skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
information gathering and management by the government is a big deal for journalists, people who interact with the government, and ultimately tax payers

I think you're getting into a long-deplored mailing-list tendency for people to ascribe general attributes to their community based on personal preference. "I like ice-cream, lots of other people probably like ice cream, so it's a good post for HN." Journalistic feature-creep, if you will.

My point being that yes, we are all tax-payers more or less, but that doesn't mean everything paid for with tax revenues is germane. Syllogistic posting rationales tend to cast a wider and wider umbrella, sometimes venturing into the realm of slippery slopes.

EDIT: fixed quote-italics
Any serious entrepreneur should care about the money, every penny even, which is why MassChallenge offers no equity taken.

For a $199 entry fee (which is automatically reimbursed to the entrepreneur upon securing a few endorsements that help to validate that crazy idea of yours), an entrepreneur gets access to a growing network of top attorneys, investors, mentors and industry leading, seasoned entrepreneurs. Not a bad deal, BUT, it is up to the entrepreneur to make the most of this value by being proactive and engaged.

Just to be clear, MassChallenge had a YCombinator startup - embedly - make it to the finals in 2010, so you can apply to both..
Apparently not: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutonium#Toxicity only describes radiation poisoning.
Is it easier to breach University security system versus other organizations?
What does everyone think?
Are tax revenues being used to subsidize the lower price? I honestly don't know. You seem to suggest that they are, but you don't offer any data to back it up.
In my ideal world I wouldn't need to futz with "e-signatures" or any sort of visual representation of my signature. I fail to see what's wrong with standard public key encryption - why can't I sign a document the same way I sign an email - with my keypair.

When it came time to renew my lease for my St. Louis apartment, but I was still in San Francsico, I had to do exactly what is described in this article. Sign a blank paper, photograph my signature, paste the photo into the PDF on the signature line, and send it back via eFax. How dumb is that? Its not secure in any way, and there's absolutely ZERO proof that it came from me. On the other hand if I sign it with my private key, there may not be a pretty handwritten copy of my name on the line - but there's fairly strong proof that I am the one that actually submitted the form.

Maybe there needs to be a fancy GUI on top of all of it that somehow links PGP signatures to images of handwritten signatures to satisfy people that are fixated on them, but to me, electronically signing documents with an honest-to-god handwritten signature is something that needs to die: yesterday.
Facts about 3G/4G networks http://www.pcmag.com/print_article2/0,1217,a=251336,00.asp?h...
Given US law enforcement's use of surveillance on individuals with certain foreign ties, in order to faithfully replicate this it might require someone named "Mohamed" unfortunately.
My Failed Startup (or How I Nearly Become a 3D Animator)
We would all honestly love to know why?
I don't think his assertion was that he couldn't, but that he didn't know who would be there.

The first part of your post was very informative, but I downvoted you for the snark. If it wasn't intended the way I read it, please accept my apologies.
I'm a founder of a (now) VC backed Boston startup who participated in MassChallenge. My team though it would be worth the time to pitch and get some no-strings cash in the bank. Even paying for our $5k/month office would have been awesome.

We made it to the first round (got enough votes online and whatnot). The tough part is you can get stuck with judges completely out of your industry that are clueless. Our judges were 2 lawyers and someone with a similar idea to ours ten years ago who thought his was superior. We didn't make it to the second round. I hope this year they make some changes based on everyone's feedback.

A couple friends of mine won $50K from this competition. Important to note that it's not $1M awarded to one person/team, it's split however the judges/board like.
I would downvote you if I could.

Alcohol is plenty cheap -- use that as your model for what happens when a cheap and potentially addictive drug is available in society.
Might be a nice idea to buy communities like github, photo.net and import user identities from there. Of course the privacy and the UX of such a move will dictate whether users go "wow this is great" or "oh my god now the whole internet knows about my tinfoil hat". In the meanwhile they could try to integrate identities from services that google already owns - youtube, picasa, google reader etc.
Maybe I'm missing something, but what benefit do I get as a user out of +1-ing something?
HN already shortens URLs.
Yes, and I can agree somewhat with the reasoning behind it. Instead of chasing the end users, they are focusing their resources on the dealers and smugglers. Similar programs have been tested in Great britain in some select cities where known heroin users get free heroin and fresh needles.
That's kinda mind blowing.

Use of such a laptop in the UK would appear to contravene the Computer Misuse Act (on at least a count of unauthorised computer access), if you have a Samsung with this software I suggest you hire a good lawyer and shop around for investment opportunities for your payout.

