skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Ask HN: What percentage of pre-launch/beta users register on full launch?
I think it can be safely assumed that not all people who pre-register would respond when a full launch is announced.

Can those with relevant experience share the percentages?

Also, I think it would be interesting to discuss the possible causes of drop-outs and various factors affecting this. e.g. the longer the period between pre-reg and launch, the higher the percentage of drop-outs; the more useful/valuable the service, the lower the percentage of drop-outs etc.

Please share what you can.
Further into the comments, it is acknowledged that HTML + CSS is, in fact, not Turing Complete and that the original premise was incorrect.

I want to also add that HTML lacks a fundamental feature of programming languages: means of abstraction. Fortunately, modern software allows us to not have to program directly in HTML and CSS and can abstract the ugly away, programming in languages that are more maintainable than raw HTML. But we have had that for decades; I do not understand the need to legitimize HTML "programming". It might be a misunderstanding of what is actually producing the HTML data.
One reassuring datapoint: renowned eco-cheerleader Geroge Monbiot has a piece thats garnering huge attention at the Guardian entitled "Why Fukushima made me stop worrying and love nuclear power"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/21/pro-nucl...

He even links the xkcd diagram.
Why is Hacker News becoming more and more Apple News?

//I don't care about the downvotes, this needs to be said.
Demand Al Jazeera in the US
Try a different setup. Which variant of VIM where you using on Windows ?

I need to use Windows at work but I am using VIM for my daily development needs.

I use Msysgit+Console 2 to get a tabbed shell and use VIM from inside it. I probably used Cygwin to install ctags. I also have gVim but don't use it (one of the reasons -- I don't like the font and haven't found out yet how to change it).

I had to play a little bit until I got my setup working. It is not perfect (mouse scroll does not work inside my shell VIM). But it satisfies me.
How long is a piece of string?

The retention rate of beta users is going to vary on such a large number of factors (some of which you mention) as to render comparison futile.
The Akshell engine will be open sourced soon, it will eliminate the problem of vendor lock-in. We strongly believe that web-based development environment are the future; so we'll improve our IDE and add more advanced features to it to provide cool experience.
Apple iPhone costs about $900 in India which is ridiculosly high than its American price.
I actually disagree with the author's point about the "main story". The main story for me, and I'd wager for some of the other people on this board too, is the story of the engineers who are still working to keep Fukushima under some semblance of control. I really want to hear their story.

The critical piece of info I wanted to know that was missing from the XKCD chart is where do the engineers working on Fukushima fall on his chart, and what will be the impact on their lives.

I'm not a nuclear expert at all, and don't pretend to be - I'm a web developer, but I still want to know if they could already be falling ill due to radiation poisoning. To me, their story is the one that's the most compelling and scary.
Or Mrk Twn as he would be called today.
Yeah, consider this from another post from Chris in 2010:

Entrepreneurs should always ask themselves “why will I succeed where others failed?” If the answer is simply “I’m doing it right” or “I’m smarter,” you are probably underestimating your antecedents, which were probably run by competent or even great entrepreneurs who did everything possible to succeed. Instead your answer should include an explanation about why the timing is right – about some fundamental changes in the world that enable the idea you are pursuing to finally succeed.

http://cdixon.org/2010/11/07/timing-your-startup/

Here Chris argues that even if he is able to recognize brilliance in advance, he wouldn't necessarily bet on them because of other external factors. So has he changed his mind in the last 5 months?

The more I read about startups, the more I feel like ignoring all advice and jfdi.
I'd be willing to give actual money to an organization that a) actually understood what they were reporting and b) reported facts rather than PR, hyperbole and human interest angles

The New York Times would be happy to take that money off your hands. For all of their failings, I'd argue that they generally meet both of your criteria.
"Hacked News"? HTML as a programming language?

You must be new here :-) Anyway... you'll grow up. Like most of us did.

