skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
But the solution cannot be to make it more "touchy-feely" and make everybody feel good.

Why? That certainly isn't the type of response that would cut it in mathematics, since it is just an assertion without even a hand-wave to support it.

Also, I'm not sure you really understand her argument. Her point isn't that we should to make math classes easier so that people feel good about math; her point is that students might be more interested in math class if it contained some mathematics.

The primary aim of math class up through calculus is to teach kids to perform the calculations needed to do physics, which is needed to do engineering, which is generally perceived (correctly I think) to be greatly beneficial to society. This is fine, but there is a huge chasm between this and the types of things that actual mathematicians study. (My brother once commented that if people had any idea what was actually going on in the math department, there is no way in hell they'd fund it).

The best counter to Vi's point, I think, is "why would we want to make kids appreciate pure math?" It's really fun and really interesting, and personally I would love for more people to get to experience math, but I'm sure the same could be said of classical music, or poetry, or knitting or pretty much anything else that people find stimulating. There may be some benefit to it, but I don't think that benefit has been quantified.

btw... sitting down and memorizing vocabulary is an awful way to go about learning a language. Communicating in a langauge every day, reading a ton and trying to think in that language are much more effective.
Ubuntu 11.04 Lets You 'Test Drive' Applications Without Installing
"we will frequently experiment by trying new things, adding new features"

I can't remember any features that were tested publicly and weren't kept. Can anyone help me out here?
Oddly, I agree with almost all of your comment, except the headline part about "startups". =]

I am also wary of all the general news creeping in (not least because I seem to find myself reading/participating in the discussions despite intentions). But the "good" content I come here for is from my perspective the technical articles, while I don't have a lot of interest in the startup-related stuff, except insofar as it sometimes also includes solid technical content.

I mean, in a sense I therefore am interested in startups, since a lot of technical innovation comes from there. But more Woz and less Jobs would be my reading preference.
iStockPhoto I wonder?
Y combinator application
Does Y combinator accept applications from foreign applicants with an idea
Strategic Investor?

Kind of odd to take $1M so soon after raising $8M.
They don't because the Android Market app itself is one of Google's closed applications.
That's awesome. Does it make you a better coder?
Valuation is also based on the prior investment to equity ratio. How much money is invested in X startup for 6% equity? That would certainly effect the pre on any term sheet, no?
I've only been on HN for a few weeks but I also was hoping for a good mobile app. I was using Flipboard on the iPad at first but I felt cut off without the comments.
+1, I agree.
I Saw This Coming All Along
You could download all your emails with pop or imap if you wanted. This has always been supported. It would have been nice to use WordPerfect but as you mention people wanted a conversion that retain the layout of the original .doc

When I can't even get a simple table from Office to WordPerfect to work properly what's the point (nothing fancy), where not talking excel formulas. If the document specs had been made available, you bet WordPerfect would have that implemented in no time. Word did have good support for WordPerfect files thus it was a one way street.
"We believe there are still significant benefits to increasing awareness of what’s happening outside the home timeline."

Significant benefits like increasing the adoption rate for third-party twitter clients, perhaps.

"Evidence of the incredibly high usage metrics for the QuickBar support this."

I tapped it once by accident while trying to swipe to see if I could delete it.

If twitter want to turn a spammy feature into a useful one, they need to start asking users about their interests, or else attempt to determine them algorithmically.
Usually I come here for the intellectual discourse on a variety of technology and business topics. All that went through my head, line after line, was "oh no he di-ent!"
Be able to write in sequential logic flow and have the underlying language+system automatically turning it into async calls is a huge win. This is like having the async benefit of Node.js without dealing with all the callbacks.
Trees cocooned in spiders webs after flooding
And GRAIL, to be launched September of this year, which will do the same thing for the interior of the Moon:

http://moon.mit.edu/
Maybe I should take up egg-sucking. I'm sure that there is a grandmother somewhere who hasn't learned how to do it.

