skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
>What evidence do you have that "the traditional checks and balances of a healthy civil society" aren't working?

Representative democracy now represents lobbyists rather than voters. Media now represents corporate interests rather than the public interest.

This manifests in a new economic/political order: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/commentary...

>That we manage to arrive at a reasonable middle ground between all of these dissenting opinions seems to indicate that the system is working.

Pretty much anyone I talk to, regardless of their political persuasion, doesn't feel the system is working.

>I'm tired of hearing all of this posturing and justification for Anon just because you support what they support.

That's unfortunate. Laws, the economy, culture, and politics have changed since the days of a functional civil society. It's unlikely that people in present circumstances will abide by standards of behavior that don't advance their interests.

>So, sorry: DDoSes, stalking, harassment and vandalism are not "civil disobedience", they're just plain old despicable behavior.

The tactics of the American and French revolutions were likely classifed as "despicable" as well by the out of touch and complacent, but history would be much different without these tactics. Many see Sony's abuse of power as "despicable". Sony is free to withdraw their aggression at any time.
Oh jeeze anything but Apple lock in.... But don't listen to me. I am writing this reply from an iPad and use a Blackberry. I still say Android.
I know the GUI might not look nice due to being Java, but if AppCode will get as much polish and as many features as IDEA or the smaller language specific IDEs got, then AppCode is something to really look forward to.

Even after a year of constantly using PhpStorm (yeah - still no time to rewrite that huge app I'm maintaining) I'm still finding little things that show that the IDE was really made by developers.

It's just like with the iPhone: It's full of little nice touches.

Recently, I was pissed of enough about the typo in the name of an interface:

IModuleAmmendment

and I had PhpStorm rename refactor it.

Of course it worked (and instantly over 800 files), but it also fixed the typo in a class implementing the interface (CatalogModuleAmmendment was for example renamed to CatalogModuleAmendment).

And that's just a sample: The IDEs are full of these little things. This makes me so productive that I can easily live with the less-than-perfect looking UI.

This sounds like a commercial, but I'm really just a (incredibly) happy customer of theirs.
Given the amount spent a launch failure would be pretty catastrophic for the JWST.
Thanks, this looks like a good tool! I'll be trying this out the coming weeks :)
Good points. I would say that it's better to have too much, so long as I can ignore the bad parts (e.g. checked exceptions) than not enough as in C.

I also disagree about exceptions. It does make control flow trickier to follow, but the problem with C is that to really have all failure cases covered you have to put every single function in an if statement. Anything and everything can fail.
Really? You've either gotta keep the carrier frequency down low enough to let it bend around the earth - which limits the bandwidth you can transmit, accept the vagaries of shortwave radio transmission - which doesn't seem to be what you'd need for HFT applications, or lose the several hundred milliseconds it takes to get to geo-sync orbit and back _twice_ - which would lose out speed wise to anybody on the ground at either end who only needs to get his signal up to orbit and back once.

I don't see how radio helps much?

(perhaps a string of line-of-sight high frequency repeating stations? At a first approximation assuming 100m (330') tall towers you get ~36km to the horizon, so you'd need ~150 towers with repeaters on them to cover the ~5500km from London to New York. I guess that's not _impossible_, but even if you could stack up the infrastructure required, the latency in those ~150 repeaters would need to be very small to beat the guy sending his data through the fibre on the sea floor with a theoretical ~20ms ping time, and a quickly googled practical pingtime of ~100ms. The radio options still requires the ~20ms speed-of-light propagation time, but needs to get the signal through ~150 repeaters as well, compared to just the one on each end of the fibers (I _think_ the optical repeater/amps used on oceanic fibers are zero latency...)
Whilst you can use more dedicated tools for debugging http connections than telnet, there is still an argument for protocols simple enough that you can use telnet.

