skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
My proudest accomplishment in law school was a research paper I wrote entitled "Anti-Antitrust: The Need for Antitrust Law Reform."

In that paper, I argued that antitrust law as applied today totally misses the point: the issue shouldn't be whether a company, otherwise satisfying the elements of a monopoly, is harming competitors, but whether a company is actually harming consumers. Put another way: who is complaining about the alleged anticompetitive tactics: competitors, or consumers?

If one studies all the big antitrust cases of the 20th century -- from Alcoa, to DuPont, to Microsoft -- a curious trend emerges: it was always those companies' competitors who took issue with seemingly anticompetitive tactics of the big evil "trusts," and rarely -- if ever -- was it the consumers themselves.

A great example of this is Microsoft in the 1990s: do any of you -- aside from our realm of early adopter computer savvy tech types -- genuinely remember any everyday computer users actually complaining that Windows came preinstalled with IE instead of Netscape? Were consumers actually harmed, were they actually suffering? No: the only "people" who had an issue with MS bundling IE with Windows -- frankly, a brilliant strategy -- were Microsoft's competitors, and not, in fact, MS's customers.

So my take on this ATT & T-mobile merger is simple: the investigation should not focus on whether ATT/T-mobile is a monopoly from competitors' points of view, but whether it is anticompetitive to the point of actually harming consumers, e.g., with higher prices, etc.

Frankly, a good example of a company that really deserves a DOJ investigation is Apple -- IFF customers start to actually complain, and not not just Apple's competitors' start to complain.

Put more simply: a DOJ investigation into whether a company is a monopoly should be based upon whether consumers -- not competitors -- are actually being harmed by the allegedly anticompetitive tactics of a "monopoly."

After all, a company could not become a monopoly without customers' support in the first place. So clearly they have done something right that customers appreciate.

A "monopoly" that is not causing harm to consumers, either directly or indirectly, is not necessarily so terrible a thing. In fact, as with Apple, it is often the case that consumers enjoy a net benefit from such a company.
True. However, HN isn't just about hacking, it's about anything "good hackers would find interesting"[1].

[1]:http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
I wish Google was a little more involved. The competition could've used some resources or funding last time. The format has a lot of potential since any language[1] can be used as long as you can get it to run on Ubuntu 10.something and make a starter package.

[1] as opposed to most other competitions where one is restricted to the usual suspects (Java, C#, Python).
Are you referring to the analog TV spectrum? It seems likely the AT&T would try very hard to control that too.

Or is there other near-term transmission protocols that you expect to be viable?
Your analogy doesn't really hold, because software engineers probably use the software they create, so they have an incentive to make it good. Lawyers have an incentive to make laws such that you need more lawyers, which the patent system succeeds at marvellously.

That's not to say that there's really an alternative, just pointing out the perverse incentive structure.
But when it comes to something like UI, which someone hacked up over the course of a few hours... does this justify exclusivity for years?

In theory though that shouldn't justify a SW patent either. It seems like if we really held true to the non-obviousness test things would be better.

Ironically MS has a court case in the Supreme Court to weaken patents, which would in turn makes it easier for BN to overturn MS's patents.
Thanks for the props as to why this is a good idea. But I'm actually very interested to hear why you think Munchery WILL NOT work. Why it will suck? If you have signed up thus far, and you live/work on SF, what prevents you from placing a subscription order?

I'm eager to iterate on our approach based on everyone's feedback!
> just as I was starting to feel sympathetic

Surely you are not serious.
Django 1.3 cheat sheet from revsys.com
Right. So Groupon probably didn't go around hush hush. I agree with the post above about execution. It's not about being first it's about being the best.
at&t is the other GSM carrier. If your lucky you might live in a place where you can get another regional carrier (U.S. Cellular, Virgin, etc) but odds are you'll still be stuck using at&t towers.
I actually found the related article more interesting about how his conversion numbers shot up when he dropped the free plan.

http://www.softwarebyrob.com/2010/08/18/why-free-plans-dont-...

However I always wonder, is having a good chunk of free users in the beginning a necessity to help spread word of mouth and get bloggers talking which improves your google rank down the road.
Host simple websites on Dropbox (YC) with DropPages
No more ridiculous than a normal gift for that matter. Giving a purchased gift at all is trading $25 for an inflexible $25.
Zoho (zoho.com) has an accounting system. I haven't used it, but I have used some of their other systems, and they seem to do a good job.
We're working to optimize it as much as we can. Which browser/OS/hardware are you on? If you're not on Chrome, can you try running it in that first and let me know if you see a speed increase?
It's a two-way street. When you're willing to approach other people, you're more likely to present noticeable-but-subconscious cues that you're an approachable person. If you're sulking in the corner, morose that no one will talk to you, then you probably don't look like someone others want to approach.