What are the chances that Samsung have also breached government secrets acts with this in several countries!?
Previous discussions: http://searchyc.com/submissions/skype+5?sort=by_date
What minimalist really means
> It strikes me as kind of strange that some newspapers have absolutely no problem citing tweets as sources of information

That disease struck CNN extremely hard. It is not a news organization anymore - it just aggregates second and third hand hearsay from twitter. (Al Jazeera or Sky news tends to be better...)
To jumpstart user identities in googles take on social google could buy communities like github, photo.net and import user identities from there. Of course the privacy and the UX of such a move will dictate whether users go "wow this is great" or "oh my god now the whole internet knows about my tinfoil hat". In the meanwhile they could try to integrate identities from services that google already owns - youtube, picasa, google reader etc.
If this will be the final product of "+1", I'd agree with you that it probably won't take off.

Google, however, has been taking it methodically slow on social (and geo-location too). This is probably just a small piece of what they envision it to be. This is in contrast to the big, complicated launch of Google Wave.

I'm holding my judgement for now. I'm excited to see what Google comes up with next.
My understanding of face is, you first have to understand that East Asians are often terrible verbal communicators. Americans say that "actions speak louder than words", but in Japan they mean it (even if they don't say it).

I think that if you tell them that rescue teams (or nuclear scientists) are en-route, it's wouldn't be seen as piss-poor communication on your behalf, but a unconditional act of friendship. Asking them if they want help will most likely get a "no".

I think you may also need to have already made connections with the right people.
Even then you would not get the first baby for at least 9 months. After that you would get one baby every month circa, but just as with most software development situations you can't speed up the first baby growth by throwing more people at it.
I'm not talking about just iTunes and Skype, though. I can think of several consumer programs that have become more bloated with worse UIs over time- AIM, Ad-Aware, Windows Media Player, Firefox...

It seems rather inevitable.
"And as soon as people realize that it’s possible to sign a document without printing it out first, they’ll abandon their fax machines. The only question is which software or service they’ll use instead."

What question is this? Of course they use government issued ID-card and sign documents digitally using free, government backed, official (and open-source) software for that. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estonian_ID_card
Too bad the +hn only works on Google hosted emails...
Android Application Firewall
Neither standard of living or luxury have anything to do with power consumption.
When You Shouldn't Make a Video
"# Human society has demonstrated no stability, sociologically, technologically, nor otherwise, approaching even vaguely the time frames required to safely utilize this technology."

This is the key observation, imo, addressing this issue and a broad set of other hot and timely topics, most fundamentally 'globalization' and the utopian yearning for a unified planetary governance (being quite generous and assuming idealism is mixed with the obvious hunger for global power among the promoters and actors).

Many things make sense on paper. Applying them to human society, at its current level of progress, is not a given and we need to exercise caution.

The main issue with nuclear technology is that it is not fail-safe. That by itself is not an indictment (as many have pointed out nearly everything we rely on is not fail-safe). So clearly we need to focus on recovery from catastrophe as an input to our decision making process. An airplane may indeed crash and kill N human beings. But it is a relatively scoped and finite event. People, generally, do not continue to die because an airplane crashed x years ago in their vicinity. Ditto trains, cars, etc.

Nuclear technology disfigures nature as we know it. That is the key issue. This disfigurement is non-reversible (per our technological reach). This lack of room from recovery from error, regardless of the probabilities involved, is what is fundamentally "evil" about nuclear technology as practiced by the human species as of now.
You started me thinking about ways to normalize average karma, but I haven't come up with one that makes me happy yet:

- adjusting to other comments on the same post doesn't account for timing

- adjusting for time after the post is gameable by necromancers

- adjusting by the total karma of the post commented on is incomplete; it also needs some relation to the time lapse from posting to comment

- penalizing short comments might help discourage snarky one-liners

Are there browser plugins to give an adjusted average karma score this way, yet?
...and thinking you can build a billion dollar web app or online platform without engaging a single outsider is straight narcissism.
Future Gadgets will be Powered with Human Body Movements, No Batteries,nothing
I have to agree with too stealth. You are trying to generate interest by getting people to think. The problem is that most web surfers don't want to think. And you have to realize that the people on this forum from whom you are asking advice generally like to think and solve puzzles. I'd suggest getting some feedback via feedbackroulette.com to help round out your survey.
Well, that certainly elucidates your point of view: thank you.

But although the system never makes posts inaccessible (to do so would, I'm sure, elicit complaints of "censorship"), it does, if you're using a normally configured browser, grey out negative-voted comments so that they require deliberate effort to read (by -4, you need to highlight them with the mouse). It moves lower-voted posts down the page: even if you have time to read every post, which many people don't, you probably lose focus and pay less attention by the time you get down there. And it reduces the karma of people who make downvoted posts, which some people probably care about (e.g. because they lose/don't get the ability to downvote) and some people probably don't, but which is clearly intended as discouragement.