The data from the report was interesting. One more unanswered question: how many of the people don't use an IDE or use only an IDE?
So, this competitor of google's own app store might be the best thing that happened to android platform.
Writing Efficient CSS: Understand Your Selectors
I'd guess because they're a tech company that affects a very large majority of us?
Vinny Vacanti (Part II) on "Traction is King", learning to code, and more
One more reason not to use Apple products in India...
We need more government regulation to stop...government regulation?
I'm trying not to sound like a troll here but: why are you comfortable buying DRM time-bombs in fragile plastic form? I think Apple or Amazon's DRM servers are equally likely to be viable 10 years from now.
The Reliance iStore (which is a "premium reseller" of Apple products and what most Indians think is an Apple store) was selling me a non-unibody Mac in mid-2010 in Chennai (a fairly large city of approximately 4.6 million people). I didn't bother to check what rev it actually was, but it certainly left a bad taste in my mouth about Apple.

The iStore website: http://www.istoreindia.com/index.html

(edit: I must add that they don't have the machine online, I was just linking to the iStore website)
Haha, my bad, typo (fixed!). Yes, I am new here. Will do some "analysis" in few days. Will keep you guys posted!

Regarding HTML, well the survey is about what editors/ide do you use, not about skill set.
the media in german speaking countries went full retard of fukushima

I can confirm this for Austria. The country has always had a somewhat schizophrenic relationship with nuclear energy[1], and the media (even supposedly reputable papers like Die Presse) have gone into multi-page "OMG second Chernobyl" hysteria mode. I sampled some articles - the amount of factual errors is staggering. I've stopped reading any local news media as a result; I have to assume I'm being fed propaganda the rest of the time, too.

[1] There is one nuclear power plant in the country. It never went into operation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zwentendorf_Nuclear_Power_Plant
There is however, an operational research reactor. Anti-nuclear-energy-sentiment is widespread (large majority); the fact that the energy imported from neighbouring countries is largely generated by nuclear plants is conveniently ignored; in fact, there are longstanding campaigns to pressure the neighbouring countries to shut their plants down. I also find it amusing that the IAEA is headquartered here.
JSConsole Remote Debugging and JSBin Live Preview
On my device (Motorola Droid), you need to first enable unsigned applications in the system menu. Amazon guides you through this process very well on their website, but still, I suspect that a lot of nontechnical folks will dropoff due to the complex one-time installation process.

Do any people with better droid-fu know if it always has to be this way? Will future version of the Android App Store be able to have a more seemless install process?
Amazon stymies Lendle e-book lending service
Forex Robot: Handling Automatic Forex Trading Tasks And Processes
What is a Forex Robot ? This is just one of the questions being asked left and right in various parts of the U.S. and Canada in the past 6 months. This is all thanks to the rise of FAP Turbo, a forex robot that is one of the best at handling forex tasks and processes that usually take 5 hours or more if done manually.
The biggest flaw in tnis is that the OP criticizes khanacademy videos by showing that vastly inferior videos don't work. Khan videos are good b/c they make it easy to think: there are no distractions, just a blackboard and an intelligent voice "in your head" guiding you through the problem domain. The OP, instead of using a khan video or even a khan-like video, tries to teach physics using a video shot outdoors featuring the face of a talking girl with a guy juggling in the background. He might as well give his subjects a physics book and turn them loose in a sports bar to study while following ncaa basketball. Neither method is a good one for learning physics. What's sad is that thd OP is not just some crank on the internet, but apparently a newly minted PhD in education who will likely end up teaching teachers or running a school system.
I think this could potentially be huge - the Market is less than awesome. The integration with the Amazon Experience has the potential to change completely the way people find apps - recommendations for apps related to whatever I'm searching for could totally change the way I find them.

