skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Your spiel here is very motivating, motivating enough to make me click your link.

However, your website doesn't represent this at all. Your front page leaves me wondering "What do they do." None of the "apps" you have give me any indication of being the "Next generation social network."

I'm left confused as to what you do, or why I would sign up.
A question to all the billionaires watching this thread:

Why would you give away money to charity while you could sponsor LISA?
We're working on a flash-sales site with a focus for launching new products (rather than selling overstock of old products). We want to give small merchants and designers a captive audience to get those first early adopters. We currently have a landing page at http://www.Trisse.com
I find it hilarious that a Catholic order thinks there's anything Catholic (as opposed to catholic) about hacking. The open-source community is de-centralized and libertarian-to-anarchist, while the Catholic Church is built on blind faith in a central authority in deciding what is right for all (even when that "right" is protecting child rapists).

The only thing that could be funnier is if they quoted Eric S. Raymond, author of The Cathedral and the Bazaar, which talked about that aspect of hacker culture, and who is an unapologetic atheist Wiccan.

...oh wait, they did.
That's a fairly optimistic view.

My take is that most purchasers of Android phones are probably quite disappointed with the experience. Whether it's because of battery life, lousy app selection, annoying add-ons by the carrier, or clunky app design.

Sure, slimy salespeople hired by the carriers are pushing Android phones and probably lying about features and quality just as they lie about plan details, etc. Yes they're selling a lot of (mediocre) phones to a lot of naive (or optimistic) people who trust the Google name based on their experience with search or gmail.

I predict a huge backlash as more and more consumers realize they were hoodwinked and should have just gone with an iPhone. Take the Evo 4G for example... the phone shipped unable to even last a whole day on a full charge (with moderate use). This is unconscionable. Clearly nobody who was in a postion to do something about this test drove one of the phones for a few days before moving forward with all the hype and marketing.

I think this will all bite Google when few people decide to upgrade to a new Android phone. The experience is so mediocre that even a few minutes playing with an iPhone, browsing the app store, or talking to the owner about battery life will cause tremendous buyers remorse.
How does your business model stack up?
If you got rejected, Mixpanel is giving out free startup plans to all those that are rejected to help bootstrap. Please forward your rejection email as proof. Email free@mixpanel.com. Keep chugging along.
Take a look at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_C_Sharp_and_Java#...

Good examples there of the differences.
Are you sure the DMCA was enacted democratically? That it was passed by Congress isn't strong evidence for that.

To be honest we're probably not going to find much common ground here. I don't consider America a democratic nation, or at least not an example of one to strive toward. But I think I can distinguish between "subverted Democracy" and "enacted something I don't like."
> One result of Ikea’s rat-maze design: 60% of the things people buy there were not on their original shopping list.

Another result is that I avoid shopping at IKEA whenever possible.
clever promo. nice
experiment -> theory

rinse, repeat.
Yes. It is knowingly putting yourself in harms way because you know what the law is, whether you agree with it or not. When you take an action as an adult you are accepting the possible consequences of that action.

If you punch a mobster in the face and get shot for your trouble every one is going to say "Wow what a brave fellow, he knew what the risks were but he did it anyway". Just like in GeoHot's place he knew what he was doing had risks of getting himself sued or worse, but he chose to do it anyway because he disagreed with the law.

You have missed my point however, I agree with the sentiment of what Anon is doing, just not the methods they are using.
Wow! Very interesting. You'll have a kick butt team and two successful apps (Groups and Calender) that I know people use all the time. It would be interesting to see how the selection process works.
Are you actually running ChromeOS, or are you just saying why you don't feel like it? Because while it's browser-oriented, it's not anti-local. That's just had a lower priority, but there's still native client development and an SDK toolchain specifically for that purpose: http://blog.chromium.org/2011/02/native-client-getting-ready...
Or perhaps these companies are seeing more purchases/revenue from iOS users, meaning that investing more time and money into an iOS version is a better ROI than putting the same investment into an Android version.

