skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
the virtual pbx ceo sounds like a total dbag (although I would like to hear his side of the story first before asserting that he is truly one).
Yes, but hotmail, gmail, gdocs, skype, firefox, delicious, flickr et al did from word go. Once you started, you never stopped. By all accounts youtube was lucky, got momentum at the right time and struck it rich. It could have been many of the other similar sites in the same position.

I'm not saying its easy to develop something a user would jump off a cliff for, more the contrary. People say it like it's easy, iv'e been doing my own startups for 5+ years now and still don't have one, but i'm working on it just like everyone else here I suppose!
ad hominem -- name-calling to discredit the speaker's argument.

I could care less about your thread, but ad hominem wasn't in there. At least from where I could see. He didn't personally attack you, he was surprised at your remarks.
"Wouldn't it be great to start from scratch?"

Uhh, no, it wouldn't, because chances are strong you'll screw something up. Whichever technology takes the current model and extends it gracefully but usefully will succeed in taking the web another step forward.
Yes, I'm a polyglot (I work in English and French, I live in Catalan and Spanish and I have fun in Esperanto). And sometimes I have fun trying to say things that sound ok in one language in another one and the results are usually quite interesting :-). I love words and I love to live in text mode.
Mozilla/Gecko is not just a browser engine, it's a platform (XPCOM) and everything is implemented on top of this platform as XPCOM components/interfaces. The bad thing is that these components are not very easy to use, write and integrate into anything else.
I recommend "Masters of Doom" by David Kushner as an excellent read on the history of id. Love the book and makes me pine for those days (must be getting old...)
http://www.amazon.com/Masters-Doom-Created-Transformed-Cultu...
Arrington: "Chrome is nothing less than a full on desktop operating system"
Looks like it got taken out by cuil.
Chrome: Microsoft has seen this movie before. This time, it won't like the ending.
What Works On YouTube: Lots of Cleavage, Net Neutrality
Do animals grieve like we do?
Other than the faster javascript, I don't see a lot of "game changing" innovations in this browser. These seem like mostly incremental improvements and small features. If the java engine is significantly faster this could really push things forward. Otherwise this is less than world beating.
Does extra mental effort burn more calories?
Painted on the Inside
Grow your MySpace friends.
You missed a massive one: multithreading.

I've wanted this for ages with firefox. Each tab runs on it's own?! It's exactly what I've been wanting.
Removing the GIL won't magically solve any problems.

This has been tried before, with disappointing results, which is why I'm reluctant to put much effort into it myself. In 1999 Greg Stein (with Mark Hammond?) produced a fork of Python (1.5 I believe) that removed the GIL, replacing it with fine-grained locks on all mutable data structures. He also submitted patches that removed many of the reliances on global mutable data structures, which I accepted. However, after benchmarking, it was shown that even on the platform with the fastest locking primitive (Windows at the time) it slowed down single-threaded execution nearly two-fold, meaning that on two CPUs, you could get just a little more work done without the GIL than on a single CPU with the GIL.

http://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=214235
http://www.copperhillimages.com/index.php?pr=Tutorials

It's not as bad as it seems - and sending it off to the manufacturer seems like it would be an incredible pain. The first time is nerve-racking though.
Rich Man’s Burden
Google’s Philanthropy Arm Leads Effort to Use Weather Data to Fight Disease
I agree completely. OpenID is utterly flawed. If ever OpenID in its current form gains acceptance, I will eat my hat. And put the video of me eating it on YouTube.

OpenID is just a weak idea that needs a LOT and LOT of pushing to make it accepted. Look at the iPhone - nobody pushes you to use it, you see it, like it and use it.

With OpenID people have to be forced to use it, because it's cumbersome and does not offer any clear advantage.

Like I've said earlier, the real auth solution is the one where you simply stick your USB stick into a machine, type a 4 letter pin and everything on that machine is authenticated till you take it out.

A weak concept pushed by technologists and people who want to give talks and earn money off this technology.
... but only after it's been in beta for at least 4 years.
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i send an email - now with a google form in it.
ashwin didn't develop bittorent. he's the hired "marketing guy"
OK, I'm not making this up. 7. On a Macbook Pro. Also having problems with greens. I think this is because our displays don't have true 24bit color; they use dithering.
Rock Band Drums in Linux
How to get peace
Server balancing and failsafe
Site uptime is a major issue for everyone. I currently have space on 6 different hosts and i'm wondering if there is any practical way to use them all effectively. They only thing i can come up with is to be redirected to a server that is currently up. Right now I simply have everything mirrored on all the hosts ready to switch DNS if something were to happen. This however doesn't solve much and takes a bit more work with dynamic sites. It would be nice ot hear what others are doing to ensure great uptime.
Analysis/Opinion: Rumors of Recession way Overblown
Interesting concept, terrible name. "Level 5 leader" sounds like something out of a spooky cult.
I didn't submit this as a political piece, although at the end of the article the author makes a political argument (and it's from a political rag)

I submitted it because as startups, we should keep an eye on the economy. We should be able to make it no matter what the economy is doing.Our success should not depend on macro conditions. But I would guess the better our macro view, the better we can pick areas that we might want to explore further at the startup level.