I try to do something similar to what noname does, but I also try to seize opportunities to talk to people. In a crowded coffee shop, it's inevitable that you'll overhear conversations, and people realize this. If the conversation isn't too personal, and you have an insight or something meaningful to add, try interjecting. I'm always apologetic when I do it, flashing smiles and trying to be as polite as possible. If I feel they were actually bothered by the interjection, I say my piece, apologize and leave it at that. But people often are receptive to the interjection, and I've met some good people that way - people that I now consider friends.
Are you signed up for Apple Care?

My bluetooth adapter doesn't work, and I can't send in my laptop till this summer since I do iPhone development for my school. By then though, I'll be pushing it really close to the end of my 1 year warranty.
But with startups and business success.
Donating to the relief effort is the right thing to do. The US Chamber of Commerce has a list of over 140 companies who have donated to the relief effort in Japan including Microsoft who is committing $2 Millions. See the below link for the full list:
http://bclc.uschamber.com/Programs/disaster/corporate-aid-tr...

Apple has a Japanese division who makes components and batteries for Apple products. The earthquake is disrupting the production of the iPad2. So if they won't give for humanitarian reasons it makes sense for them to help rebuild Japan for practical reasons. They have money they could give but so far have not. Let's hope they change their tune.

Amazed people are making a big deal that Apple put up their staff for the night and took care of them. This is what every company should do.
Hoping this helps to solve some of the stability issues we've all been experiencing with the new 2011 MacBook Pros.

According to MacRumors:
Apple appears to also be offering a special build for the new Early 2011 MacBook Pro, specifically addressing FaceTime performance issues, graphics stability, and external display compatibility.

-- Edit: --
proof of specialized update just for 2011 MBPs: http://cl.ly/272E2q211s0U1u0a0Q00
We do use it in Tornado apps. We haven't seen any blocking issues so far as the time to write the tiny file is pretty small plus this happens on a small percentage of requests. It'd probably be worth looking in to an asynchronous model at some point though.
i'd say keeper with style.
Ask HN: What should I do with $10k?
Kind of reaching a new point in life. I (will) have some cash saved up soon. Looking for ideas...
I was on AppleCare. The only time extended warranty has ever been worth it. I've been religious about AppleCare on laptops ever since.
I think this is a good question, I'd like to piggyback on it and ask of the people who have applied did they apply as a team or as a single co-founders? Were they technical? etc.

I only ask these questions because I think they are important. I applied to YC and just had a conversation w/ someone who applied also however at the time of application we were both single founders.

I consider myself technical but I'm sure not as technical as many of you since I've only dealt in front-end web development. YC does have super specific criteria for applying, they are looking for a certain type of founder (or team of co-founders) so it would be helpful to this discussion to know.

I think it also depends on the idea/start-up submitted. Part of the review process does seem like they are looking at the entrepreneur but it also seems like they are looking at the entrepreneur (or team) and their ability to execute on the idea.

Just my thoughts...
How to get people to pay for music online
Amateurs, the lot of you.

English.
We currently have one chef who delivers to Sunnyvale:
https://gomunchery.com/chefs/evolution-catering
Ask HN: Who owns the code?
I never expected to do this but here we are 3 people creating a startup. Two of us are programmers, building separate parts of the system (frontend/backend) and the third guy is designer/investor.

We are trying to draw an agreement as part of the documents to establish the company legally. One of the issues we don't know what to do with is the question of intellectual property. Does source code belong to company or to programmers? Can programmers use the code (functions, libraries) in other of their projects?

I proposed that the code belongs to the company but the author is allowed to use the code in other projects that are not similar to our company project. The other programmer disagrees and thinks that the code should belong to its author.

What are the common practices regarding this?

Thanks.
An easy guide to switching to GMail
Radiation from various sources, to scale in Prezi
We just launched so you're one of the first people to see it, hence no gigs yet. Hopefully my next post will be something like "How we got 10,000 users in a few weeks" after we do some marketing!
I have played with making an absolutely positioned single-char text input box in my custom editor (https://github.com/dnewcome/richie). The idea is that it forces the built-in keyboard to show but the input is caught and inserted into the DOM. I don't use contenteditable since it doesn't work on most mobile devices. My hacks are really rough but I think the technique could be polished eventually.
I'm impressed by Opera, and very disappointed with IE9. To bad one of them is way bigger than the other one.
patents:

http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=deQCAAAAEBAJ&dq=5...

http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=JvQAAAAAEBAJ&dq=5...

http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=DwEJAAAAEBAJ&dq=6...

http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=oKgVAAAAEBAJ&dq=6...

http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=jJcVAAAAEBAJ&dq=6...
If you can't lead the wave, ride on it.
For anyone interested we formed a global group on Facebook called iHope for Japan http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_201249473238509...