A larger user base doesn't necessarily imply that the same user base is a larger source of revenue. There's a bunch of anecdotal evidence that indicates iOS users are more likely to purchase apps than are Android users.
Hi there! I do quite a bit of both OCaml and Erlang.

In fact, I borrowed Yojson's json parser for my project (piqi.org). Also, I'm familiar with MPL. It looks very nice, but from what I heard it is fairly immature. And you definitely can't parse HTTP this way :)
> phone calls to the wife is an excellent tactic which would get you to the top of the mental agenda instantly in 99% of cases.

This is a truly disgusting suggestion. I don't have a word for the level of disgust it arouses in me.

Also, if I was on the receiving end, it would serve only to harden me, and to become far, far more strident against you and the other kids who are pulling this crap. Would you really want to be facing an angry executive who has the budget to buy not just security and investigators, but also law enforcement, legislators, the media, and anything else that's required to discredit you, and ruin your entire life?
Buttons Are a Hack
America's Most Important Algorithm
Title of this post, asked who's charging forward, not who's not charging forwards. Thanks.
Google, of all entities, has proven you don't need to charge for services to be profitable.
Some lawmakers blame search engines for piracy, promise legislation
Android has more market share than iOS, which would seem to suggest it's moved far beyond the "technical, geeky" crowd.

OS market share is the easy metric, but it's not the right metric. Read the last six paragraphs:

http://expletiveinserted.com/2011/04/02/ios-versus-android-o...

Applying the Windows/Mac analogy to the mobile market is like trying to cram modern geopolitics into a cold war framework. You'll ruin your mind trying to make it work. Google isn't Microsoft, Android isn't Windows, and smartphones aren't purchased or used like desktop computers.

Apple is still Apple, which confuses people, I'll admit.
Wouldn't a valid free-market response be a private militia which is paid by its customers to shut down via threat of force stores which misrepresent their goods?
I like to think I got my personal daily rejection quota filled today :) http://cdixon.org/2010/09/12/getting-rejected/
Even Wikileaks redact information that could get innocent people in trouble/killed. What Wikileaks does is controlled and measured, Anon is the the school's downtrodden nerds ganging up on the bullies little sister.

Going after the loved ones of the target of your fury is a tactic of criminals and despots.

Gang up on the bully.
Yup, that was the first page I found too: it's also the first result for "php nginx 0 day." I link to it a couple times in the post. :)
I turned 18 before I could complete my Eagle. But Boy Scouts had a lasting impact on the way I live my life.

There are many things I have tackled in my life because I have the courage to stand up and do something others might not.

A scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.
I don't think most Xcode users know what they're missing. And unfortunately they still won't, just by looking at screenshots and perhaps firing this up and having a quick bash around.

Some really good screencasts are needed to show what's possible with appCode - fortunately JetBrains does excellent screencasts for their other products and I'm sure they'll do these as it gets closer to release.

As for me, I'm a long-time IntelliJ user. Xcode 3 has been incredibly painful to use - even after taking a lot of time and effort to learn the keyboard shortcuts.

Xcode 4 is a major step in the right direction and started to actually make iOS coding reasonably fun. But it still can't hold a candle to the features available in this early release of appCode - it's awesome.
I started with probably the same booklet from probably the same magazine, but I also found a more complete reference making the rounds on local bulletin boards, so I was able to figure out input, and finally ordered the full language package from the author. Wouter van Oortmerssen is still working on nerdy pursuits, and created some other languages over the years, but none were as popular/successful as Amiga E. I made a small sample playback app with it, but my ambitions were far beyond my abilities.

I think it's primary reason for popularity was that it was so easy to use the Amiga GUI elements and other special features of the Amiga OS and hardware. I always had a hard time making stuff work in C, but could build a UI in no time in E.
FYI: the name seems to stem from the BOOM project, and have nothing to do with 'Bloom filters'.
I really did want to expand on the point you disagreed with, but I had to leave. Here's a bit more.