You understand my concerns, and are better informed on this topic than I am. I'll watch what you do with interest, and wish you good luck.
Looks like there is a patch of substantially reduced gravity near Sri Lanka. I wonder if India has already taken this into account for the launch pads at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre.
More from Francis:
http://fhwang.net/2011/03/31/Play-by-Play

The Play-by-Play series asks a bunch of Ruby experts to solve specific problems while being screencasted and encouraged to talk with really fine-grained detail about how to be productive. It’s less about specific tools and theories, and more about how to incorporate everything into a specific flow that works well for you.
Wow so I could lose some weight just by traveling to... hmm, any desirable locations to visit?
I'm not sure what version of Redis you were using, but depending on the data you're storing, 2.2 uses significantly less space than previous versions.

Some data from GitHub: http://technoweenie-ruby-onales.heroku.com/#34
I mean non US-Citizens
Even basic fidelity was not possible due to some really complex issues (excel date format) which were not documented anywhere. Look at the PDF format, it's a very complex format that almost no one fully support, but the 95% of features people use are supported in a bunch of non-adobe viewers and creators. This only happened after adobe made the PDF spec open. And they still make a ton of money off Adobe Acrobat.
Yes but the regular deadline has passed. You can apply late I believe but chances of acceptance are much smaller.

You can alway apply late ad get going on your idea and if you are not accepted apply on time for the next cycle with development of your idea already under way.
Yes.

Although, you might need a bit more than an "idea".
Minnow Microsoft v the Google Giant (dot.Rory)
Sorry if I'm being unclear, but I simply have an issue with their conclusions (and the article title), particularly since their article doesn't support it.

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. An absence of evidence, plus noting the problem of the AV, is all that this article has.

The Ars Technica article [1] draws much better conclusions - "Samsung laptop keylogger almost certainly a false positive". It's a significantly more accurate conclusion than "Confirmed: Samsung is Not Shipping Keyloggers", given the data that we have at this point.

[1] http://arstechnica.com/hardware/news/2011/03/samsung-laptop-...
How To Start A Wine Festival
I can verify this is the case. I have Final Fantasy III on iPad, which is a native Retina display app for iPhone 4, and it only displays with iPhone 3GS graphics in pixel doubled mode.

This is unfortunate, and I think you're right. The iPhone 4 does have better graphics hardware than the iPad 1. It would be interesting to see if iPad 2 could overcome this limitation. Judging by the video I saw of an iPad 2 outputing 1080P to HDMI at 60 frames per second running Real Racing 2 HD, I would say that the iPad 2 has the graphics hardware to handle actually scaling a native iPhone 4 retina display app to it's own resolution.
Same story:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2374578

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2379419

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2382850

Several comments.
Me too.. I'm sort of the HN-rep for our group.. and yeah, it's good for me as a coder and for us as a group to keep in touch with what's happening in the tech world.
> Android is still much more open than Apple.

Is the goal to be open, or just more open than Apple? As I'm sure you know, they're not the same thing.
I guess it depends on whether they would know what it is you offer, and where to find you, would define if that was an issue or not. Choosing a name has advantages and always unexpected side effects. It doesn't always have to be negative though
I'm getting a tcp error now. It doesn't really matter. It would be much like rushing off to correct the entries in Uncyclopedia and Encyclopedia Dramatica, anyway.
That's actually a question I've had for a while.. Someone should start a poll ( I don't know how )
History Repeats Itself
@timmyd: But there is innovation in the search space, some companies are making efforts to have features google doesn't have currently. Duck Duck Go, wolframalpha... I wouldn't say any of those doesn't have a chance to become big.
I disagree. If you look at the comments left on Vi Hart's YouTube videos, it's clear that there are many, many people who only realize that math can be interesting after watching her videos. http://www.youtube.com/user/Vihart
I keep stale forks around mostly to game the language high-score board: https://github.com/languages/Emacs%20Lisp

Go elisp! You can do it!
Can the submission be a webapp running locally? Thanks!
Agreed, the fragmentation might be caused by the semi-quality of apps and looks. But the mess that the hardware makers are forcing upon arent that much better at the moment.