Take Arduino for example, writing a naive but working http client is childs play; writing a SPDY client in Arduino is well beyond many people's capabilities. Yes libraries will appear eventually, but we've not even got a decent open http library yet.
Ask: Why people hate deadline?
Like me, I feel tremendous pressure when somebody set me a deadline, even the job is easy to handle.
Maybe my habit is bad, I always wait until the last minutes to get things done. I don't understand why I don't put jobs on top priorities.
Sometimes I set my own deadlines, if I make it, I'm really happy. I'm confused.
I wish Australia would spend some more money on space based projects, imagine if the US decided not to make any major investment into space, the planet as a whole would be getting nowhere on space based research projects.
> I'd love to see military budgets (as one example) plowed into aggressive space research and exploration

Interesting example - because they are. The military is responsible for a lot more research than is immediately obvious. All you have to do is come up with some plausible military use (offense or defense), and you have a chance for funding.

I've seen projects with just the barest hit of possibly being militarily related get funded by the military.

I get the feeling the military knows they are overfunded, and they try to make up for the lack of funding in other places.

Or perhaps the military likes being over funded - so when they need it, they have it. But the rest of the time they can fund other things (and presumably cancel them in an emergency).
"I prefer the look of the Android Meebo contact list, but I prefer the iPhone chat interface"

To me, from the apparent size of it, the Android one looks like hard to manipulate by touch. I don't want to feel like aiming each time I navigate. Also, probably the john@xyz filler with no user picture is part of the unsettlement. That point is valid of the Android one too, as it shows the user both offline, in buddies and in conversations. Weird.

That said, no developer in their right mind would ship such an emoticon picker. It's simply outrageous and just shows disdain to the user.
It's really much simpler than that:

cd
head --bytes=your_card_size /dev/random > tmp
sha1sum tmp
cp tmp /media/your_card
sha1sum /media/your_card/tmp
No, but who watches them?
A couple of days ago, on another story, I mentioned that I thought the coming reorg would be to change to more product-focused organizations: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2411933>;

"Not even smaller operating units, it just sounds like things will be organized according to product rather than function. Other HN articles recently have mentioned how Google has a bunch of centralized organizations that report all the way to the top and are not responsible to any product group (Launch, Site Reliability, UX, Product Management, etc).
What's different about Android is not that Andy Rubin has an engineering background; many of Google's senior managers do, even in the big functional orgs. What's different is that Android is a product unit which largely does not depend on these external functional teams and has all its resources built in."

Looks like I read the tea leaves right.
It's only temporary. During boom times America funded a lot of science and other worthwhile things.

Right now there is a massive pullback, but when the economy recovers things will restart.

Take a longer view.
I don't think the space shuttle can be really deemed reusable.
I hope one of the things you took from your experience is that you massively underestimate yourself, your worth and what you do--because reading what you wrote it certainly seems that way.

If you want to do YC but talk yourself out of it--I'd seriously suggest stop listening to yourself on that one. :)
Dropbox security flaw uncovered
I switched from a 1st gen iPhone to a G1 then later to a Nexus One. I'm contemplating going back to an iPhone, but haven't made up my mind yet. The attractions of each platform for me:

Android:

1. Doesn't require iTunes
2. Very hackable, proper multitasking
3. I like a lot of the APIs
4. Doesn't require iTunes

iPhone:

1. Waaaay cheaper*
2. Same OS as the iPad, which I want
3. "Just works" for common use-cases
4. Family now has iPhones, makes me want to try FaceTime

* Unless you're willing to settle for an AT&T branded phone that'll probably never get upgrades, etc.

While everyone loves bashing "the other platform", whichever it might be, I think its pretty cool that we've gotten to the point where there's a lot to love about both (and other platforms as well).
Does your link realise that their first couple of graphs are for the "phone" market, not the "smartphone" market?