What I meant was that given the choice between two tools, one of which is pleasant to use (for whatever reason) and one of which is not, I will always choose the one that is more pleasant to use. So far, reading and testing, I have not seen any reason to prefer appCode to Xcode. If appCode had some sort of killer feature, then I would put less emphasis on the way it looks.

In addition, this sort of interface displays a fundamental misunderstanding of OS X and iOS by Jetbrains. Integrating with an OS is about more than getting your code to run and do stuff. I am a user as much as any iPhone owner is a user.
If that 49% never 'wins', they have absolutely no incentive to continue their union with the 51% majority. It would make no sense for them to do so - why always stick around the with the husband who beats you?

Sure, it's not thrown down time after the first defeat, but when every single issue time and time again comes down to such a huge split, when does it make sense to just end it and have the 2 groups separate?
I am sure it will get polished before the final release. All IntelliJ IDEs can install a very functional VIM plugin - that itself is a big deal for me!
The 7 Rules for Achieving Exponential Growth (Part III)
If you're not charging, you still need customers installing and using your app. Note, I said: "Or perhaps these companies are seeing more purchases/revenue..."

Revenue is revenue, whether you get it via a purchase or via eyeballs. If companies are getting less revenue from Android users vs iOS users then there's little reason for them to invest more in making their Android ports look as nice or function as well as their iOS ports.
Dumb question: Is the 2nd Edition K&R for about $50 on Amazon worth the coin over the 1st Edition I recently picked up at a thrift store for a buck?

(I also picked up Steele's C: A Reference Manual, 4th Ed. for a buck at the same place.)
I'm not sure they're disappointed, per se. The non-nerds I know who bought Android phones are generally pretty pleased to be able to make calls and use the web a bit.

They're not app consumers to the slightest degree. Android represents a small value-add over the dumbphones they had before, which is fine, but they're not part of the vast army that Android partisans seem to think is coming over the next hill.
Query.qrcode.js - jQuery Plugin For QRcode Generation
> Have fun with that.

I think your tone detracts from your point.

> But a conference which will offend nobody in some small way is a sterile, dull thing.

I think the point to make is that this is not "some small way", as much as it may appear to be small to some - it's significant enough for you to stop attending. The group of people offended by misogyny is statistically independent from the group of people contributing to the conferences' success, so:

- there's no reason they needed to be offended

- offending them offers no real benefit

- offending them hurts the success of the conference by discouraging people from attending who otherwise would have.

- ignoring or supporting it exacerbates this problem, and so it's not in the best interest of anyone to ignore or support it, regardless of their views on women
I agree. I'll never forget this one, though...

"Always be prepared."

Best advice to live your life by (especially when running a startup).
Design Essays Should Specify Their Purpose
The writing of design essays are challenging for many students. Students who wish to pursue a career in the field of arts will be assigned this type of essay. In order to receive a good grade, students are recommended that they learn the proper method of writing this essay.
Best of luck to you, sir! :)
Sony Bravia launched the 40 inch KDL-40W5500 LCD TV
Quadros don't have 448 cores each. nVidia's "core" numbers count each portion of a vector processor (a "thread warp") as a core; by this definition, a single Core i7 core has 48 "cores".
Here is one small example of something that won't be apparent to someone without a demonstration.

Say I have a class called Foo and I realise, as I'm using it, that I want to add a method called doSomethingElse, I can just type the new method call and have appCode create the method for me. Ie:

Foo *foo = [[Foo alloc] init];

[foo doSomething];

[foo doSomethingElse]

doSomethingElse would be marked in red. I just have to hit command-enter, select 'Create method' and appCode creates the method signature in Foo.h, creates the method in Foo.m and puts the cursor in the body of the method ready to implement it.

This improves coding flow remarkably.
Based on reading their general requirements, the biggest issue was that you were alone. They really want you to have two or more founders...just because of the rigors of running a startup.
If that's their "plan" to take on Android they're toast!
LetsLunch.com will match you with one entrepreneur per day to go out for lunch.Its like linkedin with lunch.

