skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
It really depends on how your application is structured. If only the test sees the test data, you can easily do it on the live site. If there were a hundred test accounts in gmail sending mail back an forth to and from other services, you would never know.
Encrypted Google Docs done well
> Normal people just want things that work when they turn them on. And they don't want complicated

Is that not the Chromebook's design? They have produced a product with curated hardware (QA tested and none of the sharp edges of Linux), an operating system that has a browser with one of the best UIs as the primary interface, and a pretty secure and automatically updating operating system that will help protect against malware. From the second he gets it, a user can turn it on and start using the Chromebook.

The only worry I see is not having standard apps like Microsoft Office and Google hopes that Docs will be able to replace that.
It shall be called "iPhone 4S"
Nope, no useithreads in either of them. We haven't build a threaded perl in ages.

The noted speed improvement is for a hefty Catalyst + DBIC + Moose app. Also seen similar performance improvements in a smaller Dancer app we have. Maybe it's related to the BUFSIZ changes.
While not related to these graphs, in general ActiveRecord only performs very rudimentary caching. By default it lasts for the life a single request. There is no shared cache across requests or processes, so if you read in data that hardly ever changes, you're hitting the DB for that data on each request. This was a rather big shock to me when coming over from Java, where I used to use Cayenne* (http://cayenne.apache.org/) for the ORM. Cayenne has some pretty nifty tunable caching features out of the box and I just came to expect those as being a requirement of any serious ORM these days. That was three years ago.

That's not to say there aren't caching options for ActiveRecord or Rails. You just have to go out of your way to employ them. There's no out-of-the-box write-through cache of the DB.

* - I became a committer for the Cayenne project but haven't been active over the past couple years.
Here's the way I look at it: computing is becoming exponentially cheaper, but good developers are incredibly expensive. Anything that makes the later more productive is overwhelmingly likely to be worth an increase in hardware cost (to cover up lost performance).

The problem is that performance is an academically interesting problem to us geeks. We love to optimize, make quicker and oh-so clever.
But it was Ryan who said that it does: http://twitter.com/#!/ryah/status/69620659650699264
Paid survey
I came across this web site a few months ago, and it really helped me find real paid survey companies that pay good.
There would seem to be a pretty narrow range of companies that this would actually work for.

If you're a pet food manufacturer that needs a website, you're probably not going to find anybody who's really stoked about catfood and also knows Rails.

If you're Valve, you'll have no problem finding 10,000 kids who really want to write video games, none of which can code their way out of a sack.

So it would seem to follow that if you're looking to hire developers, you should start off by looking for people who are actually good at writing code. Or put another way, by looking at credentials.

It'd be cool if it worked the way the author describes, but for most situations I just don't see it happening.
If the performance degradation is considered a bug, that changes the picture a little bit. But I agree with nirvdrum's comment on using exceptions as control stuctures.
Vacanza.Tv - Get Ready To Travel
What’s up with ARM
By implication, wouldn't that make the Chromebook an OSX killer as well?

You can't outrun the guy in first place without first outrunning the guy in second place.

The whole thing is poorly thought out.
I totally hate seeing Quora questions on ycombinator..
Especially after seeing them featured EVERY DAY on the TechCRUNCH. Sick.
Nor do I see a compelling reason for a business owner to make a switch

How about paying a fraction of a normal PCs cost for hardware and OS that is automatically upgraded every three years. And not having to deal with Windows malware.

In many places, the business apps that people need access to are web-based or available via a virtual machine or Terminal Services. For these people, this is a no-brainer.
Which calendar features are essential?
I'm considering making a(nother) web-based calendar application. Which features are essential to you? Do you use text (SMS) reminders?
The answer is π^2/6: What’s the question?
The only problem I see is pricing. 12 months is $336, one can buy a full featured laptop for the money. A laptop will work for say 5 years (or more). While 5 years of Chromebook is $1,680. That's top of the line anything plus the unrestricted power and environment.
Unsolicited Redesigns
I think this sharp antagonism between productivity and performance is a fallacy. It only works in the extremes. Making something slow doesn't automatically make it more productive to use. For framework writers to give some thought to performance issues does not make users of that framework less productive.

Also, if you look at what just a few selective type hints in clojure can do to performance or how terse Scala code is, you have to come to the conclusion that performance and productivity can go hand in hand.
Love what you did there. Instead of bashing them to the ground you started off by rationally dissecting their process and pointing out how they should improve. Honestly, I think they should have paid you for this post! :)
Fair enough PG, that was bang out of order.