The idea is to persuade Steve Jobs donate to the relief effort in Japan. The release of the iPad2 just about coincided with the earthquake/tsunami. What a great opportunity to donate a portion of each iPad2 to sale to Japan. Very positive publicity and who knows they may sell more because of it.
Belongs to the Company. Rights can be given by the company to re-use functions/libraries to the developers (or open-sourced) as needed.
The problem with making yourself 'technically safe' is that it realistically leaves most non-technical people exposed.

then lets make everybody safe technically. it's hard, but doable. if everyone ran tor and 10% of users ran tor relay, that should be a hell to track, no?
>PR has nothing to do with hacking. Just saying.

Isn't PR "hacking" public perception?
That would be unlikely (or at least, less likely) considering that Sprint uses CDMA, while AT&T uses GSM. T-Mobile's network would be easier for AT&T to integrate.
Relevant: Why I hate Advocacy: http://www.perl.com/pub/2000/12/advocacy.html
http://www.geekwire.com/2011/microsoft-cites-new-patents-vs-...
--
Here are the details about the patents. It's pretty childish stuff. Anyone with half a brain can innovate and come up with inventions. This is just bullying.
> they hide state behind well defined interfaces which is inherently modular

They expose mutable state through a well defined interface. Unless you're talking about purely functional interfaces, of course. And purely functional interfaces are rare in typical class-based code, especially C++ or Java code.

Most programmers don't understand that when when a class exposes mutable state, it automatically becomes more difficult to use because you can make fewer assumptions about it. That's why it's anti-modular. And that's even before you try concurrency.
Doug Engelbart isn't listed on any of these patents, funny but I'm pretty sure his NLS system would make him the inventor of most of this.
Righthaven lawsuits backfire, reduce protections for newspapers
"what a poor state of the profession if practicing professionals can be scared that easy into thinking that they are that easily replaceable."

After watching everyone from factory workers to call centers to programmers get their jobs replaced by machines and/or third-worlders, I wouldn't blame any profession for worrying about being made obsolete.
Are the Trenches of Entrepreneurship Dug In War?
Here's a more comprehensive infographic of who is sueing who. http://www.mobilemarketingwatch.com/infographic-whos-suing-w...

Nothing to feel sympathetic for anybody. They are all in the business to make money.
Warning, default printing on OSX was in the wrong orientation. Check your settings before printing.
I have listed the patents in my blog post on this:
http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2011/03/microsoft-sues-barne...

1 of them was previously also asserted against Motorola. 4 of them weren't.

Since Microsoft already has 23 patents in suit against Motorola, Barnes & Noble will know that the 5 patents asserted today are but a small selection of Microsoft patents allegedly infringed by Android.
Playing multi-player games on multiple iPads (or iPhones or iPod Touches) isn't at all bad. I've had quite a few fun times with friends playing games this way.

Looking at the same screen works well for some games, but not so well for others.
they already reached a settlement with Amazon last year. MS is going to get their way with B&N too.
War is still war, there were deaths, veterans who weren't the same, etc etc. I'm a child of the 80s, so I can't say I remember the details, but war isn't always a pretty thing. Going by what Wikipedia says (yes, I know it's a single source), the US wasn't exactly smart about how it was handled leading up to the Korean war.
Buy a guitar. Learn to play it.
http://www.daveramsey.com/new/baby-steps/

Go step by step
On Objective-C's inheritance model and UIView's -removeFromSuperview.
What else is hard in Computer Science?
I tried with IE9 final. a few more things passed but a lot is still broken. They should probably update the page to reflect that its IE9 final and not one of the betas. still not great.
I go overseas. There is no choice for me other than the AT&T version, which works in Australia and Europe. Verizon only works in the US.

Even if that was OK, Verizon annoy me by charging $35 activation. I loathe that kind of charge. I'll pay for service. Don't make pay for the "privilege" of paying for service. Particularly when you basically have to do nothing.

LTE isn't even a consideration for me until LTE rollouts are widespread.
Here's what MSFT had to say about this:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_on_the_issues/archive/2...
If you want to invest it in something besides yourself or your business, "A Random Walk Down Wall Street" ( http://amzn.to/fxzgVU ) is a good read.
It is hard to get around the 35% US corporate tax rate. In my time as an investment banker, the only way I saw that companies could easily lower their taxes is by losing money (losing money one year gives you a carry-forward loss that you can use to get out of taxes the next, hardly free money). As far as I am aware, this kind of tax credit is common in the developed world and the US corporate taxes remain the highest. The impression that you get at reddit/ The Huffington Post/ Hollywood that you can open up a foreign bank account and bam no taxes is largely false. All the companies that I sold, capitalized, or researched paid taxes at close to the nominal rate of 35% (my specialty was firms $100 million to $1 billion in market cap).