I've been amazed each time i've put on cyanogenmod to replace the default android that comes with the phone with how much more useful it gets. Smoother, better working and less lag.

I would love to see htc(or any other hardware maker) ship their phones with a cyanogenmodversion that will track cyanogenmods updates. That might even save them some work.
Good idea. Better idea - YC news from the console:

http://www.catonmat.net/blog/follow-hacker-news-from-the-con...

And, for old timers, there's always lynx.
It's still happening with non smart-phones. I had t-mobile and was able to file transfer easily between phones. Verizon purposely locks this functionality out. Bullshit.
> Android is still much more open than Apple.

Instead of being an open platform, we're apparently devolving into specifying particular degrees of openness. If you want to play that game, the Darwin operating system that provides the foundation of iOS is also open source, and it doesn't require a license to use or approval from Apple over modifications.

> A developer can actually view the Android source code

No, Google is withholding Honeycomb's source code for the indefinite future--unless you're lucky enough to be one of Google's privileged partners.

Your post is another example of the justifications we often see from Android supporters for behaviors that Apple has been criticized for in the past, such as withholding source code and holding final approval over third-party development. Google declared pretty loudly that Android exists to prevent a "draconian future" of strict control. However, Google is now exerting aspects of that control.
I think the content on HN has continued to follow the general guidelines set out here: http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html which makes me think we're doing ok.

"If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity."
Hah, hilarious. I'm outside of the US and it 403's me too. When I proxy via the US, it's fine. Guess they don't want evildoers from those atheist countries getting this information.
69696, seriously?
This is probably for the sector of HN that hasn't quite gotten their yet.
This is basically like how students don't read the textbook, only the textbook is a video.
> that strikes me as a waste of Github's disk space...

Oh, and forks don't take up much disk space since they share structure with the original repository. If the changes have been merged to the mainline, then the marginal cost of your fork is close to nil; probably just a few rows in the database.
I plus 1'd this just for the Whale Wars reference
node.js looks really sexy, can't wait to become stable enough for a productive system.
From the FAQ's (http://ycombinator.com/faq.html)

Do we have to start a company in the US for you to invest in us?

Yes, but that's usually not a problem. It's easy for foreign nationals to start US companies (much easier than remaining here physically), and investors and acquirers prefer them.

Do we have to be US citizens?

No, as long as you can get here for at least three months. We've funded many startups founded by non-citizens.

Can you get us visas?

No, sorry, we don't do that. You'll have to figure out visas for yourself. If you know people from previous YC-funded companies who came from outside the US, we suggest you ask them for advice. They understand the options better than we do.
Could Tumblr be the next Facebook?
I hadn't heard the term heisenbug! Here's a link for anybody else who may not know the term (and others of that sort): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unusual_software_bug
Hive - A Warehousing Solution Over a Map-Reduce Framework
I'd go with round.
true, will add this by today or tomorrow
Well,

As far I can tell, it would be easier to add layers of indexes, data control, schema control, transactions and so-forth on top of something like Tokyo DB than it would be to take apart a SQL database.
My guess is that the material is really trivial, and they're just trying to protect the composition so they can get a lead to market. Once it's on the market, I bet it'll be cracked open within days, and cloned fast.

My guess? The phase change material could be as simple as beeswax. (Melting point of 62-64 C, very close to the melting point they specify.) They'd want to optimize for heat capacity, but there are plenty of natural and safe materials in the ballpark.
Preferential voting systems? You mean like people voting on whether you or lwhi gave the better answer to my comment?
The judge is a she.
Wait until June for a fix? Throttled WoW player wants ISP fined
Thanks. That's somewhat disappointing, I guess.
> ... having the self control to work rather than browsing.