That said, Reddit does look to be in a bad way. They're experiencing chronic and severe downtime, mainly as a result of technical debt - AWS can only take so much blame when firms like Netflix got through the outage fine. Even when AWS isn't undergoing major outages, "emergency read-only mode" has become rather too common.

When two members of a three-man developer team quit at roughly the same time, that's a warning sign.

Reddit looks to me to be in a similar situation to 4chan - a huge, highly influential user base that is actively hostile to monetisation. It looks to me like the best case scenario is that Nast is deliberately smothering Reddit - all the other explanations for their current problems bode much worse.
I really like magit for some stuff, I haven't had the chance to look at the video but I am hoping they are showing the ediff between branches feature or easily stacking only the change you need to commit.
Nothing is a "windows killer" in the same way that nothing is an iPhone killer, or a Nokia killer for that matter. In almost all cases slow changes in the industry are what kill kings off. While there is no doubt that Windows will remain relevant for the foreseeable future, if for no other reason than corporate infrastructure and lack of (any need for) innovation in most cases. But when my mom started preferring to use my Cr48 over her windows laptop "because it works...better", and my niece refers to the iPad as "[her] computer" it to me that most people are just more comfortable with slim client. Atleast in my life. Windows isn't going to die anytime soon - but it looks like its choking.
I don't mean to be shortsighted but I always feel a little skeptical when "xxxx is a Windows killer" comes from a Linux/Open Source column.
So, a laptop where the OS, browser, search engine, email client, calendar, word processor, spreadsheet, etc. are all controlled by a single company that gathers loads of personal information about you? No thanks.
Windows died 15 years ago.
I completely agree.
The reason why i put it there instead of HN only is because i hope to reach a broader audience by that.
> The only worry I see is not having standard apps like Microsoft Office and Google hopes that Docs will be able to replace that.

This is the same worry I have. I'm not sure Google 'gets' how hooked into some of the more sophisticated features of Word, Excel, etc. many businesses are. I love Google Docs and default to it for anything that doesn't require a lot of sophistication. But it just doesn't even scratch the surface of what I need when I write complex documents. I could see new businesses who aren't entrenched in any of this stuff picking it up - it's certainly how I would start a business. But I can't see established businesses buying into it when the "bread and butter" software that they buy their computers for in the first place is so weak. Ironically, Google's best hope might be that its customers will use Microsoft's own online version of Office.
Chromebook is perfectly positioned to beat Windows 3.1

Or that's what I read.
I started out with technomancy's emacs-starter kit, but I started to roll my own (complete rm -rf .emacs.d) when I tried to then add functionality myself, ran in to trouble and got yelled at in #emacs for using the starter kit. Installed package.el and everytime I missed something from the kit, I'd install it myself (paredit, winner, ido, ...).

I would still recommend the starter kit for absolute beginners because it gives you a running start and a good idea of what kind of stuff is out there.
If I and my reactions to cool gadgets are any indication, then no.
Simpler Genome Sequencing
The only worry I see is not having standard apps like Microsoft Office and Google hopes that Docs will be able to replace that.

Because they have Office, Microsoft is in a better position to make a Chromebook than Google is.
Facebook for Business Marketing
Facebook business is usually adopted but it really has to be done very cautiously just like the administrator realizes the account you are using won't remain in the specific person, the account is automatically deleted.A lot of the methods can be useful when you are Facebook business building were mentioned here:
It seems there are a lot of sites like this, where there is absolutely no information about what value they provide, just a demand that you sign up for their spam list, sign in via Facebook, or some other privacy-deprecation scheme.

No info? No demonstrated value? 86d.
The author has been writing about Linux for years. I can see why he's hopeful again. Chromebooks should make a dent in the Windows market, maybe grabbing 10%. Windows won't die, and it doesn't need to.

Breaking the Windows desktop monopoly is all that matters. Consumers benefit when there is more choice in markets.
Really? $28/month x 36 months = $1008

For a dual core netbook that relies on a round trip to the internet to do word processing.

$950 on NewEgg gets me iCore5, 6BG of RAM and Half a Terabyte of local disk.[1]

How is an underpowered, less functional, more expensive computer a Windows killer?

ref:

[1] http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE...
Marketing sites can't be wet nerf balls
Another thing you might consider about the difference between a 1000ft apartment and a 3000ft home is heating bills. While there's no guarantee a smaller place will be cheaper to heat, it's very likely. If you are on the lower end of the income scale that can be a significant portion of monthly expenses.
I guess you could take that viewpoint if you're planning on releasing your product 3 years from now (for example, that might be okay for a game developer with long product cycles), but 500ms to render a page is slow today. So, is the idea to wait 5 years so your page renders in a reasonable amount of time?
A laptop will work for say 5 years (or more).