What are your credentials? Perhaps you are a corporate tax accountant and you know better than I do.
I consider it a loaner until my 3G model arrives.
T-Mobile was the only telco that has avoided logging the goods that the feds want: http://paranoia.dubfire.net/2011/03/negative-impact-of-at-pu...
Groupon -is- very easy to copy, hence the hundreds of Groupon clones making money hand over fist.

However, even with the clones, Groupon seems to be doing just fine.
Help/Advice needed with starting a startup 
I've pretty much conceptualized all aspects of a new web application that I'm rather excited about. (I know that kinda sounds like what everyone does these days, but I have!) I've talked to a few people about the idea (mostly entrepreneurs themselves) and they've advised me to go ahead with it without wasting time.

However, the major problem is this: I have mainly had an education in Business Management with some programming experience interspersed in between simply because I enjoy it as a hobby (a few questions on Project Euler as and when time permitted). But because I have treated programming as a hobby, I'm afraid I don't find myself competent enough to develop a relatively advanced web app on my own.

So what I'd like advice on is this: Do you recommend I learn the skills first and start development before looking for co-founders to help with development (there's no way I can do this alone anyway) or just look for an interested programmer/designer first and learn with him on the go? (The reason I say designer is that my conceputalisation pays a lot of emphasis on UI and UX).

Would appreciate some advice!
It amazes me that anyone really believes that stuff. I posted this comment there, don't know if it'll show up:

If Microsoft truly had "innovated" all this great smartphone user experience, why is it that nobody seems to want a phone with a Microsoft OS?

But the really stupid thing is that Microsoft is far more vulnerable to patent litigation than anyone else at this point. Barnes & Noble can survive a judge's order blocking sales of Nook a lot longer than Microsoft can survive a shutdown of Windows or Office.

The obvious conclusion is that Microsoft itself doesn't believe it can innovate in a fair market competition.

Like stars, the end state for large technology companies is a black hole of litigation and patent trolling.
Surprised also by Opera doing so well.
Mobile is getting too complicated. At last count that I saw:

Apple: suing 2, being sued by 3
Toshiba: being sued by 1
Sony-Ericsson: being sued by 1
Sharp: being sued by 3
Samsung: being sued by 2
RIM: suing 2
Qualcomm: suing 1, being sued by 1
Oracle: suing 1
Nokia: suing 8, being sued by 2
Motorola: being sued by 3
Microsoft: suing 3
B&N: being sued by 1
LG: being sued by 2
Kodak: suing 5
HTC: being sued be 2
Hitachi: being sued by 1
Google: being sued by 1
Elan: suing 1
I have been a big supporter of Apple for the past 14 years. I am a big fan of their products. This has nothing to do with a prejudice against Apple. In fact it is precisely because of their innovation that we expect more from them. Allowing your staff to sleep at the office right after the earthquake is hardly "going the extra distance." Anyone who would do otherwise under the circumstances would be considered cold and heartless.
Is it a hardcopy? kind of weird for SEO guide.
Related on Digg Blog: http://about.digg.com/blog/digg-goes
Tax rates do matter. The US has the highest corporate tax rate in the world and you hit the top bracket with ~$2 million in profit (as I remember). That's a large company, but not a huge one.
Assign copyright to the company.

Also, everyone's being a just a little cautious here, AFAIAC. Make a killing with your business, don't haggle over code ownership.
That's why you never build your business in US...
I'm primarily looking to develop a Rails app. (Sorry, missed that out!)
Choosing Ants as the next challenge is a bit of a bet. I'm a bit afraid that the game is too random to get really interesting AIs. Fog of war + food spawning at random places can bring early advantage to those players that explored the map 'just right'.

Disclaimer: I really enjoyed playing the Tron and PlanetWars challenges. Although I was a bit disappointed with my final ranking in PlanetWars (~80), I think that game was close to perfect.
I actually just installed it because of this. I haven't used Opera in years and am excited to try it again.
I wonder if T-Mobile being German-owned had anything to do with that.
There's one thing I will point out on that diagram: there are no arrows emerging from Google. Not that we should feel sympathy for them, and perhaps it might just be that they don't have enough of a portfolio, but I think it's worth noting all the same.
Government incompetence should not comfort you.

Go rent the movie Brazil. It's a movie about what would happen in a society with strongly defined elites and suffocating bureaucracy, dominated by a fear of terrorism, practicing torture in secret. The information professional class is relatively privileged, although oppressed at the workplace like everyone else. For fun some can snoop on citizens at will. Yeah I know, it's science fiction, but it could happen some day.

The entire plot is set in motion when a fly falls into a mechanical typewriter and causes the government agents to break into the house of Archibald Buttle (instead of Tuttle).
Agreed. And if you want the elevator pitch version instead of reading that awesome-but-very-long book: "buy index funds".