It makes about as much sense as lumping in Apple's laptops or Samsung's TVs and the text only occasionally seems to recognize this, almost as if they drew the graphs thinking they referred to smartphones and then lightly edited the text rather than remove them when they realised their mistake. Makes them difficult to take seriously.
When I ran this, I got the following error: "launchctl: Dubious permissions on file (skipping)"

The file was chmodded to 664; changing it to 644 did the trick.
I'm not questioning the credentials of the people proposing it, on the surface it's an obvious solution to (part of) their problem.

Just like "factorising large prime numbers" is the easy (to ask for) solution to other problems.

I think the truth is, unless you've got enough money to run your own trans Atlantic optical fibers, either with your center-tap coming up to your mid-ocean floating datacenter, or with some as-yet-un-invented unmanned deep sea datacenter sitting on the ocean floor in the middle of your private fiber - this is pretty much an "I want a pony!" solution to reducing transaction times.
>Android has more market share than iOS

Is this even true? There are more adroid devices than iOS devices (iPhone, iPod, iPad)?
faceless.com/qa/, it's a website based on real-time infotainment over local communities; im a comm/web design major and i really love the idea of local; why not make it positive and incentize users to provide local information that pertains to them; most social networks are based on who you know, this is based on community-verified users you don't already know. i really wanted a chance to share with yc =/ i thought it was a great idea and i have a great team!
Authors At Google: Eric Ries "The Lean Startup"
The article says that changing passwords doesn't help: "Additionally, the host_id is still valid even after the user changes their Dropbox password (thus a standard remediation step of changing credentials does not resolve this issue)."
I don't have a cell-phone
one of the most appalling part (ignoring that record-breaking emoticon picker) is not the selected apps themselves but the left-aligned icons in the top status bar. Their lack of quality shows even more when contrasted with the carefully designed right-aligned part (I suppose that one is OS-tied and therefore from Google).
That conversation is illegal? Sounds like a lot of hot air to me. How many Anons do you think have the balls to do something like "go down to Sony and smash their faces in?"
We also got rejected, but that's fine. We did not had any demo or a pitch video, so our odds got down the road. However we would like to learn more about how a startup really works (we mean the documents, funding, etc). I will make a post here on hacker news in order for us to get off the ground, I am sure we will have a great product by demo day. We made a deadline for us (demo day).
What iOS design books, blogs or articles do you follow/recommend?
I've got somewhat of a background in ios development, and i'd like to break into ios design as well, to make my apps look better. What books, blogs and articles do you recommend?
oh yep, we're def going to go ahead and charge with it! =] put a lot of time into it! goodluck everyone else too =] not the end of the world!
It depends what you're designing for. If you're designing for more clicks, more ad glances, cross-promoting your services, you can say that Google's stuff is well designed and that it works - because these are the metrics that they use to evaluate their design.

When we're talking about "graphic design", beauty automatically flows from good design and Google's products are simply not well designed. And they will not be, because they micro-optimize for what brings more users.
Project Harmony  opens website (contributor agreements for FOSS)
VERY interesting numbers. We applied first time and have not been chosen, which is surprising but expected. We've got a team of 6 founders who have sold past ventures to companies, a patent attorney and IP but it's probably not in a space they understand. We were willing to give YC equity for connections (we need 2.5million not 20k) and a blessing but were already prepared to go straight to A-line money. That's ok, we've been here before and know the drill.
I think those absolute rulers whose territories are small and whose populations can easily leave probably make more sound decisions. Singapore seems well run, for example. The people can remove a ruler by removing themselves.
Totally incorrect synopsis, humanity IS on the quest for speed.

What killed the Concorde was not that humanity was no longer looking for faster ways to communicate, it's that most of their customers died during 911. For the rest of us Twitter / Email, Skype fill the role of quick highly personal information dissemination.