Not sure. Perhaps macro conditions don't matter at all. What do you guys think?
If I was them, I'd also advertise it on my website, you know, just in case someone visits google.com one day.
I pay moderate attention to the economy at large but at the end of the day, I know I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing and take the same risks.
In our genes are remnants of old viruses that now take on new roles in our bodies
I phone them and they let me know. I never understood why people refuse to talk on phones now that the internet is here.

I've had a friend relate a story of how another friend told her they should catch up and to email her, when she was standing right in front of them.
กล่องพลาสติก กล่องพลาสติกใส
I spent most of yesterday implementing openid on a site I'm developing.

The problem is not the underlying mechanism but rather the way it's been presented on most sites. Remembering an openid url is counterintuitive for most people - you have to explain too much to all but the most technical users in order for them to know what's going on.

But now there has been some progress: Yahoo became an openid provider a while back, and they allow you to log in with their openid by simply entering "Yahoo.com," you don't even have to remember your openid URL.

I also used JanRain's ID Selector Javascript widget to make the signup form a little more intuitive:

http://www.idselector.com/

So really I think openid is getting much better as it matures and its developer community tweaks it and the tools around it. If Google and Microsoft fully get on board (which they are promising) I think it will see pretty widespread adoption.
What is evil about releasing to the largest install base first?
Who cares about Chrome. IE6 Has 25% Market Share
"... Good lord did you even think about what you just wrote? Its a browser, not a torture device! ..."

Can you explain the how this language adds to the discussion without resorting to ridicule?

"... I could care less about your thread ..."

Chrome has the potential to be just as closed as MS (bad), Apple because the real power is in who controls the commits. Do you have anything worthwhile to add about how Chrome could become another closed system?
I have found in myself, that I tend to champion the ideas of the last book I read - i.e. I'm easily convinced and over-enthusiastic. But at least I am aware of that.
A good point that we all have to take on board but (for some of us) perhaps a little too pessimistic.

If you are targeting the public at large with your new web site/start up then the IE6 issue looms large. However if you market is the "movers and shakers" then you are going to care a lot more about FireFox, Safari and IE8 right now - and will be looking to Google's Chrome to join in and take a share.
I don't see why it will ever be "awesome."

That's the translation of "maybe it will be awesome in five years". In web terms, five years is practically as far away as the heat death of the universe.

When we're trying to be polite, we geeks adopt the legendary phrasing techniques of the Japanese: We almost never use the word no. Instead we say "it's really quite difficult".
round-robin DNS setups and/or use of haproxy are some of the most common approaches in your scenario (limited budget, early growth phases of site).

Round-robin DNS is basically free to implement, and while it doesn't give you 100% uptime, it helps ensure that a problem on any 1 server only affects a small portion of your userbase.
Yep. I've said the same thing before: 1password for the Mac. You pay $35, once, and suddenly every site on the web supports auto-filling of gigantic automatically-generated strong passwords. You can stash your non-Web passwords in its lockbox, too.

There are occasional glitches and annoyances (my pet peeve is that so many of the sites in the world don't actually support long passwords containing symbols). But you can fix the problems, because it's pretty obvious what 1password is doing and the whole thing is right there on your machine.

I'm sure there are similar programs for Windows, though I can't recommend one.
Get the webdeveloper toolbar for firefox3 and install firebug; learn to use those tools to examine other websites.

Pick an editor (vim, emacs, gedit, kate; whatever works for you) and learn it to the point where you can add functions to it.
Developer notes on the next evolution of browsers and search
All it takes is one killer app that only runs well in Chrome, and it'll have an installed base faster than you can believe.

Chrome itself will be the first attempt at that killer app.
PHPmyadmin? Only behind the firewall please, it's pretty much equivalent to a root login with a 'changeme123' password if it's publicly accessible.

If you want to use a graphical SQL client use http://www.squirrelsql.org/ (mysql is not the only database, squirrel talks to most of the common ones including mssql, sybase, postgres and oracle)
Chrome is a browser, you know. It's the current model, extended gracefully. It's even built on top of a current engine.

They're using the phrase "start from scratch" to explain their thought process, not what they actually built at the end of that process. And that's generally okay. You can use any method you want to figure out where you'd like to go, before you try to work out how to get there via small, continuous changes to the status quo.
IE was already multi-threaded (just not multi-process): http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2005/05/26/422103.aspx
One founder's nightmare
Download Moonlight Episodes
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Near the end, he mentions he will use the list of songs the RIAA sent him as a sort of "blacklist" for his application.

