, please review and provide feedback on the site too:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2305689
And, conservatively, 98% of foreign news agency reporters. See also: a plane landing on the Hudson gets more coverage than half of Iowa being under water.
That's a moot point, because once it's free with lion, then it might as well be free by itself. Apple does nothing to prevent piracy of its dev tools.
Trampoline Springs - Trampoline Springs
Thoughts on trend for sites matching consumers with producers
This is an unfair question :-)
My plan was to release LinearML with a significant amount of non-trivial examples. The guys from "mirage" are working on a TCP stack based on LiML. I thought that would have been a really good app.
So, to answer your question. Right now, there isn't much. But the question is unfair because I am not the one who made this public anouncement ...
I didn't want to make the anouncement for 3 reasons: I just started a new job at Facebook last week, and wanted to focus on that; I wanted to release something relatively stable/fast; I wanted quite a few non-trivial examples to prove my point.
But I understand your skepticism. I would have certainly asked the same question :-)
Sure, many. It's a huge challenge. Not impossible. If we'd set it as goal, we could develop the technology and science as we go. I'm sure humanity is inventive enough. I mean, we did go to the moon with 60's technology...

But even thinking ahead more than 2 years seems impossible these days, everything is focused on the now and short-term profit. Anyway, rant over, it's nice to think big instead of small once in a while :)
I would have 1 page Legal Document saying "You agree to pay such and and such a 5%fee of the referred person's annual salary etc..." and make them accept that before you email the referral
Free Web Directory List - March 2011 | Directory Daily
Casual Wedding Gowns, Cheap Wedding Gowns, Wedding Dresses Blog
My employer makes me use a Mac, but that didn't stop me installing Linux on it.
Thanks, anyone else?
It kinda makes you think. If we delete all compilers in the world, there would be no easy way to make new compilers. It also means that your compiler on your PC can trace its heritage back to the first machine coed compiler ever written, like life itself evolving from one generation to the next.
The Complete Guide for Starting iPhone and iOS Development
You do have to change some keyboard accessibility settings, though, for the interface to be usable without a mouse (dialogs etc.). Out of the box, you can't use OS X with the keyboard alone.
Curious:
How did you get here? Do you have some relatives that sponsored you? Make sure that you CAN legally stay and work in the US before asking for money and starting business in here. If you don't have regulated status, you can always try to find company that will be willing to sponsor you through their H1B work permit program.
The product of yet another law that looks good on paper and achieves nothing.
Our start up will effectively change the future of Social Online Dating. We'll be taking the current outdated approach to Online Dating/Matchmaking and upgrading it to keep up with current social market trends.

We're currently developing Beta, feel free to take a look at our landing page and offer any feedback,

http://www.sowink.com
I would assume it's because that's the first option in the dropdown and people just change the year. I know I do that all the time whenever it's part of the signup process.
GitHub's pull requests work pretty nicely for code review.
Why would his post deserve being downvoted to hell without so much as a discussion? You and I may disagree with him, but he has a valid point and doesn't appear to be trolling.
Um, what about the possibility that Jan 1 is the default and 92% of people are too lazy to switch their real birthdate.
iPad 2 Order Form is Live
Force users to provide unnecessary data, get crap. The sad thing is that so many people still don't get it. And it's not just random people, it's those who are supposed to know better.

Regards,

bob@bob.com, aged 65-99, top executive position in steel industry, sole maker of all purchasing decisions, yearly budget 5mio-20mio USD.
Never had an iPad before...hope it's worth the wait!
> If you go around saying you're going to start the next Google, [...] most people are threatened by ambition: you seem to be trying to put yourself above them...

I've noticed a lot of push-back from people. It's very discouraging, especially when phrased as well-meaning and matter-of-fact.
I hope Ray Grieselhuber of Ginzametrics (YC) is OK - along with everyone else. I am pretty sure he is based around Tokyo. http://ginzametrics.com/ginzametrics-is-hiring-in-tokyo.html
Live Japanese feed: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/foxtokimekitonight
Dupe of a post on the front page: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2309317
I've been born on Jan 1 1970 on more sites than I can count. A different meaning of Zero-day!
50 crap articles get front-paged every single day and you choose the one about breaking news from a national disaster to start whining about what's right and wrong for HN? Sheesh.
we have even hired some outside help to determine what the causes are.

I think it's obvious that Gabe is being pretty sarcastic.
The vendor never has to "pay" any sales tax: they collect it (my initial wording was wrong).

It's the buyer who has to pay sales tax. Being French, if I buy anything anywhere in the world, I owe the French government 20% of the amount of that purchase; if I'm able to hide my purchase in my suitcase, then I'm evading taxes, but I'm certainly never exempt.

The crux of the matter is whether Amazon is an "out of state seller": is it? When an Illinois resident buys something from Amazon from the comfort of their own home in Illinois, they are not importing something from another state.

Amazon contends they are, though; they may have a case but I very much believe they will lose in the end.
The $10,000 per day was just a metaphor to not actually do things that you feel you don't deserve. Of course a lot of it has to fall in place before you are there to do that.

I mean for a man with no job and loads of skills he still needs to work for a while before he is able to claim that.

Also a good idea might be to have a constant fallback of some form. A safer job that gives enough time for freelance maybe?
I would like to think that HN had some compassion for their fellow users (HN has a lot of Tokyo based startups/hackers), not to mention humans in general.

In a scenario like this, who gives a fuck if it's off topic? And for the record, I saw the story here first, so I am thankful for that.
Time Magazine online posted links to Al Jazeera English streams. They had live reporting very soon after the earthquake.
Changing the barrier
Also, apparently 18,904,110 + 16,114,110 = 27,900,000 and not 35,018,210.
Is this serious article or belong to ONION category? Clicking the provided steam link in TFA will only show Steam app store main page.

I hope this is not a serious article. They seriously think people take their time to fill legit birthday dates online? 1st January is usually default. The thing people usually pick randomly is the year since the default is usually too young.
Guru meditation error
The nuclear power plants were automatically shut down, the power grid buckled at that point.
Wonder what you get from him for 2k eur per day
I think it's obvious you assume everyone knows Gabe's personality. I for one only heard his name in news. Never seen his picture, read his interviews, etc.
The article is a parody.
Not as relevant but I saw this video a while back:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j02b8Fuz73A&feature=relat...

It's interesting to see a young Steve Jobs perfecting his presentation style.
Sure, anything's free if you choose to pirate. I was just wondering if they'd make it free for people who don't upgrade to Lion straight away.
I think JM missed the point of Sebastien's use of the quote. From the original article:

"But like my freelancer friend wrote, or like Ms. Evangelista says – if you’ve got the chops, you set your own rates to a large extent. I’m not looking to pick up $80 per month at the expense of other things. More on this in a minute."

JM's entire post focuses on his use of the Linda Evangelista quote to illustrate a point about not cheapening your "product" or your "brand" unless it's really worth it. Maybe he didn't read the whole thing.

Sebastien's articles give me the shits and I think talk about winning, success, victory and individualism is counter productive but if you're going to criticise it at least get your facts straight.
OMG! This feels like 2012 (the movie). Seeing that tsunami is breathtaking. I sincerely hope lives aren't lost.
I should stay in bed with my 3,5k a month it seems

It's a good income for 24 year olds in Belgium, though. Most everyone I graduated with has 2k/month. I wouldn't know what to do with 2k a day like JM.