Companies like SpaceX and Virgin who dare to explore the boundaries of human travel will take humanity to ever greater heights. They are picking up the torch where the government left it in 1969. One of those two companies will eventually partner with FedEx to offer New York to Sydney 'yesterday afternoon' service. The companies that can capitalize on that kind of mobility and speed will rocket infront of their competitors.
im new to the hn forum; im building a website called Faceless, user-verified community posts, news, links, events aggregation. hopefully in real-time one day: here's the link to my little design work so far. http://faceless.com/qa; were going to launch to scu next week!
To add to this, The Steiner system places a lot of value in surroundings and buildings and a lot of time and effort (or is it money?) goes into making the "learning environment" inspiring and stimulating.... Etc etc. Basically the ones I've been to look fantastic.
Is the iPhone really cheaper in the USA? That's so odd, completely the opposite here in the UK

For example, a 16GB iPhone 4 costs (list price from o2) £200 up-front on a 24 month contract, plus £26 per month contract.

For the same deal on a HTC Desire S (the newest HTC phone in the UK, just out), is free on a 24 month contract with the same allowances, but at £33 per month.

Without a contract, the 32GB iPhone 4 costs £609 on o2 pay as you go, and the HTC Desire S costs £330.

It's really odd, isn't it?
New Car Engine Sends Shock Waves Through Auto Industry
I gave up on believing this is temporary some time ago. We're stuck in a negative feedback loop.

The current crippling of science and education will only hurt the economy more. The economy is not like the weather something that just happens, and that will improve if we just "wait it out".

If anything, it would be helped by massive investments in science and space projects. It injects money in the constructive and innovative parts of society. The focus is too much on Wall Street which are basically toll takers.
How long ago?
I didn't vote because I never had an Android phone. I'm on my second iPhone and I really like it. Things that make me want to try some other mobile OS: iTunes and the dated look of the iOS theme (keeping the everything-needs-to-be-grey from OSX, ew).
I guess that's true. It's real strength was probably the rule of law and property rights, which Parliament didn't erode while the House of Lords had power.
That seems like an unlikely reason. If you are looking for a reason beyond altruism, they hope to gain from improvements others make to the platform they are already invested in using. For example, if a hardware manufacturer sees this and then chooses to build some hardware controller that works a little better with Facebook's setup, Facebook wins.
Well I have ADD, that's probably a reason why I want something like this.
So long as you realised... From FTA:

"Taking the config.db file, copying it onto another system (you may need to modify the dropbox_path, to a valid path), and then starting the Dropbox client immediately joins that system into the synchronization group without notifying the authorized user, prompting for credentials, or even getting added to the list of linked devices within your Dropbox account (even though the new system has a completely different name) – this appears to be by design."
How A Business Spawns From Your Basement
Using the Zune Web API on Windows Phone 7
Well, I disagree. I think that while in a grey area ethically it brings the question home in a very personal way; that's why they're doing it. Corporate execs are humans who have to come home to their wife and kids like anyone else. Perhaps there are some fanatical corporate warriors out there eager to put everything on the line to prove some kind of c-penis point but I sure haven't met them.

I'm sure Anon envisage it going down like this (and IMO it is a reasonable supposition):

exec: honey, i'm home!
wife: oh darling, thank god you're home. those nasty men called me again! why are they doing this to us?
exec: well, because they say we're violating free speech and harrassing innocent people
wife: well are you?
exec: well .. um, a bit
wife: (glare)
I think the iPhone is cheaper on AT&T, because AT&T actively tries to avoid having Android products in the same price range. I don't think iPhone+AT&T is generally cheaper than Android+[other carrier].
I don't believe in the idea of paying to code for a device I own, and having to buy a different computer to do so, so Android, hands down.