I think it's clear that the system is designed with the assumption that posts that get downvoted are posts that it intends to discourage. (And I think it's agreed for purposes of this discussion that spam and useless comments are deserving of discouragement in a way that comments one happens to disagree with are not.)
This is where I was leading with my original question. If the IMs are contested, what happens then? Do we go to the ISP? What if the session is encrypted? Do we go to the IM service provider? Ultimately, the burden of proof should be on CX to actually prove those are the IMs, right? Would CX have the ability to request logs from a provider anyway, since this is a civil case?

I think it's important to know the answers to these questions because anyone can show up in court one day claiming to have incriminating IM chats for XYZ - so the question is how to prove it's false, or what happens if they are false.
You should consider the powerful messaging features in Redis if you want fast IPC. Here's an article with an example using my C# Redis Client:
https://github.com/ServiceStack/ServiceStack.Redis/wiki/Redi...
That doesn't contradict what tptacek said, though. You may be an employee, though probationary, for 90 days, but the company should still compensate you at a higher rate for those 90 days to reflect the risk you're taking.
To add to this hypocrisy systemd doesn't allow /usr to be on a separate partition.
You can link right to it: http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.redhat.fedora.devel/146...
Also, amusing reader comment from the article, highlighting an interviewee's remark: "the average high schooler has texted 1200 times from the time they get out of bed to when they hit school at 7:30 in the morning."

I imagine this figure off by only a single order of magnitude.
You are missing my point, and that could very well by my fault in not explaining it properly.

Why should an end user, who could use multiple platforms, need to understand two different layouts for the same program. This has nothing to do with different vendors, but the fact that a company needs to invest serious time in to developing a UI that is intuitive in all platforms they are targeting. The user experience should be well thought out so that it is a great application that takes advantage of the operating system interfaces that they are working with. If that user experience is lacking then someone dropped the ball - which is a burden for end users, IT folks and so forth.
Change your copy to “Log In” and “Sign up Now”. Make the links stand out more.

Lending Kindle books is non-obvious. Make an FAQ or a walkthrough. Make the copy something like this: “Don't know how to lend or borrow books on your Kindle? Find out“ The “Find out” part should be a button. Then once you're done with your explanation, make another call to action, “Get started today!”

Get people engaged with your content on the front page. Look at Amazon's book section. They don't just start off by just listing books #1 to a billion. Put in some lists or categories, like top 10 books. Spotlight some popular books on the front page.

Replace the “Find” link with "Browse" or "Explore", and make it stand out more. Put a search bar on every page.

Put more decision-making information in the rows. Import the star ratings, user reviews, and some content information from Amazon.
Terribly sorry but I have accepted a job offer. I do appreciate the opportunity to talk to you guys though. Good luck finding someone!
And starting in 2012 the Royals could be on the rise. Their wave of prospects is just starting to arrive. Fast internet and competitive baseball.
Ask HN: What results do you expect from Facebook or Google ads?
How much should I be paying for customer acquisition via facebook/google ads? What has been your experience with facebook vs google ads? Facebook approved my ad very quickly (within an hour?) and Im getting about a .045% click through rate at a cost of about $1/click. About 20% of the click throughs are registering. Still waiting for google to approve-- they are slow! 1) What kinds of conversions do you normally expect?
2) What is the cost of acquisition that I should expect? There is a quora thread which suggest $5-$6 and that under $10 is good.
A nice interface suggestion just came up on Techcrunch: http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/30/skype-5
Cynically: Madden NFL 11, Madden NFL 12, etc.etc.etc.

Optimistically: Chrome and Firefox's multi-tier, rolling-release plans.
Thank you for being so kind while the market is still open. I am researching DMA now. If I have questions its great to know that I can get some guidance from you.
"yet air travel remains one of the safest forms of transportation available"

Doesn't that depend on how you measure it, like accidents per miles or accidents per hours? Even if it would be safest by miles, I don't think it would follow that the safest way to get to work every morning would be by plane. It only works because airplanes go long distances, and accidents most frequently happen during starting or landing. In short, the comparison is not even very useful.

The question is also do we have to fly so much/do we need so much energy. If there were no airplanes, would people just travel the same distances by car? I doubt it.
Announcement on the official Google blog: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/1s-right-recommendati...
Fun to play with, but I've got to disagree with an Alaskan Malamute as "Decent" protection alongside a Collie or Dalmatian. My 52kg male is frankly terrifying and would tear chunks off an intruder!
sorry my title was too long and then HN apparently inserted all the HTML tags.
Yea, if it ever launches.
I lived in KCK much more recently -- ~2007ish. The new developments out by the race track and Legends (where I lived) are really nice, and I'm sure that's the main area Google is considering. The suburbs out there (one of which, Olathe, is my hometown) are also really nice, and a great place for this kind of effort. I'm sure that played a part in the decision.