PS: I'm a founder
Yes, but what's going to happen once Jobs retires/steps away? I imagine he's been very busy at choosing/grooming possible successors for a few years already, but usually empires ruled by a powerful individiuals crumble after the change at the top.
Poll: How many times have you applied to YC?
I've applied to Y Combinator a few times. I'm surprised to anecdotally see that this is the first time for most applicants. I'm curious to see what the distribution is like.
0 (not doing a startup, not interested)
Manipulate MS Visio Files on ASP.NET Web & Windows Applications
Aspose.Diagram is a class library for working with MS Visio files & is a pure .NET alternate for MS Visio Object Model. It enables developers to work with VSD & VDX files on ASP.NET web applications, web services & Windows applications. It makes use of the advanced functionality of Visio's services to manipulate Visio docs on a server. Developer can open files & manipulate the elements of the diagram, from lines and fills, to more complex elements, and then export to native Visio formats or XML.
Instanza is a place to hang out and connect with other students.
We applied with http://getrunrate.com and are charging forward!

It's simple bookkeeping software with an elegant interface that surpasses Mint.com and a focus on mobile access and digitizing receipts.
That's okay. We didn't optimize the site for that yet. Right now, most of our users simply interact through the apps and we are going viral through that.

In about a month, it will all start to make sense. Check back then :)
Rubygems at least has a post-install hook that gem authors can execute automatically.
How? Compared to LXDE (for example), GNOME seems cluttered and slow to me. Not at all minimalist.
Ok, well I was talking about type systems. You were talking about the fact that it's dumb to have long variable names for loop indices.

I agree. Everyone on earth agrees with you. I don't know if I've ever in my whole career seen a >1 character loop index variable name. Congrats.
I'm also an Eagle Scout and earning it is one of proudest accomplishments.
I received my reject letter, which is fine, just filling it out helped me sort out a lot of ideas.

I shall place it next to my NASA Astronaut reject letter. I was surprised to find out how obesi-phobic they are!
If it makes you feel better, you can assume the title to be this instead:

Didn't get in YC S11? How are you going to charge forwards?

I think the point of this post was for it to be a morale booster. While everyone might agree to go on charging forwards, people will most likely have different approaches in doing so. That's what this is all about.
Just declare a new class with a short name that extends ConcurrentHashMap<String, Integer>.
The key here is to look at total revenue, rather than revenue/customer. The incremental costs of serving an additional customer are negligible, while development costs are (relatively) fixed. Thus the relative adoption rates of Android vs iOS customers becomes decreasingly important as the Android user base continues to grow.

Despite the apparent swing in popularity of my original statement, I stand by it. Android is looking more and more what Windows was in the early 90s. It doesn't matter how many iOS users purchase apps; if the Android market share is significantly large it will still be the more profitable platform to develop for.
Slightly off topic but I do not want to post another Ask HN question: what implementation of Scheme would you guys recommend/use? Working smoothly would emacs would be appreciated
This article made my day. While living in the SF Bay Area I definitely fell victim to the "you can only really succeed here" mentality. It's easy to do when so many people seem to be succeeding, not realizing that's a function of so many more people simply trying.

When we decided to leave and go back east, it only took about 200 miles of driving to see that mental bubble burst. Of COURSE you can be successful elsewhere. It all depends on your attitude, persistence and motivation.

I've made it my personal mission to foster the tech startup community here in Charlotte, meeting as many talented people as I can and bringing them together. I started our local chapter of Hackers and Founders, and frankly I've been shocked at the level of energy and talent I've discovered. There are plenty of folks participating in startups here and there are also plenty of folks with money to bankroll the ideas. Even if you need money from outside of Charlotte, getting on an airplane is easy.