Not being able to use them offline would suck though.
Learning ruby on rails 3
Design pet peeves
Silicon Valley's Economy Shows Signs Of Growth
Industrial cleaning company
Expert industrial cleaning company and industrial cleaners providing industrial cleaning, commercial cleaning, retail cleaning and commercial window cleaning in UK.
I saw Peldi's talk at Business of Software (BOS) 2010 and it was great. Don't miss this opportunity to chat with him!
Please show enough courtesy for down-voting me, not that i take it personally but would like to know why you differ from my opinion which comes after 20yrs of sales and marketing experience to that market ...
Wait for this project to launch: http://duolingo.com/
I hope you have backups of those blu-ray discs: even assuming the media doesn't get lost, disappear in a fire, flood, etc. it has a limited lifespan before the media deteriorates.

The manufacturers quote lifetimes which are far in excess of what's actually been verified - and that's for professionally produced media, not the home burners which generally use less durable media. Our guidelines recommend a 5 year lifecycle for archived media: http://digitalpreservation.gov/you/ That's conservative but at times I'm inclined to give up on tape, disc, etc. and simply say that you shouldn't rely on anything which isn't online and regularly verified (e.g. ZFS scrubs or manual checksum validation) - and since Blu-Ray hasn't sold particularly well combined with general consumer electronics trends makes me hesitant to say that you should assume easy access to a compatible drive over a decade from now.
There's no need to demand AJE in the US, because AJE is handling new media intelligently and is widely available. I can watch AJE on my PS3, computer, or even my iPhone. They're one of the few networks in the world that supports free and unlimited streaming options to all.
Chemistry Thesis Writing
Students writing chemistry theses should know that they need to research and contribute new knowledge on a selected topic area. This might be a difficult task for most students. However, with the right methods used, they can ensure new information is supplied in their theses.
Well, the iPhone is 600-700 euro in Europe, too, but carrier plans are also cheaper than those in the states, as I would guess are in India. Things indeed look very unfair if you don't factor in subsidies and factor out taxes and duties.
I've built something almost exactly the same as Lendle in my spare time, but I haven't opened it up to a wider audience just yet.

I'm starting to wonder if it might be best to just keep it invite-only for now.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of older (65+) people, despite their experience, are simply unable to keep up with technology. On that scale age matters, and 30yo can't be compared to 65yo. We all will be there.

That's neither good nor bad. That's just the way it is.

However, I know people that successfully started their startup company in their 50's.
While the other answer about factorization hit the nail on the head, let me say it again in more direct terms. There is a strong belief among those who pay serious attention to encryption (NSA, etc.) that quantum computing would/will render all traditional encryption (minus things like one time pads) obsolete. An actor with a sufficiently advanced quantum computer would be able to break everyone else's comms.
Streaming is not the only thing in the world.
How long have you been on Hacker News? Your account is only 20 days old; can you pass adequate judgment on the matter?

Simple answer: Apple is popular in Hacker News lately because they've done a lot of interesting (~ discussion-worthy) things lately, such as: change the App Store guidelines to demand 30% of subscriptions revenue, released a Mac OS X Lion developer preview, the iPad 2, renewed their Mac Book Pro lineup, Thunderbolt, controversy between Amazon and Apple regarding the name App Store...
Afaik, both GTK and Qt (and probably most others) are drawing anyway pixel by pixel.
I use virtualbox for running Windows, which I sometimes need for testing or when I have to use MS Office for some reason... In that case I make it fullscreen and work in the graphical environment.

To pass files from/to the virtual OS I use a virtualbox shared folder, I have networking inside the box disabled for security reasons.
Boomer Start-Ups – Out of Need or Ennui
Feeding the world isn't the problem. There is enough food.

The problem is distribution. Politics finds food distribution - or creative hinderance thereof - a powerful tool in controlling populations.
There will probably pre-installed versions of the store on some devices, but besides that it's the only option because selling an app store through the android market is permitted.
I demand à la carte cable/satellite pricing!
One of the key factors has to be the unlocking of previously 'unfarmable' into a self sustaining fertile alternative. Big agro-business contends that this is not possible and that we need to use oil based fertilisers and pesticides, machine intensive techniques and pumped water irrigation. It turns out that this does not seem to be the case at all.