Pre-emptive edit: When I mention the suburbs, I understand that they won't be included initially, but with the network nearby it should be eas(y|ier) to expand into those areas. ;)
April +1
> All that said, while I dont expect this to take off, I do expect to see a "+1 THIS!" button next to the "tweet this!"/"digg this!"/"reddit this!" button on every blogspam post out there.

Agreeing with you here, not to mention I would typically +1 something after clicking on the link and reading it. This current UX has me either knowing something is worthy of a +1 before reading it or reading it, pressing the back button, then clicking the +1. A +1 THIS next to tweet/digg/like makes sense.
Meet +1: Google’s Answer To The Facebook Like Button
Adding constraints is not the same as profiting off of your work. The two concepts are not joined.

Being in Boston doesn't do anything for them directly. Their indirect hope is that it will compel you to fall in love with the city, and perhaps increase the local economy there, but they don't get anything out of that, and it isn't a requirement.
I did a little bit of the Rails for Zombies tutorial--knowing I was not ready for it. I got stuck pretty early. tryruby.org was much easier, but I did not finish because I had troubles with the site. I'll try it again.

After all this input, I am leaning toward Python, but am still researching and gathering info. Both opinions from friends and I will try a few tutorials as you suggest. Thanks for your help!
This might sound dumb, but it's not really obvious how I add people I know to my google profile as a "friend". With facebook, it's dead simple and it makes sense why you would do that.

I assume I have to connect an account here: https://profiles.google.com/connectedaccounts

But then don't my friends have to do that as well? I don't really see why they would.
Almost without exception, local governments are corrupt on this matter. Federal and state law create the conditions for franchise quasi-monopolies, and as a result it is pay-to-play at the local level. The system used to be explicit monopolies (according to federal law) but there's a little more room for competition today, but the legacy monopoly system is in place. There are all sorts of kickbacks, taxes, free government channels, etc. you have to pay to get a cable franchise-- Verizon has spent billions on lawyers and "consultants" just to get local franchises for fios, let alone the cost of actually getting permits to lay fiber, which is a whole other local bureaucratic nightmare.

There has been some movement at the state level to create state-wide cable franchises, allowing business to ignore locals. There's also the idea of a national franchise. Really it is insane to me that we require this business to be licensed at all. Newspapers don't need licenses, why should internet providers? You should have to get permits to lay cable, but not to be a provider.

Interestingly, while Congress allows the cable operators to run wild over local communities, there is a strong federal preemption for satellite tv-- the locals have no say in it, and federal law even creates a federal right to have a dish on any residence (a lot of local governments tried to zone dishes out of existence to protect their cable buddies).
Also, Siberian Husky is marked as "Badass" protection. Are you sure you don't have these the wrong way round? :)
Skype 2.8 UI was messy, with windows popping up everywhere and sidebars going crazy.
Skype 5 is just perfect, and in all honesty can't find anything wrong with it a part of the chat while calling thing.
Flickr Dips Its Toes Into Social
Sweeeeet
Google: Introducing the +1 Button
Can I opt-out of the social part but still allow my results to be used anonymously in their ranking algorithm?
Is there something like AWS for automated trading? Located extremely close to the exchanges and offering specialized hardware like this?
Music on the Cloud. Here we go again
And nearby Sprint HQ, as mentioned in the other HN post about this.
over engineering to solve what problem?
I agree 1000% that people compartmentalize based on functionality, which is why Google shouldn't be afraid of Facebook on search (that and Facebook not having search and search being difficult).
'+1' proves that Google is run by engineers.

I, for one, prefer it to 'Like' or 'Tweet'.
Really exciting for a KC native like myself, even though I'm far away now. We've been considering a move back in that direction and this only makes it that much more likely. :D
Jason Rehmus built http://37signalsneedsanotherjason.com/ nine months ago, and guess what, in last August he got hired at 37signals: http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2497-jason-rehmus-joins-37sig...

Congrats!
Interesting. I hit the HN top 10 on friday, (highest rank was #5) and traffic continued on twitter (even to this day) so I can't say what the total outcome was. Because of the broader appeal of my post, I'm still seeing ongoing RT's on twitter that are driving significant traffic. Here's a snapshot of my stats so far, which doesn't (of course) include today's traffic, which is continuing at a slightly lower rate than the prior 5 days.

http://i.imgur.com/PjULs.png
There is still no way to turn off birthday notifications on Mac OS X. That is, any time it is any one of your contact's birthdays, Skype sends you a mandatory message about it which requires user action to dismiss.
Links? I'd definitely be interested in this seeing as how I just bought a Lenovo and want to wipe it.