Yeah, but for the last two years, it will be a bit too far out of date. With Chromebook, Google would have sent you a new one by then.
- The internet
- E-Mail
- Wikipedia
Ultracapacitors to Boost the Range of Electric Cars
Demonstration - Aquarium - 0.02.7
Pros and Cons of VIM
I think chromeOS may be a victim of unfortunate timing.

At some point between the surprisingly successful Asus Eee launch & the iPad, preferably early, would have been the perfect time.

Now, probably not.
Yes, but if I want to spend $336 each year on my pc I can replace it annually and not waiting 3 years for a new one.
If I want to use the same one for 3 years I can spend $336 insted of $1008!
How To Train Your Cat | Great Information For The Masses
Also, normal people don´t want to pay more monthly expenses, especially for something that normally don´t have any monthly expenses. And beeing always updated is not somehing normal people cares a lot about
Because specs have nothing to do with it. Does the expression "No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame" not ring any bells?
You didn't ask about getting traffic, you asked about getting "quality traffic". Since you didn't define "quality", I assumed you were going with the standard definition of quality - traffic that earns you money. Hence, a discussion of monetization.

Anyway, I was going to list the ways your site is an SEO and navigation disaster.

But then I saw that your content is a deceptive mix of good advice, snake oil, and stuff I don't know enough to evaluate. It would be unethical of me to give you any tips on directing more people to it. You should take your site down. You are clearly unable to evaluate scientific evidence, and your anecdotes of how the placebo effect helped you are not providing any benefit to others.
And how much is your time worth to perform that annual update?
If mandatory schooling was about education then why can't parents take their education dollar to any certified provider?

They can, in the U.S. They can send their kids to a private school or even school them at home, provided they meet certain requirements.
I heartily disagree. Who says a company that makes a boring/uninteresting product isn't solving challenging, interesting development problems? I mean, I hope it's not the case that the only companies solving interesting problems are the ones with an awesome product that everyone wants to work at.
Hold on a sec - replacing facebook with something else is not that simple and i'd venture probably unlikely.
there's a huge network effect that facebook has in place. it is not just for games. it is starting to drive traffic to various news outlets: (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2385095,00.asp) and it is probably just getting started.
There is something substantial to facebook that makes people come back. And naturally as a company is growing and adding more features, the API is going to change. I personally use it a lot to share news articles with my "friends", but the ability to now share those articles with only certain friends, directly from the news website - which hasn't been implemented everywhere yet, is pretty interesting and shows that facebook realizes that there are friends and there are "friends".

It would be far easier to have disrupted something like Google, which doesn't have the same network effect as Facebook - but even that has been very challenging for anyone to do.
Yes, but there you are not talking of a Windows Killer, you are talking about a computer that is very good to some kinds of company with not so sophisticated apps that runs online.
Windows is a software that works well for almost all kinds of people and companies, not only for some kind of them.
Wikipedia, absolutely (that's also what I answered over there).

I think Wikipedia is often forgotten in discussions about the truly revolutionary companies of the last decade. Probably because they're non profit. But Wikipedia is one of the pinnacle examples of how the combination of technology and entrepreneurship can change the world.
That "recent story" details something that happened in 2009.
It'd be cool if it worked the way the author describes, but for most situations I just don't see it happening.

That is because you have too narrowly described "most situations."

"Most situations" is, sincerely, "we want to do This Thing. We think there is money in This Thing." If you are not interested in doing This Thing you will NOT be a good fit.

It's comforting to believe that as coders we can do anything. This largely true. On the other hand, if we don't believe in it, we pretty much don't actually do it. That's the crappy side (for the business-types) of the self-actualization of developers.
Ask HN: Build a discussion platform for open-source projects. Does anybody care?
It should be a community site which allows programmers discuss any technical stuff related to open-source projects.
Each user will be able to follow project in order to see posts related to it, as well as submit his own technical posts.

What do you think?
For the average end user I don't think a Chromebook is a "Windows killer". For the enterprise, however, I certainly think it could be.

Automatic back-up and updates; connection encryption, program sandboxing, minimal data stored on the actual device itself; "free" hardware updates; customer support from Google...

Chromebooks certainly have a lot of simplicity and they do a lot of work you'd otherwise require a sysadmin for itself.
I apologize for any offense, but that post is riddled with things that give me the impression the author himself doesn't really understand Chinese that well. For starters, the vast majority of words are two or more syllables. Even when individual characters are a distinct word, they often have multiple meanings depending on context. There just isn't a simple 1-1 mapping of characters to "meanings". I'm a fan of Heisig's RTK system, which it looks like you borrowed from heavily, but its main utility is building a scaffold to assist with writing before getting the sufficient practice to do it naturally. However using the system for reading is a horrible waste of time since reading things in context is one of the few ways of learning the collocations and general diction patterns necessary to be a functional user of a language.