At the end of the day, I choose to live here because it's fun, friendly and has access to the beach, mountains and great weather. The fact that it's also affordable means I can focus on building my business, not finding a huge salary just to pay the rent.
Because Android users don't care. To make the app look nice, you would need to pay for 100 hours of a designer and 400 hours of programming. If it looks like crap, you only have to pay for 400 hours of programming. Android users don't care, so you make more return on your investment by neglecting design.

Apple users all have blogs about the virtues of serif fonts versus sans-serif fonts, so you are not going to sell your apps (or get ad views) if your app looks like crap. Therefore, paying the designer is worth the cost.

Also, Java programmers are a different demographic than Objective-C/Cocoa programmers. Java programmers mostly use Windows, which doesn't have a UI or "user experience". (The experience is mostly in removing spyware.) iPhone developers, by definition, can only use Apple products, thus self-selecting for people that care a little about UI.

Additionally, the finance doesn't really make sense for Android apps. Why would I waste 6 months of my time (which is around $100k) on an app that nobody will pay for when I could write bullshit software for an investment bank and get a guaranteed paycheck no matter what my UI looks like?

Android users get what they want: cheap. iPhone users get what they want: eye candy.

(Just to be clear, I love Android. But "user experience" doesn't mean much to me. As long as I can see my calendar and ssh to my machine at home over OpenVPN, I don't really care about anything else.)
Racket + Geiser (http://www.nongnu.org/geiser/).
How is AppCode going to get any better than that? Either they're going to go the heuristics route, like Xcode 3 and below, and have all kinds of cases where they fail miserably, or they're going to hook into LLVM, and have no real insights into the code that Xcode 4 wouldn't.

You can have symbols available to you from the compile that you're not interested in using. How do you filter them out smartly? There is plenty of room for improvement, even with a LLVM-based parser for determining possible autocompletions.

Also, Xcode 4 has a tendency to forget it has to show me any completions at all. At that point, Xcode 3's autocompletion is preferable to, well, nothing.
More to come, very soon!
ProCSSor, a slick, powerful CSS beautifier.
"Web devs, under no circumstances should you miss this one."
I call BS. My neighbor is a "normal" non-geek who has an android phone and even he notices the difference in app quality and bitches about it all the time (his wife has an iPhone). Just because he isn't "trendy" doesn't mean he doesn't know what quality is. Its his work phone, when his contract is up, he's already decided he's going to lobby for an iPhone and the apps are a huge reason why.
I can give you an interesting data point: our power bill is only about $600/mo (2.5KWh), our bandwidth bill is about $3,500/mo (1.2Gbps). So power is a smaller consideration.
I have not yet begun to charge forwards!
Yeah I have no idea why they didn't even want to interview us.

I mean, I saw the batch of YC companies in winter 2010. I would humbly like to say that we seem to be closer to what YC says they are looking for, than several of those companies were.

For example, we applied in Winter 2010, YC rejected us without an interview, and then we went ahead and secured investment and launched and already have 80k users and nearly all ratings are 5/5 . Our apps are being used 30k times a day (in aggregate) so engagement is high. Not only that, but we are already generating profit. YC says they like entrepreneurs that hang in there.

Also, they say they like people who achieved a lot. I was a concert pianist when I was a kid and went to college at 14. ( http://magarshak.com ). I normally don't say that but I thought I might as well just mention it. So I have no idea how their selection process works. If they had any concerns about the company, I would have been happy to talk to them in person. I think we at least would have warranted an interview.

I personally think YC made a "wrong decision". But it may very well be that the selection process has other things that I am not aware of. For example, they may have so many applicants that they are looking for specific things they did NOT mention on the site, and these may be weighted more heavily.

Anyway, we are a bit surprised, but that's about it :)
Where the Cloud meets the Grid
It is sad how many people wear exhaustion as a badge of honor. I was raised on a farm where when certainly learned how to work hard but if we could ever find a better or smarter way to do it we did. But even in busiest days, when the dinner bell rang (literally) we stopped what we were doing and came to eat and enjoy each other's company.
Facebook opens up its engineering secrets