This makes me wonder: Why doesn't the RIAA have a publicly available list of ALL works that it represents? Then anyone who wanted to could easily check if their app/service was infringing.

It seems so obvious. Of course, I understand things aren't so simple as just an artist-and-title list. But if you don't want people to facilitate copying of your covered works, you really should make it easy for them to check (like a publiclly accessible database) for covered works.
Doesn't the very nature of Google Chrome prevent such an app from emerging? They seem to be sticking to the standards as far as possible. If you add google gears to any other (decent) browser the added benefits of Chrome will be lost for any single app.
Download Veronica Mars Episodes
Imagine how easier and cheaper it would be if you could Download Veronica Mars Episodes. The reality is that you can actually download all Veronica Mars Episodes from the Internet at very High Speed; the only problem is finding a reliable and affordable service.
I haven't used it so I have no idea. And all I've read is one comic about the architecture -- and while that comic is amazing, it still doesn't have every detail.

But I wouldn't be surprised if the multi-process architecture and the new JS engine turn out to make a surprising qualitiative difference in the performance of certain classes of JS apps.

Maybe so, maybe not. But even though I'm not writing anything particularly complex -- like, say, Gmail -- I've already had the thrill of working around situations where my one-lung JS interpreter is holding up the whole browser.

Heck, perhaps Gmail itself will be significantly smoother. Given the market penetration of Gmail, that would be a pretty good marketing hook for Chrome, all by itself.
Assuming said browser has implemented much faster JS, etc, etc.. Chrome seems more ambitious than just fancy browser skin + webkit + gears..

I'd hazard a guess that Chrome may have a technical advantage over safari / ff / opera for almost 12 months.. (To be specific - over end user stable versions --> not install-you-own-renderer or use SVN to grab the nightlies)

And especially if it's a Google Killer app - How do you beat their distribution?
I wouldn't mind using OpenID if it actually worked.
When I try to login to stackoverflow, it sometimes gives me the following error message ...

"Unable to login with your OpenID provider: The remote name could not be resolved: 'blog.lexoft.eu'"

And after some time it starts working again. I suspect this is a DNS problem, but using OpenID means a dependence on an external system over which you have no control.

So I like the concept, but a site like StackOverflow should give the option of using normal user accounts as a fallback.
OK... So it´s not a major win.

BTW, how is threading under Jython?
The timing seems good for a Windows launch; they're about to launch IE8, so there's going to be a bunch of marketing buzz about how much fun it is to upgrade your browser.

As they say in various marketing books: The best place to open a carpet store is often right next to all the other carpet stores, where the customer who is looking for a carpet will see you on his way in or out. Similarly, the best time to come out with a new browser is just slightly ahead of your competition's big browser marketing push.

The other advantage of doing Windows first is that the win is bigger. The users of dinosaur browsers are all Windows users. Moving an IE user to Chrome is a huge win for Google -- now all Google's apps run better on that machine. Moving a Safari user to Chrome might barely be a win at all, since they're both Webkit based.
There's more than meets the eye in such cases.

I actually think that most people are not dumb ... they just behave that way because it makes them look cool, or because they lived in a cave all their lives and don't know any better.

Instead of being arrogant, treat them the same as you would a smart and educated individual, and I think you will have quite a few surprises.

In fact I rarely meet dumb people, and I'm not living in Silicon Valey, but in a third world country with a corrupted government, and a shameful school system.
In a way, it depends on how we define mental effort. If you concentrate on raising your heart and breathing rates - which are physical, but then so in a sense is mental effort - you can significantly affect calorie burn.
I found this story really inspiring. Through technology, doing something great.
Psismic Matches People Over Things They Like
Well, I see it differently. I think some sites need to require it so that we can discuss how much we dislike that.

Better an early-adopter developer forum than GMail.
Buying the Correct Ski Gear & Accessories
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OCaml Batteries Included version 0
Chrome, Android, and The Cloud
I think when he said "It's hailed as brilliant because it's open, but it's poorly implemented to a fault" he was talking about OpenID, not Clickpass specifically.
This site is really starting to repeat itself...
You can pry OpenID from my dead body. It moves user account controls back to the user. Want to delete an account? Delete access to the website rather than, usually, having to email the administrator. Want to only log in once to see what the website looks like? Click "Allow Once" instead of "Allow Forever."
im having trouble explain chrome's advantages to the gf - multi-threaded javascript engine? - its def geared towards developers..
I think the standards issue is important - because this browser is just the thing to appeal to corporate IT departments. They have been happy to live with IE even while acknowledging (individually) that FireFox is the better browser.