Yes. I use Google Chrome and I use the StayFocusd App thingy as a bit of a crutch ( https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/laankejkbhbdhmipfm... ).

It keeps a timer of flagged sites you browse (HN) and when your time is up, you can't browse ANY flagged sites.

For me, it makes taking 5 to 10 minute breaks fun and valuable. Trying to spread an hour of browsing time across 8-10 hours is a great challenge.
I really enjoyed this, its an excellent UX pun. If you could use enough javascript to make it look like an emacs buffer some pointy haired types would be hard pressed to discern between this and actual work.

That being said, if you are truly into employee surveillance (and I know of at least one company that is) then what the screen shows is irrelevant since the http{s} traffic between your work station and the world is just as clear without having to 'walk around and look into your cube.'

Total kudos to the skinning though, I really enjoyed it.
This is probably aimed at the subset of HN readers that haven't quite made it yet.
I think the most annoying thing about Gruber is that he mixes fantastic insights with near-propaganda. He's also got a razor-honed voice.

Generally I tend to pay close attention to him when he writes about Apple products, eco-system, and culture, and ignore him when he writes about anything else, especially Google or Android.
GoDaddy CEO Shoots An Elephant, Generates Social Media Backlash #BYEBYEGD
I guess my recent post http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2391491 opening one more category is what prompted you to post this?
Ask HN: What's the next step learning Clojure?
I have been enjoying learning Clojure but have come up against a wall of too many choices.

So far I have read several of the "introduction to clojure" websites and worked through most of the first page of Project Euler puzzles on the first page. I've read the unfinished SICP in clojure: (http://sicpinclojure.com/?q=sicp/5-1-1-language-describing-register-machines) and through half of the unfinished ebook of "The Joy of Clojure" (dead tree version just shipped :) )

What I would like to do now is to try writing some kind of web app. But here I am intimidated. I am not a Java programmer and many of the "getting started with clojure" articles I have found loose me by assuming I know how to set up Java webapps.

Also, should I use Google App Engine? Some other framework/hosting? I guess I am probably fairly unique in that I want to learn about making webapps through clojure rather than knowing about webapps and trying to apply the lens of clojure to that knowledge. I am excited to learn about tools or frameworks or even other languages that would complement clojure web development, but I feel like I don't know what I don't know, and don't know what I should be reading about and experimenting with.

Thanks in advance!
http://bricestacey.com/hn.PNG
Good on them for admitting wrong on this and backing down. Blindly forging ahead when it was universally hated was never going to do them any favours. Many a good blog post has been written about what they could do to make it better, hopefully some of that feedback will find its way into whatever they do next.
As an end user, I'd appreciate a closed and controlled operating ystem like iOS or Windows Phone 7. But as a developer or hacker I don't understand Google's hypocricy here. By Rubi's own definition of what is open,

the definition of open: “mkdir android ; cd android ; repo init -u git://android.git.kernel.org/platform/manifest.git ; repo sync ; make”

anybody should be able to do anything with the source of Android. How are current moves justified given this definition?

It's plain and simple, if people don't like the crappy modifications that carriers or other make to Android they just won't buy the devices. Why can't Google let us decide as users. Why are they deciding for us that the fragmentation is bad? Why??
I was tickled by,

The Court reproduces the whole of Plaintiff’s e-mail so that the ensuing discussion of originality and fair use is not hopelessly abstract. The Court’s “unauthorized reproduction” of Plaintiff’s copyrighted work is, as Judge Posner has succinctly put it, “a good example of the fair-use doctrine in action.”

And it's not this judge's words, but this judge had the good humor to cite this,

See Mackie v. Rieser, 296 F.3d 909, 917 (9th Cir. 2002)(holding that a plaintiff’s subjective view about the harm from copyright infringement,“which really boils down to ‘hurt feelings’ over the nature of the infringement, has no place in [the damages] calculus”)
Tesla sues Top Gear for libel re Roadster review
I like/appreciate your reply a lot (except the first line ;) and would comment more in response if I didn't have to run just now.