That said, lately I've become less enthusiastic about doing phone apps at all, and think I'll likely stick with the web for the immediate future. iPhones aren't going away, so to really cover a market, you should do at least an iPhone as well as an Android version of any app... no fun.
Yishan Wong on 37signals's "flat" organizational structure
I was Iphone 3G user for last 2-3 years and 4 months migrated to Nexus S. Now I bought iPhone 4 for my wife and it has some positives as well. Its a very close call and still can't decide what is better

My comparison is:

Android:

1. Easy syncing with PC - like attaching USB disc
2. Customization of home screen - I have few icons that switch off wifi, gps, brightness all on home screen - very useful
3. Easier swapping sim cards without need of any needle or pin
4. Adobe Flash support
5. Great multitasking
6. Notifications support way better
7. Portable hotspot - I've heard that iPhone now has it as well? this is a must

iPhone 4:

1. Great screen
2. Great camera - Nexus S camera sux
3. More apps that get released sooner than on Android - e.g. we went to China and there wasn't any usable chinese words scanner to english translation on Android but iPhone version has been out for few months
There’s a certain polish the iPhone and iOS have that nothing else does. Whenever I use a friend’s Android, it feels unfinished, like they forgot a round of usability testing or something.
Redditroll: killing reddit?
For me, this is the real point.

If you've chosen to let iTunes be part of your (computing) life, then an iPhone is a no-brainer.

If you're not using iTunes, a lot of iPhone's advantage in the comparison is moot.

I suppose there might be the same sort of platform lockin going the other way too - if you're a fully-bought-in user of Google's entire application cloud, it wouldn't surprise me to find an Android handset integrates so much better than an iPhone that you'd obviously go that way instead.

(In case you haven't worked it out, I'm a happily-trapped-into-iTunes iPhone toting Apple fanboi... But I try to keep it under control...)
Around when Bush was re-elected, I think. Although it accelerated in the last recession, this is not something new.

I don't think it's about "the economy" at all. A lot of research has been done during periods of much bleaker economy than there is now. Maybe it was the cold war (and earlier country-level competition) keeping people sharp.
I think the point was to learn an API, but it was much more effective as a tutorial on why XML can be an incredibly awful choice for certain things. The noise-to-usefulness ratio in the samples is maddening, isn't it?
How about corruption and lack of political stability ?
> And I realized that with enough cores sitting around you could imagine how stuff learned programming that for 'real' problems might inform how you would program a quantum computer.

(i realized that) (stuff learned programming with that many cores) might (inform how you would program a quantum computer)
I wonder if YC's size is working against it. It can't invest in 2 startups that do the same or similar things? And in this case you're only giving them free insights. This is why I am critical of YC: no official list of their investees to see if they'll be a conflict of interest. Why not? What other VC websites don't list their portfolio companies? I shouldn't say it's a scam.

lal.com got rejected: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2422799

Can't comment on the thread.. bit too much like messageparty?

Think being a participant of this forum will help? If the team happens to remember you , but it won't hinder you if you're not. HN is YC's API, plugin, hope for everything, prepare for nothing.

I think I'll go on American Idol now.
A fiber laid directly between those points, with a branching unit installed at the midpoint and then a fiber dropped vertically down from a floating platform, would probably be fine. The ocean is really wide but not really very deep (mid atlantic is maybe 5km deep, which is about 0.5% of the distance)

It's crazy for lots of other reasons (the expense of doing something like this, the zero sum nature of it, and the easy solution of just having "tick based" trading where all trades submitted in a given interval are randomly selected from to happen at a certain time), but doesn't seem technically infeasible.
I'm frustrated that so many VCs want to make a "Next Silicon Valley" in New York, Chicago, or another part of the U.S. The rest of the world needs one significantly more.
Not all of Africa is corrupt and politically unstable. It's a pretty big place.
Indeed, that would be awesome if we could have the same kind of zero-conf, instant-deploy-via-symlink for wsgi/python apps.
I am not sure what you are getting at here.

All discussion about design must be understood in context. The context here is the iPhone vs. Android GUI.

I responded to the claim that flyosity's comment was somehow contradictory. It's not. It's just a matter of understanding that design in this context isn't only about the beauty.
Reminds me of Dave Packard coming out of retirement to counter centralized control - something that probably takes the clout of a founder to do.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1993-03-14/business/93031...

Though here, in the context of "adult-supervision", Larry Page is coming out of childhood.