But now Google are offering a genuine technical advantage to go alongside those all important standards. It may be the "killer" platform that makes a reality of "zero install" web browser applications for business.
IE6 users will only be motivated to upgrade when a significant part of the web no longer supports IE6. Unfortunately, most of the web will only consider dropping support for IE6 when its market share is considerably lower.
Next, Google Should Buy Wordpress
Socialcast is Friendfeed for your business
In 5 years it might be almost as easy to use as non openID login/registration!
I agree 100%. I'll sign up for random sites now, knowing I might never come back, just because it's easy. No waiting for bullsh*t activation e-mails, selecting username, you name it. It's just...easy!

Heck, that's how I signed up for Hacker News. You wouldn't be reading this wonderful prose right now if not for OpenID.
Of course the point stands that developers _probably_ still need to look out for IE6 users.

However, what the hell is Hank trying to say here? Is there a point to this blog post?

Is he suggesting that innovation should be halted simply because a large minority is still using outdated technology?
Too Much Noise on HN Homepage?
I think it's time HN rethinks their homepage popularity algorithm. There's just too much getting to the front page to make this site useful anymore... I guess that's the problem with success.
Your competitive advantage
in part it seems like a "the-world-is-out-to-get-me" one-sided rant.. But there seems to be some good lessons to be learnt there, and it may very well be a reasonably accurate statement of events..
i'm so in-like with this approach, i remember when i was studying post-graduate heterogeneous catalysis and all i needed to do was focus for several hours at a time, for days on end on concepts that were just really really hard with an experimental data set that seemed infinite and then integrate that knowledge base with my own experimental results and design the next set. oh wait, i think i got the article wrong.
Firefox implements 3 CSS properties: text-shadow, -moz-box-shadow and -moz-column-rule
I agree. It does really depend on what type of user you are targeting. For some sites IE usage barely registers.

Unfortunately though, the people who use IE6 are the same people who click on "You won $10,000!! Click on the monkey to claim" adverts, so you can't really ignore them if you're going after advertising revenue.
science: you're doing it wrong. google double-blind. not hacker news.
It doesn't seem like a rant to me.

It would be good to hear the other side but given the fact that litigation is pending, comments aren't likely to come. If it's all true, then clearly Virtual PBX is a company to stay away from.

I appreciate the lessons McConnell provides here and wish him better luck next time.
I work in an environment where most enterprises still cling to IE6. These enterprises do so, because they've built up an internal expertise in keeping IE6 secure (kinda) and stable (kinda).
At some point in the future, it seems like that internal expertise will be too expensive or will fail to maintain that secure and stable (kinda) environment. At that point, it seems, there will be a fairly quick migration to newer technologies.
I don't think it'll be the killer app that draws the enterprise market... it'll be the bottom line.
I think that the lesson here is that the world, in fact, is out to get you. Act accordingly. Hopefully his hard lesson can keep others from going down similar paths.
That list itself is quite possibly considered 'valuable' intellectual property...

Maybe they'd release such a list if you pay them a fee and sign an NDA and etc etc....
"Unfortunately though, the people who use IE6 are the same people who click on "You won $10,000!! Click on the monkey to claim" adverts"

Um, not necessarily. Some of us are stuck on corporate machines that prevent you from running anything else. My back of the envelope guess is that this contributes to at least 25% of IE6 use.
Completely agree here. I think that a good portion of IE6 use is tied to corporate environments that prevents users from running anything other than IE6.
Yep. Poor choice of words on my part.
I've seen a LOT of pro-FriendFeed anti-Facebook writing recently, the idea being that if you stalk people you don't KNOW that it makes it better or something. And I think that Facebook in many ways is the solution to what people use FriendFeed for.

I also, um, like getting on people's nerves. I'm sorry. :-(
Google to release its Internet browser today
Since Chrome is open source, its improvements will be immediately available to Firefox. A part of the point is to get some better technology out there. CHrome is worth the effort on this alone.

Why, in this age of great VMs and Generational Garbage collection is a User app like Firefox plagued by memory leaks and fragmentation? Couldn't we retarget the compilation of Firefox onto a VM and have all memory be allocated through a table of pointers? Is Firefox so bloated at this point that it couldn't take a 4X hit to its performance? (Maybe it is?)
Considering today's gas prices, shouldn't they have called the new JS engine "Turbo V6" instead of "V8"?

Lame joke I know ;)
Ask PG: check that URL isn't posted already?
Lately so much material that has already been posted is circulating.

I understand that the community is growing and that there might be people interested in that 2-year-old blog post that they haven't read but it is Hacker <b> NEWS </b> right?
If I have to decide between doing algebra or jogging to burn calories...I'll take a lap