But let me at least thank you for this: "The primary aim of math class up through calculus is to teach kids to perform the calculations needed to do physics, which is needed to do engineering, which is generally perceived (correctly I think) to be greatly beneficial to society."

This is the best summary I have yet seen about why math is taught the way it is (in high-school, not in university) -- and by extension why many people, incl. myself, feel or felt uncomfortable with math up to high-school.
But you can do that. SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL SERIALIZABLE (or REPEATABLE READ) in the sessions doing your financial transactions, and in the sessions doing your chat message set READ UNCOMMITTED (and AUTOCOMMIT ON if you fancy). Easy. This feature has been around at least since the 90s in Sybase and its descendants.
Sexually Transmitted Infections – What Is Chlamydia?
Also "Mass" as in "the world's largest" (play on words I guess). Funny though, maybe someone should start a LeanChallenge based on Eric Ries' methodology.
Interesting to see Boston.com, BU, Children's, Harvard medical and a bunch of people using Django because of the availability of Python devs.
This seems to be a great example of one of the challenges with iOS apps: you can't do a limited roll-out of new features.

If Twitter could have deployed the bar to a hundred or so real users, I think they would have quickly found that people mostly hated it.

I believe you're allowed to distribute test versions of your app to 6-ish handsets for testing, but I'm sure this barely covers the internal folks at Twitter. It'd be nice if they'd had the option to do some more thorough early testing. (Whether they would have done so, or would have listened to the results is outside my point).
Funny, but my boss is also a hacker and now recognizes this =(
The iPad can zoom in and out so quickly, it becomes a far better solution to have a constant 'brush size', but use zooming to effect the difference between fine and broad strokes on an image [1].

Several of the photo manipulation apps on the iPad already do this and it's far superior to selecting brush widths, to say nothing of obviating the precision problem [2].

In short, the screen size of the iPad is more a roadblock to its being a replacement for desktop photoshop. Though its portability, comfort and the ability to focus would be a huge advantage for anything in the sketch/draft/mockup stages of work.

And the lack of (true) pressure sensitivity makes the iPad a non-starter as a wacom-replacement. I suspect this could be solved by a bluetooth stylus. But the iPad alone is simply insufficient for many wacom tablet uses.

[1] e.g. the 'brush' always applies the selected effect to the area of the image under your finger. If you wanted more fine-grain accuracy, you zoom the entire image, so that the number of image pixels covered by your finger is reduced.

[2] Which, at a fixed resolution, absolutely was and is a problem.
add a list as well...not easy to see everything on the map...maybe like a list you can maximize on one side where you can see a short description of the event for you to see if it grabs your attention!

-neel
devunlimited.com
When reading this, be aware it is a ruling on a motion by the defendant for a summary judgement. Informally, the defendant is essentially saying "even if every fact the plaintiff claims is true, he has no case".

That's why the court says this: "In setting forth the facts underlying this dispute, the Court draws exclusively from Plaintiff’s version of events, resolving all disputed facts in Plaintiff’s favor and assuming without deciding that Defendants’ evidentiary objections are to be overruled". If one misses that it is a summary judgement motion, it might look like the court is unfairly favoring plaintiff.

Edit: also note that the $750 fee the plaintiff paid to register his copyright is not normal. Copyright registration is normally $35 dollars. That's what you would pay as a US author, registering your work before publication so that you can recover damages from US infringers. (Foreign authors do not have to register to recover damages from US infringers in US courts, which is why this registration requirement does not violate US obligations under the Berne Convention).

The only $750 registration I see on the copyright office's fee schedule is for registration with expedited processing. That generally means plaintiff fucked up. :-)
Well, it is memorable.
now working for me!

for some reason it's pushing to http://ec2-50-18-7-165.us-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com:8081/ and not nowjs.com
I Bought a CD, not a Licensing Agreement