This 'Greening the Desert' projects shows a promising way forward using long term (5-8 years) permaculture techniques to render arid, salty and previously unproductive land into productive land able to capture and sustain the majority of the water it needs with minimal irrigation.

http://permaculture.org.au/2007/03/01/greening-the-desert-no...

I recommend watching the videos, truly inspiring stuff. The original greening the desert project transformed an arid, salt ridden area in Jordan into a fruit producing farm within a few years. The locals laughed initially at their efforts but then started queuing up to learn how it was done.

The other thing we need to do (in the West) is appreciate the value and privilege of eating meat and stop expecting to base a large part of our diets on it. A given amount of land can feed 7x the number of people when used to grow plant crops eaten directly as opposed to feeding it to livestock.
Sweet. Best thing that came out of your hard work Beardyman: http://open.spotify.com/album/6nBmbQRXXf3diJFmGr6ubW
Your father-in-law has poor grasp of the concepts "Freedom of association", "Innocent before proven guilty", and "Unreasonable Search".
...sex tapes ... rather than drag the Linux kernel into their sordid world
I'm not sure whether you're doing this on purpose, but just incase: you don't need to set up networking on the guest to have shared folders. Virtualbox has native functionality for this (using the guest additions that the grantparent mentions).
The article itself is not newsworthy. But the enthymeme in the story seems to go nearly unchallenged in our society, that is, that all economic activity should ultimately be measured by how many jobs it produces.

Isn't this crazy? Shouldn't we strive, as a society, to work less? If we didn't have this this neurotic need to work, or be employed, couldn't we find a better way to enjoy the fruits of technology? After all, people used to spend the majority of their day just working to procure enough food to eat, but now with mechanized farming, that's no longer necessary. Shouldn't advances like that imply that a healthy state of affairs would involve less people working, rather than "full employment?"
Ashlee Simpson Hot & Sexy Wallpapers, Ashlee Simpson Hot & Sexy Pictures, Photos
People are missing half the story here. Buffett made such a killing because he was the only person with cash in the bank. For years and years before the crisis, while everyone was leveraged to their eyeballs and making tidy profits, Buffett was complaining how his cash was piling up because businesses were overvalued.

So although he made a 75% gain over the last 2.5 years, that was only because he made around a 20% gain in the previous 5.5 years. Still, doubling money in 9 years is far better than the Dow Jones.
This is more a tale of bad estimates than specialist skills; if anything, it goes to the point that a specialist must be careful to not get too confident in his knowledge when developing an estimate.
Does Microsoft have as much candy on-site as Google?
A perfect example of the Internet treating censorship as damage and routing around it.
I get so tired of comments blasting mainstream media. It's easy to do, and just counterproductive. The good stories about the tsunami are out there, you just have to stop watching 24 hour news channels. Read the Boston Globe, The New York Times, The Atlantic.

Please stop complaining that good stories don't fall in your lap for free. Go find them, or build a better way to put important, un-sensationalized stories in front of millions of people while getting effectively compensated for your time.

Here's 10 minutes of checking top news sources:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/aftershocks-keep-japanes...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/japan-earthquake-and-tsu...

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/

http://www.seattlepi.com/national/1104ap_as_japan_earthquake...

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2011-03-21-japan-earthqua...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/22/science/22predict.html?ref...

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-japan-ag...

edit to add links
Charlie Sheen Is Winning
"very large majority" hrmph let's see 10% market share in the PC market and 20% in the phone market?
(These numbers were culled from a few quick googles)
Way to be self centric, dude.
"The majority of my computer crap is apple, thusly a very large majority uses apple products"
900$ is when you have a carrier plan. There are two carriers in India which sell the iPhone at that rate. Again, anything around 600$ would have done wonders to Apple in India.
I myself would have bought it!
So weird, was just listening to his Mixergy interview this morning(I will say it again, Andrew Warner is killing it with Mixergy, its such an awesome project/resource/business).