The bit about only needing 2000 characters is also clearly BS. Even an 11 year old elementary school student will read far more than that many (though the number they're required to write is lower especially in the first few grades.

In another post on the same site, "Why is Mandarin so incredibly easy to learn?", I read the following:

>To be an undergraduate at a Chinese university you need to know about 5,000 words

This is 100% absolutely false. The popular red Oxford E-C/C-E dictionary contains well over a hundred thousand entries, and a typical undergrad will know nearly all of them as well as many other words not in the dictionary. Learning a language is a major undertaking and this kind of blog post is really doing everyone a disservice.

Edit: Personally I've had experience learning over half a dozen languages to various levels, including Chinese. In my former work in Taiwan, I dealt customers almost exclusively in Mandarin for 3+ years. I can't claim to be a language expert, but I am familiar with what it takes to be functional in one. Learning a language is a major task.

For some idea of what's involved, check out this book written by one of the most successful polyglots of the modern era: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2538379
Definitely not a windows killer, but I can imagine a lot of businesses and schools getting in on this. After all, Windows professional edition + office professional = $700.

No it won't make sense for everybody, but it makes a good bit of sense for businesses and schools, which is the demographic that makes the most money for Microsoft anyway.

I'm sure the "windows killer" was just an exploit to get you to actually read the article though. The only real "windows killer" will be windows.
Of course it is better to hire people like Igor Sysoev than a copy-pasted resume owner.. If you could find one. ^_^
A good social network needs to build real life grouping like school friends, office colleagues, relatives, family etc.
Sharing of photos, updates and read permissions by group needs to be built in.
But the big question is can they compete at this time with FB.
How many people will switch just for this reason.
http://codeigniter.com/
Gmail will need to support flagging e-mails as high importance if they want to suceed in corporations.

Ok, joking aside, as an ardent fan of windows and windows development,I began to write a comment about why ChromeOS / Chromebook will not succeed - however, I've been away on business this past week and I have seen a room full of people in cubes and all they were using all day was Outlook and SAP - so I can see that it would be perfect for them.

It's definitely giving me a few things to think about for the future.

Have Google included support for the nativeclient plugin? If they did, that would be very interesting indeed
bittorent does not require the "real world presence" that bitcoin exchanges do. While its true it can really never be completely shut off, its very easy to target the major exchanges that an efficient and liquid economy needs. If you are suddenly unable to covert bitcoins to real money, they arnt worth much.
Whining about free, open source software. Fix it or move on.
"I'm even having more issues debugging HTML+CSS in Chrome than Internet Explorer these days."

I want your Internet Explorer. What kind of issues are you running into with Chrome?
I don't know how it works, but if it's not possible to use older firmware, why would developers want to test on it?
Very true. I just quit my job to start a fashion startup. I really don't care about fashion, apart from sleeping with the occasional model (hasn't happened yet, but I'm hoping).

On the other hand, building an AI system that is capable of learning about fashion is pretty interesting.
Psychometric Thresholds for Physics and Mathematics
If, instead of getting myself a Chromebook subscription, I put $28 in a cookie jar every month, after 3 years I could buy myself a 13" MacBook (or a MacBook Air!) and have some change left for a beer to celebrate my choice. Maybe that's how the Chromebook will kill Windows.

Now if only we had cookie jars that paid interest...
Correct me if i'm wrong but I think that is the goal of http://convore.com/
I've been using a CR-48 for a few days, and I don't think this type of platform is a Windows-killer. But it fills a huge hole in my life - I finally have a computer with a cell connection AND a real keyboard. Tethering my laptop to my cellphone was the best solution I had. This was awkward, especially in tight places like trains. And phones and tablet interfaces are great for reading, but when I type, I want to type at full speed. The Great American Novel will never be written by pecking letters into an iPhone.

If it had a reasonable way to code, I would abandon my laptop altogether.
culture of not giving a shit about performance

Yes. On top of that the ruby ecosystem also seems to attract a certain class of programmers who simply don't know how their magic ruby code translates to CPU, I/O and memory operations.

My pet example is a certain popular rails auth framework that hits the database for every single request, to look up tokens that could simply be baked into the cookie. But there are plenty more - reviewing rails gems for performance is generally an exercise in frustration.

It's a pity. Moore's Law mostly mitigates the low performance of MRI and we could be fine that way. But it can not mitigate a culture of incompetent design.