Sadly can't watch this one because it won't load. I assume its currently experiencing an irregular amount of traffic. Is it working for anyone else?
Googlers Buy More Junk Food Than Microsoft Employees
Facebook Deletes Free Palestine Page
where is free speech when it comes to Israel?
The American market iphone price is distorted by contract entrapment scams that service carriers use.
Basically they give you an underpriced phone if you sign a 2 year contract and then pack the cost of the phone into the contract through extra fees and costs.
Hack Apple’s Smart Cover to work with iPad
Bill Clinton. Complete and faithful servant of the international bankers. Why?
It's kind of bullshit. Too many people see YC as the be all end all.
It doesn't say he's good at different kinds of math, though.

Kidding, but the average newspaper reader wouldn't know what a polymath is. I'm pretty sure there are a lot of smart people who couldn't tell you what a polymath is. It's a word that is not a common/standard word in the English language, but one that hackers tend to use and love. Kind of like "autodidact."
Ask HN: What happened to Slinkset?
I know Posterous acquired Slinkset a while back, but a few days ago slinkset went completely dark. There's no mention of slinkset on the Posterous site and there's no contact for slinkset listed on the Posterous site.

Have Posterous silently dropped slinkset?
+1 my point exactly
Also, check out Hypernumbers. They've got an interesting take on the whole web spreadsheet thing.

Do you mind saying what your product is?
I installed it this weekend. I use it to run node on Ubuntu from Win7. I run it fullscreen and use emacs. Works great so far.
Nowadays, both GTK (through Cairo) and Qt (through QPaintEngine) use XRender and/or OpenGL, which leaves the pixel-level stuff to the GPU.
sigh

Nope, I thought HN was for news related to startups and things that are interesting to hackers. If more and more of news submissions here become related to Apple, then doesn't this make it Apple News?
George Monbiot: Why Fukushima made me stop worrying and love nuclear
I can't even fathom how Eclipse somehow outstrips IDEA, particularly by such a large margin. IDEA destroys Eclipse in terms of usability, looks, features, speed, etc.

Is the premium developers put on "but it's open source!" really that compelling, or is there some key feature of Eclipse that I'm completely missing?
question - does stuff like VNC (which also works on windows) not suffice ?
You bring up good points but there still is a need. There are plenty of people who wont even consider news that isn't on TV. Having a mainstream channel that disagrees with Fox and CNN would be a great thing IMO.
It is the first time that I hear about Lendle, and as I read from their site it is a very interesting service. I think it is the online version of http://www.bookcrossing.com/ in a way. You are "leaving" your online book in Lendle and everyone can pick it in order to read it.

I hope for a quick resolution of this matter.
I have many friends and relatives who use apple products but none of them bought them in india but imported them via relatives and friends who live in US. Buying an apple product(except low end ipod models) in india is prohibitively costly and illogical since you will end up buying an older version.

Even though India not as lucrative as western markets for high end tech gadgets, the market is ever increasing and Apple should seriously change their strategy in India. It would be great if they open iStores in Metros where there definitely is a vast market to tap in.
+1 I saw his talk at Red Gate in 2009 as part of the first Springboard programme and it was excellent. Two thumbs up!
> How long have you been on Hacker News? Your account is only 20 days old; can you pass adequate judgment on the matter?

So, if a person's userid is 20 days old, then does it directly mean that the person has been using the site for only 20 days?
what kind of logic is this?
There's a distinction between what you have right now, and the vision:

- ugly baby product: don't worry, keep improving it

- ugly baby project: give up (if it won't meet your needs); or pivot or something

For me, I've realized I don't need a huge market or revolutionary technology. Just enough to live on, doing work that makes a difference, is enough for me (though I like to leave the upside uncovered). Ugliness is in the eye of the beholder.

Note: AppleTV itself is not a huge success for Apple, but Jobs keeps on with it, because he envisions that it can be (and the luxury of resources). Ugly duckling?

BTW: Woz also had a universal remote project, and it also had business (as opposed to technical) problems.
It's great for breakfast too - treat it a bit like porridge. Cook it on the stove with some milk, almonds, sugar, raisins, muesli etc.
How html5-boilerplate helped drastically improving our website performance